Ray Stevens: In the Mood for Chicken...

As I write this fan created blog entry the clock sits at 11:59pm on a Wednesday night. As I glance down I see that we're now into Thursday morning, January 30th. On the social media posts of Ray Stevens yesterday there happened to be a YouTube video upload of the audio track of "In the Mood". This recording goes back to 1976 in the career of Ray Stevens. It was his third single release for Warner Brothers. The novelty was released as the Henhouse Five Plus Too and it became a Top-40 single early in 1977. In the liner notes of a CD released by Rhino Records in 1997 titled The Very Best of Ray Stevens the notes author, Dr. Demento, quotes Ray on the inspiration for "In the Mood" performed as a choir of chickens. I'll paraphrase the quote by saying that Ray had the idea to cluck the song, which also includes vocal accompaniment from a vocally mimicked cow and a goat, just to see how it would come off. The instrumentation is sparse. Ray insists that he didn't want to issue it as a single but Warner Brothers loved the concept and it was issued as the Henhouse Five Plus Too in December 1976.

The single hit the Hot 100 pop chart on January 8, 1977 and by it's 4th week on, January 29, 1977, it was knocking on the door of the Top-40 half of the Hot 100. On the country chart it had a similar brisk climb up the chart and was actually in the country Top-40 on January 29th. It spent several weeks at number 39 on the country chart. On the Easy-Listening chart, believe it or not, it reached the Top-40 in that format as well. In it's fifth week on the Hot 100 it pushed it's way into the Top-40, anchoring the chart for one week...for the week ending February 5, 1977. In it's sixth week on the country singles chart, February 12th, it fell ten notches. The same week, on the Hot 100, "In the Mood" fell out of the Top-40 by a single position and into pop music history as the very next week it was outside the Top-50 and on it's way off the Hot 100. Ray's pseudonym, Henhouse Five Plus Too, is officially credited as the performers of "In the Mood" and they're often cited as One Hit Wonders. Last year I wrote a blog entry titled Symphonic Chickens which goes into detail about Ray's various novelty songs featuring the chicken as the subject matter. This blog entry, as one could tell, was put together as a response to the YouTube audio track upload of "In the Mood"... 

Ray Stevens: Get Serious is 25...Are You Serious??!?

1995

You read the title of this blog entry correctly my fellow Ray Stevens fans. This year will mark the Silver Anniversary of Get Serious!, the 1995 direct-to-video movie, starring Ray Stevens in a variety of roles. The supporting cast included Buddy Kalb, Connie Freeman, Michael Airington, and Tim Hubbard. Throughout the movie, 110 minutes long, there were cameo appearances by a collection of Ray's friends within the music industry: Chet Atkins, Johnny Russell, George Lindsey, Charley Chase, Williams and Ree, James Gregory, and in an extensive series of multiple appearances, Jerry Clower. As a member of the once active fan club of Ray Stevens I used to get monthly newsletters in the mail and we were kept up to date on the progress of the movie. The film was referred to by an acronym in the months prior to it receiving it's official title. Those of you that were members of his fan club do you remember that acronym? It was LFSDMCV. What in the world does that mean?? It stood for Long Form Story-Driven Music Comedy Video. The progress of the film went through several delays which pushed back it's projected finish. The production of the film took place for several months in the latter half of 1994. The location used throughout most of the film, as far as outdoors scenes, took place in a town called Burns, Tennessee. Country Weekly magazine did a fabulous multi-page story on the film with screen shots and commentary from Ray. It was published in the December 27, 1994 issue. The VHS was released in the fall of 1995 through a direct market campaign...following in the footsteps of 1993's Ray Stevens Live! and 1992's Comedy Video Classics. The campaign, sometimes also referred to as direct response and mail order, consists of advertising in magazines, newspapers, and on television with the hope that a customer sees the product and mails off their check or money order to an address provided or they call a number and the product is mailed directly to the consumer. Ray was a phenomenal success in the marketing of VHS tapes and Get Serious! was no exception. He sold hundreds of thousands of video tapes through direct marketing and ultimately those products were made available to retail stores. Once there was retail store availability then came their eligibility to appear on the weekly charts published by Billboard magazine. The RIAA, which stands for Recording Industry Association of America, recognizes mail order sales and prior to the release of those three VHS tapes to retail stores he had already reached Multi-Platinum status with all three through mail order alone. Platinum in mail order is more than 100,000 copies sold...Platinum in retail is more than 1,000,000 copies sold.

I graduated high school in the summer of 1995. A year earlier, as a birthday present, my parents mailed in a money order to Ray's fan club so I could become a member of it. I remained a member of the fan club until it shut down in 2002. As a Christmas present in 1995 Get Serious! was one of my gifts. I knew I was going to receive it because I had been asked what I would like for Christmas and I mentioned Ray's movie. I still have the VHS tapes from the 1990s...I've gotten the DVD counterpart for Comedy Video Classics as well as Get Serious!. The Ray Stevens Live! VHS was never released in DVD format nor were any of the other VHS titles.

The movie deals with several story-lines taking place simultaneously...culminating midway through and climaxing toward the end. The main plot deals with a fictional record company Ray records for being taken over by a conglomerate. The new executive (played by Michael Airington) wants Ray Stevens to get serious with recordings rather than make comedy videos and sing novelty songs. Ray refuses, which the executive takes as a breach of contract, and soon the executive and his inner circle hatch a plan to potentially ruin Ray's career by labeling him politically incorrect. The secondary plot deals with people who, by pure coincidence, share the names of characters that have appeared in Ray's novelty songs. There seems to be a real Coy, Bubba, Ethel, Harv Newland, Sister Bertha, and a man named Clyde who objects to being described as a camel in "Ahab the Arab". Bubba and Coy, from "Shriner's Convention", appear throughout the movie as Dudley Dorite and his Deputy. Bubba is portrayed by Buddy Kalb while Coy is portrayed by Tim Hubbard. It's explained that the two work as policemen during the day and are Shriner's in the evenings. Ray had once recorded a song in 1986 titled "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" and the plot of that song is more or less adapted to Get Serious!. A music video of that song was filmed for the movie. In the "Shriner's Convention" music video Ray plays the roles of Bubba and Coy...but within the context of the movie they're played by Buddy Kalb and Tim Hubbard. The unique aspect of the project is that there are full length music videos inserted seamlessly into the story...Ray remarked at the time that it was a different approach to a musical. The main co-star with Ray is Connie Freeman as Charlene MacKenzie. She comes across as a Betty Boop/Olive Oyl characterization and she deals with deafness.

