Ray Stevens: 50th Anniversary Mp3 of "Everything is Beautiful"...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I just finished writing a review over on Amazon of the medley recording of "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand". I didn't copy the text and so I'm unable to paste what I wrote here. The review I wrote for the full version of 2020's "Everything is Beautiful" is still yet to appear on Amazon. I don't know why they're so slow to add customer reviews. In times past whenever I'd publish a customer review over there it would be up and visible for all to see within a matter of hours. So, at the moment, I have two customer reviews that, for now, haven't appeared on Amazon. My previous review that was published was of the Mp3 "Dance Tonight", the duet Ray sang with Jeannie Seely. It eventually appeared in the customer review section...probably more than a week after I wrote it. I don't know about you but I like immediacy...when a song or album is brand new and I write a review of it I want to see it on-line and available for others to read almost immediately. Yes, I can get that immediacy here on this fan created blog but I also want the same immediacy on other websites. 

I wrote a blog entry yesterday when this Mp3 became available. If you follow Ray's career on his social media platforms then you'll know that there is to be a music video released...perhaps next week? As I mentioned in my previous blog entry there isn't a CD available of this single...it's only available as a digital download...but for publicity they created the image you see off to the right. There isn't a publicity photo for the medley version...and this will more than likely lead to some confusion. There should have been two graphics created. The one you see off to the right for the full version of "Everything is Beautiful" and then another graphic for the "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" medley. When you do an Amazon search for Ray Stevens and click 'newest arrivals' on the drop down menu the search results will begin with three separate products at the top of the list with the same graphic you see of Ray. One of those products is the full version of "Everything is Beautiful", another is the "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" medley, and then there's a third product where, if you click the image link, it'll reveal a page showing purchase options to purchase both the full version of the song and the medley. On that particular product page it's listed as an Mp3 album ($1.99) whereas the other two are listed as individual Mp3 songs ($1.29 each). So, then, if it were to ever appear as a CD single the first song would be considered the 'A' side and the second song would be considered the 'B' side and it would appear like this in a singles discography: "Everything is Beautiful" / Medley: "Everything is Beautiful - United We Stand". The full version of the song as well as the medley are $1.29 each. You can purchase each song separately on Amazon or you can purchase them together for $1.99 and here are the three separate links: 50th MEDLEY, 50th FULL VERSION, and 50th BOTH SONGS. It's a cost saving deal. If you purchase each song individually it's a combined total of $2.58 but if you purchase both songs together at checkout it's $1.99. 

Ray Stevens: "Everything is Beautiful" at 50...a timeless classic...

Well, here we are, this is the big release day of the "Everything is Beautiful" 50th anniversary single. The song became available at 12 midnight on Amazon and I purchased it right away. I didn't write an official review of the song at that time because of a time zone difference, I assume. Here where I'm at we're in east coast time whereas Amazon's headquarters are in west coast time. So, as far as I know, Amazon wasn't letting anyone post customer reviews until it reached midnight on the west (3am here). Anyway, earlier today I wrote a customer review on Amazon and I'm waiting for it to get published. I'm writing a review here, too, as I always do whenever something new is released by Ray Stevens.

The single release is available as an Mp3 but record companies still issue photos for publicity purposes. If it were being issued on CD that's what the cover would look like. The song has a different arrangement throughout although it retains the familiar melody all of us are familiar with. The opening to the 1970 original began with a children's choir singing 'Jesus Loves the Little Children' but in this 2020 rendition Ray delivers a narration where he makes reference to contemporary society and the various divisions within the country. In the narration prior to the start of the song he makes note of how some are so extreme in their points of view that it's created division and how the assault on the country's history/founding is helping to divide the country further. I loved the new introduction and the arrangement. It isn't a carbon copy of the 1970 original (which may upset some people) and because of that fact it comes off like a new song. Ray closes out the song with another spoken message to the listeners. This message has accompanied the publicity stories surrounding this release that have appeared on several on-line sites. It's the message cited in those write-up's where Ray is quoted as saying that he recorded the song originally fifty years ago and that we've come a long way but still have miles yet to go. Overall the single is fabulous and the main reason why (aside from it being a recording from Ray Stevens) is because it isn't a carbon copy of the 1970 original. It's a reworking of "Everything is Beautiful" to coincide with 2020. Curb Records issued this special 50th anniversary single. The company also issued a medley single where Ray combines "Everything is Beautiful" with "United We Stand". Those of you who want to purchase the Mp3 singles over on Amazon you need to click the following links: 50th SINGLE or if you want to purchase the medley click: 50th MEDLEY.

