Well, hello once again...I hope you all caught the latest airing of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville last night on RFD-TV. The channel is nationally broadcast on your local cable system or through satellite television and so it should be available on millions of cable-TV line-ups across the country. Last night's RFD episode, which aired at 8:30pm Eastern, guest starred Deana Carter. In my area I also get an episode of the show on a local PBS station...and those episodes air at 8pm Eastern. The particular episode airing last night on local PBS guest starred Moe Bandy.
As I've often pointed out it's been fun to have an hour of Ray Stevens each Saturday night from 8 to 9pm on two different networks airing different episodes of the series. I visited the local PBS affiliate's webpage for Ray's television series to get a look ahead of the upcoming episodes they have scheduled to air. The local PBS affiliate in my area is KET, which stands for Kentucky Educational Television, and they have several sub-channels in their umbrella. Ray's show airs on KET2 which is broadcast through television station WCVN but on-air it's identified as KET2. As I looked over the KET webpage for Ray's show I noticed that it will be pre-empted a couple of times in the coming months. The first pre-emption will be on August 24th. The station will air the episode guest starring Micky Dolenz on August 17th and then after the series returns on August 31st it has the Micky Dolenz episode re-airing. As of this writing I don't know what the station will be airing the night of August 24th but I'll look further into the schedule once I post this blog entry. The September 7th airing reverts all the way back to Season One of the series. The show isn't scheduled to air on September 14th but it'll return on September 21st and it'll continue airing Season One through early November. The webpage has November 9th as a cut-off as far as the upcoming air-date schedule is concerned but as we get closer to November I'm sure they'll be adding more air-dates and on the show's webpage and we'll see if they continue airing Season One or if they'll skip around and air episodes from other seasons at random. I don't know why the remaining Season Six episodes won't be re-aired on KET2, though. Those episodes aired on KET2 for the first time back in July/August of 2018 but during this current rerun cycle they're not going to be repeated. KET2 is scheduled to air episodes guest starring Linda Davis (August 3rd), CeCeWinans (August 10th), and Micky Dolenz (August 17th and a repeat on August 31st) before returning to Season One on September 7th.
Such is the minor frustration when it comes to locally syndicated broadcasts.
The episodes that air on RFD-TV do not feature a different episode in each market as the PBS broadcasts do. Someone in Texas watching RFD-TV on Saturday night at 8:30pm Eastern, for example, will be seeing the same episode of CabaRay Nashville as someone in Nebraska, Florida, or Ohio or anywhere else. Such is the advantage of national broadcasts vs. locally syndicated broadcasts...but let this not be a slam against syndicated broadcasting...if you have a television series you'll more than likely accept any broadcast method since the bottom line is exposure. Ray has two series airing on RFD-TV: the music/interview show, CabaRay Nashville, and the sketch/clip-filled series, Rayality TV.
Those of you planning on visiting the CabaRay showroom in Nashville during the month of August you'll have plenty of opportunity. In addition to the usual Friday and Saturday concerts from Ray Stevens you'll also be able to catch a concert on a Thursday. In the month of August you can see him at the CabaRay on the following days: 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, and 31. The days in bold indicate Thursday night concerts. In addition to the Ray Stevens concerts at the CabaRay there are also Wednesday taping sessions for Larry's Country Diner. These will occur on August 7th and August 21st. Ray will be a guest on an episode of Larry's television show...how ironic that the owner of the venue upon which many episodes of Larry's show has been taped will be a special guest. Ray's taping occurred a couple of days ago on July 24th and I can't wait to see it and see the inevitable conversation over the irony of Ray appearing at his own venue as a special guest. I can picture both Ray and Larry trading one-liners back and fourth over the irony. I don't know how long post-production takes...so I'm assuming the recent episodes being taped of Larry's Country Diner will air on RFD-TV this coming fall (early or late September). You can visit the CabaRay website for all the information you need by clicking HERE. If you click that link during the remaining days of July you'll see the July calendar and no scheduled concerts...obviously due to this being the final week of the month. Click the forward arrows above the calendar to see the August dates.
Hello once again!! Last week Ray Stevens shared a video clip from 1985 where he roasted legendary gospel artist, J.D. Sumner. The roast took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and although I wouldn't dare to guess who all was in attendance I can say with certainty that I recognized The Statler Brothers as well as Jake Hess. I have no idea the emcee...I know of a gospel group, The Blackwood Brothers, and the emcee looks like a member of that group but, as said, I have no idea. The video clip was brand new to me when I seen it last week. I did a Google search for Ray Stevens + J.D. Sumner and discovered that there's a multi-part video clip series that had been uploaded onto YouTube last year. Now, obviously, because Ray wasn't tagged in any part of those video clips from April 2018 I had no idea of their existence.
If you visit YouTube and do a search for those two artists you'll find the clip I'll be embedding below plus you'll come across the various clips already in existence...well over 10 clips...from the 1985 roast. Those multi-part video clips were uploaded by username Bass Singer Eric Winston. In his series of video clips the one featuring Ray Stevens is Part 7 as I found out. The upload from Ray is featured below...
While I was watching the various parts of the extended video clips I seen a number of not too friendly comments. I can summarize their comments by saying the negative reaction stems from a belief, held by some, that gospel recording artists or those that are associated with gospel functions shouldn't present themselves in a secular fashion and that God should be the center of focus in any gathering. The notion of secularism at a gathering of largely gospel personalities obviously rubbed some the wrong way...even though the gala was clearly identified as a Roast and it wasn't promoted as some kind of gospel revival or gospel gathering. I shouldn't have to explain it but for those that aren't aware a Roast is an event filled with insult humor and embarrassing stories, some true and some made-up, directed at whoever the honored person happens to be. It's all done in fun. Simply put: those on YouTube that complained about this 1985 event do not know the concept behind Roasts.
