Ray Stevens and Sylvia: Close Enough to Perfect...

Hello one and all...welcome to the last day of February...and I'm sure all the Ray Stevens fans are glad to see March right around the corner. The month of March will be something of a busy month for Ray...for it's the month that Season Three of CabaRay concerts gets underway. The first concert of the season is March 12th...so we still have a couple of weeks left before the showroom re-opens. The bulk of activity will be the CabaRay concerts, of course, but let's not forget that later in the month Ray will appear in Cookeville, Tennessee at the Leslie Town Centre at the annual WCTE dinner. The event will be held on March 24th. WCTE is the PBS affiliate handling national distribution of Ray's locally syndicated television series, CabaRay Nashville. I don't know how many local PBS stations air his television series but I know it airs here, regionally, on KET2 each Saturday night at 8pm.

There have been a couple of YouTube video clips uploaded featuring vintage Ray Stevens performances from the early 1980s. The two video's are uploaded by Ron Newcomer. One of the video clips, uploaded on February 26th, is from a Music City News program taped early in 1983 called Music City News Top Hits of the Year...co-hosting with Ray Stevens is Tammy Wynette. The two perform a duet, "We've Got the Music in Music City". This television special, specific performances I should clarify, had been released on DVD quite a number of years ago and I own a copy of it...but Ron's upload omits Ray's solo performance of "Country Boy, Country Club Girl" from that special. Ray's performance is on the DVD copy that I have. I don't know if Ron deliberately edited it out prior to his uploading the footage onto the internet or if he didn't tape that performance when he was recording the show in 1983. I left a question over on the video's YouTube page asking about Ray's performance not being part of the footage. Whatever the case you can watch performances from that 1983 television special when you click HERE. The upload also features the tribute to Marty Robbins and you'll see footage of Marty and see Ray and Tammy serve as hosts of the tribute segment. However, the DVD that I have, doesn't include the Marty Robbins tribute segment.

Ray Stevens and Sylvia

On February 27th performances from 1984's edition of Top Hits of the Year were uploaded onto YouTube. In this edition Ray and Sylvia perform "Close Enough to Perfect", a hit for Alabama a year earlier. Ray performs "My Dad"...a rarity...but the performance features some lyrical and musical omissions that I believe must have been dictated due to time constraints. The Top Hits of the Year series from Music City News focused on the hit songs of the previous year. The show was locally syndicated and typically aired within the first couple of months of the new year. Ray had recorded his Me album for Mercury Records in 1983 but publicity/promotion was practically non-existent until the first half of 1984. "My Dad" is from that 1983 album...issued as a single in 1984...and performed by Ray on the 1984 telecast.

In the photo to the left Ray Stevens is singing his heart out on his Mercury Records single from mid 1984, "My Dad". You can watch Ray and Sylvia perform "Close Enough to Perfect" and watch him perform "My Dad" when you click this LINK. The screen cap is from his performance of "My Dad". I could have captured more but I chose that image...it demonstrates the emotion and feeling he packed into the performance...and made it look effortless. It's long been said that a trait of the truly gifted and talented is the art of making hard work look effortless. Ray continues to make it look effortless...and on March 12th his CabaRay showroom opens it's third season of concert performances. You can find out all the information when you click HERE. The website, TripAdvisor, awarded the CabaRay a Certificate of Excellence in 2019 based upon the positive feedback from travelers. As of this writing there have been 158 reviews of the venue. This number is broken up into various categories: Excellent, Very Good, Average, Poor, and Terrible. The response, so far, has Excellent leading the pack with 136 while 15 rate it Very Good. This leaves 7 more traveler ratings. 3 people rated their experience Average, 1 person rated it Poor, and 3 people gave their experience a Terrible rating. I don't have the time to go through the pages and pages of reviews to find the negative commentary...I wish I could...maybe later I'll sift through all the pages and see exactly why someone would come away with a negative experience; but with 158 reviews total on TripAdvisor and 151 of them either being Excellent or Very Good I don't necessarily think the negative experience of 7 people needs dissecting...that feedback opinion is definitely in the minority.

Ray Stevens: The Encyclopedia...Eight Years Later...

It was right around this time eight years ago that Ray Stevens released his mammoth 9-CD collection, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The official release date happened to be February 28, 2012. As you can see in the photo on the left I purchased my copy of the collection. In various interviews leading up to the release and in follow-up interviews after it became available Ray remarked that he worked on the project for two years. The box set contains Ray's versions of the most memorable novelty and comedy songs of all-time...each song appears in alphabetical order on 8 compact discs. A 9th CD is referred to as a bonus collection featuring songs pulled from Ray's contemporary projects. Now, given that Ray Stevens is himself a legendary performer of novelty songs, it makes sense that throughout the first 8 discs there are selections that Ray previously recorded for himself along side his versions of other artist's novelty songs. There are 12 songs on each disc. On Disc Two, for example, the song titles cover letters C through G. As you can see I noted which recording artist originally did the song...however, I should be more specific...it's a notation on the recording artist that made the song popular...and not necessarily a reflection on who originally recorded it. I should have used the phrase 'made popular by' instead of 'originally recorded by'...but anyway, here's the track list on disc two:

1. Chug a Lug (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
2. Cigareetes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women (originally recorded by Sons of the Pioneers)
3. Cocktails for Two (originally recorded by Spike Jones)
4. Convoy (originally recorded by C.W. McCall)
5. Dang Me (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
6. Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor (originally recorded by Lonnie Donegan)
7. The Dooright Family (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1980)
8. Downtown Poker Club (originally recorded by Phil Harris)
9. Dropkick Me, Jesus (originally recorded by Bobby Bare)
10. Dry Bones (origins date back to 1928)
11. Freddie Feelgood (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1966)
12. Get a Job (originally recorded by The Silhouettes)

When the project was released there was a lot of confusion surrounding the content...on-line commentary on social media sites of the time period wondered if this was a collection of recordings that Ray gathered up of other performers and was spotlighting the original hit songs. A remark made on a CD review site 'warned' consumers that this is a collection of Ray Stevens recordings and not the originals made popular by the likes of Spike Jones, Roger Miller, The Big Bopper, etc. That reviewer was unhappy that Ray didn't feature the actual recordings of those songs but instead sang his own versions. Yes, as you can tell, that reviewer completely missed the point of this project altogether. That sort of confusion was short-lived thanks to the advertising of the project on social media outlets. One of the several video clips advertising the box set goes into detail about the making of the project and there's heavy emphasis placed on the fact that the songs on the box set are recordings by Ray Stevens and were done as a tribute to the greatest novelty songs of all time.

