Ray Stevens CabaRay: May concerts...

Hello once more...as we come near the end of April I decided to take a look at the upcoming calendar of events at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom for the month of May. This blog entry is actually a sort of sequel to a post I wrote last month which looked ahead to the April calendar at the CabaRay. Next month (on May 22) the cast and crew of Larry's Country Diner will mark their return to the CabaRay to begin taping on more episodes of that series. The series will be taped there on Wednesday's seemingly at random. On May 22 and May 29 there will be taping sessions held at the CabaRay for Larry's show but, as of this writing, there aren't any taping sessions listed for the month of June but additional dates are shown for the months of July and August.

Ray will be performing concerts at the CabaRay on the following dates during the month of May: 3, 4, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, and 31. Ray's appearances are typically Friday and Saturday evenings...sometimes he'll do a concert on a Thursday. You can purchase tickets by clicking HERE. This page will display information for Ray's concerts and information surrounding Larry's Country Diner taping. Also on display are the special guests scheduled to appear during the taping of Larry's program. The series has taped at the CabaRay numerous times. Ray, at the moment, isn't working on any episodes of CabaRay Nashville (for those wondering) but I'm almost certain that future episodes will be in production.

This was uploaded several days ago (April 24) ...an audio recording from Ray Stevens of "Silver Bracelet" from 1957...



The song's been on YouTube for years (uploaded by other YouTube members) but it had never been released through Ray's official YouTube channel until just recently. The photo of Ray dates back to the mid 1950s...prior to his recording career. You'll have to dig deep into the blog archives off to the right hand side of the page to find information about Ray's experience as a radio disc jockey in Albany, Georgia in the years leading up to his signing with Prep Records in 1957. Ray hosted a three hour radio program on Saturday afternoon's with co-host, Mary Dale Vansant, on WGPC-AM. The show was called The Record Hop and based on what little information I've come across it aired for nearly three years beginning in 1954 but midway through it's radio run there was a change in co-hosts. If you're familiar with Ray's teen years you'll already know he was performing in a local band called The Barons and so he was experienced as a musician/showman for several years before he began making records. You can search the internet for Ray and Albany High School and you'll find a few things here and there about his classmates...especially on a site called Albany High Times which I came across quite a few years ago and that's the site where I learned a little more about Ray's teen years prior to the later release of his memoir.

Ray wrote about his teen years, not in any incredible great length, but he offered some insight and reflections surrounding his teen years in his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, which you can purchase HERE. Chapter Three of the memoir is titled Albany. The book arrived on August 25, 2014 and if you're a fan of Ray's and don't have the memoir click the link and purchase it. Ray's life story and career had never been properly or officially documented, actually, until this memoir came along almost five years ago. This fan created blog page I came up with in 2008 was an attempt to document his career even though it's from a fan's perspective and it's concentrated almost entirely on his career rather than being fixated on his personal life. Ray doesn't make his personal life or personal activity public too much...in the rare times in which he reveals activity taking place off-stage is the only time I'll make mention of it in a blog entry...but, no, I've never had much interest in seeking out the personal life...or going out of my way to find out things going on in his career prior to it being made public. His memoir reveals a lot of information in writing and in the dozens of photographs...a lot of photo's are from his personal collection and have never been publicly released...and so if you're wanting to know a lot more about the inner workings of Ray Stevens then purchase his memoir!!

Last month after the news was released, on March 18, that Ray was among the newly elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame I wrote a blog entry where I shared some links to press releases and to general coverage of the announcement. On March 27th the CMA uploaded onto YouTube this video clip of Ray's acceptance speech at the March 18th gala. I posted the acceptance speech which appears on Ray's YouTube channel but I don't think I posted/embedded the video clip from the CMA's YouTube channel...



In my blog entry from yesterday I embedded the music video of "Red Hot Chili Cook Off", a music video Ray uploaded onto YouTube on March 20, 2013. When I embedded the video I think I mentioned it had 955,945 unique views!? For some reason that number is sticking out in my mind...if that was the unique view total yesterday then it's increased by 491 because now the video's sitting at 956,436.

