Ray Stevens and the Upcoming Year...2019...

It's that time once again...we're very close to ending another calendar year...and although it hasn't become an annual tradition it's time for me to take a look at the upcoming year and the events and happenings in the career of Ray Stevens. Now, of course, I can only speculate on things that may happen and so I won't do too much of that but rather I'll focus on things that I know for certain. For example...2019 will mark the Golden Anniversary of everything Ray recorded in 1969 and this will include recordings found on his two albums that year: Gitarzan and Have a Little Talk With Myself. I won't go into detail about those two albums in this blog entry...I'll wait until we get to 2019 before I dive into those albums with my usual enthusiastic nature. Since 1969's recordings will reach 50 in 2019 that, of course, means his recordings from 1979 and 1989 reach 40 and 30 respectively. Ray never released any recordings in 1999 but he did issue recordings late in 2009 and those will reach 10 later this year but more on that in the second half of 2019.

Performing "Gitarzan" in concert is easily identified by the fact it's the only performance in which Ray is shown with a guitar. The song turns 50 next year and I've written down some notes regarding potential blog entry titles for when I take the plunge and write the Golden Anniversary blog entry. A brief look back on one of the major things that took place in 2018 in the career of Ray Stevens can be summed up in one word: CabaRay. The luxurious showroom on River Road in West Nashville opened it's doors in January this year and since we're on an anniversary kick I'll remark that the showroom reaches it's one year anniversary next month. The showroom had been in the planning stages for at least two years before it had it's grand opening in January 2018. There was a rather lengthy delay in the building's permit being cleared and given approval in spite of the fact that the land/property had already been purchased, cleared, and ready for construction but the land sat vacant during the long permit process. This meant that the showroom wouldn't be open by the summer of 2017 nor late 2017 as was hoped. The grand opening, as mentioned, happened in January of this year. There is a photo of Ray from the latter half of 2016 and it shows Ray holding the building permit with a big smile. I've got that photo in my collection...

There's a certain cliche that goes 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and this photo lives up to that expression. If you're a casual fan and do not follow the career of Ray Stevens as intently as I or some of the other fans do then you won't know just how agonizing and frustrating the process happened to be with the construction of the CabaRay on what seemed like permanent delay...but finally the building permit was issued. Even though we, as fans, personally had nothing to do with the process of getting the showroom constructed nor were we in any way part of the goings-on behind the scenes it nevertheless, for me anyway, was as agonizing as if I happened to be part of the goings-on. As a fan I, too, couldn't wait to see the showroom transformed from it's paper design and layout to an actual physical building one can walk into. A further explanation can be found within the next paragraph or two. I had never had the desire to visit Nashville or venture too far "from home" even though some may say that's a terrible mindset to not want to travel and "see the country" or "see the sights", etc. etc. I've always been a homebody and have always been happy just attending concerts of singers I like if they happen to appear within reasonable driving distance from where I live.

I don't go to sporting events either...I prefer to watch sports on TV or listen to the radio...but anyway I never had such a burning desire to travel to such a distant place as Nashville, Tennessee in my life until Ray's CabaRay showroom was opened to the public in January. I kept telling myself that I just had to visit the place. Strangely enough I never had that kind of overwhelming desire to visit a venue when he returned to his theater in Branson, Missouri in the mid 2000s even though by then I was now old enough to have attempted a trip down there. I was still a kid/teenager in the early 1990s when Ray was originally in Branson and so, obviously, it was completely out of the question back then and so it never entered my mind to visit Ray's Branson theater in person.

Anyway, my brother and I embarked on our trip/voyage to Nashville in March and we attended a concert at the CabaRay. I wrote a review of our time in Nashville and at the CabaRay back in March but I don't think I expressed the feeling I got when, from the car window, I saw the CabaRay sitting high atop the area...for me, seeing the CabaRay showroom in person with the big red letters across the front of the building spelling out the name of the showroom was like, for others, seeing the Hollywood letters on the mountain in California. I seriously want to attempt another visit to the CabaRay in 2019...but everything depends on vacation time where I work (and it getting approved in a timely manner) as well as the schedule of my brother. It's completely out of the question of my traveling to Nashville by myself and so that isn't an option.

One more look back on 2018...in August Ray received a star on the Music City Walk of Fame. There was a lot of publicity for the ceremony/event, I wrote several blog entries about it, and it played out like the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, actually. There were speakers at the event of the civic variety and each star that received this Walk of Fame honor also had their career highlights/statistics spoken of, too, by those doing the presentations...

The Music City Walk of Fame now includes a Star honoring Ray Stevens and as you can see in the collage off to the left the equally legendary artist, Ricky Skaggs, did the formal induction of Ray's star on the Walk of Fame. I'd seen the Walk of Fame when I was in Nashville but this was months before Ray received a star. In 2019 I plan on visiting Nashville and the CabaRay in a more warmer time of the year, too...with the added bonus of seeing Ray's Walk of Fame star. As one could guess the Music City Walk of Fame is similar to Hollywood's Walk of Fame...and there's a certain legendary actor that has had a star on the Walk of Fame going back several decades and in a lot of his films he wore a star and I'm talking about John Wayne. As many Ray Stevens fans already know he recorded a song/tribute to John Wayne in 1989 and it's on the Beside Myself album which turns 30 in 2019. The writer of the song is Ray's long-time associate/collaborator, Buddy Kalb. It's not a heavy, deep tribute song but actually more along the lines of a clever tribute using movie titles and characters played by John Wayne...and I happen to find these kinds of tribute songs much more appealing and endearing than some kind of music creation or instrumental which would have little to do with the subject being honored or given tribute. The song I'm referring to is "Marion Michael Morrison"...which, at the time, was considered to be John Wayne's birth name but in the years following it's been changed to Marion Mitchell Morrison and I've also seen his birth name listed as Marion Robert Morrison. Whichever one is ultimately correct is irrelevant because everybody knows him as John Wayne or The Duke...and you can sing the song just as easily no matter if the middle name is Michael, Mitchell, or Robert...the melody will remain intact. Some of the films mentioned are The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Flying Tigers, and a couple of his characters mentioned in the song are McQ and McClintock.

Anyway...I have Beside Myself on vinyl and on cassette. I don't have a photo of myself with the vinyl album but here's the cassette copy. I also have it on CD under a different name, At His Best. The album, released in 1989, was his sixth studio album for MCA Records and at the time his final for the label (he'd return in the mid 1990s for a couple of projects). The album broke up the pattern of his previous five which were all comedy. This one presented 10 songs altogether (five ballads and five comedy). The ballads are featured on side one and I believe that was by design...his serious side hadn't been represented on records since 1983...and so the first five songs on this album showcase his serious side and probably by coincidence a more serious looking image of Ray is seen first on the album cover seated next to the comical/clown image of Ray of which takes center stage on side two of the album. The album's lead off is the appropriately titled "Your Bozo's Back Again". The third track is "Marion Michael Morrison" which I previously wrote about in the above paragraph. Just recently an article became available centering around John Wayne but more to the point it was an interview of Chris Mitchum (the son of the late actor, Robert Mitchum) and it was conducted by Jeremy Roberts...a name that should ring a bell with the more in-depth fans of Ray Stevens. It's Jeremy whose conducted interviews with Ray as well as Buddy Kalb in recent years...and yes, he even conducted an interview with me of all people centering around my frustrations of why Ray isn't in the Country Music Hall of Fame. You can read each of the three interviews by clicking the following links: Ray Stevens Buddy Kalb and Yours Truly. The interviews were published in December 2016 (Ray), June 2017 (Buddy), and July 2017 (mine). In the Buddy Kalb interview you'll see mention of the upcoming CabaRay and how, at the time, the parties involved were expecting to have the showroom completed and ready for it's grand opening in September of last year...so, as I was referring to earlier, it's completion and eventual grand opening took longer than expected.

