Ray Stevens and 2,018 Arabian Nights...

Oh yes it's me once more...putting together another fan created blog entry centering on the one and only Ray Stevens. I've kind of been in a formulaic pattern posting blog entries of my recaps of his locally syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville, and I hadn't necessarily been posting blog entries about other aspects of his career as I used to do prior to 2017. Obviously with the television series and the CabaRay dinner theater being the biggest activity in his career at the moment it goes without saying that I'd spend a majority of my energy blogging about all things CabaRay (be it the TV show or the dinner theater). In my previous blog entry, a recap of John Schneider's guest appearance on CabaRay Nashville, I made mention near the close of the blog post that Ray would be guest starring on the Grand Ole Opry this coming Tuesday night (July 3rd). Officially the Tuesday performances are billed as the Tuesday Night Opry. There's long been a Friday Night Opry and of course the major one, Saturday's Grand Ole Opry, but the Tuesday night performances at the Opry are seasonal. But anyway...Ray's guest starred at the Opry for years and has also appeared several times on other Opry-related programming...one that leaps to mind is the Larry Gatlin recurring series, Opry Country Classics. The calendar for the month of July at the CabaRay features an added performance. Ray will put on a show July 5th (a Thursday). His performance schedule at the theater is Friday and Saturday nights but news of this Thursday addition was released a couple hours ago.

Curious to why I title this blog entry with that kind of phrase? Well, on this date in 1962, "Ahab the Arab" made it's debut on Billboard's Hot 100. This was the song that made Ray a 'superstar over night' as the saying goes. The song had a massive impact on his career both musically and in his business affairs. He got the inspiration for the song while recalling his childhood experiences reading about the 1,001 Arabian Nights and seeing Arabian culture in movies. In other interviews he recalled that the camel's name, Clyde, was inspired by the former lead singer of The Drifters, Clyde McPhatter. The name of the love interest in the song, Fatima, simply came from the name of a cigarette brand. Ray recorded the song during his years at Mercury Records. The producer of the recording was Shelby Singleton while Jerry Kennedy is credited as the orchestra director. Earlier I mentioned that the song had massive impact in his career and one need look no further than his eventual publishing company: Ahab Music Company.

This publishing company's name would eventually change to Ray Stevens Music in the mid '70s but if you look at any compilation album and look at the credits you'll see Ahab Music credited as publisher on recordings from Ray during the late '60s through the mid '70s. Also, Ray used to wear a ring on his finger with a camel image...a certain image that ultimately became a logo/advertising symbol.

This illustration of an encircled camel silhouette with the added touches of some palm trees in the backdrop became the logo for Clyde Records (a company Ray owned and operated for the purpose of releasing products that major labels wouldn't release). Clyde became the imprint for his home video, and later, DVD releases, and he recorded a number of CDs for his own label, too.

The Clyde imprint, I guess, is still part of Ray's business portfolio but the label has largely become a bit less prominent due to some recent releases being under the CabaRay Entertainment banner. As far as I know the first product released under CabaRay Entertainment happened to be Love Lifted Me in 2016. That's the CD where he re-recorded his 1972 album, Turn Your Radio On. His last CD, to date, is 2016's Christmas release Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. After the release of those two CDs in 2016 both the Season One and Season Two DVD releases of his PBS television series in 2017 also received the CabaRay Entertainment credit as did the DVD release of the CabaRay Nashville documentary special shown on PBS stations during pledge break. There hasn't been a new audio CD released by Ray Stevens since Christmas season 2016, by the way...but as you should know he's busy with his CabaRay dinner theater and his television series...which is what I began discussing at the top of this blog entry.

On last week's episode, as I mentioned in my recap, Ray introduced a brand new song called "It's My Job". Could an audio CD be in the not too distant future? I know I'm jumping to conclusions based simply on his performance of a brand new song but anything's possible in the kind of unpredictable career that Ray Stevens has maintained for more than 60 years. When in Nashville seek out the CabaRay. It's located on River Road off of Charlotte Pike...the main access to it is Interstate 40. You can read all about the CabaRay by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: John Schneider...

Hello all...I'm in early today...usually I write my blog entries in the overnight hours but when I got home from work this morning I decided to check Ray's video site to see if last week's episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series was uploaded...and it was. I watched it and so I'm now going to write my re-cap of it.



This episode guest starred John Schneider and you can see from the video clip above. The still shot is of their duet of "Good Ol' Boys"...but first things first. Ray opened the show performing a song I'd never heard before. It's listed as "Marie" in the program description and prior to the start of this blog entry I did some research and found out that the song goes way back...a performance on YouTube by Tommy Dorsey is available to listen to but it doesn't have the same arrangement heard in Ray's performance.