Ray Stevens: The Boots Randolph Project...

It's me once more!! The re-release of the 1990 Boots Randolph album, Boots, is now available at the Ray Stevens on-line store. It became available a couple of days ago on October 27th. It's being sold in CD format. The original release in 1990 was sold over television...and I've posted the commercial in previous blog entries. There's the original commercial from 1990 that I shared and then a new commercial (featuring video footage from 1990) was uploaded onto Ray's YouTube channel last month. This new commercial features a voice-over from Ray detailing the re-release of Boots and the inclusion of three additional recordings not part of the original release in 1990. The re-release features 23 saxophone recordings. You can order your CD when you click HERE. In the video embed below Ray Stevens and Boots Randolph, from early 1990, discuss the release of the original Boots album on Nashville Now, hosted by Ralph Emery. The 2020 re-release of Boots with the three additional recordings is in recognition of it's 30th anniversary.

The saxophone legend passed away in 2007, a month after turning 80 (June 3, 1927 - July 3, 2007). Boots, in addition to his own career, played saxophone on a lot of recording sessions...he was also the owner and primary performer of a nightclub in Nashville on Printers Alley for 17 years (1977-1994). He was also something of a resident musician at a jazz music nightclub called The Carousel, a club he would eventually purchase...it sat right across the street from his own, main club on Printers Alley. Ray makes mention of Boots and of this nightclub in the 1973 recording of "Nashville". Boots recorded a saxophone version of The Coasters hit, "Yakety Yak", titled "Yakety Sax". Chet Atkins also recorded an acoustic guitar version and titled it "Yakety Axe". The guitar being made of wood inspired him to use the word, axe, in the title. The saxophone recording from Boots Randolph became internationally famous as chase music in the British comedy programs of Benny Hill. In the television series, Hee Haw, there was a recurring segment featuring a group of musicians billed as The Million Dollar Band. The band would appear on a recurring basis for over 10 years. The core members of the band were: Boots Randolph, Danny Davis, Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Charlie McCoy, Jethro Burns, and Roy Clark. Here is the YouTube video clip, uploaded last month, promoting the October 2020 re-release of Boots...

Ray Stevens: New Contract with Curb Records...

Well, hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! As the title of this blog entry makes mention of Ray Stevens is once again signed with Curb Records. This label goes back into the history of Ray's career to 1990. It was in 1990 when Ray was first signed to Curb Records and this year, 2020, obviously marking 30 years since he first recorded for them, and, it's been the label upon which he's returned multiple times throughout the years. A lot of the return engagements with Curb Records after 1996 were mostly taken up with DVD releases of his animated music videos. He recorded three studio albums for Curb Records, initially, in the years of 1990, 1991, and 1993. When Ray was releasing VHS tapes in the same period of time on his own Clyde Records label through direct marketing the retail in-store distribution was handled by Curb Records. In addition to the studio albums and VHS releases Curb also issued three compilation projects on Ray during the years of 1990, 1991, and 1996. An audio track of his 1993 VHS release was issued on cassette and CD in 1995. An overview of most of his recordings for Curb Records was issued in 1995. I'd written several blog entries in the past, available in the archives, of Ray's years on Curb Records. When he joined the label in 1990 it was in partnership with Capitol Records, too. The first two studio albums from Ray after he joined Curb were officially under the Curb/Capitol label. Ray's early to mid 1990s era was filled with a whole lot of activity...not necessarily with audio recordings, though. In 1991 he opened up a theater in Branson, Missouri and it became one of the biggest hits of the town. He began making music videos and releasing VHS tapes of video content in this time period. You'll see the specific VHS and later, DVD, titles that Ray released through Curb Records. The VHS tapes were distributed by Curb Records following a year and a half direct marketing campaign under Ray's own label. Comedy Video Classics, issued on Clyde Records in 1992, was distributed by Curb Records in 1993, for example. Here's a look at the studio albums, compilation albums, and VHS tapes that Curb Records has issued on Ray Stevens since 1990. I'm not going to include studio albums that Curb later re-issued. He's had a lot of products released through Curb Records! Here we go: 