As you see off to the right hand side of the page it's a print advertisement for Get Serious!. In the 1990s I used to spend the weekends with my grandparent's and they received a newspaper in the mail every week. One of the secondary newspapers that came with the main newspaper was a publication called Parade. In that particular newspaper you'd see print advertisements for a wide variety of products...most of them were advertised on television as well...in which case you'd see the familiar 'As Seen on TV' banner. This banner appears next to Ray's name in the print advertisement. The text you see below his pose as Sickind Fraud (in Napoleon attire) mostly consists of the dialogue heard in the television commercial voice-over. To the right of the text are a couple of screen shots from the film. In the box in the lower left, 'About the Artist', it's a screen shot of Ray as a Calcutta character. This character appears for a few minutes in the beginning of the movie prior to the music video of "The Woogie Boogie". Ray encounters the Calcutta man selling Indian rugs. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph Ray plays various roles in this movie and thanks to the movie editing process he carries on conversations with characters he himself is playing. It's not a groundbreaking concept...Peter Sellers did the same kind of thing in the Pink Panther movies and Benny Hill loved doing those kinds of camera tricks on his comedy shows...but nevertheless it's a unique style with entertainment as the top priority. There is a music video for "I Used To Be Crazy" and there's a scene in which Ray appears next to himself in the same shot...a camera trick, of course, but it perfectly illustrates the effort and energy that was put into this movie. It wasn't something that was just pasted and strung together. There was a lot of technical effort put forth for this movie. The label upon which this VHS was released is Clyde Records. This is the label that Ray started in the late 1980s but it didn't take off until he began releasing video tapes in 1992. The major record labels didn't want to finance/risk the marketing of a home video and so Ray released his VHS tapes through his own label. Ironically, however, once they were proven to be successful through mail order, that's when major record labels came calling. Comedy Video Classics, for example, was released in retail stores in 1993 by Curb Records. The label also handled retail distribution of Ray Stevens Live! in early 1994. Ray signed to MCA Records in the latter half of 1996 and their first project on Ray was the retail distribution of Get Serious!. It hit retail stores late in 1996 and by pure coincidence it debuted on the Billboard Video chart on this day in 1997! If you were look up the Billboard charts for the week ending January 25, 1997 you'll see Get Serious! among the Top-40 VHS tapes in it's debut week. It debuted at number 29 and then the following week jumped up into the Top-20. The highest position it achieved was number 4 in February 1997. It was on the Video chart for 24 non-consecutive weeks from January 25th to July 19th.
  
In the internet age, collectively social media, Ray has since uploaded several of those Get Serious! music videos onto his YouTube channel. Ray and Connie perform a duet, "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", in the movie. This is an original song written by Ray but it shares the same title with a Louis Jordan song from the 1940s. Tim Hubbard appears in the music video as eager but easily manipulated/naive, Deputy Coy.



Another music video from Get Serious! is "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?". The song originated in 1986 on his comedy album, Surely You Joust. The song, in spite of it not appearing on the country singles chart, appeared on his 1987 compilation, Greatest Hits, Volume Two, while it's remained a staple of his concerts for decades. The irony being that the single releases from Ray in 1986 which reached the country charts, "Southern Air" (a trio recording with Jerry Clower and Minnie Pearl) and "The People's Court", never appeared on Greatest Hits, Volume Two for whatever reason.



Last September on the late Jerry Clower's birthday (September 28th) Ray uploaded a video of some of Jerry's scenes from Get Serious!. In the finale clip you'll not only see Jerry Clower but Michael Airington as well as Williams and Ree. The main stars of the film, of course, are seen: Ray, Connie Freeman, Buddy Kalb, and Tim Hubbard.



You say you don't have a copy of Get Serious!?? You want a copy? Here's a LINK to place your order.

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Concert Schedule...

In one of my earlier blog entries this month I wrote about tickets going on sale for CabaRay concerts this coming 2020 season. The third season of concerts kicks off on March 12th. As mentioned in my earlier blog entry there's been a slight shake-up as far as concert nights are concerned and pricing options. Whereas in 2018 and 2019 most concerts were held on Friday and Saturday nights and sometimes on Thursday nights, too, the 2020 season will feature a majority of concerts on Thursday and Saturday night. The seating for this season, as far as tickets are concerned, have been split into several categories:

Main Floor: VIP Section will be $79.50; Elite Section will be $69.50; Standard Section will be $59.50; Those prices are for the show only...if you want to add a dinner to your order it'll be an additional $19.50; I am making the assumption that this change took effect for those that wanted to purchase seats on the main floor but didn't want to have a dinner. In the previous two seasons the dinner was automatically added into the Main Floor ticket price but this season they're giving the fans the option of purchasing Main Floor seats with or without a dinner.

Balcony: This section features theater style seating but there's no dinner option. Any seat in the balcony sells for $49.50...obviously in any other performance venue those would be referred to as 'cheap seats' but there's no bad seat in the CabaRay so don't let the cheaper price fool you. Whether you're on the Main Floor at a table or seated in a booth or if you're upstairs in the balcony the showroom is so intimate you'll enjoy wherever you're seated. I was at the CabaRay in March 2018 and so I personally know how intimate the showroom feels.