Ray brings out John Schneider and informs the audience that John's made several appearances at Ray's Saturday morning gathering, informally referred to as the Breakfast Club, which Ray's been holding for decades. I knew nothing of this informal, weekly breakfast get together among friends in and out of the music business until I read Ray's memoir a couple years ago. Ray asks John how he got into acting and then into music. John remarks that he had actually started acting in childhood and that he was born in New York state. He reflects on how many people naturally assume that he was born in the deep south given the character roles he's played, specifically Bo Duke, on Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1982, 1983-1985). He attributes the ability to pull off playing the character as simply acting. John speaks about his current project in which he's going to be recording 52 songs. The project is called Odyssey. Given that this episode was taped earlier this year the first two volumes of the project are already available according to an announcement on his website and you can read more about the project by clicking HERE.

The site describes it as a pre-order and so it's my guess there hasn't been a general release for the project as of yet. His Facebook page has more information, too...but getting back to the show...

On cue, Ray steers the conversation to performing the Dukes of Hazzard theme, "Just a Good Ol' Boys". Ray and John perform it in a lively rendition with numerous guitar solo's by Jerry Kimbrough. It's a much longer performance than the studio recording by Waylon Jennings and as I was watching and listening to Ray and John perform it I wondered how long it could continue because as soon as you think they're going to reach a conclusion they start right back where they left off and sing the famous sing-a-long chorus once more. It does come to a conclusion and John does the 'ye-haw!' catchphrase heard in the television series whenever the General Lee car flies over lakes, hilltops, or over top of other parked cars. Ray then asks John how he got the role of Bo Duke. John recalls that he got the part when he was still a teenager (age 18) and that he fibbed a little by saying to the powers that be that he was from Georgia. Ray mentions that John currently appears on a series called The Have's and the Have Not's which leads into John discussing Tyler Perry. Among the discussion is John's movie studio located in Louisiana. Ray asks where it's located and John says the nearest big city is Baton Rouge. In addition to the television series Ray mentioned (which debuted in 2013) John also appeared in numerous episodes of Smallville as Jonathan Kent (the adoptive father of Clark Kent).

John performs one of the songs included on his Odyssey project, "I Wouldn't Be Me Without You", and he follows it up with "I've Been Around Enough to Know". Ray thanks John for appearing on the show and then after the applause dies down he wonders why there's a common belief among people in society that once people in the public eye reache a certain age then it's time to retire. Ray defies such a mandate and states that he isn't going to retire anytime soon and with that he introduces a brand new song from the pen of his long time collaborator and business associate, Buddy Kalb. The song is called "It's My Job". It's a hand clapper...and you'll immediately notice that from the audience reaction...and it fits Ray like a glove, too. I hope he records it and puts it out for purchase.

The episode airing this weekend on local PBS stations guest stars Lee Roy Parnell. I can't wait to see this episode, too! I'll see it next weekend and as usual I'll write my recap! Oh, by the way, this coming Tuesday night (July 3rd) Ray will guest star on the Tuesday Night Opry!! I don't think I'll be able to hear it on my car radio (on my way to work) because WSM doesn't come in clear in my area until after 8pm Eastern and sometimes 9pm Eastern. If for some reason I miss hearing it Tuesday night I'll wait for the audio clip to appear in the Opry archives.

In the meantime the episode of Ray's television series airing this weekend is the 13th. I haven't read anything suggesting that there will be more new episodes to air or if the series will go on rerun hiatus. I was expecting some sort of announcement to be made in the latter half of this past week as to whether a new season would get underway next weekend or if the previous couple of seasons would be reran during the summer months. If I come across any announcement I'll pass it along. More than likely the closer we get to next weekend we'll receive an announcement through social media sites on upcoming new episodes and when we should expect to see them.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Shoji Tabuchi

Hello once more...and this is my recap of season Six, episode 11 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville guest starring Shoji Tabuchi. During the introduction Bill Cody referred to Ray as the 'Hillbilly Piano Man'. Ray opened the show performing "Strangers in the Night", the classic made famous by Frank Sinatra. Ray's recording of the song is from his tribute album, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What??!, from 2008.



Ray brings out the 'Hillbilly Fiddle Player', Shoji Tabuchi, who greets Ray and then offers a one liner: "you all didn't know I could speak English"; Ray then asks what Shoji thinks of the CabaRay. Shoji says he loves it and then is asked how a native of Japan ended up in country music and America. Shoji tells of his origins and how he was inspired by the fiddle playing that he saw Roy Acuff doing while Roy and others were on one of those famed Opry package shows that used to tour all over the world.