The video hosting site, YouTube, was the avenue upon which Ray uploaded the advertising for the 9-CD Encyclopedia. The video hosting site had been very beneficial to Ray and so when it came time to begin promoting the collection there were a series of commercials uploaded onto YouTube and then shared throughout the internet. The longest commercial ran 4 minutes and the shortest at 45 seconds. The shortest commercial was designed, specifically, to air on television stations even though there's a video clip that runs 1 minute, 33 seconds meant for television airing, too. Here's that particular video clip, with voice over by Charlie Chase, advertising the collection:



One thing you have to keep in mind is that the above advertisement is from 2012 and it features the original sales price which I found incredibly reasonable with everything you'll be getting: 9 CDs and a thick booklet filled with all kinds of information and personal commentary from Ray on the songs he decided to record for the project. The longer commercial, at 4 minutes, is also from 2012 and it features Ray's longtime songwriting associate, Buddy Kalb, acting as host/emcee:



In this video clip from February 27, 2012 it shows footage of Ray inside the studio, at the piano, as he gives a brief synopsis of why he decided to take on the task of recording his versions of classic novelty songs:



Now, then...fast forward eight years later and we're here on February 23, 2020. The price of this 9-CD novelty fest has dropped...but something like that is to have been expected...the older something becomes the lesser the sales price (unless the item offered has become a rarity then it gets more expensive as time passes). Although I think the original sales price was reasonable it's being sold for a lot less nowadays. On December 7, 2019 the video clip featuring Charlie Chase's voice-over from 2012 was re-uploaded onto YouTube but with a reflection on the new sales price. In addition to the lower sales price it also includes free shipping and handling, a rarity for practically anything in mail order. If you don't have this collection then you should definitely think about purchasing it. In my opinion I feel all fans of Ray Stevens should own this but that's just my opinion.

Ray Stevens: His latest On-line Activities...

Well, here I am again writing another fan created blog entry about Ray Stevens. There have been numerous on-line video posts within the last several days...and when I posted my previous blog entry I purposely left out a video clip because I wanted to highlight it later in another blog entry...and this is the one. The video clip is of Ray in 1992 at his former theater in Branson, Missouri performing "You Gotta Have a Hat". The performance became part of his 1993 VHS home video, Ray Stevens Live!. The song is about the Hat Acts in country music...there had always been country music artists that wore cowboy hats but during a specific time frame from 1989 to 1994 nearly all New Country artists wore cowboy hats. There were so many that critics coined the phrase 'Hat Acts'. There were just as many that came along without hats, too. The song primarily creates the scenario of what might happen should Ray Stevens, with a lengthy reputation for comedy, suddenly began wearing a cowboy hat in an attempt to generate sex appeal and record sales. In order to keep the mood light and playful, though, Ray performs most of the song in a peculiar style of cowboy hat.



Jumping back 31 years from that 1992 performance we have an audio clip of Ray's 1961 recording, "When You Wish Upon a Star". This recording was found on the B-side of a single that Mercury issued on Ray titled "Scratch My Back ( I Love It)" in October 1961. The B-side wasn't placed on Ray's first studio album for Mercury in 1962 and it's remained on vinyl as a B-side. The audio's been uploaded onto the internet several times prior to Ray officially uploading the audio a couple of days ago...but if you want the recording on vinyl you'd have to search for "Scratch My Back (I Love It)". Ray's rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" is bluesy...which you'll be able to tell right away from the music intro and his phrasing. It's the same song associated with the Disney company...the song debuted in 1940 in the animated film, Pinocchio, performed by Cliff Edwards (voice of Jiminy Cricket). Here's the bluesy Ray Stevens performance...



On a slight technical note I'm a blogger who pays attention to the numbers surrounding this fan created blog page and when I wrote my previous entry on February 16th the Stat Counter numbers shown 10,502 page views. A couple of days later I returned to read some of my older posts to see if there were any kind of grammatical errors, etc. and I glanced over at the Stat Counter tracker and the page view total had dropped by at least 200...it shown the page views at a little more than 10,300 whereas a couple of days earlier they were at 10,502. How can your page view statistics drop!? I thought they could only increase as time goes by. Anyway, this morning the page view was sitting at 10,534 but had there not have been a cut in page views for whatever reason those numbers should be in the 10,700 range. I hadn't found any explanation about it...my own theory is the tracking program eliminated false views generated by some sort of social media bot, I think that's the correct terminology? I'm not a technical wizard by any means...but I know simple mathematics and could see a subtraction of my page view total...but back to the focus of this blog...

Here's Ray Stevens live on stage at the CabaRay performing the country music classic, "Abilene", popularized by George Hamilton IV. In the video clip Ray tells of the song and points out the photo on the wall of the song's writer, John D. Loudermilk, in addition to steel guitarist, Pete Drake, and famed session musician/string wizard, Bergen White, as well as a photo of George Hamilton IV.



A new upload of one of Ray's vintage television commercials for Flav-O-Rich emerged on-line back on February 20th. In this clip Ray and a kid are sitting on a porch and the kid asks where ice cream comes from. Ray replies and then the kid wonders if Flav-O-Rich is the place that Ray is 'always singing about'. Ray confirms it's true and then asks the kid if he'd like to hear him sing a jingle...



Does anyone know if Flav-O-Rich is still in existence? I've come across numerous contradictions all over the internet...some websites declare the company no longer exists and other sites say it was bought out by Borden...but if you look up the Flav-O-Rich company on-line it gives a physical address and location...headquartered in London, Kentucky...but then other websites give that address and location to the Borden Dairy Company of Kentucky. An image I came across of a gallon of milk with a label brand of Flav-O-Rich states it was distributed by Borden...but then there's a story that says Borden filed for bankruptcy just last month. Whatever the case...Ray had a lengthy run as spokesman for Farm Best/Flav-O-Rich throughout the latter half of the 1970s and into the first half of the 1980s.

Ray Stevens: Temporary Exhibit at CMHOF...

Hello one and all...about an hour ago it was revealed that a brand new exhibit is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame centering around Ray Stevens. He previously had a temporary exhibit on display surrounding his 1970 single, "Everything is Beautiful", but some other items associated with his music were also on display. That temporary display/exhibit was unveiled in September of 2017...it was still on display in March 2018 when I made my first and, to date, only trip to Nashville but since that time it's been removed from exhibition. I had my picture taken next to that display and I've posted it several times in blog's past. The 2017 exhibit was in recognition of Ray's 60th year as a professional recording artist. My previous blog entry discusses Ray's earliest years as a regional entertainer in Albany, Georgia and Atlanta, Georgia in the mid 1950s.

This newest temporary exhibit centers around Ray's 1984 comedy album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens, and it features the Napoleon costume Ray wore during the photo session for the album. There's also his two Grammy Awards...which were also part of the 2017-2018 exhibit. In addition there's the toy squirrel from his Branson, Missouri theater...upon the conclusion of a performance of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" a small squirrel toy would be let loose off stage and it would roll out onto the main stage at top speed and it would start chasing after Ray. An image of the display was posted on one of Ray's social media pages and you can see that image when you click HERE. That link will take you to Twitter. He also posted the image on his Facebook page.

He gets much more interaction on Facebook and I think that has to do with the fact that it's message friendly...on Twitter you're limited to so many characters that you're unable to fully express your thoughts without posting several Tweets in a row...but yet Twitter wasn't designed, I don't think, to be used as a 'message board' in the traditional sense...it's meant to be used as a  messaging service composed of acronyms, abbreviations, and brisk dialogue. You can also see the display by clicking HERE. That link will take you to the photo that was posted on Facebook. If you're planning on going to the Country Music Hall of Fame soon be on the lookout for Ray's newest exhibit and be sure to look for his plaque inside the Rotunda. The staff/caretakers rearrange the plaques every so often and if you've visited there recently to see his Hall of Fame plaque, the next time you visit, the plaque more than likely will be on display somewhere else on the Rotunda wall. A message on Ray's Facebook page stated that this newest exhibit will only be on display through the end of March of this year...so it's a very temporary exhibit indeed.

Ray Stevens: Snap Shot of a Georgia Teen...

