tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130294816846873852024-03-27T02:36:23.465-04:00Ray Stevens music journeyACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.comBlogger2123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-18790663372521541462024-03-20T02:33:00.000-04:002024-03-20T02:33:18.331-04:00Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 4<div style="text-align: left;">Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! We only have 11 more days left in the month of March and so in this installment of love songs from Ray Stevens we pick up in the year 1977. Ray was no stranger to love ballads but during his years at Warner Brothers (1976-1979) and RCA (1980-1982) there were a whole lot more love ballads per album than at any other time. Well, that's not an official stat but it certainly seems like Ray was singing more love songs than ever.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXacCOw9Ptjs1jMVHKXlt2wOWhCaXLfW1SqL34uL6cXvVEHv5d2OzSSO6q2ghqXxTpZrQ9OxGcN0bRrehKKYYW_f_irR-aixrCrpHTIs79xTRuW3ML1pxkWGJcHkDn275UV30dsrBTPrFiMARp0-pg0Lz2lFWDu686rFYMpFwbR9x6MiVm69WcEvpqIfMh/s343/RayStevens1977-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="343" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXacCOw9Ptjs1jMVHKXlt2wOWhCaXLfW1SqL34uL6cXvVEHv5d2OzSSO6q2ghqXxTpZrQ9OxGcN0bRrehKKYYW_f_irR-aixrCrpHTIs79xTRuW3ML1pxkWGJcHkDn275UV30dsrBTPrFiMARp0-pg0Lz2lFWDu686rFYMpFwbR9x6MiVm69WcEvpqIfMh/w209-h180/RayStevens1977-3.JPG" width="209" /></a></div>Here we have the great Ray Stevens, in performance, in 1977 belting out one of those love songs. Completely lost in the song as anyone can see from looking at the photo. The album released that particular year was almost completely written by Ray. There were 10 songs on the album and Ray wrote 9 of them. <b>Feel the Music</b>, the name of the album, also features an unusual album photo. On the front of the album there's an illustration of a stereo speaker. On the back of the album there's an illustration of the back of a stereo speaker. The idea behind the album's cover art ties into the title track, "<i>Feel the Music</i>", literally. I come across a music critic's review of the 1977 album a couple of years ago while browsing online. The critic described Ray's style as bluesy-country. "<i>Feel the Music</i>", production wise, is marvelous as practically every Ray Stevens production is. The song has a catchy melody and at various moments Ray sounds as if he's totally in the spirit as the production takes on a gospel vibe. It's an inspirational song. Some of the love ballads on the 1977 album happen to be the exquisite "<i>Road Widow</i>", a song about a traveling musician constantly on the road but constantly thinking of the wife waiting at home. I'd never heard the expression, road widow, before but it's a neat song title for this kind of lonely, road weary song. How many of you are familiar with the phrase 'cheery sad song'? There shouldn't be hardly anyone familiar with the phrase since I just made it up. The phrase describes a sad love song with an up-tempo sing-a-long arrangement. A great example of this happens to be "<i>Alone With You</i>". When you see the title of the song while reading the track list on the album you'd think a song with a title like that would be a full-on, heavy romantic ballad. Well, it isn't.<div><br /></div><div>"<i>Alone With You</i>" is a sad song about a couple who have lost the spark they once had and that the love is all gone and he sings "<i>I'm all alone with you</i>". The music arrangement is up-tempo and bouncy, as mentioned. Now, staying in the same vein, we have the mid-tempo bluesy "<i>Blues Love Affair</i>". That particular song is about a guy who's more or less unlucky in love and all his relationships cause him to be down in the dumps.. causing him to feel as if his love life is just a love affair with misery and the blues. The bluesy-country flavor continues with "<i>Junkie for You</i>", where Ray uses a man's intense desires for a woman as something comparable to an addict. It's a song that only Ray could've come up with.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ray issued two albums in 1978. The first release was his salute/tribute to the music of the 1950s and 1960s. It was specifically rhythm and blues songs that crossed over to the pop chart. The album title, <b>There is Something On Your Mind</b>, is named for the album's closing number. It's a classic that's narrated frenetically. Ray provides commentary on both the front and the back of the album cover. He explains his reasons for recording the album. Then, on the back of the album, commentary from Ray appears underneath each track explaining his decision for recording it and giving some history behind each song. Every track on the album is a love song. It includes his renditions of "<i>One Mint Julep</i>", "<i>Money Honey</i>", plus several medley performances "<i>Dance Trilogy</i>", "<i>Old Faithful Trilogy</i>", and "<i>Banned in Boston Trilogy</i>". The latter features abbreviated performances of "<i>Sixty Minute Man</i>"/ "<i>Work With Me, Annie</i>"/ "<i>Annie Had a Baby</i>". The second album of 1978 was the more conventional album. Titled <b>Be Your Own Best Friend</b> it centers around love ballads, for the most part, and most of the love songs are performed in a soft-rock/Easy-Listening flavor. The one that features this touch the most is the inspirational "<i>With a Smile</i>". </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HHlSd_1wNM7jvsKwFAYyOnfClAf5iHWbJLAfbUIygCtmqR3OTPTIKNI7oYz1YyPRElcDOMGv1dl_bN6iuXUn35bMU7GtfDsNLkJEF7x59eRJbZ6FdVyA-3fqMryJyeYPrJJlB-d6rLPtvrfOH1AAmwlQZiPsDjgbxrqw97QS2Dd95nWyIQKg8-mdkPon/s316/RayStevens1978-BestFriendLP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="311" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HHlSd_1wNM7jvsKwFAYyOnfClAf5iHWbJLAfbUIygCtmqR3OTPTIKNI7oYz1YyPRElcDOMGv1dl_bN6iuXUn35bMU7GtfDsNLkJEF7x59eRJbZ6FdVyA-3fqMryJyeYPrJJlB-d6rLPtvrfOH1AAmwlQZiPsDjgbxrqw97QS2Dd95nWyIQKg8-mdkPon/w215-h218/RayStevens1978-BestFriendLP.JPG" width="215" /></a></div><br /><div>The love songs found on the album are "<i>You're Magic</i>" (one of my all-time favorites), a soft re-recording of "<i>You've Got the Music Inside</i>", and the majestic "<i>L'amour</i>". That recording is another of my all-time favorites. It also has a neat backstory. Ray mentioned in an interview in the early 1990s that while he was on tour overseas he had heard one of the most beautiful melodies but couldn't understand the lyrics because the singer was French. Ray eventually found out the French recording artist's name and the title of the song. The singer/writer was Gilbert Becaud. Ray got permission to use the melody and he wrote English lyrics to it. "<i>L'amour</i>" is fabulous.. the music and Ray's singing.. it's heavenly. The album credits both Gilbert Becaud and Ray Stevens as the writers. There are a couple of sad love songs on the 1978 album and those are "<i>Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right</i>", more of a song of reconciliation, but we're not told if the pair patched things up or not. "<i>Comeback</i>" is a fast tempo song where Ray pleads and begs for the woman to comeback and don't hesitate. "<i>The Feeling's Not Right Again</i>" would become the name of Ray's 1979 compilation album on Warner Brothers but it made it's debut on <b>Be Your Own Best Friend</b>. The song deals with a man who can't seem to find his soul mate since every time he gets into a relationship it just doesn't have much feeling to it. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the latter half of 1979 Ray moved to the RCA label. His first project for the label happened to be his first comedy album since 1974. <b>Shriner's Convention</b> hit early in 1980, the first all-comedy studio album from Ray since <b>Boogity Boogity</b>. The album featured the hit title track and a couple of other recordings became fan favorites. As far as love songs go there happened to be a couple of bizarre ones with it being a comedy album after all. One of the most clever love songs is "<i>You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me</i>". The women in their southern accents pronounce the word, tamper, as tampa. So, when Ray hears all the women he encounters during Spring Break say that he's never going to tampa with them it confuses him...considering he wasn't planning on going to Tampa anyway. The song doubles as a neat tribute to Florida, though, as Ray name drops quite a lot of famed beaches and cities. </div><div><br /></div><div>"<i>The Last Laugh</i>" has Ray singing about multiple ways he'll end his life as a result of being treated badly by a former lover. "<i>Rita's Letter</i>" is a song about a woman that receives a letter from her second husband telling her that he'd be in the neighborhood and would she like to reunite. Eventually they come face to face and she learns that he's changed his name from Beauregard to Nirvana and is part of a religious cult wearing a robe and pony tail. In "<i>The Watch Song</i>" Ray tells the story of being in a bar room fight. In the song Ray's accused of being the other man in a woman's life and her husband wants to fight. They fight and the guy breaks Ray's wristwatch and it causes him to snap. Ray beats the man up, too much it seems, because the guy dies. Ray's character finds himself headed to life in prison and an eventual death sentence. Throughout the song Ray wonders aloud and prays John Cameron Swayze will help him get out of prison and off death row. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-43269499196483550832024-03-17T20:57:00.001-04:002024-03-17T20:57:35.180-04:00Ray Stevens: Evergreen and more things like that...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0dm1-ZfrdPGHyYnErYnAcCidxL0Am0wdS_rsqy72YM5QM9Cwe3abgdq1KKtLH649NTQUDGQ4wP-8DKvP2WCO51YyNvnwU0UNuu9sFFPynQLY4oOn1Tazwph1-zwtlOUkfNIOdLU1IClbLNBcTk_02D8cDDByubv_Yf5yMRA9dne4TWcW5W8LX4zIvqLoi/s416/RayStevens1985-NashvilleNow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="416" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0dm1-ZfrdPGHyYnErYnAcCidxL0Am0wdS_rsqy72YM5QM9Cwe3abgdq1KKtLH649NTQUDGQ4wP-8DKvP2WCO51YyNvnwU0UNuu9sFFPynQLY4oOn1Tazwph1-zwtlOUkfNIOdLU1IClbLNBcTk_02D8cDDByubv_Yf5yMRA9dne4TWcW5W8LX4zIvqLoi/w207-h206/RayStevens1985-NashvilleNow.JPG" width="207" /></a></div>Well, I couldn't let Saint Patrick's Day go by without at least composing a blog entry spotlighting not only this photo of Ray Stevens in green but shining the light on a music pot of gold...an audio pot of gold. A collection of recordings by Ray Stevens that capture the spirit of what most people over the many decades have come to identify Saint Patrick's Day with: drinking alcohol and throwing parties. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">The holiday is synonymous with the color, green. The Irish connection and the lore of leprechauns, shamrocks, pots of gold, and luck</span><span style="color: #6aa84f;">. Ray has never officially recorded Irish ballads or traditional Irish music. I haven't done any detailed research to find out why Saint Patrick's Day went from celebrating an actual Irish Saint named Patrick to a day that's long been tied to alcohol (public intoxication) and wild partying. Nevertheless, there are those who are authentically Irish who have no issue with the fun and craziness that surrounds the Irish holiday but there are those of Irish heritage that do not appreciate the 'image' of the Irish as intoxicated fools continuing to show up every year on March 17th. Some protest the stereotypical imagery associated with the holiday (shamrocks, leprechaun costumes, orange wigs and beards) but I believe the protests are coming from a loud vocal minority considering the holiday comes and goes each and every year with celebrations of Irish heritage (food, drinks, music, clothing) on the day marking the death of Saint Patrick (March 17th). My family's heritage (on my dad's side) is Irish-Scottish and I don't find anything offensive about how people choose to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. Whether you simply want to wear green, or, drink alcohol, or listen to various recording artist's do a rendition of "<i>Danny Boy</i>", no matter how you choose to celebrate, well, it's perfectly fine with me. </span></b><div><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="color: #274e13;">What Ray Stevens songs do you think are in my personally selected pot of gold? </span><span style="color: #6aa84f;">I have a couple of songs in mind and the first one I'm spotlighting is Ray's rendition of "<i>The Bricklayer's Song</i>". Ray recorded this in 1993 on stage at his Branson, Missouri theater. It appears on his comedy album that year, Classic Ray Stevens. The song tells the story of an Irishman and his wild misadventures with a rope, a pulley, and a barrel of bricks. </span></b></div><div><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b><br /></b></span><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="217" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0uH1zvsQx9o" width="261" youtube-src-id="0uH1zvsQx9o"></iframe></div><br /></span></b><b style="color: #6aa84f;">Ray performed "<i>The Bricklayer's Song</i>" on an episode of his <i>CabaRay Nashville</i> television series but the performance isn't isolated as a stand alone upload on YouTube (so far) and I've forgotten which episode contains that performance. There are nearly 80 half hour episodes of the series so far. I could go through my notes and check which episode he performed it on...hey, I just went and looked...Ray performed the song on the episode guest starring Leroy Van Dyke. If you visit YouTube and search 'Ray Stevens + Leroy Van Dyke', the full episode will appear in the search results. Along the same amusing lines as that song but this time the setting is a brewery we hear the story of Clancy who works at a brewery in Milwaukee. We're told he's worked there for years and loves his job...working overtime and even weekends. Clancy met his end, however, in the most unfortunate of ways. You will hear all about it in Ray's 1987 recording of "<i>The Day That Clancy Drowned</i>", from the pen of Sheb Wooley.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="231" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OzabfdNXb-c" width="278" youtube-src-id="OzabfdNXb-c"></iframe></div></span><b style="color: #6aa84f;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></b></div>Have you ever heard the Ray Stevens recording of "<i>Little Brown Jug</i>"? He recorded it for his massive box set in 2012 titled The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The song originated in 1869 but became closely linked to Glenn Miller in 1939. The Prohibition Era in the United States (roughly 1920 - 1933) naturally caused a lot of songs/imagery of alcohol to become popular due to the Government imposed ban on all things alcohol related. Oh yes, bootlegging became fashionable even if it was against the law. This recording from Ray features modern instrumentation but it captures the spirit of the previous recordings of decades ago...and with practically everything Ray records there's a lot put into the production and his vocal performance gives the song it's essential cheery overtone...