Ray Stevens: Interview with Eric Dahl on 'Rock and Review'...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens once again! Earlier this morning Ray appeared on Fox17, a local television station in Nashville, Tennessee (WZTV-TV), and gave an interview to Eric Dahl. I became aware of this interview yesterday when Rock and Review host, Eric Dahl, posted on his Facebook page that the interview was going to air today. The same program did a story on Ray a couple of years ago when the CabaRay showroom was housing a Jerry Reed tribute. Video footage of that is on YouTube. This interview this morning was mostly about the albums Ray is releasing this year: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. Eric spoke of how he was humming to himself "Misty" prior to interviewing Ray. 

Ray talked about why he decided to issue these albums and then he said that he's currently working on 4 more albums (!). I made mention of this in my previous blog entry. In this interview he gave more detail and said that in the next series of 4 albums he'll be going way, way, way back to the start of the 1900s. He didn't give any song titles but he said one of the songs he's recorded dates back to 1910. The excitement in his voice continued to ratchet up as he spoke of the first 4 albums and the next 4 albums. Ray also remained in an excited state when speaking of the CabaRay and it's interior. 

He said that the showroom is like a walk through music history. The red leather booths are named after legendary record producers and the walls are lined with photos of many recording artists and personalities that Ray's worked with over the decades. He makes a sobering statement about how most of the people lining the walls have passed away...some recent...and he feels incredibly lucky to continue to be able to make music after all these years. 

This is probably one of the very few interviews conducted of Ray Stevens where there wasn't a lot of time spent on all of his earlier recordings. The interview, as mentioned, centers around the 4 new albums as well as the CabaRay and future projects although he did speak of his 1962 hit, "Ahab the Arab", near the end, when talk centered around Nouveau Retro and the publicity photo of Ray as Father Time and the baby photo of Ray. Although I've provided a brief re-cap nothing beats watching and hearing the actual interview in the video clip above. You'll love it!    

Ray Stevens: Interview on WTVF "Talk of the Town"...

It's me with another fan created Ray Stevens blog entry!! I was looking at the latest online stories/articles using the search word 'ray stevens' and I came across a recently uploaded interview Ray gave to Talk of the Town. The interview centers around the goldmine of new albums Ray's in the middle of releasing. Last month Ray gave us Great Country Ballads; this month he gave us Melancholy Fescue; next month he'll be delivering Slow Dance; and then Nouveau Retro comes along in May. Ray also spoke about working on another massive collection...four additional albums. In the interview Ray makes it sound like he'll be releasing 8 albums this calendar year but I got some clarification and that isn't happening. There will be four albums this year and another four perhaps in early 2022. All four albums this year, as I've been writing about, will eventually appear in a box set this coming June. The actual video isn't on YouTube, yet, so I'm not embedding a video this time around. Instead you'll have to click the WTVF LINK and watch the interview on their webpage. WTVF is Channel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee. When you watch the interview he'll be asked about the CabaRay. The showroom's been a victim of the pandemic but there are several music venues in and around Nashville that have re-opened with limited capacity. I think Ray should have a poll on his social media sites where he asks if he re-opens the CabaRay will people feel safe enough to come out to a concert. I don't think he'll have to take drastic measures and impose any sort of vaccination verification paper prior to the fans entering but something needs to happen to jolt society back to normal. On his CabaRay webpage it shows that it's scheduled to re-open on September 4th. I don't know if that's a set in stone re-opening date or if he'll re-open sooner than that. In a few days it'll be April...I think the showroom should re-open sooner than September...but for now September 4th is the re-opening date. 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Twilight Time"...

On the current Ray Stevens album, the bluegrass flavored Melancholy Fescue, one of the songs that Ray turns completely around is "Twilight Time". If you're a detailed fan of Ray's and are familiar with his 1975 appearance on Pop! Goes the Country then you might already be familiar with the arrangement of "Twilight Time" found on this album. Ray sang the song on that episode with a bluegrass arrangement so it finally makes it's official appearance on a Ray Stevens album. The banjo, steel guitar, and fiddle are all on prominent display in this sing-a-long...The Platters released a version of the song in 1958 and it was a ballad that hit the Hot 100 pop chart as well as the Rhythm and Blues chart. Prior to this the song had been recorded by The Three Suns (1944) as well as Les Brown (1945) but those two renditions were instrumentals...lyrics surfaced later from writer, Buck Ram, and The Platters released their rendition of "Twilight Time" in 1958. Ray Stevens re-arranged the song and can be heard in the audio clip below...from his current Curb Records album, Melancholy Fescue...

As many of you know I wrote a review of this album and posted it here on my blog page several days ago. I copied and pasted the review over on Amazon and it's been added to their product page over there. You can read the review by clicking HERE. The album continues to be among the Top-100 best selling new Digital releases in the Country format on Amazon.

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville "My Babe" group performance...

It's a very windy Sunday afternoon...not as windy as it was a couple of days ago...two weather fronts colliding in the atmosphere. Speaking of colliding...in this performance Ray Stevens is joined by Charlie McCoy, Don Schlitz, and Bobby Bare for a performance of "My Babe", a Blues song from 1955 vocally recorded by harmonica player, Little Walter. Today is the birthday of Charlie McCoy who, himself, is a legendary harmonica player. He reaches 80. Charlie spent a couple of decades on the television show, Hee Haw, originally as part of the band but later was promoted to music director. In the opening credits of the show, especially in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, he was credited as 'Charlie McCoy and the Hee Haw Band'. Charlie, like Ray, played on a lot of sessions throughout the late '50s and into the mid '60s. Ray eased up on his recording session intake by the late '60s simply because his own recording career required more of his time and energy but Charlie continued on as harmonica session musician for nearly every recording studio and record label in Nashville. Charlie also had a series of top selling single releases of harmonica performances. His commercial success as a harmonica player in the 1970s rivaled the instrumental successes of saxophonist Boots Randolph, guitarist Chet Atkins, pianist Floyd Cramer, trumpeter Danny Davis, and fiddler Johnny Gimble. All of those musicians plus Charlie, Jethro Burns, and Roy Clark formed what was known on Hee Haw as The Million Dollar Band. This super group performed instrumentals on Hee Haw on a recurring basis throughout the late '70s and into the mid '80s. Here is Ray Stevens, Charlie McCoy, Don Schlitz, and Bobby Bare singing "My Babe"...