Ray Stevens, 1956

Hello all...this photo of teenage Ray Stevens was posted on his social media sites last Thursday. The information surrounding the photo states that it's from the mid 1950s when Ray was still a resident of Albany, Georgia before his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1956. I label the photo as having been taken in 1956 but it could have been 1955...the social media posts state he was 16 and so that would have been some point between January 24, 1955 and January 23, 1956. So, yes, it's more than likely the photo originated in 1955. Whatever the specific month and year the point is that it's a snap shot of a Georgia teenager that became a legendary figure in the music industry and ultimately found himself elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. In the formative years he was known by his birth name, Harold Ragsdale. His middle name being Ray he would use the name 'Ray Ragsdale'. As a teenager in Albany, Georgia he formed a Rhythm and Blues band called The Barons and they would perform at various events throughout the region. In addition to this he would find himself on local radio station, WGPC, hosting a Saturday afternoon show called The Record Hop with co-host Mary Dale Vansant. This radio program, according to an interview Mary Dale Vansant gave, aired from 1pm to 4pm beginning in the summer of 1954 and that she and Ray often worked on the show for three to four hours ahead of air-time. In the radio industry it's called show preparation. The interview is great and it offers insight and recollection of Ray's early years prior to his national breakthrough in the early 1960s. The webpage features several pages about Ray's career including snippets from newspaper articles. Ray, as many of you should know, was born in Clarkdale, Georgia on January 24, 1939. He and his family (father Willis, mother Frances, and brother John) moved from Clarkdale to Albany in 1949.

Ray Stevens, 1954

The seeds of Ray's career were planted in Albany and by the time he had found local popularity/fame through The Barons and on local radio he had to give it up in 1956 after the company his father worked for caused a mandatory relocation from Albany to Atlanta. Ray began his senior year in 1956 at Druid Hills High School...and graduated from there in 1957. Ray continued his music pursuits after the move to Atlanta and it's here that he began his lengthy association with music publisher Bill Lowery...eventually leading to Ray's first professional recording, "Silver Bracelet", on the Prep label in 1957. Prep was a subsidiary of Capitol Records. The pictorial time-line along the right hand side of my blog page shows an image of that single. The image off to the immediate right is a publicity photo of Ray during his disc jockey years in the mid 1950s. According to Mary's interview she decided to leave the show after a year and a half but remarked that Ray continued on with a new co-host named Diane Flowers. I have searched all over the internet down through the years and haven't been able to find anything regarding her connection to Ray's career. When I perform internet searches for her I most often type 'Ray Stevens + Diane Flowers + Georgia' or 'Ray Ragsdale + WGPC + Diane Flowers' but nothing ever comes up in the search results pertaining to Ray's months on the air with the new co-host. I refer to it as months on the air because when Mary stepped away from The Record Hop it would've been late 1955, she mentions in her interview about being Ray's co-host for a year and a half, and with Ray's move to Atlanta taking place at some point prior to the 1956-1957 school year that means Ray and new co-host, Diane, would've been on the air for less than half a year or maybe shorter than even that. Perhaps that's why there's no information on-line? Oh well...if just to settle my curiosity I'd love to have precise information surrounding Ray's years on WGPC radio.

When Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019 it sent shock waves throughout the country music community but it was mixture of shock waves. Some people shared the sentiment that "It's about time!! He's such a legendary entertainer!! It's long overdue!" and others shared the sentiment of "What??? How could they elect him?? It's such a joke!!". Those who carry the latter sentiment are a victim of their own perceptions of Ray Stevens. They don't see Ray as a legitimate performer, musician, record producer, music arranger, music publisher, or songwriter and they never will, I guess. To those people they see Ray as a grinning, Joker-like novelty singer unworthy of high praise, critical acclaim, or let alone being a recipient of the highest honor in country music.

I don't gamble or place bets but if I were a betting man I'd have to say that Ray's election to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019 was the longest gap between the start of a professional career (1957) and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame (2019). That's a time span of 62 years. I can't think of any act, without having to do some lengthy research, that had a longer time span between professional debut to induction. If you count his years as a regional act 2019 marked his 65th year as a performer/musician. The snap shot of a Georgia teen named Ray Ragsdale ultimately took his place in the Country Music Hall of Fame...and his career remains in high gear.

Ray Stevens: Renfro Valley Ticket Prices Revealed...

Hello once more...the mystery is over with as far as the Ray Stevens Renfro Valley ticket prices are concerned. In a couple of previous blog entries this month I made mention that the tickets for his concert go on sale on March 19th but there weren't any prices listed as there happened to be for the other performers appearing at the venue. The other day I decided to look up the headliner concert page, again, to see if there any updates and at long last they provided a ticket price for his concert this coming June 21st (a Sunday evening).

Renfro Valley Concert Ticket Prices

In a previous blog entry I posted this same image but at that time there wasn't any ticket prices listed. It had an acronym, TBD, which stands for To Be Determined. Now, after discovering what the ticket prices were for his concert, I did an overview of the other concert headliners. In doing so I put together a Top-5 list, based on top ticket pricing, and Ray is among the Top-5 in this category. I think it's a testament to his popularity that he commands an upper level price range. Here is the Top-5 by rank ticket pricing:

Number Five: Tracy Lawrence ($59.00, $54.00, $49.00, and $46.00)
Number Four: Ray Stevens ($59.00, $55.00, $52.00, and $49.00)
Number Three: Roots and Boots Tour ($62.00, $58.00, $55.00, and $49.00)
Runner Up: Don McLean ($62.00, $58.00, $55.00, and $52.00)
Number One: Josh Turner ($68.00, $62.00, $58.00, and $52.00)

I've been fortunate enough to see Ray Stevens in concert three times. You'd think I'd be someone that has seen him in concert hundreds of times but that isn't the case. I seen him at Renfro Valley in 2008 and that marked the first time I'd seen him in concert. I purchased a CD at the merchandise table, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?, prior to it being available on the internet. The second time I seen him happened to be at The Little Nashville Opry in Nashville, Indiana in 2009...that venue burned to the ground weeks after Ray's concert...but it was at that venue where the seats were lined with small advertisement cards for an upcoming CD from Ray titled One for the Road, available only at Pilot Truck Stops for several months, before it was released to the general public. The third time I seen Ray in concert was in 2018 at the CabaRay showroom. I wrote a blog entry review of my time in Nashville, Indiana attending Ray's concert back in May 2009. I've also written a blog entry review of my visit to the CabaRay in March 2018. Search the archives off to the right for those two blog entries if interested/curious about my opinion/commentary.

Ray Stevens sings "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"...

1969

One of the things that I personally feel that any Ray Stevens fan should possess is some sort of understanding of the many styles of music he's recorded throughout his career. If you consider yourself a dedicated/devoted fan or a student of his career then you should be aware of this 1969 album. If you've never heard of it then let this be your introduction. The Have a Little Talk With Myself album was his fifth studio album as well as his third and final LP for Monument Records following Gitarzan earlier in the year and Even Stevens in 1968. The Have a Little Talk With Myself vinyl album hit in the latter half of 1969. The LP's first single, "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", had been released a couple of months prior to the LP. There have been a lot of things written regarding Ray's recording of that particular song...it's almost always referenced to whenever journalists, bloggers, or historians write about the career of songwriter-singer Kris Kristofferson or Johnny Cash. Monument Records issued Ray's recording of the song in September 1969. It made the charts...peaking in the lower regions of the Hot 100 in addition to it appearing on the country music chart (his debut appearance in that format). It's highest charted performance, which is strangely overlooked by historians, happened to be it's showing in Australia where it reached that country's Top-40 pop chart, but it's performance there is never cited. In that time period Ray had quite a following in specific international markets although he was never mainstreamed by the local music media. The album's title track was issued as a single in November of 1969 followed by the single release in February 1970 of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" with his version of "The Fool on the Hill" as it's B-side. Ray uploaded an audio of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" on YouTube this past Friday, Valentine's Day. The song was written by Bob Dylan and had been recorded by him previously. The 1969 album contains 12 songs...10 of them are cover songs of contemporary pop songs whereas only two of the recordings come from the pen of Ray Stevens: "Have a Little Talk with Myself" and "The Little Woman". Those two recordings were released as A-side and B-side when Monument issued the single release of the LP's title track in November 1969. In February 1970 Monument issued Ray's recording of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" which you can hear below... 