Shoji said that he came to America in 1967 and eventually ended up touring with David Houston for five years. I looked up several statistics surrounding Shoji and the timeline has him a member of David Houston's road show from 1970 to 1975. On hand with Shoji is his daughter, Christina. Ray remarks that the last time he saw Shoji's daughter she happened to be a little girl. Shoji opened his theater in Branson, Missouri in 1990 and he remains a headliner there. Ray, as most of you know, headlined his own theater for two separate three season runs (1991-1993 and 2004-2006). Ray brings up Mel Tillis having recently passed away and mentions that Mel and Shoji were fishing buddies. Shoji confirms this and jokingly says that Mel taught him how to speak English (an obvious self-deprecating joke centering around Shoji's heavy Japanese inflected command of English and Mel's famous stutter).

Ray counters Shoji's comical remark with an amusing joke centering around Mel's decision to eventually stop fishing with Shoji. I'd love to offer it in this recap but there are things I intentionally leave out in all of these episode recaps and I do this so those that haven't seen these episodes will be surprised once they view them. There are some things that I add, which I feel necessary to incorporate into my blog recaps, but I always tack on a bold-print **spoiler alert** warning...but this time I decided to hold off...you'll laugh at the joke, though. If any local PBS station in your area isn't carrying Ray's television series you can always watch it on-line. Episodes can be found on his video web-site, raystevens.tv. Every episode from Season One to the most recently uploaded episode from Season Six can be found there. It's a subscription based site but Ray always provides recent episodes in the Free Content section for a limited time only before they become exclusive to subscribers. I'm a subscriber...obviously...no big secret there...but for those that simply want to catch a couple episodes of the show, for free, there's always a limited time frame upon which you can.

As of this writing there are three selected episodes available for free viewing. Two episodes from Season Three (guest stars being Restless Heart and B.J. Thomas) and this episode I'm recapping guest starring Shoji Tabuchi. If you come across this blog entry weeks or months from now the episodes available for free are certainly going to be different...but anyway...back to the recap...

After the comical remark about Mel and Shoji's fishing trips coming to an end Ray suggests they perform something...and this leads into a performance of a Roy Acuff classic called "Once More". After the performance Ray asks if Shoji is familiar with any other style of music. He replies with an answer that surprised me: big band. This leads into a performance of "Tennessee Waltz", vocally performed by Christina, while Shoji and Ray perform it instrumentally. Ray called Shoji the King of Branson and he instructed Shoji to make his way center stage at the red carpet. Shoji performed "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and followed this with "Old Joe Clark" which he humorously introduced and re-titled 'Young Joe Clark' as he comically took offense to the original "being so old" that he felt a younger version needed to be in existence. Afterward Ray thanks Shoji and his daughter for appearing on the show.

The show's closing performance from Ray is another selection from the Sinatra tribute CD. This time it's "All the Way". Appearing on the episode of Ray's television series airing locally on PBS stations this weekend is John Schneider. Once it becomes available on-line next weekend I'll write a recap of it.

As of this writing I haven't seen any indication of Season Seven being in production or if Ray's going to take any sort of hiatus from the show and focus on CD releases of any kind. Whenever the show is "in production" Ray and company frequently provide photo's from the taping sessions, etc. etc. which, obviously, keeps all of us informed and there's social media posts offering tickets for show tapings. I haven't seen anything like that emerge so far. If I come across any on-line information concerning an upcoming season I'll pass it along. Now, of course, this current season of episodes were taped earlier this year after the CabaRay officially opened it's doors in January and the episodes began airing on PBS in April. Well, technically, the current season started with episodes taped at his Music Row recording studio in the latter half of 2017 but by the fifth episode, guest starring Moe Bandy, episodes had since began taping at the CabaRay. My guess being the production of a Season Seven may get underway next month or probably August with those episodes more than likely starting to air on PBS in the latter half of September or early October...but then again the show could very well go into a lengthy repeat cycle for the rest of the calendar year (which I don't see happening, by the way) with new episodes emerging in 2019. Again, I don't see that happening, so I look forward to seeing some sort of information in the coming weeks about production of the next season getting underway. I'm assuming during his activities at this year's Fan Fair/CMA Fest earlier this month he contacted a range of entertainers to appear on his show.

Just in case anybody's wondering or may be curious the total number of episodes of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville has exceeded more than 70 so far. The actual total number of episodes produced is 78. This being Season Six, and with each season consisting of 13 episodes, that brings you to a total of 78 half hour episodes. So far 77 of those episodes have aired. The 13th and final episode of Season Six (the 78th episode overall) airs next weekend. If Season Seven sticks to the 13 episode formula this means by season's end the total number of episodes would have risen to 93! This isn't counting the documentary special that aired during PBS pledge breaks. Since it isn't an actual half hour episode but rather an hour long documentary special it's not counted in the series episode guide.