This is an updated photo of myself and an obscure CD titled Ray Stevens: The NRC Years 1958-1960. I posted a photo of myself and this CD in a blog entry last year and in that photo I'm as clean-shaven as Ray happens to be on the CD's picture sleeve. This time around, though, I've got some facial hair (I hadn't shaved in a couple of days) and obviously Ray Stevens remains clean-shaven in the photo. I decided to create this blog entry because of it's dramatic step back from the previous two I'd written. I thought it would be fun to return to the earliest of years in the career of Ray Stevens and return to 1959...oh yes...that's 60 years ago...and give some focus on this group of NRC recordings once more. It's something of a numerical pattern game I like playing...if I've written a blog entry focusing on Ray's career in 2001, for example, the next blog entry may jump ahead 10 years to 2011 or go back 10 years to 1991. I also have another reason for focusing on this time period in Ray's career...but more on that a little later. This CD features 11 recordings on the NRC label...a company originated in Atlanta, Georgia in 1958 by disc jockey/producer/publisher, Bill Lowery, and Boots Woodall. The acronym, NRC, stands for National Recording Corporation. Ray's early career is tied inexorably to Bill Lowery and you can't factually write articles, essays or blog entries on the early career of Ray Stevens and not incorporate the impact, importance, and influence of Bill Lowery. Even though NRC was co-founded by Bill Lowery in 1958 the business relationship with Ray goes back even earlier. As a song publisher and promoter Lowery often visited local radio stations and would promote artists and often the radio disc jockey would engage the artist with an interview. Ray signed his first recording contract in 1957 for a label known as Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. Although the Prep and Capitol sessions were produced by Ken Nelson it was Bill Lowery who happened to be responsible for the publishing end. "Silver Bracelet", released in 1957 on Prep, was written by Ray and published by Lowery Music.
One of the recordings that Ray did at the NRC label happened to be "High School Yearbook" based upon "The Deck of Cards". If you know your music history then you'll recognize the latter as a spoken word classic...I am much more familiar with the versions by country music artists but the pop music hit is identified with game show host Wink Martindale. The songwriters of "High School Yearbook" a/k/a "The Deck of Cards" are credited on the NRC recording as W. York, R. Baxley, and S. Singleton which I'm assuming stands for Shelby Singleton!? The song is based upon "Deck of Cards" but rather than it being a cover version about how cards are used by a soldier as a substitute for a bible Ray's recording tells of a high school student that uses a deck of cards to remind him of his less than stellar academic life and that the deck of cards is a substitute for a yearbook...closing the performance stating that as a result of his sloppy performance during Senior year in high school he won't be graduating with the rest of the class.
1959
The concept of a soldier comparing a deck of cards to a bible is credited with being created in the late 1800s but it was never set to music until the late 1940s. Ray's recitation from 1959 doesn't credit T. Texas Tyler as a songwriter...for he's the one that wrote "Deck of Cards" in 1948. The B-side of 1959's "High School Yearbook" is a song Ray wrote titled "Truly True" with Lowery Music as the publisher. In my way of thinking Lowery's desire of making Atlanta an important outlet for music represents the concept of Independent-thinking...that is, rather than working in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Nashville he felt Atlanta could produce just as many quality recordings as those places. This independent style of thinking, I'd say, influenced the people that worked for him...and Ray Stevens is no exception. When you think about it Ray has long been his own producer, arranger, song publisher, and session musician who rarely, if ever, releases records as a result of marketing research (often referred to as 'radio-friendly' songs) and he never deliberately chased trends although, being a shrewd businessman, he embraced a lot of styles over the decades and his career has had a lot of twists and turns as a result. His independence, he remarked in his 2014 MEMOIR, has a lot to do with his lack of collaborators as far as album production is concerned. He works with a crew of people on whatever it is that he's working on but he ultimately has the final say on his career decisions and song choices. There have only been a few times in his career where he recruited a co-producer and although his earliest recordings do not credit him as a record producer I'd say he was the creative force behind those recordings as far as their execution given his music arranging prowess.
The 11 recordings on this CD, to my way of thinking, is an almost complete representation of his NRC years. Now, for the most part, the songs on the CD are listed as A-side/B-side. NRC released four singles on Ray during 1958-1960 but he recorded a number of songs for the label that were not released until years later on obscure, low-budget albums. In addition to recording he was also a session musician, music arranger, and songwriter for other artists on the NRC roster. The lack of detailed information surrounding Ray's recordings for NRC as well as Capitol Records tend to add confusion and uncertainty when it comes to bloggers...and this CD goes a long way in adding to the confusion due to the final three recordings on the CD. There is an on-line source that credits the song "Cholly Wolly Chang" to Capitol Records whereas this CD it's credited as a recording on the NRC label. Track ten, "Part of the Time", and the final track, "That's What She Means to Me" must be unreleased recordings for the label. If you do on-line searches for Ray's late '50s recordings you'll also come across an 8-track from Cadet Records titled Lean Times. That 8-track, which doesn't feature a year of release, is one of those releases that adds to the murkiness by blending his Capitol and NRC recordings on one compilation. Lean Times, for example, features "High School Yearbook" but it also features a song he recorded for Capitol in 1958 titled "Cat Pants". Also, Lean Times refers to "Truly True" as 'Truly Truly' as does Crown Records in their 1965 compilation album titled Ray "Ahab the Arab" Stevens and Hal Winters. What exactly are the songs found on this NRC Years CD you may be asking yourselves? Here's the song list...
1. Sgt. Preston of the Yukon
2. Who Do You Love?
3. Happy Blue Year (instrumental)
4. High School Yearbook
5. Truly True
6. What Would I Do Without You?
7. White Christmas (instrumental)
8. My Heart Cries For You
9. Cholly Wolly Chang
10. Part of the Time
11. That's What She Means To Me
Earlier this year a book was released on the life and career of Bill Lowery and his impact on the music industry...with a bulk of that impact originating from Atlanta, Georgia. The book is titled Atlanta Pop in the '50s, '60's, and '70s: The Magic of Bill Lowery. You can purchase the book from Amazon by clicking HERE. The book's been available since April of this year. There's a limited preview section and there's a lot of mentions of Ray...in the index it shows that Ray's name appears several other times in areas of the book without the free preview. The back cover of the book has a nice photo of Joe South, Tommy Roe, and Billy Joe Royal. When you visit Ray's CabaRay showroom in Nashville you'll obviously make a stop inside the piano bar. On the wall overlooking the bar is a large portrait of Bill Lowery, with a drink in his hand, and a banner above that reads: The Bill Lowery High Spirits Emporium.
Well, it's me once again...I had something of a busy week where I work and in this area we're currently experiencing an agonizing heat wave with upper 90 degree temperatures and heat indexes of triple digits...which adds to the sluggish, sleepy nature I've found myself in this past week as to why I hadn't added a blog entry since July 15th. I've been in a mini-pattern lately, I realize, with the Shriner focus in this fan-created blog page but if I get inspired to write a blog entry I can't help it. In the last entry I presented an over-view of Ray's involvement in an actual Shriner's Convention...not only was he a Grand Marshal at their Nashville parade but he performed a VIP concert for them at the CabaRay showroom. The 147th Imperial Shriner's Convention schedule remains on-line from a couple of weeks ago and on their itinerary they attended a concert at the CabaRay on June 30th and July 1st (which fell on a Sunday and a Monday). I came across a video clip from one of the people in attendance at the concert and it's on YouTube.