His All Time Greatest Comic Hits; 1990 (Gold album)

Lend Me Your Ears; 1990

Number One With a Bullet; 1991

Greatest Hits; 1991

Comedy Video Classics; 1993 VHS (Triple-Platinum; retail distribution)

Classic Ray Stevens; 1993 (studio album of new recordings; title refers to the cover art)

Ray Stevens Live!; 1994 VHS (Double-Platinum; retail distribution)

20 Comedy Hits; 1995

Ray Stevens Live!; 1995 (audio track of the 1993 home video)

Great Gospel Songs; 1996

Osama Yo' Mama; 2002

The Complete Comedy Video Collection; 2004 DVD

The New Battle of New Orleans; 2005 (CD single)

Box Set; 2006

Gourmet Restaurant; 2006 DVD

Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens; 2006 DVD

Greatest Hits; 2008

Everything is Beautiful; 2020 (On-line single)

This brings us to the last product on that list...the upcoming 50th anniversary single release of "Everything is Beautiful". The original recording hit in 1970 on Barnaby Records. There will also be a further release featuring a medley of "Everything is Beautiful" and "United We Stand" but I didn't list it because there's not been a time frame issued on it's release date. In an article published by Music Row magazine it suggests that there will be further projects by Ray on Curb Records. This 50th anniversary single is just the first project Curb is releasing. The single will be released on October 30th...next Friday. I'm eagerly anticipating what further projects will be coming down the line from Ray Stevens while on Curb Records. You can click the link and read the Music Row article by clicking HERE. 

Ray Stevens: Hilarious Halloween...

It's something of a tradition to write a Ray Stevens blog entry with a Halloween theme. Ray has recorded a few songs that either tie into Halloween or he's recorded songs whose titles fit the occasion. If we go back to 1964 there's a novelty song on the B-side of "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer" called "Laughing Over My Grave". The single was issued by Mercury Records. The A-side or B-side of this single wasn't part of any Ray Stevens album in the early '60s. The A-side began showing up on compilation albums released by Mercury Records and their subsidiary labels in the late '60s. The B-side was never issued on any future album until a Halloween themed various artists collection came along many decades later. If you search Amazon's digital music department you won't find "Laughing Over My Grave" available as an Mp3 anymore. That Halloween various artists compilation isn't available for purchase anymore. Ray uploaded an audio of the song on YouTube last year. 

In the earlier recordings from Ray Stevens he did what I'd call textbook novelty songs. As time has passed a lot of music historians and listeners, in general, have labeled any song with a comical overtone as 'novelty' but in reality that label applies to certain types of songs. A song based on a current trend or a fad is described as a novelty song because the subject matter is tied to something that's seen as a novelty (something unusual)...it doesn't mean a novelty song is automatically going to be laugh out loud comical. Anyway, "Laughing Over My Grave" would be considered something of a novelty record even though it's not humorous when you listen to it. The laughing that you hear is jarring but it's also comical. 

The 1964 recording was produced by Shelby Singleton as you can see on the image in the video embed. Ray wrote the song and he also wrote the A-side, "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer". At the time of this single's release Ray was signed to Monument Records as a music arranger and session musician while Mercury Records continued to control the release of his audio recordings. In 1965 Ray released two Halloween style novelty records on Mercury Records: "Rockin' Teenage Mummies" and "Mr. Baker the Undertaker".