Ray Stevens performs "My Dad"...

Hello one and all on this Father's Day 2018! I was going to post about a particular Ray Stevens recording, "My Dad", and I already have a photo collage put together spotlighting the commercial and promotional single as well as the album it originally appeared on in 1983...a vinyl album titled Me. On Father's Days past I've mentioned "My Dad" on this blog page and this time around, as you can tell, it's no different. However, there is something new to add...a performance of the song by Ray Stevens! It's rare indeed to see Ray perform the song...and as far as I know the last time he performed it on television was the mid 1980s on a telecast that I've only read about in vintage country music publications but never seen with my own eyes. That performance (from 1984) was part of a television special featuring other recording acts.

"My Dad" emerged from an album Ray Stevens recorded for Mercury Records in 1983. The album is chock full of romantic ballads and uptempo sing-a-long performances...including a song that critics may consider a novelty song, "Game Show Love", but if critics should label it as such it's only because of the song's title and it's construction of lyrics (name dropping titles of game shows and their catch-phrases) but as far as the vocals are concerned Ray performs it straightforward without a slightest hint of comedy. It's the album's closing track and one of the uptempo songs I was referring to at the start of the paragraph. The album was produced by Ray and Jerry Kennedy. This was sort of a reunion as the two of them worked together in the early to mid 1960s on numerous recording sessions. Jerry was often a session musician on Ray Stevens recordings back then and sometimes he was credited as Orchestra leader. On the single release of "Ahab the Arab" in 1962 it credits Jerry Kennedy as such. Ray's main record producer was Shelby Singleton but both he and Jerry Kennedy are credited as producers on a series of recordings Ray did in the mid '60s while under a unique contract. The language of this contract gave Mercury the right to issue commercial recordings on Ray while he held another job with a competing label, Monument, as strictly a session musician/A&R man. In other words he wasn't allowed to record anything for Monument until his recording contract with Mercury ended in the latter half of 1965. After the contract ended with Mercury then Monument began to issue commercial singles on Ray for the first time.

Ray recorded "My Dad" twice in his career. There is the 1983 original from the Me album and then there's a fairly recent re-recording found on a CD titled Bozo's Back Again released in 2011. It's on that particular 2011 CD where Ray also revives a couple of other songs from the Me album: "Game Show Love", "Kings and Queens", and "Me".

Earlier today a performance of "My Dad" by Ray Stevens was uploaded onto YouTube. The performance is from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. The performance originated from the television studio on Music Row where Ray used to tape the show prior to it's move to the actual CabaRay Showroom in West Nashville. Episodes taking place at the CabaRay began airing this season (starting with Episode Five guest starring Moe Bandy).

But anyway...here's Ray Stevens singing "My Dad"...

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Ronnie McDowell

Hello all...I just finished watching Ronnie McDowell's episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and I'm here to deliver my recap/commentary. The episode, as you can imagine, features a lot of reference and recollection about Elvis Presley. In case you're unaware, though, Ronnie McDowell, in my opinion, is a great Elvis vocalist.

I never label him an impersonator because Ronnie's had success with his own recordings (in his own voice) and he's long since established himself separately from Elvis but for decades movie companies and television companies have often recruited Ronnie due to his uncanny ability to vocally mimic Elvis from any time period: from the youthful rocker to the often parodied Vegas Elvis. Ray opens the show with a performance of "Way Down". This song happened to be a hit for Elvis at the time of his death in 1977. I've mentioned this several times over the years on this blog the fact that Ray published the Elvis recording. The writer happened to be Layng Martine, Jr. and in addition to Elvis singing the obvious lead vocal "Way Down" also featured bass accompaniment from J.D. Sumner.

Ray introduces Ronnie and he tells of how he happened to be in Nashville in 1977 and he gives the exact time of day being 2:22pm when he heard Elvis had died. Ronnie explains the origins behind his recording, "The King is Gone", and how it sold more than a million copies in less than a week (it was certified Gold by the RIAA, officially, in January of 1978). Ray mentions how much of an influence Elvis had on Ronnie and asks if he ever personally met Elvis. Ronnie says that he never met him in person. He tells of how his father wasn't a fan of Elvis or rock 'n' roll, in general, and he recalls taking his father to the movies to see a film called King Creole.