I'm always saying that I prefer to embed video clips so you can be spared from visiting a video's home page (due to a lot of trolls and sick-minded people that like to frequent the comment area of video clips) but given that this video clip was uploaded by a concert goer I've decided to provide a link to the video. Why? Well, as we all know, user generated video content of recording artists usually gets removed from YouTube over the course of time...either the one that uploaded the clip removes it on their own or it's been hit with a copyright claim and the user or YouTube itself will remove the video clip. If you embed a video and it's removed from the internet for whatever reason then you're left, as a blogger, with empty video screens that show the disclaimer along the lines of: "sorry, this video is no longer available" or "sorry, this video's been removed by user".
So, to avoid that, I provide links to video content not officially uploaded by Ray. This way you can click the link and if the video is intact you'll be able to play it...or if the video's since been removed you'll see an error message on the YouTube page rather than here. Is that line of thinking an example of being overly aesthetic!?
The video clip is of Ray performing "Shriner's Convention"...and it includes some commentary at the beginning in which Ray discusses the song's origin. He does clear his throat near the beginning of the song's chorus but the song is performed impeccably...and he performs the entire song...most of the time he cuts out the second phone conversation between Bubba and Coy but here he performs it in it's entirety. This video clip, oddly enough, has a date of July 2, 2019...meaning that it was uploaded on July 2nd and yet you won't see it listed if you do a video search for 'Ray Stevens' on YouTube. You'll have to be much more specific and search 'Ray Stevens + Shriner's Convention'. I have no idea why it's not part of the general search results...but I wouldn't have found the video had I not specifically searched for the artist and song title on a whim. You can watch the video HERE. It has 59 unique views as of this writing and one thumbs up rating. Yes, I give the video a thumbs up, and I also left a comment over there. The fact that the video's not popping up in general search results has caused it to go by under the radar but it's too nice of a video clip not to share.
I've seen Ray perform "Shriner's Convention" on television many times and he performed it the couple of times I seen him in concert...but given that this was a performance in front of an audience of Shriner's rather than a general audience, well, it seemed to create something of an electric atmosphere...to my eyes and ears at least. Click the link above and watch for yourselves and, should you choose to, leave a comment or give it a rating.
Hello all fans of Ray Stevens! I wanted to wait awhile before putting together a blog entry centering around an event that took place fairly recently at Ray's CabaRay showroom prior to the July 4th weekend. I'm writing about it now for a number of reasons. First, I've read more details around the event, and second, the photos didn't surface until July 9th, and lastly with this being Monday morning it's a nice way to start another work week.
The event I'm referring to was the 145th Imperial Session of Shriner's International and it was being held in Nashville, Tennessee between June 30th and July 4th. I wasn't aware of this nor did I become aware of it's connection to the CabaRay until Ray's social media sites were flowing with photographs of Shriner's on July 9th. One photo, in particular, shows Ray seated in the back of a car in their parade as Grand Marshal for the Al Menah Shriner's of Nashville. Ray performed a concert for members of the Shrine on June 30th (a Sunday) and a photo of Ray and members of the Yaarab Shrine Temple of Atlanta, on the CabaRay stage, surfaced on the social media sites along with the photo's of the Shriner parade. The parade itself took place on July 2nd at 7pm.
I'm hesitant to post photo's featuring the Shriner's because they're more or less anonymous people and not a celebrity or in the public eye...they're private citizens...and usually you need permission from private citizens to use their likeness on-line. However...the photo's are already on-line for the world to see on Ray's social media sites...so there shouldn't be any sort of issue if I share a couple of photo's that have already been posted on his social media sites...
June 30, 2019
In the photo above it's Ray Stevens down front with members of the Yaarab Shriner's Temple of Atlanta standing behind him. All kinds of Shriner fraternities appeared in Nashville during that June 30th - July 4th time period. In the photographs that I've seen there were the Yaarab Shriner's Temple of Atlanta, The Al Menah Shriner's of Nashville, and the Aleppo Shriner's of Wilmington, Massachusetts represented at the parade. If you dig more deeper and search the internet you'll find that just about every Shriner fraternity was represented at this 2019 event.
July 2, 2019
This photo, as you can see, is of Ray seated in the car as the Grand Marshal of the parade. The Al Menah Shriner's of Nashville were just one of the various Shrine fraternities represented at the convention in late June/early July. If you visit their website you'll see the motorcycle on display that Ray used to drive out on stage whenever he'd perform the song and it appears in the music video, too. He donated it to the Al Menah Shriner's at some point in the late 1990s. Now, when the Shriner's parade photo's emerged on the social media sites, you couldn't help but think of Ray's "Shriner's Convention" song and it's music video. Ray's recording is very funny and if he's ever asked about it he tells of the inspiration behind the song and how he played it for a local chapter of the Shrine prior to it's commercial release. Ray's idea for the song, for those that do not know, came from a mostly sleepless night he spent in a hotel where Shriner's were staying during one of their conventions. The fun and frolic inspired him to create a story where a lead Shriner and the rest of the members were having to endure and scold a rebellious member more interested in having fun, partying, and chasing the hotel waitresses. The song is comprised of singing and narration. The bulk of the recording is a one-sided phone conversation. The serious Shriner gives his name as the Illustrious Potentate while the other Shriner is referred to, initially, as Noble Lumpkin. In his phone call to Noble Lumpkin, who's since forgotten the title he goes by, the frustrated Potentate drops the formalities and blares out: "Coy!! Dad blame it, this here is Bubba!! Coy, why wasn't you at the parade??". Ray performed "Shriner's Convention" for an episode of the syndicated television series, Pop! Goes the Country. The recording took place in November of 1979 and in this episode Ray discusses the inspiration behind the song with host, Ralph Emery. I've often made the assumption that this was probably the first time he performed the song for a television show...and I've not come across any conflicting information to correct my assumption...and I'm assuming that the episode didn't air on television until sometime early in 1980 given that syndicated television programs are taped weeks or months in advance of airing.