The latest interview of Chris Mitchum and the connection to John Wayne can be found HERE. The title of the piece is 'John Wayne built my career'. As you'll see when you visit the page it's the third part of an interview. The second part was published in November and titled 'When Robert Mitchum considered Elvis Presley for Thunder Road' and part one was earlier in November and titled 'Chris Mitchum's Fluke Showdown with the King of Cool'. Once you visit the link featuring commentary about John Wayne that I provided you can visit the author's home page and locate the other two parts of the interview and find all of his interviews, in general, but part three ties into the career of Ray Stevens in an indirect way given the recording of "Marion Michael Morrison" in 1989. On the left hand side of each interview there's an applause symbol. This is the site's version of a 'like' button so make sure you click the applause symbol when you read the articles.

I look for Ray to release some sort of audio CD in 2019...the last album was the Christmas release Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me (2016) and before that Here We Go Again! (2015). A couple of months ago Ray had made some commentary on social media that he'd been in the recording studio and usually that means some kind of recording or an entire CD is on the way and so perhaps the early half of 2019 will feature new songs from Ray!? His CabaRay Nashville television series continues to air in local syndication on PBS and I'm hoping new episodes of the series are produced in 2019. An elusive Season Seven has yet to materialize...but the previous six seasons of the series are currently airing on scattered local PBS stations across the country...and the first two seasons are also available on DVD. In addition to the anniversary milestones for specific songs/albums by Ray Stevens in the year 2019 the biggest milestone will happen a month from now...technically less than a month from now...on January 24, 2019. Dedicated fans of Ray should know the importance of that day without my having to say it. This might be the last blog entry I write for 2018...but perhaps not...I may squeeze in one more before the calendar flips to January. Whatever I decide just remember that I'll continue to follow the career of Ray Stevens in 2019 just as I have the last several decades and I'll continue offering an informative, detailed, opinionated, and enthusiastic blog for those that are seriously interested in the career/music of Ray Stevens.

Ray Stevens: Such a Night DVD...

Hello once again!! Although I had posted a blog entry earlier in the morning it didn't necessarily feel like Christmas at the time of the writing...but now that it's been daylight outside for several hours and the Christmas programming is on television in the living room and much of the food that's going to be eaten is on the stove it feels like Christmas Day. In one of my recent blog entries I made mention of purchasing a DVD during Ray's 12 Days of Christmas Sale. The DVD arrived a couple of days ago and I've since watched it. The concert took place at The Welk Theater and Resort in Branson, Missouri in the fall of 2010. If you remember the events surrounding Ray's career during that time period then you should remember that he did a lengthy series of concerts there. The concert captured on this DVD is from October of 2010 but the DVD itself wasn't released until 2012. The sub-title of the project reflects the 50 years that had passed since the release of his breakthrough hit, "Ahab the Arab", in 1962. The official title of the DVD is Such a Night but I refer to it as: Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity. The concerts that took place in 2010 at The Welk Theater were largely the result of Ray's stratospheric, meteoric rise on social media video hosting sites...mainly YouTube. The on-line outlet enabled Ray to release brand new songs to the public, in green screen music video format, without the need for radio or television advertisements or creative compromise. The politically themed music videos became viral hits and several of them caught the attention of those that worked in cable news and conservative talk radio. Ray made appearances on numerous high profile cable news programs on both radio and television in this time period and the concerts he did at the Welk in 2010 were split between a segment of political comedy songs and a traditional concert comprised of non-political songs. The political segment was released on DVD in the form of Patriots and Politics while the non-political segment is showcased on this Such a Night DVD. In the political DVD captured from another concert Ray is wearing a blue dinner jacket. In this Such a Night DVD he's in a red dinner jacket.

The concert features a voice over/introduction by one of Ray's longtime friends, Ralph Emery. Ray emerges onto the stage and performs "Such a Night", a song he recorded in 1982 for his Don't Laugh Now album. It's become his concert opener...and since I've not been to a lot of his concerts (for economic/travel reasons) I don't know how many years he's opened his concerts with the song. To date I've attended a concert of his in Renfro Valley, Kentucky as well as one in Nashville, Indiana and then earlier this year at his CabaRay in Nashville, Tennessee. Anyway the concert took me back to that era in his career and I think most fans of Ray Stevens will take the same things away from the concert as I did. It shows that Ray has a restless creativity and is forever changing in the manner in which he delivers a concert or a performance. This is also several years before he released his memoir or began his television series and obviously a number of years before construction of the CabaRay showroom was ever started. In my eyes, at least, the Ray Stevens we see in this 2010 concert is different than the Ray Stevens we see on his CabaRay Nashville television series or in person at the CabaRay showroom. On the surface it seems as if Ray remains the same and yet when you go back and look at concert performances in chronological order you'll see a lot of evolution and change but it isn't drastic and therefore it doesn't overshadow his recordings or whatever it happens to be that he's working on.

Upon the conclusion of his performance of "Such a Night" he looked out into the audience and asked how many people were still in the audience. It had been documented in a couple of reviews published in local papers in Branson, Missouri and in several on-line sites that during the political segment of his concerts there were several non-disruptive walkouts by some audience members. I remember these statements and commenting on this blog and elsewhere that the people that walked out must not have knew that Ray had inserted political comedy from a conservative point of view into his stage show...all as a result of his massively popular YouTube music videos of the time...but to walkout of any performance without it being an extreme emergency is petty and small, I think. Ray opined the reason that some had walked out and after the comment it was the last political statement he made as he turned his focus to a more conventional set list of songs and stand-up routines. He joked about playing golf in Branson and flying to concerts instead of using a tour bus. He launched into his Oldies Medley which consists of abbreviated performances of "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills", "Ahab the Arab", and "Along Came Jones". After some more stand-up comedy about the traffic issues in Branson and a school trip involving a restroom, school kids, and their teacher Ray performs "Gitarzan". In an unusual twist a shapely Jane walks out on stage but is then chased off stage by Janice Copeland, the usual performer of Jane. She passed away last year at age 67 but definitely left her mark in Branson and in Ray's stage shows and music videos. In addition to Jane there's also an unidentified person in a monkey suit prancing around during the performance of the song's chorus.

In recent years Ray's abbreviated "Shriner's Convention" to just the opening verse and the first phone call between Bubba and Coy which conveniently inserts a line from the final phone call to wrap-up the one sided phone conversation and on this DVD the abbreviated performance is included. I don't know if the abbreviated performance is done for time constraints that are out of his control or if it's become something of a habit of shortening the song in an effort to have it part of the concert without having to perform it in it's entirety...the song is well over five minutes, though...maybe he feels the length of the song doesn't play well in a concert setting anymore since it's mostly a narration piece and most people nowadays have short attention spans. It's anyone's guess. Stand-up comedy returns in the form of Ray speaking about how he grew up listening to gospel music and how he was always marveling at how low bass singers could get. The gospel recollections conclude with a Dolly Parton joke. "Turn Your Radio On" is performed and almost immediately afterward he tells several jokes centering around his grandfather.

As we near the end of the concert Ray performs "Misty" and then "It's Me Again, Margaret". Ray tells some more jokes including one that some may think is crude or not family friendly but it's hysterical. "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival" is then performed and this is followed by one more joke centering around Ray's grandmother. "Everything is Beautiful" is performed and the concert closes with "The Streak". As mentioned near the top of this blog entry Ray was performing a series of concerts at The Welk Theater in the fall of 2010. Ray's overwhelming YouTube success (November 2009 through spring 2013) he says afforded him the opportunity to reach audiences he otherwise never would've dreamed of reaching and it led to his concerts at The Welk Theater...a venue that probably wouldn't have had Ray Stevens on the radar beforehand. Several years later Ray would perform a series of concerts at the Andy Williams theater as part of a memorial. Andy had passed away in 2012 and the next month Ray was among the many performers that gave concerts at Andy's theater as a kind of send-off and a celebration of his career. In the ensuing years Ray performed select concerts at Andy's theater...culminating in a limited series of concerts in 2016 and those concerts unofficially or officially, depending on how one looks at it, but they marked the end of his professional involvement with Branson, Missouri as he set his sights on the construction of his CabaRay showroom on River Road in West Nashville, TN (which opened to the public in January of this year).