Ronnie says that he knew it was an Elvis movie but told his father it was a horror movie (perhaps thinking his father would assume it to be along the lines of King Kong or something). Anyway, Ronnie says that when he seen Elvis up on the large movie screen it changed his life forever. Ray comically counters this by stating that as a boy he seen Frankenstein and that it had a profound impact on him. At this point I also should make mention that Ray comically teased Ronnie several times about having a sharp memory and being able to remember exact dates and places in time. Ronnie also spoke as much as he could about Elvis and there are some noticeable edits indicating that the conversations may have lasted longer and so maybe we'll see some additional footage in a later clip-filled show.

Ronnie sings "The King is Gone" while Ray plays the piano.



Ray brings up Ronnie's talent in visual arts...and Ronnie remarks that it all began in grade school and how his efforts were praised by a teacher. Ray asks about a painting called Reflections of a King and this leads into discussions about his art work. In the video clip above you'll see Ronnie getting ready to unveil a portrait called That Magic Moment. It received a lot of applause and there were some audible gasps from the audience when viewing the sheer precision of the painting.

Shifting gears Ronnie performs "Watchin' Girls Go By" which was one of his big hits in the early '80s. Afterward he tells of seeing Elvis for the first time on television and he performs the song he said Elvis performed, "I Need Your Love Tonight". I'm nowhere near the dedicated fan of Elvis that Ronnie happens to be so I'd never heard that song before...but I looked it up and sure enough it was a big hit for Elvis early in 1959. The song had been recorded in June of 1958 while Elvis was on leave from the Army.

After the spirited performance from Ronnie of "I Need Your Love Tonight" Ray thanked him for being on the show and although 95 percent of this episode was Elvis oriented Ray closed the show with his version of the Hank Locklin mega hit, "Please Help Me I'm Falling". The episode of Ray's television show airing this weekend guest stars Branson, Missouri mainstay Shoji Tabuchi. If you're keeping track it's episode 11 of Season Six. Shoji has performed at his own Branson, Missouri theater since 1990 and given Ray's history with the Missouri town headlining his own theater (1991-1993; 2004-2006) you can bet the two will share some Branson stories. I'll deliver my recap/commentary next weekend!

Ray Stevens at CMA Fest 2018...Preview of Events...

Here I am once again...blogging about the one and only Ray Stevens! Earlier this morning I blogged about one of the recent episodes of his television series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. After several hours of sleep/rest I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement that Ray's scheduled interview this afternoon with Robert K. Oermann is underway. There hasn't been any information released indicating whether or not the interview will be streaming live on any website or if it'll be recorded, which I assume it will be, for playback later. The opening segment will be streamed live on-line but as for the rest of the schedule I'd say probably not or else there would've been announcements made by now.

The interview is scheduled to last 45 minutes and I've seen the line-up of events taking place today at the CMA Close-Up Stage...everything appears to be timed to the precise minute.

Here's the scheduled run down of what's happening today in the particular venue Ray's interview will be conducted in:

Kelsea Ballerini: 11am - 12pm
Bill Anderson and Bobby Bare: 12:15pm - 12:45pm
Ray Stevens: 1pm - 1:45pm
Restless Heart: 2pm - 3pm
Exile: 3:15pm - 4pm
Naomi Judd: 4:15 - 5pm

This information comes from the CMA World website. The only thing that looks a bit odd, to me at least, is the 30 minutes allotted to Bill Anderson and Bobby Bare...two gigantic icons of country music. I say that because, in my way of thinking, it'll be rather difficult enough to squeeze in 60 years of Ray Stevens entertainment into 45 minutes but I'm curious as to how 30 minutes for a couple of artists with more than 110 years combined in country music will come off. Perhaps some segments may run shorter or longer than the scheduled time listed...it's all live so anything's possible...so it's hard to tell. I do notice a pattern of there being a 15 minute break between each segment, though. Whatever information becomes available I'll make a note of it in this fan created blog that you're reading in which I call the Ray Stevens Music Journey. It's 11:16am Eastern time as I type this...and Nashville, TN is in the Central time zone so it's an hour earlier. Ray's interview will be 1pm Central/2pm Eastern. If a video clip should become available of his interview or if a transcript or audio becomes available I'll obviously blog about it.

(**)- Blogger correction: In some of my recent blog entries I've mentioned that Ray would be performing the National Anthem to close out this year's installment of CMA Fest. I was incorrect. Ray will be performing the National Anthem at the Nissan Stadium to kick off the final night of performances. Each of the past three days there's been an act that's performed the National Anthem and so on closing night, Day 4, it's Ray's opportunity to perform it.

