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 Ray Stevens' Nashville, 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 'what took him so long?'. 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.
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.
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'.
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 HERE. The link will take you to Ray's official website store...the product page for the memoir.
Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! I've been off-line for awhile due to a change in modems and busy off-line activity. I've gone from a traditional plug-in modem to a wireless modem. I've been on a laptop for nearly 3 years (graduating from a desktop computer) and only recently decided to "go wireless". It took a couple days to get everything up and running due to some unexpected technical issues but everything's working just as before. If you've visited YouTube in the last couple of days you've probably seen some additional video uploads about Ray Stevens. Someone by the name of Suzanne Wright posted video content onto YouTube. I'm assuming it's from the Oklahoma concert back on August 12th. At the moment there's no specifics given of when the performance took place.
I made mention of that Oklahoma concert in a previous blog post and from the looks of the video thousands of people attended.
An upcoming concert in Effingham, IL at the Effingham Performance Center (set to take place in 2 months on October 28th) is being promoted on YouTube. A video promo became available a couple of days ago and I'm embedding it here...
I know that this video, more than likely, is going to be removed once the concert has taken place but for the next 2 months it'll be on-line for all to see. Future discoveries of this blog entry may see a familiar "video not available" or "video removed" alert. The video promo highlights several music video snippets from his direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!, as information about the upcoming Effingham concert flashes on the screen. You can read about the concert and purchase concert tickets by visiting the venue's site by clicking HERE. The venue makes use of his most recent CD...once you click the link you'll see what I mean.
Earlier that same month (October 15th) Ray Stevens is to appear in Myrtle Beach, SC at The Alabama Theatre. You can read information and purchase tickets by clicking HERE. Once you click the link you'll see that the venue is using his photo from the first volume of gospel songs (released back in 2014).
Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens! If you have RFD-TV you can catch Season 2 of Ray Stevens' Nashville. It got underway a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday night's guest happened to be Bobby Goldsboro (episode 3 of Season 2). Ray's YouTube channel features commercial spots for some of the episodes. In a previous blog entry I made mention of this. On Ray's Facebook page the banner promotes the second season of his television series.
According to the RFD schedule for the next several weeks there's going to be the May 21st airing of episode 4 and then an episode from last season re-airs on May 28th before it jumps to episode 6 on June 1st. I don't know if that's a typo or if the "episode 5" installment is being held for a later airing.
You can see the upcoming air-dates by clicking HERE.
Ray competed with himself last night, too! Even though his television series aired in it's usual time slot (8:30pm Eastern) he happened to be in concert in Branson, Missouri at the Andy Williams Performing Arts Center (formerly the Moon River Theatre). So, while his program was thrilling audiences from coast to coast on RFD-TV, he was simultaneously thrilling the Branson audiences with a concert.
Jimmy Osmond, owner of the Branson venue, posted a picture of himself standing in the middle of Ray and Don Williams (one of Andy's brothers and one of Ray's former managers).
In a little more than a month (June 17th) Ray is set to release his third gospel album. I hyped it's forthcoming release in a previous blog entry, posted an image of the CD, and later I posted a blog centering on his three gospel albums (1972, 2014, 2016). As you can see I've posted a smaller image of the CD off to the left. I imagine that once the CD is released or perhaps at the end of this month there's going to be much more advertising for it's availability. His television programs, like most other television productions, are taped in advance...maybe there's going to be an upcoming episode spotlighting the release of the CD? If you remember back to 2014 and the release of the Gospel Collection there wasn't much publicity for the CD, at first, but later on Ray began turning up on religious television programs and in gospel media...all of this culminating in his co-hosting of the Inspirational Country Music Awards gala in November 2014. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry the 2014 gospel CD happened to be specified as a Volume One. For this CD there isn't a Volume Two designation but this release is the second of 2 volumes. As you can see from the photo of the CD the official title is Just a Closer Walk with Thee/Gospel Favorites. I'm sure the CD is going to be referred to as Gospel Favorites during publicity rather than utilizing the longer portion of the title.