</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="235" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pMl7zfqtJIc" width="283" youtube-src-id="pMl7zfqtJIc"></iframe></div><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>One of the recordings from Ray Stevens that I think about on Saint Patrick's Day is his 1984 recording of "<i>Happy Hour is the Saddest Time of the Day</i>". It's a song on his comedy album that year, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens. He performed it on a country music television show that year and during the performance he applies make-up in time with the music and eventually appears on camera, right in front of our eyes, as a sad clown which masks the hilarious, clever lyrics. The screen cap from the performance shows him in the clown make-up but it's fun to watch the performance and hear him sing about loss love and how happy hour brings sorrow instead of happiness... </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="318" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8WVtbJTihTc" width="382" youtube-src-id="8WVtbJTihTc"></iframe></div></b></span></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-12161777033473737282024-03-12T01:18:00.000-04:002024-03-12T01:18:31.963-04:00Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglLuivBCjd23VuUBpek7Vhl_xthy4HxUeh959-k3dvcffF9azzrfW5K9cceVq-6u2dOPfoSakbWvTh8yRW5zBr82lH4fuvtwDZ5MIdTTBY4xwAS_ClmBQzZa1ow7WEWgqgdcL9kVAvobHMX2GSGkXeNB7OwcgnMoGfEt6QtxevWlhv9dqkwBkjqCBQX8cO/s458/RayStevens1974-BoogityLP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="458" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglLuivBCjd23VuUBpek7Vhl_xthy4HxUeh959-k3dvcffF9azzrfW5K9cceVq-6u2dOPfoSakbWvTh8yRW5zBr82lH4fuvtwDZ5MIdTTBY4xwAS_ClmBQzZa1ow7WEWgqgdcL9kVAvobHMX2GSGkXeNB7OwcgnMoGfEt6QtxevWlhv9dqkwBkjqCBQX8cO/w202-h196/RayStevens1974-BoogityLP.JPG" width="202" /></a></div>Oh yes...perhaps the most popular or the second most popular woman from a Ray Stevens recording is Ethel. The woman that kept seeing a streaker in Ray's 1974 million selling single, "<i>The Streak</i>". The catchphrase, well one of them, even appears on the album cover. Throughout the recording Ray's eyewitness character continually warns Ethel not to look but it's always too late. Ray wrote and recorded a rough draft of the song shortly after reading about the fad of streaking prior to it becoming a national fad, most often happening on college campuses. Ray didn't immediately release the song but once streaking became a huge news item, perhaps reaching it's peak at the Oscar ceremony, Ray decided to put the finishing touches on his song and record it. When he released the song on Barnaby Records there were already at least a dozen or more novelty songs about streaking available. Ray has always felt that the reason his recording out performed the other songs is due to his having the concept of the song partially written weeks before streaking became a cultural phenomenon. He owed the song's success to having had the time to focus on it rather than cobbling together lyrics seemingly at random just to cash in on the fad. The single sold millions of copies worldwide. The sales figure that's often cited is more than 5,000,000 copies sold. It not only reached the top of the Hot 100 pop chart here in America but it crossed over and become a Top-5 hit in country music and a number one hit in the United Kingdom. In America the song was at number one for three weeks. It had a meteoric rise to the top...once it hit the Hot 100 it was sitting at number one within a month's time. The single reaches it's golden anniversary this year but for this occasion it's okay if Ethel takes a look and celebrates the milestone. Although the 1974 <b>Boogity Boogity</b> album is officially a comedy release it did contain at least one love song. It happens to be the album closer, "<i>Just So Proud To Be Here</i>". Ray also includes his rendition of "<i>Don't Boogie Woogie</i>", a rocking piano pounding performance that sounds a lot like Jerry Lee Lewis and ironically Jerry Lee Lewis would in fact record that song...one year <i>after</i> Ray. Here's an audio track of "<i>Just So Proud To Be Here</i>". I don't know if Ray chose to write a song with this as a title because of his friendship with Minnie Pearl or not. If you'd ever seen Minnie in performance she'd holler out her opening "How-dee!" and follow it with "I'm just so proud to be here...". <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="245" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5V8lHiM6yE4" width="295" youtube-src-id="5V8lHiM6yE4"></iframe></div><br /><div><div>In 1975, still with Barnaby Records, Ray issued the single, "<i>Misty</i>". Now, technically, the name of the song is a woman's name but the song is actually about emotional feelings. If you've never heard the song before it's about how misty-eyed a man gets the moment the love of his life is near him. So, yes, it's still a love song but it isn't about a woman named Misty. Ray won a Grammy early in 1976 in the category of Best Music Arrangement for his recording of "<i>Misty</i>". Elsewhere on the <b>Misty</b> album there are plenty of love songs. One of the greatest on the album is his version of "<i>Lady of Spain</i>". There's also the delightful "<i>Sunshine</i>", a song that's arranged and sang with such vocal happiness that you're bound to smile throughout as you listen to it. On the opposite end of the up-tempo productions we have the sensual vibe that exists throughout his performance of "<i>Take Care of Business</i>". That song, from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr., uses a phrase heard throughout Ray's 1968 single, "<i>Mr. Businessman</i>". Layng was a writer at Ray's publishing company and if I recall correctly the songwriter chose "<i>Take Care of Business</i>" as a title because he felt it might grab Ray's attention to the point of his possibly recording the love ballad...or he used that title because "<i>Mr. Businessman</i>" happened to be one of Layng's favorite Ray Stevens songs. It's one or the other. Ray's marvelous ballad renditions of "<i>Indian Love Call</i>" and "<i>Young Love</i>" are on the 1975 album as well. </div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwZPzPXWJCmM9tPniJhhLW3rJ3T9ZAO0-s1nC8ui71-f8WxVWsUO0OLstE0XNEb4cwUlGlv48iG9mgNi6yGcc3TbZjHnfx3XkMRKTy2A2IxGZJuW-O2WfGiJy7wbg_FHq7KLzKfJrs-uVmO5njLKh97JynxGyYqqsbPuW4IPg50brPv6GvVs9crvjzITO/s480/MeAndRayStevens1976-LP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="480" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwZPzPXWJCmM9tPniJhhLW3rJ3T9ZAO0-s1nC8ui71-f8WxVWsUO0OLstE0XNEb4cwUlGlv48iG9mgNi6yGcc3TbZjHnfx3XkMRKTy2A2IxGZJuW-O2WfGiJy7wbg_FHq7KLzKfJrs-uVmO5njLKh97JynxGyYqqsbPuW4IPg50brPv6GvVs9crvjzITO/w347-h216/MeAndRayStevens1976-LP.JPG" width="347" /></a></div><br /><div>In 1976 Ray exited Barnaby Records and signed on with Warner Brothers records. His debut album for the label, seen above, is titled <b>Just For the Record</b>. It's a glorious album chock full of up-tempo, mid-tempo, and ballad performances. In the category of love songs this album has plenty. His rousing rendition of "<i>You Are So Beautiful</i>" was the album's debut single and it was followed by another love song, "<i>Honky Tonk Waltz</i>". A savory ballad found on here is "<i>Once in Awhile</i>" whereas "<i>Cornball</i>" is a bouncy sing-a-long kind of song where Ray sings about a guy that no matter how hard he tries he can't seem to impress the woman but he's so desperate that he feels the need to remind her that he'll always be available if she ever gets lonely. I tend to use the word, glorious, a lot when describing specific Ray Stevens recordings. I'll use that word again.. "<i>Gimme a Smile</i>" is a glorious love song about a strained relationship that's reached a breaking point and Ray asks for forgiveness and a smile. </div><div><br /></div><div>So far I've touched on quite a few Ray Stevens recordings that fall into the category of a love song or those that contain women's names in the song titles in these first three blog entries focusing on Ray singing about women. In part 4 I'll be spotlighting some recordings of Ray during the years 1977, 1978, and 1980 as women's history month continues. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-21282108603929852842024-03-09T22:05:00.001-05:002024-03-09T22:05:09.453-05:00Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 2<div style="text-align: left;">Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! We're on the eve of the annual tradition of setting our clocks ahead one hour at 2am. I don't if the State you live in participates in the clock changes (spring forward/fall back) or not but it's something we've done for decades. One of the main points of this limited blog series was to spotlight some of the songs Ray Stevens has recorded that deal with women. I originally wanted to pinpoint songs that feature a woman's name in the title but then I figured I'd also toss in some notice to songs that are about women, in general, and therefore those would fall into the love song category.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEqeowoiDBM5fS8z0TH9J7zxo2m-cXN-Z860ATAzdanK1SAomoiXBgHP5A437-YQvn3DFkv-YFM6dGF0eValWwJsU7qL9HhSb0dz50W9egb8ew3FQ01NExfjjeZ0VeEMqGdP74vHDxUjKjkKsQUn7lz-e4O7CdMxnDE2B-7P4wMIciW5ZiA1hItPsla8xQ/s395/RayStevens1972-HeeHaw11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="388" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEqeowoiDBM5fS8z0TH9J7zxo2m-cXN-Z860ATAzdanK1SAomoiXBgHP5A437-YQvn3DFkv-YFM6dGF0eValWwJsU7qL9HhSb0dz50W9egb8ew3FQ01NExfjjeZ0VeEMqGdP74vHDxUjKjkKsQUn7lz-e4O7CdMxnDE2B-7P4wMIciW5ZiA1hItPsla8xQ/w218-h223/RayStevens1972-HeeHaw11.JPG" width="218" /></a></div>Although a casual music listener probably wouldn't think of love songs or deep, romantic ballads when they hear the name, <i>Ray Stevens</i>, but he's recorded and written a lot of love songs. Some of those love songs actually do involve a lot of mature, straightforward lyrics. The issue has almost always been that music listeners can't separate the funny man from the serious one and once he gained a reputation for comedy/novelty it was almost written in stone in the ears and minds of music listeners and music critics that Ray <i>shouldn't</i> be taken seriously. We all know that Ray was able to overcome the novelty/comedy image throughout much of the 1970s and into the early 1980s. His recordings were very well done, immaculately produced, and arranged. Ray is his own music producer and music arranger and those talents continue to show up on his most recent recordings, too. I decided to use that particular pose of Ray because I feel it captures him deep in the performance. His eyes are open so you can't say he's lost in the feeling but it's a capture that captures a side of Ray Stevens that gets overlooked. So, then, in my second part of this mini-blog series devoted to women's history month we begin with a song Ray wrote and recorded in the late 1960s. The song originally appeared on his 1969 album, <b>Have a Little Talk With Myself</b>. "<i>The Little Woman</i>" celebrates the joy of domestic living and the pride one has in living a modest lifestyle. It also, as you'll find out when listening to the song, demonstrates the strength of a marriage. In the song's storyline Ray is approached by a woman who has perhaps a one night stand on her mind but he gently turns her down and states how much he loves his wife who's waiting on him at home. Ray explored this theme of domestic tranquility in a previous recording a year earlier in 1968 on the song, "<i>The Great Escape</i>". In that one he criticizes the hectic pace of working in the city and all that's one his mind is making the escape back to the tranquil suburbs and returning to his wife and their subdivided house. In the embed below it's the audio track of "<i>The Little Woman</i>".<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="215" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ezm5r3mJrEE" width="258" youtube-src-id="Ezm5r3mJrEE"></iframe></div><br /><div><div style="text-align: left;">In 1970 one of Ray's albums, <b>Unreal</b>, featured numerous love songs. One of them, in particular, dealt with the sad side of love. "<i>Islands</i>" tells the story of a couple who've drifted off into their own separate worlds. The woman has left the guy and the song is something of a lover's plea for her to return. Sad love songs tend to outnumber positive love songs on that 1970 album. A couple of other sad ones are "<i>Night People</i>", "<i>Imitation of Life</i>", and the war ballad "<i>Loving You on Paper</i>". The album had it's share of positive and inspiring songs, though, such as "<i>Come Around</i>", "<i>Can We Get To That?</i>", and "<i>America, Communicate With Me</i>". In the video clip below you'll hear Ray perform "<i>Loving You On Paper</i>" from a May 1971 episode of the BBC music series, <b><i>In Concert</i></b>.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="289" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nTSUk256ZIw" width="348" youtube-src-id="nTSUk256ZIw"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">In Ray's 1973 album, <b>Nashville</b>, there are all kinds of love songs on it. First off is the title track. "<i>Nashville</i>" isn't necessarily about a woman but it's a love song directed at the city of Nashville, Tennessee. In several interviews Ray mentioned that he wrote the song while touring Australia and was homesick. He missed being in Nashville and being with his family. Ray's take on "<i>Never Ending Song of Love</i>" is fabulous as is the love ballad "<i>Love Me Longer</i>". The album features the original recording of "<i>You've Got the Music Inside</i>" which he would re-record five years later. In the latter recording from 1978 he gave it a softer music arrangement to mirror his softer vocal performance. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As was the case in 1970 with the release of two albums Ray released two albums in 1973, too: <b>Nashville</b> and <b>Losin' Streak</b>. Some of the love songs on <b>Losin' Streak</b> were a re-recorded version of "<i>Just One of Life's Little Tragedies</i>" (originally recorded by Ray in 1963), "<i>Idaho Wine</i>", a mid-tempo recording of "<i>Easy Loving</i>", and a bluesy rendition of "<i>Bye Bye Love</i>". The <b>Losin' Streak</b> album isn't officially uploaded onto YouTube and neither is <b>Have a Little Talk With Myself</b> but if you manually search for songs from either of those two albums you'll come across the audio tracks. I'll follow up with part three later on this week. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-57822613276409970962024-03-08T02:12:00.004-05:002024-03-08T02:12:53.962-05:00Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv-8xZkt4j8-0_wC3KEGlBaaaCPoKHZ5mPWAeSlhkFlAb7Ip4Xj-cbhFMuCfLfXMsG_Q2AX4TT1cmu35FzBG4QaKt6EHrRdHOZX2-fNDwzLlJO2qS6gJASOjtfHnWwBcT6LYU0n06W2rN8jx_OnKr6fVeBS6ML8-ogZY_RsJiNrZb6l0tiNNmReUrkenKA/s190/RayStevens1964-BubbleGumSingle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="190" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv-8xZkt4j8-0_wC3KEGlBaaaCPoKHZ5mPWAeSlhkFlAb7Ip4Xj-cbhFMuCfLfXMsG_Q2AX4TT1cmu35FzBG4QaKt6EHrRdHOZX2-fNDwzLlJO2qS6gJASOjtfHnWwBcT6LYU0n06W2rN8jx_OnKr6fVeBS6ML8-ogZY_RsJiNrZb6l0tiNNmReUrkenKA/w165-h158/RayStevens1964-BubbleGumSingle.JPG" width="165" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>Hello one and all...all you fans of Ray Stevens!! March is Women's History Month and I thought it would be neat/fun to take a look back in the long career of Ray Stevens and single out some of his recordings about women or those that have the names of women in their title. This is going to be a multi-part blog entry and so I'm not going to start off with the obvious ones. Also, as you could guess from the picture sleeve, I'll be going in chronological order from earliest to present day. Now, having said that, it doesn't mean that I'm going to spotlight each and every song dealing with the subject matter. It's just a sampling. In this first installment I'm focusing on three recordings in particular. The first comes from 1964 and was issued as a single only release. The song would eventually find it's way onto an album a few years later. "<i>Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer</i>" is a novelty song about a bubble dancer. Ray tells us the story of how the dancer, named Bubble Gum, excites the patrons at a club called the Blue Rendezvous. As he's singing about how wild she's driving the men in the audience he adds in some vernacular from the time period such as using the term, cats, to describe the audience. He also gets in the slang expression, hullaballoo, which was such a recurring expression in the early to mid '60s that a television teenager dancer show was created with that title. When you hear the song, and even though it was recorded in the early 1960s and Ray's vocals and the music reflect this, there are moments in the song where you'll detect the phrasing that would come to the forefront in future recordings. When Ray gets to the line where he sings "..