Good morning all the fans of Ray Stevens!! Oh yes I'm a bit late at posting my recap of the most recent episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville but nevertheless here it is. It wasn't uploaded onto Ray's video site until sometime yesterday and by the time I checked the internet to if the video had been uploaded there wasn't enough time to watch it and post a recap yesterday but I decided to watch the episode first thing this morning when I arrived home from work. Episode 11 is a two part event guest starring John Rich.
Ray opens the show singing "Shriner's Convention" in it's entirety!! I emphasize this because he usually performs an abbreviated version (omitting the second phone conversation) but this time he performed the entire song from start to finish. Afterward he introduces John Rich and makes mention that the window's from John's house give a great view of Nashville. John refers to the area in which he lives as Lover's Hill and that the house is on Civil War ground. He mentioned that during construction several relics from the Civil War were found. Asked by Ray the reason for the house being built where it is and John replied that he always loved country music and Nashville and if he should ever get a house in Nashville or have one built to make sure it's on a hill and overlooking Nashville's skyline. He said it's because when he wakes up he wants to be able to look out the window and see Nashville below.
Ray asks John to discuss his career at Opryland. John says how much he misses Opryland and asks the audience if they feel the same to which they applaud. He tells of his career at a venue in Opryland called Music City, U.S.A. which leads into Ray telling the audience that John is a positive thinker. John says how much he loved hearing Ray's songs and sings a piece of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". John tells of the time he called Information asking for Ray Stevens and he was put in contact with Ray's office. John says that he asked to meet Ray...and to his surprise Ray called him back. John recalled that they ended up spending at least 2 hours talking about songwriting and the music industry. The conversation turns to Johnny Horton and how patriotic his records happened to be. John said that he's never gotten the chance to record anything with Ray and with that the two of them perform "The Battle of New Orleans".
After the performance Ray asks John to discuss the song's he's written that others have recorded. He tells of how he got a phone call from an up and coming act needing songs for a Showcase in the hopes of getting signed to a recording contract. John recalls that the label the artist happened to be aiming for was an unknown called Broken Bow. John said that he eventually gave the newcomer the okay to perform the songs...and that newcomer happened to be Jason Aldean. John remarked that five songs he wrote were eventually taken to number one by Aldean. John recalls Tim McGraw wanting "Like I Never Loved At All" and it eventually became a duet hit by Tim and Faith Hill. This leads into John telling how Faith wanted a song written especially about her...and John came up with "Mississippi Girl". John sings a piece of that song...just the opening couple of lines...and Ray thanks him for appearing but says "talk to you later". No mention is made that there's a part two the following week but there is. The second part of John Rich's episode aired this past weekend on local PBS stations. It will be uploaded this coming weekend on Ray's premium video site. Ray closes Part One of episode 11 by singing his arrangement of "Young Love" (which he released as a single in the latter half of 1975).
Once Part Two of episode 11 with John Rich is uploaded onto Ray's video site I'll watch it and provide a recap. If you're in or around Nashville or are on vacation...think about visiting the Ray Stevens CabaRay Showroom. It's located in West Nashville on River Road off Charlotte Pike. The upcoming season of Ray's PBS series (season Six) is currently in production at the facility...also, episodes of Larry's Country Diner are being taped at the showroom each Tuesday. The video clip provides all the information you'll need.
March 17, 2018
Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Gary Puckett...
Hello all...and in this fan created blog entry I'm reviewing episode ten of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville which guest stars Gary Puckett. This is one of the special episodes...by that I mean it's one of the episodes that features a performer from pop music's history (much like Sam Moore's episode a couple of weeks ago). Ray opens the show singing "The Hustler", a song from the pen of Buddy Kalb. Ray recorded the song in 2000 and it appears on the Ear Candy CD (2000) and later it appeared on 2002's Osama Yo' Mama which was largely a re-release of Ear Candy with a few noticeable differences. What I didn't know when I first heard the song is that it had previously been recorded by country singer Mel McDaniel. His recording was never released as a single.
