Ray Stevens: Health Update and CabaRay News...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens. I know that most of you have been up in the air wondering what the future will bring once the news broke in early July that Ray had a mild heart attack. At that time it was reported that he underwent a "minimally invasive procedure". Once the news broke it was announced that upcoming concerts at his incredible CabaRay showroom would be canceled as he recovers. There hadn't been much news to report for more than a month which is why I hadn't posted any updates here. That changed today when I went to his social media pages and learned that he's putting his CabaRay up for sale. Also, within the news statement published earlier today, we learned that in late July he underwent another surgical procedure. This time around it was a procedure where two stents were placed into his arteries to help blood flow/blockages. He recovered in a rehabilitation facility and once he was released to return home the news was released about the procedure and the future of the CabaRay showroom. There have been at least a dozen or more online articles posted sharing the same official statement about the CabaRay and the further surgical procedures. Ray said that he intends on performing concerts once he is able to do so and that he'll continue to record music. I don't know where he'll record music since he moved his recording studio to the CabaRay. I'm sure he'd be able to rent out studio space or even purchase a studio somewhere unless he's thinking about having a recording studio at his house? As far as concert performances go I don't know if these concerts he was referring to are being treated as make-up concerts for the ones that were canceled in July but once these as yet to be scheduled concerts are performed he plans on closing down the CabaRay and putting it up for sale. I went to a concert at the CabaRay in 2018. The concert I attended happened to be a few months after the showroom opened. While I was there with my brother we walked all over the place and saw a trophy case upstairs. A worker there told us that they have so much stuff in the storage building and they haven't had time, yet, to put everything on display. That meant that more trophies and awards he'd received over the decades weren't on display yet. I never did have the chance to attend another concert there. I didn't want to leave the place, actually. I nicknamed it Ray Stevens World. The photo of Ray I chose for this blog entry is from 2022. It was from the induction ceremony at the Musicians Hall of Fame. I hope everyone is keeping in mind that Ray is 86 this year.. the types of health issues he's recently been having are serious for any age bracket but especially someone who's in their 80's. Send get well wishes for Ray at his various social media pages. He has an official Facebook and X page plus you can send him get well wishes within the comment section of his various YouTube video uploads.  

Ray Stevens: On the Recovery Path...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! News broke Wednesday afternoon, well, late afternoon, that Ray was moved out of the ICU and is on his path to recovery from the heart procedure a couple of days ago. In a social media post it was reported that he's out of the ICU and is walking the halls of the hospital with a nurse assistant as physical therapy. There have been hundreds of comments on Ray's Facebook page regarding the initial post about the mild heart attack and the surgery and the recent post of his being assigned a regular room and out of the ICU. As of this writing there's been no news on when he'll be able to leave the hospital. Considering the good news of his being removed from the ICU I thought it appropriate to feature a photo of Ray all smiles. I could've chosen any number of photos of him smiling/grinning but I chose a recent one. It would be a bit odd to post a photo of a smiling Ray Stevens from say 1987 or 1967, etc. when it's 2025. On a personal note I'd like to say that I was impressed by the amount of online coverage Ray's hospitalization received. If you do a basic online search of 'Ray Stevens' the top search results will feature dozens of websites sharing the news of his mild heart attack and the surgery that happened. I don't know how long the recovery process will be but I'm sure he's wanting to get back on stage at the CabaRay as soon as it's physically possible. I'm sure he'll do a test run or some sort of rehearsal prior to his return to the stage to see if he's able to handle it. As of now none of us know the impact this mild heart attack and the surgical procedure done on him will have on his stage performances. We want to be optimistic, of course, so we're hoping once he's recovered and has decided he's ready to go back out on stage that he picks up where he left off. He's canceled all of the July concerts. So, by late this month, we should have a much more clearer picture of what Ray's next steps are going to be. 

Ray Stevens: The Entertaining Legend Hospitalized

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Just in case you haven't stopped by his social media pages today then I'll break the news to you all. Based on official statements from Ray's publicity/office staff he complained of chest pains this past Friday (July 4th) and a visit to the hospital revealed that he'd had a mild heart attack. In a social media post today the news was revealed that he underwent heart surgery yesterday (July 7th) and is in the recovery phase. I am optimistic that everything will turn out for the best and he recovers fully. He retired from concert performances last year but earlier this year he returned to the CabaRay to promote his current comedy album, Say Whut??. For a split second I thought of naming this blog entry Ray Stevens Had a Mild Heart Attack...Say Whut?? but I decided not to at the last minute. The reason I decided against it is because as of this writing, although he's in recovery, none of know what the coming hours and days hold in store given his age. He turned 86 years young back in January of this year. I am happy to see that thousands upon thousands of people online have commented/shared the news of his hospitalization. I just glanced over his Facebook page and as of now thousands of people have made comments and have shared the Facebook post breaking the news of his hospitalization. If you do an online search you'll see hundreds of webpages with coverage/headlines creating awareness of the entertainment legend hospitalized. 

Ray's office staff encourage fans to write get well letters or send get well cards and the address you mail them to is the CabaRay address. The information placed on an envelop should read: 

Ray Stevens 

5724 River Road 

Nashville, Tennessee 37209.

In case anyone may wonder the answer is yes. Ray has a very active presence on social media and with online music. This past year, as he has done every year since it's inception, he shared his Spotify statistics. The online music/streaming platform releases what they call 'wrapped' at the end of each calendar year. Ray's statistics on Spotify for the year 2024 shown the following...