On the concert trail this coming Friday (May 20th) Ray is going to be performing at The Villages in Florida at The Sharon L Morse Performing Arts Center at 7pm. You can read about it HERE and click their Ticket link if you're planning on attending. At the bottom of their page it lists the venue's street address and information. Ray has also taped a brief video promo and you can see it if you click HERE. The next day he'll be putting on 2 concerts at the Blue Gate Theatre in Shipshewana, Indiana. One concert at 1pm and the second at 7:30pm. You can call the venue for ticket information: (260) 768-3021.
It's me once more...I've been busy off-line over the last couple of weeks. I haven't been able to adequately keep this blog updated as much as I'd like...but I continue to keep updated on his career by way of his social media outlets (his official Facebook and Twitter pages) and of course his official website. I also hope that all of you that come across this fan-created blog page take the initiative to visit the various social media sites focusing on Ray Stevens just in case there's something happening that I haven't been able to blog/comment about.
First off...the Monument Singles CD!! I first mentioned this back in mid January...and later that month a product page on Amazon appeared on-line for the CD. It's official title is Ray Stevens: Face The Music - The Complete Monument Singles 1965-1970. Of course, for conversational purposes, I'm going to refer to that CD as simply The Monument Singles CD or, better yet, Face The Music: 1965-1970. The most devoted of fans, once they read my abbreviated references to that CD in future blog posts, should immediately knowwhich CD I'm referring to.
As mentioned in a couple of my blog entries from January this CD contains 24 recordings from Ray Stevens during his five year recording career for Monument Records. Ray didn't only record for Monument and his association with the label didn't just encompass 5 years. He had actually joined the label as a producer/arranger/session musician in 1963...but his own recordings were exclusive to Mercury Records (the label he joined in 1961). Once his contract as a recording artist for Mercury ended he eventually released his first recording for Monument Records in 1965. Since this CD lists his single releases for the label in chronological order the lead-off track, "Party People", gets things off and running on a mid-tempo, bluesy note. As mentioned in the January blogs there are 12 singles on this CD and since the B-sides are featured, too, the actual number of songs on this CD is 24. For those that may have some of the actual vinyl singles released on Ray by Monument you should all be aware that on most of the releases there's no A-side or B-side designation. In some cases a large filled in star symbol is suppose to indicate which side of the single is meant for airplay...but some single releases lacked that feature. Adding to the confusion is in some locales (international releases) a star symbol is featured on both sides of the single.
This Face The Music: 1965-1970 CD is suppose to become available in a couple of weeks. Amazon lists the street date as March 4, 2016 but it can be put on pre-order. It's been available as a pre-order since late January. The recordings found on the CD covers the years: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970. It's the first commercially available project to exclusively spotlight his Monument recordings albeit limited to single releases only. Tracks 1 through 4, track 6, and tracks 22 through 24 make their CD debut. You can read all about this upcoming CD by clicking Amazon's link located HERE.
On the touring front I felt it necessary to highlight some upcoming appearances once again. On March 9th Ray Stevens is to be in Plant City, Florida. He'll be appearing at the Strawberry Festival. The concert is to begin at 3:30pm. Since it's February 22 I'd not risk mail-order (if you happen to live several States away and were planning on attending!) but it's up to you. Your tickets must arrive by March 9th, obviously, so if any of you live a good distance from Plant City, Florida I'd not hesitate to call the venue and ask about their ticket purchase policy or if they offer on-line tickets (the kind you'll have to print off the internet and take to the venue yourselves upon on-line purchase). The venue's box office number is 813-754-1996.
On April 1st Ray is to appear at The Florida Theater in Jacksonville, Florida. You can read all about this upcoming concert and the venue itself by clicking HERE. It's a hastily put together artist bio but regardless of that if you're planning on attending the concert click the link and call the venue for ticket information.
On April 16th Ray is going to be in his home state of Georgia. In an 8pm concert taking place at The Mill Town Music Hall in Bremen, Georgia it'll feature an opening act by the name of Kelsie May. You can read about the ticket purchasing procedure by clicking the promo page HERE.