In the meantime Ray was in the process of switching to a different record label. He began making popular guest appearances on the weekly television series, The Andy Williams Show. Andy's brother, Don, had become Ray's manager and was responsible for getting Ray onto Andy's show, as well as other television shows of the era, and one thing led to another. Ray ended his lengthy run with Monument Records and signed to Andy's label, Barnaby Records, and within weeks of his signing Ray emerged with his debut single for Barnaby, "Everything is Beautiful"...and another chapter of Ray's career was well underway.

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Season Three Concerts...

Season Three Concerts Kick Off March 12, 2020

Hello once again!! I'd written about the upcoming Season Three of the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom getting underway on March 12th. We're less than a month away from that date and a new video clip from Ray has emerged on social media promoting the upcoming third season of concerts. He had previously uploaded a video as a tie in with the 2020 edition of CMA Fest this coming June but this promo is for the showroom's Season Three kickoff next month...



In the video Ray goes into more detail about things that I was wondering about in some of my previous CabaRay blog entries. There will be special events at the CabaRay on select Friday nights throughout 2020...no detailed information was given but perhaps he'll be renting out the showroom to other performers who are touring and maybe the CabaRay will be a venue they'll add to their concert itinerary!? It sounds like a long shot on my part...but it's just an opinion/assumption based on what I heard in the promo video. I had previously written about the change in procedure from the first two season's of concerts with regards to the dinner. The 2018 and 2019 seasons stipulated that dinner paying customers sat at tables or at the various booths. The balcony seats were for those that chose to skip the dinner option...although beverages were still served to those seated up there. The 2020 concert season will suspend the 2018 and 2019 policy and allow customers to sit at the tables and in the booth's with or without a dinner being served. It's my guess that customers are still going to want a dinner, though...and so they'll order one just so they'll get the full experience of a night at the CabaRay.

As you heard in the video clip Ray will be performing on Thursday and Saturday nights this season. One of the other things mentioned is that the resident pianist, John Jonethis, will be in performance on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings inside the Piano Bar. This means that the Piano Bar will be open to the public on Friday evenings when there isn't a Ray Stevens concert scheduled. Ironically years before the CabaRay was built John Jonethis had released a CD titled Tonight...at the Piano Bar. I never knew this CD existed until today...I was doing on-line searches about the CabaRay as well as John Jonethis, specifically, and seen the name of the CD among the search results. I clicked the Amazon link assuming that perhaps it was a live CD recorded at Ray's showroom inside the piano bar area but I found out it's a CD from 2002...some 16 years before the CabaRay had it's grand opening. Even though the main attraction at the CabaRay is, of course, Ray Stevens, my guess is the Piano Bar being open on Friday nights is designed to attract those that want a classy atmosphere than what exists elsewhere...where Pop music standards and vintage jazz is played/celebrated by the pianist, John Jonethis. I don't know if you still need to purchase some sort of ticket to visit the CabaRay Piano Bar on Friday when Ray isn't performing or if you can just walk in and have a seat in the piano bar. Those that appreciate the style of music often played inside the Piano Bar will find it heavenly. I'm not embedding a link to the CabaRay webpage because the information can be found in the video clip...which includes a telephone number for ticket information.

Ray Stevens: Renfro Valley 2020...

Hello once again...could it be? Is this my fourth fan created Ray Stevens blog entry in a day's time?? Yes, but let's not get too excited...I've been on vacation from work the last two weeks and I go back to work tomorrow and so I'm savoring my last day of vacation as best as I can...blogging about Ray Stevens!!

A couple of days ago I wrote about a Ray Stevens concert this coming June in Renfro Valley...located in Mount Vernon, Kentucky. In my blog, which you can read HERE, I posted an image of the concert advertisement and how it didn't feature a ticket price as all of the other headliner concert attractions. There still isn't a ticket price listed on the Renfro Valley website for Ray's concert but an advertisement on his Facebook page states that tickets, as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, go on sale March 18th. It's my belief that the ticket price of his concert at Renfro Valley on June 21st at 5pm will no doubt be revealed by March 18th...a no brainer on my part, obviously.

Speaking of concerts...the first concert of the 2020 season at the CabaRay is next month!! The first concert of the season is March 12th and you can purchase tickets to the CabaRay on several websites. There's a Facebook page which directs you to the CabaRay on-line ordering page. You can also purchase tickets at the venue's box office. You can find all information by clicking HERE. This year Ray is performing concerts on Thursday and Saturday nights for most of the season. There will be some added Friday concerts according to the 2020 season schedule.

In a recent blog entry I posted an image of one of the record players that I got as a Christmas gift. I'm now going to post an image of the second record player...

That was one of two pictures I hastily snapped with this built-in web camera on my laptop. It's a Victrola Cambridge model record player with an FM radio dial and other features. In that earlier blog entry I mentioned that I'd play a vinyl album or a single on this record player tonight...I hadn't yet. I played a vinyl album on the other turntable already...earlier this morning I played a 1985 RCA album, Collector's Series, featuring eight Ray Stevens recordings. I'll be comparing the playback/audio of the brown turntable with this lighter color turntable. The brown turntable, posted in an earlier blog entry, is a Symphonic brand and it features a CD player and a cassette player in addition to the radio feature. The concept of turntables and vinyl albums have become, within the last handful of years, a novel item with a lot of people who weren't even born when vinyl and record players were the dominant form of listening to music. There's an area in a local Wal-Mart store featuring several rows of re-issued vinyl albums and boxes of record players are located on shelves below. Some contemporary acts have some of their titles available on vinyl. I remember when I began this blog in 2008...at that time I wondered if I was the only one that had vinyl albums and singles as well as a record player...in the years since I've seen a resurgence. I wonder if Ray will ever think about issuing something on vinyl in limited quantities? One of the aspects of a vinyl album is that, most of the time, there were photo's on the back of the album or photo's of the artist featured on the inner sleeve, or there were lengthy essays/liner notes on the backs of album covers. This kind of thing still happens from time to time with CD releases and how liner notes or exclusive photos show up in the fold-out cover...but it's nothing like the era of vinyl.

Ray Stevens and his W-I-L-D alter-ego...

Oh wow...it's my third fan created Ray Stevens blog entry in one day! In this blog entry I'm embedding a video clip of Ray from his 2009 web-series, We Ain't Dead Yet. This series was originally available as an exclusive and has never been released, in it's entirety, to a general public even though clips from the series are sprinkled throughout Rayality TV, the series that airs on Friday afternoons on RFD-TV. There weren't a lot of episodes produced of We Ain't Dead Yet, if I recall correctly. I think there were less than 10 half hour episodes produced...maybe as few as 7 or 8!? The series took place at a fictional retirement home called The Encore. If you look through my archives you're sure to come across blog entries where I'm much more detailed about the show and how you could view it. Search the summer months of 2009. In October of 2009 a short-lived subscription service called Ray Stevens Backstage was launched. This service was available through a link on his official website and it was through the Ray Stevens Backstage subscription that you could access the existing episodes of We Ain't Dead Yet.