Ray introduces Gary Puckett who walks out and sits down by the piano. Ray makes mention that both he and Gary were contemporaries on the charts during the late '60s and early '70s. Gary speaks about his early years in Southern California and mentions Suicide Ridge and his odd jobs before becoming a recording act...one of which happened to be a cashier at an auto parts store called Foreign Auto Supply. He asks Ray to guess how many foreign cars were in operation by American motorists in the mid '60s and Ray gives a number and Gary tells him he's close...and discloses the very small total. Ray says that he drove a foreign car at the time but reflected on how aggravating it was because parts for it were in limited supply.
Gary mentions that his influences in life were his parents. He says his mother is 98 and that both she and his father were musicians but not in any professional way. Ray asks about the creation of Gary's band, Union Gap. Gary mentioned that as a kid he loved seeing Civil War imagery and he loved the blue uniforms the Union Army wore and given his birth being in Washington State, where an actual Union Gap exists, he more or less decided to call his band Union Gap.
Ray mentions that in show business, no matter how successful, partnerships typically do not last long. Duos break up, bands dissolve, etc. and Ray asks about the disbanding of Union Gap. Gary mentions that after enjoying a lot of success certain creative differences crept in and the only thing to do, in the end, was to dissolve the band. Gary mentions that he learned their song, "Over You", was a favorite of Jack Webb. Gary sings "Over You" and then launches into what might be the group's second or third biggest hit, "Woman, Woman". The group had a string of power ballad successes in pop music in that late '60s time frame. As you can tell from looking at one of the picture sleeve's promoting "Over You" they're dressed in their Union Army uniforms. The uniforms aren't light blue, as you can also see, but there are other photos of them dressed in uniforms of all shades of blue. The official title of the song is "Woman, Woman" but Gary introduced it as "Woman, Woman Have You Got Cheating on Your Mind?". After the performance of this song he follows it up with "Young Girl".
That particular song peaked in the runner up position on the Hot 100 for three weeks in 1968...it was kept out of the top spot by a pair of hits: "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" from Otis Redding and the Bobby Goldsboro hit, "Honey". Given that their single was a million seller but kept out of the top spot there's an argument to be made that the song's subject matter may have caused anxiety and therefore it was not given a number one finish on America's pop music chart and so Goldsboro's hit leapfrogged over "Young Girl" to claim number one. There's also arguments to be made that Bobby's hit was so strong that you couldn't stop it from hitting the top and it was simply a case of timing that caused "Young Girl" to fall short of number one. Having said that...the single hit the top in the United Kingdom. Gary has the audience singing most of the song's chorus along with him during the performance. Afterward Ray thanks him for being a guest on the show.
Ray typically closes the show with a one-liner or a comical story of some sort before the closing music begins to play...but on this episode he changed things up a bit. After thanking Gary for appearing on the show Ray tells a brief story about somebody that wonders why they've had some strange dreams. One morning they dreamed about the "Green, Green Grass of Home" and then the next morning they recall a dream about "Delilah". The dreamer was told he had Tom Jones Disease. When he asked if such dreams are common the reply he got was "It's Not Unusual"...and with that Ray launches into his version of "It's Not Unusual", a pop hit for Tom Jones.
Airing over the weekend is episode 11 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. It's part one of John Rich's guest appearance. The second half will air the following weekend. This marks the first time in the show's history in which an episode is broken into two parts. I'll see the first part of this episode next weekend when it's uploaded onto RayStevens.tv. When compiling the current season's list of episodes I don't know whether to refer to the two part event as Episode 11 and Episode 12 or if it's officially going to be listed as Episode 11, Part 1 and Episode 11, Part 2. If it's listed as 2 separate episodes then the current Season Five will have 15 altogether. If it's listed as one episode but with a numerical suffix added then it'll keep the current season at 14 episodes.