The next day, April 17th at 7pm, Ray is to appear in Chattanooga, Tennessee at The Tivoli Theatre. In early January after the concert was announced I couldn't find anything on their site about Ray's appearance but since then they've added a page for his upcoming concert there. You can get all the information about the Chattanooga concert by clicking HERE. The promo has an opening act named Etta May being featured. He has 2 more concerts scheduled for the month of May. Now, with this being late February, it wouldn't be uncommon to see additional appearances pop up and so I'll highlight those May concerts in a future blog post (just in case more happen to be added). For all we know more concerts from Ray could pop up for the month of April, too, so keep your eyes posted on his official website or his Facebook page for information surrounding concerts.
Hello all the fans of Ray Stevens and a belated hello to 2016!! In the hiatus from my previous blog entry a couple of additional appearances have been added to Ray's 2016 schedule. First off there's to be a book signing later this month on January 30th at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Hendersonville, TN. The event takes place on a Saturday from 2-4pm local time. You can read about it HERE. As I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries the memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, has become the basis for Ray's current RFD-TV television series. In one of those blog entries I made mention that "Nashville", for Ray Stevens, had gone from vinyl (1973), to music video (2013), to book (2014), to television (2015). I'm still hoping the television series makes it's way to DVD, too! The program airs every Saturday night on RFD-TV. The other additional appearance that's relatively new since my previous blog is an upcoming appearance on May 14th at the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri. It's officially been re-titled The Andy Williams Performing Arts Center and so if you should Google Ray's name and Moon River Theatre chances are you're going to come up with older results from last year and the years previous. If you choose to not perform an on-line search you can visit Branson's site HERE to find out more information or you can visit the venue's site HERE and click the thumbnail image of Ray. It'll open up the Celebrity Weekend page and scroll to Ray's May 14th appearance.
Unless a concert announcement pops up from now until March 9th, Ray's first concert of the year is to be on March 9th at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Florida. That concert is to take place at 3:30pm. You can purchase tickets by calling 813-754-1996 found on the venue's site HERE under the Tickets and Pricing Information section. There are 2 concerts scheduled for the month of April and 2 for the month of May, including the Branson concert on May 14th. The other concert in May is an appearance on May 21st at the Shipshewana Event Center in Shipshewana, Indiana. During this appearance Ray is to give 2 concerts. The first concerts begins at 1pm and the second one is at 7:30pm. You can read all about it by clicking HERE.
One of the concerts posted on Ray's Events page at his official site isn't listed on the venue's page (as of this writing). It's a concert that's suppose to take place in Chattanooga, Tennessee at the Tivoli Theatre on April 17th. I've visited the Chattanooga Tivoli Theatre site and searched the concerts and there isn't one listed for April 17th but there are others listed before and after that date. This could be a case of a contract not officially being signed yet or the venue is going to add the date at some point in the future...but seeing that this is January and the concert's suppose to take place on April 17th it looks like tickets would've been become available by this time. Those in the area and are wondering if there's to be a Ray Stevens concert there or not can call the venue and ask. Their number is 423-757-5580.
It's become tradition on this fan-created blog page at the beginning of each new year to spotlight specific Ray Stevens recordings, albums, music videos, or other career-related activities that are going to be reaching some sort of milestone. 2016 marks the 55th anniversary (!) of Ray's first Hot 100 single, "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills". It doesn't seem like that long ago that I posted a blog celebrating the single's Golden anniversary (50th)...but yet that took place back in 2011. 2016 also marks the 50th anniversary of "Freddie Feelgood and His Funky Little Five Piece Band". The recording originated in 1966 on the Monument label and it appeared on the Hot 100 for a couple of weeks. Several years later Monument included the recording on Ray's 1969 pseudo-live album, Gitarzan. Since that time the copy of "Freddie Feelgood" that's appeared most often on compilation albums is the one lifted from the 1969 album featuring the laughter. The Freddie single became the subject of a music spotlight in the June 11, 1966 issue of Billboard...not too lengthy of a mention...reading it in modern times one gets the feeling the remarks happened to be applied insincerely by giving it what I call the ol'novelty song shrug-off treatment...something that a lot of music critics were and still are known to do. Not much detail is given about the recording itself but there's nothing negative said, either, but it's a magazine feature and only a certain amount of space was available in those years.
