Ray is one of my best friends. I don't remember exactly how we met but Ray was a great guy; very charming and funny. I was always impressed with him. He left home at 15, hitchhiking to Toronto with nothing and became a self-made man. He educated himself, had a room full of art books, and was a very good painter. He made one of me, I think my mom still has it.

We both had a kind of zany sense of humor and loved Marx brothers movies, especially Chico. One night we stood across the street from Honest Ed's which stands out like a Los Vegas nightclub on Bloor street with a million lights flashing and twenty different signs saying for example 'This is the place, come in and get lost', etc. Ray and I happened to be standing across the street and as people passed by Ray would say. 'Excuse me, do you know where Honest Ed's is?' They would look at him, like are you serious? Then point across the street. Ray would jump in surprise 'Wow' thanks a lot.'

He was a great Blues singer; not mellow and sweet, but just raw emotion. He really lived his music and you knew he meant everything he was singing. One of my favorite memories was at the King of Hearts Club where we played often. We would end the night with 'Who Do You love' by Bo Diddley. I would do my wild monster solo, turning around and jumping on the piano with my backside. The next night in the same solo Ray pulled off his shoe and through it to me. I grabbed his shoe in one hand and hammered it on the piano as part of the solo. The next night he pulled out of his pockets two bananas. He brought them to me and I hammered the piano with two bananas. The next night, he through me two oranges. The finale on Saturday night I knew he would come up with something I didn't expect and sure enough in the middle of my solo he went off stage and came back with a duffel bag. He reached inside and pulled out a watermelon. It was amazing but it actually worked, I made a fabulous piano solo using the watermelon. The crowd of course loved it. He is still making beautiful art works and playing music in Windsor. If I was rich I would bring him to Israel and play some blues again.

Here is more of his music:
raybaillargeon.bandcamp.com

Here is the EP we recorded years ago
ronwisemanarchives.bandcamp.com/album/the-fabulous-overtones

Check out his paintings.
pubhtml5.com/anvn/bifq

And his Food Photography
pubhtml5.com/anvn/bojz

and..a very old spontaneous movie we made one day
youtu.be/Ye746p33Yl4

here's the most recent meeting..after many years
I came to visit Toronto and we met and arranged this session
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn-noC-_Y1L7Yi_8Xkq5ijtSzFRmPlTNL


More Info and pics
ronwiseman.com/earlyyears/