Ray Stevens: Just for the Record it's been 45 years...

In early 1976 Ray Stevens became a recording artist for Warner Brothers Records. He had been on the Barnaby Records label since early 1970 and it was on that label in which Ray's music went international on a consistent basis...singles reaching the charts not only here in America but up in Canada and overseas, usually in the United Kingdom or Australia. Ray's debut for Warner Brothers arrived with the single, "You Are So Beautiful". The recording's arrangement was inspired by a previous single he'd issued a year earlier, "Misty". Ray's take on "You Are So Beautiful" featured the banjo, fiddle, and steel guitar as "Misty" and another recording of his from 1975, "Sunshine". "You Are So Beautiful" reached the Country Top-20 in the spring of 1976. The album featuring the single, Just For the Record, became available on April 2, 1976. The album's title is written in small print over top of Ray's name on the album cover. I always like to know the story behind the names of albums...I'm obviously talking about albums that aren't named for one of the songs. I've always wondered why this was titled Just For the Record. Some may have an answer. I've come across an explanation or two a number of years ago on message boards that no longer exist and one explanation was that several of the songs on the album deal with the subject of music. That's the only explanation that made sense. So, then, what are the songs on this 1976 album?? There's 10 songs altogether and most were written or co-written by Ray. There are several songs that were written by other writers. 

Track List:

1. Cornball

2. Gimme a Smile

3. Once in Awhile

4. One and Only You

5. You Are So Beautiful

6. Can't Stop Dancin'

7. OM

8. One Man Band

9. Country Licks

10. Honky Tonk Waltz

As you can tell from the track list you'll come across love ballads that fill up Side One of the album (the first five songs). On Side Two it opens up with a song about music...specifically dancing...but if you listen carefully, though, it uses dancing as a metaphor. It's an inspirational song telling the listener to never give up and to always strive for positivity in life and not allow negativity and unpleasantness cloud your better judgement. "Can't Stop Dancing" would later become a hit for pop duo The Captain and Tennille. Ray co-wrote the song and he published it...and so he shared in the success as both co-writer and song publisher when The Captain and Tennille had a Top-20 pop hit with it in 1977. 

The song, "OM", is all about transcendental meditation. I don't know if Ray was a student of transcendental meditation or if he was simply interested in what it was all about and therefore decided to write a song all about it. "One Man Band" is a sad song about a relationship that's ended and because of this Ray says he feels as if he's playing in a "One Man Band" since the harmony and joy in his life is now gone. "Country Licks", from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr., is a fabulous toe-tapping song with a bluegrass feel much like "You Are So Beautiful". The album closer is the equally clever "Honky Tonk Waltz" where a waltz and honky-tonk music is combined into one. "Honky Tonk Waltz" was the album's second single and it reached the Top-30 on the Country chart in the summer of 1976. The single's B-side is the previously mentioned "OM". That song, "OM", is 4 minutes and 39 seconds long and yes, it's a wonderful recording, and yes, you will probably feel as if you've been meditated by the time it's over. It has a lengthy electric guitar solo fade out. I could've posted a larger image but I didn't want my text shoved off to where it looks newspaper column style. That kind of design is okay if I were writing a newspaper column but this is a fan created blog spotlighting the legendary Ray Stevens. In hindsight I would've had the songs on Side Two on Side One since the name of the album is Just For the Record. However, since this was released primarily on vinyl, who says a fan couldn't play Side Two first? A cassette tape release was also available but they've become super obscure. I know a copy comes up for sale online every so often. On the pictorial time-line I have a photo of a cassette copy of Just For the Record. 

Once the publicity and single releases ran their course Ray closed out 1976 with a novelty single, "In the Mood", credited as The Henhouse Five Plus Too. This chicken clucking novelty reached the Top-40 of both the pop and country charts here in America early in 1977 and it tickled the funny bones of those in the United Kingdom as well as it peaked inside their Top-40. In some international markets the single retained it's Henhouse Five Plus Too credit...the Netherlands release was credited simply to Henhouse. Ray's name appears on the B-side as the writer/publisher of "Classical Cluck", but the performance itself is credited to Henhouse. In other international markets the single is credited to Ray Stevens. In the photo above, from 1977, Ray Stevens is explaining to Ralph Emery about "In the Mood" and for visuals he brings into the conversation a ceramic chicken mask.  

Ray Stevens sings "The Streak"...

On March 27, 1974 Ray Stevens released "The Streak". Little did he nor his fan's know that "The Streak" would take on a life of it's own in the 47 years since. Ray got the idea for the song when he was skimming through a weekly news magazine during a flight from Los Angeles to Nashville. In the final pages of a magazine he'd read a small news item where it made mention of a college kid that took off his clothes and ran through a crowd and it was called streaking. According to Ray's recollections he immediately began writing ideas for the song. Once he seen the local newscasts on television all he recalls is seeing stories about streaking and how it's taking over college campuses all over America. Ray wrote "The Streak" and Barnaby Records issued it on March 27, 1974. An international news event occurred at the Academy Awards telecast on April 2, 1974...a streaker ran across the stage behind actor, David Niven. Although there were more than 50 novelty songs out capitalizing on streaking it was Ray's that emerged as the biggest hit. The single debuted on the Hot 100 on April 6, 1974 and thanks to the Academy Awards incident and streaking, in general, "The Streak" literally streaked up the Hot 100 pop chart. It hit the top in it's 7th week, May 18th, and remained at number one for three weeks. It was the number one pop song in America on May 18th, May 25th, and June 1st. It crossed over and hit the Top-10 on the Country chart. It was also an international hit peaking at the top in the United Kingdom and in the Top-10 and Top-40 of other English-speaking countries. The single also sold more than 5,000,000 copies worldwide. 

In recent concert appearances Ray sings "The Streak" almost exactly the way he recorded it but for a number of decades, notably the mid '70s through the early '90s, he elaborated on the song and would perform it in concert with an operatic addition. He would open the song with the action news reporter and the witness but then he'd stop the performance and tell the audience that some humorless critics have often said the song had no class. So, in order to please the critics, he decided to perform the song in operatic fashion. After about a minute of operatic splendor he'd revert back to how the song should be performed. In those performances one of the recurring sight gags was Ray putting on a yellow CAT hat every time he'd play the part of the witness who'd tell his wife, Ethel, not to look. Don't Look, Ethel is one of several catch-phrases synonymous with Ray. However, in this performance from 2015, he performs "The Streak" as it was originally recorded, give or take an added line here or there, but there's no CAT hat involvement.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Ruby/Ruby Baby"...