I viewed the 2020 concert calendar over at the CabaRay SITE and from March until mid year Ray will perform every Thursday and Saturday night. In July he'll be doing a Friday concert (July 3rd) due to Saturday night being July 4th. You can purchase CabaRay tickets at that site, too. If you're planning on visiting Nashville during CMA Fest 2020 I'd encourage you all to attend a concert at the CabaRay...either June 4th or June 6th. I don't know if Ray will appear at CMA Fest 2020 on the days he isn't appearing at the CabaRay...the event takes place from June 4th through June 7th. So, the only possible day(s) in which Ray could squeeze in an appearance would be June 5th (Friday) and June 7th (Sunday). Maybe he will? The line-up for this year's event hasn't been finalized/released...I'll be on the look out for it.

I came across a recent Ray Stevens interview...well, somewhat recent...it's from August 7, 2018 but it's brand new to me because I'd never seen it until yesterday. I searched the archives of this blog and I didn't even make mention of this interview in the title of any of my blog entries that month. The big news that month and year was Ray receiving a star on The Music City Walk of Fame.

It's Ray being interviewed on a television series called More Than the Music, hosted by Stacy Newman, on Heartland Television. It's episode number 23, Season One, and you can look up that series and look for the show number when you click HERE. As a word of caution the episodes are posted with the number one in front to indicate it's Season One...and so Ray's episode is listed as 123 to indicate Season One, Episode 23. I'd known of this interview but had never been able to see any footage of it until yesterday. The show's social media sites had a birthday greeting for Ray Stevens and along with it a link to part of his 2018 interview. The full-length interview can be found when you click the link and search for the show. The interview takes place inside the CabaRay. Ray speaks about the craft of songwriting and how a song's title is important at grabbing a person's interest...and how the music should fit the overall mood of the song. He gives several pointers and advice in the realm of songwriting.

When you visit Nashville this summer or whenever you choose to vacation be sure you add the CabaRay to your list of must-see attractions. Here's the LINK to the CabaRay concert ticket page once again. Season Three kicks off on March 12th.

Happy Birthday, Ray Stevens!!

Okay, okay...yes I already posted an early birthday blog entry about Ray Stevens...but today is his actual birthday and I'm still on the internet and so I've decided to compose a second birthday blog entry. One could never accuse me of not being a certified, one hundred percent Ray Stevens fanatic. So, Don't Laugh Now at the abundance of birthday blogging I've been doing, but Happy Birthday, once again, Ray Stevens!! Don't Laugh Now, as you see off to the left, is a Ray Stevens album from 1982. I have it on vinyl and only recently I came into possession of it's cassette counterpart. I've got cassette copies of 1980's Shriner's Convention and 1982's Don't Laugh Now...I'm always on the look out for a cassette copy of 1981's One More Last Chance. That would complete the cassette format of Ray's studio albums for RCA. I have them on vinyl...the same holds true for the RCA Greatest Hits album from 1983. I have it in cassette format and vinyl. Now, given that I have cassette copies of albums issued in 1980, 1982, and 1983 I know a cassette copy of One More Last Chance exists. It's only a matter of coming across a copy for sale. I've never seen one come up for sale on-line.

Yesterday, the birthday boy uploaded his performance of "Cletus McHicks and His Band from the Sticks". This is the only time, as far as I know, in which he performed the song in concert. I'd never seen him sing it on any television series. The performance comes from a concert at his former venue in Branson, Missouri in the early '90s. It's on the VHS home video, More Ray Stevens Live!. The song appears on his 1990 album, Lend Me Your Ears.



Okay, now, did you keep up with all of those internal rhymes and end rhymes? It's a tongue twister for sure but he performed it like a pro...but then again that's not a surprise...he co-wrote the song with Buddy Kalb.

When Ray recorded over 90 songs for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music one of those songs happened to be "Aba Daba Honeymoon", a novelty dating back to 1914 but largely recalled as an early 1950s novelty hit for Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter as well as a hit for another duo, Richard Hayes and Kitty Kallen. A music video of the song emerged on YouTube in 2017...it's a song one wouldn't suspect could be made into a music video given that it's hook is it's pure lyrical wackiness...but Ray Stevens managed to turn it into a music video in 2013 and it made it's way onto YouTube in 2017...



Serious, comedic, wacky, silly, satiric, pop, country, gospel, patriotic, and everything else...the genius of Ray Stevens is that he's all of those things. So, here's wishing the legendary Ray Stevens a Happy Birthday...finally making it to the Country Music Hall of Fame this past year; seen below is Ray Stevens wearing his gold medallion which was presented to him by Ralph Emery during the official Country Music Hall of Fame induction gala in October 2019.

Ray Stevens; 2019

Ray Stevens: Happy Early Birthday!!!

Hello one and all!!! I've been having some technical issues with my computer and I did a system restore and it seemed to fix whatever problems I was having. I couldn't get onto the internet since yesterday afternoon. My computer would begin setting up but it wouldn't connect me to Windows...this kept up several times. Finally I shut off the computer and this morning I got back on the computer and on a whim decided to do a system restore and, as mentioned, it seemed to fix things. I'm not going to take any chances though...it might be a fluke and I might find myself unable to get onto the internet later and so I decided, since I'm on-line at the moment, to write my annual birthday post. Ray Stevens birthday is this coming Friday (January 24th) and yes, you perhaps could guess it, I was depressed a little that I was unable to get onto the internet. I wondered how long could it last. I wondered if I'd not be able to get onto the internet well past Friday...I didn't want to write a belated birthday blog entry...and so I'm here writing an early birthday blog entry just in case I have some technical issues with my computer between later today and Friday. As you see off to the left it's Ray's Country Music Hall of Fame plaque. Ray was elected in March 2019 but the formal induction took place in October...so he's been enshrined as an official member for only a couple of months. Ray will reach 81 years of age this coming Friday and in a couple of months he'll be kicking off season three at his CabaRay showroom. If you've read some of my recent blog entries I've mentioned how anxious the fans are in anticipation of something new to see release this year. Now, of course, I'm only making assumptions but I feel Ray will issue new music this year. It's anyone's guess as to what that new music will be...he's spoken of several projects...and so when the time comes and he releases a new CD we'll all salivate over it. It's a bit strange writing an early birthday blog entry...you're not in the moment and the immediacy factor is a non-factor...but should I still have internet connection this coming Friday maybe I'll post another birthday blog...stranger things have happened.

