St. Paul based songwriter and slide-guitarist Jeff Ray will be performing in Duluth on Friday Oct. 23 at Beaners Central to support the release of his fourth CD, 'Blue Mara', a hard-driving acoustic roots and blues CD that has already received critical acclaim from the Minnesota music community.

'Blue Mara' is a follow-up to Ray's 2007 release, 'Last Great Winter', a CD that defined ‘the clarity and precision of Ray’s bottleneck playing’ as being ‘so well-honed and [having] such an alluringly liquid quality that it puts him in a league with the best on the planet’ (Duluth News Tribune). This time around, 'Blue Mara' takes Ray’s resonator slide-guitar to a dark playground of early 60’s Chicago-blues and 1920’s pre-war blues and melds the two with the pervasive rhythms of appalachia and the intriguing nature of east-Indian melodies.

The album was recorded on an 8-track reel-to-reel in Jeff Ray’s living room and at Owl Recording in Minneapolis by Paul Flynn. The relaxed recording method and lo-fi quality of the CD gives the music the feel of an old Chess Studios recording. At Beaners Central, Ray will be joined by Nick Salisbury (Mick Sterling, GB Leighton) on bass guitar and Mikkel Beckmen (Charlie Parr) on washboard, both are featured musicians on the new CD.  Nick Salisbury has a reputation as one the states busiest bass players and Mikkel Beckmen has made the rounds for many years with Duluth's own Charlie Parr.

The music starts at 8pm on Friday 10/23/2009 at Beaners Central (324 N. Central Ave., Duluth, MN 55807, 218-724-7129).  Music samples are available at www.jeffraymusic.com