It's me once again!! In my previous blog entry I wrote about Ray's bluegrass album, Melancholy Fescue, among the Top-100 best sellers on Amazon's Digital country album list. I also mentioned that Curb Records had uploaded the songs from the album onto YouTube. The audio clip with the most unique views is "Ruby/Ruby Baby" followed by "Oh, Pretty Woman". Ray's medley "Ruby/Ruby Baby" combines the Ray Charles hit from 1960, "Ruby It's You", with "Ruby Baby", a song that was a hit for The Drifters, Dion and the Belmonts, Billy 'Crash' Craddock, and has been recorded by numerous pop and rhythm and blues acts over the decades. Dion's hit recording arrived in 1961. Melancholy Fescue leads off with the "Ruby/Ruby Baby" medley. 

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I've been periodically looking on the Amazon Top-100 lists and Melancholy Fescue is among the Top-100 best selling new releases in Digital Music in the Country music section. Those lists are updated hourly and so the positions for each release fluctuates throughout a 24 time period. Ray's previous release, Great Country Ballads, was on this Top-100 list for several weeks leading up to the release of Melancholy Fescue yesterday. What all did you think of "Goin' Out of My Head"? You know I loved hearing it. I'd read some commentary on social media from people who collectively were asking when Ray recorded it. Ray's been working on these albums for a number of years. If you read some of my blog entries during the 2013-2015 time frame chances are you'll come across some entries where I mention album titles like Slow Dance or Melancholy Fescue. In interviews Ray's given since 2012 he's often mentioned numerous albums he's working on and sometimes, as mentioned, he'd reveal the working titles of the albums or speak of the album's concept. He'd often speak of Melancholy Fescue and probably because it's the one with the comical album title...but a release coming up in May of this year from Ray called Nouveau Retro (What's Old is New Again) will be another eye-catching album title. 

Some may ask: "why didn't Ray release these albums years earlier?". I can't officially answer that question other than to guess and say he probably wanted to make them as great as possible...not only in the selection of songs but just as important the music arrangement and production values. 

In case you're new to his music or discovered him within the last several years on YouTube, Ray's always been the kind of recording artist that cares how his music sounds and he'll work just as hard on the production and the music as he does with his vocals. He's often quoted as saying that not only does he want the lyrics to tell a story but he wants the music to compliment the lyrics. Some artists don't really care about the music accompaniment because most artists leave that up to their record producer to figure out...but Ray is his own record producer and he's his own music arranger...and he makes his records in his own recording studio. 

On the day Melancholy Fescue was released Curb Records uploaded the audio tracks onto YouTube. The one that's received the most unique views, so far, is the "Ruby/Ruby Baby" medley. The audio tracks that Curb uploaded use the official photograph of Ray from his official YouTube channel. The way to distinguish the Curb Records uploads from those from Ray's official channel is the thumbnail background. Curb has a solid maroon color background placed behind the album's cover while the upload from Ray's official channel has an enlarged photo of the album cover in the background.

Ray Stevens: My Review of "Melancholy Fescue"...

Ray Stevens has released the second of his four all-new albums. This one, Melancholy Fescue, contains 12 songs with a Bluegrass flavor. The songs are from the pop music field and they span decades. When you listen to the album you'll find yourself, on many of the songs, grinning. The sound and tempo of Bluegrass is usually upbeat and this particular album lives up to those expectations. In a previous blog entry I wondered if the opening track, "Ruby/Ruby Baby", was a medley featuring a hit by the Osbourne Brothers. Once I heard the medley I learned that "Ruby" being performed here by Ray Stevens was once recorded by Ray Charles. "Ruby Baby", the second half of the medley, was a Rhythm and Blues hit for The Drifters, a pop hit for Dion, and a country hit for Billy 'Crash' Craddock. Throughout this digital album Ray tackles a lot of songs that you wouldn't expect to hear in a Bluegrass way. There's a lot of banjo work on this album but there isn't an abundance of lead banjo if you understand what I'm getting at. In traditional Bluegrass performances you'll hear the banjo and or mandolin prominently out front of the other instruments. In some of the performances on here the banjo is more of an accompaniment to musically compliment the other instrumentation. In some of the songs you'll hear dobro, fiddle, and steel guitars in addition to mandolins and banjos. If you look at the track list of this album you'll marvel at the variety of songs that Ray's decided to transform into Bluegrass. I pointed out in a previous blog entry that "Oh, Pretty Woman" is a song Ray had performed at the Grand Ole Opry nearly 10 years ago. This album's been in the planning stages for a number of years and to see it finally get released is exciting...the music is flawless and the arrangements and the instrumentation Ray infuses these songs with is delicious. 

Track three is a medley of two different songs with the same title but very different arrangements and delivery. "In the Still of the Night / In the Still of the Night" combines the 1937 pop hit by Nelson Eddy (written by Cole Porter) with the rhythm and blues hit in 1956 by The Five Satins. Ray incorporates the traditional doo-wop vocal accompaniment when he gets to The Five Satins portion of the medley. The collection contains mostly his versions of pop songs from the 1930s to the 1960s...but there's one song on here that came along much later in the early 1980s called "At This Moment". It's not a song you'd expect to find Ray Stevens cover...and yet that's why he did it. The original recording was by pop singer, Billy Vera. When I seen the track list of Ray's album I thought I'd never heard "At This Moment" before and yet once Ray started singing it I was reminded of the song but back then I didn't recognize it's title or who originally sang it. 

