Song is part of the Canadian Americana singer/songwriter’s upcoming album Cowboy Cake
Like flowers on a finely tailored cowboy shirt, Joe Ray McDonald’s music effortlessly weaves together melody, emotion, and precise flatpicking guitar. You can hear it all on “First Rains of May,” the first single from his sophomore album Cowboy Cake, due out later in 2025.
Based in the Ottawa Valley near Canada’s capital city, McDonald is a relatively new voice within the Americana scene, but one listen to “First Rains of May” should be enough to include him alongside the genre’s rising stars. Falling somewhere on the spectrum between Townes Van Zandt and Tyler Childers, the song projects the sort of existential dread both of those artists are known for, through a narrator who couldn’t outrun his demons:
“The toil and the labour didn’t get my ass too far / Since now I sleep in the sliver of the moon and the stars”
McDonald says that he originally conceived “First Rains of May” as a classic outlaw ballad about a desperate man turning to crime to support his family, a scenario that ultimately leads to his demise.
“I like the idea of singing from a dead person’s perspective,” Joe Ray admits. “The song’s called ‘First Rains of May’ because that’s when the narrator is killed. I’d originally written another verse that provided more background about his life, but I took it out because I preferred to leave some of the mystery about him intact for the listener.”
The stellar production of “First Rains of May” also makes a powerful statement. McDonald meticulously began constructing it, along with Cowboy Cake‘s other tracks, at his home studio with bassist Chris Pond and drummer José Garcia, before sending it to Nashville, where Colter Wall band member Patrick Lyons overdubbed pedal steel and dobro. Further overdubs of Rhodes piano, harmony vocals, mandolin, and fiddle completed the process.
McDonald then spent three months mixing Cowboy Cake himself, a choice stemming from a passion to learn all aspects of his craft, as well as a passion to hit all the right emotional notes, much like his favourite film directors, Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone.
“I am always trying to be a better songwriter, guitarist, and human being,” Joe Ray says. “I really believe that who you are as a person has a huge impact on how you develop on your instrument and as a writer.”
Canada has never had a shortage of great singer/songwriters, and as the Americana genre has evolved, we continue to be at the forefront. Joe Ray McDonald is poised to become the latest to join that elite group of artists.