The B-side of Freddie happens to be a serious recording titled "There's One in Every Crowd" which, to date, is still only available as the B-side of Freddie. A lot of Ray's B-side recordings for Mercury and Monument have never been made available on CD or Mp3. Ray has since made a music video of "Freddie Feelgood" and I've posted it on my blog several times over the years. The video arrived in 2000 as part of one of Ray's VHS home video projects, Funniest Video Characters. Years later Ray added it to his YouTube page...debuting the music video on May 25, 2011.
2016 marks the 40th anniversary of Ray's single, "You Are So Beautiful". In doing so it also marked his debut on Warner Brothers...after a 5 year run on Barnaby Records. This is the era of Ray's career that I'm the most fascinated with and a large part of it has to do with the mystique that surrounds his years at the label. I love finding any tidbit of information about his recordings and the activities in his career during that 1976-1979 time frame. Although I've got the music from him during that time span and I've read up on a lot of things through the years I still get the most excited whenever I see something new about Ray posted from that era. His debut album for the label, Just for the Record, obviously reaches 40 this year, too. I'm proud to say I have almost all of Ray's studio albums in some form or another via vinyl, cassette, and CD...and like a kid let loose in a candy store is the feeling I got once I gained in my possession Just For the Record. This same feeling overcame me once I seen an episode of Pop! Goes the Country from 1979 and he sang "You Are So Beautiful" and debuted a song that had yet to be released commercially, "Shriner's Convention". In case you hadn't heard "You Are So Beautiful" it's arranged in a Bluegrass fashion along the lines of "Misty" from the previous year and like "Misty" the 1976 hit is also performed uptempo. "You Are So Beautiful" hit the Top-20 on the country music charts...followed by the Top-30 placing of "Honky Tonk Waltz". In the final weeks of 1976 a certain single, "In the Mood", became available. Released as The Henhouse Five Plus Too it had a brief but commercially strong run in early 1977. I'll go into more detail about that particular recording later this year as it gets closer to December.
In addition to Ray's series of concerts in 2016 he's going to continue to stay busy working on his RFD-TV program. The episodes that are currently airing had been taped months in advance...and I believe production of that first season wrapped up at some point in the summer of 2015. The series debuted on November 7, 2015 and they're midway through the first season of first-run episodes. They'll all be reran during the spring and summer months, I assume, and the series should make a return in the late fall of 2016. Given the time he'll be spending in 2016 rehearsing, taping, producing, and starring in the RFD series, plus the handful of concert dates, and the venue that's suppose to open in Nashville called The Ray Stevens Cabaray, one may ask if he'll be too busy to concentrate on any new CD's or music videos this calendar year.
His last full length music video production, to date, arrived on May 19, 2015 for a song called "You Didn't Build That", from his current CD, Here We Go Again!.
Now, for those not aware, Ray Stevens has a political comedy section in his music catalog. It started in 2009 after the music video release of "We The People" and reached it's zenith in 2012...right around the time Obama got re-elected. In that 3 year span it wasn't uncommon to see Ray's music pop-up for discussion on numerous high profile programs on the Fox News Channel or on talk radio. He was interviewed on more than 2 dozen radio programs either as an in-studio guest or by way of a phone hook-up. The string of political comedy music videos reached millions upon millions of people of all political beliefs and are still being discovered to this day...but...
Ray's laid off the political comedy videos considerably since 2012 but "You Didn't Build That" happened to be a surprise on his 2015 comedy CD (marking a return to political humor after a couple of years). The CD also featured the previously released song, from 2010, "Come to the U.S.A." (the video's gotten 9.2 million unique views on YouTube!!). I assume it's addition on the 2015 CD is meant as a social-comment tag-along for "You Didn't Build That" and "A Handshake Will Do"...since it appears between those 2 songs on the CD...
1. Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me
2. What'd I Say?
3. There Must Be a Pill For This
4. Walkin' the Dog
5. Hearts Made of Stone
6. Pickin' on the Chicken
7. The Baptism of Stumpy Brown
8. Little By Little
9. You Didn't Build That
10. Come to the U.S.A.
11. A Handshake Will Do
12. Knock Him Out, John
You can purchase Ray's most recent CD by clicking HERE.
Hello all the fans of Ray Stevens...and yes, it's December...and it's been a busy couple of days for Ray and also a busy time of the year for myself, too. My birthday rolled around 5 days ago on December 2 and so on that day I had to do the usual birthday stuff (purchase tags for my car/update it's registration). Ray's made a couple of stops in the state of Kentucky recently on a book signing tour. Previously he made an appearance at a Louisville, KY book store.
The most recent stop happened to be in Bowling Green, Kentucky at a Barnes and Noble store a couple of days ago (December 5th). Video footage surfaced of an appearance by Ray on the local WBKO television station prior to the appearance at the book store. The segment is hosted by the station's meteorologist, Chris Allen.
The interview promotes both the memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, and Ray's current CD, The Ray Stevens Gospel Collection: Volume One. You can see the video clip HERE. The video playback is nearly full screen...and once you click the link and the video appears you'll have to click the play button...it doesn't start to play automatically like most video clips do.
Also on December 5th, Ray's Nashville book received a mention near the end of the Friday episode of The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel in the Tip of the Day segment. Bill mentioned the book and played a piece of one of Ray's music videos, "The Nightmare Before Christmas". You can see that video clip HERE.
Ray's memoir, the hardback copy, is ranked #92 this hour amongst Amazon's Best Sellers in what I call a subdivided category (Books > Arts and Photography > Music). This indicates that it's selling to a niche audience. The Kindle version is ranked this hour at #16, also in a more complex subdivided category. Take a look at this Best Seller category ranking the Kindle version at #16: Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies and Memoirs > Arts and Literature > Actors and Entertainers > Comedians. After completing that, it felt like I was writing a combination Math equation-English sentence dissection.
Here's a link to the KINDLE version of Ray Stevens' Nashville. Keep in mind that the Amazon Best Seller rankings change hourly and so it's highly likely that the ranking isn't going to be among the Top-20 at the moment you're reading this...but click the link anyway in case you hadn't made your purchase of Ray's memoir yet.
Good Wednesday morning Ray Stevens fans!! I come this morning with a review of a Ray Stevens book! No, it isn't Let's Get Political from a couple of years ago. This particular review is of a book that could very well be described as a career autobiography.
I use such a term because there's nothing extremely personal found in the book but it features the basics that are in an autobiography. The name of the book is Ray Stevens' Nashville. The cover has Ray wearing a small cowboy hat, standing in front of the Nashville, TN skyline. He isn't in a denim jacket as he is in the music video of "Nashville", but it's a great image nonetheless. The book became available for sale last month!! I became aware of it's existence earlier this month. In one of my recent blog entries I had gotten a reply. The reply made mention of this book...to which I had no idea existed. Once I visited Amazon and some other on-line stores, searched the book areas for Ray Stevens, I come to find out that the book had a release date of March 5, 2014...and so it's been commercially available for more than 1 month.
Ironically, though, there isn't any acknowledgement of the book at Ray's internet store. There hasn't even been any Facebook posts or Tweets regarding it's existence in the days after March 5th.
This blog post may create awareness of it's availability...here's the review... This is such a fascinating book on many levels. One of the things that I love about it is how easy it is to read. There isn't a lot of confusion or contradictions that I've often seen in a lot of books of this kind. Ray Stevens tells of his experiences in Music City, U.S.A (Nashville, TN) dating back to the early '60s. Not only that, he tells about his entire career from it's earliest stages in the late '50s on through his current music video successes on You Tube. As an easy to read book you can read it out of order...as I did. I looked in the table of contents and deliberately jumped to certain parts of the book first and then read other parts of the book.
I cite pages 196 through 199 due to it containing some of the most candid commentary...you rarely hear these thoughts from 'Ray Stevens' when he's on TV or being interviewed on a talk radio program. Why? Because, I assume, it isn't the proper setting or format. Yet, this book gives him a place to speak a bit more open about his thoughts and attitudes about the music industry, in general (all formats), and he discusses public image and the typecasting that takes place...and freely admits how difficult it must have been to "market Ray Stevens" due to his ever changing musical expressions.