Once again here's the LINK to purchase concert tickets at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom.

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV video Promos...

Hello once more...I've been pondering whether or not to use some different lettering (font style) or should I keep things basic as I have over the last decade. I use bold lettering and italic lettering regularly and so I think I'll continue to use this same font lettering style because it highlights the bold and italics which I incorporate into my blog entries...and this blog entry is no exception. Ray Stevens has uploaded some additional commercial promo's for Rayality TV...and I've decided to embed some of them into this blog entry. A couple of months ago Ray uploaded some video promo clips for the first five episodes of Rayality TV but then, as most of you know, the show was removed from RFD-TV's line-up abruptly but it's since returned. It originally aired Sunday nights at 9pm, for a couple of weeks, prior to it's removal in December 2018. When the show returned not too long ago it was placed on the Daytime schedule on Friday afternoons at 2:30pm. Video promo's for episodes Six, Seven, and Eight were uploaded onto YouTube the other day.

The promo for Episode Six...



If you're not familiar with this half hour program then I'll explain it because there may be some out there who will see it for the first time and wonder what it's all about. Over the last couple of decades Ray has taped or filmed numerous music videos and has appeared on countless television programs. He also taped some episodes of a very brief sitcom called We Ain't Dead Yet (a subscription-only internet series). Episodes of that sitcom took place at the fictional Encore Retirement Home in which clips from that series are featured in episodes of Rayality TV. Now, in addition to clips from We Ain't Dead Yet there are full length music videos and snippets from other home video and later, DVD, releases inserted into each episode. Each clip-filled episode follows a specific theme and so it isn't just a bunch of clips thrown together at random although that's how it may come off to people if they're not entirely focused on the series as a whole.

The series has it's own look and feel...which I find unique for a program based almost entirely on clips. I love the graphics of the series which are on display in the above photo (Christmas themed episode Seven). The graphics are also on display as well in the video promo. That lettering, by the way, graces a lot of Ray's video productions. The greatest thing of all of course, when it comes to Rayality TV, is having Ray Stevens acting in the role of host/presenter/commentator. Throughout the half hour Ray appears in between the clips and either reacts to what's just happened (sometimes verbally and sometimes with only a smirk or some other comical facial expression) but then again he also sets things up by explaining the origins behind whatever is about to air...whether it be a music video or a stage performance...and so, as mentioned, it's a very entertaining half hour of clip presentations from his lengthy career. The series airs every Friday afternoon at 2:30pm Eastern.

The episode that aired this past Friday (April 26th) featured the music video of a song called "Red Hot Chili Cook-Off". To date this song is only available in music video format but it was featured on Episode 8 of Rayality TV along side other comical clips. The video promo for that episode is below...



The music video for the song is on YouTube, of course, and it's nearing one million unique views. As of this writing the video sits at 955,945 unique views. It debuted on YouTube on March 20, 2013 and so it's been on-line for a little over 6 years and counting. Feel free to share the video, too. I'd like to see it reach one million or more unique views by summer's end...sooner than that would be wonderful, too!

It's a music video that, strangely enough, wasn't heavily promoted at the time and in hindsight one of the reasons for that might be the fact that it wasn't going to appear on any collection of songs anytime soon. If I remember correctly the music video debuted at a time when there was a lot of so-called reality TV shows focused on eating contests or showcasing people that could eat a lot in one sitting and so this video came along as a reaction to those programs...but then again the chili cook-off is highly popular in food competition/contests and so this music video merely plays to that audience. In the video Ray's character reacts in a way a lot of people want to react but inevitably hold back in an effort to look tough when consuming fiery, spicy food. In fact a lot of the fun in the music video is seeing Ray acting the part of the macho cowboy but then seconds later...well...watch the music video to see what I'm referring to:

Ray Stevens: Easter Piano...