So, then, what exactly was happening in the career of Ray Stevens some 60 years ago? Well, for one thing, he was under contact to Capitol Records while still a teenager. Born January 24, 1939 he was 18 years old when Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol, issued the very first commercial single on Ray Stevens. Very loyal and devoted fans should know the name of the single without having to look off to the left at the image. The single was "Silver Bracelet" backed with "Rang Tang Ding Dong (I'm the Japanese Sandman)". Interestingly, though, "Silver Bracelet" is generally listed as the B-side in price guides even though I've not seen any single release images to suggest an A or a B side. My guess is because "Rang Tang Ding Dong" is a comical/novelty performance it's been given A side deference given Ray's reputation for comical recordings. That's my theory anyway. I've never professed to be an expert in the technical aspects of the single releases and why some are clearly marked A or B and some are not...but what's more interesting is Ray always mentions "Silver Bracelet" as being his first commercially released recording. So, perhaps, "Silver Bracelet" holds the distinction of being his first ever professional recording but researchers and the like prefer the comical performance and so they give it top billing? It's anybody's guess...but one thing is clear...the comical recording has more production...and perhaps the reason for that is because it's a cover of a previous hit by The Cellos, a Rhythm and Blues group, that had regional and local success but their only showing on the national charts was "Rang Tang Ding Dong". Their recording of "Rang Tang Ding Dong" would have been considered their current release the year Ray recorded his version. There was a CD released several years ago with the unique title of Ahab, Jeremiah, Sgt. Preston and More...The Early Ray Stevens. It was an import CD from the United Kingdom. I wrote a blog entry about the CD's eventual release and I even posted a photo of myself and the CD.

Yes, that's the photo I posted of myself displaying the CD back then. I was, of course, attempting to model my facial expression after the one Ray is giving us on the CD cover. My mouth is typically never opened that wide unless I'm eating a half pound roast beef sandwich or some other kind of sandwich of that magnitude. Anyway...the CD features 31 recordings ranging from 1957 through 1963 and covering the record labels of Prep, Capitol, NRC, and Mercury. The first 15 recordings spotlight single releases and the remainder of the tracks include his entire 1962 album for Mercury Records, titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor, plus a couple of additional recordings added to the song total. By that I mean the track list includes both the Single and Album cut of "Ahab the Arab" from 1962. On top of this the collection also contains his original recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" and three songs from his 1963 album, This is Ray Stevens. The CD became available back in April of 2014. I was reluctant, at first, to purchase the CD until I seen it become available for purchase on Amazon. My review of the CD over there is dated December 24, 2014 and I begin the review by explaining that I finally got around to purchasing it.

At the moment it's 12:54pm Eastern/11:54am Central and so the first set at the CMA Close-Up Stage with Kelsea Ballerini is nearly complete. At 12:15pm Bill Anderson and Bobby Bare make their appearance and then Ray Stevens makes his way onto the stage at 1pm Central.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: Tribute Show...

Hello once again...another episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville has graced my viewing eyes and I'm here to offer my commentary/re-cap of the goings-on. I decided to open this blog entry with a different greeting, of sorts, to break up the usual way I begin each one...and on this episode of Ray's locally syndicated PBS series it, too, breaks the usual pattern.



On this particular episode there isn't a special guest but several iconic entertainers that have passed away are given a spotlight. The episode is officially titled 'Tribute Show' and if you're keeping track it's episode 9 of Season 6. There are four episodes left in this current season (each consists of 13 episodes). Ray walks out on stage and speaks about the nature of the episode. The first to be spotlighted in song is Jerry Reed. Ray informs the audience/television viewers how he and Jerry had been friends for decades and performs "When You're Hot, You're Hot". After the performance Ray introduces the guest guitar player standing next to Ray's guitar player, Jerry Kimbrough. Afterward Ray performs "East Bound and Down".

Ray then speaks about having been on a tour in Australia (early 1971) and how his being on tour and not in the United States prevented him from appearing at the Grammy Awards...the year Ray took home the Grammy for "Everything Is Beautiful" in the Best Pop Male Vocalist of the Year category. There to accept the trophy was Glen Campbell...the artist being spotlighted next. Ray mentions that Glen appeared in John Wayne's movie, True Grit, and mentions Glen's famed television series. Ray performs "Wichita Lineman" and brings up songwriter, Jimmy Webb. Ray then performs "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".

In the next segment Ray tells a behind the scenes story of a recording session that took place involving Bobby Bare, Chet Atkins, Charlie McCoy, and Boots Randolph...and how studio joking around can lead to a surprise. He points out that Charlie was there to play guitar...not the harmonica. Ray tells of how Boots, as a joke, began to twist the tuner on the guitar all the way up...but Chet loved the sound and decided to use it to intro the song, "Detroit City". The song, from the pen of Mel Tillis, became a country music standard. Ray sings "Detroit City" and then another song from the pen of Mel Tillis entitled "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town".

