Hello once more...yes, a second blog entry on the same day. I usually don't post 2 blog entries on the same day anymore...back in the early years of this blog I'd do something like that but during the last couple of years I keep the entries a little more under control. The current music video from Ray Stevens, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me", is sitting at 39,900 unique views. It should briskly reach the 40,000 plateau soon...
***Numbers Update***
I have Ray's video comment page at YouTube opened up in another tab and every so often I click the refresh button to see the updated totals. As of this writing the music video has indeed reached the 40,000 level...the ever changing tally is now at 40,209 unique views...
In case you missed one my recent blog posts, I provided the complete list of songs that are to be on the upcoming Here We Go Again! CD.
1. Taylor Swift is Stalking 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
Tracks Five, Eight, and Nine may be serious recordings. I'm basing my opinion on the title's of those songs but it's difficult to guess, exactly, if a song is going to be comical or non-comical. Track 12 is going to be about the late Jerry Clower. I'm surprised it's taken this long to put out a recording saluting the southern comic (Clower passed away in August 1998) but as Ray often says of himself, and I'm paraphrasing: "I'm a procrastinator...I keep putting things off, and putting things off".
Don't procrastinate, though, when it comes to this CD...it's due out March 24th...you can pre-order the CD at all of the major music stores. If you desire a digital version you can pre-order the Mp3 version, too, by clicking this LINK. The music, of course, isn't going to be delivered to your computer until official release day. Once you visit Amazon's Mp3 page, notice the slight difference in artwork. The image being used to promote the digital copy of the CD presents much more sharper looking graphics...his name has more red highlights and the plane is positioned at a different angle. Also, the title of the CD is in a different font and the sign that the gorilla is holding is different. Instead of my descriptions...it's easier just to compare/contrast the images side by side...
I don't know the significance with having alternate cover art/graphics...aesthetically I prefer the image that appears on the right. The image on the left has everything in reverse. Maybe the image on the left appears on the back of the CD and the image on the right appears on the front of the CD? The limo is pointed in different directions, too, and the airport imagery is visibly different in each photo. I wonder which photo/cover art is to appear on the CD I pre-ordered on Amazon the other day!?!
Hello once again...it's been a couple of days since the debut of the Ray Stevens music video "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me". In my previous blog entry I mentioned that the video had, at that point, obtained a little more than 300 unique views. The video's gotten a lot more views since then...a whole lot more! The tally so far is 38,988!!
At the moment I'm waiting on a couple of items to arrive in the mail. I ordered the vinyl copies of 1983's Greatest Hits and 1985's Collector's Series. Each of those compilation albums were issued on RCA and for the longest time I only had them in cassette format. About 10 years ago I purchased a CD copy of Collector's Series...but now I'm finally going to get the vinyl copies. I don't have a CD copy of Greatest Hits, though...but it'll be nice to get the vinyl album.
As a friendly reminder...I never publish comments on this fan created blog page that are off-topic, comments that include personal e-mail addresses in their reply, or comments that attack or are critical of Ray Stevens and his music. This is a positive, festive, informative, and happy place...I won't publish negative criticisms or race-baiting commentary of any kind that might be left by visitors.
Now that that's out of the way...on to more happier thoughts like this... look for the upcoming Ray Stevens album, Here We Go Again!, on sale March 24th!!
Hello one and all...as promised in my PREVIOUS blog post I mentioned that if Ray's music video should go live on YouTube I'd embed it here on my fan created blog page. As of this writing the video's gotten a little more than 300 unique views.
As usual I decided to embed the video so you can see it directly from this page rather than visit the YouTube page itself. Although, at the moment, there's only a couple of comments I've got a nagging feeling that given the subject matter the comment area for this video may turn into a flame war at some point and if you prefer to stay above the fracas then simply enjoy the video from this blog page or visit Ray's Facebook PAGE and view it there.
A couple of minutes ago Ray announced that he'll be a guest on SiriusXM Satellite radio's Willie's Roadhouse on February 26th...that's this coming Thursday. It airs at 8am Eastern time but then repeats Friday at 11am on Channel 59. Ironically, Ray mentioned that the appearance is to promote his memoir and his Gospel CD from last year. I assume he'll also make mention of the upcoming CD that's due to hit a month from now on March 24th, Here We Go Again. Those that have satellite radio be sure to tune in Thursday or Friday. Perhaps an audio link may become available for those that aren't able to hear the interview.