Ray introduces Gary Puckett who walks out and sits down by the piano. Ray makes mention that both he and Gary were contemporaries on the charts during the late '60s and early '70s. Gary speaks about his early years in Southern California and mentions Suicide Ridge and his odd jobs before becoming a recording act...one of which happened to be a cashier at an auto parts store called Foreign Auto Supply. He asks Ray to guess how many foreign cars were in operation by American motorists in the mid '60s and Ray gives a number and Gary tells him he's close...and discloses the very small total. Ray says that he drove a foreign car at the time but reflected on how aggravating it was because parts for it were in limited supply.
Gary mentions that his influences in life were his parents. He says his mother is 98 and that both she and his father were musicians but not in any professional way. Ray asks about the creation of Gary's band, Union Gap. Gary mentioned that as a kid he loved seeing Civil War imagery and he loved the blue uniforms the Union Army wore and given his birth being in Washington State, where an actual Union Gap exists, he more or less decided to call his band Union Gap.
That particular song peaked in the runner up position on the Hot 100 for three weeks in 1968...it was kept out of the top spot by a pair of hits: "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" from Otis Redding and the Bobby Goldsboro hit, "Honey". Given that their single was a million seller but kept out of the top spot there's an argument to be made that the song's subject matter may have caused anxiety and therefore it was not given a number one finish on America's pop music chart and so Goldsboro's hit leapfrogged over "Young Girl" to claim number one. There's also arguments to be made that Bobby's hit was so strong that you couldn't stop it from hitting the top and it was simply a case of timing that caused "Young Girl" to fall short of number one. Having said that...the single hit the top in the United Kingdom. Gary has the audience singing most of the song's chorus along with him during the performance. Afterward Ray thanks him for being a guest on the show.
Ray typically closes the show with a one-liner or a comical story of some sort before the closing music begins to play...but on this episode he changed things up a bit. After thanking Gary for appearing on the show Ray tells a brief story about somebody that wonders why they've had some strange dreams. One morning they dreamed about the "Green, Green Grass of Home" and then the next morning they recall a dream about "Delilah". The dreamer was told he had Tom Jones Disease. When he asked if such dreams are common the reply he got was "It's Not Unusual"...and with that Ray launches into his version of "It's Not Unusual", a pop hit for Tom Jones.
Airing over the weekend is episode 11 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. It's part one of John Rich's guest appearance. The second half will air the following weekend. This marks the first time in the show's history in which an episode is broken into two parts. I'll see the first part of this episode next weekend when it's uploaded onto RayStevens.tv. When compiling the current season's list of episodes I don't know whether to refer to the two part event as Episode 11 and Episode 12 or if it's officially going to be listed as Episode 11, Part 1 and Episode 11, Part 2. If it's listed as 2 separate episodes then the current Season Five will have 15 altogether. If it's listed as one episode but with a numerical suffix added then it'll keep the current season at 14 episodes.
March 11, 2018
Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: Deana Carter...
Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens and those that stop by out of curiosity. I just finished watching the ninth episode of Season Five of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. This episode originally aired on local PBS stations the weekend of March 3rd but was recently uploaded onto RayStevens.tv. The special guest was Deana Carter.
Ray opened the show performing his take on "Night and Day". A brief history is in order...Ray recorded the song in the mid 2000's for a CD of his titled Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What??. The tribute CD became available in 2008 on his Clyde Records label. You can see more information about the CD by clicking this LINK. It takes you to Ray's official web-store at his website. Ray introduces Deana Carter by inquiring if she shaved her legs for the appearance.
One of the first discussions revolved around her childhood and upbringing as the daughter of performer and session musician, Fred Carter. She mentioned that it was a help and a hindrance in that it can provide all kinds of perks and with having a connection to the industry through a relative it carries the potential of getting a foot in the door a lot more easily but at the same time she mentioned it can be a hindrance because of all the expectations of being a relative, this case an offspring, of a noted musician. She mentioned that as a typical twenty-something she often didn't take the advice of her father and others older than herself because she felt the desire for independence.