I've got the episode on a DVD...he sings "You Are So Beautiful" on the same episode (his first single release for Warner Brothers in 1976...sort of ironic...considering "Shriner's Convention" was his first single release for RCA in 1980).
The single and album of Shriner's Convention emerged early in 1980...and both the single and the album became Top-10 hits. The album's cover photo features an illustration of Ray, as Coy, with a hotel waitress, seated on a motorcycle. As mentioned earlier the motorcycle was later re-created for actual use in concerts and in the music video. Now, something that I didn't realize until fairly recently, the concept of the album's design was dreamed up by Jerry Bradley. This is an interesting bit of trivia because Jerry Bradley is part of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2019 (which also includes Brooks and Dunn as well as our favorite, Ray Stevens). I have the album and so I should have known of his involvement...but you know how things go...over the course of time you tend to forget things you read until you refresh your memory...and when I seen the Jerry Bradley credit on the back of the Shriner's Convention album my eyes got as big as saucers. The album contains 9 comedy songs but the title track was such a hit that it inevitably spawned catchphrases that fans of Ray Stevens often quote to this very day on social media sites. The idea of Coy wearing a fez with a propeller on top is just one of the visuals that's remained memorable. Coy, somehow, getting the motorcycle up on the high dive in the motel's swimming pool is another memorable part of the song as are the scoldings from the straight-laced Shriner, Bubba, and his consistent calls to the operator to connect him to Coy's telephone in "Room 321...". RCA issued "Hey There" as a single overseas but I've never found out any information of whether it appeared on any weekly music chart. In several compilation albums on Ray Stevens from RCA and their family of subsidiary labels they often showcase "Shriner's Convention", obviously, along side the non-single but hilarious recording, "The Dooright Family". The latter song has appeared so often on greatest hits and best of collections that the exposure over the decades made it widely known even though it, officially, was never released as a commercial single. This interesting fact can be said for a lot of Ray's songs over the decades. Throughout the 1970s Ray deliberately released ballads and serious recordings to even out his image as a singer of novelty songs...and once "Shriner's Convention" became a Top-10 country hit in early 1980 Ray was more than eager to jump right back into non-comedy...closing out the year with the sing-a-long ballad, "Night Games", ultimately it being the first single release off of his 1981 album...a one hundred percent turnaround from silly and comical material to heavy drama which dominated 1981's One More Last Chance album. "Shriner's Convention" and "The Dooright Family" were turned into music videos in 1995. They were part of Ray's direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!.
I'm closing this blog entry with the "Shriner's Convention" music video. In this video you're going to see Ray, ironically, serving as Grand Marshal of a Shriner's parade in addition to appearing as Bubba and Coy...the motorcycle is featured prominently in the music video...and it's a music video that's gotten 2.3 million unique views on YouTube. Ray uploaded the 1995 music video onto YouTube almost 10 years ago to the day...on July 23, 2009...
One of the things that I've enjoyed over the last 10+ years of writing this fan-created blog is the variety of music styles and time periods that can be written about from one blog entry to the next given the fact that the career of Ray Stevens is lengthy and encompasses a lot of territory within the music landscape. In the last blog entry I spotlighted a video clip of Ray giving the spotlight to Loretta Lynn at his CabaRay showroom in a concert from July 5th of this year...and in this blog entry I'm stepping back 44 years to 1975.
I'm sure the most devoted of fans out there have heard his rendition of the pop music standard, "Lady of Spain". The recording made it's debut on Ray's 1975 album, Misty. This album featured mostly cover songs from Ray of pop music standards featuring different arrangements...a concept that resurfaced on a couple of future albums from Ray. It isn't a new concept or something unique to the career of Ray Stevens, though. Prior to Misty in 1975 he issued the album, Have a Little Talk with Myself, in 1969. In that album he performed his versions of contemporary pop songs...some with new arrangements and some retaining the original arrangements...but each were clearly transformed into the Ray Stevens style. In the case of both albums each featured a couple of original recordings. The 1969 album, among the cover songs, were originals such as "The Little Woman", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and the title track "Have a Little Talk with Myself". Oh, yes, if you caught my previous blog entry or have been a longtime fan of Ray Stevens you'll know that he recorded "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" before anyone else...so when it appeared on the 1969 album it was considered an original song.
This is the photo that accompanied the single's release in Germany in early 1976. The irony being that Ray had already left the Barnaby Records roster for Warner Brothers when this single was released. It's rare now but at that time in was commonplace for a record label to release further singles on an artist even after the artist left the label...the most common reason is for contractual reasons. An artist may have signed a contract giving the label the option to release a set amount of recordings, either in the form of albums or singles, after the completion of the contract. In this case the presence of a newly released recording from a previous label finds itself in competition with the artist's newly recorded material for his/her current label but almost always the recordings released from an artist's former record label rarely achieve heavy media publicity. I've read reports down through the years that some record labels issue singles on a previously signed artist, strategically, in an effort to coincide with the artist's current release on a competing label...and although, contractually, it is legal, it nevertheless may be a sign of bitterness on the part of the artist's former record label to possibly diminish whatever media attention/hype the artist may receive from the next record label. In Ray's memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he explains that during the course of his career he's recorded for a lot of record labels and he mentions that some have asked why he's recorded for numerous labels and what causes an artist to go from one label to another. He explained that in most cases an artist leaves one label for another because a contract has expired and either the label doesn't want to re-sign the artist or the artist wants to shop around for another 'home', as they call it. He made mention of never burning bridges...which is a valuable piece of advice...because a record label that you were once signed to may, down the road, show an interest in having you on their roster again or the label may have gone through a major executive shake-up and have a whole new team in charge and they may want to do business with you or you may want to work for them.
The recording of "Lady of Spain" features a completely different arrangement and tempo than the pop music standard from the 1930s. The song is most commonly played as an instrumental...most often on the accordion...but the vocal versions of the song were performed in a slow, ballad presentation. Ray transformed the song into a rollicking, up-tempo festive presentation and his vocal styling on this recording is comparable to Fats Waller, Jim Croce, and Dr. John rolled into one. Ray Stevens is definitely one of a kind...with the B-side being "Mockingbird Hill"...a pop standard from 1951. A couple of years after Ray recorded "Mockingbird Hill" it became a hit single for country singer, Donna Fargo, in 1977. The photo used on the single release in Germany is from Ray's 1973 studio album, Nashville. There are other releases of "Lady of Spain" / "Mockingbird Hill" which features the photo from the Misty album.