Do you have a 1975 episode of Pop! Goes the Country guest starring Ray Stevens in your personal collections? If you have, as I do, you'll recognize the arrangement heard on "Twilight Time". Ray sang it as a Bluegrass song on that 1975 episode although this 2021 album is where an official recording of it makes it's debut. Track 6 is a song that you should all be familiar with...Ray's recording of "Unchained Melody". Ray uploaded the music video onto YouTube in October 2013 and so you should be very familiar with Ray's version of the song by now. The mood up till now had been kept light and up-tempo and then comes track 7, "Spring Is Here". In actuality spring is here...we're in late March...but this song is about loneliness during a time when, historically, love is in the air following months of cold, wintery weather. Another pop music standard, "Sophisticated Lady", is heard next, followed by "People". I had never heard "At This Moment", "Spring is Here", "Sophisticated Lady", and "People" prior to hearing Ray Stevens sing them on this album. I discovered who originally recorded those songs during my research. "People" turns out to be one of Barbra Streisand's greatest hits and a Grammy winner. 

Ray performs these songs incredibly well and his vocals have nuance, as usual, and it enables him to inject as much emotion into the songs as possible. He can be vocally forceful or restrained...he can exaggerate his voice to sound more southern like he does on "Oh, Pretty Woman" or he can croon the lyrics as he does during "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". A day before this album was released Ray issued an audio clip of track 11, "Goin' Out Of My Head". That performance is sensational and so much effort was put into it...the production and the vocal performance itself. Ray closes out the 12 song collection with his take on "MacArthur Park". A sensational, phenomenal, production...it lasts a little over 6 minutes and it's the quintessential song to include in a Ray Stevens bluegrass album of songs you'd not expect to hear in a bluegrass fashion. There's a instrumental solo and various tempo changes and a grandiose big finish to close out the album. I've listened to the album, in it's entirety, twice so far. I'll now start to create my personal online playlist of songs from this album for quick access. I'm quite sure that all of you other Ray Stevens fans are going to love this latest release, too!! You can get your digital copy at Amazon by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Goin' Out of My Head"...

Well, now, here we are a day before the release of Melancholy Fescue, a Bluegrass album from Ray Stevens!! This is the second of four all new individual albums that Ray is scheduled to release this year. When the fourth album is released in May then the following month Ray will release one big box set of all four albums together. The box set will contain CD copies of his four albums which, at the moment, are only being released digitally. Some are holding out until the box set arrives but I can't do that...I can't resist...I don't have the willpower to wait until June to hear music that's already available and so I purchased Great Country Ballads last month and tomorrow I'll be purchasing Melancholy Fescue. Last month Ray released an audio track of "Your Cheatin' Heart" to promote Great Country Ballads. The online music site, The Boot, had the exclusive premiere. This month, the online music site Wide Open Country, had the exclusive premiere of Ray's Bluegrass rendition of "Goin' Out of My Head" earlier today and I'll be embedding the audio clip from Ray's YouTube channel. 

Over on Ray's social media pages I left the remark that if anyone doesn't smile when listening to "Goin' Out of My Head" then I'll officially declare those people the biggest grouches in America. You can read the write-up in Wide Open Country by clicking this LINK. You can also, of course, listen to the audio clip of the song over on their page, too. It's just a taste of what Melancholy Fescue will be about and the entire 12 song digital download hits online music stores tomorrow.

Ray Stevens sings "Used Cars"...

Hello once again!! If you follow the Ray Stevens social media pages then you'll know that there's usually a theme that they highlight each day. For example, Monday's are usually called 'Music Monday' and today it's 'Way Back Wednesday', etc. On today's edition Ray posted a video of him singing "Used Cars" on a 1990 episode of Nashville Now. The song comes from Ray's album, Lend Me Your Ears, on Curb/Capitol Records. Ray had signed a recording contract with Curb Records in 1990 and they issued a compilation album on him right away titled His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits. That compilation eventually was certified Gold by the RIAA. Capitol Records merged with Curb Records around the same time so when Lend Me Your Ears was released in the summer of 1990 it was officially a Curb/Capitol release. 

If you're already familiar with "Used Cars" you'll enjoy watching Ray perform the sound effects as he tries to start the car. Also, if you're already familiar with the song, you'll be quick to catch the added lyrics in the song when Ray makes mention of the used car salesman. When Ray finishes the song he walks over to the interview set and Ralph Emery asks about cars and wonders if Ray's ever driven used cars before. Ray mentions some of the used cars he once owned as a teenager in Georgia before he moved up to Nashville, Tennessee. 

I've always driven a used car. I've never owned a car that wasn't at least 5 to 10 years old before I purchased it...usually from a family member. As the song makes mention a used car can be at it's worst during the winter months unless you've got a brand new car battery in it by the time it starts to get cold outside or you at least have the jumper cables nearby! In some of his early interviews and in his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, Ray talks about his drive up to Nashville, Tennessee from Georgia and that he was driving what he called a "beat up Plymouth".  

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue nearing Release...

It's a sunny afternoon on this Monday and this coming Friday (March 26th) we'll be treated to the second of four all new albums from Ray Stevens, Melancholy Fescue. Last month (February 26th) we all were excited when Great Country Ballads was released. It marked the first all new Ray Stevens studio album since 2016. Last month's release still appears on Amazon's Top-100 best selling new releases ranking. This week, however, much of the focus will be shifted to Ray's bluegrass project, Melancholy Fescue. I'm having trouble typing the word, fescue, for whatever reason. It's a word I rarely type and I find myself not spelling it correctly, often. Fortunately I have spell check. I'm not saying I don't know how to spell it...it's just a word I rarely type and so it throws off my finger strikes on the keypad. 

The album's been in the planning stages for nearly 10 years. Actually, all of these albums have been in the planning stages for nearly 10 years. Ray spoke of putting together a bluegrass album in numerous interviews in 2012/2013 and in his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he wrote about his ideas for future albums and even included the working titles of some of them. He performed bluegrass renditions of "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "Unchained Melody" when he made a guest appearance on The Grand Ole Opry. "Unchained Melody" had been turned into a music video in 2013. That song is on Melancholy Fescue as is "Oh, Pretty Woman". This bluegrass project features 12 songs from the pop music world arranged in a Bluegrass style. Ray had previously did this for his 1975 recording of "Misty" and his 1976 recording of "You Are So Beautiful" but this is the first full length album from Ray Stevens to contain 12 songs arranged Bluegrass. As you can see Ray's shown on the cover of the album holding a banjo standing inside his CabaRay showroom. Ray commented recently that this particular album features songs that were never perhaps meant to be heard in a bluegrass vein; and in keeping with that mindset that's why I suppose he titled the album Melancholy Fescue rather than just calling it something like Ray Stevens sings Bluegrass.  