A lot of discussion is made of 'The Powers that Be' in the media, too.
Does the book have anything too controversial? It all depends on a person's idea of controversial. Ray says how he felt seeing "The Streak" sell millions upon millions of singles in 1974, hit #1 pop and go #1 internationally, plus reach the Top-5 on the country charts...but when it came awards time, the song was either completely ignored or passed over as other recordings of lesser success took the trophies.
Some of the highlights of the book, other than reading his experiences in the music business, are his memories of his years in Branson, Missouri and the huge success he had with mail-order VHS tapes. I especially like his choice of expression remembering on the fall of 1993 and the anticipation he felt giving up the daily grind at his theatre. He goes into lots of detail about the early years of the Branson Boom and explains how lucky he was to have had a theatre in operation just as the town was becoming a huge tourist attraction. He discusses his return trips to Branson in 1996, 2005-2006, the 2010 series at The Welk Theater, and the memorial concerts for Andy Williams in 2012.
His love of Nashville is made crystal clear in many places in the book. He considers it his adopted home town given that he's lived in the Nashville area since 1962. Fear not, though! He still loves his birth place and the area he grew up in. He discusses Clarkdale, Albany, and Atlanta, Georgia in the pages numbering 25 to 69.
Ever wondered the inspiration of "Mr. Businessman"? As a long time fan of his I've had a feeling of what the song could be about...in the book Ray describes some of the things happening that led up to his writing the song. It became a Top-30 pop hit in 1968. One of the curiosities is he mentions that Fred Foster never got a chance to produce his sessions...but yet Fred's name, as well as Jim Malloy, appear as co-producers on 2 of Ray's Monument LP's in 1969. "Gitarzan" became a million selling hit in America and a hit internationally in 1969. Ray relates the reluctance on Fred Foster's part to release the single, at first.
Elsewhere in the book, Ray states something that some fans have been curious about for years. First off, he states that the book is just about his career and his experiences in the music business and not a tell-all that includes commentary about his family or anything else personal. That may disappoint some but he does relate something, in print, that should satisfy some of his fans who've long been wondering about a certain aspect of his life.
Pages 227 to 248 are chock full of pictures. Some have become recognizable on the internet but many more are obscure and haven't been shared publicly until this book. There's several family pictures...one picture has Ray and Ralph Emery during a radio program at some point in the '70s.
Some of the people Ray discusses at length or in brief recollections are: Shelby Singleton, Chet Atkins, Bill Lowery, Owen Bradley, Ralph Emery, Jerry Clower, and a host of behind-the-scenes people that have been part of his career for decades. In the latter part of Chapter 24 he discusses his diagnosis of prostate cancer in 1999 and his sudden development of diabetes. He kicks off Chapter 25 discussing his 9-CD project, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Also, he mentions several projects he hopes to have out at some point in the not too distant future.
Do I have any complaints about the book? No, I don't exactly have any complaints in the traditional sense but I have some minor issues to bring up. There wasn't much discussion about his time with Warner Brothers or RCA as I had hoped. In the book he mentions several recordings he did for Warner Brothers but doesn't mention his biggest single for them, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". He speaks of recording for RCA but mentions only the 1980 Shriner's Convention album he did for them...he recorded a couple more albums for them, one in 1981 and another in 1982...but he omits those LP's, as if they don't exist, and jumps to his 'one album deal' for Mercury in 1983 before signing with MCA in 1984.
He spends a great length of time discussing his MCA years (1984-1989) and rightfully so...it's the point in his career that he decided to market himself exclusively comedy and his first 5 studio albums for the label feature comedy, comedy, and more comedy and the sales and profits spoke loudly throughout the rest of the decade. In the '90s he became involved in the Branson, Missouri scene and added VHS/mail-order projects to his list of successes.
As I started off saying, this is a fascinating book!! It's Nashville, Tennessee and the music industry as seen through the eyes of Ray Stevens.