In We Ain't Dead Yet, in addition to portraying himself, he appears as a crazy disc jockey who believes that he's broadcasting all over the country. As you'll see in the video clip he has his room decorated as if it were a radio studio from the 1960s and his goes by the name of Rooster Reagan and loudly and proudly exclaims his excitement and enthusiasm in the manner of any number of AM radio disc jockeys of the time period. He broadcasts for W-I-L-D radio and has a habit of calling up people from a phone book, at random, in an effort to play pranks and torment them.



Earlier today a video clip from Ray made it's way to YouTube. This time around it was an advertisement for tourists that are visiting Nashville during the first week of June to stop by the CabaRay. It's CMA Week in Nashville and at the CabaRay on Thursday (June 6th) and Saturday (June 8th) there will be concerts from Ray Stevens followed by autographs and pictures inside the Piano Bar. The showroom opens at 5pm with the Piano Bar and later, the gift shop, being opened to the public prior to dinner seating at 6pm. Ray's concert typically gets underway at 7:30pm and runs 90 minutes.

I made mention of these CMA Week concerts last month and I'm embedding the video clip below.

Ray Stevens: More than 100 Million YouTube unique views...

Hello one and all!! I was over on YouTube looking over some stats surrounding the video clips/music videos from Ray Stevens. As of this writing the combined number of unique views of the various videos uploaded to his YouTube channel currently sits at 111,624,798!!! So, it's a little more than an even 100 million.

I found myself looking through the stats because in the comment section over on the official YouTube page for the video clip advertising his 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!, as February's sale of the month in his on-line store, I left a reply addressing a statement made by someone else that said, and I'm paraphrasing: "...probably no one born after 2000 has any idea who Ray Stevens is...".

In my reply I openly wondered if the comment was a baited statement just waiting for someone to bite...of which I gladly bit because it sounded like a statement that was partially true and I felt I could offer a factual reply and explain how, as a recording artist, you can make a comfortable living without your music ever making an appearance on a weekly chart. If you find an audience and they like what you do and you continue to reach people and build your audience and they purchase your music or attend your concerts, etc. etc. then you don't actually need your image and music plastered all over entertainment magazines and on radio.

The reply I gave, specifically, was: "Oh well, it's their loss, even though it sounds like a baited statement just waiting for someone to bite which I'm gladly doing. The recently inducted Country Music Hall of Fame legend, Ray Stevens, I don't think relies on age specific demographics or ever did...pure entertainment is all that's necessary...but you're somewhat accurate about those born after 2000...but I'd argue that he's known by a lot of people under 35. It isn't just a collection of people 60 and older watching his YouTube videos. He has his own slice of the gigantic internet pie.".

Here's some facts you can't argue with...

He's had a YouTube channel since 2009 and he's had his own website since, at least, the late 1990s. I came onto the internet by way of Web-TV in 2002 and Ray had a website then and he has one still. The design of his website and product availability in his web-store has obviously changed over the years but he's had an internet presence for nearly 20 years. The YouTube channel hit the internet on July 13, 2009. As I mentioned at the top of this blog entry the total number of combined unique views obtained by all of the video uploads on his channel currently sits at 111,624,798. It's a fantastic stat for an entertainer that turned 81 years of age a couple of weeks ago on January 24th.

I'll bet there will be somebody out there who, upon reading what I just wrote, will feverishly scour YouTube for an entertainer older than Ray and check the combined unique view total of that performer's video uploads and if it's larger than Ray's they'll cheerfully plaster the information all over social media sites just to diminish Ray's total. Childish, yes, but it's speaks to the lengths of what people will do on social media. There are some people who resent Ray's successful career. You may be asking yourselves: Are there people that deliberately resent any kind of success Ray Stevens has? It's sad but true...but there are people out there like that and I'm making that accusation based on years of on-line experience on my part and seeing with my own eyes the kinds of things said about his music and his business decisions on various social media sites.

An example being his 1992 performance of "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O." which was part of his 1993 VHS, Ray Stevens Live!. The performance was uploaded onto Ray's YouTube channel on June 12, 2013. The reaction, as of this writing, consists of more than 3,700 thumbs up ratings and 105 thumbs down ratings. A hysterical performance, for sure, and highly entertaining but apparently that wasn't the case for 105 people. The video itself has 423,786 unique views as of this writing. There will be those that say "nobody has to like the same style of music...or the same singer..." and that's a perfectly fine statement...but what I'm getting at is there are people who purposely click videos for the sole purpose of thumbing it down or leaving vile comments...or they do both. If you don't like a singer then why access their video content in the first place...but of course I answered that rhetorical question already just before asking it. It gives those with anger a chance to show it off. The deliberate nature of a person thumbing down a video or writing scathing remarks simply because they do not like that artist is something that can't be stopped, unfortunately...along with all the positives that come with the internet there also come the negatives.

Shifting gears...after months of procrastinating I finally got around to clearing some space for my two new record players that I received as Christmas gifts. A couple of my turntables were stolen, pretty much, as part of a complicated family issue revolving around my grandfather's power of attorney and the disappearance of a lot of my items I kept in storage at his house. I managed to retrieve all of my vinyl, my modest collection of TV Guides, and everything else of mine from his house but the two record players came up missing and I've never been able to find them. Anyway...I received two turntables this last Christmas, to replace the two that came up missing, but I had them sitting in their boxes unopened...I hadn't figured out where I'd put them. The wait/procrastination ended this past Friday and I have the turntables out of their boxes and sitting in my room. One of them is close to the desk I'm sitting at and another is close to my bedroom door. I have the one near the bedroom door sitting on top of a couple of crates...the crates contain the vinyl albums and vinyl singles I've purchased over the years. Those items had been sitting next to my desk on a stand...and so with the relocation of the vinyl items into the crates it created space for the other record player. I listened to Collector's Series this morning. Yes...I just had to play a Ray Stevens album to break in the new record player with. The compilation album of eight songs that RCA issued in 1985...so that particular collection is 35 this year. It's the only compilation to spotlight some of the recordings he issued on RCA Records during his tenure with them. He signed with them late in 1979 and ultimately released three studio albums on the label in 1980, 1981, and 1982; followed by a Greatest Hits album in 1983. The 1983 release only featured two recordings from his RCA period, "Shriner's Convention" and "The Dooright Family", while the remaining eight songs spanned the years 1968 through 1975...so it wasn't necessarily dominated with RCA recordings...but Collector's Series continues to remain the definitive collection of his RCA recordings. One of my new record players appears in this photo. The lid doesn't lift up all the way which perhaps is a good thing...like the hood of a car if you want the lid to remain open you lift the lid and then prop the second half of the attachment into a designated space on the first half of the attachment and it acts like a lock and it keeps the lid opened. I hadn't played anything on the other record player near my desk, yet. That'll come later today and yes it'll be another of my vinyl Ray Stevens albums holding the distinction of being the first thing played on that record player, too.

Me and one of my new Record Players: 2019

Ray Stevens: Here We Go Again!...February Sale of the Month...