Hello one and all...a day after Easter Sunday brings a blog entry post from me. Saturday night's episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, seen nationally on RFD-TV, guest starred Gary Mule Deer. On the local PBS affiliate airing episodes of Ray's television series, WCVN, it was an episode guest starring Bluegrass duo Dailey and Vincent. WCVN is part of the KET umbrella of television stations which program PBS television series. Technically Ray's program on PBS airs on KET2, a sub-channel, of the family of KET networks. An episode of Ray's show airs Saturday nights at 8pm on KET/WCVN and then a different episode airs at 8:30pm on RFD-TV. When episodes of Ray's television series returned to the RFD-TV line-up back in December of 2018 it didn't mean that the series was going to stop airing on PBS stations...in fact the opposite was in store...episodes of the show continue to air in local syndication on PBS stations in addition to their Saturday night air-dates on RFD-TV.

The line-up, including the guest star, for upcoming episodes broadcast on the local KET2 affiliate of PBS are as follows:

April 27: Jenny Gill
May 4: Tracy Lawrence
May 11: Sam Moore
May 18: Wilson Fairchild
May 25: Deana Carter
June 1: Gary Puckett
June 8: John Rich, Part One
June 15: John Rich, Part Two
June 22: Tony Orlando

I'm pretty sure KET2 will re-air a lot of previous episodes after the June 22nd air-date but they may begin airing episodes that they haven't aired yet...there are so many episodes available of the series that any local PBS affiliate can pick and choose which episode package they want. The RFD-TV webpage, in comparison to the KET2 webpage, doesn't provide a line-up of future episodes of Ray's show. Once an episode airs on RFD-TV it is then placed on the program's on-line episode page as previously aired. As of this writing they have all episodes listed that have aired since the show returned to their line-up on December 1, 2018. There have been a couple of Saturday nights where special programming had pre-empted the show. It didn't air on the last two Saturday nights of 2018: December 22 or December 29 and it didn't air on the first Saturday of 2019: January 5. It returned from that very brief hiatus on January 12th and it's been airing every Saturday night on RFD-TV at 8:30pm from that point forward. Now, based on their on-line television schedule, I can relay information that next week's episode (April 27) will guest star Gary Morris.

Ray's other series on RFD-TV airs on Friday afternoons at 2:30pm. Rayality TV had a brief, somewhat controversial, reception from long-time RFD-TV viewers in the beginning and here's why: Originally, Ray's CabaRay Nashville program was airing, just as it continues to air, at 8:30pm on Saturday nights. Well, on Sunday night at 9pm following Hee Haw, the station placed Rayality TV in the follow-up time slot and removed a series starring Joey and Rory (the wife, Joey, had since passed away prior to it's brief removal from the time slot) but irate fans of that series created such an on-line fuss that Ray's clip-filled Rayality TV was removed without warning and it was replaced on Sunday night at 9pm with repeat episodes of Joey and Rory. Anyway, here's the breakdown of how Rayality TV debuted on the network, was removed, but then returned to the line-up: The weekend of December 1, 2018 saw the return of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville to the RFD-TV line-up. Now, in addition to CabaRay Nashville, Rayality TV joined the line-up on Sunday night (December 2...my birthday in fact!!). Well, the social media sites for RFD-TV went nuts when Joey and Rory's program was replaced by something called Rayality TV. The fans of the Joey and Rory show, to their credit, put the pressure on and the very next week or it may have been the week after that, Rayality TV was gone while episodes of Joey and Rory's program returned. Ray's two series, in fact, were removed from RFD-TV for several weeks in December following the massive outcry from Joey and Rory fans. CabaRay Nashville nevertheless returned in January and picked up where it left off (as far as chronological episodic order) and then Rayality TV eventually found it's way back onto RFD-TV where it currently airs (Fridays at 2:30pm) but for awhile it felt as if that particular series wasn't going to get the reception/attention I felt it deserved but I'm glad that it's found something of a steady time slot.