As you can see this novelty record was produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. Ray, to date, hasn't uploaded an audio clip of "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" and so I uploaded an audio clip of the song by some other YouTube member. It's audio is top quality as if it's been digitally remastered but I haven't seen any CD or Mp3 of this recording...so I don't know how the audio got cleaned up without much vinyl scratches or hissing detected. In the meantime "The Rockin' Teenage Mummies" was uploaded onto the Ray Stevens YouTube channel last year, too. This particular novelty revisits the Arabic theme and cadence of "Ahab the Arab" but this time around Ray tells us about a rock group, The Mummies, who wear band-aids instead of cloth rags...and one member of the group moans in displeasure when the screaming girls trying to rip the band-aids off. 'Ouch!!!!'. 

Now then...those early/mid '60s Halloween style novelty records were peculiar and off-the-wall. Ray and Buddy Kalb came up with what might be the quintessential Halloween novelty in 1988. If given a fair hearing it could rival "Monster Mash" and "Monster's Holiday". In 1988 Ray recorded "The Booger Man"...within the lyrics of the song Ray name drops a series of famous monsters and ghoulish creatures. By song's end we're informed that a man and a woman are out on a date. They're sitting inside a car...parked in the woods...and the man warns his girlfriend that "The Booger Man" may be out there and so she better slide even closer for protection against the creature. The song, as you'll hear, has a heavy harmonica presence and Ray vocally delivers the song in a bluesy rendition. Watch out...the Booger Man's gonna get'cha! 

Ray Stevens: Gene Watson CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello once again!! After posting my previous blog entry I noticed that I didn't start off that blog with a greeting of any kind. This past week (October 11th) was the 77th birthday of the legendary country music singer, Gene Watson. If you follow Gene's career you'll know that he still records and before the pandemic came along he was still actively touring all over the country. In his career he's had 48 chart hits between the years 1975 and 1997. He had a little bit of difficulty getting his records on the radio for a brief period of time in the mid 1980s but he managed to rack up additional Top-40 country hits throughout the remainder of the '80s...with occasionally some of them reaching the Top-10...but the bulk of his biggest hits were within a 10 year period, 1975-1985. 

He would have one more Top-10 hit after 1985, "Don't Waste It on The Blues", in 1988. That was his 20th and final Top-10 single. He reached number one just once on the U.S. Billboard Country chart with a single titled "Fourteen Carat Mind" in 1981. He had reached number one for the first time on Canada's Country chart in 1977 with "Paper Rosie", a single that hit the Top-5 here in the U.S. 

The hit that's considered his signature song, "Farewell Party", peaked in the Top-5 in 1979. A lot of people mistakenly think it hit number one. Gene guest starred on the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television series and performed two songs. In this video clip it contains Ray interviewing Gene and a performance of "Farewell Party". That song's been recorded by a wide variety of entertainers: Little Jimmy Dickens, Johnny Bush, Waylon Jennings...just to name a few. Gene, if you didn't already know, is a huge fan of the late country music legend, George Jones. One of Ray's background vocalists, Sheri Copeland, shares a past with both George Jones and Gene Watson. In this clip you'll see Sheri and Gene discussing their past and their friendship with George. 

