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Jeff Ray video raises mental health, suicide awareness

By Jeff Baughan 4 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Social media is an amazing thing. Through the many forms of it, the first video from Jeff Ray's six song extended play CD "Our Little Town," on Merf Records, is rapidly approaching 120,000 views. All that within a month's time of the video's release.

The song "Somebody's Cryin' is one on the subject of suicide. It was recorded as a tribute to Ray's friend, James Greathouse, who took his own life. The song was penned by Greathouse and it is his image that appears in the picture frame early in the video.

Ray is a strong advocate about bringing awareness to the mental health and suicide issues of the times.

"The song has done really well. Suicide…," he said and paused, "how can you not relate to this song? Suicide is such an epidemic in this culture. Until we as a society stop worrying about hurting someone's feelings and inform others about the signs… there for a lot of people considering suicide. Are you willing to see them and the signs they show?

"A lot of people are like 'that's not my problem,' and back away," he continued. "Maybe that's not your problem today. But it may be your problem tomorrow."

The video was filmed in Ravenswood by Skylight Media in a 12-hour period. "We used a generator to light things but it was about 100 degrees in the house and we tried using some fans in the house and they wouldn't work. There were other little crazy things that happened, like my truck being stolen being a major thing, but we sucked it up and look what has happened.

"A couple of days later, those fans were plugged in again and worked just fine," he said. "I told a good Christian builder friend of mine, Bill Patterson, about it and he told me 'the forces of evil don't want you doing the song. Something good is in the works with that song and those dark forces don't want that song out there. Keep going.' That made sense. We have kept going."

'Somebody's Cryin' has reached the offices of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which has given its full support also.

Radio play has been far reaching. "I got a phone call from a publicist wanting me to cut a promo for a radio station in Lima," he said. "You know, a 'hey this is Jeff Ray and you're listening to… whatever station…. And I'm thinking Lima, Ohio. No, it's Lima, Peru. They're playing my song in Lima, Peru."

Ray remarked he has "a couple dozen interviews for the song. All the way from the Huffington Post, Nashville Music Guide, Side Stage Magazine, Vocal, Obscure Sound, Celeb Mix, Beat Media, Swept Media to name but a few.

The video's final destination was not the first site looked at, according to Ray. "Steve Hussey and I were brainstorming about this and I knew Bob Weinbrenner, who owns a couple of properties in Ravenswood," he said.

"We looked at a commercial piece of property and saw the house behind it," he continued. "It was perfect. We asked and he allowed us to basically go in and vandalize the place. We wrote on walls, knocked holes in walls. The old piano was literally at that spot in the house.

"Every week, we keep getting phone calls that progress the song and progress the message behind it," Ray remarked. "Every week the message about suicide and mental health keeps getting put in front of people about something they'd rather not think about.

"This has been a labor of love," Ray said about the song. "We couldn't have planned it to turn our any better. It really has been a glorious accident."

Starting at /week.