Stephen Ray
was raised in Green Bay, Detroit, and multiple cities from Northern to Southern California and now resides in Nashville, TN. He has performed with the late Toby Keith, Cody Johnson, CMA and ACM Award-winner Chris Janson and Parmalee among others. Stephen has sung the National Anthem twice for Green Bay Packers home games at Lambeau Field and his music has been featured on major streaming networks and various national television spots. His song “Hurting To Tell” accumulated over 1 Million streams across streaming platforms. Hurting to Tell is a song that communicates the pain and heartache of going through pregnancy loss and miscarriage. It is a topic not frequently sung about, but close to the hearts of Stephen and his wife who, prior the birth of their son in 2024, struggled with recurring miscarriages over 3 years and became vocal about it in 2023 in hopes of supporting others going through similar journeys. His song, That Makes You A Cowboy is a tribute to the late Toby Keith, who Stephen had the opportunity to open for and then sing “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” with Toby on stage in 2021 just months before Toby announced his cancer diagnosis and passed away in 2022. All of Stephen’s songs are available on all digital streaming outlets.
Stephen received his calling for music at 12 years old, learning guitar in the footsteps of his older brothers, and first playing the bass guitar to perform in a punk rock band with his brother in middle school. By age 15 he had performed on the Vans Warped Tour in Detroit and other iconic venues such as the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, CA. His songwriting and guitar playing began to develop further through high school and college spanning various genres of pop, rock and country. After graduating from the University of San Diego, Stephen, his brother and their pop rock band had released multiple albums and were touring regularly, opening for acts such as Good Charlotte and Smash Mouth. Stephen’s influences span numerous genres and include artists such as Tom Petty, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Tim McGraw, Relient K, Anberlin, Acceptance and Goo Goo Dolls.
Since his early days in the pop rock genre or his time in Nashville writing and recording with some of the greatest songwriters and musicians in the world, Stephen has written, and released numerous songs not just for himself but other artists as well.
See below for a full list of songs written by Stephen.
STEPHEN RAY SONGWRITING CREDITS
VIDEOS
Stephen Ray sings with Toby Keith
Stephen Ray National Anthem at Lambeau Field