In the final segment Ray speaks of the accomplishments of a certain iconic entertainer who became the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He mentions that while this performer was never officially known as an actor or didn't go out into the field as heavily he nevertheless had that presence. The artist being referred to is Merle Haggard. Ray sings a song that has long been associated with Merle and one that many people assume was a hit recording...the iconic "Today, I Started Loving You Again". Local classic country radio stations often play the song and as a kid I'd hear the song and just automatically think it was one of Merle's biggest hits...but the fact remains that it was never a hit as it was the B-side of "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde" but countless compilation albums on Merle include the song and classic country radio stations over the decades regularly play the song so it's gotten the reputation as being one of Merle's legendary hit songs.

Ray closes the show with a comical story involving Mel Tillis and an intruder. You'll have to hear it for yourselves. This episode originally aired on local PBS stations last weekend. The episode airing this weekend guest stars Ronnie McDowell...and once this episode makes it's way onto Ray's video site I'll watch it and post my recap/commentary.

Now, don't you all forget...if any of you are reading this and happen to be in Nashville, Tennessee Ray is attending Day 4 of the CMA Music Fest (today, June 10th). He'll be there for an interview with Robert K. Oerman at 1pm and this interview is to spotlight Ray's 60th year in the music industry. This interview will take place at the Close Up Stage; then later that night at the Nissan Stadium Ray will be closing this year's CMA Music Fest with a performance of the National Anthem.

A couple days ago Ray posted a special video on his Facebook page...a kind of behind the scenes look at his CabaRay Showroom. Promoted on social media outlets as 'Live from CabaRay' it's a video showing exterior and interior footage of that day's happenings. Camera's pan the parking lot and other areas. The doors to the facility open up and we're greeted by Raymond Hicks. When I attended a concert at the showroom back on March 1st my brother and I met him and several others while we awaited for the concert to begin later that evening. The second half of the video is with Ray's longtime friend/songwriting partner/business partner/music video co-star, etc. etc. Buddy Kalb. He's the one that takes the cameras backstage and along the way we meet the harmony singers and Ray Stevens himself. You can watch this video, which was live on Friday night, but it's still on-line for those that weren't able to see it. I couldn't see it because I was on my way to work. Click here for the CabaRay Social Media Video.

The Streak continues for Ray Stevens...

For those that do not follow weekly music charts or aren't too familiar with them they represent the sales or airplay of all kinds of entertainment product. The charts are always published to reflect the previous week and so if you look at any of the charts in any detail you'll see the familiar phrase "for the week ending" and it'll have the day of the week posted. From the week ending May 18, 1974 to the week ending June 1, 1974 the number one single on the pop chart in America was "The Streak" by our favorite, Ray Stevens. That's a total of 3 weeks at the top. Even more impressive is the fact that it had only been on the Hot 100 less than a month before it reached the top. The single also hit number one the week ending June 1, 1974 on Canada's pop music chart and it was also the top selling country music hit in Canada this week in 1974 which resulted in it hitting number one for the week ending June 8, 1974 on their country music chart. In the United Kingdom "The Streak" hit number one for the week ending June 15, 1974. I'd also like to take this time to reinforce my respect and overall love for Ray's music. I find myself doing this whenever I find myself blogging about "The Streak" or "Ahab the Arab" and the reasons are obvious. It's because those two songs are the most polarizing of his career. There's extreme emotion regarding each song...either people despise those songs, in particular, with a passion or they love them with a passion. Obviously without my having to point it out I fall into the latter category. I love both of those songs...but yet I know there's segments of the population that can't stand either song and all anyone has to do is visit social media sites and see the contempt.

Since "The Streak" was coming off it's third week at number one in 1974 (a fact brought up in one of those 'This week in Music History' kind of posts) it's invited a lot of snide remarks by a whole host of people on social media. Who knew such a harmless slice of lyrical silliness could carry such eternal damnation from people? Well, anyway, that's my little rant about the hateful critics of "The Streak" and of Ray Stevens in general. I'm pretty sure most of you that read my blog are fans of Ray anyhow and perhaps agree with my sentiments so I'm more or less preaching to the choir.

I title this blog entry after the song, obviously, but I also title it as such because the career of Ray Stevens remains one of the longest in entertainment history (60 years and counting...). Although Ray remains busy and active at his West Nashville entertainment showroom, CabaRay, he'll be performing at this year's CMA Music Fest. I made mention of that a couple of blog's ago and more than likely I'll make more mention of it as it gets closer to June 10th (next Sunday). In addition to his performance of the National Anthem he'll also be interviewed in a 45 minute interview session. The interview is expected to highlight his 60 years as a recording artist but it'll no doubt also include commentary about the CabaRay and his television series.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: Micky Dolenz

Hello one and all! Oh yes for me it's an early blog entry...I'm usually a night owl on the weekends and so most of the time my blog entries are posted well past midnight; but, I found myself awake this evening and so I checked the Ray Stevens video page and seen that last week's episode of his PBS television series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, was uploaded and so I watched it and I'm posting my recap.