As you can see 2024 shown over 990 thousand listeners stopping by Ray's Spotify page. 289 hours were spent listening to Ray Stevens songs on Spotify in 2024. His reach spread to 176 countries and there were 5.5 million streams. The 2024 numbers were nearly identical to 2023 except that in 2024 he increased the listeners and hours totals but lost a couple in the countries category. 2023's countries number being 178 while 2024's being 176. Now, of course, that's not much of a change statistically and so he's keeping steady with the streaming platform. Ray Stevens is an entertainer, first of all. He often says that he's a musician, first, and then a singer, writer, producer, and publisher. Critics say he's country or novelty.. in the 1960s and 1970s they called him pop and novelty.. he's a lot of things to a lot of people. He could've also been referred to as a landlord given his long history in real estate in and around Nashville. 2025 marks Ray's 70th year entertaining people. If you look at the pictorial timeline you'll see that Ray began entertaining audiences on radio in 1955 while still a teenager. He began his recording career two years later in 1957. He worked at WGPC radio in 1955 co-hosting a dance program called 'The Record Hop'. When Ray says he's been in show business "my whole life" he isn't exaggerating!! So, here's to a speedy recovery. The CabaRay concerts scheduled for July have, obviously, been canceled so that Ray can recover from his heart surgery. 

Ray Stevens: "Say Whut?" and More...

Hello once again all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! By now I'm sure you've gotten your copies of the current Ray Stevens album, Say Whut?. I don't know if you prefer to purchase physical copies of a CD or if you prefer purchasing digital downloads. I used to prefer having a physical copy of a CD but as time has gone on I've distanced myself from that point of view. Does this mean I no longer care if a CD is available? No, I always hope that a CD of music is available simply because I like the data that comes along with the CD. With a CD you get a compact disc, of course, but you also receive printed information such as musician, songwriter, and publisher credits which usually do not accompany your standard digital download. 

As I touched upon in a few blog entries prior to this one this is what you might consider a modern-day classic album from Ray Stevens. It has 11 tracks and although it's widely being promoted as a comedy album there are a couple of songs on here that I wouldn't categorize necessarily as 'ha! ha! laugh out loud' comedy. Some people may define those particular songs as social commentary. What are those songs? Well, from my perspective, I'd define "Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?", "Everybody's On the Telephone", and "Don't Be Woke" as social commentary. The main track, as I call it, which debuted as a music video blends comedy and social commentary, "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". The songs strike a chord with a common sense crowd and with those who simply want to laugh or forget their own problems and concerns. The album, in CD format, can be purchased on Ray's official website. The majority of music consumers/listeners no doubt have already added the album or tracks from the album to their online music libraries. YouTube remains the most easily accessible online platform to hear his music. By easily accessible I mean you don't have to be word specific in search engines as you do at Amazon. After a month of availability, for example, you go to Amazon and type in Ray's name and the title of the album and you won't get an accurate search result until you click additional information. As of this writing if you type in 'Ray Stevens Say Whut' over on Amazon you're going to get a result page that shows his Frank Sinatra tribute album. That one is called Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?. What Amazon customers/visitors will have to do is click the fine print that says 'search instead for Ray Stevens Say Whut?'. When you click that secondary link it's only then that Ray's current album will show up in the search results over there. Fear not, though. For those that prefer to listen to their Ray Stevens songs on Amazon here's a link to the music player page for Ray... when you click HERE it'll take you to Amazon where you'll see all of the digital albums by Ray that are available. You'll see Say Whut? among the selections. If you're new to Ray you'll be able to get to know his unique style rather quickly given the decades of songs/albums available. 

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, the organic views of the audio tracks from Ray's current album indicate that they're reaching people without much advertising. One of the tracks, "If It Walks Like a Duck", has more than 3,000 unique views with absolutely no publicity. The same can be said for the track "I Dropped My Wallet in the Toilet" which has more than 2,000. One of my favorites from the album, which hasn't gotten as much response so far, is "The More You Cry". Yes, I admit that what makes it one of my favorites is the traditional country music flair heard throughout the music arrangement but it's also a very funny story song. As is the case with most, if not all, comedy albums from Ray it has a diverse cross section of comedy...from the observational humor of "Everybody's on the Telephone" to the absurd humor of "If It Walks Like a Duck" to the laugh out loud comedy of "The More You Cry" and "Put Your Old Boyfriend's Name Right Here". There are a couple of songs on here that don't fit comedy or social commentary... those are "Cupholders" and the audio track below, "A Boy Fell from a Tree", which features, to my ears at least, a smooth jazz music arrangement.  

Closing out this blog entry is the audio track, "The More You Cry".

Ray Stevens: The Legend Returns to the CabaRay

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! It was announced on social media sites a couple of hours ago that Ray would make a return to his CabaRay showroom in west Nashville. If you're a dedicated fan you'll know that he closed down the venue a couple of months ago after having made the announcement that he was going to retire from regularly scheduled concert performances. That announcement was made in January of 2024 and true to his word he performed what was, at the time, considered to his last concert at the CabaRay for awhile in December of last year. He never said that he was completely retiring, however, and this was made abundantly clear earlier this month when he released his comedy album, Say Whut?. However, even the most dedicated of fans (myself being among those), didn't think that Ray would return to the stage this quickly and yet that's what's going to happen this coming May.

In a couple of press releases Ray announced that beginning May 17th he'd be returning to the CabaRay stage and putting on his standard 90 minute concert. If you've been there before then you know that the CabaRay is like a Ray Stevens paradise without it being overly extravagant. His career is on full display in photos on the walls as well as displayed in awards and certifications housed in several trophy cases.

As many of you know he has that brand new Say Whut? comedy album out and the promotion of that album is one of the reasons behind the decision to re-open the showroom for another season of concerts. The album features such songs as "Cupholders", "I Dropped My Wallet in the Toilet", "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene", "The Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club", and "Everybody's On the Telephone". 