Here's the track list of what's on this digital download release:

1. Ruby/Ruby Baby (medley)

2. Oh, Pretty Woman

3. In the Still of the Night/In the Still of the Night (medley)

4. At This Moment

5. Twilight Time

6. Unchained Melody

7. Spring Is Here

8. Sophisticated Lady

9. People

10. Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

11. Goin' Out of my Head

12. MacArthur Park

I think the reason track three is a medley with the same titled song is due to there being a Nelson Eddy recording of "In the Still of the Night" written by Cole Porter in 1937 and then there's the "In the Still of the Night" song written by Fred Parris in 1956 and recorded by the rhythm and blues group, The Five Satins. They're two completely different songs but have the same title. It's safe to guess that Ray blended those two songs together. The single release by The Five Satins in 1956 spelled the word, night, as nite to avoid confusion with Nelson Eddy's recording. Now that I think about it I think Ray performed this medley song during a guest appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, too. We'll all find out how he officially recorded the song this Friday when Melancholy Fescue is released!!

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Set The Children Free"...

It's me once more writing another fan created blog entry about Ray Stevens! Earlier today he posted a photo of himself from the 1970's wearing a Mickey Mouse hat. The kind that's worn on the Mickey Mouse Club. I'd made the assumption that he might have been singing "Set The Children Free", a song he recorded for his 1977 Feel the Music album. The Mickey hat had me automatically thinking he may have been performing that particular song. The song is wonderful...written by Buddy Kalb it's a song, from my interpretation, about how adults, in general, tend to strive to be so serious, so mature that they come off overly stodgy out of some sort of irrational fear that if they appear comical, carefree, or less than serious that they'll be looked upon as immature and in need of mental help. The song inspires listeners to set free their inner child and have fun in life rather than behave strict and serious. Now, at least, that's how I interpret the meaning of the song's lyrics. Warner Brothers put the audio track of the song on YouTube a number of years ago.

After I made the assumption on social media that Ray might've been singing "Set the Children Free" while he was wearing the Mickey Mouse ears, a few comments later, another fan of Ray Stevens remarked that Ray closed his show that day singing the theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club and not only did Ray, but also the rest of the band-members, they all put on the Mickey ears during the closing performance. That other fan of Ray, by the way, happens to be songwriter Chuck Martin, he happened to be at that concert in the 1970's. Chuck co-wrote "The Feeling's Not Right Again" with Ray and it appeared on Ray's 1978 album, Be Your Own Best Friend, and then "The Feeling's Not Right Again" became the album title of a 1979 compilation album Ray released on Warner Brothers. That album featured 9 previously recorded songs spanning the years 1976, 1977, and 1978 and one just recently recorded song, 1979's "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow".

Ray Stevens: Great Country Ballads on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all...I never thought to keep track of the Top-100 best seller lists over on Amazon even though Ray's current album, Great Country Ballads, was released almost a month ago (February 26th). Those best-seller lists change hourly but I decided to visit Amazon's website and I looked up the New Releases, Digital Music, and I selected the Country music format. In the Amazon Top-100 for Digital Download new releases Great Country Ballads is near the Top-40 as of this hour (10-11pm Eastern). It has me wondering how long the album's been in that Top-100 and if it had ranked higher than where it currently is or if the current position is a sign that it's moving upward. The Digital album is only listed on that specific Best Selling New Releases Top-100 for country music...over on Amazon the overall list is called Amazon Hot New Releases and there's categories for all the various music formats. Since those lists are updated hourly I'll check them in an hour from now and see if the digital album has moved up or down or remained in the same sales position. 

Have you purchased or listened to any of the audio tracks from Ray's current album yet? He'll be releasing the second of four all new digital albums this coming Friday (March 26th). Once it becomes available I'll purchase it, write a review over on Amazon, and then paste it here on the blog...or I might switch it around and write a review here and then paste it over on Amazon. You can purchase the digital download over on Amazon by clicking HERE. If you prefer to listen to the songs online you can visit YouTube and search for each song individually. Curb Records uploaded all of the audio tracks from the current album onto YouTube and so I'm assuming they'll be doing the same this coming Friday when the next Ray Stevens album is released!!

Ray Stevens sings "When You're Hot, You're Hot"...

One of the legendary figures in music, Jerry Reed, was born on this date in 1937. If you follow the career of Ray Stevens with any sense of detail then you'll know that the two of them came up in the music business together through music publisher and promoter, Bill Lowery. If you do a simple image search online for 'Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed' you'll likely see images of the two of them from the late 1950s and early 1960s...their friendship was life long...photos of the two of them from the 1970s are also online. Jerry passed away on September 1, 2008 at the age of 71 from emphysema complications. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017. In addition to their shared past with Bill Lowery's company the two also possessed a natural flair for comedy and stage presence. They each used the visual medium (film, TV, and video) to their advantage. Also, on a more personal similarity, Jerry and his wife had two daughters...Ray and his wife have two daughters. Both Ray and Jerry, in addition to having a professional past with Bill Lowery they also had professional relationships and personal friendships with Chet Atkins. 

Ray appeared on the debut episode of Jerry's very short-lived television series in 1976...only two episodes were produced. A sing-a-long performance from Ray, Jerry, Burt Reynolds, Tammy Wynette, and Jerry's daughter of "Gotta Travel On" used be online but it's long since been removed from video sites. Also, a performance from Ray of "Misty" from this television show also used to be online. A screen cap is available online...it shows Ray dressed in super casual attire (wearing a brown sweater with a button up shirt underneath and blue jeans) while the rest of the performers are in stage clothes. That photo from the sing-a-long is below the video clip below of Ray singing one of Jerry Reed's hit songs, "When You're Hot, You're Hot". When Jerry hosted a country music special in 1979 among the performers taking part in it was Ray Stevens...singing a medley of hits and his current recording, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". When Ray issued a CD in 2009 called One For the Road the opening track happened to be "Concrete Sailor", a song that Jerry had previously recorded nearly 20 years earlier. The fact that the CD came out a year after Jerry passed away and Ray included that song on that CD, well, it was a classy gesture. Now then...here's Ray singing "When You're Hot, You're Hot"...