I title my blog entry Easter Piano because very early Easter morning...actually a couple minutes past Midnight on April 21st...Ray Stevens posted a short video clip on his Facebook page. The video clip is of him playing the piano...no other accompaniment...and no vocalization. The video clip provides a link and so click HERE. There's no explanation of the video clip beyond stating that it's Ray "playing around on his piano". I can't tell if it was taped during the final days at Grand Avenue or if it's something taped at the recording studio they're building inside the CabaRay showroom. Ray had also posted a couple of photos of himself at a local fair...but for this there happened to be an explanation and it was explained that the photos were shot during the taping of an upcoming music video. One of the those photos is shown off to the right...

As mentioned this is one of two photos that surfaced on-line a couple of days ago but their origin, I believe, are from sometime last year but they've never been posted on-line until a couple of days ago. Ray's description of the photo mentioned they were at the Clarksville, TN Fair and I did some research and the 2019 fair takes place this coming June and so last year's edition of the fair, I assume, took place in June of 2018. Anyway, I decided on this particular photo. There's another photo that shows Ray reaching for the bear and an unidentified woman clutching on to it and rather than post a photo of Ray and the unidentified woman I decided to post the photo of Ray and the prize sized bear. Isn't it amazing how busy Ray Stevens continues to remain?? He and his associates are building a recording studio inside the CabaRay showroom, he's been recording songs for a number of years which are to be featured in a large collection of recordings, he performs at the CabaRay showroom, finds time to produce/arrange and play the piano and other instruments on his recordings, shoots music videos, and yet most of the time all of this activity (except for his CabaRay performances) is kept undisclosed, off-line, and isn't revealed until we least expect it. It's another way of saying that he's unpredictable. When the photos were posted on his social media sites I commented that the mind is wondering...in other words what in the world lays in store after seeing photos like these.

Ray Stevens: Forty Five Grand (Avenue) Years...

A couple of days ago through social media sites Ray Stevens made the announcement that he's vacated his Grand Avenue recording studio and office after 40 plus years. His CabaRay showroom in West Nashville on River Road opened in January 2018 and construction's been underway on a recording studio at the showroom and in several interviews he mentioned that he'd one day be exiting Grand Avenue for a recording studio at the showroom. Photo's of the new studio's construction also made their way onto social media sites several days ahead of Ray's announcement (on April 11th) that everything's been removed from the Grand Avenue location and it's all been transported the CabaRay. The photo's that were shared of the new studio visually tell us that it'll be awhile before it's up and functioning but it's well on it's way.  Those photos were shared on his Facebook page back on April 1st.

On April 11th, the day of the announcement, photos accompanied the social media posts. The photos show Ray and friends toasting and celebrating the move from Grand Avenue to the CabaRay. Several of his friends as well as many of his fans offered commentary about the event (myself included) and all of us pretty much share the same feelings. Ray, as far as my research goes, opened up his recording studio in 1974. This happened to be his second recording studio on Music Row...the first one was called The Ray Stevens Sound Laboratory which had a lot of success as a studio for other recording artists to use with Ray acting as it's landlord given he owned the building. Ray recorded at that studio as well but after only a couple of years he moved into the Grand Avenue studio at 1707 in 1974 and he remained there until just this past week. The very first song he recorded at 1707 Grand Avenue was "The Streak".

In some of my earliest blog entries I told the story of being in the Ray Stevens fan club at one time. The fan club existed for 15 years, 1987-2002. I became a member in 1994 and I often corresponded with the fan club via letter writing...on an electric typewriter! I'd type up whatever happened to be on my mind concerning Ray's career or his songs and I'd mail the letter to the fan club. I have the 1707 Grand Avenue address burned in my memory banks given all of the letters I'd send off to that address...and nearly every letter was replied to. I'd go to the post office and there would be an envelope from Ray's office in my mailbox...I'd open the envelope and read their reply. Almost all of their replies were on paper with Clyde the Camel as their letterhead. Well, actually, the letterhead was the image of Clyde and the palm trees...which I'm sure all of you are familiar with. Anyway...I was a member of the fan club until it's closing in 2002. I still have many of the newsletters that used to be sent out every month or sometimes once every three months. In some of the newsletters there would be information about upcoming Fan Club breakfasts with Ray.