Gene prefers to remain true to the honky-tonk sounds in country music and to remain a traditionalist...some of his solid country recordings in the latter half of the 1980s clashed with the slicker sounds heard on 'New Country' radio stations...which explain why so many of his singles were hitting but yet were peaking in the lower rungs of the chart. If he'd only had airplay support at the time a lot of those singles that peaked outside the Top-10 would've no doubt been strong Top-10 performers and more widely known. The 1990s, however, were a different story for almost everyone in the country music business who had their professional debuts 20 to 30 years earlier. He's become involved with country gospel music in a really big way. He unexpectedly hit number one in the latter half of 2016 with a gospel flavored single from the pen of Larry Gatlin, "Help Me". He hit the top of the Cashbox Christian Country chart. He then issued a CD titled My Gospel Roots in 2017. One of the single releases, "Old Roman Soldier", became another chart topping hit in 2018...reaching number one on the Cashbox Country Christian chart. Cashbox is only available as a digital trade publication. Gene followed that single with another number one hit on Cashbox's Country Christian chart: "Build My Mansion Next Door to Jesus". On receiving the news it's reported that he remarked "I'd never, ever hit number one three times in a row in my entire career!!". Gene became a member of the Grand Ole Opry this year. Now that I've written a lot about Gene Watson...here he is on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville... 

Ray Stevens: Hee Haw performance of "You've Got the Music Inside"...

Among the several YouTube video clips from Ray Stevens that have arrived over the last several days I'm selecting the 1980 Hee Haw performance of "You've Got the Music Inside". Ray wrote this song and it originally appeared on his 1973 album, Nashville, as a slow ballad. He re-recorded the song in 1978 for his Be Your Own Best Friend album and he gave the song different instrumentation and a slightly different melody...his vocalization had also changed dramatically over the period of time between 1973 and 1978. 

I think his vocals began to shift at some point during the recording of his 1975 Misty album and the release of his 1976 album, Just For the Record. He gave the 1978 recording of "You've Got the Music Inside" a softer vocal delivery. I think he may have deliberately recorded it softer...several other songs on that album carry the soft vocal touch: "With a Smile", "Daydream Romance", and the ultra-soft vocalization heard on "You're Magic". That particular 1978 album had some soft vocalization but it didn't carry over onto his other 1978 album, There Is Something on Your Mind, a very eclectic album where Ray sings his favorite classic rhythm and blues songs. In Ray's television appearances in the late '70s and early '80s, whenever he'd perform "You've Got the Music Inside" it was never like the 1973 or 1978 recordings. In these performances he completely re-arranged the opening to a hand-clapping sing-a-long of the verses and the chorus. Then, as you'll see and hear, he slows down the music to how it sounded on his 1973 recording...and he sings part of the song as a ballad, briefly, before kicking up the tempo once again. He performed this arrangement of the song on an early '80s episode of Pop! Goes the Country and that arrangement accompanies him in this 1980 performance on Hee Haw. The link takes you to a video found on Ray's Facebook video page. The YouTube video I originally pasted in this blog entry became unavailable because the YouTube user's page was removed/deleted. I think I used a couple of other videos of Ray Stevens from Hee Haw from that YouTube channel, too, in some earlier blog entries.

Ray Stevens: "Grandpa Voted Democrat" hits 2.7 million unique views...

It's me once again and I decided to take a look, once more, at the Ray Stevens music video "Grandpa Voted Democrat". As you could probably guess with this being election season the music video has had a resurgence of on-line sharing and discovery. The video made it's debut on November 3, 2012 and it had a massive response not only on that day but in the days and weeks after the 2012 election cycle came and went. The issue of integrity in the 2020 elections became an issue when a lot of States, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, decided that this election cycle voters in States that have never dealt with mail-in voting, would receive ballots in the mail and for them to fill the ballots out and then mail them back. Mail-in voting had become something of a routine thing in a few States. Early voting is going on as I type this. Some, like myself, prefer to wait until Election Day to cast my vote. We're three weeks away from Election Day. 

The decision by some States to mail out ballots by the millions has obviously alarmed a lot of people who feel there's too much potential for fraud and abuse when ballots are being mailed out to voters...in some cases to people no longer living or being mailed to addresses of voters who no longer live at that location. I may have referenced this in a blog entry from August of this year but a relative of mine recently received voter correspondence for someone in the family who recently passed away. The relative that passed away was living at the same address as the caretaker...but the local office hadn't deleted the relative from the voter registration records. 