Hello one and all...for the month of February the Ray Stevens web-store is offering his 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!, at a discount price. If you frequent his on-line store you should be familiar with the month long discounts/deals placed on random items. This particular deal of the month is a discounted sales price for 2015's Here We Go Again!. If you search my archives that year you'll see that I wrote a lot of blog entries surrounding lead-up to the upcoming release, the release itself, and the music contained on the album I wrote in the form of a review. The main song that emerged from the CD was "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" which appeared as a music video on YouTube prior to the release of the CD. That video eventually racked up millions of unique views throughout 2015 and the following years. Ray performed several songs from the CD on his CabaRay Nashville television program, including the one referring to Taylor Swift. On an episode of his television show that aired last night on a local PBS station he performed "Walkin' the Dog", a song from this 2015 CD. There are episodes of his show where he also performed "Pickin' on the Chicken", "Little By Little", and "There Must Be a Pill For This".



If you don't yet have a CD copy of this don't miss your chance at purchasing it for the discounted price. As you see on the video screen there is no shipping and handling fee. If you already have a digital Mp3 of this album why not get the CD counterpart. I love having CD copies because of the art work, the information, and sometimes you'll receive on a CD some sort of exclusive content by way of images or even liner notes that aren't reprinted a CD's product page in an on-line music store. This particular CD features a fold-out booklet containing the lyrics of every song, who wrote them, and the music publisher credits. There's also a message from Ray in the fold-out booklet. So while it might make sense to purchase music as Mp3's instead of purchasing a physical CD of music, chances are you're missing out on some of the perks of having an actual CD instead of just having digitally transmitted audio tracks from an on-line store to your on-line device.

Ray Stevens: 40 years ago in Hahira, Georgia...

Ten years ago I wrote a blog entry titled '30 years ago in Hahira, Georgia'. I felt it only natural to title this blog entry similarly but with a change of 10 years added on. Shriner's Convention reaches 40 this year. In fact it was early in 1980 when the antics of Coy and Bubba were introduced in the single, "Shriner's Convention". The song was inspired by a nearly sleepless night Ray spent in a hotel during a Shriner's convention. In numerous interviews since the release of the single Ray mentioned that they were having a great ol' time...with lots of laughter and celebration...and he felt inspired to write a song about a fictional "Shriner's Convention". The fun and frolic that was going on in the hotel Ray had stayed in was incorporated into the song through the character of Nobel Lumkin whose on the other end of a phone conversation with the leader of the local Shrine, known as the Illustrious Potentate. We never hear Nobel...we're only treated by the reactions from the Potentate. In the first phone call, while trying to remain formal, the Potentate loses his temper and calls out Nobel by his given name, Coy, and reveals his own name as Bubba. The crux of the song deals with the straight-laced Bubba continually admonishing Coy for his embarrassing behavior and how it negatively impacts the image and reputation of the Shrine. A third character, a nameless redhead, we're told had been seen with Coy in the motel swimming pool in the wee morning hours and that she streaked through the banquet wearing nothing but Coy's propeller fashioned Fez. The antics that take place in Ray's fictional story, of course, never happened in real life but based on a sleepless night in a hotel during an actual Shrine convention it inspired him to create a raucous depiction on vinyl, "Shriner's Convention". Ray played the song for the local Shriner's prior to it's release just to be sure the humor and satirical tone wasn't offensive to them. The song made him a favorite of their meetings and fundraisers. The locale of the convention in the song is Hahira, Georgia. A running joke in some of Ray's follow-up novelty recordings is the mention of Hahira, Georgia...it comes up in 1984's "Erik the Awful", 1986's "Southern Air" and "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol".

I know you all can't see that too good...even if you click the photo you won't be able to fully see the title due to the glare of the overhead light. It's my single of "Shriner's Convention". I came across the single a box of assorted singles at a flea market and so naturally I purchased it. There are two versions of this song...there is a lengthy performance where Ray narrates the story in a slower pace, taking pauses and perfecting the timing...and then there's another version which features Ray in a quicker tempo without a whole lot of pausing in between his sentences during the one sided phone conversation between Bubba and Coy. Since this song's been around for 40 years now I'd suggest you seek out a 1987 release from RCA Records titled Collector's Series for a rendition of the quicker paced recording. If you want the other recording then search for the 1987 Greatest Hits album on MCA Records or the 1990 His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits on Curb Records. The B-side of "Shriner's Convention" is a song called "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me". It's a clever song that uses imagery of Florida, the beaches, and vacation hot spots to tell the story of a single guy looking to hook up with any available woman only to get turned down by every woman he approaches. In the photo below it's a case of life imitating art as Ray Stevens was named the Grand Marshal of the Al Menah Shriner's parade in Nashville last year. Ray's CabaRay showroom held several events last year for the Al Menah Shriners. He performed two concerts exclusive to the Shriner's in 2019. One of the concerts was held on June 30th and the second was held on July 1st. The members of the Shrine who attended the concerts posed for a large group photo on the stage of the CabaRay. I added this contemporary activity because I wanted to show the connection Ray has with a local Shriner's organization after all of these years. The Al Menah Shriner's, by the way, have the famed motorcycle that Ray used to ride out on stage during his years in Branson, Missouri. The motorcycle appeared in the 1995 music video for "Shriner's Convention" and it was modeled after the illustration that appears on the 1980 vinyl album seen at the top of this blog entry. Anyway...as mentioned...below is a photo from 2019 showing Ray Stevens as Grand Marshal of the Shriner's parade...

Grand Marshal Ray Stevens, 2019

Ray Stevens: Vintage YouTube Uploads...

Ralph Emery and Ray Stevens, 1979

Hello once more! There have been a couple of vintage video clips uploaded onto YouTube since my last blog entry and I'm embedding both of them below. The first clip is a full length episode of the television series, Pop! Goes the Country, from 1979. Well, I should say that it was taped in 1979 but it aired early in 1980. Ralph Emery hosted this series for it's first six and a half seasons beginning in 1974. In the episode Ray opens the show with his rendition of "You Are So Beautiful", a Top-20 country hit for him in 1976. After a brief interview with Ralph the next performance is an abbreviated "Save Me From Myself", an inspirational song Ray wrote for his 1977 album, Feel the Music. The other special guest is a singer that went by one name, Dottsy. She sings a couple of songs on this episode and is interviewed, too. Ray speaks about his recent sleepless night in a hotel during a Shriner's convention and this leads into a performance of "Shriner's Convention". There are several internet sites that state this episode was broadcast in February of 1980 and it's always been my assumption that the episode had to have been taped in the latter half of 1979 in order for it be ready for air by February 1980. I've always wanted to know the exact month/year this episode was taped because, as a detailed fan of Ray's, I'd like to know if this was Ray's first on-air performance of the song. He performed the song in a 1979 made for TV movie called Concrete Cowboys, too, and so I've never really discovered which performance came first...the made for TV movie or the episode of Pop! Goes the Country. I'd uploaded a performance of "Shriner's Convention" from this episode many blog entries ago but this is the full-length episode.



In this next video clip it's a 1985 interview on a local show titled Talk of the Town. Ray was newly signed to MCA Records and in the very early stages of the reshaping of his career as a country comedian given the comedy songs are what the public at large recognizes him for. He explains in the interview that he'd started out singing love ballads and songs aimed at teenagers but when he issued a single called "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", a novelty, it gained a lot of attention and he feels it would've been his breakthrough hit had the copyright owners of the Sgt. Preston character not threatened a lawsuit. He then explained that his next release should be a comedy recording and so in 1961 along came "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" and then in 1962 "Ahab the Arab" became the breakthrough hit he'd been waiting for and it set the stage for the career he's still enjoying.