1993

Throughout his lengthy career Ray Stevens has won his share of awards and has dozens of Gold and Platinum selling singles, albums, and home videos. He's won two Grammy awards and for nine years in a row (1986 through 1994) the readers of Music City News magazine voted him Comedian of the Year. In addition to those awards he has also been the recipient of dozens of music publisher awards. There isn't any kind of recognition, as far as an award goes, of unique views of on-line music videos (as far as I know). Ray has received millions upon millions of unique views for a string of music videos that were, initially, only available on YouTube and social media in general. The music video releases acted as promotional tools/publicity and it created awareness for Ray's music in such a profound way that the traditional/conventional route of getting music to the masses was side stepped but more or less bypassed entirely. Ray issued a couple of CD's inspired by the phenomenal success of the on-line music videos...as well as a DVD titled Internet Video Hits. The CD's arrived in 2010 and 2011 titled We The People and Spirit of '76 respectively...and in Ray's case the on-line music video had replaced the traditional CD single as a marketing/publicity tool and the audio of those music videos were part of those two CD releases. His meteoric rise with viral videos on social media also led to a number of appearances on cable television, talk radio, and a stage show at The Welk Theatre for a limited run.

2018

The one and only Ray Stevens in performance at his CabaRay showroom just west of Nashville on River Road. As you could probably guess he's performing "Gitarzan". Chet Atkins, Ralph Emery, or Norro Wilson nicknamed Ray the energizer bunny...and approaching 81 and still as active as ever...it's an appropriate nickname. I'll be on the look out for photos of Ray taken on his upcoming birthday and if I'm still able to get internet connection I'll be posting those kind of photos this coming Friday, too. Ray Stevens was born Harold Ray Ragsale in Clarkdale, Georgia on January 24, 1939. He has a brother, John. Their parents are Willis and Frances Ragsdale. John wrote a couple of songs that Ray recorded...most of you know what John looks like. He's appeared in a number of Ray's comedy music videos and if you were able to catch Ray at his previous venue in Branson, Missouri you would've seen John as the emcee. In the "It's Me Again, Margaret" music video John is one of the policemen...the one seen with a sucker in his mouth. John also played the role of Clyde in Ray's 1995 video movie, Get Serious!, a character that's none too happy about his name being used for a fictional camel. That movie was originally only available on VHS. It's since become available on DVD. If you've never even heard of that movie then you need to visit Ray's web-store and purchase a copy of the movie for yourselves. I have it on VHS and I purchased the DVD copy once it became available. I've pondered this in some of my recent blog entries...what lays ahead for the legendary Ray Stevens? Outside of the CabaRay kicking off in March it's anyone's guess...but here's wishing Ray Stevens a very happy early birthday!!

Ray Stevens: CD at Five...

March 2015

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! It's the start of a new week and as you all should know we'll close out this week celebrating the birthday of the one and only Ray Stevens on January 24th. I don't want to post too much about that today due to my desire to save my commentary for this coming Friday and so I'll get to the topic of this blog entry...the fifth anniversary of Here We Go Again!. I'm a couple months early (the CD was released March 23, 2015) but I decided to go ahead and spotlight the anniversary of it's release now so that it doesn't interfere with blog entries I'll be writing that month surrounding the third season of his CabaRay showroom getting underway the same month. Who knows? Perhaps by the time we reach March there will have been a new Ray Stevens CD hit the market or at least a new on-line music video? I sound like a broken record, of course, but I am anxious to hear whatever new recordings are forthcoming from recently inducted Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens. When this CD was issued in the spring of 2015 the music video, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me", had already taken off on social media. The video was released on February 24, 2015 a month and one day ahead of the CD. The video had gotten nearly half a million unique views on YouTube by the time the CD became available. As of this writing the unique view total is 2.5 million. The specifics in numbers are 2,543,458. 



I wrote a review of the CD on this fan created blog page as well as on Amazon. Now, according to the product details over on AMAZON, there are 14 copies of the CD left in stock. You can also purchase a CD copy from Ray's on-line web-store, of course. I was reading my review prior to composing this blog entry and I noticed there are a couple of typo's as well as a sentence where I left out some words. I don't know if other people deal with this but a lot of time I find myself typing words that I'm saying to myself and in my mind I think I've typed them but sometimes when I go and re-read what I've written I'll notice a word or two had been left out. I don't know if it's a case of the mind being quicker than the hands or not. I'm going to paste my 2015 review below with the corrected typo's and odd sentence. I'm not going to edit the review over on Amazon, though, but I've copied and pasted my review below with the corrections...

***This review contains spoilers***

After taking a detour, of sorts, over the last 5+ years and releasing some hilarious political songs on a couple of CD's, plus issuing a 9-CD box set called "The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music" (containing his versions of novelty songs of the last 50+ years), a majestic gospel CD last year called "Gospel Collection, Volume One", and a memoir titled "Ray Stevens' Nashville"...after those projects, Ray Stevens returns to country comedy on his latest CD.

