Vinyl Live is Bill Carroll, Kevin Cosgrove, Mike Costa, Greg Endy and Ray Tyson — dedicated professionals with more than a century’s worth (really) of musical experience and tales to tell. Between the five of us we’ve played to hundreds of thousands of people in every type of event imaginable, including concerts, festivals, weddings and much more.
Ray started playing professionally at age 17 in his hometown of Dallas, Texas. He was greatly influenced by Texas Blues artists such as Freddie King and the Vaughan Brothers, as well as rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana.
Ray has divided his time between playing and writing original music and performing in cover bands. He has shared the stage with artists such as Joe Walsh, Delbert McClinton, and Mother’s Finest. He has studied with guitarist/songwriter Chet Catello of Spyro Gyra. Ray is well-versed in rock, blues, R&B, funk, and roots music, and teaches private guitar lessons and coaches bands (including students selected for the prestigious Grammy Camp).
Bill Carroll lavished all the lawn-mowing money he earned the summer before high school and bought a Stratocaster copy so he could join a garage band with the other kids in the neighborhood. Less than five years later, he signed with Hollywood-based Aardvark Records and wrote and performed a song that was featured on Dick Clark’s long-running “American Bandstand” TV show. He gives the nod to Geddy Lee, John Wetton, Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney as his greatest musical influences.
Bill has released several self-produced solo projects over the years, and toured with the Bill Carroll Band, Spy, and the critically acclaimed Doubting Thomas, with whom he recorded several albums. He has shared the stage and studio with notable artists such as The Byrds, David Lee Roth, Clint Black, Delbert McClinton, Jennifer Nettles, Grand Funk Railroad, Randall Bramblett and John Keane, and has written and produced music for Capital Cities/ABC TV, Voice of America, Bank of America, and Gideon Smith. He was nominated for a regional Emmy Award in 2007 for music he composed for public television.
Michael Costa grew up in North Jersey. He is the nephew of famed bandleader Carmen M. Costa, who played trumpet and drums. Costa began drumming at age 12, and when he was 15 he met Buddy Rich. He cites this as the moment he knew he would play drums as long as he was breathing.
Throughout his teens, Costa played in various bands in North Jersey, and at 17 he went into the studio for the first time with the original band, Red Wing. In the late ‘80s Costa began playing corporate gigs and traveling nationally. Costa relocated to Charlotte in 1991 and has since played with many local artists and bands, including End Over End, Sweatin’ Bullets and The Wax Gurus. Recently retired from Corporate America, Costa is now actively studying the art of drumming to expand his styles on the drum kit and various percussion instruments.
Born and raised in Jersey City, NJ, Kevin Cosgrove starting playing keyboards when he was 10 years old. Although self-taught, he quickly excelled and played in many cover bands in the northern NJ area.
By the age of 24, this led to a full-time position behind the keyboards for one of the top wedding bands in the NJ/NYC metropolis and he was a partner in a recording studio, composing and recording music for commercial videos which made him adept at many different styles of music.
Upon relocating to Charlotte, NC in the early 90's, Kevin continued with his original composition projects in several progressive rock bands ultimately releasing two CDs as a member of Bad Alchemy.
Greg Endy was born in Reading Pennsylvania and started playing guitar at the age of 9. He got his first electric guitar at age 14 and with a strong Hendrix and Clapton influence he never looked back. He got his start playing in local clubs around the Reading area with different blues and R&B bands. With a strong interest in music and film he found himself going to school in Orlando Florida at Full Sail University for the Recording Arts. While receiving a degree in Video & Film he was still very interested in audio production from recording to mixing and was able to gain extensive knowledge by spending many hours in some of the school’s world class recording studios.
Later Greg joined a local band called Straight Shot playing around the Central Florida area laying down some Classic Rock, R&B and Blues. In the late 2000’s he join another band called Eddie and The Southern Old Boys which quickly becoming one of Central Florida’s premiere bands covering Classic Rock, Southern Rock and R&B. Moving to Charlotte in 2012 Greg decided to build his own home studio and began recording, mixing and mastering music as well as video & film post production.