When Frank Ray’s band prepared for its 20th appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, the musicians had a logistical problem: They were spread across multiple states.
Ahead of the iconic venue’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, the Nashville-based singer and his bandmates needed to be ready to work through extended arrangements, transitions and songs with the Opry’s house musicians. Instead of waiting until everyone could get into the same room on July 4, they turned to Lutefish and started rehearsing remotely.
Using the low-latency remote rehearsal system, the musicians were able to work through some of the trickier sections of the performance from their homes in Nashville, Dallas, Chicago and other locations before they ever walked into the Opry. The outcome has made Ray a loyal Lutefish user.
“If you can trust this device to prepare you for the biggest stage in country music, you can trust it anywhere,” he says.
For Ray and his backing band, being able to rehearse on a regular schedule—even when they aren’t on the road or heading into a recording studio—has made a significant difference.
“I think the biggest change has been the frequency in rehearsal,” the New Mexico native says. “We’re able to coordinate rehearsals with much more convenience now.”
Before Lutefish, getting the entire group together could require significant coordination. For guitarist John Wills, who lives in Chicago, the biggest advantage is what happens before the musicians meet in person: They’re no longer starting from scratch.
“Remote rehearsals make it possible to firm up beginnings, endings, and transitions, which are really the key things to get right,” Wills says.
One example was Ray’s “Good For the Soul,” the title track of his new EP. The band needed to extend the song’s introduction to accommodate Ray’s walk-on to the Opry stage. That’s the sort of detail that might ordinarily have to be worked out during a rushed in-person rehearsal.
Instead, the musicians could play through it together in real time from their respective homes before arriving at the venue.
“It’s much easier to prepare remotely than just talk about it, or crash-course rehearse it the day of,” Wills explains.
That distinction matters at the Opry, where an artist’s own band isn’t necessarily afforded unlimited rehearsal time. The musicians get a short rehearsal at the venue, but much of that time is intended to help the house musicians joining the performance become familiar with the arrangements.
By the time Ray’s band arrives, the basic structure of a song can already be in place. That leaves more time to deal with the details that can only be worked out in the room.
The same approach applies when Ray’s band changes one of its songs for the stage. The musicians sometimes extend songs for introductions or solos, or make smaller changes intended to give a live performance more energy. On “Country’d Look Good On You,” for example, the band will sometimes bump the song up a half-step midway through the performance.
It’s a change that might sound simple on paper. Working it out with a band spread across multiple states is another matter.
For Ray, that ability has been one of the biggest benefits of Lutefish.
“The biggest surprise is feeling like you’re in the same room with someone hundreds of miles away,” he says. “It’s pretty mind-blowing.”
That experience has led Ray and his backing band to rely on remote rehearsals when preparing for important appearances, including tours with artists such as Luke Combs, Kane Brown, Old Dominion and Luke Bryan, as well as return appearances at the Opry.
Wills points to the band’s December 2025 Opry Country Christmas appearance with Lainey Wilson as a particular breakthrough. Israel, the band’s music director, was able to work through a new arrangement with Ray remotely.
Christmas Opry performances can be especially complicated because they often involve songs and arrangements that don’t appear in the band’s regular repertoire, including Ray’s bilingual version of “Feliz Navidad.”
For Wills, that experience was the moment Lutefish stopped feeling like an experiment and started feeling like a practical part of the band’s workflow.
“It’s just wild that we live in a world where technology makes it possible to rehearse at all when we’re scattered,” he says.
Of course, there are still things technology can’t duplicate. The musicians eventually have to occupy the same physical space, particularly for a performance like the Opry, where stage logistics and interaction with the house musicians become part of the equation. Wills also acknowledges that internet connections can occasionally introduce some latency.
But for the specific job of getting a band ready to play, he says, the technology creates more opportunities to rehearse when a traditional rehearsal room isn’t practical.
Ray and his band also like Lutefish for its sound quality, mix controls and ability to record sessions. That last feature solves another problem many musicians face: remembering what happened during a rehearsal.
“You’d be surprised how often you run something in the same room, but it doesn’t really get documented,” Wills says. “You go, ‘I’ll remember!’ But then sometimes no one does.”
For Ray, the bigger picture is simple. His band still needs to be together when it matters most. But it doesn’t necessarily have to wait until then to start getting ready.
And when the stage is the Grand Ole Opry, having that head start with Lutefish can make a difference.