The cover art, as you can see, takes place in an airport setting. In a touch of silliness, a gorilla plays the part of the chauffeur. On the back of the CD the songs are listed as if they're flights posted on the Arrival board. The CD's first single release arrived in music video form a month ago...titled "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" it's a story of a man that's obsessed with the belief that he's being stalked by the pop-country singer because, according to him, he sees her everywhere and given that her likeness appears everywhere he happens to think she's stalking him. The song has a comical twist ending, though. Throughout the song he insists that Taylor's up in a tree looking at him with binoculars.

After the bouncy opening track about Taylor we're treated to Ray covering one of his musical idols, Ray Charles. I pretty much know that the purists that'll hear the Ray Stevens rendition of the Ray Charles classic "What'd I Say" aren't gong to like it. After all, they may ask, how can you top a Ray Charles recording?

I don't necessarily believe Ray Stevens set out to try and top the classic rendition from Ray Charles, though. I think that Ray Stevens simply wanted to record the song and so he did. I happen to love the rendition. Even if some may groan about the idea of someone other than the late Ray Charles performing that song at least it gives Ray Stevens an opportunity to display his obvious love for classic Rhythm and Blues music.

Aside from the song about Taylor Swift, one of my other favorites from this CD is "There Must Be a Pill For This". This one is vintage Ray Stevens...it tells the story of pills...and the enormous quantity of pills that are on the market for everything under the sun. Pills to help thick people lose weight, and pills to help frail people gain weight. It's a satire on pills...miracle pills, specifically...and as an added pleasure there's a parody of those lengthy disclaimers that appear as voice-overs on healthcare commercials.

The tempo changes for the next song, "Walkin' the Dog". In this one Ray sings of constantly bickering with his wife. Instead of moping around the house he simply goes outside, gets Rover, and walks the dog. He reckons that once he starts to take the dog for a walk he may run into a woman putting on the dog (presumably to be a possible new love interest). Track Five is thrilling...a cover of "Hearts Made of Stone". I looked up the song's title and found out that it had been a Rhythm and Blues hit in 1954 for a group called The Charms. I had heard a brief audio clip of Ray's recording on Amazon and since that time I had been wondering the reason for the 1950's-style of audio (complete with echo!) but I eventually found out the reason for the distinctive arrangement when discovering it had originally been recorded in the 1950s by The Charms as previously mentioned. It's clearly the stand-out song on the CD if only for it not vocally sounding like anything else. I love the over-dubbed do-wah harmonies heard throughout.

The most country sounding recording on the entire CD is "Pickin' on the Chicken". This one, too, is one of my favorites. In the song Ray sings from a chicken's point of view and he demands to know the reason so many negative expressions are associated with chickens, hens, and eggs. Throughout the song we're treated to a list of expressions and sayings that put the chicken in a bad light...expressions like 'madder than a wet hen'; 'that's chicken feed'; 'He's got egg on his face'; 'One flew the coop'; etc. Ray also manages to get in a reference to Willie Nelson, too, in a laugh out loud funny one-liner.

The second-most country sounding recording is "The Baptism of Stumpy Brown". The song is about an atheist that suddenly finds religion in his 90s and insists on being baptized as a result. The frail body in a raging river is bound to cause some incidents...and Ray tells of those in this story. Inspiration surfaces in the song "Little by Little". There is a song on here called "You Didn't Build That"...let's just say I find it hilarious...but it's something that more than likely is not going to go over too well with, say, fans of the President. That song is followed by a contemporary classic in the form of the illegal immigration anthem "Come to the U.S.A." (a song from 2010). Illegal immigration is a hot topic and one that's consistently controversial. Although I'm reviewing the CD there's an Mp3 copy for sale, too, and that means customers can pick and choose the songs they want to purchase from Here We Go Again!. I prefer having a physical copy of the CD.

Along the lines of manhood and masculinity comes "A Handshake Will Do", track 11. The lyrics cry foul on guys hugging other guys unless it's called for and Ray gives examples for when it's okay. Ironically, on the day this CD went on sale, a picture of Larry Gatlin attempting to hug Ray appeared on Ray's social media sites. There's no reference to this song as far as the picture is concerned, though. I call it just one of those ironic coincidences.

Ray had appeared as a guest artist on the Grand Ole Opry on March 21st on a segment hosted by Larry Gatlin.

The CD's closing track, "Knock Him Out John", is another one of my favorites. I call it a tribute to the late Jerry Clower. It's a recap of Jerry's story of the time he and some of his friends went hunting for raccoons and ended up having an encounter with a lynx. Ray's recording is the story set to music. Ray does his rendition of Jerry's holler and it appears at various moments during the song's chorus.

I thoroughly enjoyed the CD...his restless energy and incredible vocals are on full display on this CD!

***End of CD Review***

Yes, that's me displaying my economy sized pill box as a visual tie-in with one of the songs found on the 2015 CD, "There Must Be a Pill For This". The song is from the pen of Don Cusic and if you're a more dedicated fan of Ray Stevens then you're fully aware of Don Cusic or at least should be. He's written a couple of songs that Ray's recorded within the last 6 years. He wrote an essay within the pages of an accompanying booklet of Ray's 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, in 2012. If you have Ray's 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, you'll see Don's name credited as the book's editor. Don wrote a gospel song that Ray recorded called "If Jesus is a Stranger" which can be found on Ray's CD, Gospel Collection, Volume One. I looked up his history and career at the time and discovered that he happened to be a college professor and had authored numerous books and is often referred to as a Professor of Music. Don wrote "There Must Be a Pill For This", by the way. When Ray's television series, CabaRay Nashville, debuted in the fall of 2015 Don Cusic appeared in several early episodes dressed in a graduate gown for a segment spotlighting a song featured in Ray's 9-CD box set. Don would give a brief history of the song prior to Ray's performance of it on the show. If you visit the Amazon link I provided for his 2015 comedy CD you'll notice there isn't credit listed for the songwriters. The CD comes with a fold-out mini booklet which contains the lyrics of all the songs, the writers, and the publishing company. It also features commentary from Ray on the back of the booklet.

