Rock Band Excels With Cardiologist's 'Health Rhythms'

Originally published 4:44 a.m. July 12.

When Dr. Ray Daniels isn't part of a drum circle to help improve patient's health or in charge of cardiopulmonary services at Sharp Coronado Hospital, he is a drummer for the band Ninth Choir.

"I always wanted to get paid to play the drums but I just didn't expect it that way," he said.

With the release of the self-titled Ninth Choir album, the group graduated from professionals by day jamming in their off time to a band working on an album.

Daniels has also been a part of the bands Patsi's Valdeze and Trailer Park Queen, who made a concept album about trailer park culture. Both bands enjoyed a certain amount of local notoriety in the 1990s, Daniels said.

"We had some local success, but like all bands, we can't stay together," Daniels said.

Daniels became a member of Ninth Choir after learning pulmonary techniques with Jeff Welsh, then learning they both shared an affinity for BMW motorcycles and music.

Thus far the album Welsh describes as American progressive rock has received attention online from fans in Turkey, Israel and South Korea. In San Diego, last month the album reached the top 25 in the rock category on ReverbNation charts.

Click here to hear the album.

Most songs on the album exceed the average three-minute song. Some songs stretch between 10 to 15 minutes.

Before the album came together, Welsh, who runs Mueller College in Fashion Valley with his wife Jennifer, worked as a clinical psychologist, paramedic pilot, holistic health practitioner and physician's assistant. 

"It's funny, we we were all sitting around talking and realized that all of the stuff in the preceding 30 years has been to support our music," Welsh said.

After Ninth Choir decided to do more than jam together, they recruited Meytal Cohen of Israel, whose Facebook page has attracted more than 370,000 fans and YouTube videos have attracted millions of views. David Chesire, Tony Garrett and Chalaya Love also joined the band.

Though Welsh operates a small cafe in Normal Heights called Across the Street that has hosted artists like Jason Mraz, the band has not yet played live. 

"Part of the problem is that some of the arrangements on there are pretty involved, they require lots of people," he said.

Though the band is still working toward its first live show, Welsh's first big show was  with Ninth Choir bandmate David Cheshire in front of classmates in 1968 in Ridgecrest, CA.

"Here we were at 10-years-old, we were super impressionable and all these bands like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles were peaking," he said.

Work has already begun on the group's second album, Daniels said.