Deana speaks about her entry into the music industry and how a demo tape made it's way to Willie Nelson, which, as a result of his hearing it, enabled her to get a segment on Farm Aid VII at the Super Dome in Louisiana that year (1994). She mentioned being terrified and that she was the only female artist on the entire show that year. She drew laughter when mentioning 'demo tape' given how everything nowadays is digital and she got laughs when mentioning that during her early days in Nashville she was always thinking of a back-up plan in case things didn't work out. She mentioned Jimmy Bowen being the main key into her getting on records when he signed to her Patriot Records in 1995. Her debut CD on Patriot was released in the United Kingdom but it was transformed a year later after it got a re-release on Capitol Records in the United States (only a couple of songs from the debut version made it onto the re-release in 1996). The debut CD's title was the eye catching Did I Shave My Legs for This? The photo's of the CD are also strikingly different. On the UK release in 1995 she's standing in front of images of skyscrapers and looking very urbane whereas in the US release in 1996 the photo has a close-up of her in a field among a collection of wild flowers in a green shirt and about as far away from urbanity as you can get. If you Google the images of the 1995 and 1996 releases of her debut CD you'll see what I'm referring to.
Deana performs "Did I Shave My Legs for This?". Ray brings up a song that she had a hand in writing that received a Grammy nomination called "You and Tequila". She mentions having co-written the song with Matraca Berg. Deana and Matraca recorded their own solo version of the song but a duet version by Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter emerged in 2010. Their recording became a Top-10 country hit in 2011, sold over a million copies as a digital download, and it received a Grammy nomination. Deana recalled how personally gratifying it was to receive a Grammy nomination as a Songwriter and how it carries an entirely different emotional reaction than being nominated as a performer/artist. After she performs "You and Tequila" she is then asked to perform her breakthrough song, "Strawberry Wine". This song was one of the new recordings in the 1996 release of her debut CD...meaning it wasn't on the UK version a year earlier.
Ray closes the show performing "Oh, Leo Lady". He mentions that the idea of the song came as a result of his discussing astrology with his bass player. Although not mentioned by name I'm assuming that bass player to be the late Stuart Keathley (who also doubled as the engineer of Ray's albums). The song appears on Ray's 1982 album, Don't Laugh Now. This is the first time I've seen him perform the song and probably the only time it's been performed on television.
The episode of CabaRay Nashville airing on local PBS stations this weekend will be uploaded onto RayStevens.tv next weekend. That episode guest stars Gary Puckett. You know the routine by now...look for my recap/review of that episode next weekend sometime. I'm in the early adjustment stages of the time change. We lost an hour earlier this morning at 2am when we set our clocks ahead to 3am. As of this writing it's 7:25am Eastern time.
Ray opened the show performing his take on "Night and Day". A brief history is in order...Ray recorded the song in the mid 2000's for a CD of his titled Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What??. The tribute CD became available in 2008 on his Clyde Records label. You can see more information about the CD by clicking this LINK. It takes you to Ray's official web-store at his website. Ray introduces Deana Carter by inquiring if she shaved her legs for the appearance.
One of the first discussions revolved around her childhood and upbringing as the daughter of performer and session musician, Fred Carter. She mentioned that it was a help and a hindrance in that it can provide all kinds of perks and with having a connection to the industry through a relative it carries the potential of getting a foot in the door a lot more easily but at the same time she mentioned it can be a hindrance because of all the expectations of being a relative, this case an offspring, of a noted musician. She mentioned that as a typical twenty-something she often didn't take the advice of her father and others older than herself because she felt the desire for independence.