We've all heard stories of local fraud and abuse taking place with ballots...and the argument from Democrats is always the same: "it's isolated...it doesn't represent the country as a whole...". Well, in a national election where millions of mail-in ballots have been sent out, the potential for larger widespread ballot abuse should be something that we keep in the forefront and not let it become lost among the chaos and confusion that's bound to show up in three weeks time. The rush to push mail-in voting when it was not necessary deliberately set the stage for chaos and confusion. COVID-19 is simply a convenient scapegoat. 

"Grandpa Voted Democrat", back on August 17, was sitting with 2,511,520 unique views. When I looked at the numbers a couple of minutes ago the unique view count had risen to 2,713,458. This is a pickup of 201,938 unique views in a little more less than 2 months time! I'm hoping there will be no voter fraud, abuse, or integrity issues but it's difficult to say there won't be with this year's election cycle consisting of so much mail-in ballots in the postal system. I'm hoping with so much attention focused on fighting the potential for fraud and abuse that it causes those who are thinking about disrupting the 2020 elections to think twice. 

Ray Stevens: Leroy Van Dyke CabaRay Nashville Performance...

Oh here I am with my second blog entry in a row! We've now ventured into October 11th here...and in this blog entry I'll be embedding an interview and performance from Leroy Van Dyke on the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television series. If you're very familiar with country music...classic country music...and you recall hearing a particular song filled with a lot of auctioneer calling then you were hearing a phenomenal recording called "The Auctioneer" by Leroy Van Dyke. This talent made him memorable and, as a result, in addition to his recording career he would entertain audiences with his auction chants whenever he appeared on country music television shows of the era. One of the television shows that Leroy was a regular on happened to be the Ozark Jubilee and he hosted his own self-titled television series in 1965. The auctioneer talent ran in the family and his cousin, Ray Sims, is a member of the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame. He and his cousin starred in a 1967 movie titled What Am I Bid?. 

Now, even though I've opened up the blog entry writing about "The Auctioneer", the song Leroy performs on Ray's television show is "Walk on By". This particular recording, as Leroy mentions, wasn't all that great when he first heard the demo recording. The record producer happened to be Shelby Singleton...and so Ray and Leroy speak of their mutual friendship with the late record producer. "Walk on By" was released in 1961 on Mercury Records. As you can tell, if you know your Ray Stevens history, both Ray and Leroy were labelmates in the early '60s as Ray was also a Mercury Records artist at the time. "The Auctioneer" happened to be a big hit but "Walk on By" out performed "The Auctioneer". "Walk on By" was another cross-over pop hit...but in country music the single hit number one and stayed there for 19 weeks!! Those two records remain his biggest hits but being the showman that he is and with his phenomenal auctioneer vocal acrobatics he's entertained hundreds of thousands of people for many decades. 

One of the various highlights of his entertainment career was his lengthy run as a co-host of the radio and television series, Country Crossroads. Bill Mack began the series and Leroy Van Dyke was the co-host and eventually they were joined by Jerry Clower, in 1973. Leroy eventually retired from the series after 10 years but Bill and Jerry continued recording episodes of the series for another 20+ years. According to several websites the series began in October 1969...and so that means Leroy's 10 year run with the series wrapped up in 1979 or perhaps sometime prior to October in 1980. This series isn't discussed in this video clip but I thought I'd make mention of it nevertheless.

Ray Stevens: Tanya Tucker CabaRay Nashville Performance...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I'm going to be making up for lost time with several new blog entries beginning with this one. I'd been keeping up with Ray's on-line activity but I hadn't written a blog entry for several days...as I'm sure you've noticed. In this blog entry I'm embedding a video of Tanya Tucker on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. Today is her birthday. In the clip she performs "Strong Enough to Bend"...one of the massive hit recordings she had during what is known as her comeback in the mid '80s. The song was written by Don Schlitz and Beth Nielsen Chapman and it hit in 1988...reaching number one (her ninth solo chart topper). Tanya's comeback began in 1986, following a three year hiatus, and from 1986 until 1997 she inarguably had much more commercial impact than she did during the first half of her career when she debuted, as a teenager, with "Delta Dawn", which hit the Top-10 in 1973. 

