USA - This April, 2006, Michael Nesmith releases  his latest album Rays; a cinematic journey of sound with  elements of swing, jazz and instrumental funk that come together to  form what is being dubbed "New Century Modern". Once again,  Nesmith pioneers a new genre, contributing fresh, inventive and  timeless dimensions to our current musical landscape.While  Rays will be commercially available this spring, a special Limited  First Edition run of 100 CDs became available for sale at  http://www.videoranch.com which SOLD  OUT in a few hours. Each limited edition Rays CD package  includes a numbered CD signed by Michael Nesmith, display case to  highlight the signed CD, an 8 1/2” x 11” print of the Drew Friedman  album cover art for the commercial CD, and a certificate of authenticity  also signed by Nesmith. The price for the package is $100. Due  to the exceptional demand, Nesmith has agreed to produce a Second  Edition  which will be available soon.   To reserve your copy please visit: http://www.nezrays.com

Grammy Award wining artist Michael Nesmith is  an accomplished songwriter, musician, actor, video pioneer, film producer  and scriptwriter, novelist, businessman and philanthropist. His phenomenal  success in the television show The Monkees was just the beginning of  his prolific and innovative career, one that continues to shake our cultural  landscape. Nesmith has recorded landmark folk and country-rock records as a  solo artist, masterminded the cult film staple Repo Man, won the  first-ever Video Grammy, and written a fantastical novel. Somewhere in the  middle of all of this he had the foresight to conceive MTV. Interested  media, to receive a copy of “Rays” or to request an interview with  Michael Nesmith, please contact Workhouse Publicity, CEO Adam  Nelson directly by telephone 212. 645. 8006 or via  email  nelson@workhousepr.com

“For a time I thought Rays had come  together differently than any other project I had worked on, until it  dawned on me all the various works I had been involved in had happened the  same way and doing Rays was simply the first time I had seen it.  Rays was my own personal Copernican Shift. For years Rays  laid around in bits and pieces, and there were long periods when I would  put them all away, like disparate parts of disparate building blocks. As  if one was a recipe, another was a blueprint, another was a map. I  couldn’t see how they fit together. I kept going, as much for not having  anything else to do as for the curiosity of how it would all turn out, but  I did keep going, and I’m glad I did. It was when I was putting on the  horn parts, dreaming of Memphis and Stax Volt, that it all came together.  It was as if I had come into the garage one evening, and was looking at  the detritus of a failed effort laying all over the floor, when suddenly  there was this array, a kind of order to it that I had never imagined.  That was exciting. It felt new, and gave me the inspiration I needed to  finish. This after four years of wandering in darkness --- which actually  happened to be one of the lines from Rays. I had always imagined  “emergence” as the gradual appearing of something that already exists but  was just unseen. Rays was the first time I ever actually saw that  happen. And now that I’ve seen it I am aware that all the past works have  happened the same way.” – Michael  Nesmith

Robert Michael Nesmith was born December 30, 1942 in  Houston, Texas. He moved from his native Texas to California; intent on  breaking into show business. He began to write songs and perform them at  live venues around Los Angeles. Spotting an ad calling for four musicians to  act in a TV series, he landed a leading role in The Monkees. that  quickly became a pop culture phenomenon, and catapulted the young Nesmith to  stardom. While in The Monkees, Nesmith continued to write and sing  his own songs. He received critical and commercial acclaim for his songs  Some of Shelly’s Blues and Different Drum, a 1967 US Top 20 hit  for Linda Ronstadt. His job in the  television show also gave  him the opportunity to write and produce songs for the show. But the  country-tinged music he did for the show was pretty experimental for  television. Nesmith left The Monkees in 1969 to form The First National  Band. Pioneer of the genre later to be dubbed country rock, he released  a series of albums for RCA. Magnetic South, the 1970 debut LP  included the Top 30 single Joanne, followed by Loose Salute  and 1971’s Nevada Fighter. When The First National Band  dissolved that same year, Nesmith formed The Second National Band   Although he released only one album, 1972’s Tantamount To Treason  Volume One, he continued to refine the country/rock sound that was to  influence a new breed of artists such as Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Poco,  The Flying Burrito Bros. and New Riders of The Purple Sage. Other  Michael Nesmith albums were quick to follow: And The Hits Just Keep On  Comin’, and Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash all distributed  by RCA.

Nesmith left RCA to launch his own communications  company, Pacific Arts Corporation.The Prison, an ambitious  multi-media book/record combination, was the corporation’s first release in  1975. This was followed in 1976 by the LP From A Radio Engine To A Photon  Wing and featured the hit single Rio. He created a video for  Rio which is considered by many to be the first music video, because it  developed a new film language, marrying music to images. (The Rio  video is in the permanent collection at MOMA.) With the album Infinite  Rider on the Big Dogma, Nesmith included the song Cruisin and he  made a video for it as well. Cruisin possessed a recitative style  that nobody besides maybe Bob Dylan was doing at the time. Nesmith included  both Rio and Cruisin in an hour long landmark video called  Elephant Parts, a kind of music and comedy combination come to life in a  single, long form format. NARAS loved it but didn’t have a Grammy category  for it, so they created a Best Video category for it that year and  Elephant Parts won the first Grammy for Best Video.

Nesmith  went on tour performing behind the success of the single Rio. While  appearing in Australia, he noted an interest in Top 40 television shows that  played video clips of performing artists. Back in the states, Nesmith put  together a half-hour prototype Top 40 show called Popclips.    He sold it to Warner Brothers/Amex and Nesmith produced the  first shows and so became the creator of the idea for what eventually  became MTV.

Between Elephant Parts and Television  Parts, Nesmith co-wrote, produced and scored the film Timerider  and was the producer of Repoman, Tapeheads, and Square  Dance. In 1989, Michael Nesmith and The Monkees were presented  with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Nesmith returned to his  music and assembled a compilation of unreleased tracks and selected cuts  from his later LP’s entitled The Newer Stuff. In late 1991, Rhino  Records released another CD collection from his earlier LP’s entitled,  fittingly, The Older Stuff: The Best of Michael Nesmith  (1970-73). In September of 1992, Michael Nesmith launched his independent  record label, Pacific Arts Audio, with the release of his long  awaited ...tropical campfires... which Nesmith fans consider to be  one of his best works.

In addition  to releasing his own work, Nesmith signed The Hellecasters and  released two albums by them, Return Of The Hellecasters and Escape  from Hollywood. In just under a years time, The Hellecasters won  three awards for 1993; "Best Overall Guitar LP" & "Best Country LP" in  the prestigious Guitar Player Magazine’s readers poll, and "Top 2 Roots  LP" in Guitar World Magazine.

The  Garden was released in September of  1994. This outstanding multi-media package was nominated for a Grammy Award  in the new age category. It is the second part of a work Nesmith started in  1974 entitled The Prison. Like The Prison, The Garden  is a book and music designed to be experienced  simultaneously.

Since 1990, Nesmith has hosted the Council on  Ideas, a gathering of intellectuals from different fields who are asked  to brainstorm solutions to world problems.  From the early 90’s through  2004 he served as a member of the board of trustees of the American Film  institute, and was a nominating member of the AFI Awards. He is  currently President and chairman of the board of trustees of the Gihon  Foundation. His first novel The Long Sandy Hair Of Neftoon Zamora  was released by St Martins Press in December of 1998. The complete works of  Michael Nesmith, including music downloads, are available to purchase  online at www.videoranch.com