The special guest on this episode (originally airing the weekend of May 26th) happened to be Micky Dolenz...the drummer and occasional lead singer on recordings by The Monkees. Ray opened the show with a performance of "Too Much Monkey Business". Not being too familiar with Chuck Berry's catalog of songs...other than those that the general public are also familiar with...I had originally thought that the song might be something new that Ray or Buddy Kalb may have written until I searched for the song's title on-line and seen it had been written and recorded in the 1950s by Chuck Berry...and further research told me it would go on to be recorded by numerous other performers...but nevertheless I enjoyed the Ray Stevens performance of the song. After the opening performance Ray brought out Micky Dolenz and from the start of the conversation you could tell it was going to be lighthearted and up-beat.

Micky's greeting to Ray was rather comical...saying how much his parent's loved Ray's music...and this prompted Ray to counter with "was I your grandparent's favorite, too?". The irony being that Ray, born in 1939, is only 6 years older than Micky (born in 1945) but because Ray's music has largely appealed to, or, it's been more appreciated by, mature older audiences throughout his entire career it's possible that Micky's parent's were in that age bracket purchasing Ray Stevens records in the '60s and '70s. If you look at Ray's chart history you'll see quite a few single releases that did much better with Easy Listening/Adult-Contemporary audiences of the '70s than with the mainstream pop audience.

After this greeting and exchange Micky tells of "Last Train to Clarksville" and it's origin. Ray had mentioned that he didn't know, until recently, that the recording took place at Hollywood's RCA Studio B (not the more noted studio in Nashville, TN). In his recollection Micky mentions that it's actually an anti-war song even though the lyrics do not explicitly cite the Vietnam War. 

In an effort to show that Micky's been around even longer in the public eye Ray makes mention that Micky was a child actor in a television series titled Circus Boy for two seasons. Micky played the role of Corky and that the series was in production from 1956 to 1958 (Ray's first recording, "Silver Bracelet", arrived in 1957). Ray then asks how The Monkees television series came about. Micky states that the guitar was his music instrument of personal preference but the producers of the television series said that he'd be the group's drummer. He mentions that the group had already been musically inclined prior to the television series so it wasn't like they learned how to sing or play instruments during the television series.

Ray asks him about Davy Jones and wondered whether or not Micky and Davy had been life-long friends. Micky mentions that he met Davy, and the other members of the group, for the first time while on The Monkees set in 1965. Micky mentions that Davy had been a child actor in the U.K. and so the two of them shared a similar connection.

Ray asks about life after The Monkees...to which Micky responds with saying that he'd spent a lot of years in England and for more than 10 years he did production work and other activity behind the scenes. The two of them discuss the various writing teams and legendary writers behind The Monkees hit songs. They don't discuss in any lengthy detail...more or less they name drop celebrated writers such as Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Hart, etc. Ray informs Micky that the audience wants to hear some Monkees hits...to which Micky jokingly refuses and comically conveys humility with excessive hand gestures...and I'm paraphrasing here: "oh gosh...no no...nobody wants to hear those!!". You'll see some of that in the video advertisement above.

Micky predictably relents and goes center stage with a guitar and names off several songwriters he credits with crafting The Monkees look, sound, and overall style. At one point, knowing that he's named so many writers, he comically inserts Neil Armstrong's name as well. He mentions Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and how vital the two of them were to The Monkees.

While at center stage Micky performs "Last Train to Clarksville", followed by "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and then he replaces the guitar with a tambourine for "I'm a Believer". During a performance of the chorus in "I'm a Believer" Micky walks over to one of Ray's harmony singers, Sabrina, and sings to her. Afterward Ray thanks Micky for appearing and a standing ovation results. Ray closes the show with a performance of "That's Life!", his version of Frank Sinatra's classic. Ray recorded it for his tribute album, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. The episode airing this weekend on local PBS stations is one of the several special episodes this season. Earlier in the season Ray delivered back to back episodes titled Special Moments (a retrospective) and Hall of Fame (clips of previous guests that are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame). The episode airing this weekend is a Tribute Show. In it Ray performs songs made famous by the likes of Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, Mel Tillis, and Merle Haggard. It'll be uploaded onto Ray's video site next weekend. You can visit it by clicking HERE.