Still in the Mix

A former rocker turns to karaoke.

by Isaiah Thompson

Ray Timmons has always liked to mix it up. Back in the '80s, he was the only black member of a Philadelphia rock band, the Urge, in which he played bass.

"At that time a lot of black guys were playing the R&B stuff — the funk and that kind of thing," recalls Ray. "The white kids were playing the rock, and you had a few mixed groups that was like the middle of the road. I kind of grew up with all music — so I have a general love for everything." 

As the glorious '80s came to an end, he quit the band scene, cultivating his musical craft on his lonesome — until he discovered karaoke. The big revelation came one night when he and his wife, Marci, were hosting a party at their house, and a relative brought over a karaoke machine and left it.

"For the next six months, we started buying more discs and everybody was coming over and doing karaoke," Ray says, "so I started building a library."

About two months ago, Ray and Marci took their party to the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant and bar at 45th and Baltimore; they've been hosting karaoke every Thursday night since. The event is free, fun, ridiculously homey and — in the tradition of Ray's own musical upbringing — diverse. Black, white, Ethiopian, whatever — the mic is there for all who choose to sing into it.

"Society is what it is. You have black people who only grew up around black people, white people who grew up only around white people, Latinos who only grew up around Latinos," says Ray. "But it's nice that here in University City you have a place where people can get together and have a good time."

Ray and Marci host karaoke every Thursday, 9 p.m. until close, at Queen of Sheba Pub II, 4511 Baltimore Ave., 215-382-2099.