Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville on YouTube E-6, S-1

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Yesterday evening Episode six, Season one of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville premiered on YouTube. As I often do I made a couple of comments in the live chat room that was available during the streaming of the show and I posted a comment in the main section below the video. On this episode the special guest is songwriter Bobby Braddock. Ray opened the show singing "There Must Be a Pill For This" from his 2015 comedy album, Here We Go Again!. If you've been watching these CabaRay Nashville episodes you should be familiar with the announcer, Bill Cody, using that phrase in his introduction. Sometimes he'll say "ladies and gentlemen, here we go again...". 

Ray and Bobby talk about the songwriting business and experiences in the music industry. They have a laugh when talking about how their primary music instrument is the piano, in Nashville, which has received the nickname of guitar town. Bobby mentions numerous songs that he's written and co-written. Some of the songs that he was involved in as a writer, but not mentioned in this appearance, were "You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith, Too" by The Statler Brothers; George and Tammy's duet, "We're Not The Jet Set"; Tammy's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E"; John Anderson's "Would You Catch a Fallen Star"; and many more. 

Bobby sings "He Stopped Loving Her Today", a song he co-wrote with Curly Putman and had become a massive award winning hit for George Jones. Bobby's songs were recorded by numerous recording artists and in my opinion George Jones recorded probably more songs from Bobby Braddock than other recording artists. Bobby wrote several songs that ended up on George Jones albums...and several that were single releases...long before "He Stopped Loving Her Today" appeared on George's 1980 I Am What I Am album. One of the earliest songs that George recorded from the pen of Bobby Braddock was the humorous 1973 single, "Nothin' Ever Hurt Me Half as Bad as Losing You". Bobby had a hand at writing "Golden Ring", which became a huge duet hit for George and Tammy. Bobby was also the writer of George's 1976 single, "Her Name Is...". 

Although he didn't make a career out of it Bobby did write his share of comical, amusing songs...some of them I previously mentioned plus he also wrote "Country Music Lover" which became a hit for Little Jimmy Dickens and the whimsical "Something To Brag About" which is most often recorded as a duet. George and Tammy recorded a version as did Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery. Willie Nelson and Mary Kay Place also recorded the song. 

In this episode of Ray's television show you'll see Ray and harmony singer, Sheri Copeland-Smith, perform "Golden Ring". She used to be part of the George Jones road show and she sang duets with George in concert. Ray closes the show with "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation". Given that the guest was a songwriter this episode tended to be more focused on the music industry and the behind the scenes goings on. Dick Feller was the writer of "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation" and it's a song that fits right in with the up-tempo, sung narration that can be found on other songs from the writer. Jerry Reed recorded numerous Dick Feller songs...and this closing song, when I first heard it years ago, made me think of Jerry Reed.  

Ray Stevens sings "The King is Gone and So Are You"...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! The latest performance video from Ray Stevens appeared on his social media Saturday morning in the form of "The King is Gone and So Are You". This humorous song originated in 1989 when it was released as a single by George Jones. I can't exactly say it originated in 1989 since I don't know when the song was written...but it was popularized by George Jones in 1989. The song's original title was "Ya Ba Da Ba Doo" but threats of a lawsuit from the owners of the Flintstone characters caused the song to receive a new title, "The King is Gone and So Are You". I've seen copies of the single with it's original name come up for sale online. 

Ray Stevens recorded his version of the song in 2012 for his 9-CD release, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The song's lyrics are humorous but the song itself is delivered seriously. George Jones recorded it seriously though at times he'd chuckle in certain moments in the song...and the music was traditional country. Ray sings it as a ballad, as George did, with a heavy use of country instrumentation. The main difference is the phrasing of the lyrics. Ray has a pop/crooning vocal delivery which influences his phrasing whereas George's voice and phrasing has country written all over the performance. 

The song is about a guy, upset about a woman having left him, spending the night drinking whiskey from a decanter that looks like Elvis. The guy pours his whiskey into a Flintstone jellybean jar. The absurdity of the scenario was intended to categorize it as a novelty song yet those that hear the song don't necessarily laugh...they usually shrug and think to themselves "Oh, I know a guy like that!!". This performance from Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. One of Ray's harmony singers, Sheri Copeland Smith, previously worked for the George Jones team. She and her husband, Barry Smith, toured with George for numerous years prior to her joining Ray's team.  