Deana speaks about her entry into the music industry and how a demo tape made it's way to Willie Nelson, which, as a result of his hearing it, enabled her to get a segment on Farm Aid VII at the Super Dome in Louisiana that year (1994). She mentioned being terrified and that she was the only female artist on the entire show that year. She drew laughter when mentioning 'demo tape' given how everything nowadays is digital and she got laughs when mentioning that during her early days in Nashville she was always thinking of a back-up plan in case things didn't work out. She mentioned Jimmy Bowen being the main key into her getting on records when he signed to her Patriot Records in 1995. Her debut CD on Patriot was released in the United Kingdom but it was transformed a year later after it got a re-release on Capitol Records in the United States (only a couple of songs from the debut version made it onto the re-release in 1996). The debut CD's title was the eye catching Did I Shave My Legs for This? The photo's of the CD are also strikingly different. On the UK release in 1995 she's standing in front of images of skyscrapers and looking very urbane whereas in the US release in 1996 the photo has a close-up of her in a field among a collection of wild flowers in a green shirt and about as far away from urbanity as you can get. If you Google the images of the 1995 and 1996 releases of her debut CD you'll see what I'm referring to.
Deana performs "Did I Shave My Legs for This?". Ray brings up a song that she had a hand in writing that received a Grammy nomination called "You and Tequila". She mentions having co-written the song with Matraca Berg. Deana and Matraca recorded their own solo version of the song but a duet version by Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter emerged in 2010. Their recording became a Top-10 country hit in 2011, sold over a million copies as a digital download, and it received a Grammy nomination. Deana recalled how personally gratifying it was to receive a Grammy nomination as a Songwriter and how it carries an entirely different emotional reaction than being nominated as a performer/artist. After she performs "You and Tequila" she is then asked to perform her breakthrough song, "Strawberry Wine". This song was one of the new recordings in the 1996 release of her debut CD...meaning it wasn't on the UK version a year earlier.
Ray closes the show performing "Oh, Leo Lady". He mentions that the idea of the song came as a result of his discussing astrology with his bass player. Although not mentioned by name I'm assuming that bass player to be the late Stuart Keathley (who also doubled as the engineer of Ray's albums). The song appears on Ray's 1982 album, Don't Laugh Now. This is the first time I've seen him perform the song and probably the only time it's been performed on television.
The episode of CabaRay Nashville airing on local PBS stations this weekend will be uploaded onto RayStevens.tv next weekend. That episode guest stars Gary Puckett. You know the routine by now...look for my recap/review of that episode next weekend sometime. I'm in the early adjustment stages of the time change. We lost an hour earlier this morning at 2am when we set our clocks ahead to 3am. As of this writing it's 7:25am Eastern time.
March 3, 2018
Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: Wilson Fairchild...
Hello once more...and I just finished watching episode 8, Season Five of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The special guests on this episode happen to be the duo, Wilson Fairchild. Ray opened the show singing a rendition of "Misty" while seated at the piano. After the performance Ray introduces the duo and asks about their background and origins.
The duo explain that their name is derived from each of their middle names. The duo consists of Wil and Langdon Reid and their fathers are Don and Harold Reid of The Statler Brothers. Ray asks the duo about their run as opening act for George Jones. This leads into a story about how they called up a concert promoter one day and asked if George had an opening act booked for a nearby concert. The promoter said "no" which caused the duo to ask if they could be the opening act for this appearance. The promoter told them "yes...but you're not going to be paid". Then they learned that George, within the following week, was going to be at another venue several hours away and so, according to the duo, they called the promoter of that concert to inquire about George's opening act. Hearing that there wasn't an opening act they asked if they could come down and open the show. Just as before they were told "go ahead...but you're not going to get paid". One thing led to another and they ended up being an opening act for George Jones for several years.
The duo sing "The Statler Brothers Song" which is largely composed of song titles of Statler Brothers hits. It was written as an obvious tribute to their blood line and Ray asked about their current CD titled Songs Our Dads Wrote. They joked around about how long it took them to come up with such a spectacular and original title for the CD. The duo perform "Guilty" which was a huge hit for The Statler Brothers in 1983. The song is on their CD so it was obviously written by Don and Harold Reid. Even though "Guilty" was a big hit from the The Statler Brothers 1983 album, Today, it was overshadowed largely by their version of "Oh Baby Mine", which hit number two, and the blockbuster number one hit, "Elizabeth".