Ray Stevens Christmas Nuggets...

Merry Christmas from this long time Ray Stevens fan!! I've been a fan of Ray's ever since discovering one of his recordings, "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival", on a jukebox in a local pizza place in the late 1980s. A couple of blogs ago I put together a sort of 'celebration' of my 10th year as a blogger of all things Ray Stevens. I've always been an independent blogger with no personal or professional connection to Ray whatsoever...this fan created blog is strictly for my and hopefully your pleasure as well. Ray's been uploading several Christmas themed performances on YouTube lately. Two of the performances come from his CabaRay Nashville television series. One of them is his performance of "White Christmas" with Deborah Allen while the other is a performance of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Suzy Bogguss. 

In addition to those he uploaded a performance of "Bad Little Boy" from a television appearance in 1997...the very year the Christmas Through a Different Window album was released. The performance comes off like a live music video and by that I mean he performs it with plenty of stage props (giant toys and a giant chair to cause him to look smaller). If I recall correctly I once remarked that "Bad Little Boy" was like a modern update on the Spike Jones classic, "Nuttin' for Christmas". In fact one of the repeated phrases in Ray's recording echos the same sentiments. In case you missed it here's that video...



There's been a number of things happening in the world of Ray Stevens over the last week and a half...certainly in the last week. Events started out typical enough...several advertisements appeared on YouTube for the Christmas at the CabaRay concerts in addition his New Year's Eve celebration taking place at the CabaRay; but...then came the breaking news surrounding his decision to sell his Music Row property (which includes his long time recording studio). The buyer of the property will use the space to construct a 7-story building designed to benefit the music industry and lure economic vitality to the region once more. Detractors/preservationists are saying it's one more nail in the coffin in the destruction of Music Row's historical buildings. Those who support Ray's decision and the property sale, in general, see it as a way to bring in music-driven business and who knows? The building, based on the art work of the finished project, is certainly large enough to include office headquarters for songwriters, publishers, musicians, and the like...and serve as a beacon for those wanting to get their foot in the door in Music City. The local paper published an article all about the breaking news and it included commentary from Ray and how he had held off selling his property until the right buyer came along. At the time of the article the sale hadn't been finalized yet but it looks to be finalized probably early next year. You can read the article by clicking HERE. 

In addition to the Christmas concerts at the CabaRay, the upcoming New Year's Eve concert, the breaking news surrounding his Music Row property, and the Christmas themed YouTube video clips...on top of this a decision was made by those at RFD-TV to remove his two television programs that they'd just started airing the last couple of weeks. There wasn't any kind of explanation given...I posted several comments on RFD's social media sites hoping to get a response and I even sent a personal message/e-mail inquiring as to the reason both CabaRay Nashville and Rayality TV were suddenly removed without any explanation whatsoever. Given that I sent that message a couple of days ago I'm sure the office staff at RFD is on Christmas break and aren't going to reply until later this week or in the New Year.

CabaRay Nashville had been placed on RFD's schedule on Saturday night and Rayality TV was placed in the 9pm time-slot on Sunday following Hee Haw a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend neither show was on their line-up and neither were listed on RFD's on-line program guide. Prior to last weekend the two shows were listed on the program guide along side the network's other regularly scheduled shows. I know that RFD removed a massively popular series from their Sunday night line-up and placed Rayality TV there. Since then they brought back the massively popular series but yet didn't place Ray's show in a different time-slot on their network...as far as I know it was removed entirely. As far as CabaRay Nashville was concerned it was placed on the same night it previously had aired during the 2015-2016 season and yet it, too, was removed. Could I be jumping to conclusions when I wonder if Ray's most recent business decisions in any way played a role in his two television shows abruptly leaving RFD's airwaves? Is RFD going to bring the show's back in 2019 on a more permanent basis and therefore am I over-reacting concerning their disappearance from RFD? I could be over-reacting...remember, though, I hadn't received a reply yet as to why Ray's programs aren't part of RFD-TV...and so all of my irritation, confusion, and curiosity may prove to be unnecessary should both programs return to RFD's airwaves. I hope to get a reply from them just so I can try and understand their reasoning because, quite honestly, it just doesn't make any sense and it isn't fair to his fans.

Just so I don't close the blog entry on such a gloomy overtone I'm closing it with the bouncy and cute rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Ray and Suzy Bogguss. Ray adds in mostly his own lyrics...it's not a total parody or anything...but Ray's comical reaction lines deliberately keep the mood playful instead of romantic.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville Television Series...

For a larger view you can click the photo on the left. Although it's  not a thumbnail image it should give you a slightly larger image than the one I've placed in this blog entry. It's one of the various collage's of Ray Stevens that I've made over the last couple of years. In case you missed some of my recent blog entries or hadn't heard the news...the television series that Ray's been hosting since 2015, CabaRay Nashville, has returned to RFD-TV. The program departed the RFD-TV schedule after a little more than a year on their line-up (two 13 episode seasons which included 26 repeats). Upon it's departure from RFD-TV it moved into local PBS syndication in January of 2017. The episodes that had aired on RFD-TV from November 2015 until December 2016 (26 total) were the first ones to air when the series moved to PBS syndication. While all of this was going on, though, Ray was putting together more and more episodes of the series. These brand new episodes became known as the PBS exclusives since they hadn't aired on any other network. These exclusives began airing in the summer of 2017 (officially the start of Season Three). The series continued on through seasons four, five, and six with each season consisting of 13 first-run episodes. Last night (December 15th) marked the third week since Ray's return to the RFD-TV airwaves with the airing of episode three from Season Three...but not to forget is the fact that episodes of the series continue to air on local PBS stations as well. The first two seasons of the television series have been released on DVD.

If you want to purchase them specifically as a Christmas gift you'll have until December 18th (this coming Tuesday) at the very latest to place your order. Logistically speaking any order placed after that date you'll probably not get until after Christmas. You can purchase Season One and Season Two separately but there's also a combo offer where you can purchase both seasons and end up paying less when purchased together rather than sold separately. Each DVD is $29.99 (not including shipping and handling). If you order the combo offer you'll pay $44.99 (not including shipping and handling). So, more or less, you'll be saving maybe 10 or 11 dollars off the total price when purchased together. Everything you need to know can be found in the DVD area of Ray's web-store when you click this LINK but make your purchase by December 18th if you want it before Christmas!

Now, then...are you ready for the episode list of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...here they are...all six seasons and they're in chronological air-date order. I don't know how many episodes of the show RFD-TV is going to air but use this as your episode guide. Feel free to copy, paste, and print off the episode list just in case RFD-TV does indeed air all 52 of the PBS episodes (Seasons Three through Six)...

