Against All Odds
The Incredible Life Story of Eddie Ray, with Barbara Jackson Hall
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About the Book
He was not a musician, yet he spent some sixty years in the commercial music business — beginning as a stock boy and rising to become the nation’s first African-American executive of a major record company. The grandson of a man born into slavery, Eddie Ray takes readers from the rural foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains to the executive suites of the American record industry of the 1950s and 60s.
Against All Odds is a behind-the-scenes account of a career built one relationship at a time — Ricky Nelson, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Ernie Freeman, Mike Curb, Irma Thomas, Ernie K-Doe, Sandy Nelson, and Pink Floyd all make an appearance. Ray went on to found one of the first commercial music schools in the country, and was later appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as a Commissioner of the U.S. Copyright Royalty Tribunal in Washington, DC.
Written with co-author Barbara Jackson Hall, the book is, at its heart, the story of a family raised in segregation who built a life of consequence through hard work, instinct, and the refusal to follow the crowd.
Praise
It’s the story of one man’s continuing search to define who he is and how the hell he got to be where he is today. In short, it was a pleasure to read.
Robert Williams, Rooftop Reviews
The Book Became a Five-Chapter Telling of His Life
Chapter I
Important and Intelligent
Chapter III
Take That Next Step
Chapter V