Michael Ray is back at country radio with “Spirits & Demons,” a duet with two-time Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Female Vocalist of the Year Meghan Patrick. The lead single off his six-song Dive Bars & Broken Hearts EP laments about trying to find solace in alcohol after a breakup, but only finding more heartache.
In the intoxicating duet, Ray delivers the first verse, describing his attempts to drown the pain of a breakup, followed by Patrick on the second verse, telling the tales of trying to drink away his memory. In the chorus, they come together to pour out their shared pain:
“Spirits and demons won’t bring no healin’ / Ain’t no miracle at the bottom of the bottle I’m drinkin’ / It’s just a buzz on a broken heart barely beatin’ / Gas on a fire mix it with whiskey and you leavin’ / Spirits and demons”
The duet partners spoke with Music Mayhem about how they met, the story behind “Spirits & Demons,” and their parallel musical journeys.
How Did Michael Ray And Meghan Patrick First Meet?
When Nashville-based artists would come back to town on Sundays after being on the road for the weekend before the pandemic, you’d often find them hanging out at bars on Demonbreun Street near Music Row. Both Michael Ray and Meghan Patrick were part of that crowd and met in an unexpected way.
“I went to bum a dip, thinking that [Mitchell] Tenpenny was who I would get it from and then he goes, Meghan has it,” Ray recalls. Tenpenny was dating Meghan Patrick at the time, and now, the couple is about to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary in October.
“And we’ve been best friends ever since!” laughs Patrick, remembering the funny initial encounter with Ray.
The Story Behind “Spirits & Demons”
While Ray was working with producer Michael Knox on upcoming music, he knew he wanted to have a “killer” duet to add to his discography. Songwriter Michael Tyler sent over “Spirits and Demons” to Knox, and Ray was immediately hooked. Tyler wrote the tune with Alexander Palmer and Allison Veltz. “From the time I heard it, I fell in love with it and just knew that with the right duet partner, this song, it’s there,” says Ray.
The first time Patrick heard the song, she was on the road in Toronto, Canada with Lainey Wilson and got a call from her manager saying that Ray wanted to do a song with her.
“I love Michael’s voice, he’s a friend of mine, but I was like, oh man, please let the song be good,” she says. She wanted to know that she could feel the emotions and “crush” the performance.
Quickly Agreed To Join Forces For The Duet
“We listened to it on Lainey’s bus, and I remember it was me and Lainey, her manager, and we were just like, damn, okay.” She quickly agreed to record the track. As an artist who writes all her own songs, she made sure she believed in the tune before signing on.
“I love a great title, an intriguing title,” says Patrick. “There’s lots of drinking heartbroken songs, but to me this just felt like a fresh take and it just felt really honest to me. It really wasn’t just a bunch of clever cliche lines stuck together about broken hearts and whiskeys. It really felt like it was telling the story from both sides and it felt very just honest and simple.” From a musical standpoint, she liked the “heartbeat” of the melody and how the dynamics of it build to let the vocals and story shine.
Ray knew that Patrick was the perfect fit for the duet, calling her voice “powerful” and “distinct.”
“She’s a badass that’s been touring, busting her ass for years, and she knows how to deliver a lyric. And that’s so important, especially in country music,” says Ray.
Behind The Scenes In The Studio
Managing to get the two of them in the studio together came easier than anticipated.
“For two artists who were touring nonstop and trying to keep everything afloat on all these other things going on, for it to line up as easy as it has been incredible,” says Ray, who had rolled into the studio straight from the airport after a trip from Key West, suitcase still in hand. “This is all the glamour that everybody talks about,” Ray laughed.
“Because Michael and I really do have this genuine friendship, it felt like just a couple of friends getting into the studio,” says Patrick. “You could feel the energy, you could feel how excited everybody was about it. And I just felt like I kind of got immediately welcomed into the family, so to speak.”
Filmed at Ronnie’s Place at Sound Stage Studios in Nashville, fans get a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of “Spirits & Demons” in the video from the studio.
Getting To Know Meghan Patrick
Ray is excited for his fans to learn more about Canadian singer-songwriter Meghan Patrick and her catalog of music.
“I’m excited to be a part of this journey with Megan and for everybody to see the artist that she is and the talent that she has and who she is, and I’m excited to be at this and be able to lead this whole new EP with this song and us do this together.”
As a Canadian artist, Patrick recognizes that U.S. listeners may not be familiar with the six albums she’s put out, but is excited to grow her fan base.
“I’m excited for these new people to dig into and listen to because I feel like, especially some of the stuff I put out in the last couple of years during Covid, I think a lot of things kind of slipped through the cracks. So I’m excited to get access to a whole new fan base and for them to dig into what I’ve been doing for the last seven or eight years.”
Patrick released her EP Greatest Show on Dirt in May, featuring the songs “Red Roses & Red Flags” and “She’s No Good For Me.”
Parallel Musical Journeys
Patrick says that she and Ray are in the same place their careers, where they’ve “been through all the BS” and “really honed in on our sound and our message and what we want to do as artists.” She’s excited to be part of his journey, commenting that she’s witnessed his evolution.
“I can see even just a difference in him from when we met and listening to the EP. I can hear it in the music that he really has lived these songs and he believes them and they mean something to him. And it feels different, I think, for both of us. So it’s kind of cool that we’ve kind of merged our journey at the same time.”
Ray adds that they’ve been in the process of “learning each other’s musical past” and what they’ve experienced.
“I think we’re both in a place of, you know what, this is who we are. Like it, leave it. We’re going to work our ass off and here’s who we are. And we’ve been through the ups and downs. To have that confidence, you’ve got to go through some hard times to get to where you need to be. A lot of times, I think those hard times are what makes the clarity that much clearer when you get to places like this. So I think that shines too in this song.”
For more on Michael Ray click HERE and Meghan Patrick visit her official website HERE.