Here is the track list and the songwriters:

1. Taylor Swift is Stalking Me (Ray Stevens, Chuck Redden, and Buddy Kalb)
2. What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
3. There Must Be a Pill For This (Don Cusic)
4. Walkin' the Dog (Jim Ferguson)
5. Hearts Made of Stone (Eddie Ray and Rudy Jackson)
6. Pickin' on the Chicken (Buddy Kalb)
7. The Baptism of Stumpy Brown (Buddy Kalb and Allison Speer)
8. Little By Little (Buddy Kalb)
9. You Didn't Build That (Ray Stevens, Chuck Redden, and Buddy Kalb)
10. Come to the U.S.A. (Buddy Kalb and Matt Cline)
11. A Handshake Will Do (Matt Cline and Max T. Barnes)
12. Knock Him Out, John (Buddy Kalb)

Excluding a Christmas CD release in 2016 the Here We Go Again! CD, to date, is the last studio album that Ray has issued. Yes, even though the 2016 Christmas release is technically his last studio album to date, I'm excluding it because it's a seasonal album. Since the release of the 2015 we've had the 2016 Christmas CD in addition to a couple of DVD releases featuring Season One and Season Two episodes of his CabaRay Nashville television series. In interviews since 2016/2017 Ray has often mentioned that he has a backlog of recordings awaiting release. He's been so busy, though...first off with the production of his television program...and then with the grand opening of the CabaRay showroom in 2018. So, as mentioned at the top of this blog entry, I'm hoping some new projects come along during the first half of 2020. Here's some trivia...it was on this date in 1962 that Ray recorded "Ahab the Arab". I usually don't have recording dates memorized but I was reading various websites during the writing of this blog entry and I came across that tidbit of information in a post on social media from Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone?. It's a Facebook page and I often write commentary whenever there's a post about Ray Stevens. I'll more than likely wait until this coming Friday to write another blog entry...on Ray's birthday...unless some major news is issued concerning the release of new music.

Ray Stevens: Mama's 33...

It's me once again!! In this blog entry I'm focusing on a song recorded by Ray Stevens in 1987 as a newly recorded track found on his Gold album, Greatest Hits Volume Two, on MCA Records. If you know your Ray Stevens history that's the year his recording, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?", which criticized televangelists, crossed over into the pop mainstream and received attention from a wide variety of diverse media outlets far removed from country music and was nominated for a Grammy in early 1988. That single prompted MCA to issue Greatest Hits Volume Two. The same year the label had issued Greatest Hits, a Platinum selling record, and a 2-LP collection through television and print advertisements, Get The Best of Ray Stevens. In the case of the second volume of hits, which shows Ray on the album cover dressed as a baseball player, an all-new recording was added to the previously released material. "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis" can be found as track number five on Side One of Greatest Hits Volume Two, for those that have a vinyl or cassette copy. If you have a CD copy it's simply track five of ten on the disc.

If you look closely the umpire is the late Norro Wilson, a legendary songwriter/music producer in Nashville, and one of Ray's longtime acquaintances/friends. Anyway, this is the compilation from MCA Records in 1987 featuring the first pressing of "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis". The single, from the pen of Bruce Innis and Cinde Borup, tells the story of a married couple whose wife happens to be a hardcore Elvis fan. In a tragic turn of events the wife had excused herself from her husband in order to dance with her inflatable Elvis doll. The couple presumably lived in an apartment due to the fact that within the lyrics of the song the wife began dancing with the Elvis doll on the balcony...but got too close to the edge...and well, you guessed it...and now "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis". If you back up a few lines you'll see that I mentioned that this was the first pressing of the song. The following year "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis" was placed on Ray's 1988 comedy album, I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. On that album cover he's dressed as Will Rogers performing a lasso demonstration. I've never found out the reason the 1987 recording was placed on the 1988 album but I've always made the assumption that perhaps Ray or MCA wanted the song to have even more exposure given that it was overshadowed among Ray's hits on Greatest Hits Volume Two. The first track of that compilation collection was, naturally, the recently released "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" in which televangelists were still a topic in the news cycle in the fall of 1987 when Greatest Hits Volume Two was issued...and so it's my guess "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis" was placed on 1988's I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like in an effort to give it a studio album to call home rather than it being an exclusive track on a compilation album...but then again there's always the possibility that there weren't enough songs to fill out the 1988 album and so they simply placed "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis" on it to fill the need. The song was never issued on a commercial single and so I couldn't title this blog entry 45 at 33 which is why it's called Mama's 33. Yes, yes...you do the math...33 years ago this year was 1987.

As of this writing Ray Stevens is scheduled to be a special guest later today on The T.G. Sheppard Show (3pm Eastern) which airs on Elvis Radio found on SiriusXM channel 19. You can visit the show's webpage by clicking HERE. I don't have a subscription to the service but for those that have this in their car or on their computer Ray will be a special guest later today. T.G.'s show begins at 3pm Eastern on Elvis Radio, channel 19, but there's no time table as to when Ray will appear. The show runs 3 hours. The visual promo for Ray's appearance can be found HERE. I'm sure Ray will discuss his CabaRay showroom and the upcoming third season of concerts which are set to begin on March 12th. Maybe there's new music on the immediate horizon?? Oh I hope!! Elvis, I'm sure, will be a topic of discussion. A week from today is Ray's birthday (January 24th) but I don't know if that will be brought up or not. Ray and T.G., if you weren't aware, recorded a duet together called "This One Burger King Town" a number of years ago. You can find a user generated audio/visual montage of the song on YouTube if you do a simple search for the song's title. Also, T.G. previously guest starred on Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. His guest appearance on Ray's show happened during Season One. The other guest on that episode was Tanya Tucker.

