Meeting My Bass Singing Hero Ray Dean Reese

I recently posted about my childhood hero Big John Tate, and in that article I mentioned that another one of my hero’s was Ray Dean Reese from the Kingsmen Quartet. This got me to thinking, hmmm, what could I post about Ray Reese that is related to Knoxville? Well duh, one of my most memorable moments is the night I met Ray Reese in the lobby of the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville and had my picture taken with him!

Go back in time to 1998. I was only 31 years old then and about 40 lbs lighter! It was a Mulls Praise 96.3 concert event at the Tennessee Theatre. That was before the major restoration of course, but the Tennessee has always been a grand place to me. I was so excited to be attending the Kingsmen Quartet concert. On the line-up with the Kingsmen were Phil Cross & the Poet Voices, Greater Vision, Tony Gore & Majesty, and the Whisnants. Wow, what a concert event!

I arrived at the Tennessee early enough to see many of the performers as they unpacked their CD’s and merchandise to set up on tables just inside the front lobby. I browsed through the goods and talked briefly with some of the folks, when all of a sudden I saw my Southern Gospel music idol, Ray Reese! Man, was I excited. I had been listening to Ray Reese sing bass ever since I can remember. My favorite record in the whole wide world was the Kingsmen’s 1973 album “Big and Live.” I would play it over and over and over, singing every note with ol’ Ray. One of my favorites was “So High” “Well, I went down to the valley, but I didn’t go there to stay, but when my soul got happy in the valley boys, well I stayed down there all day. Don’t you know that it’s high, so high, you can’t get over it, wide, so wide you can’t get around it, low, so low, you can’t get under it, you gotta come in at the door.”

I nervously walked up to Ray and said, “Hi Ray, I’m Byron Chesney, and I’m so glad to meet you.” My face felt like it was on fire and I felt like a silly little kid or something, geesh. Anyways, Ray gave me a huge smile, stuck out his hand and nearly shook my arm off. I asked him if he would mind to have his picture taken with me and he grinned and wrapped his arm around me putting me in a headlock. I thought I had died and gone to Southern Gospel Heaven.

So my wife snapped a picture of me and Ray Reese standing in the lobby of the Tennessee Theatre. That was one of the happiest moments of my life. Yeah, go ahead and laugh, I’m a big guy and I can take it.

Oh yea, the concert was phenomenal, I laughed, sang, shouted, and cried that night. I also took a few pictures. I was sitting pretty far back and there was a 7 foot giant sitting in front of me but I managed to get a few shots in.

Btw… The Kingsmen Quartet will be having their 50^thAnniversary reunion concert this coming Monday, March 5, 2007, at the Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga,TN at 7:00 pm. If you want to see a great concert, you need to be there! Go here for details.