Elsewhere in the interview he speaks of Buddy Kalb and how "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" wasn't the first choice for a single release but there was a demand for that particular song when disc jockeys started playing it, on their own, rather than playing the song that was being pushed as the album's first single...a practice referred to as unsolicited airplay. The interview takes place during the early phases of the squirrel's release as a single. The single made it's debut on the Billboard Country chart on December 8, 1984. How ironic that it makes it's chart debut six days after my birthday. I was born on December 2...so this single hit the chart six days after I turned 8 years old...and how ironic it is that it's the first song by Ray Stevens that I heard several years later as a pre-teen in a pizza place on a jukebox. But anyway...the single hit the country chart in December 1984 and it rose from it's number 76 debut to number 49 in three weeks time...and smashed it's way into the Top-40 during January 1985. In the meantime his debut album for MCA, which contained the squirrel song, hit the Country album chart in late December 1984.



The two of these vintage video clips are fascinating to watch. If you weren't even born yet when these interviews and performances from Ray Stevens took place then you're seeing something brand new. If you were born but were still a kid at the time (like myself) or hadn't migrated over to country music and re-discovered Ray Stevens all over again then these interviews and performances will be new to you as well. There's always been a lot of things written about Ray Stevens over the decades but it's always great to hear the legendary entertainer in his own words.

Ray Stevens: March 24th WCTE Dinner, Press Release...

Hello all...I was performing an image search of Ray Stevens about 20 minutes ago and I came across an image of a press release from a site called the Upper Cumberland Reporter. I clicked the image and was taken to an on-line newspaper website displaying a press release from PBS station WCTE. The document shown that it was written on January 29, 2020 for immediate release while the on-line site shows it was uploaded onto the internet on January 31, 2020. In the last several days of routinely searching the internet for Ray Stevens images, etc. I never once came across an image of a press release until this morning and so I decided to write a blog entry to share the link with all of you. I have written two previous blog entries about the WCTE dinner that Ray is going to perform a concert at and I included several links to information concerning ticket prices and everything else. This press release will also give you information on where to get tickets and it also includes a phone number and e-mail address. You can read the press release by clicking HERE.

CabaRay Nashville title card

The weekly television series hosted by Ray Stevens, CabaRay Nashville, is syndicated on local PBS stations across the country. The current station that handles the distribution of the series is WCTE. The weekly series is in a hiatus, as of this writing, but to date there have been 78 half hour episodes produced as well as a one hour special which often airs during annual PBS pledge breaks. I have a DVD of the documentary special from a local PBS station in my area that airs Ray's television show every Saturday night at 8:30pm. The DVD features the documentary, narrated by Bill Cody, in addition there's a lot of behind the scenes bonus footage as well as exclusive performances which didn't make the final cut from some of the special guests. The half hour bonus footage isn't part of the hour long special and can only be seen on the DVD. If your PBS station airs Ray's television series then you should be able to get the DVD through them as a donation gift or you can at least inquire about it's availability. It isn't sold on Ray's website and you won't be able to find it in any mass merchant on-line store. The webpage for a local PBS station in Nashville, WNPT, currently has this DVD special listed on their site as a donation gift. 

There is a phone number listed at the bottom of the WNPT product page for the DVD you see off to the left. Call that number to see if this DVD is actually still available as a gift. It's been a couple of years since it was released and I don't know if their gift donation page is updated...it should be accurate but call just in case. If it's still available you can pay a one-time donation or you can spread it out over a period of months. You can find all that information, including a phone number to call for more details, by clicking HERE. I don't have the time to look up the local PBS stations carrying his show because they're scattered throughout the country but I lucked out at finding the DVD listed in the Gift section of WNPT's website. It's a fascinating documentary. Although long time fans such as myself perhaps weren't being told anything revealing or new the presentation is spectacular and the footage is a must for all fans of Ray Stevens. The reverent style of Bill Cody's narration is also a plus. I don't mention that PBS television special too much in my blog entries given the obscure and exclusive nature surrounding it...but I decided to make mention of it in this blog entry just in case there are people who do not know that it exists. In the meantime don't forget to click the link at the top of this blog entry to read the press release of the Ray Stevens concert on March 24th for WCTE.

Ray Stevens: 45 at 55...

1964

Although this novelty single from Ray Stevens was released in July of 1964 we're still in it's 55th year...it'll reach 56 in July 2020. As mentioned the novelty single was released in the summer of 1964. Now, if you know your pop music history, this is the year that the British Invasion took place. It had begun in February 1964 when British band, The Beatles, arrived in New York City. Afterward their presence in America's music scene was immediately felt and it led to dozens of British acts making their way to America to appear on television programs and tour the country...some British acts preferred to just release music to the American market rather than travel overseas. The term 'invasion' was accurate because almost overnight America's Hot 100 pop chart seen a dramatic increase of single releases from British singers and bands in the wake of The Beatles hitting America. This isn't to say that American pop music artists and bands were pushed out of the spotlight and weren't selling records...but the ratio of British acts to American acts on the Billboard Hot 100 shown the British acts dominating the radio-driven Top-40 portion of the Hot 100. Ray Stevens continued on his distinctive music path before, during, and after the British Invasion. So, in the early months of the invasion, in July 1964, Mercury Records issued a new novelty single on Ray Stevens titled "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer". The song takes place in what you'd consider to be a strip club...the lyrics say that it's tucked away in an alley...an establishment known as the Blue Rendezvous. There happens to be an exotic bubble dancer named Bubble Gum who's described as the star attraction inside this club. The song, in my opinion, isn't necessarily a novelty/comedy recording...it has a bluesy rhythm musically but because it didn't adhere to the 'norms' of what disc jockeys and music critics of the era considered mainstream it was classified as a novelty record.



In January 1965 Mercury Records issued "The Rockin' Teenage Mummies" and it turned 55 last month. The month of January seemed to fly by and I didn't make note of the single's anniversary and so I'm going to embed a video clip of that novelty song, too. It was the next to last single release on Ray by Mercury Records. He had been working for Monument Records since the latter half of 1963 as a session musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer for other artists but his vocal recordings were handled by Mercury Records through 1965. It was one of the most unusual contracts, perhaps, in all music history. "The Rockin' Teenage Mummies" was followed by "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" in May 1965...a little more on that single in a couple of months...but I'm closing this blog entry with the uptempo, rousing "Rockin' Teenage Mummies"...

Ray Stevens: March 24th WCTE Dinner, second Blog entry...

Ray Stevens at the CabaRay

Hello once more...as several of my recent blog entries will clearly show I'm also writing this one based upon something I came across on the internet. Several blogs ago I wrote about an upcoming dinner that Ray Stevens will be performing at this year. The performance is scheduled for March 24th and it's going to take place in Cookeville, Tennessee at the Leslie Town Center. The performance is part of an annual dinner hosted by WCTE, a local PBS station, and the distributing station of Ray's syndicated television series, CabaRay Nashville. In my first blog entry surrounding the upcoming WCTE dinner I included three links to websites that provided more detailed information. If you clicked each one and read more detailed information you would've seen information concerning ticket prices. There's since been a link that's emerged on social media that takes you directly to the page detailing ticket prices and I'll be embedding that link in this blog entry. I do this because I know there's a lot of people that do not like to navigate through websites and prefer to click a link and immediately find what they're searching for. Personally I prefer to navigate. If you're familiar with events of this caliber then you'll know that the ticket prices are usually not in the price range of the average concert goer. The link I'll be providing offers a breakdown of the ticket prices and the quantity of tickets remaining for purchase. I don't know when the page was last updated so it never hurts to call the venue. There's a link contained within the link I'll be sharing...it's a link that I've shared previously. Once you click HERE you'll see a page open up with Ray at the piano inside the CabaRay. When you look below that photo you'll see the logo for WCTE television and a link to their Annual Dinner webpage. If you click that link it'll take you to a site with contact information (phone numbers, etc.).