Ray Stevens: The guest appearance on The George Jones Show...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! A couple of days ago, on what would have been the 90th birthday of country music legend George Jones, Ray uploaded his appearances from The George Jones Show. George once hosted a television show on The Nashville Network for a season...it began airing in February 1998. The show's theme song was the title track of his 1997 album, It Don't Get Any Better Than This. George had a wide variety of country music artists on the show per episode...it was an informal gathering as you'll see in a screen cap I posted below...and in one of those episodes Ray Stevens was a special guest. Ray was on the same episode featuring T. Graham Brown and Allison Moorer. In the episode Ray speaks of his experiences getting into the music business. George spotlights a video clip from the early '60s of Ray singing "Ahab the Arab"...after at least half a minute Ray asks how much longer we're going to have to endure watching that. For the record, though, practically all recording artists in any form of music tend to not enjoy seeing themselves during earlier phases of their career and it can be for any number of reasons. Some tend to cringe at the fashions they wore, the hairstyle they had, or the performance itself. Some performers don't like to watch themselves no matter the time period...whether it be a performance from decades ago or just the other day. As a fan, I don't share the same sentiment as a lot of recording artists. I love seeing performances of my favorite singers from all time periods. I have a feeling most of you share the same feeling as I do...we love watching Ray Stevens no matter if it's a performance from 1961 or 2021. Ray sings "Too Drunk To Fish" on this episode of George's show and video clips from Ray's music video are inserted into the performance. The song is from Ray's 1997 album, Hum It. 

George's television show, as mentioned, began airing on TNN in February 1998...it was not a full length season of shows, however. It was on a trial run basis. I don't have the number of episodes available...but it was less than the usual 16 episodes or 26 episodes per season norm when it comes to television programming. There may have been 13 episodes produced for airing in 1998. Strangely enough there isn't any definitive information about George's television show online. There are video clips but I haven't come across any website that has a complete episode guide and airdates. Ray Stevens taped his appearance in the latter half of 1998 and it aired in the spring of 1999. I did find out that there were 11 episodes produced in the latter part of 1998 for airing early in 1999...and Ray Stevens was among the guests during the 1998 taping session. When I seen this episode of the show for the first time I was ecstatic and it was thrilling to see two of my all time favorites, Ray Stevens and George Jones, not only on screen together but actually conversing with one another!! Here's a screen cap of Ray and George...and from this screen cap as well as from the video you'll see how informal the conversation part of the show happened to be. The conversation part of the show, where the guests sat on couches, was always taped separately...without an audience. 

Ray Stevens: Bobby Braddock CabaRay Nashville performance...

On this August 5th Ray Stevens shared a video clip of a brief interview he conducted with songwriter Bobby Braddock from an episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. It's the 81st birthday of Bobby Braddock. In addition to the interview Bobby performs a keyboard accompanied rendition of "He Stopped Loving Her Today". Bobby wrote the song with Curly Putman. The song had an eventful history long before George Jones began recording it in 1978. It had been previously recorded by Johnny Russell in the original draft of the song. It wasn't until it became associated with George Jones that the narration and the verse about the woman coming back was added on by the songwriters. George is credited as the one that suggested the song was incomplete and that it needed some sort of closure. George began recording it at some point in 1978 but it wasn't completed until early 1980. Some historians say if you listen carefully you'll be able to detect a slight change in George's vocals at the beginning of the song compared to how he sounds in the second half of the song...both during and following the tenor solo by Millie Kirkham. I've never attempted to analyze the vocalization with that kind of detail but I'm sure there's a slight vocal change given it took more than a year and a half to get it fully recorded. 

One of Ray's harmony singers, Sherri Copeland, was part of the George Jones road show for many years. Ray mentions 6 and a half years. In the video performance she'll do the tenor solo that Millie Kirkham famously did on the 1980 George Jones recording. 

One of the recurring themes in songs that Bobby has written is quirkiness and subdued humor. Ray recorded one of Bobby's songs, "I Wanna Talk About Me", which had originally been recorded by Toby Keith. In the video you'll hear Bobby call it country music's first rap song. Ray recorded it in 2012. Some other Bobby Braddock songs with subtle humor are "Her Name Is...", "We're Not The Jet Set", "Something To Brag About", and then there's all out humor with "You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith, Too" and "Nothing Ever Hurt Me Half as Bad as Losing You". Bobby and Harlan Howard wrote "I Don't Remember Loving You". A much recorded song that Bobby wrote but has never been a hit is "I'd Rather Have What We Had". The song appeared on numerous country music albums in the early to mid 1980s but to this day it's never been released as an A-side single. John Conlee recorded it in 1981 and it appeared as the B-side of his 1982 single, "Busted". I guess "I'd Rather Have What We Had" is one of those type of songs that's considered good as an album track but not commercial enough as a single release. Here's Ray Stevens talking with songwriter Bobby Braddock and the performance of "He Stopped Loving Her Today".

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Mark Chesnutt

Happy early Sunday morning...well, it's early Sunday morning as I type this blog entry. I just finished watching Mark Chesnutt's episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. This particular episode began with Ray performing "The Streak", his massive hit from 1974. On the heels of the performance came Ray's introduction of Mark Chesnutt.