The piano bar will also re-open. John Jonethis, who's been the resident pianist there since the showroom opened in 2018, will appear on Friday nights while on Thursday nights an additional pianist will play inside the bar, Teri Reid. She will be accompanied by a percussionist named Jennie Hoeft and a bass player named Steve Forrest.

According to the CabaRay webpage they have Ray scheduled for a concert every Saturday night from May 17th through the end of the year. Everything you want to know about the showroom and to purchase concert tickets can be found when you vist the showroom's webpage HERE.

Ray Stevens: My Review of 'Say Whut?'...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! This is my official review of the latest album from Ray Stevens. Back on March 7th the legendary Ray Stevens released his latest and it's fabulous in my opinion. The album contains 11 recordings and it's titled Say Whut?. 

Now, most of you that follow Ray's career will be aware of that familiar photo. It's been used as a publicity photo several times over the last couple of years. Photos from that session have appeared on websites and when you open up the CD's case you'll see off to the left a photo of Ray on stage with a large push broom. There have been a couple of photos like this that have appeared online but this particular one ties into the overall theme of the album's title. Ray has a look on his face as if to say 'I'm cleaning up my own stage? Say Whut??'. Well, at least that's the thought that ran through my mind when I first saw the photo. As is the case with just about every Ray Stevens album he's his own producer and music arranger. He also published all of the songs. Compared with the five albums he released back in 2021 the list of musicians this time around on his 2025 album is sparse. Ray is credited as the piano/keyboard player plus he's credited with drums and bass. Now, it doesn't get too technical so I don't know if Ray was playing the actual drums and bass or if it was a programmed drum and bass played on a synthesizer. When the word, keys, is listed as an instrument it's safe to assume that it encompasses the piano, keyboard, organ, AND synthesizer. Longtime guitarist on Ray's albums and TV appearances, Jerry Kimbrough, is credited with rhythm and lead guitars. Tommy White is the steel guitar player. Nick Sibley is credited with the harmonica playing. 

The songwriters for this album are two. Buddy Kalb's songs are featured as are the songs of Nick Sibley. In the above paragraph I mentioned that Nick plays the harmonica on this album and that particular instrument is the main one heard on the album's sing-a-long opening track, "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club". This song, written by Nick Sibley, was issued as a single several months ago and so if you're a fan of Ray then you're obviously already familiar with this song about a woman that becomes a stripper and learns that the man in her life frequents the place. 

The album's title can also be taken as a reference to the woke culture of the last several years and there are several satirical/topical songs on here that deal with it. The first woke song in the track list is "If It Walks Like a Duck". In this one Ray tells the story of a man that has a duck on a leash but insists it's his emotional support animal and although it looks like a duck it all depends on what the duck believes he is. In this song the guy says that the duck believes he's a dog and therefor it's a dog...not a duck! The song points out the absurdity of wokeness. This is one of four songs on the album that Buddy Kalb contributed. He also wrote these three: "Everybody's on the Telephone", "Don't Be Woke", and the big online video hit, "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". That particular video has over 800,000 unique views on YouTube...if you factor in the plays from other social media it's well over 1,000,000. 

Some may be asking if there are any non-comical recordings on here. There are a couple of songs on here that I'd call non-comical. One of them is a social commentary called "Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?". A performance video of this song appeared online a few years ago on an episode of Mike Huckabee's talk show. That's an example of how long a few of these songs, making their first appearances on an album, have been in the public. The song has a twist ending but it starts out with Ray singing about how adults are perfectly happy mowing lawns as a job rather than as something you do as a home owner, etc. but by the end of the song the message changes. It's a song, in case you hadn't heard it yet, that you'll need to pay close attention to in order to appreciate the sentiments. The other non-comical recording is truly unique and not what you'd likely find on a Ray Stevens album. It's a song called "A Boy Fell from a Tree". I love the music arrangement and how Ray delivers the lyrics. It's got a jazz feel to it if I'm correctly identifying the music style. A third non-comical recording is the pleasant sounding "Cupholders". Ray performed this song a few times on TV appearances but it's making it's album debut on Say Whut?.

The album is chock full of great recordings practically any one of the songs is a standout. See if you're thinking of the same thing as I was when listening to "Put Your Old Boyfriend's Name Right Here". That song is hilarious and some may not truly understand the satire behind it but as soon as I heard it I immediately thought of a few female pop singers whose names I'll not mention. The title of the song "I Dropped My Wallet in the Toilet" will grab your attention and it's probably the only song that's ever been recorded where a wallet is dropped in the toilet instead of what's usually dropped there. Now, this isn't any kind of hint of what the song's about. It's quite a story and I'll close this review with a video embed from YouTube of that song. The album closer, "The More You Cry", is country to the core. The steel guitar of Tommy White is heard all throughout this hilarious tale of love loss, crying, and beer. 

1. Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club

2. If It Walks Like a Duck

3. Put Your Old Boyfriend's Name Right Here

4. I Dropped My Wallet in the Toilet

5. Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene

6. Cupholders

7. Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?

8. A Boy Fell From a Tree

9. Everybody's on the Telephone

10. Don't Be Woke

11. The More You Cry

Ray Stevens sings "Answer Me, My Love"...

Hello one and all to another fan created blog post focused on Ray Stevens. In my recent series of blog entries I've focused on the recent happenings in Ray's career and the upcoming new album on it's way. Since it's March 3rd at the time of this writing we're now just 4 days away from the release of Say Whut?. Now, for those of you that come across this blog page and read the career timeline on the right hand side of the page you're well aware that Ray's recording career goes back to the late 1950s. On this blog I celebrate the songs, albums, and achievements of the great Ray Stevens and through my commentaries I point out why he's one of the most unique entertainers to ever step foot inside a recording studio. 