   

Ray Stevens: Re-opened CabaRay shuts back down...

Hello all once again!! The news broke around 6pm Tuesday evening that the CabaRay showroom is shutting back down, temporarily, once again. The showroom re-opened on October 1st and it held two concerts there (October 1st and October 3rd) and so the news of it shutting down, again, comes as something of a surprise. In some of my September blog entries I promoted the showroom re-opening in October and provided imagery of the concert calendar...with concert dates filled out for the rest of the year. The showroom opened for it's third season in March and almost immediately shut down after it's opening weekend...and 7 months later, in October, it re-opened but it's shutting down after opening weekend. History repeats itself, yes, but I never thought it would repeat itself in one calendar year. 

Anyway, the message left on the CabaRay social media site left November and December open to perhaps returning to a normal CabaRay experience. The reason for the showroom shutting down, it's explained, is that with all of the COVID-19 restrictions, which they report they're following to the letter, it interferes with their ability to put on a quality show that will be fun and or memorable for the audience. So, if you go by their wording, they're closing down due to the restrictions interfering with the execution of the CabaRay experience (the dinner, the concert, the socializing in the piano bar, the dancing, etc.). In other words the experience of visiting the showroom is being hampered by the COVID-19 restrictions and they'd rather open up with no Government and health department mandated restrictions in place. 

In the social media message Ray remarked that until they're given permission that they're allowed to return to the regular rules of operation the remaining October concerts are canceled...and in late October an announcement will be made about November.    

Ray Stevens: Don McLean sings "Lucky Guy" on CabaRay Nashville...

It's me once again!! In this second blog entry of October 4th I am discussing Ray Stevens and Don McLean. If I'm not mistaken I published a blog entry awhile ago featuring Don's performance of his biggest hit, "American Pie", from this episode of CabaRay Nashville. I'd have to search the archives but I'm pretty sure I uploaded it in blog's past. 

In the photo off to the left we see Don McLean being interviewed by Ray Stevens. Well, it's more like chit chat as Ray asks Don to tell the audience what's being performed. Don remarks in the video embed that it's a song from his current album, Botanical Gardens. This album hit in 2018 which is right around the time this episode of CabaRay Nashville was taped. The song Don performs is called "Lucky Guy". The interview portion of Ray's PBS CabaRay Nashville series features the guest star seated on the other side of Ray's red piano. Ray sits at the piano and conducts his interviews. A typical episode will feature Ray either introducing the guest to the television viewer or introducing the guest's first performance. The guest usually doesn't walk out from backstage on camera...the guest is already seated beside the piano or standing in the performance area. Now, depending on the execution of an episode, the guest will either do their interview segment first and then perform or they'll sing first and do a brief interview second...followed by their second song. Most episodes feature the guest being interviewed first and then they sing their first song. A guest's first performance is typically followed by one of the recurring features...either a classic music video from Ray is played or sketches from his various video projects are played...followed by the second song from the guest. Ray opens and closes the show with a song. Here's Ray and Don McLean...and the performance of "Lucky Guy"...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Poison Ivy"...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! In this blog entry I'm embedding one of the recent uploads on Ray's YouTube channel. The upload is an audio track of his recording of "Poison Ivy"...Ray recorded the song during sessions for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. This box set was released in February of 2012 and so the recording could have taken place anywhere during the latter half of 2009 on into the midway point of 2011. In a lot of Ray's interviews in the first half of 2012 he mentioned that he worked on the box set for two years and so I'd say he began recording the songs at some point late 2009 and all through 2010 and 2011...which if I'm accurate on the time line it obviously means that the box set was being put together simultaneously while he was being discovered by a whole host of people on-line through his politically charged YouTube music videos. In 2010 and 2011 he issued two politically themed CDs: We The People and Spirit of '76. When you see Ray speaking in interviews or read any of the interviews and he makes mention that he's constantly working...it isn't an exaggeration...he's ALWAYS working/recording even if the music won't be publicly heard for several years time. In more recent interviews he's remarked that he has an entire backlog of recordings just waiting to get released...and he'll be in charge of the timing and planning of what music gets unleashed first...and we can't wait. 