After the duo perform "Guilty" they are thanked for appearing on the show. Ray introduces a newcomer named Marisa who performs a ballad titled "Goodbye Back". I did several internet searches and couldn't find anything about her. I even typed her name and the song's title and didn't get any useful search results. If I could've found something about her I would supply a link to a website or a CD advertisement of some kind. Ray closes the show with "Come on Home to Baseball", a song from his 2004 CD, Thank You. This episode of CabaRay Nashville originally aired the weekend of February 24th. The episode airing this weekend on local PBS stations features Deana Carter as a special guest. I'll provide a review/re-cap of that episode next weekend.
Have you visited the CabaRay showroom in West Nashville yet? I visited it this past Thursday (March 1st) and posted some commentary about my day in Nashville. Any fan of Ray Stevens should plan a trip to the venue. I live a couple of states away from Tennessee and I never thought I'd ever get the chance to visit Nashville but being a gigantic fan of his I felt that visiting the CabaRay was something I needed to do. During his years in Branson, Missouri (1991-1993; 2004-2006) I was never able to attend any concerts at his former theater (now owned and operated by RFD television). I didn't want to tackle such a road trip, first of all, and secondly I simply felt too scared to travel that far anyway. It's farther away from here than Nashville. However, a visit to Nashville was something I had always wished I could accomplish and once Ray's showroom opened earlier this year I decided no more procrastinating about Nashville and so, at long last, I stepped foot in Nashville early Thursday morning on March 1, 2018. Plan your visit to the CabaRay this year. While there you can look at the various awards and plaques he's received over the years. The image off to the left is a certificate of nomination. It's a certificate recognizing 1979's "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" being nominated for a Grammy in a comedy category. This is just one of the items on display at the CabaRay. For those of you that live in the Tri-State area (Southeast Indiana, Northern Kentucky, and Southwest Ohio) be sure to tune in or DVR the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville Special on KET2. It airs at Midnight tonight (technically Sunday morning). If you come across this blog entry on Sunday or Monday of this week then you can catch a repeat of the special on March 6th. KET2 is airing it again at 3:30am Tuesday morning.
The duo explain that their name is derived from each of their middle names. The duo consists of Wil and Langdon Reid and their fathers are Don and Harold Reid of The Statler Brothers. Ray asks the duo about their run as opening act for George Jones. This leads into a story about how they called up a concert promoter one day and asked if George had an opening act booked for a nearby concert. The promoter said "no" which caused the duo to ask if they could be the opening act for this appearance. The promoter told them "yes...but you're not going to be paid". Then they learned that George, within the following week, was going to be at another venue several hours away and so, according to the duo, they called the promoter of that concert to inquire about George's opening act. Hearing that there wasn't an opening act they asked if they could come down and open the show. Just as before they were told "go ahead...but you're not going to get paid". One thing led to another and they ended up being an opening act for George Jones for several years.
The duo sing "The Statler Brothers Song" which is largely composed of song titles of Statler Brothers hits. It was written as an obvious tribute to their blood line and Ray asked about their current CD titled Songs Our Dads Wrote. They joked around about how long it took them to come up with such a spectacular and original title for the CD. The duo perform "Guilty" which was a huge hit for The Statler Brothers in 1983. The song is on their CD so it was obviously written by Don and Harold Reid. Even though "Guilty" was a big hit from the The Statler Brothers 1983 album, Today, it was overshadowed largely by their version of "Oh Baby Mine", which hit number two, and the blockbuster number one hit, "Elizabeth".