A recent video surfaced of Ray on a 1967 episode of The Bobby Lord Show. This was a locally syndicated country music program but it also featured pop vocalists from time to time. Ray was marketed/promoted as a popular recording artist in the 1950s and 1960s who found an audience within the umbrella of country music by the end of the 1960s and he kept it intact throughout the following decades. Ray's appeal to country audiences was such that Ralph Emery often had him as a guest on all kinds of radio and TV programs long before Ray began to intentionally market himself to a country music audience. There's a full episode of Bobby Lord's show featuring Ray as one of the guests but recently Ray's social media pages added the performance of "Answer Me, My Love" from that television appearance. He sings other songs during that appearance but I decided to share the clip of his "Answer Me, My Love" performance since it's the one uploaded on Ray's official YouTube page. The song was never released on an album. It was issued as a single-only on Monument Records. 

Since I've been blogging about his recent happenings this 1967 performance (from nearly 60 years ago) will go a long way at explaining why Ray Stevens is one of the greatest and why a lot of us fans remain forever loyal...

Ray Stevens: "Say Whut?" in 6 days...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! We're now only 6 days away from the release date for Say Whut?, the brand new comedy album. The album consists of 11 songs and a couple of days ago Ray posted on his social media pages what the back of the album looks like. Well, first off, he mentioned that the album will be released as a digital download as well as compact disc. There will be no pre-order availability, though. The album will become available for order on release day, March 7th. Ray also mentioned that the first 50 orders of the CD will receive an autograph copy. I don't know if the CD will be released in a plastic case or if it'll be in a cardboard case. The 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!, was released in a cardboard case but his 2021 CD's were all released in a plastic case. Although there was no official word on whether the physical CD would only be available through his website the digital download will be available on all of the music streaming sites. Interestingly, the digital single release of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" last year credited Curb Records but yet, more recently, it's been reported that Say Whut? will be released on Ray's own CabaRay label. Also, if you visit the Curb Records website and look up Ray's albums you'll see "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" listed there as a digital single. Earlier I mentioned that in a recent social media post the back of the upcoming album was shown. I was able to get a look at the name of all 11 of the songs and here is the track list:

1. The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club

2. If It Walks Like a Duck

3. Put Your Old Boyfriend's Name Right Here

4. I Dropped My Wallet in the Toilet

5. Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene

6. Cupholders

7. Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?

8. A Boy Fell from a Tree

9. Everybody's on the Telephone

10. Don't Be Woke

11. The More You Cry

Ray Stevens: New Comedy Album arriving March 7th

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! The news broke a little more than a week ago that a new comedy album from Ray Stevens would be on the horizon. The news broke back on February 7th via his various social media accounts. I was planning on writing about this upcoming album whenever an album track list became available or more detailed information would come about but ever since the news release back on February 7th there hasn't been any more discussion surrounding the album's release. The photo you see is the promo photo appearing on Ray's social media pages and the album's title is Say Whut?. When the album becomes available next month it'll mark half a year since the release of the audio track "Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club". That comical song hit back in September 2024 and I wrote a couple of blog entries leading up to the single's release. In the lead up to the audio track's release it was mentioned that it would be on an upcoming album. Ray co-wrote the song with Nick Sibley. I wrote a review over on Amazon. If you haven't easily found the single over there you're not alone. For whatever reason Amazon doesn't list Ray's latest recordings on their auto generated product pages. Instead, what you have to do after typing in Ray's name, is actually type in the title of the song or the album, and then click the search button. If you search for 'Ray Stevens' over on Amazon you won't find any of his recent products without being specific with the name of the song or the name of the album. Oh, there are a lot more options to get Ray's music besides Amazon's music store. You can always visit his own webpage and you can find his recordings, easily, on sites such as Spotify and YouTube. Say Whut?, as you could tell by the title, is intentionally misspelled. It's more or less meant to suggest that the album is going to be comical and that it might have a lot of southern dialect and southern appeal woven throughout. 

As of this writing there is no track list, as mentioned, and so I can't report what will be on the album. I am guessing that Ray will be the album's sole producer and music arranger and that he'll play any piano/keyboard/synthesizer on each track. 

The album was recorded at his CabaRay Recording Studio. He performed his final run of concerts in 2024 at the CabaRay but he has no plans of selling the property. His recording and music video production facilities are located there and so my guess is he'll be treating the building as he would any other building he owns and maintains. It's anyone's guess what will be on this album. I have a feeling that several songs that he's performed over the last several years that haven't been placed on an album yet will find a home on Say Whut?. "The More You Cry", "Where Are All the 12 Year Old's?", "Cup Holder", "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene", and "Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club". If my guess is accurate then we know the names of at least five of the songs that'll be on the upcoming album. In case you hadn't heard "Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" you can listen to the audio track below...

Ray Stevens: Revisiting the New Orleans Moon...

