April 8, 2018

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: PBS Special and More...

Several times throughout the latter half of 2017 and into this year local PBS stations aired an hour long documentary on Ray Stevens with narration provided by Bill Cody. The special, part of PBS pledge break programming, aired twice on the local PBS affiliate that carries Ray's television show and as a result of their airing his TV series I decided to make a one time donation with my thank you gift from them being a DVD copy of the pledge break documentary. You can tell from the photo on the left that I've since received the DVD in the mail but I hadn't watched it yet. I plan on watching it later today. The special, as mentioned, runs one hour but there's additional footage (nearly half an hour's worth) that wasn't aired during the pledge break special. This is where it may get confusing but read carefully and you'll be able to follow along. In the original presentation aired on PBS stations, as a pledge break special, Ray is seated next to a host and in between the broadcast of the documentary he answers a lot of questions about his career and the CabaRay. Those segments aren't part of the actual documentary since they were exclusive to the pledge break itself where Ray, the segment host, as well as long time collaborator, Buddy Kalb, and harmony singer, Sabrina, ask for donations to support PBS and speak about the numerous Ray Stevens thank you gifts offered...one being a DVD of the documentary. Those pledge break segments featuring Ray; the host; Buddy; and Sabrina aren't part of the actual documentary.

If you're familiar with the television series then you'll know that Bill Cody introduces Ray and provides the voice over during the opening and closing credits. Bill, rather fittingly, narrates the documentary. A brief overview: Bill's been heard on radio in Nashville ever since the mid 1990s (April 1995) as the morning host on 650 WSM but that was following a lengthy career on radio stations from neighboring state, Kentucky, and on radio stations as far west as Texas. His radio career dates back to the mid 1970s but his 23 years (and counting) at WSM is more than likely where he'll eventually retire from broadcasting.

In the photo, even though it doesn't show up clearly, there's an As Seen on Public Television publicity stamp on the lower right hand side of the DVD case. The documentary features performances taken from episodes of the television series...including the one of a kind performance of "Mr. Businessman" featuring Ray on piano and B.J. Thomas singing lead. Ray sings one of the verses but B.J. performs the majority of the song. It's from Season Three. The performance of "Georgia on My Mind" by Ray and Con Hunley (from Season Two) is also highlighted in the documentary as are other performances and some music videos of "Santa Claus is Watching You", "Shriner's Convention", and "Mississippi Squirrel Revival".

This is a collage I created this morning centering around all things CabaRay. In the first panel there's an early photo I took spotlighting the CabaRay Nashville Special but some some of the lights in the room got into the scene and the glare streaked right across the photo of Ray in the process. I took a second photo...the one I led off this blog entry with. Now, in panel two, it's a photo I'd posted before. It's a coffee cup promoting Ray's television series. I purchased this at the Ray Stevens gift shop at the CabaRay. I remember it like it was yesterday but the actual concert I attended at the CabaRay was more than a month ago on March 1st! In panel five it's an official CabaRay Showroom brochure. On the back of the brochure there are photo's of the interior of the CabaRay in addition to the street address, ticket information, phone number, and internet address. When you open up the brochure you'll see a photo of the CabaRay and a time table listing the hours of operation of the Piano Bar and when the Dinner seating begins and the concert gets underway. Event times may change in the future but at the time of my concert attendance the Piano Bar opened up at 5pm while the Dinner seating began at 6pm. Balcony seats are for those that didn't purchase a dinner and just wanted to attend the concert. The concert itself began at 7:30pm. After the concert the Piano Bar re-opened for the rest of the evening. If you search the internet you'll see photo's of Ray and the fans inside the piano bar. Throughout my evening at the CabaRay we (my brother and I) were often told that Ray likes to make appearances after the concert inside the Piano Bar for interaction/photo's with the fans and sometimes brief performances at the piano. If we weren't on such a tight schedule with that next day being a Friday we would've stayed longer but instead we took one last look around the place and then got in the car and headed for home...but back to the collage...

In panels three and four are the Season One and Season Two DVD releases of his television series based upon their chronological air dates on public television. As many of you know the first 26 episodes of Ray's television program aired on RFD and they were reran on PBS beginning in January 2017 with some episodes airing in different order from when they aired on RFD. The title of the show had also changed, slightly. During it's RFD airing it ran as Ray Stevens' Nashville. Once it moved to PBS, coupled with the planning and ultimate construction of the future CabaRay venue, the title of the show was changed to Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville.

The taping of the television show at the future showroom was probably already under consideration by Ray and so why not promote the upcoming showroom within the title of the television series? The showroom opened in January of this year and taping of television episodes began the following month. A marathon taping session for sure considering material for 13 episodes were recorded throughout the month...sandwiched between regularly scheduled concert performances at the showroom.

Let's also not forget that last month Larry Black began taping his television series at Ray's showroom. His long running series, airing on RFD, is titled Larry's Country Diner. The diner set was re-constructed on the stage and so, on camera, it'll still appear as if it's at a diner even though the tables will be floor level while Larry and the guests will be stage level. The show has long had a reputation for airing practically anything captured on camera...whether it be flubbed lines, dropped dishes by waitresses, Larry or one of the guests losing track of time, etc...and this kind of loose atmosphere led to the show's motto of "where the camera keeps rolling and we don't care".

First-run episodes of the television series began airing on PBS in June 2017 with the first 13 episodes promoted as Season Three. Halloween and Christmas themed episodes that had originally aired on RFD were placed among the Season Four episodes airing on PBS in the latter half of 2017. Season Five got underway the first week of January this year and it's nearing the end of the current season...and if you've been following along you all know what Season Six means!! Season Six is scheduled to begin airing the weekend of April 21st. Yes...you read that correctly...the next season is to begin airing in local PBS syndication later this month and this season's episodes were taped at the CabaRay earlier this year. Ray, on social media sites, announced that Season Six taping sessions were underway back on February 5th and the resulting 13 episodes are to begin airing on local PBS stations later this month. There hasn't been an episode list of the upcoming season but based on social media posts from Ray's staff I know that Linda Davis, Lee Roy Parnell, Ronnie McDowell, and Mickey Dolenz are some of the guest stars for the upcoming season. By the way...art work by Ronnie as well as Bobby Goldsboro are on display at the CabaRay.

In a previous blog entry I made mention of a certain funky instrument being played by a member of Ray's band on a recent episode of the television show. Ray was performing "Your Bozo's Back Again" and I noticed the instrument due to it being prominently featured throughout the performance. It's from Episode 12 which was Part Two of John Rich's appearance. I made mention in that blog entry that once I found the name of that instrument I'd share it with all of you; although I'm sure a lot of you already knew the name of that instrument long before I did.

Well, I found out that the instrument is called a melodica and you can also find it listed as a pianica. Do an on-line image search and you'll see various versions of the instrument. It's a piano/harmonica hybrid kind of instrument. My assumption as to why an actual harmonica wasn't used in the performance is because there isn't a harmonica player in Ray's house band but given the melodica can be played like a saxophone it made more sense to just have the saxophonist play the melodica since the distinct sound of a harmonica was the lead instrument in the original recording.

Make plans to attend a concert at the CabaRay...here's all the information...


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