There are three sets of ticket prices. Based upon when the page was last updated the VIP Tickets show only 4 remaining. Those tickets not only include a concert but also a Meet and Greet. A second set of tickets are called Table Sponsor and there are 23 of those remaining. The third set of tickets are Individual Tickets. This set are the tickets that are likely going to be purchased by the general public and are the cheapest by comparison. The VIP and Sponsor level tickets are often referred to as Corporate and therefore are priced higher. It doesn't mean you'll get better seats by purchasing the higher priced tickets...it just means you'll have a few extra incentives added that a general audience doesn't receive. The Individual set of tickets guarantee a dinner and the Ray Stevens concert. This information is also available in the link I provided above. The link is a ticket ordering site and so if you plan on attending the event there's a blank order form below the advertisement. When you open the link there will be several messages from the site that pop up in the lower left hand side of the screen detailing who's purchased tickets as well as an alert to how many tickets have been purchased within a specific time frame. If even more specific information comes along between now and March 24th I'll blog about it of course!

Ray Stevens in Renfro Valley this Summer...

This is super early to promote an upcoming appearance from Ray Stevens considering it's February 4th and the concert isn't going to take place until late June of this year...a lot of things can happen between now and then...but according to the Headliner Concert page on Renfro Valley's webpage the one and only Ray Stevens is scheduled to make an appearance in Renfro Valley, Kentucky on June 21st at 5pm. This is Father's Day...and I've read many social media posts from a lot of younger people and middle aged people who often comment that Ray Stevens is their father's favorite or that they're a father and Ray is one of their favorite entertainers. Well, since Ray is scheduled to appear in Renfro Valley on Father's Day you could perhaps take your father to a Ray Stevens concert...or just go to the concert regardless of it being Father's Day. This is the first concert appearance for Ray outside an occasional guest appearance on the Opry since the opening of his CabaRay showroom in 2018. He doesn't go on tours due to his performance schedule at the CabaRay and even though we're months away from the concert in Renfro Valley the tickets, not yet priced, go on sale next month.

Renfro Valley concert; June 21, 2020

The advertisement banner states that the tickets go on sale March 19th but there's a website that sells concert tickets to various performance venues and they have the on-sale date as March 18th. So, if I were you, I'd call the Renfro Valley phone number and see which date the tickets go on sale. It's important to order tickets the day they go on sale, or to at least have a strong couple of days, for several reasons. The main reason is that ordering early enables you to have a wide variety of seats to choose from...the closer it gets to concert day the less likely the 'good seats' are available. The other reason I feel it's important to have a strong showing on the day tickets go on sale is because it shows the owner of the venue that there's a demand for his appearance. I don't think Renfro Valley's concert policies are like this but some venues, if ticket sales don't meet a predetermined quantity within a targeted time frame, the concert will eventually be canceled usually a month or two before it's schedule date and more often than not this quick rush to cancel typically happens before a general public even becomes aware that a concert had been scheduled.

This isn't anything new...that kind of practice has gone on for decades with any recording artist...but it's something that isn't talked about much because of the awkwardness it creates for a venue's owner and the headlining performer; but again, I don't think the Renfro Valley policy is like that. If you're seriously planning on going to Ray's June 21st concert call their number on March 18th/March 19th to receive more information. Their number can be found on their Contact page which you can access HERE. By the time early March rolls around there should be a ticket price available. He's the only artist on Renfro's Headliner Concert 2020 roster that doesn't have ticket information posted. I'll post more about this appearance later this year as it gets closer to June 21st. In the meantime most of my posts surrounding concerts from Ray Stevens will be tied to his CabaRay. The third season of concerts gets underway on March 12th and tickets are on sale now. I'll post more blog entries about this as February fades into March.

Ray Stevens: 45 at 59...

If you've been a fan of Ray Stevens for a lengthy time or if you've read various blog entries that I've written over the years then you should be aware that I like to cover all periods of Ray's career. Some websites prefer only to bring up specific recordings but not here...I'm likely to write blog entries about any number of his recordings. In my previous blog entry from about an hour ago I was writing about a new song he performed at his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville, Tennessee. In this blog entry I'm traveling back 59 years to 1961. If you're something of a Ray Stevens fanatic as I am then 1961 may have you thinking about "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". It's an obvious assumption given that it's the single that put Ray Stevens into the Hot 100 pop singles chart for the very first time that year. However, in this case, I'm referring to a single that was released in October of 1961. "Scratch My Back", the A-side, is an uptempo sing-a-long and whimsical but the B-side is what I'm focusing on...his bluesy rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star".

The B-side has long been associated with the Walt Disney company and I like how it was originally performed by Jiminy Cricket's voice actor, Cliff Edwards. The original, or most well known version, is vocally performed as a slow ballad with a large orchestration accompaniment. In Ray's version, which you'll hear below, it's in the tradition of classic rhythm and blues...in my opinion. I don't dissect music styles to the extent that some out there happen to do but when I hear Ray's version of "When You Wish Upon a Star" I get in my mind that classic bluesy sound which Ray began falling in love with in his teenage years according to all biographies as well as his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. As a word of caution I'll alert you all to the fact that Ray's recording leaves out several verses heard in the original and so if you're expecting to hear all the verses then you may be a tad bit disappointed. Ray's rendition is decidedly more urgent with a lot of bluesy overtones...in most cases he keeps the original melody in spite of it's different execution in musical style. The video clip on YouTube uses an image of the single release in Australia. The recording, as of this writing, has never appeared on any compilation album released on Ray Stevens or any studio album released by Ray Stevens. It has remained a B-side exclusive to this day. There have been various audio clips, one of those that you'll hear below, have been available on YouTube on and off for years and that's been the only exposure for the obscure Ray Stevens recording. The video embed below is the most recent audio upload of this rare recording.



I came across a blog entry on a website called Medium. I have pasted links to that website before in this blog. There's an author over there that's written several articles about Ray Stevens and at one time interviewed me. This time around it's another author and it's an article from March 2018. I knew the article existed but I'd never posted a link to it, as far as I know, but I'm correcting that now. The article is a dissection, from the author's point of view, of the 1970 Ray Stevens single "Everything is Beautiful". You can read that article HERE. Feel free to leave a comment, as I did, and give the article a hand clap rating to show you appreciate positive articles centering around Ray Stevens and his music. The usual author whose writings I've shared before on this blog page has updated some of his previous articles. One of those is an article written titled 'Streakin' Through the hits with witty wordsmith Ray Stevens' from December 13, 2016. In the introduction he edited in a reference to Ray's 2019 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame...but at the time of the interview with Ray there was no indication or hint in sight that three years later Ray would finally be enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame. You can read Ray's interview from December 2016 by clicking HERE. Likewise, feel free to leave a comment and give it a hand clap rating to show you liked the article.