Wayne Gray

Wayne Gray - Spaceman's Guitar

Wayne Gray ranks among the many talented and busy road guitarists of the 1960s and 1970s country music scene. Like so many songwriters and musicians from that era, he came out of Miami, where he made his first steps in the music business as a rock'n'roll musician.

Wayne A. Gray was born around 1944 and by the time he was 14 years old, he had mastered the guitar. It was at that time, in 1958, that Kent Westberry, about five years Gray's senior, put together a rock'n'roll band named "The Chaperones" and called Gray to work as an electric lead guitarist in that band. Other founding members of that group were Snuffy Smith on bass and Louie Stewart on drums, although the line-up changed over the years. 

A teenage Wayne Gray on stage with
Kent Westberry's Chaperones
(Florida, ca. 1958)

Westberry and the Chaperones auditioned for Harold Doane, who ran his ART recording studio and record label in Miami. Their debut release, "My Baby Don't Rock" b/w "No Place to Park", with Gray providing thumping lead guitar work, appeared in the summer of 1958. At the same time, they also worked with singer and promoter Ronald Killette, who worked under the stage name of Buck Trail. Killette also had a record label, Trail Records, and he invited the Chaperones to back him up on some rockabilly recordings he wanted to release on Trail. Those included "Honky Tonk on Second Street", "Knocked Out Joint on Mars", and "The Blues Keep Knocking". It was also with Killette that Gray first appeared as a songwriter on "Young Sweethearts" (recorded by Killette and some of his female artists).

By 1959, many of the young Miami rock'n'roll musicians opted for Nashville and Gray was no exception. Reportedly, he recorded and released the instrumental "Spaceman's Guitar" for Gold Circle Records around that time, although no copies were found so far. Shortly after his move to Nashville, Gray teamed up with Jackie Leo Fautheree, who was originally from Texas and the brother of guitarist-singer Jimmy Lee Fautheree, and they wrote "Cradle of Love". The song was recorded by Johnny Preston for Mercury and, released in February 1960, became a #7 Billboard 100 hit and even #2 in the UK. During his career, Gray would register a total of 59 songs with BMI.

In the early 1960s, fellow Miami rocker Charlie McCoy moved to Nashville but following an unsuccessful tour with singer Johnny Ferguson, McCoy was broke and moved in with Gray for a while. Gray soon found work in Nashville as a guitarist. By 1967, Gray was a member of Tex Ritter's touring band, the Boll Weevils. He also wrote some songs for Ritter - just like another member of the band: Kent Westberry. In the 1970s, Gray worked in Tommy Cash's band as a guitarist and by 1981, he worked with Buddy Lee Attractions. He also recorded solo in 1984 for the Condor label, releasing two singles.

I'm not aware of Wayne Gray's activities after 1984. If someone knows more about his later career, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me via the contact form.

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Discogs
• Bill Williams: "Charlie McCoy - His Monumental 10 Years" (Billboard), 1974