Ray starts things off by mentioning that Mark recorded a song from a writer that also happened to write one of his own hits, Paul Craft. In Ray's case it was "It's Me Again, Margaret" whereas in Mark's case it was "Brother Jukebox". Mark describes it being brought to his attention by the record company but he didn't want to record it because it had already been recorded by Keith Whitley (one of Mark's music heroes). However, Keith's recording wasn't issued as a single, and eventually Mark decided that since Keith didn't technically have a hit with it then that's when he decided to do it. Mark's recording was the second single released during his career and it hit number one.

During the conversation Mark mentions that he always wanted to do a song with a line asking a woman if she happened to be naked (referring to "It's Me Again, Margaret"). Ray suggests that he'd be happy to go into the studio and record Mark performing the song. Mark plays along and points out that Ray would have "to do the pervert part" (referring to Willard McBaine's giggle) which has Ray, Mark, and the audience howling with laughter. Ray composes himself and states that he may laugh like a pervert but Mark sings like a pervert...which causes more laughter...and Mark comes back with "well, I am a pervert...". It was a nice give and take banter that you normally do not see take place during the interview/talking segment of the program. Mark (lead vocals) and Ray (piano/harmony vocals) perform "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair".

Ray asks how Mark got acquainted with George Jones. Mark says that he first met George back in 1983. He says that he was part of a local band opening up for a concert George was going to do. Any other host/emcee would probably have been crass enough to ask if George shown up for it, given the era in George's career being spoken of, but Ray side-stepped that kind of a question. Afterward things get a bit too serious...some may say candid...but it began when Mark spoke of his father's dreams of becoming a country music artist. He said his father wrote a lot of good songs but things didn't work out due to family commitments. Ray says there's a fine line trying to balance family and life on the road and being part of the music business in general.

Mark tells of the day he decided to quit school and become a country music singer. He says his father didn't really try to stop him from quitting given the age factor of Mark being legally able to quit school if he wanted but he says the problems arose when he told his father that he wanted to try and become a country music singer in Nashville rather than Texas. The family lived in Texas and his father said that Mark could become very successful as a singer in Texas without the trappings of having to record in Nashville. Mark mentioned that he spent at least 10 years as a singer at honky-tonks and clubs in Texas before getting a recording contract with a major label. He said the first label he signed to was a small Independent label called D Records.

Mark calls Ray a music hero and says that although they've never met for any lengthy period of time he's the reason he decided to return to Nashville. He pointed out that he doesn't return to Nashville to do interviews but he couldn't turn down an appearance on a television show Ray hosts.

Mark performs a song titled "Hot" which is from his 2016 release, Tradition Lives. He follows this with one of his hits, "It's a Little Too Late". Ray closes the show doing a performance of "You Don't Know Me" at the piano. This weekend on local PBS stations an episode titled Special Moments is airing. This will be uploaded onto Ray's video website next weekend. The Special Moments episode is to feature clips of performers who've previously appeared on the program singing songs that weren't part of the original airing of their episode. It's an out-take presentation.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...John Michael Montgomery...

Hello all...as I begin this entry of the fan-created blog it's 4 minutes until 9pm and the latest episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville ran it's closing credits about half an hour ago. On this episode the special guest happened to be John Michael Montgomery. Ray opened the show performing a song from his 1984 album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens. A couple of episodes ago he performed "Ned Nostril"...the first time I'd ever seen him perform it on television; in fact it may have been the only time he's performed it on television as far as I know. This time around he opened the show singing "I'm Kissing You Goodbye"...a song that has a peculiar history.

As mentioned it's from a 1984 album...his debut album for MCA (a label he was with from 1984-1989 and again from 1996-1998). This song was actually the album's lead-off single...some of the vinyl albums that are sold on-line at places like eBay feature publicity stickers on the album's shrink wrap advertising this song as one of the spotlight recordings. MCA began promoting it as a  single but there wasn't much favorable response and very quickly the hype for the single ended...but whatever initial disappointment there might have been surrounding the future of the album was changed, however, once the squirrel got loose and demand for that song forced the label into releasing "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival" as a single...and once that happened late in 1984 it caused the album to do an about face and eventually climb into the Top-10...all on the strength of a song that originally was meant to be an album track and nothing more. Like "Ned Nostril", a song that I'd never seen Ray perform on television, the same holds true for "I'm Kissing You Goodbye"...and throughout the performance it received a rousing response from the audience. After the opening performance a clip from We Ain't Dead Yet aired in which Phil Everly portrays a manager of George Jones...attempting to get George booked for a series of concerts in Germany. You all may remember Rayality TV...it was one of Ray's television offerings seven or eight years ago. It was produced in sitcom style and it took place at a fictional retirement home for entertainers called The Encore...which enabled there to be a music segment in each episode. The series aired, originally titled We Ain't Dead Yet, as a subscription-based internet exclusive (to subscribers of Ray Stevens Backstage, specifically) but later the series aired in bits and pieces, surrounded by an assortment of other clips, as Rayality TV on the re-launched TNN (now called Heartland TV) but it was never seen nationally due to the limited coverage of the network at the time. It aired on the re-launched TNN during the 2012-2013 season prior to the channel re-branding itself Heartland TV...but back to tonight's episode...