<i>and then the music stopped and the house was still</i>..", the way he enunciates the words, stopped and still, are certain to catch your ears. The B-side is a chilling song, "<i>Laughing Over My Grave</i>". Ray sings about a woman who's had enough and she has the man worried about what she's got planned for him. In his worst thoughts he thinks his days are numbered and he can hear her laughing over his grave.<div><br /></div><div>In 1967, by now on the Monument record label, Ray released a single titled "<i>Mary, My Secretary</i>". In this toe-tapper of a song we hear Ray sing about how a secretary that works for him is creeping into his thoughts and is causing his eyes to drift toward her...and while he tries to hold back temptations he ends up once again calling his wife to explain that he's going to be late getting home, again. Ray belts out how his secretary, Mary, is breaking up his happy home. It was a single-only release. The other side of the single happened to be "<i>Answer Me, My Love</i>", a song that deals with a man pleading to his wife that he's never been unfaithful. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwkhjGYaRH5NVQ9SLthZdtX8TVIxskPyXJb76jnAhnZe__SpyATFBD0xMwsvzl0nDRwhshK4rBXlp7fxvHrSVoGM3VUrJbLnhMhHyzg-e2YVhfAdeaeFpd3xkITnLg1jmW08OWB90rvjgGHcBm8hqP61e02wWqHZ4jcowdrJPv4frQC_Aqx-BI5X5ho4r/s415/RayStevens1970-BridgetSingle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="415" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwkhjGYaRH5NVQ9SLthZdtX8TVIxskPyXJb76jnAhnZe__SpyATFBD0xMwsvzl0nDRwhshK4rBXlp7fxvHrSVoGM3VUrJbLnhMhHyzg-e2YVhfAdeaeFpd3xkITnLg1jmW08OWB90rvjgGHcBm8hqP61e02wWqHZ4jcowdrJPv4frQC_Aqx-BI5X5ho4r/w210-h187/RayStevens1970-BridgetSingle.JPG" width="210" /></a></div>In 1970 Ray signed with the Barnaby Records label. In the final month of the year he released the novelty song "<i>Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues</i>". As is the case with most any single that's released within the last 2 or 3 months in a calendar year it reaches it's greatest peak in the first few months of the following year. Early in 1971 "<i>Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues</i>" peaked in the Top-50 of the Hot 100...reaching number 50, as a matter of fact. It reached the Top-10 in the United Kingdom...stalling in the runner-up position for several weeks. The song is about a tap dancer working at a Go-Go on Sunset Strip. Ray tells us about Bridget's success as he acts as the narrator and emcee spotlighting Bridget and her backup group, Strawberry and the Short Cakes. During various moments in the song the performance takes a backseat to a rabid fan, possibly drunk, who interjects his enthusiasm into the goings on. The fan hollers "Uh huh I dig it, I really dig it!!" to which Ray, acting as a combination emcee/security guard, hollers back "you can't do that, fella!!". Eventually as Bridget and her group dazzle with more tap dancing the fan hollers out how much he digs it and Ray hollers "watch out, fella, you can't come up on the stage!!!". It's a very funny novelty song written, produced, and arranged by Ray Stevens. It was originally released as a single-only late in 1970 and it wouldn't make it's appearance on a studio album until four years later. It was placed on the 1974 <b>Boogity Boogity</b> album. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="297" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GK8ej4Z6UOE" width="357" youtube-src-id="GK8ej4Z6UOE"></iframe></div><br /><div>He also made a limited animation music video of the song several decades later and I'm including it in this blog entry, too. I'll be writing part 2 of this blog series soon.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="291" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IFNaPIW6QxI" width="350" youtube-src-id="IFNaPIW6QxI"></iframe></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-38820302505254210382024-02-29T02:08:00.001-05:002024-02-29T02:08:06.983-05:00Ray Stevens: Upcoming March CabaRay concerts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJg4tJq1tBjuHQPpz5XJpy5pzUK6vVtd-4Lt3VM6lxY2xNXaq7aJbSat6hKb35TrV6frRR1YPjqaxIcki-1luWB4RgOC5qGjzET8a8jVP-1acNhmpD2eOco-4eGETjJcXUKAzeCXhMnuRH9TGGhfF4DEkyKlwSNI8CjULehZYsVD0GFfotL-10JsxcEWQ/s353/RayStevens2019-CMHOF-Photo5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="349" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJg4tJq1tBjuHQPpz5XJpy5pzUK6vVtd-4Lt3VM6lxY2xNXaq7aJbSat6hKb35TrV6frRR1YPjqaxIcki-1luWB4RgOC5qGjzET8a8jVP-1acNhmpD2eOco-4eGETjJcXUKAzeCXhMnuRH9TGGhfF4DEkyKlwSNI8CjULehZYsVD0GFfotL-10JsxcEWQ/w182-h185/RayStevens2019-CMHOF-Photo5.JPG" width="182" /></a></div>See the <b><i>Country Music Hall of Fame</i></b> member, Ray Stevens, kick off the final season of concerts at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. The final season kicks off on March 16th and there will be a total of five concerts from Ray during the month of March. Ray will appear in concert on March 16th, 21st, 23rd, 28th, and 30th. The concert season will run through December 2024 at which time the showroom will close. As far as I know there hasn't been any plans for what will occupy the showroom in the years to come. It'll more than likely remain under Ray's ownership as a place that he'll perform occasional concerts at and more than likely he'll have the showroom a destination for recording artists to perform at while they're on tour. The news of the final season of concerts broke last month. In case it's all new to you I'd suggest you read a news announcement <a href="https://raystevenscabaray.com/announcement/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. That link will take you to the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> webpage. Once there you'll be able to read the announcement as well as browse the site and perhaps decide to purchase concert tickets for an upcoming show in 2024. <div><br /></div><div>The photo of Ray that you see in the upper right is from induction night at the <b><i>Country Music Hall of Fame</i></b> in 2019. In addition to the plaque that is placed inside the Hall of Fame building each member also receives a gold medallion. In each successive year following the creation of the gold medallion ceremony it's encouraged that Hall of Fame members return each year, wearing their medallions, to witness the induction of new members into the Hall of Fame. See the previous paragraph for a link to the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> webpage.</div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-62657548766587675742024-02-18T04:02:00.001-05:002024-02-18T04:02:32.144-05:00Ray Stevens: February 12th Bill Cody radio appearance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6N9s2MWrGMxa46yBPkXb-DHoOVsQTKFyFGs0WNgV-ucW2PxT2TKOBEa7Ig_0txNMkiAW2t2M4vjfl17t0rFkN6LF02rFP2g0NY88IgVwX5ksKtn9OVrgwN1F4hwXHqDK2_VVtv3DYChTXTXm8VwbVrziMAnoidIUE6H_-tkha3IWbs8KBZB3zMoND4Rc/s387/RayStevens2021-MelancholyFescue.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="387" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6N9s2MWrGMxa46yBPkXb-DHoOVsQTKFyFGs0WNgV-ucW2PxT2TKOBEa7Ig_0txNMkiAW2t2M4vjfl17t0rFkN6LF02rFP2g0NY88IgVwX5ksKtn9OVrgwN1F4hwXHqDK2_VVtv3DYChTXTXm8VwbVrziMAnoidIUE6H_-tkha3IWbs8KBZB3zMoND4Rc/w202-h199/RayStevens2021-MelancholyFescue.JPG" width="202" /></a></div>Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I felt like doing a visual promo for one of the four CD's in Ray's 2021 box set, <b>Iconic Songs of the 20th Century</b>. As you can see it's the bluegrass CD titled <b>Melancholy Fescue</b>. It had been awhile since I had given some attention to that particular 2021 release. The main focal point of this blog entry, however, centers around a radio appearance from Ray Stevens on February 12 last week. It was the day after the Super Bowl as you'll hear when you listen to the interview. Bill Cody hosts a morning radio program on 650 WSM radio and it has a simulcast on television. There wasn't any sort of alert that Ray would be a guest on Bill's radio program and so I wasn't able to write any kind of blog entry promoting the appearance. I found out yesterday and I shared the YouTube link to several people that I know of who are as much a fan of Ray Stevens as I happen to be. As is the case with almost every interview that features Ray it's an up-tempo, light conversation filled with jokes or whimsical phrases. When you listen to the interview you'll discover that there will be some major activity taking place in Ray's career come the summer of 2024. There are actually two breaking news releases in the interview. The first is the completed production of a music video with the resident pianist at Ray's <i><b>CabaRay</b></i> showroom, John Jonethis. Ray didn't reveal when the video would be released. He says he'll be in the video but he didn't say whether he'd be a vocalist for John's performance or if he'd simply appear in the video in a non-singing role. <div><br /></div><div>The second breaking news announcement during the interview was the upcoming production of all-new episodes of <b>CabaRay Nashville</b>!! Ray revealed starting July of this year he'll be taping all kinds of footage for 26 new episodes of the half hour television series. The program had been on hiatus/out of production since 2018. There were 78 half hour episodes produced, initially, of Ray's half hour television series. The series first aired in the latter half of 2015 on RFD-TV and then in first-run syndication on local PBS stations. The first 26 half hour episodes aired on RFD-TV, titled <b>Ray Stevens' Nashville</b>, and then 52 half hour episodes aired in PBS syndication often on Saturday or Sunday afternoon or, in some markets, evening time-slots week, as <b>Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville</b>. </div><div><br /></div><div>The PBS airings were scattered all over the local landscape and it was difficult for a lot of fans to see the program due to it not airing in national syndication. The show would air in local television markets on PBS meaning that fans in one State were able to see the program whereas fans in another State might've not had any PBS affiliate airing the show. The final handful of episodes were taped early in 2018 at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. Ray eventually brought all of the episodes to his YouTube channel and he premiered an episode every week on the channel. These YouTube airings were, for many fans, the first time they'd seen the PBS episodes given how scattered the airings/availability had been. Since the episodes of his TV show are part of his YouTube channel there's no reason why any fan with internet access hasn't watched all the episodes by now. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, with the announcement that there will be 26 additional episodes produced, that'll bring the overall total number of episodes to 104. It wasn't revealed if these additional episodes will air on television or if they'll air on his YouTube channel once a week. There's a lot of information we still don't know but isn't it fun knowing that Ray will be producing episodes of the TV show again? </div><div><br /></div><div>In the interview with Bill Cody you'll want to start the video clip at the 37 minute, 11 second mark which is where Ray's portion of the show begins. Now, of course, you can listen to the entire video upload with Bill's other guests, too, but if you're just wanting to hear Ray's portion of the show it begins at 37 minutes, 11 seconds. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="293" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2PEVSminhTQ" width="352" youtube-src-id="2PEVSminhTQ"></iframe></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-27100107723146054182024-02-16T23:59:00.001-05:002024-02-16T23:59:50.945-05:00Ray Stevens: Latest Media Information...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpg_ZVZnXIC7-UXuzGnc-dEG5c1oBCYZNksM0Jjm1QHVLp-pykcbeSEyISZQEyoUd5fGOU5VSp-OokW5lK_-gs0m8ivdbSepxIO7N8uJk36FzayLLGJj72bO8EqlmMsnsoHzkGOfEsZmNDv5qIs8X4doMMnXxMoV_VdYlG_rldVU0G40T55k2N8ymGBRXm/s228/RayStevens2023%20SpotifySingleJesus.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="228" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpg_ZVZnXIC7-UXuzGnc-dEG5c1oBCYZNksM0Jjm1QHVLp-pykcbeSEyISZQEyoUd5fGOU5VSp-OokW5lK_-gs0m8ivdbSepxIO7N8uJk36FzayLLGJj72bO8EqlmMsnsoHzkGOfEsZmNDv5qIs8X4doMMnXxMoV_VdYlG_rldVU0G40T55k2N8ymGBRXm/w168-h164/RayStevens2023%20SpotifySingleJesus.JPG" width="168" /></a></div>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Over the course of the last several days there had been several new articles posted online focusing on the upcoming final concert season at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. The 2024 season gets underway next month...exactly one month from today. The first concert of the season is scheduled to happen on March 16, 2024. Now, in case you've been following his social media, then you're aware that Ray opened the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> for a special Valentine's Day concert a couple of days ago. It was a one night event and, as previously mentioned, the full 2024 concert season gets underway on March 16th. Ray will perform at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> on Thursday and Saturday nights. The Thursday concerts are scattered throughout the season but the Saturday concerts will be an every week thing. There are some Thursday events at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> that center around The Indie Country Showdown. So, once you visit Ray's main <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> webpage and search for concert dates make sure the selection is for the Ray Stevens concert. I say that because I figure most of you are going to want to show up for a concert from Ray...but, if you prefer to show up for one of the Thursday nights that The Indie Country Showdown will be taking place you're perfectly free to make the choice. You can read all about the 2024 season of concerts by clicking <a href="https://raystevenscabaray.showare.com/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. <div><br /></div><div>In case you're wondering there isn't a CD single of "<i>If Jesus Is a Stranger</i>". This song and a couple of other releases have been appearing on various digital music sites with an accompanying photo. The photo's are used for publicity/promotional purposes only...there isn't a physical copy of a CD single.