October 7, 2017

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Rex Allen, Jr.

Hello once again...on tonight's episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville the special guest happened to be Rex Allen, Jr. and in a previous blog entry I speculated that it may be Western-dominated and it was to some degree. I had mentioned this because last week's episode guest starred The Riders in the Sky. Ray opened the show singing "Shanty in Ol' Shanty Town". This is a song whose title I had known of for years and years but did you know that until tonight I had never actually heard the song before??

Ray brings out Rex Allen, Jr. and a performance of "Lonely Street" is delivered. Afterward he and Ray discuss the current events in Rex's career...including Itunes and the library of songs available on-line. Ray asks about Arizona's state song to which Rex mentions that it's considered an alternate state song and not the one considered the official state song. The song is titled "I Love You, Arizona" and Rex wrote it in the early '80s. Rex mentions the craft of songwriting in which most, if not all, of the creativity starts in the heart and goes up into the brain, and then it comes out on paper. I made mention of it during a previous blog entry about Rex's upcoming retirement from touring. The final shows took place today in Willcox, Arizona during the Rex Allen Days event. The sold out concerts took place at 2pm and 6pm...and by pure coincidence or deliberate scheduling...Rex's episode of CabaRay Nashville is airing on local PBS stations this weekend. Some stations got the episode yesterday evening but tonight it aired in my area. It'll air tomorrow on other local PBS stations. On Rex's Facebook page it mentions that tonight's episode will air a month from now in Nashville (on November 4th). The actual taping of the episode took place during a taping session this past spring (either in March or April of this year).

Ray asks about Rex's father and this brings a flood of conversation about Rex Allen, Sr. and the things he accomplished in his career. Rex, Jr. makes mention that anybody that knows of the animated film, the original Charlotte's Web, will have been introduced to the vocals of Rex Allen, Sr. given that he was the film's narrator. There is also mention of the many Disney projects that Rex narrated...with The Incredible Journey being singled out. Rex, Jr. mentions some obscurities/trivia and relates that most people would assume that his father's biggest song was "Don't Go Near the Indians" but Rex, Jr. states that his father's biggest hit was "Crying in the Chapel". Ray mentioned that during his years at Mercury Records he was more or less assigned to look for a 'hit song' for Rex Allen (among other recording artists on the label). Ray said he found "Don't Go Near the Indians". On the subject of which happened to be the biggest hit for Rex, Sr. I looked up the chart histories for each and Rex, Jr. is correct...as far as chart placement on the Hot 100 pop chart is concerned.

Each single hit number four country for Rex, Sr. but on the pop chart "Don't Go Near the Indians" peaked in the Top-20 whereas "Crying in the Chapel" peaked in the Top-10. Rex, Jr. performs "Crying in the Chapel". This is followed by an instrument/vocal duet...Ray plays piano while Rex, Jr. sings "Happy Trails".

In another first, for me, Ray closes the show singing "My Dad"...the first time I have ever seen him perform the song on television. The performance of the song was wonderful as you could imagine. Next week's episode will guest star Lari White. The KET2 schedule cuts off at November 18th and it lists John Berry as the special guest on that episode. I am hoping that their site gets updated soon and more episodes of Ray's series are added to their schedule.

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