Ray brings out John Michael Montgomery after making the point that some singers are known by only one name but most are known by first and last name...but then, as Ray points out, some artists boast three names...and after listing some of those three name acts he introduces John Michael Montgomery. John speaks of his career (going back to 1992) and mentions his brother, Eddie, and how both his brother and Troy Gentry (of the duo Montgomery-Gentry) were members of band's that John put together in the early years.

Following this conversation there's a short clip from Rayality TV once more. George Jones appears at the end of the clip looking for someone named William Maurice (a take-off on the talent agency, William Morris).

John sings "Letters from Home" and upon it's conclusion he performs "Sold". This is a rarity for it broke formula a little bit. In the episodes that have aired there is usually a performance from the guest, then a Video Jukebox segment, and then a second performance from the guest artist...but on tonight's episode John spoke about and then launched into "Sold" after the end of his first performance. For those not familiar it's an auction song whose official title is "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)".

After the performance there's a clip from Rayality TV once again...it's the comical performance of "White Lightning" from George Jones. It's comical due to the fact that George is lip-syncing to the original 1959 recording and the footage was taped at some point in 2009/2010. It was done like that on purpose because of how funny it would look. After the clip is finished it returns back to Ray on the set of his show to perform the closing number, "Retired". That song was originally a duet with Ray and one of it's writers, Brent Burns. Ray also recorded a solo version and his solo recording appears on his 2009 CD, One for the Road. Afterward Ray tells some one-liner jokes prior to the closing theme playing...leading him to request a dance partner. Prior to the closing credit roll there's a message that appears on-screen dedicating the episode to the memory of Phil Everly and George Jones.

Next week's episode (airing here August 26th) will guest star Baillie and the Boys.

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 12...

Hello all...it's been several days since I posted a blog entry but it isn't because I've been away from the internet. There happened to be a break in the action, as they say during a sportscast, with Ray winding down from his recent activities at the CMA Music Fest and so I took a brief hiatus, too. A couple of videos from Ray appeared on YouTube during this brief hiatus. The first video centered around a contest that those who stopped by Ray's booth at the CMA Music Fest had the chance to enter. The video clip shows Ray selecting a name from a box of entries and then it shows him calling the fan and alerting the person that their name was selected. The prize? A free copy of every CD and DVD currently being sold at Ray's web-store...including the 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and Ray's Nashville memoir! The audio isn't all that good in that particular clip...it may have to do with Ray not wearing a microphone. Some of the audio is loud but with him being soft-spoken it will have you reaching for the volume control on your computer and turning it up. You can see that contest clip HERE.

Now we're up to the most recent installment of Rayality TV! In this clip you'll see Ray's 1995 music video of "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" from the Get Serious! movie. This is followed by a sketch at The Encore Retirement Home...and an appearance from George Jones! George performs "White Lightning"...well, kind of...the original 1959 recording from George is played but it's the much older George appearing on camera. It's my belief that George, strictly for laughs, lip-synched the performance...if you pay close attention he moves his mouth precisely the way the audio dictates...it's highly comical seeing him match the original recording's vocalization and I suppose that's the intent.

This installment of Rayality TV, by the way, is dedicated to the late, super-great, country music legend George Jones...  

Ray Stevens: Losin' Streak on cassette...

I sometimes, but not all the time, provide links to eBay items. This is one of those times. I came across an interesting Ray Stevens item on eBay a few minutes ago. My first blog post of 2013 dealt with a 1973 album from Ray titled Losin' Streak turning 40 this year. I have no doubt seen this item at some point in the past and probably even posted about it but it's not something that always comes up for sale on eBay and so when it does I make mention of it. Given how obscure the LP of Losin' Streak is, a cassette copy is even more obscure...but yet that's what I seen up for sale on eBay! It's described as a private listing but you can read all about the cassette copy of Losin' Streak HERE. The shipper resides in Australia.

Ray Stevens took part in the star studded tribute to George Jones this past Friday. He sang in a group that included the likes of John Conlee, Larry Gatlin, Bobby Bare, Stonewall Jackson, and several others. The group sang "When The Last Curtain Falls", "Still Doin' Time", and "Someday My Day Will Come". A piece of this performance is on You Tube, the last part of song one and the complete song two. The home made video's sound is okay to decent...you'll see Ray only a couple of times, though, and only once is it a close-up. Be sure to look at the big video screen to see the much clearer, up-close picture of Ray a few seconds into the start of the video. He's standing the middle of Larry Gatlin and John Conlee.