The Coasters are one of Ray's all-time favorite music groups...read any professional biography in an assortment of CD liner notes or inside magazines and you're likely to see The Coasters listed as one of his primary influences. Ray had already shown his love of the group in 1969 when he recorded "Along Came Jones", "Little Egypt", and "Yakety Yak". The Coasters were contemporaries of Ray Stevens...they weren't a group that he grew up hearing on the radio...but Ray nevertheless loved their music and it's interesting to point out that when Ray issued his first single in 1957, "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", he was doing his vocal impression of Coasters lead singer, Billy Guy, but that's just my opinion. Ray has never officially stated that he was doing an impression...but I happen to think he was. "Poison Ivy", for The Coasters, was a gigantic hit for them in 1959. It was their third hit...following "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones". By the way, Ray recorded a version of "Charlie Brown", "Searchin'", and other Coasters songs for 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Historians say that while The Coasters were huge with rhythm and blues fans and their music was all over rhythm and blues radio stations, "Poison Ivy" put them into what historians call 'the mainstream' which I take it was their way of saying until "Poison Ivy" came along The Coasters weren't known outside of the rhythm and blues audience. 

Ray overdubs his own voice to make it sound like it's a group singing "Poison Ivy". It's a great rendition in my biased opinion. Here is Ray's audio recording of that song...

Ray Stevens sings "Witchcraft"...

Hello all...it's me once again!! Naturally I'm going to begin this blog entry wondering about the CabaRay re-opening last night. I hadn't seen anything on social media sites from last night...but I'll do some more in-depth looking around later. Ray Stevens released a salute to Frank Sinatra CD back in 2008 called Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. It was released through his own label, Clyde Records, originally in June 2008 and was only available through his webstore. In February 2009 it was distributed to other on-line music stores. It was later picked up by Curb Records and released both as a CD and as an Mp3. In fact, if you search Amazon for the album and read the product details, it has both the CD and Mp3 credited to Curb Records. I have a review of the CD on Amazon. My review contains two photos of myself showing off the CD. Now, in addition to "High Hopes", "All the Way", "Strangers in the Night", and "I Get a Kick Out of You" Ray also recorded "Witchcraft" for the CD and in this video clip from his television series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, you'll see him performing the song. In the beginning of the clip he mentions the CD that contains the song. 

Ray Stevens sings "Sex Symbols"...

 Hello all once again!! Long time Ray Stevens fans should be very familiar with a 1987 recording called "Sex Symbols". The song was one of Ray's biggest hits during concerts...even bringing it with him onto his set-list during his early 1990s run in Branson, Missouri. I had heard the song on his 1987 comedy album, Crackin' Up, and first seen him perform the song on an episode of Hee Haw. Now, in case you have never heard of the song before, it was inspired by the unlikely duet between Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias on "To All The Girls I've Loved Before". Their duet was a global hit and a million seller in 1984 and it was still racking up airplay in 1985. Well, the visual differences between Willie and Julio were striking, obviously, and not only did the oddity inspire a beloved rendition of the song by Johnny Carson (as Willie) with Julio on an episode of The Tonight Show but it also inspired "Sex Symbols". Ray sings the song with a dummy of Julio...with Ray comically changing his vocals for a broad impression of Julio's distinctive speech pattern. Whenever Ray performed the song in concert or on television he used a click track. He'd have his recording of Julio's voice played back on a device that was mic'd up off-stage while operating the dummy on-stage as if he were the ventriloquist. Ray performed it during his Branson, Missouri concerts of the early 1990s and a couple of days ago a video clip of "Sex Symbols" from 1992 emerged on YouTube...