<div><br /></div><div>The <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> final season was the subject of a story on local Nashville television station, WTVF, Channel 5. Well, at first, a transcript/printed copy of the report appeared online and then the televised report shown up on YouTube. I'm not going to provide a link to the TV station's webpage. I realize that with so many fans out there having various operating systems bringing them their online content that the TV station's webpage may react differently depending on what device a fan uses. So, then, I'm going to provide a link to the YouTube video. I'm including a link due to the fact that a lot of us like to see Ray on camera talking, or, listening to his voice on a radio program as he's being interviewed. The video is three minutes in length. The TV station doesn't allow embedded video content to be shared and so I'm going to provide a link.. click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VjH6ppY_4M" target="_blank">HERE</a>. The link should take you to the YouTube video but just in case it doesn't you can always Google the phrase 'Ray Stevens + WTVF' and among the search results will be the recent video clip, as of this writing.</div></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-81071182370555963292024-02-01T23:21:00.000-05:002024-02-01T23:21:33.158-05:00Ray Stevens: Half a million unique views for "Bubba..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMGDBMF9fraCJXqBc7wRHETmieChInYs6w8CDEBPXZ68IHmGMmmFLUyILoEI0BmiWMnwg-L1pnH-y-53YZFA3m7N7aJDRp_IPxmVW2iMatx4VUgnOhupRt3ZNcQdHGqrDwOVDVDoVOKAzN6-Wapv3TH-bob3RdM4hKrmFnOALRwfKyohwR6fHBZcNdTivz/s407/RayStevens2023-%20SinceBubbaChangedHisNameToCharlene.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="407" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMGDBMF9fraCJXqBc7wRHETmieChInYs6w8CDEBPXZ68IHmGMmmFLUyILoEI0BmiWMnwg-L1pnH-y-53YZFA3m7N7aJDRp_IPxmVW2iMatx4VUgnOhupRt3ZNcQdHGqrDwOVDVDoVOKAzN6-Wapv3TH-bob3RdM4hKrmFnOALRwfKyohwR6fHBZcNdTivz/w194-h184/RayStevens2023-%20SinceBubbaChangedHisNameToCharlene.JPG" width="194" /></a></div>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! We welcome in the month of February with some exciting news. Ray's current music video, "<i>Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene</i>", has officially reached the half a million unique views plateau. As of this writing the unique views are sitting at 502,346. Although I hadn't been writing any blog entries displaying the progress of the music video's unique views I would often check in and take note of whatever the latest numbers shown. A couple of months ago on November 16, 2023 to be specific the music video had reached 369,028 unique views. The video was uploaded onto YouTube on October 5, 2023 and so more than a month after it had made it's debut it was already well over 300,000. I checked the numbers during early December 2023 and it was sitting at 455,431 unique views on December 9th. Several days ago on January 22, 2024 the unique views count was sitting at 491,691 and so I had a feeling that the music video would reach half a million at some point and it officially reached that plateau late last night. I took note of it and it was sitting at 501,601 unique views right around this time Wednesday night. As pointed out at the top of this blog entry it's now sitting at 502,346. <div><br /></div><div>As of this writing this song only exists as a music video and as a digital download. An image of Ray with his hand covering his mouth, to convey a shocked expression, is being used as a promo picture for the digital download. There isn't a CD hardcopy available for those of you out there that might be curious/wondering. In fact, as of this writing, there hasn't been any information on any future comedy albums...and if any would be released I'm sure that this song will be among the track list. <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="290" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EqemlCXeW4A" width="349" youtube-src-id="EqemlCXeW4A"></iframe></div></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-28258005514338848102024-01-29T03:43:00.001-05:002024-01-29T03:43:47.049-05:00Ray Stevens: 1977 Australian Release<div style="text-align: left;">Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Several hours ago I come across a product being sold over on eBay that caught my eye. If you're familiar with the cassette tape releases on Ray Stevens from Warner Brothers in the late 1970s, well, this one may intrigue you considering that it's an Australian pressing of Ray's 1977 album, <b>Feel the Music</b>. I had seen the United States cassette copy of <b>Feel the Music</b> on eBay a number of years ago and it's overall cover design is identical to the other Warner Brothers cassette releases from that time period in the United States. However, the Australian copy of <b>Feel the Music</b> is aesthetically different as you can see. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrEq7BPLpdTgxq4ACReab1wjTiwJyzcRtLVQvXGIQv5tU8Nv4LUWyazYXhPRryMxpr-kI2yJ6UGw7mfaFnod390wB8-bJl5bId4fjFkeJ3a9TxOZ3gNzL-3GpEzXoSFyYBShMvEiiLbtvopcZ-ufZROwsmESf-6K-2lH1daP4OV93K8vYN96yoN6XNA8y/s350/RayStevens1977-FeelTheMusic%20Cassette.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="216" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrEq7BPLpdTgxq4ACReab1wjTiwJyzcRtLVQvXGIQv5tU8Nv4LUWyazYXhPRryMxpr-kI2yJ6UGw7mfaFnod390wB8-bJl5bId4fjFkeJ3a9TxOZ3gNzL-3GpEzXoSFyYBShMvEiiLbtvopcZ-ufZROwsmESf-6K-2lH1daP4OV93K8vYN96yoN6XNA8y/w133-h215/RayStevens1977-FeelTheMusic%20Cassette.JPG" width="133" /></a></div>Yes, that's the Australian copy of <b>Feel the Music</b>. As you can see the album cover which accompanied the vinyl copy is on the cassette cover but then you have his name and the title of the release posted at the top. The thing that caught my eye the most is the title is shown in lower case letters. That particular album cover of a stereo speaker, as you can see, presented something of a challenge to the designers of the cassette tape release. We have Ray's name and the title of the album shown twice. In practically every cassette tape release of a vinyl album what typically happens is only the image of the vinyl album photo is used. However, in this case, since the 1977 album cover is an in illustration of a stereo speaker and not simply a photo of Ray it would've been impossible to to a magnification because Ray's name and album title is printed within the illustrated image of the stereo speaker. If they were to have done a blown up/magnified image of the album cover for the cassette tape release all a consumer would see is a large brown area...and it's hard to tell if consumers would've been able to figure out that what they're looking at is a stereo speaker should they not be familiar with the vinyl copy which contains more detail of the illustrated image. The United States cassette copy looks like this...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjq25PRO7_y8-DbbF4JNBsg0WUONt8CpZg9GDosWJP7Csps9fTpRhCqGiE6ePrYVXtGuJMtcozPq34DPmlmnmTmJjMiz08Vo4Z4blK3cn-2tGpxg4-4TN_Ca1Et8swPiHD_HOS3JlBrM0PQ8d3bBHH_ld2OtOJE-7IEtjbGgm3J00ELFCG0AA134fNeyd6/s408/RayStevens1977-FeelTheMusic%20Cassette%20U.S..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="262" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjq25PRO7_y8-DbbF4JNBsg0WUONt8CpZg9GDosWJP7Csps9fTpRhCqGiE6ePrYVXtGuJMtcozPq34DPmlmnmTmJjMiz08Vo4Z4blK3cn-2tGpxg4-4TN_Ca1Et8swPiHD_HOS3JlBrM0PQ8d3bBHH_ld2OtOJE-7IEtjbGgm3J00ELFCG0AA134fNeyd6/w141-h220/RayStevens1977-FeelTheMusic%20Cassette%20U.S..JPG" width="141" /></a></div>Do you own a copy of 1977's <b>Feel the Music</b>? If you have the vinyl album as I do then you know that on the back of the album it features a photo of Ray. Since the album cover is meant to look like a stereo speaker then, as you may have guessed, the back of the album looks like the back of a stereo speaker with illustrations of small screws and to indicate the look of a speaker's back panel. Also, the photo of Ray features small illustrated images of tape on the upper left and lower right hand sides. This is the typical appearance of how strips of tape look on the back of a stereo speaker holding up the plastic pouch containing the manufactures warranty. This 1977 album was almost completely written by Ray Stevens. There are 10 tracks on here and he wrote 9 of the 10 songs. The one song that he didn't write happens to be "<i>Set the Children Free</i>" which came from the pen of Buddy Kalb. Now, if you're a long time fan of Ray Stevens, then it should come as no surprise that the music on this album would've been considered country in 1977. In fact, Ray has always delivered what most of us would call <i>Ray Stevens music</i>. This means that a recording is produced and arranged as if Ray happened to have been the writer. When he's singing a song he didn't write it sounds like it was something he had written. Also, when we refer to it as <i>Ray Stevens music</i> what we're also saying is that the lyrics seem to fit Ray's style. <div><br /></div><div>Ray has a style? Yes...if you know your Ray Stevens music then you know that he has a style. That style comes across in the lyrics but also in the manner in which he performs the song, vocally, and when on stage, visually. The 1977 album is filled with this sort of thing where Ray demonstrates all kinds of delivery based on the lyrics...and since Ray is his own music arranger he decides how the songs will sound, instrumentally, as well as how the songs will be sung (tempo) even with songs that he didn't write. What are the 10 tracks on this marvelous 1977 album? "<i>Dixie Hummingbird</i>" reached the country charts in 1977. It was the highest charting single release from the album and therefore, in hindsight, it's referred to as the main release from the album. The single reached the Top-50 on the national country music charts but it ranked among the Top-40 and Top-30 lists of specific markets. If you do in-depth research on a lot of Ray's single releases from the bulk of his career you'll find out real quick that he had a lot of presence/impact in specific regions (markets) throughout the Midwest, the South, and the Plains states but you'd perhaps never realize that if you simply looked at the national charts of Billboard or Radio and Records, for example. Sometimes these statistics of regional activity would be presented in sections of the trade magazines and titled 'Regional Breakouts'. What it meant is that you'd see a city listed and it would include that city/radio station's most requested or most played songs. A lot of the time each local radio station's playlist would contain single releases that had yet to make the "national charts". Ray was on these lists hundreds of times. Now, then...here are the 10 tracks on the 1977 <b>Feel the Music</b> album. </div><div><br /></div><div>1. Feel the Music</div><div>2. Daydream Romance</div><div>3. Blues Love Affair</div><div>4. Alone With You</div><div>5. Junkie For You</div><div>6. Get Crazy With Me</div><div>7. Save Me From Myself</div><div>8. Road Widow</div><div>9. Set The Children Free</div><div>10. Dixie Hummingbird</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1995 when Warner Brothers released three compilation albums of Ray's recordings they included most of the songs from this 1977 album. The songs were spread out over the three compilation releases except tracks 5, 6, and 8. The titles of those 1995 releases were <b>Cornball</b>, <b>Do You Wanna Dance?</b>, and <b>The Serious Side of Ray Stevens</b>. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-9241082220637998392024-01-24T03:07:00.004-05:002024-01-24T03:07:59.563-05:00Ray Stevens: Happy Birthday to the Entertainment Legend<p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3uFyY_Ub5sjoBLVCri0ypd-1ZrGEFw4cF7c_4haWgKPLYjEb9MHdX7hTkcPD6QRsSLNQrqe-3NPJDct5Xb_jtgfvYme0SvM40UopW2-xTNK34Vva1j2JvCl2GxFCyQPTON4oQEZSQDKM9VHPjhg4di6ig4RbZsoPTUchG4R3ArDTvqAeL6bI4pOQr9wR/s523/RayStevens2022-MusiciansHall%20photo2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="348" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3uFyY_Ub5sjoBLVCri0ypd-1ZrGEFw4cF7c_4haWgKPLYjEb9MHdX7hTkcPD6QRsSLNQrqe-3NPJDct5Xb_jtgfvYme0SvM40UopW2-xTNK34Vva1j2JvCl2GxFCyQPTON4oQEZSQDKM9VHPjhg4di6ig4RbZsoPTUchG4R3ArDTvqAeL6bI4pOQr9wR/w152-h228/RayStevens2022-MusiciansHall%20photo2.JPG" width="152" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2022</td></tr></tbody></table>Happy Birthday greetings to the entertainment legend, Ray Stevens!! Born Harold Ray Ragsdale in Clarkdale, Georgia on January 24, 1939 the recording artist, record producer, musician, songwriter, music arranger, music publisher, comedy video star, and comedian is reaching 85 today! Oh yes, the legendary Ray Stevens reaches 85 and if you're as much a fan of Ray as I am then you already know about what lays ahead in 2024. The news broke several days ago that 2024 will be Ray's final full season of concerts at his <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. There will be a Valentine's Day concert in February but then the 2024 season will get underway in March. I wrote about the upcoming 2024 season several blog entries ago but it was prior to the news being released that this year will be his final full season of concerts. In numerous articles that have shown up online reporting on the news the one common statement in all of them are the quoted lines from Ray where he makes it clear that he isn't retiring...but that he is winding down his concert performances. He indicates that he'll continue to record songs (his studio is within the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> building) and that he's wanting to get back into production work of other recording artists. The photo of Ray that I chose to insert into the blog is from 2022. He's displaying his <b>Musicians Hall of Fame</b> plaque. It's a few minutes until 3am here locally and I'm almost certain that Ray's social media will have a birthday post which will invite hundreds of likes, shares, and comments. In birthday's past he'd post a video of his staff/crew presenting him with a single candle birthday cake...and being sung '<i>Happy Birthday</i>'. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In some of the quoted remarks from Ray that appear in the articles about the CabaRay he mentions that he'd been in show business/entertaining audiences since he was 15. When I read the quote I immediately thought of his years on Georgia radio while he was still in high school. If you look at the pictorial time-line off to the right of this page you'll see a photo of Ray and the radio microphone. This being 2024 and him reaching 85 today it's mind blowing to realize that Ray's been in entertainment, in one form or another, for 70 years, give or take a few months. There's still a few more years to go before we celebrate the 70th anniversary of his very first professional recording, "<i>Silver Bracelet</i>", from 1957...but Ray <i>is</i> officially in his 7th decade of recording (1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s). Oh, and what a way to celebrate an 85th birthday and 7 decades of recording by witnessing your most recent music video release nearing half a million unique views on YouTube. Ray Stevens is truly unique and one of a kind. Happy Birthday!!! </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilcc18etOd_MolhPwNTEuWJOI9MhyphenhyphenGTsuAgO-nZf-fXILu4DiyEUragJFX6D5YJ37fLMlI1ixfQxAJ-LkNSu-PtlFxS9J4zDiQGgu0TK09NkPrSaCPMWXdVpXaK9XUmyoiIIWvGGVKITeXc3A_6bu5L8zIZhYUpvPY715nEsX6DFVjnp8MZTo-xpaYwawM/s387/RayStevens2019-CMHOFplaque.