Ray Stevens: Looking Back 2 Years Ago...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! It was on this date 2 years ago that we all learned that Ray Stevens was going to be one of the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The announcement was made in the morning at the Country Music Hall of Fame by radio personality Bill Cody. When I was watching the announcement online and listening to Bill give statistics and hints during his announcement I knew he was referring to Ray Stevens before the reveal came about. This event was held on March 18, 2019 while the formal induction took place later that year in October. In the announcement Bill remarked how Ray came up through the music industry with the help of Bill Lowery and worked as a disc jockey as a teenager. Bill name dropped some of the songs Ray recorded through the decades and the impact music videos have had on his career. "Silver Bracelet", "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", "Ahab the Arab", "Gitarzan", "Everything is Beautiful", "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues", "Turn Your Radio On", "The Streak", "Misty", are just some of the songs Bill Cody mentions in the video clip. I'm glad that Ray uploaded the acceptance speech from March 2019 because there's a lot of people who don't necessarily follow Ray's career as in-depth as I do and so they might not even realize that Ray's already been elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame...so having this video clip on the internet serves as a reminder that it took place in 2019. 

Ray Stevens: Paul Overstreet sings "Daddy's Come Around"...

If you search the archives here on my fan created Ray Stevens blog you'll come across the review/re-cap of the CabaRay Nashville episode guest starring Paul Overstreet. When Paul guest starred on Ray's show one of the songs he performed was "Daddy's Come Around". In the country music industry Paul Overstreet happened to be a songwriter who ultimately became known as a singer. He's written many, many songs...several of them award winning...and for awhile he co-wrote with another songwriting legend, Don Schlitz. The two of them authored numerous songs that Randy Travis recorded. Paul was named BMI Songwriter of the Year for 5 consecutive years (1987-1991)...no other country music songwriter has ever achieved such an accomplishment. He recorded as a trio with Tom Schuyler and J. Fred Knobloch as S-K-O...the short-lived trio recorded one album but made the most of it by issuing a single that became a number one hit, "Baby's Got a New Baby". Paul also became active in the Christian Country format for a number of years after what they call mainstream country radio pushed him off the airwaves in the mid 1990s. 

Some of the songs Paul wrote/co-wrote include: "Same Ole Me" (George Jones); "If I Could Bottle This Up" (George Jones and Shelby Lynne); "A Long Line of Love" (Michael Martin Murphy); "Forever and Ever, Amen" (Randy Travis); "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" (recorded as a trio: Tanya Tucker, Paul Davis, and Paul Overstreet); "Diggin' Up Bones" (Randy Travis); "On the Other Hand" (Randy Travis); and so many more. 

Last year on March 17th Ray uploaded a performance from Paul singing "Diggin' Up Bones", one of the several Randy Travis hits he co-wrote. This year, as mentioned, Ray's uploaded a performance of a song that Paul wrote and had a hit with, an early 1990s country radio staple, "Daddy's Come Around". It was the only song that hit number one for Paul as a singer...spending 18 weeks on the chart, 1 week at number one. It was ranked the 12th biggest hit of 1990. So, with all of that build-up, here's Paul Overstreet on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Making Believe"...

In this Ray Stevens rendition of the country music classic, "Making Believe", Ray puts his music arranging skills front and center. When I first heard Ray's version of the song when I downloaded Great Country Ballads last month I thought to myself that it may be one of the songs he'll perform at his CabaRay once it re-opens. It has that extra something, to my ears anyway, that has me thinking it might be an audio clip he'll promote on social media at some point this year. If record companies were still issuing singles "Making Believe" sounds like a future single release. If you want to purchase the digital download of the entire album you can click HERE. I've been featuring audio clips from the album that Curb Records uploaded onto YouTube. 

In years past I'd promote the purchasing of music but with the recording industry pushing digital downloading and streaming on a wide variety of social media platforms, more or less dissuading the practice of purchasing the music in favor of their getting revenue based on the amount of downloads, clicks, or unique views a song has accumulated...with all of that becoming the standard practice in the music industry I've loosened up my attitude, a little, and won't preach about why consumers should still purchase music rather than listening to audio clips that record companies place on the internet. Now, having said that, I still plan on purchasing the CD-format box set this summer and I'm doing so because I still prefer music on a physical CD and I'm also purchasing it for the Box Set's artwork and musician, songwriter, and publisher credits. Some of Ray's fans probably are going to wait until June and purchase the box set...some fans are probably going to only purchase the individual digital albums and not the box set...whereas some fans, like myself, are purchasing the individual digital download albums AND will be purchasing the CD box set.   

"Making Believe" goes back to 1955 when it's writer, Jimmy Work, released it as a single. His version became a hit but, in those days, well established recording artists also liked to do their version of the latest hit single, too. Kitty Wells recorded "Making Believe" the same year, 1955, and her recording spent 15 weeks in the runner-up position on the Billboard country chart. It couldn't dislodge "In the Jailhouse Now" from the top spot...a song that would spend 21 weeks at number one. The father/daughter duo, The Kendalls, released a version of the song in 1977 as did Emmylou Harris. Her recording hit the Top-10 on the country chart. In 1987 legendary country music artists Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn recorded a version together for a collection sold on television on Heartland Records. A year later their recording became the title track of what would be their final duet album together during his lifetime.

Those are just some of the recording artists that put the song on the country charts over the years. It's been recorded by dozens of other recording artists over the decades. Ray Stevens took his turn at recording "Making Believe" for Great Country Ballads and he puts his own feel to it...

Ray Stevens: Country Road TV Artist of the Month

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! I'm sure most of you have known that the month of March on Country Road TV was declared Ray Stevens month. Well, in a more formal way of saying it, Ray is the Artist of the Month. Country Road TV is one of those networks that by-passes conventional cable television and offers their content online through a subscription. This doesn't meant you have to sit in front of your computer to watch it...most modern television sets come with APP menus and streaming capability so what once was only available to see on a computer screen is also available on your television screens with the proper APP installed. The network is available on Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, and on computer, laptop, and phone devices. The channel offers a lot of country music programming...including complete episodes of the television show Marty Robbins hosted, Spotlight. Ray appeared on two of those episodes. In one episode Ray was the spotlight artist and in another he was a special guest on the Chet Atkins episode where they both sang "Frog Kissing". In the Artist of the Month page for Ray Stevens they include a somewhat breezy biography and eight videos that feature an appearance from Ray Stevens. In most of the clips he's the main focus but there's some video of his appearances on the Country Family Reunion specials and those feature well over 30 recording artists on each episode. 

