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Email Julie
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Co-Founder of The Bluegrass Mix, DJ, Media and Public Relations
Julie was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio
into a musical AND music LOVING family. Julie spent many hours down in
the basement “jamming” with her Dad starting at about age 2. Nobody
knows “I’ve been working on the Railroad” like Julie does!!!
However, the story goes, she wouldn’t let anyone BUT her Dad hear her,
so Mom sat on the basement stairs where Julie couldn’t see to listen
to it all…..this was the beginning of it all.
Some people inherit height (which Julie DEFINITELY didn’t at just
barely 5 feet tall) or eye color……Julie got MUSIC!
After many music filled years of getting up and guesting with the band
her dad played steel with, hearing her mom sing with them and many a
packed house Wednesday night jam sessions at their home…..Julie
decided with the complete support and encouragement of her of family to
head off to Nashville and pursue a dream of Traditional Country and
Bluegrass music….that was in the year 2000.
Since being in Nashville…. Julie has had some great opportunities such
as doing regular gigs around town with an array of Nashville’s finest
singers and friends…not to mention guesting with Bill Anderson on the
Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree twice!
She teamed up professionally and eventually romantically with Mike “Chicken
Hawk” Toppins who is part of a family that’s been like family to
hers for years. He’s like her Dad….plays EVERYTHING! You know what
they say…..you always end up with your father, right?
He’s spent many years in Nashville touring with artists like Bill
Anderson, Pam Tillis, Sammy Kershaw and others. Together, they have a
studio in the Nashville area, Chicken Trax Productions, and have had the
ENORMOUS pleasure of working with people such as Bill Anderson, Michelle
Nixon, Josh Graves, Jim and Jesse, Larry Stephenson, David Parmley, some
of the members of The Grascals and MORE…..
Julie was thrilled in 2006 to take on one more extension of the music
field and try her hand as a DJ at an online radio station! She loved it
so much that in Dec. 2007, she and Roger Randolph joined forces and
started The Bluegrass Mix where they are enjoying GREAT success and
having a BLAST!!!
Julie lives slightly North of Nashville, TN out in the country with “Chicken”,
her cats Dolly (Parton) and Tammy (Wynette), her dogs Momma and Marty
(Robbins) and a wide assortment of other critters that like to roam out
here in the country as much as she does.
www.myspace.com/julieraye
www.myspace.com/julierayedj
www.myspace.com/chickentraxproductions
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