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="281" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilcc18etOd_MolhPwNTEuWJOI9MhyphenhyphenGTsuAgO-nZf-fXILu4DiyEUragJFX6D5YJ37fLMlI1ixfQxAJ-LkNSu-PtlFxS9J4zDiQGgu0TK09NkPrSaCPMWXdVpXaK9XUmyoiIIWvGGVKITeXc3A_6bu5L8zIZhYUpvPY715nEsX6DFVjnp8MZTo-xpaYwawM/w273-h377/RayStevens2019-CMHOFplaque.JPG" width="273" /></a></div><p></p>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-85801539649737623102024-01-17T02:08:00.000-05:002024-01-17T02:08:15.131-05:00Ray Stevens and Ronnie Milsap: 1979 television appearance<div style="text-align: left;">Well, hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! How many of you have seen the 1979 made-for-TV movie called '<i><b>Murder in Music City</b></i>'? It was also released by the name '<i><b>Country-Western Murders</b></i>'. The full movie is on YouTube but yesterday Ray uploaded a clip of his cameo appearance along side Ronnie Milsap. The two are seated at a piano singing a song titled "<i>It's Only Temporary</i>". If I recall correctly this song was written by Ray for the movie but it's never appeared anywhere else. The movie originally aired on January 16, 1979 on NBC. The stars of the movie were Sonny Bono, Lee Purcell, Morgan Fairchild, Belinda Montgomery, Lucille Benson...it also featured Claude Akins. The plot of the movie had to do with Sonny's character (a songwriter) buying a detective agency but finds himself embroiled in a real murder mystery when he finds a body in a suite that he and his wife are staying in. When it was uploaded onto Ray's social media pages yesterday it happened to be Ronnie's birthday. This is the scene featuring Ray and Ronnie...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="319" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mhb0_fcQnXQ" width="384" youtube-src-id="Mhb0_fcQnXQ"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The TV movie also features cameo appearances by other country music performers: Charlie Daniels, Larry Gatlin, Mel Tillis, Barbara Mandrell, and Boots Randolph. The '<i><b>Murder in Music City</b></i>' 1979 television movie is often confused with another similar TV movie from 1979 titled '<i><b>Concrete Cowboys</b></i>' starring Jerry Reed and Tom Selleck. The two movies both have an ensemble cast and numerous cameo appearances by country music artists and to perhaps add more confusion each movie features appearances by main cast members from each movie (Claude Akins, Lucille Benson, Morgan Fairchild...as an example). In '<b><i>Concrete Cowboys</i></b>' the plot revolves around two cowboys who, in order to evade capture following a rigged card game, travel to Nashville, Tennessee and upon arrival they're mistaken for detectives. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-12935183617811124862024-01-09T02:46:00.000-05:002024-01-09T02:46:00.383-05:00Ray Stevens: CabaRay 2024 Season Information...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJkIlGKPGCi-RaTlqfqnipc2m873nX8RkgsOf8VDpEjMULWsih_u9Lxfxo29oaD3iosnBmBthV24XtQxDgnoB3_oKcPq0IMLfvUKyBJPgEomY3xXrCusE0PYmcSPmK7M6tKlPHhzzTeuxxBrden6RgRvQO_F5uWBdic1_RMmJBJGznY7QkPqVid2EtFUOs/s416/RayStevens-CMAmusicFest.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="416" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJkIlGKPGCi-RaTlqfqnipc2m873nX8RkgsOf8VDpEjMULWsih_u9Lxfxo29oaD3iosnBmBthV24XtQxDgnoB3_oKcPq0IMLfvUKyBJPgEomY3xXrCusE0PYmcSPmK7M6tKlPHhzzTeuxxBrden6RgRvQO_F5uWBdic1_RMmJBJGznY7QkPqVid2EtFUOs/w198-h162/RayStevens-CMAmusicFest.JPG" width="198" /></a></div>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! The 2024 concert season at the <b>CabaRay</b> showroom is scheduled to get underway on March 14th. However, there is going to be a special Valentine's Day concert from Ray on February 14th but the official concert season, as mentioned, won't get underway until March 16th. There will also be a secondary event taking place during the months of February and March. The <b>CabaRay</b> is hosting the <b><i>Indie Country Showdown</i></b> beginning February 15th and lasting until March 14th. It's an intense talent contest where finalists will be judged on their performances and, from a field of 15 finalists at the start of the competition, judges will narrow down the field of finalists week by week until an eventual champion is determined on March 14th. If you visit Ray's <b>CabaRay</b> <a href="https://raystevenscabaray.showare.com/" target="_blank">webpage</a> you'll see the 2024 calendar. Something you'll notice is that Ray, unlike last year, will perform two concerts per week early in the season rather than appearing only on Saturday evenings. The additional concert day is Thursday and the first Thursday concert from Ray at the <b>CabaRay</b> in 2024 is March 21st and he'll maintain the 2 concert schedule until April 25th. Then, from the month of May through September, he'll perform at the <b>CabaRay</b> on Saturday evenings only and then he'll return to the 2 concert schedule in October. I'll be writing a <b>CabaRay</b> concert promo blog entry, one per month as usual, highlighting the concert schedule. If you're familiar with those particular blog entries I title them using the month of the year... for example.. Ray Stevens: March CabaRay Concerts. I'll more than likely write a blog entry late in February promoting the upcoming <b>CabaRay</b> concerts for the month of March or I could wait until March gets here.. <div><br /></div><div>I've written about this song/performance before but I thought I'd share it again. The performance from Ray on <i><b>Larry's Country Diner</b></i> of "<i>The Gambler and the Octopus</i>". As an example of how one never knows which video uploads will strike a chord that particular YouTube upload of Ray's performance has gotten over 145,000 unique views since being uploaded a little more than 6 months ago. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="328" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KxwPtP5FZ_0" width="395" youtube-src-id="KxwPtP5FZ_0"></iframe></div></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-29037331813469450442024-01-07T03:34:00.003-05:002024-01-07T03:34:23.793-05:00Ray Stevens: A Memoir Turns 10...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6D-6fyNg0unbNDQlOmFUORyHhtYyzcx_Yu8QPfji2bAa-YdIW9J3LZsp8z3I17amo2VIr6EprUv3ug7X_s4NqFmDareRRuF2zRowZzmAxG9IV5uBNtdQBUfUEgmCNV285zCsMA66F0nS-7h0gV6DhqhWxqJHTNdUM_mYnUAMdCrRfhYkAh9LhZOu_oFdL/s498/RayStevens2014-Memoir.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="342" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6D-6fyNg0unbNDQlOmFUORyHhtYyzcx_Yu8QPfji2bAa-YdIW9J3LZsp8z3I17amo2VIr6EprUv3ug7X_s4NqFmDareRRuF2zRowZzmAxG9IV5uBNtdQBUfUEgmCNV285zCsMA66F0nS-7h0gV6DhqhWxqJHTNdUM_mYnUAMdCrRfhYkAh9LhZOu_oFdL/w173-h251/RayStevens2014-Memoir.JPG" width="173" /></a></div>Well, hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens and welcome to 2024. We're seven days into the New Year and so I decided that I'd start off this year of blog entries by spotlighting Ray's 2014 memoir. A 10 year anniversary later this summer for <b><i>Ray Stevens' Nashville</i></b>, a memoir, that Ray authored with the help/assistance of Buddy Kalb. The book's editor is Don Cusic and there's 27 chapters in the book plus an Epilogue and index. It was a self published book. In the opening pages of the softcover copy, which is what I have, there's a credit for Clyde Publishing. However, if you search for the book online you'll see a credit for Father and Son Publishing and whenever I see that credit it's associated with the hardcover copy. It may be a situation where they published the hardcover and Ray published the softcover...if so that would be something unique. The same publisher is usually for both formats (hardcover and softcover). There are photographs from practically every era in Ray's career featured in the book. A lot of the photos had appeared online and come from photo sessions for album covers but there are several photos that could be classified as private/personal that had never been publicly viewed until being published in the memoir. When the news broke back in 2013 and into 2014 that a memoir from Ray was going to be published I immediately thought to myself '<i>what took him so long?</i>'. He had made Nashville, Tennessee his home since 1962 and had experienced a lot of things...seen the technology in the recording studios and the overall music industry itself grow and become an enormous empire. <div><br /></div><div>He was there when Music Row was a small, somewhat serene area in downtown Nashville where major recording studios were actually inside buildings that resembled houses and in one case, a Quonset hut, rather than multi-story, tinted window skyscrapers. It was a Music Row where songwriters, personally, pitched songs to music publishers or to the artist themselves or where songwriters slipped their songs to people who had contacts within the music industry...and from there the song made it's way up and down Music Row with the hopes from it's writer(s) that a publisher would take it and pitch it to a recording artist or to an artist's record label, record producer, or agent. The most common way for a writer to potentially get their song to a recording artist is to become employed by any number of music publishing companies. If you're a writer for a music publisher then chances are whatever you write will make it's way to the recording studios. <div><br /></div><div>Ray, at various moments in the memoir, reminds us that when he was coming up in the music industry Nashville had the reputation of being a 'country music town' but he offers plenty of first hand experience from his years as a session musician and music arranger that a lot of pop music was being recorded in Nashville, too. Ray also tells the reader that a microphone or a music instrument doesn't know that it's country, pop, soul, or whatever...it's all based on the music arranging. A piano can be played soft or loud...can accompany a country singer or a pop singer. A recording studio's walls doesn't dictate what type of music can be created there. Although the sentiments I just mentioned come up a few times throughout the book most of that kind of Nashville reputation reflection from Ray comes from the chapter in the book titled 'A Piano Man in a Guitar Town'. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>When the memoir was published in the summer of 2014 there was a lot of print publicity surrounding the release. Ray went on a book signing tour...traveled to various local book stores and signed copies and took photos with those that stopped by. One of the publicity efforts occurred on June 22, 2014 at the Nashville Public Library. It was there that Ralph Emery conducted an interview with Ray about the memoir. The event was titled 'That Nashville Sound'. Billboard magazine did a spotlight on the memoir a few months after it was released. The promo appeared in the October 17, 2014 issue. Rolling Stone also did a promo for Ray's memoir. Their promo appeared online in June of 2014. I've posted this collage before but I'm posting it again given that the blog entry centers around Ray's memoir and that his production/session work behind the scenes plays a vital role in his career. Ray Stevens, over the decades, at the recording console in his recording studio. Since Ray arranges his own recordings the music you hear on each of his albums is all under his supervision. He decides the instrumentation for every track. You can purchase Ray's memoir when you click <a href="https://shop.raystevens.com/ray-stevens-nashville-book" target="_blank">HERE</a>. The link will take you to Ray's official website store...the product page for the memoir.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSsT5oavst8w2YphOrVZcT-914rCzGaKydNTlZtkEx-rHKzaLwu5bHB91ulTw0P7eZXiPTWFfzWI7QamA3Odx6cf5PMAVVtZLif33AC6bkBANve9ytLd72Nbl8xLy40p-bQ8qA9uwgDvvQlalOd-e8AWcnAVr-wbbJg53Suu9B9mXEzymj0QjUeAn9S7tl/s409/RayStevensRecordingConsoleCollage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="409" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSsT5oavst8w2YphOrVZcT-914rCzGaKydNTlZtkEx-rHKzaLwu5bHB91ulTw0P7eZXiPTWFfzWI7QamA3Odx6cf5PMAVVtZLif33AC6bkBANve9ytLd72Nbl8xLy40p-bQ8qA9uwgDvvQlalOd-e8AWcnAVr-wbbJg53Suu9B9mXEzymj0QjUeAn9S7tl/w391-h341/RayStevensRecordingConsoleCollage.JPG" width="391" /></a></div></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-38279414957574962912023-12-30T20:00:00.000-05:002023-12-30T20:00:29.020-05:00Ray Stevens and the Upcoming New Year...2024<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjv1TyO8oMFQqDusjT_fJUA7hrMmGaePvvnnMAQMG0MP3GABiuDlc2gksO1h02wXadfIz_e5XTIiKsyDbfg-NRpPLmXvn66zokLJax7xrzdpcQFv193BoXwDt1uKXt4rCQZfUTak4xFDqWZbA5VfEMkul57kvgGNj9dl9wnDiOfrNudXq74v3eyOEdAee/s407/RayStevens2023-%20SinceBubbaChangedHisNameToCharlene.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="407" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjv1TyO8oMFQqDusjT_fJUA7hrMmGaePvvnnMAQMG0MP3GABiuDlc2gksO1h02wXadfIz_e5XTIiKsyDbfg-NRpPLmXvn66zokLJax7xrzdpcQFv193BoXwDt1uKXt4rCQZfUTak4xFDqWZbA5VfEMkul57kvgGNj9dl9wnDiOfrNudXq74v3eyOEdAee/w181-h172/RayStevens2023-%20SinceBubbaChangedHisNameToCharlene.JPG" width="181" /></a></div>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! It's getting that time of the year where I write a blog entry focusing on my predictions for the upcoming new year in the career of Ray Stevens. As we come to an end to 2023 it was a year where Ray kept himself the busiest performing concerts at his <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. There were a few departures from this, however, as earlier in 2023 Ray's episode of <b>Songs at the Center</b> was taped. The series, which is syndicated on local PBS stations, didn't have a national air-date for Ray's episode and so fans had to look up the series and, first, see if a local PBS affiliate in their area was airing the show and, second, which day and time featured the episode guest starring Ray Stevens. The episode began showing up on local PBS stations in the summer of 2023 (June/July) yet prior to this he was a guest on local Nashville entertainment programming. In March 2023 he was interviewed on local Nashville television station, WTVF, in the newscast's <b>Talk of the Town</b> segment. The appearance was to promote the 2023 concert season at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. Ray appeared in another interview in April 2023 on <b>Today in Nashville</b>, a lifestyle/entertainment program on WSMV, to promote the 2023 concert season at the <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom. In the fall of 2023 a couple of news items pertaining to Ray made headlines. The first, reported in August, was a news article about Ray putting up his Belle Meade residence for sale. <div><br /></div><div>This bit of news came as a half-surprise, to me, considering that he moved into the house not too long ago. I looked in the archives and re-discovered news reports from June 2016 which told of Ray purchasing the property...and the amount he purchased it for in 2016 is 4 times less than the amount of his 2023 selling price. I hadn't seen any news reports indicating that the property is sold, as of this writing, so I'm guessing it's still on the market. The reason I said that the news was half-surprising is the sheer size of the house is extravagant for a couple (<i>14 rooms which includes 5 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms of various size</i>) but given that we don't know much about his personal life he may had members of his extended family (nieces, nephews, grandkids, etc.) living on the property, too. As many of you know Ray lost his wife of 60 years to cancer on New Year's Eve 2021 and so I don't know if that played a factor in his decision to put his house up for sale or not. The second headliner of the fall of 2023 in the career of Ray Stevens arrived in October...