I'd been keeping track, a little bit, and I noticed thousands of people have heard the latest recordings from Ray Stevens on his Great Country Ballads album. The audio tracks from the album on YouTube have obtained a lot of activity in the last couple of weeks since the album's release. Curb Records will be releasing the second of his four all new albums later this month...the Bluegrass flavored Melancholy Fescue. The release date for this collection will be March 26th. 

Like Great Country Ballads I'll be purchasing the digital download of Melancholy Fescue at the end of the month and I'll be writing a review. As I've mentioned in several previous blog entries these albums are a showcase for the music arranging skills of Ray Stevens. He produces and arranges all of his albums but most people overlook those arrangement skills...it seems like his arranging talents only get noticed whenever he does his versions of songs previously recorded by other artists...even though he's the music arranger on every song he's recorded over the last 50 plus years. Anyway, these kinds of upcoming albums that Ray will be releasing will put his music arranging skills front and center. Just in case you're asking yourselves or are wondering about it...the question of 'what is a music arranger?'. Well, the music arranger is the person who figures out the kinds of instruments that'll be heard in a song and where they'll be heard. The arranger also should be able to read and write music and understand the basics of music structure. It can be a very technical thing if you're just walking into that field but most often the music arranger has natural ability, or, a special gift enabling them to do what they do. I don't think music arranging is something you can sit down and teach someone but maybe you can. I think I'd heard Ray, in various interviews, credit Bill Justis as being influential when it came to his own interest in arranging music. However, Ray was already a skilled musician and songwriter by the time his name began appearing on his albums as music arranger, too, in addition to record producer credits. Now then, we already have Great Country Ballads chock full of songs arranged in Ray's interpretations so now we're anticipating the next release, Melancholy Fescue.   

Ray Stevens audio clip: "City Lights"...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! The current album from Ray, Great Country Ballads, is just the first of four upcoming digital downloads. The second new album will hit in a couple of weeks. I'm sure most of you, if not all of you, have made your way over to YouTube and listened to the songs on Ray's current album. Curb Records uploaded all of the songs for your listening pleasure on YouTube. I also purchased the album through an on-line store. In this blog entry I decided to include the audio of "City Lights" which had been a huge country music hit for Ray Price from the pen of Bill Anderson. The single had also become a big hit for Mickey Gilley. In interviews Bill spoke about some of the inspiration behind the song...he was looking outside a window and seen a street of lights that lined the city blocks and they seemed to go on and on for miles but yet no such lights existed outside city limits. He created a story of how bright and pretty those lights were and how they can be seductive to certain kinds of people and how some fall prey to the allure of those lights (honky-tonking/drinking). Anyway, I had heard both of their versions of "City Lights" but I hadn't heard the renditions by other recording artists. The Ray Stevens version of "City Lights" is unlike the familiar performances by Ray Price and later, Mickey Gilley. "City Lights" is one of twelve songs found in the current Ray Stevens release...

Ray Stevens sings "Indian Love Call"...

Hello once again!! I came across an upload on YouTube earlier today of a Ray Stevens performance I'd never seen before. The appearance originated on British television in the mid 1970s on a television program hosted by Mike Yarwood. In the video clip Ray is singing "Indian Love Call" and he's got a beard. The one that uploaded the video says it's from a Christmas 1976 television program. It had me thinking a little bit...by the time December 1976 rolled around Ray had already released several singles and an album for Warner Brothers records and so why perform "Indian Love Call" and not something more recent? 

Ray's release of "Indian Love Call" was in the summer of 1975. The single was released internationally like a lot of Ray's music happened to be during the 1970s. In the Netherlands and Belgium the "Indian Love Call" single was backed with "Sunshine" as a B-side. In the United Kingdom, here in the U.S., and almost everywhere else the single was backed with "Piece of Paradise", a song that was a B-side exclusive until it appeared on a compilation album in 1998. 

I'd seen some information online suggesting that this television special actually aired early in 1976 but was taped in the latter half of 1975. Regardless of when the show was taped it was called Look, Mark Yarwood Christmas 1976. I'm not going to embed a video clip...I'm going to post a link that you can watch HERE. I do this so that, in the future, if the video gets taken down for whatever reason I won't have an empty video box with a disclaimer reading that the video content has been removed. I took several screen caps, though, and I'll conclude this blog entry with one of those screen caps...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Please Help Me I'm Falling"...

One of the things I've often done over the last 10 years is keep an eye on the exposure that Ray Stevens songs are getting on the internet. The biggest impact online comes from several places: his official webpage, his official Facebook page, and his official YouTube channel. Curb Records, the label he's currently associated with, issued audio clips of his current digital album, Great Country Ballads. I've embedded several of those audio clips as well as the one uploaded onto Ray's official YouTube channel, "Your Cheatin' Heart". Since that one is associated with his official channel over there it's gotten the most unique views with 8.4K at the moment (8,400 + ). 

Next in line is "Please Help Me I'm Falling in Love With You" with a little over 3,000 unique views. The exact number is 3,233. That YouTube audio clip was also issued by Curb Records right around the time the digital album was released. I don't know what caused that audio clip, in particular, to jump out and capture the most unique views among those that Curb Records uploaded...something tells me modern audiences not familiar with the Hank Locklin classic seen the shortened title, "Please Help Me I'm Falling", and seen Ray's name, and perhaps assumed it would be some sort of comical song and they gave it a listen? That's just a theory, though. Ray gives the song a completely different music arrangement just in case you're just finding out that Ray has new recordings available. 

