About Jeff Ray
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East-meets-West Roots Music
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. Currently, he splits his time performing as a solo or duo artist, or with his band "the Stakes".
Ray's quartet "Jeff Ray and the Stakes" [Mikkel Beckmen (washboard), Harold Tremblay (harmonica) and Nick Salisbury (bass guitar)] are closely connected to the Minnesota blues community and the historic West Bank music scene of Minneapolis. In 2022, the band is releasing their long-awaited sophomore album "In the Fire".
"In the Fire" represents Ray's most prolific period of songwriting to date. The songs rise from the ashes of social isolation and civil unrest, revealing an intensity of connection that few bands rarely get the privilege to experience. Recorded live in the studio, "In The Fire" weaves themes of nature and transcendentalism with moods ranging from love to lonliness.