“Music has always been a big part of my life. It started innocently enough. My oldest brother Juan (#1 of 5 boys) brought home an old Stella Harmony parlor guitar from Turkey in 1968. He had been stationed there with the Air Force and thought he’d spend time learning to play. Make a long story short, he never did. This was in 1970. I ended up learning how to play using this old Stella Harmony. I still have the guitar in my music room. Fast forward thirty-three years to 2003. This is the year that I first started to play with Silver Rail. We performed as Silver Rail for the next 7 years or so. I really enjoyed playing with these guys. It was obvious that they enjoyed playing music and sharing it with whoever would listen.
In 2011, I decided to step down as the front man of the band and start performing acoustic gigs with Bill Bateman, the lead guitarist from Silver Rail. He continued to play with Silver Rail. At this point we had been performing together since 1996. I knew I wanted to continue to play but on a smaller scale. We started performing under the name After Six. We played restaurants, wineries and private events. As we gained momentum, we asked the drummer from Silver Rail to join us with his Cajon and to provide backup vocals making After Six a trio. Eventually Silver Rail disbanded; however, there were several gigs they performed that still needed a full band to cover the events. After Six invited David Norcross to play bass and the full band After Six was born.
Rey says, “I really think this was Bill’s way of coercing me back into full band mode all along. He’s a sneaky guy! But I’m enjoying this go round a lot. We work well together and have played long enough that we know how to adjust for each other as we play. It’s incredible when it all comes together.”
Rey now lives in Burleson, Texas with his wife Sheila. His influences are the Beatles, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Jimmy Buffet, Vince Gill and so many more! Maybe one day, I’ll grow up to be a singer/songwriter…lol! Truthfully, by biggest fan and biggest influence is my mother. She always encouraged me and always love to listen to me play and sing. She was quite the singer herself!