Don't Laugh Now but back then I was an impressionable and naive teenager and so I actually thought that the fans that attended those breakfasts shown up in their night clothes and I thought to myself "oh gosh, I don't think I'd ever want to sit across from Ray Stevens in my pajamas and eat cereal". Don't Laugh Now happens to be the name of Ray's 1982 album on RCA...recorded at the 1707 Grand Avenue studio...a cassette copy of that album shares the camera with myself in the photo above. I have the vinyl album but I decided to snap a photo of the cassette copy.

But getting back to my reminisces...the fan club was collectively referred to as F.F.F.O.L. and that acronym stood for French Fried Far Out Legion. If you have Ray's 1993 home video, More Ray Stevens Live!, the performance by the band and Ray's brother, John, kick things off. The band had also been given the French Fried Far Out Legion name. Those of you that have Ray's VHS tapes from the early to late 1990s and even the DVD releases...you're no doubt familiar with the Clyde Records logo and the 1707 Grand Avenue address. The Clyde Records logo was the letterhead that graced a lot of the correspondence I'd receive in the mid to late 1990s.

Nearly everything that Ray's recorded since 1974 originated at the 1707 Grand Avenue studio. He's recorded numerous songs that haven't been released yet and those, too, were obviously recorded at that location. I don't think the duet with T.G. Sheppard, "This One Burger King Town", was recorded at Ray's studio. It could have been...but I'm not sure.

I'm assuming there will be some sort of announcement when recordings made at the CabaRay studio become available. I think a lot of his fans, myself included, would want to know which songs were among the first recorded at the new studio...just like whatever he releases in the coming months will be among the last recorded at the Grand Avenue studio.

Ray Stevens and That Nashville Music...

Two blog entries in the same day...oh yes...sometimes I may do such a thing! In my previous blog entry I wrote about Ray Stevens and his promotional video clip for It's Starts with M.E. which you can find in the April 2019 archives off to the right hand side of the page.

Yesterday evening featured a Ray Stevens mini-bonanza on RFD-TV. It began at 7:30pm Eastern with the airing of That Nashville Music and this was followed by Hee Haw at 8pm. In the Hee Haw episode Ray Stevens guest starred and sang "Shriner's Convention" and "Love Me Longer". This episode originally aired on February 16, 1980 with footage taped in the fall of 1979. The episode had previously aired on RFD-TV last year and it's been uploaded onto YouTube numerous times. It's the first of two appearances by Ray Stevens on Hee Haw in 1980. The second 1980 appearance recently aired for the first time on RFD-TV (February 24, 2019) in which Ray sang "You've Got the Music Inside" and "Night Games". This footage was taped at some point during the summer 1980 taping session and originally aired on October 11, 1980. Preceding the Hee Haw episode last night was That Nashville Music. This was a syndicated country music series that aired for 15 years (1970-1985). On-line information regarding the guests and air-dates is scarce to non-existent but I know Ray made appearances on the show throughout it's lifespan...and last night an episode from 1981 aired on RFD-TV. The series originally began under the title That Good Ol' Nashville Music and was hosted by Dave Dudley. Eventually the series featured a different guest artist each week in the informal role as host/presenter. The episodes were taped at the Grand Ole Opry House and in the episode I seen the off-screen announcer was the legendary Opry announcer, T. Tommy Cutrer. Ray opened the show with "You've Got the Music Inside", performed in the manner in which he had been performing it in his concerts and on television shows of this time period: a blend of uptempo and ballad. The recording of the song, which Ray issued twice (1973 and 1978), were recorded as slow ballads...but Ray obviously decided that the song needed uptempo elements sprinkled throughout so it wouldn't be too long of a ballad for live performances. He performed this arrangement of the song on Pop! Goes the Country, which is where I first seen it, prior to the performances on Hee Haw and That Nashville Music.