It's very unlikely but I'm hoping some kind of transcript of Ray's guest appearance becomes available or there's limited audio released. It's usually the case with a subscription based appearance that there's very little that trickles out onto social media sites...understandably they want subscription based content to remain exclusive for those that pay for the content...yet a little piece of the guest appearance, like a teaser, would be more than welcome.

Ray Stevens and My Early Anniversary Salute...

I know I'm several months early but I didn't want to wait until the spring/summer to give the spotlight to a certain song in the career of Ray Stevens that hits 50 this year. It's a song that's become one of his signature hits and a song that's become his most recorded...the one and only "Everything is Beautiful". The single came about not too long after Ray had joined a different record company in 1970. He had been an artist/musician/arranger/producer on Monument Records for the last five and a half to six years...playing on other artist's recording sessions, arranging the music for other artists, producing other artists, and all the while finding time to sing, arrange, and play on his own records. He departed Monument Records and joined Barnaby Records, headed up by Andy Williams. Ray's association with Andy went back several months when Ray began making recurring guest appearances on Andy's television series in 1969. One of Andy's brothers, Don, would eventually become Ray's manager.

Ray's debut single for Barnaby Records arrived in the spring of 1970...a song that Ray has long recalled took him three days to complete while chained to a piano in his basement. "Everything is Beautiful" took off quite quickly...it hit the Hot 100 during the final week of March 1970 and a month later it hit the Adult-Contemporary chart. The single also charted Country as well as on music charts across the world. The single reached it's peak on the various music charts right around the same time period...late May 1970. It finished at number one on the Adult-Contemporary chart for the week ending May 23, 1970 and remained at the top for three weeks. It reached number one on the Hot 100 pop chart the week ending May 30, 1970 where it remained for two weeks. The Country chart finish was number 39...making this Ray's first ever appearance within the Top-40 in country music. He had charted twice before in the country format prior to reaching the Country Top-40 in 1970. He had made an appearance on the country chart with "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" in November 1969 (peaking at number 55) and "Have a Little Talk with Myself" in January 1970 (peaking at number 63). In fact, as you may have guessed, the country peak of "Have a Little Talk with Myself" happened the week ending January 3, 1970.

It's been said in the history of Ray Stevens' career by several historians and those that are close friends that "Everything is Beautiful", in particular, 'changed the world' for Ray Stevens. In the years prior to 1970 Ray had always been a difficult artist to categorize and he had always entertained his audiences with a balance of straight music and comedy/novelty. My guess as to why this 1970 single 'changed the world' for Ray is given how it cut through and presented him in a different way to a lot of people; and even though he had plenty of serious works in his past to prove his versatility it took "Everything is Beautiful" to finally reach through and show how serious he could be in his recordings. That's not me saying that...that's me interpreting public reaction of that time period...for as a long time fan of Ray's I've heard almost all of his recordings prior to 1970 and there are plenty of non-comedic performances awaiting some future audience to discover. In the meantime, "Everything is Beautiful" was awarded a Gold Record for sales of more than a million copies. In the era before Platinum Records were created any single or LP that sold one million copies or more was declared a Gold Record by the Recording Industry Association of America (the RIAA). The single reportedly sold three million copies worldwide. The song itself carries social commentary and religious overtones at a time when the public, in general, was at a boiling point. The protest era of the late '60s spilled over into the early '70s with the Vietnam War still in the headlines and the political unrest of the Youth culture rebelling against the Establishment culture. The song asked for social and racial acceptance of all people and that pretty much every person has value in spite of our differences in politics, world view, physical and economical differences, etc.

Ray performed "Everything is Beautiful" during an appearance on the Andy Williams Show during one of his various guest appearances. The song became Ray's theme when Andy asked him to host the summer 1970 television series on NBC-TV. Although Ray was no stranger to the music world and he had appeared on television in the past he was a virtual unknown, pretty much, to the television audience...and to capitalize on this the producers and writers of the show came up with the comical title, Andy Williams Presents: The Ray Stevens Show???. In each episode there was a filmed segment where people were asked if they knew who Ray happened to be and their responses were comical. The series debuted June 20, 1970 and ran until August 8, 1970. Ray has uploaded clips from this 1970 summer series onto his YouTube channel. The show hasn't been issued on DVD and so those clips are the closest thing we have. Ray opened each episode by singing lyrics from "Everything is Beautiful" and most episodes included a complex cast sing-a-long in addition to other recurring sketches. The overall mood of the series is often categorized in the surreal nature. Future comic legend, Steve Martin, was among the cast-members of Ray's 1970 summer show. "Everything is Beautiful" became a favorite of gospel music artists and most notably a recording by gospel artist, Jake Hess, hit the same year as Ray's. In the Grammy awards telecast of early 1971 (honoring recordings of the past year) "Everything is Beautiful" won a Grammy for Ray in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance while Jake Hess took home a Grammy for Best Sacred Performance. An overseas tour in Australia prevented Ray from appearing at the 1971 awards and so his award was accepted by Glen Campbell.

Ray Stevens continues to remain as busy as ever. He prefers to keep his happenings super quiet until just before he's about to release something new and it can be nail biting and nerve racking sometimes awaiting whatever comes next from unpredictable Ray Stevens. In March of this year he'll kick off his third season of concerts at his CabaRay dinner theater...everything is still beautiful for recently inducted Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens, some 50 years later...

2019

Ray Stevens: 2020 CabaRay Showroom Tickets on Sale...