As I begin writing this blog entry we're an hour and fifteen minutes away from the start of Super Bowl LIX which is roman numeral talk for Super Bowl 59. The game is being played in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Superdome and so I thought it would a perfect tie-in to hype/promote the 2007 Ray Stevens tribute to the culture and music of New Orleans. It come in the form of the album New Orleans Moon. Ray, as is the norm, was the album's producer and music arranger. When you look on the back of the album you'll see that some of the songs feature credits specifically attributed to Ray on the songs "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and half of the two song medley featuring a snippet of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee". They're listed as PD/Arrangement which means the songs are in the public domain. Ray would later record a full version of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" for a gospel album nearly a decade later. Ray wrote the opening instrumental track which runs 1 minute, 8 seconds titled "Prelude to Way Down Yonder in New Orleans". The remainder of the album is vocal. Ray co-wrote which Chuck Redden the title track, "New Orleans Moon". The album, for those that weren't following Ray's career at the time, was sort of like the peak of his celebration of the music and culture of that particular area of Louisiana. It had began rather unofficially in 2005 during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Ray performed on some local fund raisers in the hurricane's aftermath and mentioned in news reports that he'd lost some property due to the hurricane and the flooding. Ray, Buddy Kalb, and Chuck Redden had written a satirical song titled "The New Battle of New Orleans" which was released as a single-only in 2005. It was a parody of the classic Johnny Horton recording, "The Battle of New Orleans". 

Chuck was the main writer of the parody and it contains a lot of lyrics some may find confrontational or controversial. Ray and Buddy Kalb made some slight variations to the song which means that some lyrics were omitted and new lyrics added. The single received some publicity but it set in motion what ultimately became 2007's New Orleans Moon. In the meantime the 2005 single has since became a rarity. The 2007 album is a serious release and so the 2005 single wasn't placed on the album. In the title track Ray does a vocal impression of Louis Armstrong near the end of the song. In the song Armstrong is referenced to as Satchmo, his nickname. The album does feature Ray's version of the Johnny Horton classic, "The Battle of New Orleans", by the way. Some of the other songs on the album are "Louisiana", "Louisiana Man", "New Orleans", and "Basin Street Blues". 

Here's Ray Stevens singing "New Orleans Moon" from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. Keep in mind that you can go to YouTube and listen to the entire album, too. 

Ray Stevens: "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene" 2025 update...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! It's been quite awhile since I wrote my last blog entry...almost half a year has went by. The only explanation for that is a combination of creative writer's block and not a whole lot of activity going on in Ray's career in the latter half of 2024. Ray was going through his final season of concerts at his CabaRay showroom in 2024 as most of you already know but as far as new music was concerned there wasn't a lot of news. I don't know if creative writer's block is something that already exists or if it's a term I made up just now. I'm sure it's most commonly referred to as writer's block. Well, anyway, the news broke a couple of days ago that Ray will be releasing a new comedy album on March 7, 2025 and it's to be titled Say Whut?. I'll write a blog entry later this month as we get closer to the album's release date. 

In the meantime here's an update on "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". The audio track and it's official music video have become instant favorites. Some may have a strange reaction if I choose to consider the song an instant classic. The official music video made it's debut on October 5, 2023 and as of this writing the unique views for the video on YouTube are sitting at 814,932. An audio track of his performance of the song from the TV series Larry's Country Diner has 106,551 unique views which is pretty good on a visual site such as YouTube where performance video is the main preference of the audience.

However, there is also a video upload of his performance of the song on that very episode of Larry's Country Diner also found on the audio track upload. The upload of the TV appearance of him singing "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene" hit YouTube on April 22, 2024 and as of this writing it's gotten 805,073 unique views. The song struck a nerve and no matter which social media format it was discovered (audio track or video performance) it's one of those kinds of Ray Stevens recordings that often takes on a life of it's own far beyond the initial release date or original intent/concept. It's biggest impact happened on the social media platform, X, where over a million plays were received of the official music video in two day's time following it's release in October 2023 which is why I referenced the song/video being an instant classic in Ray's long, prolific career. I'm only guessing but the song may have reached even more people within the last several days on the heels of an executive order signed by Trump prohibiting biological men from competing in women's sports. The song was never released as a CD single but this is a publicity photo that surfaced online at some point last year. 

2024

Ray Stevens: Performances from "Larry's Country Diner"...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens! Some of the most recent video uploads on social media centering around Ray are his performances on Larry's Country Diner. This country music television show had a decades long run on RFD-TV and it went out of production recently. Repeat episodes have continued to air and a lot of the content is on YouTube. Earlier this month, September 7th to be exact, a short playlist of Ray Stevens appearances on Larry's TV show debuted on YouTube. The playlist contains 4 performances from various points in time. The videos feature not only Ray's music performances but also his banter with the host and his jokes hurled at the audience. The playlist is comprised of the following songs: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", "The Gambler and the Octopus", "The Preacher and the Bear", and "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". 

Now, in addition to that video playlist, there have also been several video uploads from Ray's guest appearances on Larry's TV show. The video of his performance of "If Jesus is a Stranger" was uploaded a week ago. Ray recorded that song for his 2014 gospel album, Gospel Collection. The 2014 album received a follow-up a couple of years later titled Just a Closer Walk With Thee. 

Here is Ray's performance of "If Jesus is a Stranger"...