The Misty album features the following Ray Stevens recordings:
1. Misty
2. Indian Love Call
3. Over the Rainbow
4. Oh, Lonesome Me
5. Sunshine**
6. Cow-Cow Boogie
7. Young Love
8. Deep Purple
9. Mockingbird Hill
10. Take Care of Business**
11. Lady of Spain
The titles with the two asterisks ** indicate original songs...the rest of the recordings were songs previously recorded by other artists. "Sunshine" was written by Ray Stevens whereas Layng Martine, Jr. wrote "Take Care of Business". "Sunshine" is a bouncy, happy, up-tempo sing-a-long utilizing pretty much the same instrumentation heard on "Misty". Ray once remarked in an interview that not only does he want lyrics to tell a story but also the music to tell a story...and you'll certainly feel happy and be all smiles when listening to the music accompanying "Sunshine". The latter song's title was inspired by a line in Ray's 1968 recording, "Mr. Businessman", but that's where the similarities end. "Take Care of Business" is a slow ballad of mounting lust and desire that a man has for his wife and how his job keeps the two apart...but he's determined not to allow his job to interfere with his relationship any longer...and he emphatically states that he and his wife are going to "Take Care of Business" later that night when he goes home. As you see "Lady of Spain" is the album's closing performance and a perfect way to close out the album.
The musicians featured on the album should be familiar to those that have examined his studio albums over the years. "Misty" and "Sunshine" were recorded during the same session and because of this the credits specify which musicians are heard on those two recordings as well as "Indian Love Call" and "Deep Purple". In today's music industry you may have a different group of musicians for every recording found on an album...and with music being purchased digitally there's a lack of traditional elements found in the physical copy of a CD. On a digital album's product page you're likely going to see a photo of the artist or the cover of the album if it's also available on CD and you'll see the song titles...but rarely will you see musician credits, songwriter credits, publisher credits, or where the songs were recorded. I like seeing those things...so I continue to purchase a CD if one is available...rather than purchasing a digital/Mp3 copy.
Well, now, let me be among those that have made mention of the surprise visit of Loretta Lynn at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom! A couple of days ago news broke that Loretta made a rare public appearance following a stroke she suffered a couple of years ago and that appearance happened to be at the July 5th Ray Stevens concert at the CabaRay. Countless blog sites and on-line news sites that feature country music immediately shared the information and it became something of an event for a couple of days. A video clip of Ray on stage at the CabaRay shown up on YouTube and in it he made the announcement of Loretta being in the audience. The camera panned over to Loretta and those she was attending the concert with...they were seated in the Owen Bradley booth...obviously a very appropriate area considering Loretta's classic recordings for Decca/MCA in the late '60s and into the late '70s were produced by Owen Bradley.
If you visit the YouTube page containing this video clip you'll notice, as of this writing, there's 69 thumbs up and 2 thumbs down. When I seen that I thought to myself 'who in the world could dislike a video giving reverence and respect to Loretta Lynn?' but then I had to remind myself that there are vicious, cruel people on the internet who take great joy in being a killjoy. That's why I rarely post links to YouTube videos and prefer embedding them because you're spared the reaction from wet blankets and those with an ax to grind but I made mention of what I seen because of how pathetic people can be when it comes to thumbing down a video clip simply for the joy of it.
Anyway...here's the video...
Those not familiar with the interior of the CabaRay will need some explanation: There are six booths inside the dining area and they're named aftter legendary record producers. There's a booth named for Owen Bradley, Chet Atkins, Fred Foster, Shelby Singleton, Jerry Kennedy, and Billy Sherrill.
In this YouTube clip Ray takes you on a tour of the CabaRay and you'll see the VIP booths as he walks around the showroom. The tour is from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series which is why you'll hear applause at certain moments. The presentation is noticeably edited because during the episode that the guided tour was originally featured in he performed some songs associated with those record producers in between the segments of the showroom tour. Ray's showroom is in it's second season. It opened in January 2018 and closed down for the holidays following Christmas and it's second season got underway in March of this year.
Visit the CabaRay website by clicking HERE. Once there, of course, you'll find all the information you'll need. You can also visit the site by clicking HERE. In that link you'll be taken to an article containing news of Loretta Lynn's CabaRay visit plus it features an embed of the video clip above and a nice photo of Ray and Loretta taken before or after Ray's show...I assume afterwards...but it's hard to tell. Either link will take you to the CabaRay website.
In a lot of my blog entries I usually open with the greeting "hello all...", "hello one and all...", or "hello fans of Ray Stevens..." and it's by coincidence that the first line of "The Streak" opens with that kind of a greeting from the fictional Action News reporter: "Hello everyone...". I never really made any sort of connection, though...starting off with the word 'hello' is one of the longest greetings of all-time...but nevertheless "The Streak" was one of the focal points of an on-line interview that took place on internet radio station The Eagle FM. In fact, if you caught an earlier blog entry of mine this weekend, I pointed out that the program that Ray was giving an interview to was spotlighting the Top-20 pop hits of the Fourth of July weekend in 1974. It comes as no surprise but I tuned in for the interview of Ray Stevens. I had missed the first airing on Saturday afternoon (I was asleep...the consequence of being a third shift/overnight worker) but I was determined not to miss the re-airing on Sunday afternoon...but I went into it not knowing if Sunday's episode would be a re-airing of Saturday's show or if it would be an entirely different episode. So, when I clicked the URL of the on-line radio station Sunday afternoon around 2:50pm Eastern, I heard the voice of the disc jockey promoting the upcoming Top-20 countdown with interviews from Ray Stevens, Maria Muldaur, and Andy Kim. I was elated, to say the least, realizing that I didn't miss the interview from Saturday. There is a banner promoting the July 6th episode of this countdown show that appeared on Ray's social media sites. I didn't post the advertisement banner on my early morning blog entry this past Sunday since it had already made the rounds of various social media sites but more specifically I'm always leery at posting imagery that features any likeness of the famed/iconic 'Billboard' with it's unique graphic design and lettering. This is why I never post images of actual Billboard charts that I've come across on-line over the years...I simply quote the information that I find.