In the meantime, enjoy the brand new Ray Stevens music video "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me".
I came across an unexpected surprise this morning after I got home from work. I got onto the computer and did some searches for Ray's upcoming comedy CD, Here We Go Again, and I stumbled upon an unassuming link to a page purporting to be a Ray Stevens music video.
I typically don't click links or visit unfamiliar sites. Upon searching the internet for whatever tidbit I could find about Ray's upcoming CD, a project that's being released a month from now on March 24th, I came across a link to a music video called "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" on the Vimeo video hosting site. On YouTube the video's unlisted...so the only way to see the music video is to visit Vimeo or go to Ray's Twitter page and click the most recent message about the video.
On the Vimeo site the video's gigantic. I had the video embedded here, re-sized of course, but considering it's an unlisted video on YouTube I decided to remove the video embed and wait until Ray's video goes live on YouTube before I embed it.
In the blog I posted yesterday I made mention of CD Universe having an incomplete track list for the upcoming CD as well as cover art, too. I pointed out that we now know the titles to 10 of the songs that are to be on the CD...and now, given this music video's debut about 15 hours ago, we now know the names of 11 songs that are to be on the CD. An fellow fan of Ray's informed me only minutes ago on a social media site that the CD's complete track list can be found on the All Music website.
I visited the page and here's the complete track list that'll appear on Ray's upcoming CD...
1. Taylor Swift is Stalking 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
It's anyone's guess as to the reason "Come to the U.S.A." is being included once more. The song originally hit in 2010 and it's been included on several compilations over the last couple of years...including placement on the 9-CD Encyclopedia project...and so seeing it among the 12 songs on here is a bit of a mystery. I'd have chosen the elusive "Red Hot Chili Cook Off" which, to date, hasn't appeared on any of Ray's CD's yet. It's available as a music video exclusive for the time being.
Once "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" goes live on YouTube I'll embed it in a future blog post. You can visit Ray's Twitter page HERE. The video embed showing the 3 nurses is the one that you'll want to click. The previous upload of the video, featuring Ray on the telephone, was removed and is no longer available.
Hello once more! This is my third blog entry focusing on an upcoming CD from Ray Stevens. The project is titled Here We Go Again and it's scheduled to be released on March 24th and so we're nearly a month away from getting some new Ray Stevens recordings to add to our collections. In my previous blog entry about the CD I left a link to Amazon's product page. As of today the product page still doesn't have an image of the CD cover. Amazon also doesn't carry a digital copy (Mp3).
Several days ago I ventured over to another on-line store, CD Universe, and I did a search for Ray's CD and not only does the on-line store offer it for pre-order, too, but CD Universe provides the CD's cover image!! If that isn't great enough the product page also lists some of the songs are to be on the upcoming project! I'm a bit puzzled as to why the product page doesn't list all of the songs.
You can click the CD Universe LINK and see some of the song titles that are to be on the upcoming release and see if you're also puzzled as to the reason the track list leaves out certain selections. One track not listed is "Pickin' on the Chicken", a song that Bill Cody played on his radio program several weeks ago during a guest appearance from Ray. So, once you look over the 9 song titles listed on the CD Universe product page add the omitted "Pickin' on the Chicken" to that list, too.
The bottom line is we now know the names of 10 of the songs that are to be on the CD. One song I can't wait to hear, based on it's title, is "There Must Be a Pill For This". As mentioned in a previous blog, there's a possibility that "Red Hot Chili Cook-Off" is among the songs on this upcoming CD even though it's not listed on CD Universe's incomplete track list.
Although Amazon is the leader in on-line music sales, CD Universe is offering more detailed information (cover art, select song titles, Mp3 and CD availability, etc.). It's your personal choice which on-line store you choose to pre-order the CD. Also, you can always wait until it becomes available at Ray's website store. I'm surprised that this CD hasn't been promoted heavily on his own website with banners and announcements...considering it's only a month until release day.
Perhaps the publicity will start in full swing later this month or at the very least early March...and as it stands there's not too many days left in February...so publicity for this CD should be right around the corner...
Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans!! Did you all have a "Shriner's Convention" celebration yesterday? If you have no idea what I happen to be talking about search the right side of the page for the archive section and click the blog entry about a "Shriner's Convention" celebration and you'll understand. Today, though, about half an hour ago, I learned that Ray Stevens is going to appear in concert in Franklin, North Carolina at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts. I visited their site but my computer connection seemed to act up and so I'm not going to post an URL. Instead, I'll post the venue's phone number. The concert is scheduled for June 12, 2015 at 7:30pm. The venue's number is 1-866-273-4615. If you prefer searching for the venue's site rather than calling the number then go ahead and do so. The site may not have any issue with your computer's connection speed as it did mine. This is the first I've seen of a confirmed concert appearance for 2015. He's been on a book tour, of late, but this June appearance is going to be an actual concert. I am assuming that there's going to be much more concert announcements to come. This is just one date in June...there may be concert appearances yet to be announced for the months of May, July, August, etc. etc. and more appearances yet to be announced for the month of June. For the time being, though, the Franklin, North Carolina concert is the only one that's been announced. If I happen to come across more concert date announcements I'll make mention of it. Of course, this being February, I'll make mention of this concert later on as it gets closer to June. It might be sold out by then...one never knows.
Good early morning to all the Ray Stevens fans! It's just by coincidental luck that I happened to be talking about Ray's RCA recordings with another fan of Ray's on Facebook and I looked up the single release information on "Shriner's Convention". The single made it's debut on the Country music singles chart on February 9, 1980...35 years ago to the day. I decided to do an update image of the cassette copy from my collection. I've posted previous pictures of the cassette before but this one is the most recent and purposely I'm in a Hawaiian "flowerty" shirt as I feel it adds to the atmosphere of the song that this blog entry happens to be about. I only have one studio album from Ray's RCA era in cassette form and this one happens to be it. I have this on vinyl and I also have his studio albums for RCA from 1981 and 1982 on vinyl but, as mentioned, this is the only studio album of his from RCA that I also happen to have on cassette. If you're a fan of Ray's then you should be aware of this particular song...it should be as familiar to you as the beard on his face. Nevertheless, some late comers to the Ray Stevens experience may not be as familiar with his classics and that's one of the reasons I like to bring back a lot of things he did in his past and introduce the music to whatever newcomers there might be.
I don't know how many people still have cassette tape as part of their music collection but I still have the ones I purchased and I still have the ones handed down to me from my grandparent's. They're in a cassette tower/case that sits on my nightstand. I rarely, if ever, play the tapes because the music has long been converted to CD and Mp3 but I'll keep the cassettes in my possession forever. In the above picture I posted a front view of the cassette. In the picture off to the right there's a side view of how it appears in my cassette tower. This is also the way it looked in the cassette rack of your favorite retail stores in 1980. The thick printing of the RCA logo, beneath that the catalog number, and then the artist's name and title of the project. I used to love to go to the local store, often a K-Mart, and go back to the music area and glance at the rows and rows of cassette tapes. I'd look in the "S" section for "Stevens" and salivate over the cassette tapes on display that I couldn't purchase due to the realities of being a child and obviously not having a job.
In those days the cassette tapes were on display behind locked glass and you had to track don a worker that had the key. The worker would actually ask you if you've selected the tape(s) you were going to purchase. If you said "yes" they'd open the glass case and stand there as you got the items you wanted. You couldn't stand there and continue to look them over after the glass doors had been opened or the worker often got impatient!
Shortly afterward, probably because of complaints about the locked display case method of housing cassette tapes, the cassette manufacturers began shipping cassettes with hard plastic carrier cases (for security purposes) and this made the locked display case obsolete due to the cassettes being locked in the plastic carrier case. I haven't been able to find any images of those glass display bins but believe me, they existed. The locks that appeared on those display bins are similar to vending machine locks...circular in appearance.