If you want to examine the numbers (unique views) of the various Ray Stevens video performance uploads from Larry's Country Diner here is a list of the most recent unique views for numerous video clips from the show. These numbers are in rounded figures, not in exact numerical data. For example, a video that's gotten over 9,100 unique views will be shown on the list as 9.1K. Now, keep in mind that the numbers will change over the course of time. The year following each video upload is when they debuted on YouTube. There are a few songs on this list that were performed by Ray on more than one episode and those performances are on YouTube as well but I decided to highlight performances by him at random. "If Jesus is a Stranger", for example, was performed by Ray one two different episodes, years apart from the other, but I singled just one of those performances out and reported the unique view data. In case you're wondering the letter, K, stands for thousand. So, 22K would mean that the particular video upload has gotten more than 22,000 unique views but less than 22,100 which would be written as 22.1K

I have highlighted in bold print the video uploads that have gotten more than 100,000 unique views. If you're reading this blog entry 10 days, 10 weeks, or 10 months from now these numbers will be higher as time goes by but as of September 29, 2024 here are the numbers on YouTube for 10 Ray Stevens performances on Larry's Country Diner:

1. If Jesus is a Stranger; 2024 upload  9.1K unique views

2. Ray Stevens Playlist; 2024 (as seen above; 4 performances)  4.1K unique views

3. Amazing Grace; 2024  6.6K unique views

4. Dry Bones; 2024 upload  22K unique views

5. Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene; 2024  500K unique views

6. The Gambler and the Octopus; 2023  400K unique views

7. Ray Stevens Episode (Season 22); 2023  196K unique views

8. Ray Stevens Episode (Season 19); 2024  7.6K unique views

9. You're the Cupholder of My Life; 2023  1.9K unique views

10. Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?; 2023  4.6K unique views

Ray Stevens: A collection I wish I Had...

Hello once again! Ever since I began this fan created blog centered around legendary Ray Stevens one of the albums that I've often spotlighted and singled out is a release simply titled The Best of Ray Stevens. Now, if you're a dedicated fan of his, then you'll know that The Best of Ray Stevens or a variation of that title is the title of many compilation albums that have been released on Ray over the decades. Some may wonder how does a fan keep it all straight given the similar titles of compilation albums and some may have trouble keeping track. One of the things I've always done is relay the year of release or the record company name. For example The Best of Ray Stevens released by Mercury Records in 1970 could be referred to as The Best of Ray Stevens (Mercury) or The Best of Ray Stevens (1970).

I love the album cover. I like the design and I like the photo of Ray that's used. I also like the coloring. Now, eagle eye fans of Ray or those that already are aware, will notice that in the lower left hand side there's a K-Tel mark. That's the record company that issued this particular The Best of Ray Stevens in 1980. As mentioned earlier there can be a lot of confusion for those that are new to Ray's career and are browsing through his album discography given there are several compilation albums using the same title. For this particular album it might be best to explain that it had been released a year earlier by a company called Imperial House. That particular release happened to be a 2-LP set but as you can see it contains the same title, lettering, coloring, and photo that the 1980 K-Tel release has. The 1979 release has the phrase, 2 Record Set, on display just below Ray's name with the Imperial House mark on the lower left hand side of the album cover. The image shown first is the 1979 Imperial House 2-LP release. The 1980 release wasn't a 2-LP collection but it did feature 18 of the 20 recordings found on the 1979 release. The 1979 2-LP set features 20 recordings ranging from the 1960s through his then most recent recording, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". However, do not let the inclusion of that 1979 recording fool you. It's the only Warner Brothers recording by Ray to make the album's track list. The label skipped over the recordings he did in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Here is the track list of that 1979 double album. LP One, Side 1: "Ahab the Arab", "Indian Love Call", "Harry the Hairy Ape", "Unwind", and "Gitarzan". LP One, Side 2: "Mr. Businessman", "Along Came Jones", "Freddie Feelgood", "Nashville", and "Turn Your Radio On". LP Two, Side One: "Everything is Beautiful", "America, Communicate With Me", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", "The Moonlight Special", and "The Streak". LP Two, Side 2: "Misty", "Have a Little Talk With Myself", "Isn't It Lonely Together?", "Bridget the Midget", and "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". The two recordings left off of the 1980 K-Tel release were "Unwind" and "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". 

A budget minded person may ask oneself: why did the 1979 release with 20 recordings contain 2 vinyl albums yet the 1980 release with 18 recordings contain just 1 vinyl album? I wish I knew the answer. Perhaps the company that issued the 1979 release wanted the allure of having the advertisement of "a 2-LP collection!!" to accompany the sales campaign. It's a collection I wish I had. By the way, did I say that the album photo is one of my all-time favorites of Ray Stevens? I think I did...yeah, I did...

Ray Stevens: My "Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" Review...

Well, well, well.. here I am once again and I'm finally posting my review of the most recent Ray Stevens recording, "Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club". I wrote the review back on September 13th, the day the song became available for order/download. It was not published on the internet until nearly a week later. If I recall correctly the review was published on September 19th but when you visit Amazon's product page for the digital single you'll see September 13th as the publish date since it's that date I submitted the review. 

As I had assumed back on the 13th this photo of Ray is indeed the publicity photo being used on the various online/streaming music sites to promote the newest release. This is the review I posted over on Amazon. As a long time fan of Ray Stevens I eagerly anticipate each new release from him. I've been a fan for decades... going back to the mid to late 1980s. The eye catching title of his recent recording, "The Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club", had me curious to how the overall song would sound. I was thinking to myself how that title would be worked into a song and sure enough Ray found a way! The song, written by Ray and another writer, Nick Sibley, is a very lively story of a woman named Ida and her double life at a gentlemen's club in Tulsa where she goes by the name of Tassie. There's some irony and a twist ending, of sorts, so it's best to pay close attention as the mile a minute lyrics come at you. As said it's a lively song but it's also very up-tempo. I listened to it 3 times before I was able to take in all of the activity taking place within the lyrics of the song. It's a very entertaining comedy song and the energetic harmonica lends itself to the sound that Ray was apparently going for. This comedy song, as far as I know, is going to be one of the songs on an as yet to be released Ray Stevens album. I don't know if the album will be issued by the end of 2024 or not. 

When you listen to the song yourselves you're going to love it as much as I did. The twist ending, which I intentionally kept vague in my review on the 13th, has to do with Dakota telling Ida that she looks like a woman at the gentlemen's club. Ida's reaction upon hearing this gives her the courage, perhaps, to give him a piece of her mind, angry at him for being there in the first place. You can listen to the song by way of this YouTube embed.