When I tuned into the on-line broadcast and heard that the countdown was set to get underway at 3pm Eastern I awaited the start of the program. The show featured a lot of sound-bytes from the 1974 and it even had a brief look at the national news headlines from the weekend of July 4th. The show kicked off with the week's number 20 single. This was followed by more banter/commentary from the show's host. "Everything is Beautiful" began playing not too long afterward. Initially I thought it would be played as a snippet and then the host would introduce Ray...but the entire song played...and then the host introduced Ray. One of the first things that the host did was congratulate Ray on his recent election to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ray spoke of his YouTube videos and the host referred to the showroom as the Cob-a-Ray. I assume that was just a pronunciation quirk on the part of the host...like some people pronounce the word, tomato, as ta-may-ta instead of toe-may-toe; some pronounce Casablanca as Cass-a-Blonk-a instead of Cass-a-Blank-a; or some may refer to Cincinnati as Sense-a-Gnat-a just as Del Reeves did in his recording, "Philadelphia Fillies". Ray explained the origin of the showroom's title, CabaRay, but said the host was in good company with the pronunciation because when he guest starred on Mike Huckabee's series, Huckabee, Ray remarked that Huckabee had also referred to the showroom as Cob-a-Ray.
The host asked about Ray's television series and Ray stated that it's officially known as Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and that it airs in local syndication on PBS as well as nationally broadcast on RFD-TV.
Ray spoke about the process of recording "Everything is Beautiful" and how the children singing at the beginning of the song was edited into the recording and that his daughter's were part of the choir of children heard on the recording. The host remarks how active Ray continues to be and asks if anything's on the horizon as far as music goes. Ray makes mention of the much-anticipated bluegrass project he's been working on for awhile...titled Melancholy Fescue...a project that was first hinted at in 2013! His bluegrass rendering of "Unchained Melody" was released as a YouTube music video in the fall of 2013 (October 2, 2013 to be specific) but there wasn't a follow-up of any kind...but right around the time of the music video's debut, give or take a few weeks, he had made a guest appearance on the Opry and not only performed that song but also a bluegrass take on "Pretty Woman"...but we're now in 2019...and in this internet radio interview the host made mention of "MacArthur Park" being transformed into a bluegrass number by Ray. As far as I know Ray seemed genuinely surprised/shocked when he remarked something along the lines of: "Where in the world did you hear that?" and the host, teasingly, remarked: "Oh, a little birdie told me".
The conversation turned to his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, and he discussed his start in the music business and his upbringing. He tells of how his mother insisted he take piano lessons even though, initially, he wanted nothing to do with it as he was more interested in playing outside (typically baseball) but the piano lessons remained and he eventually became proficient on the piano as we all know. Ray speaks about working with the likes of Jerry Reed, Joe South, Billy Joe Royal, and Tommy Roe in Georgia and the tutelage of Bill Lowery. The host brings up "Misty" and Ray speaks of how it came into being...the host mentions that it won Ray his second Grammy award. Afterward the host plays "Misty". He is asked of his music influences and he explains that he's always been a fan of comedy and he gravitated toward comedy songs. He brings up The Coasters and Spike Jones. The subject is brought up regarding Ray's 1970 television series and he explained how he was selected to host a summer television program for Andy Williams (taped in Canada). In that era the broadcast networks didn't want to air reruns of their variety programs and so when the star of the show took the summer off a guest host would fill-in during the summer break. NBC was the network airing Andy's television program. Ray mentioned some of the cast-members of the summer show and how, looking back, he can't believe the kinds of clothes "...they had me wearing". Ray speaks of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and how his loyalty to the song caused him to pass up the chance of recording "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". He spoke highly of B.J. Thomas and his recording of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and remarked how, in hindsight, he didn't have the image to sell "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" the way Johnny Cash did...but he said he was happy for the success that the song eventually brought to it's writer, Kris (referring to songwriter-singer Kris Kristofferson).
In the last segment of the interview the host brings up the spotlight song, "The Streak", considering the countdown program was reflecting on 1974. Ray's recollection referred to reading about streaking in the back of a weekly magazine and that he made notes about a possible song about streakers but before long streaking and streakers were all over the news and he completed his song and released it to the public in the early spring of 1974. Ray remarked that he felt such a rush to get the single out on the market that even during the recording of the song he'd have to stop because he'd come up with something more to add and the process of recording would have to restart...and yet, when you hear it, the song doesn't come across as something that was rush released.
The single streaked up the Hot 100 and hit the top for the week ending May 18, 1974. It remained at the top for three consecutive weeks...being dislodged from the top spot on June 8th by "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings. The host thanked Ray for being part of the broadcast and closed Ray's portion of the show with "The Streak". On The Eagle FM's website there's a section designated for interviews. I don't know if any of the interviews from the July 6th episode are going to become available as podcasts or not. It looks as if the website is selective in which interviews they post on their podcast page, though. I'll periodically check and see if Ray's interview makes an appearance on their podcast page. If it does then I'll blog about it.
Hello once again!! In this installment of the vintage visuals series I take a look at the mid 1990s era in the career of Ray Stevens. The decade was one of change, experimentation, and major successes. I already spotlighted the early 1990s era of his career several blog entries ago and this one zeroes in on 1994, 1995, and 1996.
The Ray Stevens movie, Get Serious!, came along in the latter half of 1995...late summer/early fall. The direct-to-VHS movie was in a lot of ways the climax of Ray's meteoric rise in the world of VHS and direct marketing which got underway a couple of years earlier in 1992. Ray released four home video projects, in total, during 1992-1993. Two of the projects (Amazing Rolling Revue and More Ray Stevens Live!) were sold through his fan club and in the gift shop at his former venue in Branson, Missouri while the other two (Comedy Video Classics and Ray Stevens Live!) were sold over television and in newspaper advertisements. I made mention of those projects in my blog entry where I focused on the early 1990s era of his career. By 1994 Ray had left Branson, Missouri after three seasons (1991, 1992, and 1993) of concert performances at his former theater. On several of his television appearances in 1994 he mentioned that he was in the process of selling the theater...in his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he wrote about selling the venue to a company who, in turn, staged the 'Country Tonight' revue at the venue for ten consecutive years (1994-2003) but hard times fell upon the organization by 2003 and they asked if Ray would take back the theater and they would pay the remainder of their debt in the form of rent. So, as Ray put it, he took back the theater at the end of the 2003 summer concert season and spent a year and a half on redecoration and refurbishment and then had a grand re-opening in the summer of 2005. Ray headlined his old Branson, Missouri theater during the summer and fall months of 2005 and 2006 before selling the venue, for good, to the executives of RFD-TV. But let's back up a decade...we're suppose to be focusing on the mid 1990s...