Season One (RFD-TV):
1. Steve Wariner
2. Larry Gatlin
3. Bobby Bare
4. Don Schlitz
5. Charlie McCoy
6. Bobby Braddock
7. Jimmy Fortune
8. Aaron Tippin
9. John Conlee and Jeff Bates
10. Tanya Tucker and T.G. Sheppard
11. Gene Watson
12. James Gregory
13. Billy Dean

Season Two (RFD-TV):
1. Bobby Goldsboro
2. T. Graham Brown and Suzi Ragsdale
3. Williams and Ree
4. Leroy Van Dyke
5. The Bellamy Brothers
6. The Gatlin Brothers
7. Collin Raye
8. Darryl Worley and Lee Greenwood
9. Bill Anderson
10. Sylvia
11. Con Hunley
12. Jimmy Wayne
13. Reed Robertson

Season Three (Local PBS syndication; currently airing on RFD-TV):
1. Harold Bradley and Mandy Barnett
2. Shenandoah
3. Michael W. Smith
4. B.J. Thomas
5. Rhonda Vincent
6. Restless Heart
7. John Michael Montgomery
8. Baillie and the Boys
9. Tommy Roe
10. Mark Wills
11. Duane Eddy
12. Angaleena Presley
13. Riders in the Sky

Season Four (Local PBS syndication):
1. Rex Allen, Jr.
2. Lari White
3. Charley Pride
4. Janie Fricke
5. Gary Mule Deer
6. Gary Morris
7. John Berry
8. Jeannie Seely
9. Don McLean
10. Felix Cavaliere
11. Suzy Bogguss (Christmas episode)
12. Deborah Allen (Christmas episode)
13. The A-Team (New Year's Eve episode)

Season Five (Local PBS syndication):
1. Ray Hilderbrand
2. Steve Wariner (edited version of series debut episode)
3. Paul Overstreet
4. Daily and Vincent
5. Jenny Gill
6. Tracy Lawrence
7. Sam Moore
8. Wilson Fairchild
9. Deana Carter
10. Gary Puckett
11. John Rich (Part One episode)
12. John Rich (Part Two episode)
13. Tony Orlando

Season Six (Local PBS syndication):
1. Jamie O'Neal
2. Mark Chesnutt
3. Special Moments (retrospective featuring out-takes and clips from past episodes)
4. Hall of Fame (Ray plays video clips of Hall of Fame guests that have appeared on the show)
5. Moe Bandy (first episode taped from the stage of the CabaRay showroom)
6. Linda Davis
7. CeCe Winans
8. Micky Dolenz
9. Tribute Show (Ray salutes Jerry Reed, Mel Tillis, Glen Campbell, and Merle Haggard)
10. Ronnie McDowell
11. Shoji Tabuchi
12. John Schneider
13. Lee Roy Parnell

His clip-filled series, Rayality TV, is also airing on RFD-TV. This unique series airs on Sunday nights at 9pm Eastern (following Hee Haw). I don't have an episode list for that series, however. It's a perfect fit because Ray's clip based series features the same kind of quick edits and cutting away from scene to scene...the sort of technical wizardry that made Hee Haw unique from a production stand-point.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Christmas...

Hello all once more!! Here we are on December 15th...ten days until Christmas...and I hadn't even started on attempting to figure out what to get some of my family for Christmas. I purchased the Ray Stevens DVD titled Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity. I purchased it yesterday when it went on sale. It was the final item in the 12 Days of Christmas discount sale that was taking place on Ray's website. I was not on-line during the first day of the sales event and so I missed out on the offer on the CabaRay hat. The discount sale on each of the 12 items lasted one day only. I posted a link to the discount sale in my previous blog entry back on December 9th and so for those that seen that particular blog post then chances are you participated in the discount sales event or at least were aware that it was taking place. Discount sale or not I'll more than likely put in an order for one of those CabaRay hats in a couple of days or perhaps early next year. I'm not too concerned with whether or not the item arrives before or after Christmas which is why I'm not in any hurry to place an order just yet but I definitely want one of them. I could have purchased one of them when I attended a concert at the CabaRay back on March 1st but I ended up purchasing a CabaRay Nashville coffee mug and his Love Lifted Me CD instead. When you visit Ray's official on-line store you'll see an alert posted indicating the cut-off date pertaining to items arriving before Christmas. As of this writing there's an alert giving a reminder that if you place your order by December 18th chances are it'll arrive before Christmas should you be planning on purchasing something as a gift. I purchased my DVD yesterday, as mentioned, and so I look for it to arrive in my mailbox at some point early next week...I'd be surprised if it took longer than that...given my past experiences they ship things in a timely manner.

Recently there was a write-up in The Tennessean on-line newspaper about the CabaRay Christmas and it featured a video clip. Someone at the newspaper has gone ahead and posted the video clip on YouTube for an even larger audience to see and I'm sharing the video clip in this blog entry...



*** Program alert: Tonight at 8:30pm Eastern on RFD-TV... Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville guest starring Michael W. Smith. ***

Ray Stevens: A Festive CabaRay Christmas...

Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens!! It's been a week since my previous blog entry but I've been extremely busy due to off-line activity. Due to the nature of my job (freight handler) my work load during late November and throughout the month of December is such where I don't have much time to devote to on-line activity because of the increased hours as a result of the holidays and our customers shipping more items this time of the year. We're heading into what might be referred to as crunch time with Monday being December 10th...only 14 shipping days left before Christmas...actually, though, fewer days than that because if you want to get your item delivered on-time then this week is the most ideal to ship/mail your item with the peace of mind it'll reach it's destination before Christmas Day (which falls on a Tuesday this year).

If you're ordering anything from the Ray Stevens on-line store for a Christmas gift either for yourself or someone else then I'd suggest ordering this week (December 10th through the 14th). I think Ray's office staff take the week of Christmas off...at least in the past they usually have suggested to get your orders taken care of prior to the week of Christmas to ensure delivery. Ray is promoting what's being called The 12 Days of Christmas Sale. You can read all about it by clicking HERE. The sale began on December 3rd and lasts until December 14th. The discount price is only good for one day and they'll be promoting Day 7's discounted item later on today. As mentioned the discount price is only good for one day only...tomorrow the item's regular selling price is intact.

Christmas at the CabaRay, of course, is still in progress. An on-line article became available back on November 25th, according to it's time stamp, and it's an article promoting the concert series. I wrote a blog post on November 25th, ironically enough, but there isn't any link to the article in my blog post. I don't know the time of day I published the blog post and so the article may not have been posted on-line yet. The 25th of November was on a Sunday and chances are my blog post was in the early morning hours of November 25th...and given that the on-line article was posted at 4pm I was certainly not aware of it because on Sunday afternoons I'm in front of the TV watching football games from 1pm to 7pm and I usually go to bed after the first or second quarter of the Sunday night game. Anyway, you can read the Christmas at the CabaRay article by clicking HERE. The article features a great photo of Ray, on stage at the CabaRay, with the Christmas decorations behind him. The back-up singers dressed in red.

December 2018 also marked something else happening in the career of Ray Stevens but it hasn't been advertised or promoted much...Ray Stevens is involved with the RFD-TV network once again. If you remember it was RFD that originally aired his television series when it was titled Ray Stevens Nashville. The network aired the show, if I recall correctly, from November 2015 until December 2016. The first 26 episodes (Seasons One and Two) of the series aired on RFD. After it's run on RFD it moved to local syndication on PBS and it was re-titled Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. It's aired on local PBS stations nationwide, in scattered markets all over the country, since January 2017 and episodes of the series are still airing on local PBS stations but now they've been brought back to RFD. Since the network originally aired the first two 13-episode seasons during their initial broadcast of the series they're airing the PBS episodes which never aired on RFD and chances are were never seen by a general audience.

The series, as a whole, has had 6 seasons and 78 half hour episodes produced so far. This means there's 4 seasons worth of episodes that RFD hasn't aired...and my guess is they'll air all the episodes that have been produced from Season Three until Season Six (52 half hour episodes altogether). The network has Ray's CabaRay Nashville series airing Saturday nights at 8:30pm following The Marty Stuart Show. Last night's episode of CabaRay Nashville was Season Three, Episode Two guest starring Shenendoah. In a future blog post I'll post an episode by episode guide list. I've posted these in several previous blog entries but I've written so many blog posts (yay!!!) that the entries containing the episode lists are literally buried in the archives.

In addition to CabaRay Nashville on Saturday nights the network has also started airing Ray's previous series, Rayality TV, on it's Sunday night schedule at 9pm following Hee Haw. If you recall Rayality TV is a program that originally aired on a re-launched Nashville Network before it became Heartland Television. Those episodes weren't seen by a national audience since coverage of Heartland Television then, as now, is spotty given that some cable providers do not carry it in their line-up.