Ray Stevens: "Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club" now Available..

Well, hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!!! This is official single release day of Ray's new single, "The Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club". Have you heard it yet? The audio track is on all of the usual places on social media where you can listen to music. I listen to audio tracks on YouTube or Spotify depending on which site I have open on any given day. I purchased the single over on Amazon earlier today and wrote a small review. I don't know when the review will be posted on their site. Once it becomes posted over there I'll copy and paste it in a future blog entry and add more information as well. At the moment I don't know who the musicians are. I'm making the assumption that the keyboard player is Ray. The harmonica is the dominant instrument and a few of us fans of Ray were wondering if it was being played by Charlie McCoy. I know that Ray uses a synthesizer a lot but I don't think this is a harmonica coming from any kind of synthesizer. I asked about the musician credits, particularly the harmonic player, in a social media post today. I hope to have an answer at some point today. The song is about a woman named Ida and a guy named Dakota. She leads a double life in that she goes by an alias, Hassie, in a gentlemen's club in Tulsa. Dakota, meanwhile, frequents this place and unbeknownst to him he doesn't know who Hassie really is given the make-up and clothing she wears when she's doing the kind of work she does. It's a cute, fun song... and I've listened to it 4 times since it become available. It's an up-tempo song and Ray sings it fast, too, so you're bound to need to hear it multiple times to catch everything he's singing about. There's a lot of activity going on. You can hear the song when you click this LINK. Once you open the link you can choose which music service you're familiar with. If you read this blog entry weeks or months from now and the link doesn't work simply search for Ray's name and the song title on YouTube or Spotify. 

Ray Stevens: 12 days and counting to New Single...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! It's me once again...and this time around the blog entry is focusing on an upcoming new song set to be released on September 13th. So we're 12 days and counting to the new single. What is it's title?? Well, it has the eye-catching title of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club". Ray posted a teaser of an upload on his social media sites but it only features a few seconds of the music intro. Initially I thought it may be an instrumental and I asked those in the know if there will be lyrics or if it's an instrumental. I got a reply stating that it contains lyrics but they were only providing a teaser, intro music only, to generate awareness that a new comedy song from Ray is soon to be released. I was given the name of an upcoming comedy album but I won't make mention of it as to not get in the way of their marketing/publicity strategy in the days leading up to and after the song's release online. 

As far as I know there won't be a music video of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" but maybe there's one in the works, that's just me guessing; and, I'm also under the impression that this upcoming comedy album, whenever it gets released, will feature the official recordings of songs Ray has performed on stage at the CabaRay and on select media appearances the last couple of years: "You're the Cupholder of My Life", "Where Are All The 12 Year Old's That Use to Mow My Lawn?", "The More You Cry", and the audio track of "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". The first two songs mentioned were performed on an episode of Larry's Country Diner as was the last song mentioned. Ray had also performed "Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?" on an episode of the Huckabee television show. "The More You Cry" has only been performed in concerts at the CabaRay. 

When promoting the upcoming single release of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" Ray used the photo showing him looking inside the top of a microphone as seen above. I don't know if that's the photo that'll accompany the single release on September 13 when it begins appearing on numerous online music sites. 

Ray Stevens: 1986 performance of "The Streak"

Well, hello out there!!! No, you're not reading any kind of typo or anything.. it's my first fan created Ray Stevens blog post since April 29th of this year. Why such a long hiatus you may be asking yourselves? It was my own self-imposed hiatus from blog writing. I remained active on Ray's social media pages in the meantime leaving commentary and interacting with other people leaving comments on Ray's social media pages, mainly Facebook. If you follow Ray's social media you know that he's kept those pages active, too, with a post or two per day and lots of video attachments. He's continued to perform concerts at his CabaRay showroom and as most of you may know this is his final season of concerts. He broke the news back in January before this upcoming concert season began. 

In this blog post I'm sharing a recent video upload from Ray's YouTube channel. On August 26, 2024 a concert performance of Ray delivering "The Streak" from 1986 made it's debut on social media. If you're a fan of Ray Stevens you're going to love it and if you happen to be a student of Ray Stevens, meaning that you know a lot about his life and career in addition to being a major fan, you're going to know that this 1986 performance comes during his first stint with MCA Records. He was right in the middle of that lengthy series of comedy albums and riding a wave of discovery, or re-discovery, depending on the knowledge of the individual music listener. The performance took place in July 1986 which means it happened a month after Ray won his first Music City News Comedian of the Year award. Ray would win this high profile, fan-voted award every year for 9 consecutive years (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994). 

In this 1986 performance you'll see Ray decked out in sunglasses, dark green clothes, and at various moments wearing a yellow CAT hat. The thumbnail image of the video shows this but just in case you view this blog post in the future and the image is gone due to some sort of glitch I thought I'd let you all know what he appears in ahead of viewing. I love the green clothing. The temperature in St. Clairsville, Ohio must have been in the 80s or low 90s that day. When the performance of "The Streak" is over you'll see Ray jog off-stage carrying a suit. He must have began his set wearing the jacket but then, as he literally got hotter, removed it. The song originally hit in 1974.. there have long been rumors that actual streakers could be seen at his concerts but I've always doubted that kind of thing happening. It's possible that streaking took place near a concert venue, fair, or festival he was performing at or somewhere in the vicinity if it happened to be what they call a college town but within the audience of a concert I don't think such things happened but it's fun to say it did. Boogity Boogity... here's Ray Stevens and "The Streak"...

