Rehearsing Across State Lines: How Lutefish Changed the Way Frank Ray Prepares For Touring

 

When Frank Ray first tried Lutefish at a demo in Nashville, it felt almost unreal. Standing there watching musicians play together remotely in real time, he immediately pulled out his phone and FaceTimed his bandmates.

“It feels like magic right now,” he told them. “This is going to revolutionize rehearsal for us.”

As a touring artist and songwriter based in Nashville, coordinating rehearsals had always been complicated. His band is spread across the country, with his guitarist John Wills in Chicago, music director and piano player Israel Aguirre in Dallas, a bass player in Denton, Texas, and a percussionist and drummer back home in Nashville. Pulling everyone together for rehearsals meant juggling schedules, travel, studio rentals, and logistics before a single note was even played.

At the same time, he was reshaping the sound of his live show and building new arrangements for different sets on the road. The band needed a way to quickly test ideas, tighten transitions, and rehearse without turning every session into a full production day.

That’s where Lutefish came in.

Instead of coordinating expensive in-person rehearsals, the band can jump online and work through ideas in real time from wherever they are. Sometimes it’s a full-band rehearsal, other times, it is a quick session between Frank and his music director to work through the flow of a show before the next run of performances.

“It’s so easy to be able to just hop on there real quick,” he explains. “Rather than trying to explain something over the phone, we can just do a virtual rehearsal and figure it out in real time.”

The flexibility changed the rhythm of the band’s creative process. During the winter months, when travel became even more difficult, the group regularly used Lutefish for weekly rehearsals to prepare different versions of their live sets. They’d rehearse a tighter 30-minute support set for shows with artists like Tracy Lawrence and then expand into a 45-minute or full headline performance sets.

Frank Ray performs at Nissan Stadium on Saturday, June 11, during CMA Fest 2022 in downtown Nashville.

What surprised him most was how naturally the sessions felt. Even with musicians spread across multiple states, the interaction still carried the energy of an in-person rehearsal. The experience has become so valuable that he’s planning to add more Lutefish interfaces for the rest of the band.

And now, he’s thinking even bigger.

As both an artist and songwriter, he sees potential beyond rehearsals to remote songwriting sessions while artists are out on tour. Instead of spending entire weekends away from home for writing sessions, musicians could connect remotely without losing the creative chemistry that usually requires being in the same room.

For a band constantly moving between cities, venues, and setlists, Lutefish has made collaboration easier, more spontaneous, and far more practical, no matter where the next show happens to be.