Raymond Allan Kuran

It wasn't unusual for Raymond Allan Kuran to down a 24 of beer & a mickey of hard stuff in a day.
The 41- year old singer- songwriter says he drowned himself in booze and drugs- fearless of the consequence , fearless of death.
" I couldn't care less whether I lived or died." Kuran said of his killing pace of abuse. " That's the point it gets to. That's the reason people take their lives."
Kuran knows of what he speaks. Now just into his forties, he enjoyed four years free of alcohol and drugs. But that only came after a quater century of escalating drug and alcoholic abuse.
He says his first tryst with alcohol at 14, the needle- shooting up whatever was available wherever he could get his hands on it came at age 16 in Montreal. The self- described drifter wouldn't look back... making a career of crime to pay for his addictions and his wandering lifestyle.
A peripatetic Kuran hit the spots right across North America- drifting in and out of life with abandon.
These days of being drug-free are among his best. He and his wife Rorie, who married at a chapel down the hall from the Winnipeg detoxification center where he finally got the twin monkeys off his back,I live a simple life- away from the big city and the big-city life Kuran knew so well.
"I couldn't live in the city," Kuran, who now lives on an 80-acre acreage in the RM of Gimli, said during an interview last week. "No way . Not a chance."
I live a spiritual life now. I believe in God but I don't belong to churches or other organizations. I have my own spiritual belief."
It's that personal belief system that's replaced drugs; it's Kuran's new rock, a touchstone of faith that's now driving him to share his messege of hope with others looking down a seemingly endless tunnel.
In a CD he's titled SPIRITS LOST + FOUND, Kuran sings of the pains of loneliness and despair with a grittiness that can only come from personal experience, rather he's using it as a launching pad to speak to those still imprisoned by abuse. His message is one of hope.
"I say I've been given a gift to write music," says Kuran. "My gift is music, but we all have a gift; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. A lot of people don't find their gift because of fear, because of not fitting in, because of ridicule."

KURAN SAY'S THERE'S HOPE FOR THOSE IMPRISONED BY DRUG ABUSE.

Music, says Kuran, has been part of his life since he was seven years old, when he first took up the ukulele. As Kuran's musical taste evolved, he fastened to southern rock bands, including the Allman Bros, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Without his gift of music & his Spiritual beliefs, Kuran would be lost he says.
Without his gift of music, Kuran could well be back in the hell-hole of drugs abuse.
So how did it happen?
"I was a way to fit in," he explains of his youthful then adult dalliance with the bottle, with street drugs. " You'd get in with this group of people and you'd have a place to stay. We were basically thieves... that's how we survived."
If Kuran music is about hope, he has strong words for those who believe that, despite daily drinking and drug use. they can keep their heads above water indefinitely. That just doesn't happen to those who are truly addicted, he warns.
"If it can happen to you, it will," he said sagely. "If you choose that life, there won't be anything but misery in the end."
Kuran acknowledges that some people can use alcohol without becoming alcoholics. But everything must be held in moderation.
The alcoholic can string himself along, but: " There's going to be a point where you're going to hit- and you won't be able to climb out," says Kuran. "Alcohol or drugs will simply takeover. It's such a progressive disease."
Again, Kuran returns to hope. " I am free," he says of drug-free life. " I'm free. I don't have to be afraid."
Getting there was painful- and Kuran acknowledges he has few hard- and- fast answers."
"I can't fix anybody." said Kuran.
"If you're not going to change and go to the end, chances of succeeding are slim, extremely slim."
Out of darkness can come hope.
Kurans hope is that his music can touch those locked in despair.

Published and Writen by : Jim Mosher .Sunday, January/18/ 2004. Interlake Spectator , Gimli, MB. Canada . Reaching out to about 50,000 households .


- Jim Mosher, Interlake Spectator,Jan/ 18/ 2004

Soulmate, we have found one another and are bound to each other. The paths we chose along our journeys varied as day does from night. I sit here tonight thinking of you and how inspired I am by you. My soul screams out to share, so that others may as well.
You had what I would call a mobile lifestyle since the day you were born. Your family moved from city to city due to your fathers job requirements, until your early teens.
You learned how to fit in wherever you went. You learnt survival instincts that would carry you through a life you molded into what you call a MORBID MAZE.
You experienced aspects of life no child should. Yet, many there have those experiences too. At the age of 14, you began your love affair with the fix.
The fix began as a bottle of booze. Than the fix ran the full gamut. Along with the booze, any drug that could be injected, many women that could be inspected. It was the fix you were after. The leaving of you and your thoughts behind.
You left home at age 15 and travelled all across North America. Sometimes living like a king, if a con went well. Sometimes sleeping under bridges when the tide turned.
You've seen the inside of about 15 jails all across the continent.
You became a chameleon, the tough guy, the peacenik, the white wings and, finally, the guy nobody wanted around. Your eyes spoke for you. Keep your distance!
But you always had a guitar. You used it as a tool and a weapon. You sang from your heart to those
who were there, wherever there happened to be. It really didn't matter to you.
In 1989, you were burning out 27.
Your parents helped you, by plopping you down in the middle of 80 acres, in a run- down old trailor.
They helped you start to rebuild your life. But you weren't ready yet.
The rebel in you yearned for more.
It took another 10 years of insanity, before your mind and body deteriorated with Hep C virus couldn't take it any more. You had two choices; life or death.
It was one year and two tours of your detoxes later that we met.
My memory of that first encounter will never fade.
You looked like hell and I was in love.
There was something in your eyes. Hope, determination, the embracement of life and joy, pure joy.
As our journey together progressed , I watched as you progressed, I watched you go through six months of Rebtron treatment for Hep C, which you have been cured of since August 2001. Somedays I would come home from work and you would be lying on the couch asleep, and I would watch your chest to see if you were still breathing.
You read inspirational books to keep yourself going. When you had energy, you would push yourself to do the things that needed to be done. When you tired you rested. ( With much prodding!)
The man I know and love has a past. As do I. We live in the present. Asking Spirit for guidance to amend our errors and follow our Souls call.
The poem you wrote , which appears on your first album, bespeaks your heart and your music. Spirit Lost + Found





- Rorie Kuran. Published by Jim Mosher ,Editor of the Interlake Spectator Monday/ December/ 22/ 2003