MINNESOTA POLKA: Ray Stolzenberg & his Northern Playboys / Jolly Coppersmith / Soma / 1949

Drummer Ray Stolzenberg headed his own band from 1933, when he was an 18-year old in southern Minnesota, well into the 1980s, when he returned to Minnesota after a few years spent in Arizona. In the 1930s the band was billed as ‘old-time,’ ‘new-time,’ and ‘swing;’ while in the early 1940s it was the ‘Ray Stolzenberg Accordion Band’ or ‘Ray Stolzenberg and his Cowboy Band.’ The ‘Northern Playboys’ name coincided with the beginning of Ray’s recording career in the late 40s.
Raymond Louis Stolzenberg was born April 3, 1915, in Johnsburg, MN, about half a mile from the state’s southern border with Iowa. When he was very young, the family moved north to Austin, MN. His mother Anna played guitar and drums, and Ray played in a band with her in the late 1920s. Starting his own band in 1933, Ray managed to make music his career, playing the small community dance halls that dotted the state. During WW II, Ray was drafted and spent four years in the US Army, which he credits with limiting his success in music: “I didn't make it big like some of the rest of them, because I spent four years at the prime of my career in the military service . . . but I have no regrets. I've been happy with what I do.”
Ray's eight-piece band “played every ballroom and dancehall there was in eight states,” travelling 12 months of the year. “The boys had no day jobs. All we knew was music.” As the 1950s progressed, business waned. “When rock came in, I was through playing school dances.” Like other band leaders, he developed an alternate band to play modern music as well. This band, known as ‘Ray Lewis and the Moonlighters’ (from his first and middle names), lasted into the late 1970s. With his marriage to Frances Benson, Director of Nurses at St. Olaf Hospital in Austin, on June 20, 1967, Ray began to limit the range of his performances to a 100-mile radius. He also opened a music store, Ray Stolzenberg Enterprises, first on 2nd Ave NE, before moving to 1108 W. Oakland Ave. a few years later.
Frances and Ray worked together booking tours, sometimes featuring the band, as did the 1978 European trip to Oktoberfest. In 1979, Ray sold his business and the eight band members moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where they kept playing in Sun City and other nearby communities. Ray moved back to Minnesota in 1987, saying, “There never was as much of a demand for our polka music in Arizona as there was up north.” Stolzenberg, who had been inducted into the International Polka Association's Polka Hall of Fame in August 1981, continued with his band, now emphasizing big band, modern and country and western music. “You have to change with the times and the audiences for polka music are getting older and not dancing to it anymore. A lot of them are dead. The new era wants some danceable music of the swing style and with a slower beat.”
A 2002 local newspaper story featured Ray and Frances, and their affection for cats. "We got married late in life and didn't have any children," said Frances, "But we love cats. For us, Suzie and her kitties are family.” (‘The Stolzenbergs have photo albums full of photographs of Suzie, Buffy, Sunshine, Tommy, Tippy and Cricket,’ the story read.). Frances passed on two months after the story ran, in May 2002. Several years later Ray Stolzenberg passed away on March 11, 2010.
[Jolly Coppersmith, Ray Stolzenberg & his Northern Playboys, Soma 1018, recorded 1949, matrix KB 121 L; first released on FM 296]
The flip side of this disk is Northern Schottische: • MINNESOTA POLKA: Ray S...
Polka Playlist: • Polka Time