December 3, 2017

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Jeannie Seely

Hello once again...picking up where I left off in a previous blog entry...I found out that the new Ray Stevens video streaming website will air new episodes of his PBS television series a week after they've originally aired on PBS. This means that last week's episode (November 25th) guest starring Jeannie Seely was uploaded today. The December 2nd episode, guest starring Don McLean, will be added to Ray's web page on December 9th. I make mention of this for those that have also subscribed to Ray's new video streaming website and perhaps may have wondered when the additional episodes of his PBS television series are to be added to the site.

The November 25th episode guest starring Jeannie Seely and it was another great production. The show opened with Ray at the piano...opening the show with a marvelous version of "Hallelujah, I Love Her So". He introduces Jeannie and she tells of her upbringing in Pennsylvania and how when she got old enough she drove from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to become a singer. After awhile of living in Los Angeles an executive sent her to Nashville, Tennessee in 1965.

She makes mention of her becoming a member of Monument Records in 1965 and that Ray was one of the first people she met. Ray was, at the time, working for Monument as a session musician, arranger, and producer while recording songs at Mercury Records. Eventually he was able to record for Monument once his recording contract with Mercury expired. Jeannie talks about her breakthrough recording, "Don't Touch Me", and how she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1967. This leads into a conversation about her current CD, Written in Song.

The CD, released this past January, features 14 tracks...12 of which are songs she had written or co-written during her career that had been recorded by other artists but she, herself, had never recorded them. 2 of the tracks are exclusive to the release. The episode was taped in the latter half of 2016 prior to the CD's official release date.

Ray brings up duet recordings and how she'd never recorded with him before and this leads into their performance of "Make the World Go Away". The choice of song, in hindsight, set up a brief discussion about the song's writers, Hank Cochran (Jeannie's ex-husband). She had long made joking references about her marriage to the songwriting legend during her Opry appearances and her sharp wit and well timed ex-husband one liners became a signature of her personal appearances and she didn't disappoint during her appearance on Ray's program. Although he passed away in 2010 she told some ex-husband jokes which received a lot of laughter because you could see she was telling them with no real malice or hatred intended. She wrapped up the segment by offering advice, half-jokingly, about marrying lawyers (which she did in 2010).

Discussion returns to her Written in Song CD and she tells the story of a song she and Hank wrote called "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy". She mentions that she never recorded it herself because it was written to be sung by a male singer...she then said that it dawned on her that she could simply re-write a couple of lyrics and have it come across as her telling a story about the life of a rodeo cowboy. It was inspired, according to her recollection, by her nephew's life as a rodeo cowboy. She tells of it being recorded originally by Merle Haggard. Those interested in hearing his version it can be found on his 1978 album, I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall. Jeannie's version is on her 2017 CD and you can see it on this episode of Ray's PBS show.

After performing the rodeo song she sang her signature hit, "Don't Touch Me" (another song written by Hank Cochran). Ray closes the show singing his version of "Rags to Riches" which had been a huge pop hit for Tony Bennett. If you're keeping track this is another episode in which Ray opens and closes the show performing his versions of vintage pop hits.

As mentioned earlier in the blog entry last night's episode (December 2) guest starred Don McLean but it didn't air here locally. I'll watch it on Ray's streaming video website next Saturday. This means that on December 9th I'll be catching the December 2nd episode via Ray's site and then later that day I'll be able to see the current episode when it airs on the local PBS channel (due to their pledge break having ended by then). The December 9th episode will guest star Felix Cavaliere. I'll write two blog entries next weekend focusing on the December 2nd and December 9th episodes.

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