As you can see, I've posted the cassette copy of Shriner's Convention as it appears from the front, side, and now the back. As I touched upon in a blog entry in 2010, during the 30th anniversary of the song, this cassette copy that I've got features the song "Coin Machine" as track 2 and "The Last Laugh" as track 9. On the vinyl copy, the songs are reversed. "Coin Machine" is track 9 and "The Last Laugh" is track 2. This album represented the first comedy project from Ray Stevens in 6 years. Prior to this 1980 album you had to go back to a 1974 studio album called Boogity-Boogity on Barnaby Records to find his previous comedy project. This isn't to say he didn't release any comedy/novelty recordings during the interim because he actually did. He released a novelty single late in 1976, "In the Mood", under the pseudonym The Henhouse Five Plus Too, and in 1979 he released the satiric "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". Ray introduced "Shriner's Convention" to the country late in 1979 during an appearance on Pop! Goes the Country. The comedy song eventually made it's way onto vinyl at some point in January 1980 and it ultimately made it's debut on the Country music chart on February 9, 1980. The song is about a fictional shrine convention in Hahira, Georgia but the idea of the song is based on a true event: Ray had been staying in a hotel while a shrine convention happened to be taking place that very weekend.
In interviews Ray often recalls of having a sleepless night as the conventioneers were having their fun and it struck him that it might be a good idea for a comedy song. From there he created the idea of having the convention take place in Hahira, Georgia and for comical purposes exaggerate the amount of fun and frolic that took place. He created the characters of Coy and Bubba and throughout the recording, in between Ray's singing, Bubba has a one-sided phone conversation with the rebellious shriner, Coy, about the latter's activities at the convention and how Coy's become an embarrassment to all the other Shriners. The single reached the Top-10 of the country chart as did the album.
A motorcycle with the name, "Coy", written on it had been a prop in Ray Stevens' stage shows for decades. It makes an appearance on the cover of his 1993 home video, Ray Stevens Live!, and as you can see it makes an illustrated appearance on the Shriner's Convention album cover. I believe the motorcycle made it's on-camera debut during a 1980 Music City News telecast. Ray happened to be one of the co-hosts and during his performance of "Shriner's Convention" the Coy motorcycle revved it's way onto the stage from behind a paper banner. I hadn't seen the clip in awhile, since it's no longer on YouTube, so I can't recall the person riding the motorcycle. Ray was dressed in a white suit, similar to his appearance on the 1978 Be Your Own Best Friend album.
Ray made a music video of the song in 1995 as part of his direct-to-video movie, Get Serious!. It's a whimsical music video, filled with plenty of sight gags, and the kinds of visuals you'd probably expect in a music video about the "Shriner's Convention" if you're as familiar with song as much as I am. The one thing that annoys me, though, is the outrageous accusations that some have made about this harmless, comical recording. If you're interested there's a webpage out there on the internet about "Shriner's Convention". The official YouTube upload of the music video, by the way, is released under the name raystevensmusic, all in lower case and without any separation. If you read the webpage I referred to you're going to see some far out commentary from those that are either on something or read far much into the song as originally intended. Some people's commentary about the song come across a bit disturbing, in my opinion. I've read more than one comment make the claim that the song promotes sadism (!) and conspiracy theorists charge that the song belittles the Shriner mission. There are those that have dedicated themselves, apparently, at using the commentary area of Ray's music video to presenting the history of Masons and Shriners...each commentary seemingly criticizing and or praising the history or vision of various groups...commentary that's actually much more suited to some sort of separate web site or blog site rather than in a comment area for a comical music video. Fortunately the official music video upload on YouTube doesn't contain the same sort of vitriolic commentary found on the webpage I referenced and in the comment sections of unofficial uploads of Ray's music video found across the internet on several video hosting sites.
Here's the official music video, from 1995...
At the moment the music video's gotten 898,127 unique views. The 1995 music video debuted on YouTube on July 23, 2009. As you can see, the music video's a little less than 2,000 shy from breaking into the 900,000 plateau. The actual total needed is 1,873.
Keep in mind that in addition to the 1995 re-recording there are 2 separate recordings of "Shriner's Convention" that appeared on vinyl in 1980. One recording has a more slower pace to the vocal delivery and another recording has a much more festive, party-like atmosphere and Ray's vocalization is much more peppy in that one, too. There's also an edit. In the original, slower paced recording Ray makes mention of The Knights of Columbus as being the organization that sent the redhead party crasher that Coy took a liking to but in all future performances he omits this section of the song. To make matters confusing for some there is the unedited original recording that mentions the Knights of Columbus and then there's the edited version that omits that line from the original recording...and then there's the peppy re-recording from 1980...and then a second re-recording from 1995, performed as a ballad once more but doesn't include the edited reference.
