When a lover of soul music starts jamming out with a lover of folk music, beautiful things start to happen. You get blues riffs, folk lyrics and slick runs. Most importantly, you get two friends from college starting a band from scratch for the love of music. Hunter Williams (lead singer) and Albert John (guitar and banjo) never set out to make anything serious. In fact, they spent most of their time making up goofy songs about swag. So what brought the change? What led to an album on love and the change it brings on everything it touches? Well, it definitely wasn't on purpose. The first song written on the album was "You Are the Type." This song was written for Hunter's girlfriend (now fiancē) for a surprise Valentine's Day concert he put together for her. The idea of this song was actually inspired by a vine of a guy in an Elmo costume doing the whip to the song "I Ain't Got No Type" (we know... its weird). Hunter also wrote "Good Night My Lovely" for this surprise concert and wrote the song from text messages he had sent his girlfriend.The reprise of "Good Night My Lovely" came almost immediately after the original. Albert wanted to capture a lullaby feeling to the song and slowed it down. Albert also played a big part in the song "Time." He started playing the base line for the song and kept playing it until Hunter wrote lyrics for it. After a month, Hunter was humming the base lick in the shower and wrote the entire song before he was done. It was after this song was written that Nate Lyons (drummer) started playing with the band. This is one of the bands favorite songs to play and is also a fan favorite! The song that took the longest to write was "Sincerely." After watching an Avett Brothers concert online, Hunter and Albert knew they needed a song that told a story and a song that spoke of heart break. Several weeks later, with much tweaking, "Sincerely" was written. The song seeks to show the tension of love and hate a person endures after a break up. The listener is brought into the writing process of a man who is sending a letter to the girl who broke his heart. Te track starts off slow and sweet but ends in an emotional roar. "The Change" was the last song to be completed and recorded but had been written long before recording began. The band began to notice a connecting theme with each song they wrote: love. Not only love, but the connection that love has with the changes in life. Love changes everything it touches. It changes the way one says good night or how one tells time. Simply, love is the change. With that in mind, Hunter wanted to write a song that would bring the other songs together and knew it would need a unique sound. With the combined efforts of Joshua Chang (Piano) and Isaac Jacobson (Piano), the music needed to match the lyrics came. The album was recorded in just a few days. Most songs were done in one take with instruments being recorded at the same time. This gave the live, acoustic sound the band loved. While the purely acoustic sound was great, Hunter and Albert knew the songs needed another layer. This is when the amazing skills of Kirstin Bird (Violinist) were called upon. She did most of her part in one take and killed it every time. Hopefully, the in-room sound comes across. The album is not meant to sound studio polished (except "The Change"). Hunter Ray & the Acoustics wants you to feel like you are at one of their concerts in a small setting. Welcome to the change!