</div><div><br /></div><div>On October 5, 2023 the music video, "<i>Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene</i>", was uploaded onto YouTube and other video hosting sites. The song had been familiar to us Ray Stevens fans since the latter half of 2022 when he premiered it on an episode of <b>Larry's Country Diner</b>. As with practically anything it took an official music video to create some awareness for the song. On YouTube the video became an immediate hit...to date it sits with nearly half a million unique views. On Twitter, now known as X, the video soared past 1,000,000 views within two days. When you visit the Twitter/X site and look up the video you'll see the 1M view statistic posted underneath the video box. There isn't any way to find a specific number, though...only that it's been by more than a million people. On YouTube, in comparison, you can see the exact number of views posted under the video box. </div><div><br /></div><div>Curb Records issued an audio recording of the song and the publicity photo is what you see at the top of this blog entry. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the upcoming New Year I'm hoping, and I'm sure the rest of you are also hoping, that some new albums are released. There are several songs that have been put on social media from Ray that, to date, have no official album to call home. "<i>Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene</i>" is just one of those. The others are "<i>Where Are All the 12 Year Old's?</i>", "<i>Cup Holders</i>", "<i>It's My Job</i>", and "<i>The More You Cry</i>". In the past a total number of five songs would make up half of a 10 song album. </div><div><br /></div><div>Also in the New Year, January 24th to be specific, Ray will celebrate a birthday. I'll hold off posting about the upcoming birthday until we get closer to that date. Happy early New Year's!! If I don't post anything tomorrow I'll definitely post on the first day of 2024. </div><div><br /></div><div>I leave you with a look at super talent Ray Stevens at the console during various points in his recording career... </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1XGQZbWA2pcR_UzfwyoRhMgXubE0c2_pqJtvd1zK9D5opBUzblwAays8Zn6QUU0P4xqQIDOn0kE01g_vHJidiaTsWcTxmXVkMoMXbrDPwcZqepNVOX0R1g03vBABNdJMpFdKi2czgB-pdu_OX9Uy4wLlDLh__EdwuYbYMfL-fVst0tlNysLi1yPNvu61/s409/RayStevensRecordingConsoleCollage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="409" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1XGQZbWA2pcR_UzfwyoRhMgXubE0c2_pqJtvd1zK9D5opBUzblwAays8Zn6QUU0P4xqQIDOn0kE01g_vHJidiaTsWcTxmXVkMoMXbrDPwcZqepNVOX0R1g03vBABNdJMpFdKi2czgB-pdu_OX9Uy4wLlDLh__EdwuYbYMfL-fVst0tlNysLi1yPNvu61/w375-h327/RayStevensRecordingConsoleCollage.JPG" width="375" /></a></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-25876092748532466652023-12-23T01:59:00.002-05:002023-12-23T01:59:43.390-05:00Ray Stevens: The Christmas Time of the Year<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! The Christmas season at the CabaRay showroom wrapped up last weekend and the showroom will be closed until December 26th. There are two more concerts scheduled to wrap up 2023. Those additional concerts from Ray Stevens will take place on December 29th and December 30th. There won't be a New Year's Eve show and I'm sure most of you may have some kind of idea of why. In case you're not aware it was on New Year's Eve (December 31, 2021) that Ray's wife of 60 years passed away from cancer. Although I've not been able to find any information online to confirm my opinion, and it's just <u>my</u> opinion, I'd say that in tribute to her he made the decision to forgo future New Year's Eve concerts and so there wasn't one, obviously, in 2021 and there wasn't one in 2022 and there isn't going to be one in 2023. In 2024 Ray will have the Indie Country Showdown scheduled to take place at his CabaRay on select dates early next year. Ray's first concert of 2024 at the CabaRay will be early in March. If you're planning on attending any Ray Stevens concerts at the CabaRay in 2024 the tickets are on sale. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: red;">It's the Christmas time of the year...we're two days from the holiday. Have you spotted Santa Claus anywhere? If so, was he watching you? Maybe you'll see Santa Sunday night...and as for this music video nearly 6 million have seen it on YouTube over the course of the last 14 years. It was uploaded in 2009 for those that don't want to do the math. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mER2fGuSqF8" width="321" youtube-src-id="mER2fGuSqF8"></iframe></div><br /><span style="color: red;">Ray's first ever music video just happened to be his 1985 rendition of "<i>Santa Claus is Watching You</i>". The song, which Ray originally recorded and wrote in 1962, received an almost entirely different set of lyrics. Actually, 99 percent of the lyrics were re-written in the 1985 rendition with the exception of the song's title and hook lines such as "he's everywhere! he's everywhere!" and the exaggerated list of Santa's reindeer. The 1985 rendition has a love song overall theme whereas the 1962 recording was strictly aimed at children. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you own any of the Ray Stevens Christmas albums? In this day and age it may sound old fashioned to ask such a thing when any one of us can easily visit YouTube, for example, and search for songs and albums and immediately have the ability to listen. So, then, do any of you have any of Ray's Christmas songs or albums in your audio library? If you do are they the comedy Christmas songs or do you also have the non-comical Christmas songs in your audio library, too? To date he's recorded three Christmas albums. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">1. Christmas Through a Different Window; 1997 (all comedy)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">2. Ray Stevens Christmas; 2009 (non-comedy)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">3. Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me; 2016 (comedy and non-comedy)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">"<i>Bad Little Boy</i>", which you'll see/hear in the video below, comes from the 1997 Christmas album. This performance is from The Statler Brothers Show. In the late 1990s Ray had a Christmas concert series at Opryland's Acuff Theater and as you all could imagine it was tied to the 1997 album. If you were listeners of the Grand Ole Opry's radio programs at that point in time you may remember that Ray's Christmas concerts were promoted on-air. How? Well, his series acted as a sponsor of several Opry segments. You would've heard one of the Opry announcers say something like "...and this portion of the Opry is presented by the Ray Stevens Christmas Show at the Acuff Theater in Opryland..." followed by more information about his concerts. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="256" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SuquMpYH74Q" width="308" youtube-src-id="SuquMpYH74Q"></iframe></div></b><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div>Wasn't that fun? Now, getting back to the Christmas albums... the first Christmas album features original songs. The second Christmas album contains an original, "<i>Deck The Halls with Teardrops</i>", with the remainder of the album being his arrangements of Christmas standards. On the third Christmas album it features a couple of original songs, some Christmas comedy songs, and some Christmas standards. The original songs, "<i>Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me</i>" and "<i>Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)</i>", appear on the third Christmas album but it also includes his rendition of Mariah Carey's "<i>All I Want For Christmas Is You</i>", his rendition of the Spike Jones classic, "<i>All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth</i>", and "<i>Merry Christmas</i>", a song that until the 2016 Christmas album came along was only available as an audio track online and in music video format. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">The music video of "<i>Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me</i>" has gotten just a little under half a million unique views on YouTube, so far. However, I'm sharing his performance of the song from his TV show, CabaRay Nashville. All of you fans of Ray Stevens have a Merry Christmas. I'm sure I'll make another post before the end of the year. I typically post a look ahead to the New Year blog entry at some point. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="312" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cv7fMhhh-T8" width="375" youtube-src-id="Cv7fMhhh-T8"></iframe></div></span></b></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-36105483007580702282023-12-10T10:50:00.000-05:002023-12-10T10:50:08.209-05:00Ray Stevens: Year-End Spotify Stats...<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-HgIeBbVOlQAVyqxzUKuBV3_W9VEiHy7C16va1qv4EPZ4RgeYeDE6dYKbJMgZzSKlfyjD8hW8h50cnGf_PopmjyB-fkrn1nQvat15uSr_L7NcELOswu5qj6G2fU0zgGCFVs27m1Z86D3Ciyba96luIlKBqtS-Qez7P19-zy6Yo2iR-Pgld-DgPU7WlSr8/s324/RayStevens-CabaRayStage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="324" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-HgIeBbVOlQAVyqxzUKuBV3_W9VEiHy7C16va1qv4EPZ4RgeYeDE6dYKbJMgZzSKlfyjD8hW8h50cnGf_PopmjyB-fkrn1nQvat15uSr_L7NcELOswu5qj6G2fU0zgGCFVs27m1Z86D3Ciyba96luIlKBqtS-Qez7P19-zy6Yo2iR-Pgld-DgPU7WlSr8/w224-h169/RayStevens-CabaRayStage.JPG" width="224" /></a></div>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! I usually try to spotlight this each year and with my busy work schedule this time of the year I don't know if I've mentioned this bit of news, yet, but I'm making mention of it now. Several days ago the music streaming service, Spotify, released their annual statistics on all of the recording artists on that platform. It's officially called Spotify Wrapped but I choose to describe it with simpler terminology and call it the Year-end Spotify Stats. </span><span style="color: red;">I don't know if you're like I am but I don't get specific when it comes to online music. Some people are very precise in their definitions but I use words interchangeably. For example: I often use the phrase 'online music' to describe any type of audio that's available to be played online. Now, other people out there, may get more specific and use phrases like 'streaming music', 'digital downloads', 'audience impressions', etc. Whatever word or phrase you use it's all the same to me...and on Spotify it's rewarding to see that Ray continues his consistent pattern and in fact gets a lot of exposure by way of modern technology. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I point that particular fact out because it's very easy, or I should say, for a lot of people it's easy for them to push Ray into some sort of pre-determined category and ignorantly declare that the only people who listen to his music are those who "cling to vinyl, guns, use rotary phones, have rabbit ears on their TV sets, and haven't ventured into the current century". Yes, believe it or not, there are some snide, crass critics (both professional and self-appointed) who are prone to making those kinds of ignorant, loathsome remarks and so when Spotify releases the year-end review, and being a big fan of Ray Stevens as I happen to be, it's fun to take the attitude of '<i>Ha! Ha! In your face, critics!</i>'. </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">This particular year-end Spotify stats show us that Ray's songs received 5.5 million streams. In the listeners category they have Ray with 990.4K (in the range of 990,400 +). Hours spent listening, total, to Ray's songs in 2023 on Spotify is 287.9K (that's nearly 290,000 hours!). A total of 178 countries accessed the music of Ray Stevens on Spotify in 2023. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Now, then, how's all of that to bring a year to a close? Also, don't forget, there are still Christmas at the CabaRay concerts going on for the rest of the month. There are concerts on Thursday and Saturday. Search online for 'Ray Stevens CabaRay' for more information. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0rByyEplFRXTE1NugRYDnMkcGaTmBuQqxq1MvBXXdUtA34H6inT2MahBPk8ZezHHg29abEYCXr4BHnEUcTj2p_T0AyGCxTHGh8KdHDoJJZ3Y-hS32qMFClEt9qNre8bYRletE-oaTNgFNOGKop55y51B3R-gqXdPmvsbnHxd5ZMhQTWHblliE664dfhfR/s723/RayStevens2010-ScreenCap.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="723" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0rByyEplFRXTE1NugRYDnMkcGaTmBuQqxq1MvBXXdUtA34H6inT2MahBPk8ZezHHg29abEYCXr4BHnEUcTj2p_T0AyGCxTHGh8KdHDoJJZ3Y-hS32qMFClEt9qNre8bYRletE-oaTNgFNOGKop55y51B3R-gqXdPmvsbnHxd5ZMhQTWHblliE664dfhfR/w395-h226/RayStevens2010-ScreenCap.JPG" width="395" /></a></div></span></b></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-30572975950059741232023-12-08T23:53:00.000-05:002023-12-08T23:53:09.073-05:00Ray Stevens: Early '90's "Santa Claus is Watching You" performance...<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Hello fans of Ray Stevens!!! </span><span style="color: red;">I don't know if too many of you recall seeing Ray perform "<i>Santa Claus is Watching You</i>" on The Family Channel in the early 1990s or not. I remember watching it on TV the night it aired. It was a television special starring various recording artists synonymous with Branson, Missouri. Ray was very synonymous with Branson in that time period...he was one of the Top-10 attractions during his 3 season stay (1991, 1992, 1993). If you look closely he was probably among the Top-3. </span><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Ray performs "<i>Santa Claus is Watching You</i>" with the added assistance of Yakov Smirnoff and Janice Copeland. Ray's Branson concerts featured Janice Copeland as a comical co-star and as a featured vocalist. If you have Ray's VHS titled 'More Ray Stevens Live!' you'll see her as a serious vocalist but then you'll see her as a comical alter ego, Beulah. She was also in the 'Ray Stevens Live!' VHS, too. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">You're going to love seeing this early 1990's performance and if you remember that era in Ray's career it'll immediately send you into a time warp. Country Road TV uploaded this early 1990's television performance. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="305" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/trsIepBeEQg" width="367" youtube-src-id="trsIepBeEQg"></iframe></div></b></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-44919515390376657812023-12-03T12:23:00.001-05:002023-12-03T12:23:19.991-05:00Ray Stevens: Music Country at 50<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga1UeT80rD08JqHrs88u6COMPZqc1etPem70mEs44KcYGy6B9884t4SLjpZF8AZFRDZAxQt3b033uex99ZyybdhqeGAalEZ7MAMIKL4vNeuOkukQBpFUe4E4qfShW4qTTgZQLLUE5VUYygFHykZCMQ8BCY3JmWSDuOn1KXaNKuwoTHXfSm5AOyqBnA2rMu/s459/RayStevens1973-NashvilleCassette.