 

Ray Stevens: Launch of The Nashville Network in 1983...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! March 7th is the anniversary date of a once very important television network for country music artists. A cable television channel, The Nashville Network, went on the air on March 7, 1983. As is the case with most networks on launch day it showcases a wide arrange of performances and experiments...trying to find what works and what doesn't work. In the case of this channel everything on launch day was live. The celebrations were taped all over Nashville with a bulk of the festivities taking place inside a television studio on the Opryland grounds. Ray was part of the network's opening day in 1983 in two places. He performed several songs at the Opry house and then he appeared at the festivities taking place at the television studio at Opryland. Ralph Emery, who had been chosen to host the network's nightly live show, Nashville Now, was on hand to host a program that introduced the Nashville Now concept/format to the audience. It would be a country music version of The Tonight Show...Ralph would walk from offstage and do an opening monologue standing in front of the set (a greeting; often tell a joke aimed at either the show's announcer or someone in the band or about one of the guests appearing that night; and then he'd go into further detail of the guests that'll be appearing; then, after commercial, Ralph would be seated behind a desk with a couch off to his right). I wonder if there's any footage of Ralph interviewing Ray during this launch event? If there is I hope it gets uploaded, too!! In the video clip below Ray is singing "Such a Night" during the Ralph Emery portion of the launch. Ray had recorded that song on his previous album, Don't Laugh Now.

Ray previously uploaded a couple of other video clips from the 1983 launch of The Nashville Network. Almost a year ago he uploaded a performance of him singing "Everything is Beautiful" and exactly one year ago he uploaded a video clip of him singing "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" from his current album at the time, Me. The first clip is his performance of "Everything is Beautiful" followed by "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee". The performances below are from the Opry house.  

Ray Stevens sings "Misty" from 1975...

A couple of days ago a video appeared on YouTube of Ray Stevens in 1975 singing "Misty" on an episode of Pop! Goes the Country. I have the entire episode on DVD and had seen this performance online years earlier, too. Ray uploaded the "Misty" performance to his YouTube channel a couple of days ago and I'm embedding here in this blog entry. The thing you'll notice right away is he's got a beard. If you're as deep into the career and music of Ray Stevens as I happen to be you'll know that, for the most part, Ray kept himself clean shaven throughout much of his professional career until the late 1970s. There are a couple of album releases in the early and mid '70s that feature a bearded Ray Stevens...those would be 1973's Losin' Streak and 1975's The Very Best of Ray Stevens. The sheet music for "Indian Love Call", released in 1975, has Ray with a beard on the cover. As far as television appearances in this time period he had a beard when he appeared on a couple of 1972 episodes of Hee Haw and during an appearance on the American Music Awards in February 1975. He's not been clean shaven (in public) since the late 1970s. The last studio album of his to feature a clean shaven photo of Ray was 1978's There Is Something On Your Mind. Every studio album from 1978's Be Your Own Best Friend through the latest Great Country Ballads features a bearded Ray Stevens. 

The uploading of the 1975 performance of "Misty" a few days ago was in recognition of the 1976 Grammy Awards telecast (which originally aired February 28, 1976). Ray won a Grammy at the 1976 awards for his arrangement of "Misty". The official name of that category was Best Arrangement accompanying Vocalist. That award goes to a song's arranger...and since Ray does his own music arranging he got the Grammy. You can watch a clean shaven Ray Stevens sing "Misty" at the 1976 Grammy telecast by clicking HERE. Once you open up the link make sure you click the speaker icon on the video box or else you won't be able to hear the audio! As you see I've embedded below a bearded Ray Stevens in 1975 singing "Misty" on Pop! Goes the Country. 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Bouquet of Roses"...

The music is soothing to hear...the sounds are overflowing with jazzy arrangements and I defy anyone to say they won't fall in love with these songs all over again once you hear Ray Stevens sing them with his all-new music arrangements! I am, of course, referring to Ray's current digital download album, Great Country Ballads. I have written a review of the album several blog entries ago and I've embedded several audio clips of songs from the album. This time around I'm embedding an audio clip of his rendition of "Bouquet of Roses", a song popularized by the late, great Eddy Arnold in 1948. In fact, when the 45-rpm vinyl single was created and released to the market in 1949 Eddy's recording of "Bouquet of Roses" was among the first selections offered in the first batch of this new creation, a 7-inch record. 

It was the only recording in that collection from a country music artist. Although Eddy's hit was among the first-ever 7-inch vinyl singles to be released it was the first for a country singer...which is why in country music circles he holds the distinction of being the first country singer to have a recording pressed onto a 45-rpm vinyl single. 

Ray uploaded his audio recording on his Facebook page but I've had issues in the past when embedding video from Facebook onto this blog page. The video's size and presence break up the overall look of the blog entry and so I'm embedding the audio clip from YouTube instead. In case you're wondering about the commentary from earlier in the blog entry I felt a little backstory on "Bouquet of Roses" and Eddy's rendition was in order before you all take a listen to the lovely rendition from Ray Stevens. Smooth country, smooth jazz, soft music...where the saxophone is the main instrument...no matter how you describe it they're all Great Country Ballads! 

Ray Stevens sings "Hang Up and Drive"...

Hello all...if you're a fan of Ray Stevens then I'm sure most of you by now have heard the song "Hang Up and Drive". The song originated awhile ago in Ray's career and every so often he brings it back into the spotlight. The recording was originally released in the early 2000s. It first appears on a comedy album Ray released in 2000 to fan club members on his own record label, a collection called Ear Candy. It also appears on the 2002 album, Osama Yo' Mama. After the release of the 2002 album on Curb Records his Ear Candy release from 2000 was quietly pulled from online stores. The reason, I'm assuming, is due to most of the songs on Ear Candy showing up on the 2002 Osama Yo' Mama album. In those formative years of online sales the small, independent labels like Ray's Clyde Records didn't have a competitive hope against the major record labels. Also, record companies were still pressing CD's on a fairly routine basis so there wasn't any kind of urgency to get something available to online music sites....especially when there weren't many in existence at the time. 

"Hang Up and Drive" would also become a music video...it features live-action Ray Stevens interacting with a limited animation backdrop...achieved through the use of green screen/blue screen technology. 

The earlier performance of the song (it's official music video) is on YouTube and now there's this performance he gave on his syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville. The song, through a light-hearted approach, warns people to avoid being on their phone while driving. The song came out several years before text messaging became so commonplace...but given how timely the song's message is you can play it for any successive generation who texts while driving or talks while driving. I don't know if the song's creation was explicitly a reaction to the 1999 high-profile car wreck of George Jones...he'd been attempting to text somebody when he took his eyes off the road and seconds later crashed into a concrete structure...but the song could've been in response to the overall trend of texting and driving. It's a very funny song on a not so funny subject matter.