Sometimes you can tell a lot about an artist by the company he keeps and, in the case Rick Ray, the artists he has opened for in the past. A sense musical diversity is well on display on the 2020 CD release of Acrylic Charlie, the latest album by The Rick Ray Band. Opening for a wealth of rock legends, from Robin Trower and Peter Frampton to The Dregs and the Steve Morse band, Rick has released a lot of albums over the past 20 years and his 2020 CD is certainly well worth checking out. As the guitarist and lead singer of The Rick Ray Band, Rick’s musical presence is truly something to behold and he gets solid support from his quartet members Dave “Shaggy” Snodgrass (bass, vocals), Kip Volans (drums) and Rick “Sarge” Schultz (reeds, synths) with added keyboard support from Sam Guinta. With one action-packed track after the next, Acrylic Charlie simply sizzles with a white-hot rock energy. There’s a ton of musical variety on the 11-track album and as each player sounds quite skillful, the music also sounds influenced by jazz-rock fusion even as a predominant hard rock energy rules. Featuring some truly virtuoso players, The Rick Ray Band is steeped in a kind of musical ESP and some of the tracks, at least to my ears, sounds influenced by the legendary U.K. horn-centric fusion sound of the band Colosseum noticeably felt on track 4, “Lunacy Set Free”. With this much sonic diversity and musical skill on display, Acrylic Charlie will impress hard rock fans as well as jazz-rock listeners.