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="291" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga1UeT80rD08JqHrs88u6COMPZqc1etPem70mEs44KcYGy6B9884t4SLjpZF8AZFRDZAxQt3b033uex99ZyybdhqeGAalEZ7MAMIKL4vNeuOkukQBpFUe4E4qfShW4qTTgZQLLUE5VUYygFHykZCMQ8BCY3JmWSDuOn1KXaNKuwoTHXfSm5AOyqBnA2rMu/w162-h255/RayStevens1973-NashvilleCassette.JPG" width="162" /></a></div>Earlier in the year I highlighted the 50th anniversary of Ray's 1973 album, <b>Nashville</b>. Off to the right is a cassette copy showing the record company, Barnaby, and the distributor, MGM, on the cover. When writing that blog entry I don't recall if I made mention of Ray's appearance on the summer replacement show of Dean Martin. The summer show, <b><i>Dean Martin Presents Music Country</i></b>, ran during the summer of 1973. Online data indicates that Ray appeared on this show in July 1973...and there's a magazine advertisement that was circulated at the time promoting Ray's upcoming appearance. The ad promoted not only the upcoming television appearance but also promoted the fact that Ray would be singing his current single, "<i>Nashville</i>". Dean's summer show aired on NBC-TV. Now, as we're several weeks away from 2023 turning to 2024, a question forms in my mind: <i>is there any footage of Ray's performance of "Nashville" from Dean Martin's summer show</i>? When you look up information about the July 1973 episodes of that particular series you don't get too much information beyond what seems to be a randomly selected list of guest stars. If I recall correctly the magazine advertisement stated something along the lines of: "Stop! Look! Listen...to Ray Stevens as he sings his new hit, Nashville, on Dean Martin Presents Music Country on NBC-TV". Now, that's going from memory, I'm sure it's not word for word accurate. I've touched on this several times over the years that I've had this fan created blog page up and running and it's the lack of Ray Stevens footage on video hosting sites. I should be more specific, though. The lack of footage from variety shows that we, as fans, know that he guest starred on in his career. Ray's official social media pages has a lot of footage, obviously, but even their library of appearances isn't complete. <div><br /></div><div>Now, not counting the footage from the 1973 Dean Martin summer show, there are dozens of television appearances from everything from <b><i>Hee Haw</i></b> and <b><i>Pop! Goes the Country</i></b> to telecasts of the <b><i>Music City News Awards</i></b>, <b><i>Crook and Chase</i></b>, <b><i>Nashville Now</i></b>, and locally produced television programs that still haven't become available online. There is a 1991 episode of <b><i>Nashville Now</i></b>, for example, that Ray guest hosted but it has never surfaced on the internet...not even a clip or two, let alone the full episode. Am I impatient? Do I feel ungrateful for the things that <i>are</i> online? No, I'm thrilled and grateful for what's out there on the internet at the moment, I'm just impatient. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm a dedicated fan of Ray Stevens that yearns to see more and more footage. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-91566623350071336202023-11-27T12:38:00.004-05:002023-11-27T12:38:50.574-05:00Ray Stevens: CabaRay Christmas Concerts 2023<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As many of you may know it's Christmas season at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. The Christmas concerts began this past Saturday (November 25th) and they'll continue through December 30th. Also, as a reminder, a Thursday night concert has been added in addition to the usual Saturday night concert. November 25th and this coming Thursday, November 30th, are the first CabaRay Christmas concerts of the 2023 season. As we look ahead to the upcoming concert dates make sure to make note of these for the month of December:</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">December 2nd, 7th, 9th, 14th, and 16th will be the heaviest of the Christmas concerts leading up to the holiday. Ray will then take a break to celebrate Christmas with his family and will return for concerts on December 29th and December 30th. I don't know if those two concerts (the 29th being a Friday) will be a full Christmas show or if it'll be a regular concert with a few Christmas songs sprinkled throughout. In years past he kept the Christmas spirit for the entire month of December and so it's possible the concerts on the 29th and 30th will be Christmas dominated, too.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"><b>How many of you have seen Ray's music video, "<i>Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me</i>"? I'm sure most of you have seen it and watched it many times over the years. Did you know that it's nearing half a million unique views on YouTube? It was uploaded back on November 16, 2016 and as of this writing it's received 455,622 unique views. Could it push into the 500,000 level by the end of the year? It's anyone's guess but if you want to see it reach that level by year's end then you'll need to share the video with those who haven't watched the video yet. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="292" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5-YRolqy8uQ" width="351" youtube-src-id="5-YRolqy8uQ"></iframe></div></b></span></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-58488648274693772472023-11-27T00:32:00.001-05:002023-11-27T00:32:46.552-05:00Ray Stevens: 1995 'Cornball' CD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Hs4OymU0x7uA9LMBAOqOWWnMU_09feV7djRFvCTwfb-mkxRHNomaEPmRtSsNBPA1xV5_m1XIeRiR-1b13RqqKyNDWbNutgG8fg0eBjvGY-icYOnhEhTIUFPQVEzXRDwUPdTlbPAI1Sdp245Fro3hBUz6A5Y08PyTjWFSKrvQL1pSZPb2UijIBHv8_pqN/s332/RayStevens1977-9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="332" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Hs4OymU0x7uA9LMBAOqOWWnMU_09feV7djRFvCTwfb-mkxRHNomaEPmRtSsNBPA1xV5_m1XIeRiR-1b13RqqKyNDWbNutgG8fg0eBjvGY-icYOnhEhTIUFPQVEzXRDwUPdTlbPAI1Sdp245Fro3hBUz6A5Y08PyTjWFSKrvQL1pSZPb2UijIBHv8_pqN/w199-h192/RayStevens1977-9.JPG" width="199" /></a></div>Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! I came across a CD copy of the 1995 Warner Brothers CD, <b>Cornball</b>, for sale on eBay. The seller resides on the east coast. When I saw the CD listed on eBay it had me thinking, once again, of Ray's years on Warner Brothers (1976-1979) and how the Cornball CD isn't available for online listening like the other two compilation companion CD's happen to be. In 1995 the record company issued three compilations on Ray's years at the label: <b>Cornball</b>, <b>Do You Wanna Dance?</b>, and <b>The Serious Side of Ray Stevens</b>. The latter two CD's can be found either as digital downloads or are able to be heard on streaming sites. <b>Cornball</b>, for whatever reason, hasn't been as easily accessible. That particular CD collects ten of Ray's recordings during that mid to late '70s time period. In fact, all of the CD's showcase that time period, but because <b>Cornball</b> features his 1979 recording, "<i>I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow</i>", it's the one compilation from 1995 to feature each year he was with Warner Brothers: 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. How come? Well, "<i>I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow</i>" was Ray's only recording in 1979...meaning that the other two CD's focus on 1976, 1977, and 1978. <b>Cornball</b>, as an album title, is misleading. <div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNxc44BswMyysvMMZRAhiNe-Y8gCT1Nqc5E-RHfIdTArx5aPgQZE7KjgR-OpYcJupM4Hr6QRez2vDsPRxjo1ekPbF3_0fROutxEjt6MQQl9xl7ujkM7khPw2-2KD-3Tzy19FJ_4ld3IOZTxgUbB3_4hxIiGpyV2GyxgYo-XLJgNp2-QmN5oNGZM1b6E70/s348/RayStevens1978-SomethingOnYourMindFlipImage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="348" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNxc44BswMyysvMMZRAhiNe-Y8gCT1Nqc5E-RHfIdTArx5aPgQZE7KjgR-OpYcJupM4Hr6QRez2vDsPRxjo1ekPbF3_0fROutxEjt6MQQl9xl7ujkM7khPw2-2KD-3Tzy19FJ_4ld3IOZTxgUbB3_4hxIiGpyV2GyxgYo-XLJgNp2-QmN5oNGZM1b6E70/w192-h165/RayStevens1978-SomethingOnYourMindFlipImage.JPG" width="192" /></a></div>The title would have you believe that this CD is filled with humorous recordings and nothing else. The fact is that "<i>Cornball</i>" is the name of a song that Ray wrote...a love ballad...and it was originally released on his 1976 album, <b>Just for the Record</b>. There are three or, possibly, four, humorous songs on this ten track collection depending on what you might consider funny or comical. There's his two chicken clucking recordings as The Henhouse Five Plus Too titled "<i>In the Mood</i>" and "<i>Classical Cluck</i>". There's also the parody, "<i>I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow</i>". Those are the three, without a doubt, comical recordings. I've read vintage music essays of the 1950s and most of those consider "<i>One Mint Julep</i>" a comical/novelty song. That particular recording, track 7, comes from his 1978 album, <b>There Is Something On Your Mind</b>. It had been a hit in 1952 for the rhythm and blues group, The Clovers. That particular 1978 album is Ray's salute/tribute to the music of the 1950s. "<i>Money Honey</i>" and "<i>Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash</i>", tracks 4 and 8 on the 1995 CD, also come from that 1978 album. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I heard "<i>One Mint Julep</i>" for the first time on the 1995 compilation CD I didn't hear it as a humorous song...but apparently those who find it comical are those who know more about drinking alcohol than I do. </div><div><br /></div><div>The song is about a guy who has drank numerous mint juleps and has learned that, while under the influence, he's gotten himself into a relationship he didn't want. Music essayists and historians say the humor comes from a guy getting himself drunk by way of what's mostly a drink observed for special events (like the Kentucky Derby) and isn't what most would commonly want to get drunk on. </div><div><br /></div><div><u>Here is the <b>Cornball</b> track list</u>:</div><div><br /></div><div>1. In the Mood; 1976</div><div>2. I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow; 1979</div><div>3. You Are So Beautiful; 1976</div><div>4. Money Honey; 1978</div><div>5. Cornball; 1976</div><div>6. Dixie Hummingbird; 1977</div><div>7. One Mint Julep; 1978</div><div>8. Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash; 1978</div><div>9. Save Me From Myself; 1977</div><div>10. Classical Cluck; 1976</div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-82481411664513119922023-11-22T00:04:00.001-05:002023-11-22T00:04:52.828-05:00Ray Stevens: Festive Feast Fun<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! We're getting closer to Thanksgiving 2023...as I write this blog entry we're a little more than a half an hour away from the 22nd and then it'll be one more day until one of my favorite holidays of the year. Ever since I began this fan created blog I've often posted holiday-themed blog posts whenever we get near a major holiday. This year it's no different. We're nearing Thanksgiving and as in time's past I'm here to spotlight several audio tracks from Ray Stevens which go a long way at explaining why we're so thankful for his brand of music. It's not all comedy songs yet that's what a general public knows him for. The menu for our Thanksgiving will be what we usually have: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, homemade macaroni, chicken and noodles, pumpkin pies, dinner rolls, and some other items. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>One of the audio tracks I'm sharing in this blog entry is a 1975 recording by Ray of "<i>Lady of Spain</i>". If you have not heard his rendition of the pop standard then prepare to be entertained as Ray gives us a vocal impression of Fats Domino. When you listen you're going to hear Ray call out the name, Norman. The person he's referring to is the saxophone player, Norman Ray. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="212" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ebY-MRwXo6g" width="255" youtube-src-id="ebY-MRwXo6g"></iframe></div><br /><b>Now, after listening to that great rendition, wasn't it festive and fun?? As you can see from the video embed, "<i>Lady of Spain</i>" is from Ray's 1975 'Misty' album. That entire album, well, most of it, contains Ray's rendition pop music standards. The two original songs on that album were "<i>Sunshine</i>" and a song from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr. called "<i>Take Care of Business</i>". The album has other festive, up-tempo tracks, too: "<i>Deep Purple</i>", the previously mentioned "<i>Sunshine</i>", "<i>Cow-Cow Boogie</i>", and the title track, "<i>Misty</i>". </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>A year later, 1976, Ray found himself on the Warner Brothers label. He had been on the Barnaby Records label since 1970. Ray's first album release for Warner Brothers, 'Just for the Record', emerged months into 1976 and the lead-off single from that album was his up-tempo rendition of "<i>You Are So Beautiful</i>". Elsewhere on the album is another up-tempo, festive and fun track titled "<i>Can't Stop Dancin'</i>". That particular song would get covered by the pop music duo, Captain and Tennille. The duo gave the song a different arrangement and it sounds a bit different than how Ray recorded it. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="210" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rxYNbttAln0" width="252" youtube-src-id="rxYNbttAln0"></iframe></div><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>One of the up-tempo romps from a series of comedy albums Ray recorded for MCA Records in the mid to late 1980s came along in 1988 in the form of "<i>Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex</i>". As you may be able to guess from the song's title it's about the warnings that accompany movies that get shown on cable television. In this particular time period consumers were growing their entertainment options...cable television, once referred to as pay-TV, was becoming more and more accessible as part of a person's basic cable service. Satellite television was also a big thing...how many people remember driving around in their cars and seeing certain houses, usually in the wealthier side of town, with a huge dish antenna sitting in the front or back yard? The song on Ray's 1988 album satirizes cable/satellite television and delivers a comical point of view from a newly subscribed customer. The album from 1988 is titled I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. Listen for a veiled reference to Dr. Ruth within the recording. </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="233" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Tkniu1_6Eg" width="281" youtube-src-id="9Tkniu1_6Eg"></iframe></div></span></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-72220204151832019442023-11-20T00:20:00.001-05:002023-11-20T00:20:46.653-05:00Ray Stevens: Audio Diary 7<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OibJ4fuK7QE67BWGPA3uxJIMqhsblWttD5EJLf1PbCs77l8oDsAgZhWxx1UsHov6Igmtbnoq23hdcUMd8UbjZI_Q9beiWvJzyejTYeXbegEYdcgfGvodxfPz3UoTDySfq2CLwDFmcL_H9Lj5TlPVe7FBa36RgBZZ11SNpvNJKkJv5E4sPWDNqscbxAuk/s407/RayStevens2023-%20SinceBubbaChangedHisNameToCharlene.