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Ray and Linda Sriro. Photo by Adam C. Klein.

Husband and wife duo, Gypsy Moon,
making beautiful music together

By Oda Lisa Hernandez

Ray and Linda Sriro make beautiful music together as the guitar duo Gypsy Moon. Married 32 years, they have been performing and recording for the past five years.

Early in their relationship, a mutual love of music and performing brought Ray and Linda together. “We both answered the same ad in the newspaper for a rock and roll band,” Linda says.

“Linda’s a very fine vocalist, and I played lead guitar,” says Ray. “We played rock and roll for a couple of years. We opened for Ted Nugent at one point.”

Before long, the pair took opposite musical paths. “Linda was heavily into jazz, the old jazz standards. She kind of brought me up on those. We started doing jazz for a long time. From there, I got into a trio that did instrumental music, and Linda got into a disco band. Now, we’re talking the ‘80s.”

Linda says, “I had been working in San Antonio. The gig was six nights a week for eight months. Imagine trying to be a vocalist in a hardcore disco band six nights a week. It’s just impossible.”

“The shoes alone’ll kill ya,” quips Ray.

It was the couple’s common love of gypsy music that inspired their current collaboration, Gypsy Moon.

“Ray and I weren’t playing together much because our styles of guitar had sort of drifted apart,” Linda says, “then we discovered gypsy music and it was like going full circle. It has enough classical to keep me in there because I have a classical background, and it has high-speed, energetic lead work, which Ray excels at. It was the perfect vehicle for the two of us.”

Ray says, “Gypsy music is beautiful, and yet it’s flashy.” Their gypsy lifestyle began when they attended the Fort Worth Django Fest, were invited up on stage and ended up performing several songs. “We’ve been back every year since as performers,” Linda says.

Whether they’re playing gypsy, swing or classical, the couple’s guitars express pure emotion. “We’re very passionate about it,” says Ray.

The Sriros moved to Wimberley in 1981 to start a family. Their daughter, Michelle, has inherited the couple’s talent for making music. “Our daughter started performing with us at five years old,” says Ray.

These days, Linda and Michelle, 23, sing together as Destination, and the Memphis Belles when performing with the Sentimental Journey Orchestra.

Sundays, the Sriro family trio perform contemporary praise music at Holy Ground Christian Church in New Braunfels.
“We do a lot of weddings and house concerts,” says Linda. “We really enjoy playing in people’s homes.”

Ray, a registered nurse with an easy sense of humor suited to both his professions, began his medical career as an army nurse in Vietnam, and currently works at Premier-Research in San Marcos. He jokes, “You know the phrase, ‘Be there or be square’? We can be both.”

Michelle has followed her father’s career path as a registered nurse.

Linda volunteered as the musical director for the recent Man of La Mancha production at the Wimberley Playhouse and also directed the music for Fiddler on the Roof at Wimberley’s EmilyAnn Theatre.

With their third album in progress, Gypsy Moon has two other releases: the classic gypsy sound of Ebb and Flow, and the obvious charm of Waltz Across Texas.

FYI • For more information, call 512-396-7171, email gypsymoon@austin.rr.com or visit the web site at www.myspace.com/gypsymoonmusic.