As I started off saying...in several of Ray's interviews in 1994 he spoke of his goal of taking a much needed vacation after the Branson experience. In the summer of 1994 he won his 10th consecutive Comedian of the Year award from the fan-voted publication, Music City News. This publication would eventually go out of business after more than 30 years in print...largely overshadowed by a newer publication, Country Weekly, and their reader-voted Country Pick awards. Country Weekly, however, benefited from it's availability at the checkout stands in nearly every retail/grocery store in America whereas Music City News remained heavily subscription based and was rarely, if ever, widely distributed.
Ray was named Favorite Comedian by the readers of Country Weekly and received a Golden Pick award during the awards gala in 1995. While Ray appeared on the cover of Music City News a couple of times and his name shown up on the cover of many issues as a form of advertisement for a featured article within it's pages, strangely enough, he never appeared on the cover of any issue of Country Weekly during it's 24 years of print publication (1994-2016). His name appeared on the cover a few times and he had his share of appearances/interviews within the pages of Country Weekly but for the most part much of the attention given by Country Weekly, as far as country comedy, went to performers who were stand-up comedians in the traditional sense whose material catered largely to a southern audience (specifically the audience advertisers crave: 18-39 year olds).
The filming of Get Serious!, as mentioned, took place in the winter months of 1994 and early 1995. I was a member of his fan club from 1995 until it closed down in 2002 and in some of the earliest newsletters I have there were updates on the movie's progress and film schedule. The staff of his fan club referred to the film by an acronym. If memory serves me correct the film was referred to as LFSDMCV. The letters stood for: Long Form Story Driven Music Comedy Video. Now, I might have a couple of the letters in the wrong place. It could be LFSDCMV: Long Form Story Driven Comedy Music Video...but I think the first acronym is correct because Ray's emphasis was on the music and the overall execution of the film rather than emphasizing the comedy aspects...so I think LFSDMCV is the correct acronym. I'd have to literally dig through piles of archived papers in a storage bin to find those mid 1990s fan club newsletters...let's just stick to LFSDMCV. An article in Billboard magazine from November 1994, as far as I know, was the first news release concerning Ray in the process of filming a movie.
Ray's movie was sold through direct marketing throughout the fall of 1995 and into mid 1996. The television commercials for the movie aired on many television stations...most of the time the commercials were airing on cable television stations rather than broadcast television. In the world of television communications the term broadcast networks are used to describe local channels which originate from a local television studio in a viewer's market but carry a daytime and prime-time line-up mandated by a broadcast network whereas cable television networks originate from anywhere, air whatever content they choose, and, usually, are part of every television channel line-up all over the country. CBS is a broadcast network and they have local affiliates all over the country whereas TBS is a cable network, for example, and is provided to cable television providers. If you did not have cable television but still wanted to watch television you were only going to get the basic broadcast networks (FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC plus whatever the local PBS affiliate happens to be) and the reception would not be that great. In an episode of Crook and Chase's former interview program, Music City Tonight, Ray made mention of Get Serious! having reached Platinum status through direct marketing. The program had earlier presented a Get Serious! night after the VHS had become available. That particular episode featured not only Ray but several of the people who had cameo appearances in the movie: Chet Atkins, Johnny Russell, Williams and Ree, James Gregory, and George Lindsey. Jerry Clower also appeared in the movie but not in a cameo role. He was more or less a supporting player given that he had several appearances scattered throughout the film playing the part of Ray's manager. He, too, also appeared on Get Serious! night. The VHS was released to retail stores in the latter half of 1996 by MCA Records. In the case of two of the early '90s VHS tapes the retail distribution was handled by Curb Records (in 1993 and 1994) but after Ray signed with MCA in 1996 the retail distribution was handled by that label. It was their first product on Ray Stevens since 1989. He recorded for the label during a five year period, 1984-1989, prior to his signing to the Curb label in 1990. In an appearance on Primetime Country in 1996, originally hosted by Tom Wopat, Ray mentioned that Get Serious! was Double-Platinum. Gary Chapman later took over hosting the show for the remainder of it's time in production.
A companion VHS, which you see above, was made available to fan club members in 1995. It's a documentary/behind-the-scenes of the movie's production with a lot of footage that didn't make the final cut and of course numerous bloopers are featured. The 1995 movie marked the music video debuts of "Ahab the Arab" as well as "Gitarzan", "Shriner's Convention", "The Dooright Family", "The Woogie Boogie", and several more. Ray appeared in costume as "Gitarzan" during his performance of the song on Get Serious! night in 1995 on Music City Tonight. After the performance, still in the costume, he went over to the interview couch and conducted the first segment of the show in his costume and spoke about the movie and the fact that during the opening performance of "Gitarzan" Jane had a beard. Ray joked that it was due to Jane abusing hormone injections but, of course, it was Buddy Kalb in drag...miming the words of Jane as Ray was singing them. The camera panned out into the audience where Buddy, as Jane, was positioned and as we heard Ray singing the lines Buddy/Jane was lip-syncing. In keeping with the spirit of the jungle motif and as a visual tie-in with caveman, "Alley Oop", Buddy/Jane 'sang' into a replica of a large leg bone rather than a microphone. It was a fun-filled episode and a great kick-off for the movie.
After a commercial break (one of those commercials being an ad for the VHS) Ray was in regular clothes and seated on the couch. Charlie Chase, one half of the Crook and Chase duo, provided the voice-over for the television commercial. One of the commercials, which aired on cable channel TNT, was uploaded onto YouTube...
The free cassette tape offer wasn't part of the direct mail advertisements during the course of the entire ad campaign. When I became a member of his fan club I purchased his products directly from their catalog and therefore the free cassette offer wasn't part of the sale. I eventually purchased the cassette tape being spoken of in the commercial for an incredibly low discounted price from his on-line store in the early 2000s. They only had a handful left. The cassette features a full performance of the song, "We Don't Take Nothin' Off Nobody", whereas the movie features the opening verse and chorus. Now, as a result of Ray's phenomenal success with direct marketing his VHS tapes, a compilation was inevitably on the horizon. Latest and Greatest was issued in 1996 on VHS and it featured 10 music videos. It was comprised of 4 music videos from 1992's Comedy Video Classics and 6 music videos from Get Serious!.
A couple of months ago Ray uploaded the music video, "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", onto YouTube. This isn't to be confused with another song with the same title from the 1940s by Louis Jordan. The song featured in Ray's 1995 movie is an entirely different song. Ray wrote this same-titled song for the Get Serious! movie and it's a duet with his co-star, Connie Freeman...she played the role of Charlene MacKenzie. You'll see another co-star, Tim Hubbard, in the role of Coy. The movie is available on DVD for those that may be wondering. It isn't on Blu-Ray, though. I don't even own a Blu-Ray player, believe it or not, so I'm still a customer of DVD. You can get your copy of the movie by clicking HERE.