Reba McEntire and Leon Everette were the other two performers on the 1981 episode of That Nashville Music. Reba wasn't considered a newcomer in 1981 and yet she wasn't the super-star she became just a short couple of years later. She became a super-star after she joined MCA. As a result of her being a well established recording artist in 1981 she performed two songs: "How Does it Feel to be Free?" and "Today All Over Again" with harmony vocals from her sister, Susi McEntire (during her lengthy career as a Contemporary Christian artist she went by the name of Susi Luchsinger). Although Reba and Leon began tasting fame in the mid and late '70s, Reba was placing singles on the Country Top-40 consistently by the time of this 1981 television appearance. Anyway...

Leon Everette appeared in the segment following Reba's first performance and his segment baffled me. He's wearing the unzipped black jacket from the cover photo of one of his albums, Hurricane, plus he's wearing a cowboy hat for the performance. The thing that's baffling to me is the actual name of the song. He makes numerous mentions of roses and within the performance he states the phrase "Raining on the Roses" a couple of times during what appears to be song's chorus and so I'm assuming "Raining on the Roses" to be the name of this song...but yet no song with that title appears on any of the studio albums released on Leon Everette during the years of 1977 through 1981. I've already looked up his studio albums on eBay and gone over the track lists of those albums. Unless this song appeared on some obscure collection of songs that hasn't appeared on-line yet, was never recorded but only performed for this appearance, or whether I've got the song's title wrong hopefully someone out there will have some recall of the recording I'm baffled over. Now, when I was watching Leon's stage presence, he reminded me of Conway Twitty and Gene Watson...not vocally, of course, but the manner in which those two presented themselves on stage seemed to have heavily influenced Leon's performing style.

Leon, at the time, was a label mate of Ray. The two were on the RCA roster in 1981. Reba, on the other hand, had been on Mercury for a number of years...Jerry Kennedy would produce a lot of her earlier recordings...and eventually she would have Norro Wilson as a producer for several of her recordings...and those two men were a couple of legendary figures with connections to Ray Stevens.

Ray sang "Marie" prior to Reba's second performance...mentioning Randy Newman as it's writer. I'd never heard the song before and so this performance from Ray was brand new to me. As mentioned, Reba and Susi performed "Today All Over Again", and this was followed by a brief clogging routine. Ray closed the show with a song whose title is, I think, "Everybody is a Clown Inside", which I've not been able to find any information about. One of the band members dressed up as a hobo clown (in the tradition of Emmett Kelly) and pantomimed/acted to Ray's performance.

As far as Ray's attire...for those that like to know these things...when he opened the show he was seated at the piano. The button-up shirt he was wearing was sort of light blue...it had some embroidery on it similar to the design that appears on the black shirt he's wearing on the 1983 Greatest Hits album on RCA. The remainder of the episode featured Ray wearing a brown jacket/suit...it might be the same one worn during an appearance he made on Barbara Mandrell's television show in 1981. As of this writing the 1981 episode of That Nashville Music hasn't been uploaded onto any social media video page and so I'm not able to embed the episode. A video of the episode exists on RFD-TV's subscription service, Country Club, though. You can visit that page by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: It Starts with M.E.

Hello once again...in this first fan created blog entry of the month I'm going to highlight a recent YouTube video clip that emerged from Ray Stevens last week (April 5, 2019). The video promotes music education and how emotionally beneficial it can be to a person's life. In researching the project I found out that It Starts with M.E. got underway in the latter half of 2018 following the CMA Music Fest telecast on ABC-TV in August of 2018. In the years leading up to the creation of this program there had been similar kinds of programs/seminars devoted to enriching one's life with music but based on my research It Starts with M.E. is a culmination of those similar awareness programs all rolled into one.

Ray has, down through the years, participated in a number of seminars and programs promoting music awareness in addition to sitting on panels discussing songwriting and the intricacies of music and it's impact on people's lives and so from that aspect this isn't new territory for Ray to cover but given the clever slogan and the fact it's being widely publicized beyond Music Row gives the CMA Foundation's campaign a bit more broader attention rather than it coming off as something exclusive to those that work in, or routinely visit, downtown Nashville.

The reason for the unique spelling, in case you hadn't figured it out by now, M.E. stands for music education.