Hello once again!! This bit of news is hot off the presses...tickets for Ray Stevens at his CabaRay showroom for 2020 have now gone on sale. The third season kicks off in March and in a bit of a twist there won't be two nights of concerts scheduled on a Friday and a Saturday night. This bulk of the 2020 season will have concerts scheduled non-consecutively. So, what this means is, the concerts that Ray will perform during the 2020 season will take place on Thursday and Saturday night. Also, as with the previous two seasons of concerts, there are three Main Floor price levels ranging from VIP ($79.50), Elite ($69.50), and Standard ($59.50). The Main Floor is the area located, obviously, floor level and you can choose to have a dinner served to you or not. I say this because selecting seats on the Main Floor doesn't automatically grant a dinner...if you want dinner served at your table it'll be $19.50 on top of the general admission. The Balcony seats do not get a dinner option for obvious reasons but I do believe they serve drinks for balcony paying customers. The Balcony seats are the least expensive at $49.50 and all of this information can be found by clicking HERE. I do not know if any of these 2020 concerts will be part of any television show taping or if he'll sandwich production of new television episodes of CabaRay Nashville in between the concerts. I say this because in one of the last interviews he gave in 2019 he hinted that everything is getting finalized, technically, for more taping sessions at the CabaRay and with the announcement made within the hour that 2020 season tickets at the CabaRay are now on sale I'm hoping news will surface stating his television series is going back into production.

CabaRay Showroom

Ray Stevens sings King of the Road...

Hello all...here I am on a Sunday morning and it's been several days since I've written a fan created blog entry about the legendary Ray Stevens. A couple of days ago a video clip surfaced of Ray performing "King of the Road", the signature song of Roger Miller. The clip is from an episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and is located below...



The clip arrived on YouTube back on January 2nd, the birthday of the late Roger Miller. As most of you should already know both Ray and Roger were friends...I don't know if they were buddy-buddy/close friends but I'd say the two had a mutual respect for one another and whenever the subject of Roger Miller comes up in interviews of Ray, whether they're in print or on radio, he always refers to how Roger was one of his good friends and a lyrical genius. Ray performed another Roger Miller classic, "Chug a Lug", on an episode of CabaRay Nashville but that performance, to date, hasn't been uploaded. It's on the episode guest starring Rhonda Vincent. Ray's television show is still airing in local syndication on PBS stations (check your local PBS channels) and when you see that episode come up in the schedule it'll be the one featuring his performance of "Chug a Lug".

In Ray's 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he mentions Roger several times and there's an obscure photo of Roger, Ray, and Mercury Records producer, Shelby Singleton, in the mid 1960s at a music publishers event.

2014

Also in the book is a passage where Ray details how his former manager, Don Williams (not to be confused with the late country music singer), took him on as a client thanks to a recommendation from Roger himself...Don was also Roger's manager. The professional pairing of Ray and Don as artist/manager ultimately led to Don's brother, Andy Williams, becoming the next key figure in Ray's career as the 1970s dawned. So, as you can see, Roger Miller was something of a catalyst in securing a management deal for Ray which ultimately led to Ray's very successful association with Andy Williams during the first half of the 1970s. Andy happened to be the owner of the record label Ray signed to in 1970, Barnaby Records, and that association led to Ray hosting the 1970 summer replacement television show for Andy on NBC. You can order your copy of Ray's memoir in case you hadn't done so by now when you click HERE.

Ray Stevens: 45 at 60...

Oh my...this is my first fan created blog entry chronicling the career of Ray Stevens for the year 2020. In blog's past I used to write a series of entries where I'd spotlight a specific single release from Ray during it's milestone anniversary year. I always choose even numbered years to spotlight and with this being January 1, 2020 I'm focusing on a novelty single from Ray Stevens on the NRC record label...released in 1960. This year the single turns 60. Also, as you can see, I try to utilize mathematical magic, too. 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of anything that was released in 1960. The label Ray recorded for was owned and operated by Bill Lowery and it was one of those successfully Independent companies that used to exist in the recording industry. However, the label eventually declared bankruptcy in 1962, but by this point in time Ray had signed to Mercury Records (1961) and would eventually move from the Atlanta, Georgia area to Nashville, Tennessee (January 1962). Ray had began his recording career in 1957 on the Prep Records label, owned by Capitol Records, with recordings on Prep and Capitol filling out 1957 and 1958. Ray had been part of the Bill Lowery group of recording artists whose company, Lowery Music, had published most of the recordings on Ray and so after NRC Records came into existence in 1958 it wasn't long after Ray found himself on the brand new label's roster. "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" hit in July of 1960...it was his third single release for the NRC label (preceding this was "My Heart Cries for You" in October 1959 and "High School Yearbook" in June 1959).

In the career of Ray Stevens the release of "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" stands as monumental in the face of it's fate at the hands of lawyers and threats of lawsuits. The owner of the character hadn't given permission to Ray to place the character in a fictional story. There never was any kind of legal action or court appearance, etc., but given the threat of a copyright lawsuit caused Ray, NRC, and everyone involved in pulling the song off the market. The single was Bubbling Under the Hot 100 at the time of it's removal...the first recording from Ray to have a showing in a national publication...and the reason the single, in my opinion, is monumental in his career is because the near-success of the song pointed Ray in the direction of novelty/comedy recordings. Ray had been releasing teenage-themed pop songs and love ballads and with the lone exception of "Rang Tang Ding Dong" in 1957 none of his singles carried any hint of humor or lyrical mayhem. So, after "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" shown signs of breaking into the national market, Ray felt that novelty/comedy and off-beat recordings may get him the national attention he was hoping for. Ray uploaded an audio clip of the song onto YouTube last September.



Ray would issue one more single on NRC, "White Christmas", backed with one he wrote, "Happy Blue Year", in December 1960. His next single release would arrive in the summer of 1961 on Mercury Records...a novelty record...and that ultimately set the stage for a particular novelty song release in the summer of 1962. In concert Ray usually does a portion of "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" as part of a medley of songs. When I seen him in concert at his CabaRay showroom in March 2018 he performed the song as part of that medley.