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="407" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OibJ4fuK7QE67BWGPA3uxJIMqhsblWttD5EJLf1PbCs77l8oDsAgZhWxx1UsHov6Igmtbnoq23hdcUMd8UbjZI_Q9beiWvJzyejTYeXbegEYdcgfGvodxfPz3UoTDySfq2CLwDFmcL_H9Lj5TlPVe7FBa36RgBZZ11SNpvNJKkJv5E4sPWDNqscbxAuk/w208-h197/RayStevens2023-%20SinceBubbaChangedHisNameToCharlene.JPG" width="208" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2023</td></tr></tbody></table>Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! I know that most of you have probably heard what I call the recent recordings from Ray. The recordings, to date, have not appeared on any album yet. As mentioned in some of my other blog entries the recent recordings have either become available as stand alone digital downloads or as audio tracks on several streaming sites but there hasn't been a full album released where those songs can call a home. The image you see of Ray is strictly for promotional/publicity purposes. If any compact disc release is forthcoming I doubt that particular pose will grace the album cover but it may be included should a CD be released with a fold out. In this day and age you have to always wonder if a CD will be released considering how a massive amount of people get their music through online streaming and it's only a small amount of people that prefer compact disc purchasing. The recent recordings from Ray are: "<i>Where Are All The Twelve Year Olds?</i>", "<i>You're the Cup Holder of My Life</i>", "<i>The More You Cry</i>", and "<i>Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene</i>". In this seventh installment of the Audio Diary series of blog posts I'm going to include the audio tracks of a couple of those recent recordings. I won't be including any video embeds, though. In this particular blog entry I'm going to share clickable links to the YouTube audio tracks. Why? Well, the reason for that is I don't want to have three video embeds stacked on top of one another. Some will probably say to themselves: "oh, wow, he doesn't want three video embeds stacked on top of each other but he'll stack three links on top of one another...". True, that's what I'm going to do, because visually I think it looks more better using links. The two audio track I'm including are shown below...<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTcNF2MVT04&pp=ygUqcmF5IHN0ZXZlbnMgd2hlcmUgYXJlIGFsbCB0aGUgMTIgeWVhciBvbGRz" target="_blank">Where Are All The Twelve Year Olds?</a> <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvGa8t9JIcg&pp=ygUWcmF5IHN0ZXZlbnMgY3VwIGhvbGRlcg%3D%3D" target="_blank">You're The Cup Holder of My Life</a> <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Those audio tracks come from Ray's appearance on <b><i>Larry's Country Diner</i></b> on RFD-TV. There's an audio of his performance of "<i>Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene</i>" from Larry's show, too, but when it comes to that particular recording I prefer to promote the official music video. I won't be posting it here since this blog entry is meant to focus on audio-only but in a future blog entry I'll be embedding the video and providing some updated unique video totals. I'm also going to include my review of the song...a review I posted over on Amazon but it hasn't been posted to their site yet. </div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-80663508551929277302023-11-05T01:23:00.000-04:002023-11-05T01:23:38.567-04:00Ray Stevens: Time Tested and Terrific<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJmykM0OUAtBquBB9rQcryocLu0r5nCXWagk0jF6Cj_nCbOIdSstwCyVA5x2h6acxTZj6XraY2Sy5skgt1jeVIeGC6UWTbl_zWyp_tshnHGY9qk23LzhTjLGiP8s90bEZg8k0CiNkMKRcKg-F3bPprNu7U94pWHBJr3idbNc9Ac2LrXtQVJD8cFxbYE67Q/s312/RayStevens2021-HoochieCoochieScreenCap.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="268" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJmykM0OUAtBquBB9rQcryocLu0r5nCXWagk0jF6Cj_nCbOIdSstwCyVA5x2h6acxTZj6XraY2Sy5skgt1jeVIeGC6UWTbl_zWyp_tshnHGY9qk23LzhTjLGiP8s90bEZg8k0CiNkMKRcKg-F3bPprNu7U94pWHBJr3idbNc9Ac2LrXtQVJD8cFxbYE67Q/w179-h208/RayStevens2021-HoochieCoochieScreenCap.JPG" width="179" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2021</td></tr></tbody></table>Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I know so many of you are well aware that in a couple of hours the clocks will fall back 1 hour at 2am. This will usher in the start of Standard Time which will run until March 2024 when we'll then set our clocks ahead 1 hour for Daylight Savings Time. Since most of you who read this fan created blog are fans of Ray Stevens then you'll more than likely agree with my sentiment that he's time tested and terrific. Ray is well into his 66th year as a recording artist/entertainer (1957 - present) and given that kind of longevity he's, as I wrote, time tested and terrific. As fans we know that he remains active in the recording studio as well as on the stage at his <b><i>CabaRay</i></b> showroom just west of downtown Nashville. There have been some new songs from Ray pop up from time to time since the latter half of last year but, so far, there hasn't been a release of any new album. As of this writing the last full length album Ray released came along in 2021, <b>Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore</b>. The lead music video, "<i>Hoochie Coochie Dancer</i>", got a lot of online notice on video hosting/video sharing social media sites. Another song from that particular album, "<i>Gas</i>", had been released as an audio track months earlier. There were several other songs on that 2021 comedy album that I felt should have gotten some official publicity, too.. one of them being "<i>Dis-Connected</i>" which focuses on online dating/online chat rooms. The album's title track, "<i>Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore</i>", strikes a chord with it's focus on a segment of society who want to erase anything and everything that they find questionable/offensive. In a similar topical vein there's "<i>Disorder Down on the Border</i>". <div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqIyE7Yb-6jzc_wVvAiydrLfI-fGiJ3k_kgTFGXRJ_fWHIoNEJhihufFkQxj84farSHXzL1Hi-dSyWvc0mFLqT3U_msr1MsUlq5AdtsicZRDnYH9T2b8XhPMhaLBfHzcXNupnzW0GneC2Kgmy8Va6M_b7MVNjMwa9-yWzEGfJdAUJZzGfcn6nr9pidAzk/s549/RayStevensBannerCollage-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="549" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqIyE7Yb-6jzc_wVvAiydrLfI-fGiJ3k_kgTFGXRJ_fWHIoNEJhihufFkQxj84farSHXzL1Hi-dSyWvc0mFLqT3U_msr1MsUlq5AdtsicZRDnYH9T2b8XhPMhaLBfHzcXNupnzW0GneC2Kgmy8Va6M_b7MVNjMwa9-yWzEGfJdAUJZzGfcn6nr9pidAzk/w374-h145/RayStevensBannerCollage-3.JPG" width="374" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time Tested and Terrific</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>As the banner collage above shows us... throughout time Ray Stevens has provided a smile and a lot of entertainment. Now, of course, sometimes things aren't always funny...there are plenty of times where Ray has shown the serious, somber, and reflective side in his music and in his demeanor. Where some may wonder how somebody can go from "<i>Everything is Beautiful</i>" to "<i>The Streak</i>", often back to back, within the same concert, it isn't much of a wonder to us. We appreciate all sides of Ray Stevens...even when he's being what we'd call super-serious. I don't know about other fans of Ray but I'd consider this one of those super-serious looks. Yes, there's a slight hint of a grin but it isn't the kind of grin often associated with him. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiX7igqYj9-RhVFsYvo__hq_EY_SKjNuskuF4_Pmd2mrrw7aayQw3o_JXuA58HavW5xzb0uh2HlUMuqVlyfWiFYR9BUb5eN1IR23GdO2VXZ7SVqEnK04Fqp2fTAT08dE1NbAaDb63jRmiUpehbUVfIzWVRxkDW4qiCAf2PNe9SzZWM9Js0tdke0rdgsGC9/s538/RayStevensPublicityPhoto.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="538" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiX7igqYj9-RhVFsYvo__hq_EY_SKjNuskuF4_Pmd2mrrw7aayQw3o_JXuA58HavW5xzb0uh2HlUMuqVlyfWiFYR9BUb5eN1IR23GdO2VXZ7SVqEnK04Fqp2fTAT08dE1NbAaDb63jRmiUpehbUVfIzWVRxkDW4qiCAf2PNe9SzZWM9Js0tdke0rdgsGC9/w206-h180/RayStevensPublicityPhoto.JPG" width="206" /></a></div>If my memory serves me correct I don't believe that there's an official color photo in existence of this pose. I've only seen this image in black and white. There's a longer photo that also exists...the full length photo shows Ray seated on a stool. The photo has appeared on a few compilation albums on Ray over the years. The compilations are associated with the RCA/BMG label and so it's been my theory that the photo originated at some point in the early 1980's during Ray's time on RCA (1979-1983). A compilation from 1990 titled <b><i>Everything is Beautiful and Other Hits</i></b> and another titled <b><i>The Last Laugh</i></b> from 1999 feature this image of Ray. When I mention official color photo at the start of this paragraph I'm making an assumption that the image used on the 2007 re-issue of <b><i>The Last Laugh</i></b> colorized the black and white photo of Ray. The only RCA recording on the 1999/2007 compilation is "<i>Shriner's Convention</i>" from 1980. If you look for the release online you'll come across comments criticizing the album's title. Their complaints stem from the album containing a mix of comedy and non-comedy recordings from Ray. Ironically, the compilation is titled <b><i>The Last Laugh</i></b> and yet the comedy song he recorded in 1980 titled "<i>The Last Laugh</i>", while with RCA, is not on the album. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of RCA.. in 1980 he recorded "<i>The Watch Song</i>". In this hilarious recording we hear the story of a man (played by Ray) who gets in a bar fight. Now, as we listen, it's made clear that the guy is beaten up yet he's more distraught over the fact that his wrist watch got destroyed in the fight. This causes the beaten up guy to go ballistic where he fatally wounds the opponent...and while sitting in prison awaiting his time to go to the electric chair he seeks the advice of newsman John Cameron Swayze throughout the song. Why? Well, John Cameron had also appeared in dozens of commercials for the Timex wrist watch company. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT7xKzPXXVk" target="_blank">LINK</a> to that 1980 recording from Ray Stevens. </div><div><br /></div><div>We're now less than an hour away from the fall back an hour time change...and here's an audio example of the time tested and terrific Ray Stevens asking "<i>Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?</i>".. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="317" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nZZvYgRrE1M" width="381" youtube-src-id="nZZvYgRrE1M"></iframe></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213029481684687385.post-69145259887087039922023-10-31T01:32:00.005-04:002023-10-31T01:32:53.345-04:00Ray Stevens: 12 All Time Greats cassette<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffa400;"><b>Trick or treat!! Oh yes, it's Halloween!!!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffa400;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">I decided to kick off this blog entry, as you can see, with Halloween/pumpkin coloring. However, this blog entry isn't entirely about any Halloween song from Ray Stevens, in particular, it's more about a rare treat I come across while browsing eBay a few minutes ago. While I was looking through the section listing cassette tapes I came across a release titled <b>Funny Man</b> with <b>12 All Time Great Greats</b> written across the top of the cassette cover art as you can see off to the right. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxn1i91FLwZjtUkAK8oWMBVFG4kVKfGV5q8L7KakLK-z3ue8wtcOiWzJxp78vT405NTf0cPd-GLiTJoyoA2pAb5LTKT13mzFxYssQfaTZevm0GtnxmfDK08Cs5AWknEtemPROISo6ccWLqlaD2gcs_Hsxmc-gzPJKoRJQbsjFhPjMZogYQzpp76kDOH8i/s544/RayStevensRareCassetteTape.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="362" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxn1i91FLwZjtUkAK8oWMBVFG4kVKfGV5q8L7KakLK-z3ue8wtcOiWzJxp78vT405NTf0cPd-GLiTJoyoA2pAb5LTKT13mzFxYssQfaTZevm0GtnxmfDK08Cs5AWknEtemPROISo6ccWLqlaD2gcs_Hsxmc-gzPJKoRJQbsjFhPjMZogYQzpp76kDOH8i/s320/RayStevensRareCassetteTape.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>The photo of Ray should be familiar to a lot of you. There have been a couple of CD releases on Ray that have used this photo or one very similar...both being taken, obviously, at the same photo session. Those similar looking photos appear on a few 3-CD collections...one titled The Incredible World of Ray Stevens. Anyway, this <b>12 All Time Greats</b> was released in 1996 on the MCA Special Products label. The track list appears to have been selected entirely at random...jumping from mid 1980s to late 1980s and back again. I highlight this because it's a rarity...so rare that even I had never known of it's existence until I came across it on eBay. There are 6 recordings per side...and if you're knowledgeable about Ray Stevens compilations you'll immediately notice the inclusion of recordings from 1988 and 1989. I highlight that due to the fact that most, but not all, but most compilation releases on Ray that have come along since the late 1980s and into the 1990s often omit recordings from his 1988 and 1989 albums. There's another compilation that came along titled <b>Legendary Ray Stevens</b>. It's track list, much like the one featured on <b>Funny Man/12 All Time Greats</b>, includes overlooked recordings from his MCA years. <b>The Legendary Ray Stevens</b> also contains 12 recordings and the bulk of those come from the latter half of the 1980s. I have no confirmation about this but it's my assumption that <b>Legendary Ray Stevens</b> and this <b>12 All Time Greats</b> are companion releases...although each title was released several years apart. <b>Legendary Ray Stevens</b> was released on MCA Special Products in 1994 and, as mentioned, <b>12 All Time Greats</b> was released in 1996. The similarities of both titles containing 12 recordings and that most of them come from that late 1980s time period leads me to believe they're companion releases. In case anyone has trouble reading the track list of the 1996 cassette here are the song titles:<div><br /></div><div>1. I Used To Be Crazy (1989)</div><div>2. Surfin' U.S.S.R. (1988)</div><div>3. Armchair Quarterback (1985)</div><div>4. Joggin' (1984)</div><div>5. Southern Air (1986; with Jerry Clower and Minnie Pearl)</div><div>6. Bad (1988)</div><div>7. I'm Kissin' You Goodbye (1984)</div><div>8. The Pirate Song (1985)</div><div>9. Punk Country Love (1985)</div><div>10. The Booger Man (1988)</div><div>11. Another Fine Mess (1989)</div><div>12. Ethelene The Truckstop Queen (1988)</div><div><br /></div><div>The track list of 1994's <b>Legendary Ray Stevens</b> is as follows:</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Mississippi Squirrel Revival (1984)</div><div>2. Erik the Awful (1984)</div><div>3. The Monkees (1984)</div><div>4. Stuck on You (1989)</div><div>5. There's a Star Spangled Banner (1989)</div><div>6. Would Jesus Wear a Rolex? (1987)</div><div>7. It's Me Again, Margaret (1984)</div><div>8. Your Bozo's Back Again (1989)</div><div>9. I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O. (1989)</div><div>10. The Flies of Texas (1987)</div><div>11. Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me (1987)</div><div>12. Gourmet Restaurant (1987)</div><div><br /></div><div>Track 10 on the 12 All Time Greats, "<i>The Booger Man</i>", is one of the recordings that is considered a Halloween song. There have been times in the past where, during various Halloween seasons, Ray would perform the song on various guest appearances on the <b><i>Grand Ole Opry</i></b>. Here's the 1988 recording from his comedy album <b>I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like</b>...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bmAmCXC8mdY" width="379" youtube-src-id="bmAmCXC8mdY"></iframe></div>ACcountryFanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14445878735424575807noreply@blogger.com0