If music is food for the soul, then The BellRays are Thanksgiving and they know how to cook. The BellRays strip their music down to the essentials. "We listen to where our hearts are and write simple songs to make us and hopefully everyone who hears them feel good," explains singer Lisa Kekaula. Blues is the teacher. Punk is the preacher. It's about emotion and energy. Experience and raw talent, spirit and intellect. When those things collide, exciting things happen. Bob Vennum and Lisa Kekaula started The BellRays in 1990 in Riverside, California, but they weren't really thinking about it back then. They wanted to play music and they wanted it to feel good. They wanted people to WANT to get up, HAVE to get up and see what was going on. Make up their minds. React. So they took everything they knew: the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, The Who, the Ramones, Billie Holiday, Lou Rawls, Hank Williams, The DB's, Jimmy Reed and Led Zeppelin (to name a few for whom "BLUE IS THE TEACHER") and made it their own. These bands and artists have since become "buzzwords," things to imitate and sound like. That was never the intention of The BellRays. The BellRays were never about inventing a "so and so" or fitting into a scene. It was about the energy that made all that music so irresistible. The BellRays' influences were learned from the blues and then they learned to make it their own. The Beatles wanted to play R&B, so they transformed that energy and invented “Rubber Soul.” The Ramones tried to be Del Shannon or Neil Sedaka and out came “Rocket to Russia.” It’s an organic track that flows through Bob and Lisa and the current rhythm section of Pablo Rodas (Lisa and the Lips, Alber Solo) on bass and Craig Waters (Countdowns, Andre Williams, Cody Chestnut) on drums, and it’s honest and urgent. You will learn and you will feel. Blues always teaches and punk always preaches. The BellRays are often compared to a mix of “The Stooges meet Aretha Franklin,” “Tina Turner and the MC5,” “James Brown gets kicked in the balls by The Who.” Their new and 15th album, “Heavy steady go,” will be released on August 30, 2024.

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