But anyway...the local PBS station in my area that's aired Ray's show since March 2017 is still airing the series. They're re-airing Season Four. Eventually Ray will be producing new episodes of the television series, at least I assume he will, because at some point or another re-airings will become too familiar and audiences will be wanting new episodes to see. I'm thinking new episodes will start to go into production at some point in the spring or even summer of 2019 so that by the time RFD has aired all of the PBS episodes new to the network more episodes will become available by November/December 2019...at least that's how it appears it'll play out...but again that's only my theory and I'm like you are...making assumptions and guessing when it comes to the unpredictable nature of Ray's career with all it's twists and turns...attempting to figure it out is pointless...just take it as it plays itself out.

A general audience that isn't as consumed with all things Ray Stevens as I am or some of you may be, well, for a general audience these airings on RFD will be 'new' to those viewers and I'm thrilled that the show is once again airing on a network that nearly every cable provider has on their line-up and that it'll be airing in one time-slot rather than multiple time-slots on various days of the week. Some cable providers still offer RFD as a premium but a larger number of providers now offer it as a basic channel with no extra cost...and since CabaRay Nashville will be airing nationwide in one time-slot it'll be much more easier for viewers to find.

The only hindrance of local syndication is a series is at the mercy of the local programmer who chooses the time of day or day of the week a series will air. Some programmers, since the human element plays a part in decision making, some programmers I'll charge with deliberately placing a series in a graveyard slot for the purposes of not having it played on the more prestigious prime time line-up when, in theory, all eyes are watching. The term off-peak hours is used more nowadays than graveyard slot but the overall goal remains the same: the deliberate attempt to bury a series. In my research ever since CabaRay Nashville began it's local syndication airings on PBS stations I've found that there were quite a few stations that programmed the show in the over-night hours. Sure, a viewer can always DVR the series so a time-slot isn't much of a big deal anymore, right?

Well, not exactly...you still need/want a series to air at a time of day that a general audience is more likely to be watching. The fan-base will go out of their way to find a show, that's pretty much a given, but a general audience is not like that. If a series isn't easily found then chances are a general audience will simply give up and not even bother trying to it which is why favorable time-slots are still important even in this overly saturated technology age. When Ray's television program originally aired on RFD it was the network's highest rated series...and I hope it'll once again rise to number one during this renewed relationship with the network.

Ray Stevens: Greatest Hits U.K. Mp3...

Hello once again...the calendar flipped to December yesterday and on this second day of December, which happens to be my birthday, by the way...but on this second day of December I came across a compilation project on Ray Stevens only being sold as a digital download/Mp3. The funny thing is the United States version of Amazon isn't carrying the Mp3 but the international Amazon marketplace is. I came across an image of Ray from a few years ago being used for a Greatest Hits release. The image is in black and white but it's a recent photo from a function at the Country Music Hall of Fame. You can see the logo in the background. Anyway...I clicked the image and it took me to a site offering a 20 track compilation of Ray Stevens recordings. The recordings are chosen pretty much at random but are exclusive to his earliest years (1957-1965) but, interestingly enough, a couple of notable recordings are not featured among the 20.

The information surrounding this project shows that it became available on November 22nd and that it's on a label called Vintage Jukebox. I did some research and found that the label's other releases feature cover photo's with what I call the split screen effect and so it isn't something unique or exclusive to the Ray Stevens compilation. Even though it isn't available on a physical CD it's nevertheless being publicized with this visual as if there's a CD available. In the LINK to Amazon.co.uk there's a section that indicates that the release is also available as an audio CD but this is false. The link to the audio CD that they provide will take you to a page selling a Ray Stevens 1991 Greatest Hits compilation from Curb Records. I have no idea why they placed a link to an entirely different project there but the fact remains this 2018 compilation is only available on-line in Mp3 format. Once you visit the Amazon.co.uk site you'll obviously notice that the pricing is in a foreign currency...there isn't any U.S. prices listed. I have no idea what 3 pounds, 49 pence translates to in American dollars off the top of my head. I know there's a currency website calculator where you enter a foreign price and it'll give the equivalent price in U.S. dollars. This Vintage Jukebox release features Ray's version of "When You Wish Upon a Star" which, as far as I know, had only been available on vinyl as the B-side to 1961's "Jeremiah Peabody" (one of the two notable recordings not found on this 2018 release...the other being his 1962 breakthrough hit, "Ahab the Arab"). I listened to the brief audio clips of each recording and they're all original. I mention this because as many of you are aware it's become something of a habit from numerous labels both foreign and domestic, as well as major and independent, of using re-recordings of his hits instead of the originals.

A couple of years ago (2014) there was a similar compilation project released on Ray Stevens on another overseas label, Jasmine. That particular release was available as both an Mp3 and a CD. I've got the CD in my collection. That project was titled Ahab, Jeremiah, Sgt. Preston and More...The Early Ray Stevens and you can read my review of that CD by clicking HERE.

The differences between the 2014 and 2018 projects are in presentation style. The 2014 release was chronological, for the most part, in the sequential order of the track list. There are 31 recordings on the 2014 project and the first 15 that make up the CD are the A and B sides of single releases from Ray covering the years 1957 to 1959 across a couple of record labels (Prep, Capitol, and NRC). The rest of the songs on the 2014 release are from Mercury Records (his 1961 "Jeremiah Peabody" single, the entire 1,837 Seconds of Humor LP from 1962, and several recordings from his 1963 This is Ray Stevens LP). The CD release also featured a booklet of liner notes.

The 2018 release is exclusively on-line, as mentioned earlier, and so there isn't a liner note booklet and the songs spotlighted are mostly the ones found on the 2014 project but not in chronological order. The 2018 track list boasts 20 recordings including what may be the digital debut of "When You Wish Upon a Star" and there's also the inclusion of the tragically under-rated "Bubblegum the Bubble Dancer" which rarely appears on many compilation releases even though it was once available as a commercial single in 1964. I didn't provide a track list for 2018's Greatest Hits because there's one available at the Amazon United Kingdom webpage. Earlier in the blog entry I provided a link to the 2018 Mp3 compilation...but to save you all some time from having to scroll back up to click that earlier link here it is AGAIN.

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Christmas Concert Series...

Hello all once again!! The Christmas at the CabaRay concert series is in full swing...and from things I've come across on social media sites it's been quite a success as I imagined it would be. There is one more concert left on the November calendar...it takes place on November 30th (next Friday) and then the calendar flips to December. It being November 25th it means Christmas Day is exactly one month from now. To those reading this blog entry...have you attended any of the CabaRay Christmas concerts? Have you attended any of the concerts at the facility since it's grand opening back in January of this year? The collage you see off to the left hand side of the page is something I'd posted before...it's a display of the three Christmas albums that Ray recorded during his career along side a recent photo taken of Ray inside the CabaRay. There was once a time where recording artists of all music types issued Christmas albums. Some artists issued them fairly frequently while others would issue them infrequently...but it was the norm every Christmas season to see a flood of new albums or re-issues of older albums filled with Christmas songs. The trend continues on-line to some extent...artists will make available Mp3 digital downloads of Christmas songs and on-line music stores and streaming services will advertise Christmas recordings...and a lot of the time those recordings are exclusive to on-line purchase with no physical copy of a CD available.

As I was mentioning, though...the Christmas at the CabaRay concert series is heading into it's heaviest slate of performances as we head toward December. The remaining concert dates are November 30th and then the following dates for the month of December: 1, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 28, 29, and 31.



When you watch the video clip you'll be given a phone number to call for ticket purchasing. Meanwhile, the New Year's Eve concert, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, will be a major event and the concert presentation will be slightly different in that there will be two concert performances by Ray which are described on the website as Act I (7:30pm to 8:15pm) and Act II (8:30pm to 9:30pm). In between the acts is a 15 minute intermission. The added attractions to give it a New Year's Eve feel will kick off at 10pm. There will be a balloon drop at midnight to ring in the New Year.