Hello all...as we're somewhat winding down this 2019 edition of Fourth of July weekend I came across information about Ray Stevens being interviewed for an on-line radio station, The Eagle, during the airing of their weekly countdown show. There's an advertisement for this weekend's episode which appeared on Ray's social media pages. In the episode airing on-line this weekend the host of the countdown, Greg Burns, is spotlighting the weekend of July 4, 1974. In my research I discovered that the program is an oldies countdown show and each week the host spotlights a different year and counts down the Top-20 singles of the week during that year. As any true fan of Ray Stevens or pop-culture in general is well aware 1974 was the year of streaking...not necessarily something brand new...but 1974 was the year that it was sweeping the country and largely on college campuses and it had became a social fad and for some a form of protest or a sign of Independence. Whatever the motive was for those that actually took part in streaking (running nude) it was a top news item and every newscast featured stories of streakers here, there, and everywhere. Ray wrote his song prior to the craze taking off in such a profound way. The song's topical appeal combined with the fact that he wrote the song well in advance of streaking becoming a national fad, which, in turn, gave him the time necessary to concentrate on the song's story and construction rather than just simply writing something, quickly, just to cash in on a fad...and add to that a bizarre streaker incident during that year's live coverage of The Academy Awards...well, when you factor in all of that, the song was hotter than a firecracker upon it's release.
"The Streak", on the charts, mirrored it's subject matter...meaning it streaked up the Hot 100 and the Country music charts in near record time. The momentum was so strong that it spent three weeks at number one on the Hot 100 pop chart and it also reached the top in the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. In addition it reached the Top-5 on the Country chart and the Top-5 on the charts published in Australia and Ireland. A definite International smash hit. It was responsible for the catchphrases "don't look, Ethel!!" as well as the nonsense phrase, "boogity boogity", which can be heard numerous times throughout the song. "The Streak" sold more than five million copies worldwide. This Top-20 countdown show airs for 3 hours...the first airing is on Saturday and then it's repeated on Sunday. You can visit the on-line radio station by clicking HERE. The program, as mentioned, airs for three hours: 3-6pm Eastern (12-3pm Pacific, 2-5pm Central). So, if you're wanting to hear the countdown and listen to Ray Stevens being interviewed, click the link I provided and tune-in during the timezone-specific hours I listed. There isn't any information about the style of the interview and so I'm assuming it'll be like other countdown shows that feature a 'special guest' where the host will play snippets of audio from the interview throughout the countdown. Ray is just one of the artists profiled during this particular countdown, though, but you'll find this out when you click the link to the on-line radio station. There are a couple of other artists (Andy Kim and Maria Muldaur) who were also on the charts in July of 1974 and they'll be interviewed by the host, too.
Hello one and all!! I'm quite certain many of you have already seen the neat CabaRay advertisement on wheels that appeared on the Ray Stevens social pages a couple of days ago. The advertisement was made possible by the company, Old Town Trolley Tours of Nashville.
Now, for those not familiar, this happens to be the back of the trolley/bus. I did some research and found out that the company provides tours of Nashville but I don't know if the tours include an actual stop at the CabaRay itself or not. The company's hours are on their social media pages and they're open 9am to 5pm...so, as you can see, they're closing for the day just as the CabaRay starts up for the night. So, as far as I know, the trolley is meant just to advertise the showroom as it's making it's way all over Nashville. It may drive by the CabaRay so tourists will be able to see it but I don't think it'll be delivering a load of tourists at the CabaRay for a concert unless he may do some sort of special matinee but I highly doubt it. As far as the showroom specifics: The Piano Bar and gift shop open prior to the 6pm dinner. The concert gets underway at 7:30pm. As long time readers should know the usual nights for concerts at the CabaRay are both Friday and Saturday...and sometimes Thursday...but this week Ray is performing the Friday and Saturday concerts and they're being advertised as a Fourth of July Weekend. The reason being is due to the fact that almost every business, if a holiday falls on a Thursday or a Friday, well, it's celebrated for the rest of the work week and into the weekend. Ray uploaded a brief YouTube advertisement for the upcoming CabaRay concerts July 5th and July 6th. When you watch the video clip you'll hear his chicken clucking rendition of "In the Mood" as the information appears on the screen.
Do you have a favorite Ray Stevens song saluting the military or saluting our country? If you're like I am you love it all...everything he's recorded is a favorite...I'll just name off several patriotic/military songs from the legend: A ballad from 1970 titled "Loving You On Paper"...it's a song from the point of view of a soldier writing a letter to home. The same year he recorded "America, Communicate With Me". It's not necessarily a military or patriotic song but it's a song that examines America during that 1969-1970 time frame and Ray taking the position of an Independent wondering how things are going to get solved with two extreme political ideologies refusing to compromise.
1989's "There's a Star Spangled Banner" is a fantastic recording, too...there are two versions of this song in case you all didn't know. There is the 1989 recording in which Ray sings about a P.O.W. in Beirut and then there's an entirely different recording in which Ray sings about the American Flag and all of the battles that it's fought and won. This later recording can be found on a Curb Records release from 1991 titled Greatest Hits. The 1989 and 1991 recordings retain the same arrangement and chorus but the lyrics in each performance are different. In 2003 he emerged with "Thank You"...which resulted in a CD release of serious songs...the effects of 9/11 are many and "Thank You" saluted all branches of the Armed Forces less than 2 years after the September 11th terror attacks. The reason for the military and the concept behind the American Flag is all tied into America's Independence and that's something that deserves celebration, in my opinion, but yet there are those that think celebrating the Fourth of July is a "waste of taxpayer money". That's a recent collective quote from those that oppose the current President of the United States. America affords neanderthals the luxury of speaking their mind...regardless of how crass, cynical, and heartless an opinion such as the one I quoted happens to be.
Not too long ago, back in 2016, Ray Stevens released this music video...the majestic "Dear America". The video itself is in a letterbox format, actually...not your typical YouTube 'look'...and as a result of re-sizing the video so it would fit the margins of the blog you're going to see two thick black bars above and below the video clip. It's not too distracting...you'll love the song and the video. I don't know if he'll be performing this at the CabaRay this weekend or not. He might!
