- April 24, 2024
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Tarragona Way’s songs reflect life in the good ole days.
To most, Tarragona Way is just a street they past in Daytona Beach. To Ray Daly and Dennis Culler, it’s where their love for music was born. It was there that the two grew up, and played in rival bands in high school.
“It was probably the best time of our lives,” Culler said. “ All we had to do was play music and chase girls.”
“We would go to each other’s rehearsals and learn new songs,” Daly said. “We played gigs together back in the 90s and even played in the same band called ‘Rock-It.’”
Daly, who bought his first guitar in 1967, learned to play bass, guitar and keyboard. The first song he learned was ‘With a Little Help From my Friends,” by The Beatles, which he completely related to.
“In church there was a big piano in the classroom,” Daly said. “I would get in before Sunday school, and play around with it. I was inclined towards it.
Daly says he’s self-taught, and prefers to learn by ear. Both he and Culler write their own music. Though Daly kept up with music throughout his life, Culler took a break to be a manufacturing engineer at Hudson Technologies. It wasn’t until he was diagnosed with prostate cancer that he decided to go back to his dream.
“At the same time my wife had been told she needed a liver transplant,” Culler said. “My whole life I’ve written songs and I’ve had tunes in my head. I procrastinated my whole life, so I thought I better get started. I told Ray I wanted to do songs for my family, and he didn’t hesitate at all.”
Together, the duo created the band Tarragona Way in 2009, and published their first album this year.
The band signed with Tate Music Group, and their songs are reflected of the baby boomer era they grew up in. Daly even invented a new genre to describe their music, called "BoomerVox,” that means the “voice and music of the baby boomers.”
“IT’s the stuff that we went through,” Daly said.
Culler, who does the vocals for the band, said they plan on doing another album after he retires. He is now cancer-free, and feels lucky to be able to get back into music. And Daly doesn’t plan on stopping anytime either.
“You got to be real,” Daly said. “You gotta pay your bills while your chasing your dreams. But I’ll never give up, not until my last breath. I love music.”
Visit www.tarragonaway.net to hear the band’s music.