In the meantime the Christmas at the CabaRay concert series is taking place. When he released the most recent Christmas album (Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me) there were several on-line stories promoting a certain recording from that album, "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". There was never a music video made of it and I don't know if Ray ever performed it on stage so it may have been one of those instances where a song gets some initial hype/publicity but then falls off the radar but it's a clever song dealing with the Christmas wishes of a declawed cat...even the song's title uses word play in that claws and Claus are pronounced the same way. The CD, as you can see in the photo, doesn't feature Ray on the cover...in fact Ray's image doesn't appear anywhere on the CD (neither on the front, back, or inside). The art work is credited to a company called Latocki Team Creative. The title track of the album was performed by Ray on an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series and eventually a music video of the song was created. The video debuted on YouTube back in November of 2016. The music video comes off whimsical with Ray and several hand puppets which undercuts the subject matter. In fact the 10 song album features just 3 comedy recordings and so the overall approach to this project was serious. The three comical songs are: "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", (both of which come from his 2012 Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music project), and the never before available "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". That song was written by Tommy Crawford and Taylor Craven. "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me" was written by Jeff Bates and John Ritter (not to be confused with the late, legendary actor!). The album also features the debut on CD of "Merry Christmas" which had been only available as a YouTube music video.



In closing here's one of the Christmas classics from Ray Stevens that I'm sure he's been performing at the CabaRay...the one and only "Redneck Christmas"...

10th Anniversary of my Ray Stevens blog...

Although technically this fan created Ray Stevens blog reached it's 10th anniversary last month I never posted much, if anything that I can recall, about it...I certainly never created a blog entry spotlighting the fact...but today I was doing my usual on-line searches and surfing and decided to take a look in the archive section of this blog. Seeing that I never posted a blog entry specifically celebrating (?) the milestone I decided to title this blog entry as such even though I'm not going to be spotlighting my own previous blog entries. This fan-created blog was created by me in 2008 to spotlight, celebrate, inform, teach, and show appreciation for all things Ray Stevens to anybody that happened to come across the blog during their own surfing of the internet. In addition to those reasons one of the main reasons for the blog's creation was to confront on-line inaccuracy pertaining to Ray's career, highlight the inaccuracy on this blog, and then correct whatever inaccuracy I happened to come across in my on-line searches. I've never pushed the blog on anybody and the promotional effort is next to non-existent on my part. Whenever I post a blog entry I'll share a link to a social media site but then that's it. I don't over saturate social media sites with links to my blog. I'm well aware that I could possibly have thousands upon thousands of hits and clicks but I prefer the low-key nature that I've enjoyed the last 10 years.

Speaking of anniversaries and milestones...this particular vinyl album from Ray Stevens hit 40 this year. There are some internet sites that state 1977 as the year this project was released but I've never seen any vinyl image showcasing that to be accurate. The vinyl copy I have clearly shows 1978 as it's year of release. On the back of the album cover (which I don't have a photo of) and located on the lower right hand side gives 1978 as the year this album was released...and so I don't know why there's some sites out there giving inaccurate information...but there again that's one of the reasons I began this blog 10 years ago. There is so much inaccurate information surrounding the career of Ray Stevens that I felt inspired to create this blog to combat all the inaccuracy I'd come across. This album is titled There Is Something On Your Mind and it's a covers album where Ray performs his versions of Rhythm and Blues songs. The writing you see above the album's photo is Ray's introduction/commentary as to the reason for the album. On the back of the album Ray gives his thoughts about the songs and offers extensive, music-oriented commentary on the recordings. The album is unusual in the fact that there are only eight recordings...a far cry from the standard 11 or 12 that was typical for LP's of that time period. Although there are only eight recordings three of those are medley performances and so as far as the length of time is concerned it runs pretty close to the average 11 or 12 song LP. The songs that get the Ray Stevens treatment are:

Side One:
1. Dance Trilogy ("Do You Wanna Dance?", "When You Dance", and "Save The Last Dance For Me")
2. Talk to Me
3. One Mint Julep
4. Old Faithful Trilogy ("Shake a Hand", "Since I Met You Baby", and "Always")

Side Two:
1. Money Honey
2. Banned In Boston Trilogy ("Sixty Minute Man", "Work With Me Annie", and "Annie Had a Baby")
3. Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash
4. There is Something on Your Mind

In 1995 Warner Brothers issued a three volume collection of songs recorded by Ray Stevens during his three year stay at the label (1976-1979). In the credits contained in those 1995 releases it states that the recordings found on this 1978 album were previously unreleased. At the time I didn't have any of Ray's vinyl albums and I didn't know the names of any of his albums prior to 1984 and so I thought the songs credited as previously unreleased meant that they had never appeared on any album until 1995. To this day I don't know why those 1995 compilation albums (Cornball, Do You Wanna Dance?, and The Serious Side of Ray Stevens) inaccurately stated the recordings from this 1978 album were previously unreleased.

Tracks two and four on Side Two of There is Something On Your Mind weren't included in the three volume 1995 compilation project. As a result I never heard those two recordings until I obtained the 1978 vinyl album for my personal collection at some point in the early 2000s.

One of the overlooked aspects of the album was the lack of a lengthy roster of musicians. If you look at the musician credits you'll see that Ray, Reggie Young, and Jack Williams played on every recording but then you'll notice that on two of the recordings credit for the drummer is split between Jerry Kroon and Jerry Carrigan while acoustic guitar is credited on two of the recordings to either Johnny Christopher or Mark Casstevens.

Mark Casstevens and Jerry Kroon are credited on two of the eight recordings as acoustic guitarist and drummer respectively ("Old Faithful Trilogy" and "Money Honey"). The musicians for the other 6 recordings consisted of Ray (keyboards, piano, synthesizers, percussion, background vocals), Reggie Young (electric guitar), Jack Williams (bass), Jerry Carrigan (drums), and Johnny Christopher (acoustic guitar).

Ray Stevens and his CabaRay Festivities...

Oh how long has it been since I've written a fan-created blog entry about Ray Stevens!?!? The previous one dealt with the charity golf event at the Temple Hills Country Club. A couple of days ago Ray uploaded a video clip promoting an upcoming New Year's Eve concert at the CabaRay and so I'm going to be posting that video clip momentarily but first I'm posting a reminder that Christmas season started early at the CabaRay. This past Friday (November 2) was the start of the series of concerts being promoted as Christmas at the CabaRay.

That is the publicity photo for the Christmas concert series. As you can see from the advertisement the concert series will last until the end of this year. I don't know if Ray will be performing Christmas songs heavily in the concerts taking place this month. In some of the commentary that appeared on-line late in October there was the possibility of slipping in some Christmas songs in his concerts, gradually, beginning November 2 and then by early December having a more or less entire concert play-list made up of Christmas music. I don't know how heavily the Christmas music will feature in the concerts that take place after December 25th or if he'll perform spiritual type music during those last two Christmas concert performances that month. Anyway...as of this writing the Christmas at the CabaRay concert series will take place on the following dates...keep in mind that concerts are performed on Friday and Saturday nights and so it isn't a 5 or 6 night a week schedule.

The remaining Christmas concerts scheduled for November will take place on the following dates: 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 30.

The Christmas concerts scheduled for December will take place on the following dates: 1, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 28, and 29.

If you'll notice there isn't any concert scheduled during the week before Christmas. As of this writing that week is empty. The next Christmas concert will take place on December 28th. The concert on December 6th is a Thursday and so that will be the heaviest activity with three concert dates in a row at the CabaRay.

If you're familiar with Ray's Christmas concerts of the past (several were staged at Opryland in the late 1990s) then you should already know how much detail he puts into the Christmas-themed concerts and how much fun they happen to be for those that attend. Since these are taking place at his own venue you can be sure there will be even more detail and atmosphere added to put you in a Christmas mood. After the Christmas concert series wraps up on December 29th then there will be a New Year's Eve concert on December 31st. This will, of course, close out the calendar year. Ray's planning an extravagant event to close out 2018 and bring in 2019. In addition to the concert performance there will be a secondary event featuring the band/orchestra as it approaches midnight. Champagne will of course be on hand and once 2019 gets underway at 12:00am January 1st the festivities will move into the Piano Bar (also known as The Bill Lowery High Spirits Emporium). All of the information concerning the New Year's Eve concert in addition to the Christmas at the CabaRay concert series can be found by watching the video clip below. By that I mean a phone number will appear in the video that you can call for ticket information for any concert taking place at the CabaRay.

