Cari Minor paced the waiting room while her partner, Ray Smith, endured his last treatment. The head of UCHealth Foundation joined her, followed by another VIP from the Foundation. In time, a nurse called them back to the treatment area. When they approached the nurses’ station, Cari remembers, “It seemed like the entire hospital was there to watch Ray bang the gong.”
That’s what patients do when they complete their radiation treatment. They bang the gong, and family, friends, and caregivers cheer. In Ray’s case, a whole lot of people were waiting to cheer, including an abundance of nurses, doctors, and administrators.
But Ray isn’t like most other patients. He’s a performer. He and Cari are vocalists, guitarists, and more of Strangebyrds, a well-known blue-collar folk-Americana band. So instead of banging the gong, he picked up his guitar and played “Only One Today,” from Strangebyrds’ fifth album, Highway Islands. It brought the house down.
The treatment area exploded with cheers, tears, and applause - the perfect moment for Ray to bang the gong.
Because that’s how a real showman completes his last radiation treatment. A far cry from the first treatment, after which he made his way out of the treatment room and crumbled into Cari’s arms.
Ray was diagnosed with prostate cancer four days after Highway Islands was released. He had been feeling great, no symptoms of anything whatsoever, when Cari found out he hadn’t had a routine physical in over forty years. She convinced him to get checked out.
That’s when they learned Ray had stage-3-plus prostate cancer, which was about to breach the walls of his prostate. It turned up in a simple blood test called a PSA test (Prostate-Specific Antigen.) “It was pretty freaky,” Ray says, “a lot of tears, a lot of emotion. We were devastated. And clueless, we weren’t even sure what those blood test results meant.”
They found a really good medical team at UCHealth Longs Peak Medical Center, in East Longmont, then turned back to their music. Even after Ray began his treatments, Strangebyrds continued to perform. He worked through the hot flashes, the fatigue, the fear. Says Cari, “We have never had a busier schedule than we have since his diagnosis. We dove into performing. We didn’t slow down, we stayed active, we wrote this incredible album, we put out energy like never before.”
The incredible album is Shrieking Violets, to be released in just a few days. Ray explains, “This is an alter ego album for us. We’re normally acoustic guitarists, but this is an electric rock album. We’re not running from this. We’re not shrinking violets. We’re shrieking violets.
One Strangebyrds fan says the new album “sounds like Tom Petty drank some Metallica Kool-Aid, with better harmonies.” Why not judge for yourself?
Come to the album release party / end of Ray’s treatment party / fundraiser at E-Town Hall in Boulder, on October 21. While Strangebyrds normally performs as a duo, the whole band will be there for this one: Ray on vocals and guitars, Cari with vocals, guitar, bouzouki and percussion, Kort McCumber with vocals and keyboards, Ryan Inman playing bass, and R. L. Smith on drums.
You can only get your tickets at www.strangebyrds.com or with this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/strangebyrds-shrieking-violets-album-release-party-tickets-707882404327. For every ticket sold, Strangebyrds will donate five dollars to UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital Foundation. “These donations will go directly to cancer care patients, with no administrative fees,” says Cari. “These funds will help cancer care patients with their bills, gas, groceries, hotels, and more.”
You don’t want to miss this one! Ray promises, “It will be a really fun rock show, we’ll play the album straight through, with variations of course. It’s gonna be fun!” And maybe, at the end, Ray will bang the gong.