After the duo perform "Guilty" they are thanked for appearing on the show. Ray introduces a newcomer named Marisa who performs a ballad titled "Goodbye Back". I did several internet searches and couldn't find anything about her. I even typed her name and the song's title and didn't get any useful search results. If I could've found something about her I would supply a link to a website or a CD advertisement of some kind. Ray closes the show with "Come on Home to Baseball", a song from his 2004 CD, Thank You. This episode of CabaRay Nashville originally aired the weekend of February 24th. The episode airing this weekend on local PBS stations features Deana Carter as a special guest. I'll provide a review/re-cap of that episode next weekend.
Ray Stevens CabaRay and Me...
The only major traffic mess we encountered was near a merge lane in which cars were simultaneously trying to exit the interstate while other cars were trying to merge onto the interstate and every car exiting had to wait and let a merging car get on and vice versa...a total traffic mess. Obviously a lot of this had to do with the time of day...morning rush hour. Again, traffic jams were something we expected which is why we left for Nashville so early. The first place we went to prior to picking up the concert tickets was to a large second hand store called McKay's on Old Hickory Boulevard. I first heard of this place on a social media site...on one of Ray's social media posts there was a photo of a vinyl album somebody found at McKay's and I did some research. I saw some of the pictures from the store's interior and knew I just had to visit this place. The only regret is I wish I had knee pads because the rows of books and vinyl albums went all the way to floor level and there was no way I could've crawled along the floor, in any degree of comfort, to view every single title they had in stock and so I missed a lot of titles by not being able to see the bottom shelves.
After leaving McKay's my brother and I went to the CabaRay box office to get the concert tickets and then we made our way to the Music Row area of Nashville. We drove by the famed bars and recording studios in the Broadway region and drove by the Ryman Auditorium. We seen the famed Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop. We parked in a lot near the Country Music Hall of Fame and visited the Hall of Fame and Museum. My brother took a lot of photo's and I snapped some photo's, too. One such photo he took was of me standing next to the Ray Stevens exhibit at the Hall of Fame.
From 5pm until a few minutes prior to the Ray Stevens concert at 7:30pm the piano bar performer, John Jonethis, can be heard throughout the venue even if you're not literally in the bar itself. We visited the gift shop and I purchased a couple of items. There were several trinkets and souvenir items that aren't posted in the on-line store. I purchased the Love Lifted Me CD and a CabaRay Nashville coffee mug.
During the concert you could also take advantage of the jumbo screens. If you chose to look up at those you'd see how he'd appear if it happened to be a television show taping. My brother and I sat at Table 103 which is right next to the stage. If you look at the seating chart from a bird's eye view our table was the second at the left side of the stage...so we were very close to the stage. Here's a somewhat blurry photo of the table and it's relation to the stage. You see the first table at the side of the stage and then the second table and the row of tables in front of the stage. That second table on the left hand side of the photo is where my brother and I were seated. My brother sat in the chair right next to the stage (he could've rested his arm or hand on the stage if he chose to) and I sat in the chair beside the red carpeted walkway.
He closed the show with "The Streak". The gift shop and the piano bar remained opened until the venue itself closed. There may have been a possibility of Ray making an appearance at the Piano Bar after the concert and it was tempting to stay but being from out of State with financial obligations the next day (a Friday) we decided that in order to fight potential traffic issues on our way home, making our way up I-40 to I-65 North and into the heart of downtown Nashville, my brother and I opted to take one last look around the place and then head to the car. The experience was everything I had hoped it would be. The only thing missing was Buddy Kalb. I was under the impression that he was a big part of the venue, too, but I didn't catch a glimpse of him anywhere. In concerts past he was often seen around the merchandise area before and after the show. He may have been backstage/behind the scenes, though. There's a little room off to the left of the stage where I think the sound engineers and production staff monitor the performance so it's possible he could've been in there.
This being the start of the weekend be on the look out for my next re-cap of Ray's television series. His video site should have last weekend's episode available on-line at some point this weekend or it could be available on Monday. Last week's episode guest starred Wilson Fairchild. Airing this weekend on local PBS stations is the episode guest starring Deana Carter.
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