Ray Stevens: The duet with Julio...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! If you happen to be in my age group (40s) then one of the songs that you may be familiar with from Ray is "Sex Symbols". In the era of the internet you really don't have to have been born prior to the song's release to know about it. All you have to be is a Ray Stevens fan with access to online video/music and "Sex Symbols" will be among the song/video selections available to enjoy. Given that today is the birthday of Willie Nelson (turning 91) I thought it would be fun to spotlight Ray's recording of "Sex Symbols" today. Why? Well, the song features Ray doing a vocal impression of Latin singer Julio Iglesias. Willie and Julio teamed up in 1984 to record a duet together called "To All The Girls I've Loved Before". It became a million selling international hit. It spawned some parodies given the unlikely pairing of Willie and Julio. In 1987 Ray released a comedy album titled Crackin' Up. Although the main single release from that album happened to be "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" Ray eventually issued "Sex Symbols" as a single. It's B-side being "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty". In "Sex Symbols" Ray sings as himself as well as Julio. Ray, performing in an exaggerated southern accent, continually pronounces the 'J' in Julio's name (coming out as jew-lee-o) and mispronounces a lot of other names along the way for comic effect. Ray and Julio sing about how popular they are with women. In the chorus of the song Ray gives his examples of who he feels are extremely popular "Sex Symbols". Julio, on the other hand, gives examples of sex symbols from classic movies. 

When Ray performed the song in concert he utilized a dummy of Julio (seen above). Ray would sing to a click track in concert. As Ray operated the dummy's mouth, and kept the dummy upright next to him, the audio track of Ray as Julio would be playing. "Sex Symbols" became a very popular song in his concerts during the latter half of the 1980s. When Ray was performing at his former theater in Branson, Missouri (1991-1993) "Sex Symbols" is a song he chose to perform during a 1992 concert (the footage surfaced in 1993 on a VHS home video titled Ray Stevens Live!). I don't know if the song was still in his setlist by 1992 or if he decided to include a performance of it because he knew that 1992 show was going to be offered at a later date on VHS home video and with it containing "Sex Symbols", one of his popular songs in concert in that time period, it could generate more publicity with it's inclusion. That's just my theory. This 1992 performance by Ray visually captures how "Sex Symbols" was performed in front of audiences. This performance coming from his Branson theater and filmed with his own cameras and other equipment gives it a different visual and audio quality than what you may have seen if watching the performance on TV in the late 1980s. 

Ray Stevens CabaRay performance: "Detroit City"

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! Earlier today, given that it's the birthday of Bobby Bare, Ray uploaded his own performance of "Detroit City". This particular song, from the pen of Mel Tillis and Danny Dill, had been recorded by Billy Grammer less than a year before Bobby's recording was released. In fact, the song was titled "I Wanna Go Home" when released by Billy Grammer. The song became a Top-20 country hit and peaked early in 1963. Bobby recorded the song in the spring of 1963 as "Detroit City" and by the end of the summer it hit the Top-10 on the country chart and crossed over to the Pop and Adult-Contemporary formats. The single crossed over internationally and reportedly hit number one in Sweden, Norway, and the Top-10 in Denmark. Bobby's recording was released on RCA and was produced by Chet Atkins. A few years later, in 1966, Ray did the arrangement for Bobby's recording of "Streets of Baltimore". If you have the vinyl album of Streets of Baltimore you'll see Ray credited with the arrangement of that recording. The liner notes for the album were written by Eddy Arnold. Chet Atkins was the producer. 

Ray speaks, briefly, about the recording session for the song. Something that one has to remember is that Ray witnessed a lot of recording sessions in his career. Now, of course, he played on a lot of recording sessions but what some may not realize is that Ray often was in recording studios during sessions and rehearsals that he, personally, didn't participate in but witnessed. He was often showing up at the recording studios of Mercury, Monument, Columbia, and RCA given his jack-of-all-trades skill set or he simply shown up due to his friendships with producers such as Shelby Singleton, Fred Foster, Chet Atkins, and Jerry Kennedy. 

Ray Stevens: Upcoming April CabaRay concerts...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I'm a week late in promoting the April concerts at the CabaRay. I've been busy offline and have only been able to be online for a few visits each day to some social media sites and to check my e-mail. The April concerts began last week. Ray will be in concert at his CabaRay showroom six additional times this month. He'll be doing two concerts per week: April 11th, 13th, 18th, 20th, 25th, and 27th. As most of you know this is Ray's final season of concerts at his showroom and if you haven't visited the CabaRay and experienced what I call Ray Stevens World then you should make plans to attend a concert this year. You can find out all about the showroom and everything else when you click this LINK. 

We're at the half year point with Ray's comedy song/music video, "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". Ray uploaded the music video to his YouTube and Facebook pages whereas Curb Records uploaded the audio track to various streaming music platforms. The publicity photo doesn't accompany the single since there actually isn't a physical CD single. The song is available as a digital download and can be viewed as a music video, too. The photo is simply used for publicity and as a reaction to the song's title. The video debuted on YouTube on October 5, 2023. The unique views that it's received in the last 6 months puts it at 606,793. The song is very funny and it's delivered in Ray's characteristic lighthearted fashion. As is the case with other Ray Stevens recordings that tackle something topical and in the news he delivers the performance from a common man's perspective. The lyrics in the topical comedy songs that he's recorded, off and on, since 2009 are rarely heavy handed. The idea behind delivering a soft touch is to basically get your point across without pounding somebody over the head about it. I don't know if Ray has performed this song in concert...one would think that he would...so if anybody out there has went to a Ray Stevens concert at the CabaRay recently or plans to go let us know if he performs "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene".