Jeff Ray is an avant-garde resonator slide-guitarist and songwriter based in St Paul, MN. His music is rooted in the traditions of acoustic blues and American fingerstyle guitar, but Ray quickly departs from tradition: his songs integrate flavors of Indian classical music and West-African guitar under the guise of cryptic alternate guitar tunings.
Ray left Minnesota for Memphis when he was just 17. There he developed his guitar skills and evolved into an innovator of alternate guitar tunings and slide-guitar. He returned to the Midwest and embarked on a 20+ year career as a solo performer, releasing 6 albums and receiving accolades in Europe and North America.
Throughout his career, Jeff Ray has shared the stage with Chris Smither, Justin Townes Earl, Indigenous, Spider John Koerner, Earl Greyhound, Black Diamond Heavies, Pat Donohue, Retribution Gospel Choir, Dawes, and Charlie Parr, among others. He has also earned recognition as the 2010 first-place winner of the Greater Twin Cities Blues Music Society "Road To Memphis" competition and as a 2009 second-place winner of the Trocadero's Spotlight Songwriter Competition. Ray has also performed nationally at notable venues including Bayfront Blues Festival, Taste of Minnesota, Roots Rock and Deep Blues Festival, Highland Fest, Porcupine Mountains Festival, Folk Alliance Conferences, Summerfest, Acoustic Sounds Cafe (NPR), and Radio Heartland (NPR).
Currently, he splits his time performing as a solo or duo artist, or with his band "the Stakes". Jeff Ray & the Stakes are releasing their 2nd album “IN THE FIRE” at the Hook and Ladder Theater (Minneapolis, MN) on June 9, 2022.
“The Stakes” are Mikkel Beckmen (washboard), Harold Tremblay (harmonica) and Nick Salisbury (bass guitar). They are all closely connected to the Minnesota blues community and the historic West Bank music scene of Minneapolis. The band first played together sometime around 2010 on NPR’s Radio Heartland. They had never rehearsed together prior to this performance, but they had all played with Jeff Ray in some form or another as a duo or live accompaniment. By 2015 the band had enough grease in their gears to record a debut album “Valhalla”, released to critical acclaim. They continued performing as often as possible while members also toured with other acts. By late 2021 they felt the calling to jump back into the studio and do it again.
“The Stakes” actually began as a duo with Jeff Ray and Nick Salisbury. They used to joke that the combination of Jeff’s miced foot stomping board and Nick’s homemade foot shaker gave the duo enough rhythm to sound like a live band, thus naming the duo with the band moniker “Jeff Ray & the Stakes”. Sure enough, they were landing gigs at venues that normally booked trios and quartets, and fans routinely spent the evening looking for another band member, sometimes asking if they used a backing track.
Nick Salisbury (electric bass) has been a fixture of the Minnesota music scene for decades. He splits his time between touring internationally with acts like Ryan Bingham and Brian Fallon, as well as performing regionally with a multitude of Minnesota-based artists. Nick broke into the rock and R&B scene as the bassist for Mick Sterling, GB Leighton, and Sonny Knight. Keeping busy as a producer and session player, Nick found respite with Jeff Ray - playing music that is free and expressive, open-minded and a fertile testing ground for new ideas.
Ray and Salisbury share a common love for the greats of American rock and R&B bass: Carl Radle and Jack Cassidy, to name a few. It is only natural that the two would eventually found a band as musically progressive as the Stakes. Nick Salisbury has shared some very big stages with notables including Willie Nelson, Rich Robinson, Gary Louris, and so many more.
Mikkel Beckmen (washboard and percussion) got his start playing washboard with his friend Charlie Parr. He has traveled the world and developed a reputation as the steadiest hand in the washboard business. Inspired by the stylings of Washboard Sam, Mikkel likens his unique style to imitating the syncopation found in the right-hand of a fingerstyle guitarist.
Jeff Ray and Mikkel Beckmen met and performed together at the 331 Club in NE Minneapolis, and haven’t looked back since. Mikkel’s syncopation tethered to Ray’s slide-guitar improvisations keeps audiences intrigued and moving. It’s no wonder Mikkel’s list of recording and live performances is long, including the likes of Charlie Parr, the Brass Kings, Siama Matuzungidi, Corpse Reviver, Mike Munson, Dakota Dave Hull, Phil Heywood, Pat Donohue, and so many more.
“Hurricane” Harold Tremblay (harmonica) has been studying and playing the harmonica since his early high school years. Originally influenced by Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Harold heard a Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee record and the blues called him to his destiny. Upon hearing James Cotton play live through an amplifier, Harold set out to recreate that ‘big’ sound. He studied blues masters and respected contemporaries, forming his own sound and style. Not to be confined to just blues, Harold also covers bluegrass, country, singer-songwriter and, of course, the jam band sound of the Stakes.
As a founding member of the popular blues band Cool Disposition, he has played festivals around the upper Midwest and opened for national/international touring bands. “Hurricane” has an All Star Blues Revue featuring some of the best Blues musicians in the Twin Cities and has released an album with his duo partner Doug Otto while also keeping busy as a sideman. Harold has also been hosting a weekly blues/roots music show called “House Party” on KFAI (Minneapolis, MN) for 17+ years.
Harold Tremblay met Jeff Ray at one of Jeff’s solo performances at their local neighborhood coffeeshop (the two later discovered they were neighbors!). Harold invited Jeff to perform on his radio show and, soon enough, the two were performing live as a duo and developing their unique chemistry together. In 2011, the duo recorded an album “Carriage House Sessions” and represented Minnesota in the solo/duo category at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. Soon thereafter, the duo joined forces with Nick Salisbury and Mikkel Beckmen and formed “Jeff Ray & the Stakes”.
It is very apparent at every live performance that Jeff Ray & the Stakes is a band of friends with pure chemistry. Their anticipation of each other’s moves coupled with a shared love of improvisation makes them one of the most exciting live acts around.