The slower pace version, both the edited and unedited copies, can be found on several compilation CD's: 1983's Greatest Hits on RCA, 1987's Greatest Hits on MCA and 1990's His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits on Curb Records. Each of those have a 1979 copyright. The peppy recording can be found on 1985's Collector's Series and it's 1987 re-issue, both issued by RCA. The 1995 re-recording can be found on the home video Get Serious!, it's also available on the audio soundtrack, and it can be found on later compilation CD's issued on Ray's Clyde Records label.
That concludes my Shriner's Convention celebration...a look into one of Ray's signature comedy classics which made it's debut on the country music chart on this date, 35 years ago, in 1980. Happy Anniversary to Coy, Charlene, the nameless mistress, and Bubba. Here's hoping Bubba finally discovers how Coy managed to get that motorcycle up on the high dive.
As all of us fans anxiously await the upcoming release of Ray's comedy CD, Here We Go Again, there's a little matter of keeping his current projects at the forefront, too. One of those projects is his successful memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry Ray is to be in Georgia this coming weekend for a series of book signing. He'll appear at 2 book stores on February 14th and he'll appear at a third book store on February 15th. If you need to find out more information you can click this LINK and it'll take you to the Events section of Ray's official website. Once there you'll be able to see each of the upcoming book signing appearances. You can purchase your copy of the book at his store which is also located at his official website. His site sells the hardcover edition and Amazon offers the Kindle e-book. Amazon used to have the softcover edition of the book for sale but it went out of stock several months after the book became available. If you purchase through Ray's store you have the option of having the book autographed. During the checkout process click on the appropriate selection to indicate you want an autographed copy of the book. Once you click the Events link to see information about his book signings all you'll have to do is click the Store tab up on the top right of the page and then open the Miscellaneous area. It's an easy site to navigate. Another project that should also be a part of any Ray Stevens collection is the CD titled Gospel Collection, Volume One. The gospel CD hit in the latter half of 2014 and it received a lot of publicity in the gospel music media and he made a couple of high profile appearances on gospel-flavored programming.
Apparently the CD, nor any song from it, was submitted for any of the gospel or inspirational categories at the Grammy awards as none of the songs or the CD itself received any nominations. I had hoped the song "If Jesus is a Stranger" would've been submitted as a nominee. The eligibility for the 2015 ceremony included music released from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014. Ray's gospel CD debuted in mid August of 2014...a month before the eligibility cut-off period for the 2015 awards.
The same omitted outcome held true at the Dove awards as none of the songs from the CD received a nomination but he attended the event as pictures of him at the gala surfaced on the internet. In one picture he's standing along side Pat Boone and gospel personality, Jason Crabb, backstage at the Dove awards. There were certainly more celebratory moments surrounding the CD, though, in spite of the shut-out at the awards ceremonies. Although the project, to date, hasn't been nominated for any award he did make an appearance on the Praise the Lord series, in an interview segment conducted by Jason Crabb. Topping that, Ray co-hosted the Inspirational Country Music Awards in October of 2014 and you can search the internet for pictures of Ray taken during the program and several before and after pictures, too.
The appearances no doubt created awareness for the CD amongst the public and at one point the CD ranked among the Top-50 on Amazon's sales lists for gospel music.
Hello once more to all the fans of Ray Stevens! Based on the commentary on Ray's Facebook page, the book signing in Chattanooga, Tennessee yesterday (February 7th) had a good turn out, as I believed it would. Ray posted an image of himself signing a copy of his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, and had an issue of Chattanooga Now sitting off to the side. The local paper featured a promo of the upcoming book signing and it featured a picture of Ray from a recent photo shoot. If you Google the paper's name and also include 'Ray Stevens' in the search box you'll be able to find the February 5th promo article for yesterday's book signing. I mention that for those that like to read/save articles about Ray Stevens.
It's been unveiled that Ray Stevens is to appear at three more book signings. This time around he'll be appearing at 3 different book stores in 2 days.
On Saturday February 14th Ray is to be in Alpharetta, Georgia at the Barnes and Noble store at 12pm noon. He'll be there for roughly 2 hours.
Here's the Barnes and Noble promo page for the EVENT.
Then, shortly afterwards, he'll make his way to Norcross, Georgia for a book signing at a Barnes and Noble store at 3pm. I couldn't find a promo page for that particular book signing.
