February 18, 2018

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville Overview

Hello once more! I was going over some social media sites a couple of minutes ago and while doing so I came across a photo posted on a social media site by a fan club of The Monkees. The photo promoted the appearance of Mickey Dolenz on an upcoming episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The description stated that the episode is scheduled to air in April. This is one of the episodes making up the next season of Ray's locally syndicated PBS series. These episodes will also mark the transition from recording the episodes at the Ray Stevens Studio to the recently opened CabaRay (which you see in the background of the photo). Back on February 7th I posted a blog entry about the upcoming Sixth Season of the show and mentioned some of the guests: Moe Bandy, Linda Davis, Ronnie McDowell, and now we can add Mickey Dolenz to that list. Anyway in that earlier blog entry I mentioned that post-production could take anywhere from half a year to a year and these Sixth Season episodes would likely make it to the airwaves later this year or even in 2019. I said that because in the past a lot of taping sessions of the series took place quite a few months in advance of their airing...and so, after reading the social media message from the Monkees fan club, it dawned on me that the Sixth Season is going to air immediately following the current Fifth Season.

The current season has 14 episodes and half of those have aired. The episode airing this weekend on some of the local PBS stations (episode 7) features Sam Moore as a guest. I will see this episode next weekend on Ray's video site. Anyway...I counted up 14 air dates on the calendar...and the current season of Ray's show will conclude the weekend of April 13th. The following weekend (April 20th) the Sixth Season is to get underway and those episodes will originate from the CabaRay Showroom. Given the social media message I came across earlier this morning from a Monkees fan club it looks as if the Mickey Dolenz episode will either be the first episode of Season Six or the second episode of Season Six due to the fact that the final two episodes of Season Five are to air on the weekends of April 6th and April 13th. The upcoming Sixth Season should conclude the weekend of July 6th. We're getting ahead of ourselves, obviously, because the current season is just midway through. If you've been a long time follower or visitor of this blog then you should know that Ray considers a season to consist of 13 episodes as do a lot of niche programmed cable, satellite, and on-line channels.

I hadn't provided an episode list in awhile but in case you hadn't seen any episodes of this series or you're wondering who's all been on the show, so far, then take a look.

The show began airing in November of 2015 on RFD-TV under the title Ray Stevens Nashville. It moved to local syndication on PBS beginning in January 2017 as Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. Excluding the Christmas episode all of the RFD episodes ran on PBS during the first half of 2017 and were advertised as Season One and Season Two. Those episodes (26 in total) were released on two separate 13-episode DVDs. The first all new episode of the series didn't arrive until mid summer 2017...billed as the series Third Season. The guests on that episode were Harold Bradley and Mandy Barnett. The Third and Fourth seasons consist of 13 episodes each and they aired throughout the remainder of 2017. In the Fourth Season the RFD Christmas episode guest starring Suzy Bogguss finally aired on PBS as did a Halloween episode guest starring Janie Fricke plus a second Christmas episode, first run on PBS, guest starring Deborah Allen also aired. The Fifth Season got underway in January of this year and the 7th episode of the season is airing on local PBS stations this weekend.

Here is the episode list based on it's official PBS run. I realize not every local PBS station has aired episodes of the series in chronological order and I realize that not every PBS station is airing the current season but this is the official episode list. The first two seasons are available on DVD and those 26 episodes first aired on RFD in the latter half of 2015 and throughout most of 2016: 

Season One: (January - March 2017)
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: (April - June 2017)
1. Bobby Goldsboro
2. T. Graham Brown and Suzi Ragsdale
3. Williams and Ree
4. Leroy Van Dyke
5. 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: (July - September 2017)
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: (October - December 2017)
1. Rex Allen, Jr.
2. Lari White
3. Charley Pride
4. Janie Fricke (originally aired on RFD)
5. Gary Mule Deer
6. Gary Morris
7. John Berry
8. Jeannie Seely
9. Don McClean
10. Felix Cavaliere
11. Suzy Bogguss (originally aired on RFD)
12. Deborah Allen
13. New Year's Eve Cast Show

Season Five: (January - April 2018)
1. Ray Hildebrand
2. Steve Wariner (edited airing of the series debut episode)
3. Paul Overstreet
4. Daily and Vincent
5. Jenny Gill
6. Tracy Lawrence
7. Sam Moore (current episode as of this writing; airing on local PBS stations)
8. Wilson Fairchild
9. Deana Carter
10. Gary Puckett
11. John Rich
12. Tony Orlando
13. Mark Chesnutt
14. Jamie O'Neal

The 14th episode should air the weekend of April 13th and the following weekend Season Six should get underway. Once again I'll write more about the next season once it officially gets underway.

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