Ray Stevens 2018 Charity Golf Classic...

Hello one and all!! As most of you may know there's been an on-line silent auction that's been going on for several weeks in conjunction with the Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic as a kind of build up to the actual golf event set to take place tomorrow (October 22nd). I provided a link to the on-line silent auction a couple of blogs ago in an entry with a similar blog title. That blog entry is titled Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic 2018 but as you can see I slightly altered that blog entry title for the blog entry you're reading at the moment. The schedule of events for today (October 21st) begin at 5pm Central time at Ray's CabaRay performance venue in West Nashville. There will be an in-person silent auction at the CabaRay from 5pm to 7pm and this will be followed by a traditional auction (with an auctioneer, I imagine) from 7pm to 7:30pm. Following this auction there will be a Ray Stevens concert at the CabaRay which will kick-off at 7:30pm and run 90 minutes. All of this is according to an on-line schedule of events posted at the Temple Hills Country Club website which you can access by clicking HERE. The times listed are obviously approximations because I'd imagine it would be difficult to stick to a strict time-line of events because of the very  nature of it all happening live...but then again Ray is probably the only person that could pull off a live event of this magnitude {a silent auction, a traditional auction, AND a concert performance} and keep it on schedule to the last millisecond.  

The action at the Temple Hills Country Club gets underway bright and early Monday morning at 9am...as participants check in and start their practicing and warm-up. This takes place during a 2 hour window which is followed by a 45 minute lunch break. At approximately 11:45am what amounts to a pre-game ceremony gets underway with golf cart staging, information discussed or event announcements delivered, as well as the playing of the National Anthem. This will happen during a 15 minute window and then at Noon the game itself will commence. After the charity tournament there will be the usual after-game festivities inside the clubhouse.

The golf game itself, as mentioned, will begin tomorrow and it'll take place in Franklin, Tennessee whereas the events today will take place at the CabaRay in Bellevue which is almost always referred to as West Nashville in marketing and publicity. The locale of the CabaRay is 5724 River Road and it's main access is Charlotte Pike which itself is accessed via I-40. Naturally those directions are for tourists...the locals may have their own directions in arriving at the same destination.

Even today there may be some that think the CabaRay is in downtown Nashville or within a few blocks from other tourist attractions but in reality it's in the Bellevue, Tennessee neighborhood which is grouped into a regional area referred to as West Nashville with Bellevue being roughly 13 miles southwest of Nashville...but the neighborhood is included within Nashville's jurisdiction and a result the venue has a Nashville street address and politically the neighborhood is governed by Nashville. Once again here's the information about the Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic.

Ray Stevens: Gruhn Podcast...

Hello one and all...and on today's fan created blog entry I'm supplying a link to a lengthy interview by Ray Stevens. The interview took place fairly recently...with the Podcast upload date being October 11th but I'm not sure when the actual interview itself took place. The interview is conducted by George Gruhn for a series called Gruhn's Vault: Conversations with the Masters. The archives indicate the series began earlier this year (in March) with an alternating time slot...which means that episodes air every other week. The show's previous episode aired on September 27th, for example. This interview is a real treat for those that love to hear Ray talk shop...few interviews of him rarely delve into the inner workings of the recording industry or give him the chance to discuss the art of making music and the relationship that exists between artists, writers, musicians, producers, and the business end of the music industry.

Ray touches upon practically every aspect of his career...along the way he discusses his life growing up in Georgia and his earliest exposure to music. He speaks of his mom insisting he practice playing piano and as Ray put it he seen it as something of a trade-off because she'd say that he could go out and play baseball with all of his friends only after practicing his piano lessons. If you've seen or if you own, as I do on VHS and DVD, Ray's movie titled Get Serious! it opens up with an actor playing a child version of Ray at the piano and an actress portraying, from the waist down, his mom. In the next scene we again see Ray, as a boy, being taught timing with aid from a metronome from an Austrian pianist also seen from the waist down (Ray himself played that role). Anyway, Ray discusses his path into the music industry. The history of Nashville and the recording studios is a focal point of most of the interview as Ray speaks about the composition of music and explains music arranging...and while listening to him you will hear just how mathematical and scientifically precise everything needs to be when making a recording.

He explains the pros and cons of the technological advances in the recording process and describes the elation he felt every time a console board increased it's track capabilities. He describes the evolution of using 3-track, 8-track, 16-track, 24-track recording concepts and explains how wonderful it is that everything can become perfect thanks to the advancement of technology and the multi-track process. In one segment of the interview he describes, in detail, the numbering system used on music charts and how, thanks to technology, you can look at/hear every instrument's individual performance in post-production on a computer screen due to everything being recorded separately and detect any flat notes or mistakes that can be corrected prior to the final mixing and mastering process. The interview isn't all about the recording studio, though. Ray speaks about some of his hit songs and his experiences in Branson, Missouri as well as his current showroom, CabaRay.

Near the end of the interview Ray mentions several long-awaited and much anticipated projects that he's been working on for a number of years...and for one project in particular it's something that Ray's made mention of for more than 5 years...a project he's referred to as Melancholy Fescue. He's spoke of this specific project since 2013. In fact it was exactly five years ago this month in October of 2013 that Ray uploaded a music video onto YouTube of a song that is to be included on this Melancholy Fescue project. I'm not embedding the video due to my wanting this blog entry to be exclusively text but I'll make mention of the song's title, it's "Unchained Melody". The other project is Slow Dance and he made mention of this project on an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. Speaking of which he offers some insight into what he hopes will come of his television series in the next calendar year when production of new episodes is suppose to resume at some point. You can listen to the George Gruhn interview of Ray Stevens by clicking HERE.

This interview on George Gruhn's podcast comes on the heels of another similar type of interview Ray gave to Bobby Bare that I provided a link to in a recent blog entry. That podcast series also airs in an alternate schedule. The episode of Bobby's series that featured Ray Stevens as a special guest was uploaded on September 26th and so you can see the close proximity from one interview to the other (September 26th and October 11th). Bobby's series is called Bobby Bare and Friends which was also the name of his television series on The Nashville Network in the 1980s (1983-1988).

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Christmas...

Even though we're still a little less than a month away from the November kickoff of Christmas at the CabaRay I thought I'd put together a second Christmas-themed blog entry. In my previous blog entry I wrote a curiosity wondering what Ray would be titling his concert series...given that I was a few days late in hearing about the upcoming Christmas-themed concerts at the CabaRay I neglected to do any kind of on-line image search. I did one this morning and I came across an image promoting the upcoming series of concerts and indeed the series will be titled Christmas at the CabaRay. I should have known this already because the video clip I posted in my previous blog entry has that phrase within the clip's title. Admittedly I hastily put together that previous blog entry without doing much research beforehand...the excitement of seeing something new from Ray on YouTube overtook my usual lengthy research. So, then, this is the official publicity photo for the upcoming series of concerts at the CabaRay Showroom...

In the comments section of the video clip on YouTube promoting this upcoming concert series there's a remark left by someone stating that Christmas decorations shouldn't be on display until after Thanksgiving. I don't never, well, rarely ever, engage in on-line arguments (anymore) so I never replied to the comment. In my younger years on the internet (early 2000s) I'd freely engage what I soon to learn were called trolls and I'd argue back and fourth, etc. but I long since stopped doing that kind of thing because you'll never convince somebody of something if they've already got their heels dug in and you'll rarely get me to change my mind once it's made up...so I don't argue on-line hardly at all. Having said that let me say that most families, traditionally, wait until after Thanksgiving to put up their Christmas decorations. However, this often doesn't apply to the entertainment industry. Holiday themed movies and Christmas decorations and even Christmas candy are typically up for sale in retail stores, for example, after Halloween...let alone Thanksgiving in late November...and so Ray putting together a Christmas show beginning in early November isn't some sort of sin due to it happening before Thanksgiving. As you can see in the publicity banner you have plenty of chances to attend the Christmas concert series as they'll be taking place from November 2nd to December 29th. All the information about the CabaRay Showroom can be found HERE. Once there click the Tickets menu button for further information.

In addition to the announcement about the upcoming series of Christmas concerts at the CabaRay Showroom let's not forget about the on-line auction and upcoming Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic later this month at the Temple Hills Country Club. There are 95 items up for a bid but not everything is focused on Ray's career...most of the activity, no surprise to me, is in the music memorabilia section and it's in that area where you will see some rare items (such as a 1978 concert poster featuring the photo of Ray that appears on his 1976 Just for the Record album). There's also autographed copies of what's known as Hatch Show Prints as well as an autographed copy of his 1980 Shriner's Convention album. Here is the home page of the CHARITY GOLF CLASSIC website. The golf game pre-tournament events will take place at the CabaRay Showroom on Sunday October 21st beginning at 5pm. There will be a concert from Ray at the showroom beginning at 7:30pm Sunday night. The charity golf tournament itself will take place on Monday October 22nd. Much of what I just wrote can be found with even more information by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: Christmas at the CabaRay...

Hello once again!! A couple of days ago Ray Stevens uploaded an advertisement on YouTube promoting the upcoming Christmas season. The CabaRay is going to be trimmed in Christmas decorations beginning in early November with a Christmas-themed series of concerts throughout the rest of the calendar year. I don't know if the concerts will be wall-to-wall Christmas songs or if there will be 80 percent Christmas songs and 20 percent non-Christmas. The video description uses the phrases 'Christmas at the CabaRay' as well as 'CabaRay Christmas'. Ray himself makes mention of those phrases as well and so my guess is the official name for the series of concerts will either be 'Christmas at the CabaRay' or 'CabaRay Christmas'.



Songs performed during these concerts are likely to come from his three Christmas CDs: 1997's "Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window", 2009's "Ray Stevens Christmas", and 2016's "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me". Some of the songs on those CDs are: "Bad Little Boy", "The Little Drummer Boy Next Door", "All I Want For Christmas is You", "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz", "Blue Christmas", "Santa Claus is Watching You", "Jingle Bells", "Let It Snow", "White Christmas", "Deck The Halls With Teardrops", "Christmas Bells in the Steeple", "Merry Christmas", "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day", "Redneck Christmas", and "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)".

Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic 2018...

Hello one and all...information has become available surrounding the third annual Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic. As you can see it's a charity golf event that originated in 2016 and this year there's a nearly month-long on-line silent auction coinciding with the event that got underway yesterday. The final day of the silent auction is October 21st and there will be a pre-tournament event held on that day at his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. The actual golf tournament itself will tee off on October 22nd at the Temple Hills Country Club in Franklin, Tennessee at noon. Everything you need to know about the on-line silent auction, including details of the items up for bid and registration information, can be found by clicking HERE and for a detailed description of everything that will be taking place on October 21st and October 22nd you can click HERE.

Ray Stevens: Bobby Bare and Friends Podcast...

Hello one and all...it's been awhile, again...but it's better to compose a blog entry that has some meaning rather than just hastily throw one together just to have something available for on-line viewing. As the title of this blog entry details I'll be providing a link to podcast of Ray Stevens being interviewed on Bobby Bare and Friends, a series that airs every other week on WSM radio. Ray's episode is currently the most recent and it originally aired a couple of days ago (September 26th) and it's since been uploaded as a podcast.

The link I'll be providing will have Ray's episode featured on the show's home page given it's the most recent episode but if you click the link in the coming weeks/months you'll have to click the Menu option located on the lower right hand side of the podcast screen. Once you do this you'll see a row of menu options along the top of the podcast...one of those is 'episodes'. Click that and an episode list will drop down and then you'll be able to select the Ray Stevens episode. However, as of this writing, since it's the current episode all you need to do is click HERE and then scroll down to the podcast screen and click the play button.

The theme of the series is the chorus of Bobby's mega-hit, "Detroit City". Bill Cody provides the opening narration/introduction. Bobby opens the show telling of Ray's genius and lists the various Halls of Fame that Ray belongs to but offers the question: "why in the world isn't Ray in the Country Music Hall of Fame??". Ray, in his signature style, says he has no idea why. Bobby says that they [CMA Board] need to get Ray into the Hall of Fame before it's too late...which causes Ray to mention Jerry Reed. They then discuss Jerry Reed and how he should have gotten elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame decades earlier. They then discuss "All-American Boy", the very first hit by Bobby Bare, released under the name of Bill Parsons. Ray had actually brought it up and Bobby told it's history. Although it's Bobby's series there are moments where Ray comes across as the interviewer, too, when he answers Bobby's questions with a counter-question of his own which causes Bobby to recall moments from his career.

The two of them had dramatically different career paths, of course, but each of them share common experiences and professional associations with the likes of Chet Atkins, Shelby Singleton, Felton Jarvis, etc. etc. and each of them played on their fair share of recording sessions for other artists, too. Bobby appeared on Ray's locally syndicated PBS television series, CabaRay Nashville, twice. The first appearance is Episode Three of Season One but a clip from this appearance later shown up on Episode Four of Season Six, an episode titled Hall of Fame. In this exchange Ray and Bobby speak of Chet Atkins and the song "Streets of Baltimore" for which Chet produced while Ray did the arrangement. In the podcast you'll hear Bobby ask Ray how in the world did he ever learn to write the string arrangements and that kind of technical stuff for so many songs.

In the podcast you'll hear Ray reply that when he attended Georgia State he majored in music theory and composition...to which Bobby interjects with a boisterous "ah-ha!!" as if at long last he's learned the secret to Ray's arranging prowess. Ray said that he became interested in musical notes and writing sheet music and that he intended to graduate but the unexpected popularity and success of a certain recording of his in 1961 ["Jeremiah Peabody"] inspired him to not finish his final year and embark on a career in the music business. He tells of getting a job at Mercury Records which he initially wanted to turn down after hearing his salary would only be $50.00 a week. The allure of receiving payment for recording sessions on top of his regular pay caused him to accept the job. Ray later tells of "The Streak" being his biggest selling hit while "Everything is Beautiful" was his biggest hit song in terms of cover versions and accolades.

"The Streak" (released in 1974) sold more than five million copies, hit the top of the Hot 100 for three weeks, the Top-10 on the country music chart, as well as reaching other music charts worldwide. "Everything is Beautiful" (released in 1970), sold over a million copies and it hit the top of the Hot 100 for two weeks as well as the top of the Easy-Listening chart; it became an international hit (reaching the top in Australia and the Top-10 in the United Kingdom) and ultimately it became the most recorded song from the pen of Ray Stevens. It also took home some Grammy honors early in 1971: Ray won for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance while a recording by gospel artist Jake Hess won for Best Inspirational Performance. Ray tells of how the sales of "The Streak" and advance orders were so huge that Barnaby's pressing plant and their distributor couldn't keep up due to it being an Independent label not used to those kinds of order demands.

Bobby mentions Ray's recording of "Harry the Hairy Ape" and this leads into a recollection of a time when Bobby was performing at a venue in Fresno, California and a drunk member of the audience kept hollering for "Detroit City". The story he tells is a classic tale involving a gun toting piano player that performed songs by Ray Stevens and one time he performed "Harry the Hairy Ape" in a gorilla suit. The gun was a prop and it shot blanks. The mention of this comes along within the 6 minute mark of the podcast and you'll hear Bobby's recollection of how they may have scared the drunk guy into future sobriety.

I've only provided an overview of the first 6 or 7 minutes of the half hour podcast. There is a lot more to listen to so don't let my overview take the place of hearing the podcast for yourselves. Here's that link once more: BOBBY BARE INTERVIEWS RAY STEVENS.