Michael Ray Opens Up About ‘Dive Bars & Broken Hearts’ EP

Michael Ray’s grandfather used to say that churches, bars, and music are the three forms of comfort people turn to in times of need. Ray is offering that same effect on his new EP, Dive Bars & Broken Hearts. 

The journey begins during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when Ray dropped what would become his biggest career hit so far, “Whiskey and Rain.” It marked his first song to reach the Top 40 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, in addition to being his first song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart since his debut single, “Kiss You in the Morning,” in 2015. Over the past three years, Ray has gone through a highly publicized divorce from fellow country star Carly Pearce and moved to a small town in Georgia he now calls home. Along the way, he collected life experiences that turned into Dive Bars & Broken Hearts.

“I think in those few years, all of us had a lot of reflecting to do,” Ray explains to American Songwriter about the origins of the six-song EP. “So I think a lot of it was being honest about the journey, going through a lot of stuff that you have no other choice than to be different after it, and what different you’re going to be after that is your decision.” 

Before he could lyrically tap into his story, Ray first had to figure out his sound. He went back to his roots, tapping into the country sound he grew up listening to in Florida. He also started working with a new producer, Michael Knox, who helped shape the EP akin to the Bakersfield sound by artists like Merle Haggard and Dwight Yoakam that Ray was raised on.

“I don’t think I truly knew what was my part of country music, and now I do, and he was that missing link that helped bring all of that together and elevated that sound, that honesty,” Ray praises of Knox. The EP truly started taking shape when Ray was pitched the title track. “The more we listened to it, it felt like it embodied everything this EP meant,” Ray says of “Dive Bars & Broken Hearts,” adding that he and his bandmates will seek out dive bars when they’re on the road touring. “That’s where the real people are,” he asserts. “A lot of times you go to that dive bar because of a broken heart and you work through your pain. Dive bars are some of my favorite places to go to.” 

Ray introduced the EP with lead single “Get Her Back,” which was seemingly a nod to his ex-wife in the wake of her CMA and ACM-nominated EP, 29, that was inspired by their divorce. “Get Her Back” finds Ray in the eye of the storm, making accusations about all the lies and signs that I ignored. Send a text, show her who her friends are / Cut deep, get even with a broken heart / Lucky for her, I wasn’t raised like that/But, damn, I wanna get her back, he fights back in the chorus. “In life, the right thing to do isn’t always the easiest thing to do, and taking the high road is definitely not the easiest thing to do when you’re getting a lot of things thrown at you and the first thing to do as a human is stand up,” he explains about the song’s “triple entendre” meaning. “I feel like this song would grab people’s attention right away. I felt like it was one that all of us had gone through one way or another.” 

[RELATED: Michael Ray Debuts ‘Dive Bars & Broken Hearts’ at CMA Fest]

While “Get Her Back” is feisty, many of the songs show off his vulnerable side. Raised in the South as a child of a divorced home, Ray admits that being vulnerable is something he’s struggled with, especially in his music. But the trials he’s faced over the past few years, coupled with the forced slow-down of the COVID-19 pandemic, helped him to become more vulnerable as a songwriter and artist.

“Showing vulnerability was never something I was very good at because I never wanted people to think that we didn’t have it all together – then you get older and realize that nobody has it together,” Ray shares. “I think putting myself out there and realizing that vulnerability is not only therapeutic for yourself but also with this platform we’ve been given, it reaches out to people that are like me that [aren’t] good at being vulnerable, and then they go, ‘That guy has gone through it,’ and then we all relate to it. Going through all that stuff, having that conversation with myself, ‘Get out of your comfort zone and let people in more,’ I think all of that really helped with this whole record.” 

Ray points to “Hate This Town” as the most vulnerable song on the EP. Co-written by Johnny Clawson, Jonathan Kyle Wood, and Kaylin Marie Roberson, the song casts Ray as a man ready to escape the town he calls home that now feels unfamiliar. It’s his real-life story, as Ray has left Nashville for a rural retreat in Georgia that further connects him to his roots. “Nashville has given me so much and I love country music more than anything, it’s been my saving grace my whole life. But I’m losing myself, I don’t feel myself. I feel myself changing, I feel things getting to me differently than they use to,” he says of his inspiration for the relocation. “I think we’ve all been there where a place that we love so much, a place where you have so many good memories of, all of a sudden isn’t a place that you love so much and it’s filled with so many different memories. The whole song is about how you never thought a place that you loved so much would be a place that you needed a break from.” 

Getting to immerse himself in nature has allowed Ray to clear his head and allow in new ideas for songs and determine the “future” of his music. Until then, Ray hopes that fans connect to Dive Bars & Broken Hearts. “It took me 34 years to realize that life is a system of ups and downs. Once you realize the simplicity of life, you adjust and navigate better all the craziness,” he professes. “I hope fans hear this record and go, ‘I know Michael, I get that, I understand, I’ve been there.’ I hope that they feel closer to me through this EP.” 

Photo by Spidey Smith / Essential Broadcast Media