But, yes, you read that correctly...he'll be making 2 book signing appearances on the same day.
I've heard that the 2 towns are within 10 miles of one another and so logistically it should be no problem getting from one locale to the next.
Then, on Sunday February 15th Ray is to appear at a Barnes and Noble book signing in Augusta, Georgia at 1pm at the Augusta Mall.
If any of you live anywhere near those towns I'd not pass up the chance at having Ray sign a copy of his memoir and have a picture taken, at least some people have posted pictures of themselves and Ray from book signings in the past, and so I assume all of the book signing venues will allow a picture to be taken. It's the closest thing to a meet and greet.
If you don't have his memoir, yet, there are going to be copies of it for sale at the book signing. Ordinarily I'd post a link to where you can purchase his book but I'm afraid it wouldn't arrive before the 14th or 15th of this month and so if you don't have a copy, as I mentioned, you can purchase one at the book signing.
Wouldn't it be neat if he did a book signing in Hahira, Georgia?? In 1980 the Georgia town of Hahira became the focal point of his comedy hit, "Shriner's Convention", and the town was later mentioned in several other comedy songs Ray recorded. Even the viking that Ray sang about in 1984, "Erik the Awful", comically plundered his way through Hahira, Georgia of all places.
Upcoming Book Signings:
February 14th: Alpharetta, Georgia (Barnes and Noble "Mansell Crossings"; 12noon)
February 14th: Norcross, Georgia (Barnes and Noble "The Forum"; 3pm)
February 15th: Augusta, Georgia (Barnes and Noble "Augusta Mall"; 1pm)
Hello fans of Ray Stevens! Earlier today I learned that the upcoming CD from Ray Stevens, Here We Go Again, is available for pre-order at Amazon. As of this writing there is no image of the actual CD on the product page. I assume this is going to change the more closer it gets to release day.
In several of the articles that I've shared here the information has recently given a mid-February release time for the CD but Amazon lists the CD's release date as March 24th. In the interview he did last month on Bill Cody's radio program a March release date had been mentioned so it's hard to tell the reason some of the articles I've shared have stated a vague mid-February release date.
The Amazon product page can be accessed by clicking HERE.
Interestingly the label listed is something called Mri Associated. I looked them up and they're affiliated with Sony, the company that's distributing Ray's CD. In the articles I previously shared it mentioned an imprint called Player Records and it was described as a label that Ray owns...and so more than likely the CD's going to have multiple representation much like his previous gospel CD did. That particular gospel CD featured the logo's of Ray's Clyde Records and of Bill Gaither's company on prominent display.
To date I'm still only aware of two songs that are to be on the CD: "Pickin' on the Chicken" and "The Baptism of Stumpy Brown". There's not been any publicity surrounding the CDs eventual release or any leaks making their way to any social media site.
I know it's just February 5th but I'm often anxious, which may be taken as impatience, when it comes to something new from Ray Stevens. I don't know if other fans are like this but once I get a new CD from Ray Stevens and glance over the song titles I wonder to myself, based on the song titles, how the song is going to be performed and what the story's going to be about. Some of Ray's fans in my social media circle have speculated that perhaps some of Ray's previous recordings that haven't appeared on CD yet may be included in this upcoming release...that's certainly possible. "Red Hot Chili Cook-Off", for example, came along in 2013 as a YouTube music video but it's never been available on a CD. It's gotten over 200,000 unique views so far.
The seasonal "Merry Christmas", I doubt, is going to make an appearance on the upcoming CD but one never can tell. There are a couple of political music videos that surfaced during the 2014 election cycle that I doubt make an appearance on the upcoming CD...at least I can't imagine the recordings making an appearance. I assume he'll include "If You Like Your Plan" and "Nero Fiddled" on some politically oriented project later this year or in 2016...or the songs may remain as YouTube videos only and never make it to CD.
If you're wanting to pre-order the upcoming comedy CD from Amazon don't forget to click the link near the top of this blog entry. Maybe if the CD gets sufficient enough pre-orders it's release date will be moved up. If I come across more information about the CD I'll of course make mention of it during a future blog post. In a couple of days Ray is to appear at a book signing in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I mentioned it in my previous blog post but I'll leave a link to the upcoming appearance HERE considering the book signing is to take place this coming Saturday, February 7th.
