Blue Bayou - 1st track from our upcoming 2016 CD!

Take a minute and listen to RagTop preforming "Blue Bayou" featuring Daniel Kepel-Young (of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra) - this is the1st release from our new CD coming out in 2016!

Our arrangement of the song takes a twist on the original song – read more below!

Roy Orbison wrote this song and recorded it in 1963. In an interview with the British paper NME, he said of the song: "Take a song like 'Blue Bayou' for instance, that's simply a song about being on the road. And that is really a happy song. It probably sounds very strange to you for me to say that. The fellow's bound and determined to get back to where you sleep all day and the catfish play and the sailing boats and the girls and all that stuff. It's a beautiful thought. Now granted that it is a sad song, a lonely song, but it's a loneliness that precedes happiness.”

Linda Ronstadt recorded the song in 1977. She took it to far greater fame as her only gold-selling single and made it her signature song.

Our arrangement of this song is framed by the Linda Ronstadt version but pays tribute to the hauntingly lonely emotion that Roy Orbison could capture. Jim’s guitar work is minimalistic and Daniel Kepel-Young weaves an emotive tapestry on violin throughout the song playing off of Renee’s vocals.

We wanted to capture – vocally - that sense of longing to go back to that special place- voicing the possibility and desire, but we wanted the music to underscore the abandonment – so the listener could feel the harsh reality that you are never going back.

https://soundcloud.com/myragtop/blue-bayou

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