Ray Stevens: My Review of "Nouveau Retro"...

As a longtime fan of Ray Stevens I've listened to hundreds upon hundreds of recordings by the legendary Country Music Hall of Fame member. I've also read a lot of reviews over the decades pertaining to songs, albums, music videos, or concerts from Ray Stevens...at one point there were several book reviews when he released his memoir back in 2014. However, I come across a description in a review from several decades ago that characterized Ray more as a recording artist than a recording star. The author of that description meant it as a compliment...explaining that throughout Ray's career he's been more focused on the music rather than maintaining focus on "being a star". Ray himself, in his memoir, remarked that he was always more focused on making records and working on the arrangements, the production, the publishing, and he left the marketing and the publicity in the hands of whatever marketing firm the record company was associated with or in most cases it was left up to the record label's internal marketing team to promote his music (some of the record labels he was on didn't necessarily handle marketing that great, but that's another story!). The series of digital albums that Ray's been releasing in the first half of 2021 go to great lengths to showcase his versatility when it comes to music styles and it puts the spotlight on his music arrangement skills and his production skills. Every aspect of a Ray Stevens album is under his creative control...and when you listen to Nouveau Retro you'll hear a recording artist perfectly comfortable leaping from style to style. The album kicks off with his urgent rendition of "April in Paris" and the jazzy ambience of this performance sets the mood for the first 5 tracks on the album.

Nouveau Retro is completely different than his previous digital album, Slow Dance, even though both fit under the same umbrella. In this latest digital album you're going to hear some slow ballads backed with symphonic arrangements but you're also going to hear some mid-tempo songs as well. When I was looking over the track list for this album I noticed "Blue Moon" as track two. I had completely forgot that the song originated back in the 1930's...a crooning pop hit in 1934...so I was surprised to hear a ballad rendition of the song! I was so used to hearing the doo-wop rendition by The Marcels that I'd grown up hearing on Oldies radio stations in the 1990s and 2000s. Ray's rendition has a mid-tempo feel to it...the way he belts out the song's title with such energy! The tempo lowers a bit on track three, "Earth Angel". Now, this is a song that I first heard on the movie, Back to the Future. I'm sure most people in my age group were introduced to the song in that movie. It's a song I could picture Ray singing at any number of sock hops in the late '50s. There were two versions of the song released in the same time period...the Top-10 pop, number one Rhythm and Blues release by The Penguins came along late in 1954 and peaked within the early part of 1955 while a recording by The Crew-Cuts reached the Top-10 of the pop charts as well. 

After opening the digital album with three songs arranged in a pop-standards flavor he switches gears and delivers a piano-heavy ballad with gorgeous music accompaniment on "Lay Me Down, Roll Me Out to Sea". Although all of the songs on here had previously been recorded by other artists the title of track four sounded oddly familiar. I did some research and discovered why it sounded so familiar...it had previously been recorded by Barry Manilow. It appears on his 1975 album, Tryin' To Get the Feeling. Ray does the song so well...incorporating a gospel inflection...perhaps a lively spiritual inflection to match the soft key strokes on the piano. For track five, "Cry Me a River", Ray comes across like a male torch singer...and if you're familiar with the storyline of the song you'll understand the reason why I use the torch singer description. Ray's decision to include it on Nouveau Retro had me thinking back to an article I'd read about his alumni class reunion in 2007. One of Ray's high school friends remarked that when she and Ray were on local radio together she preferred songs like "Cry Me a River" by Julie London...and she said that Ray always wanted to play suggestive, playful songs by Rhythm and Blues artists. Those artists, at the time, weren't considered mainstream...which is why The Crew Cuts version of "Earth Angel" was a bigger pop hit while The Penguins had the bigger Rhythm and Blues hit. 

Okay now...we're at track six! This song jumps right out at you...it's an up-tempo recording and Ray superbly tackles "Mountain of Love". I grin throughout the entire performance. The song is bouncy and it has this rockabilly feel...it's not very up-tempo in the vein of Johnny Rivers or Charley Pride but compared to the first 5 tracks on Nouveau Retro "Mountain of Love" is very up-tempo. I think it's one of the highlights of the entire digital album. Ray covers himself in the next three songs. Ray previously recorded "Talk to Me" for his 1978 album, There is Something On Your Mind. The instrumentation on this 2021 recording is modernized but he kept the same arrangement. The same thing holds true for "Young Love" and "Indian Love Call"...both songs were previously recorded with Ray's arrangements on his 1975 Misty album and on this 2021 digital album he kept his original arrangements but used modernized instrumentation. 

The pop song "No, Not Much" appears as track ten. This is a song that builds upon irony and tells how the man doesn't think much about the girl or anything else in his life...only to contradict himself time after time...eventually asking himself if she ever walks out on him would he like it? The response? "No, Not Much"! Ray delivers his version of the pop-standard "You Don't Know Me", track eleven. The song comes from the pen of Cindy Walker...research says she gave Eddy Arnold co-writer credit because he thought up the song's title and storyline...but she wrote the lyrics. A classic love ballad it became a hit for the likes of Jerry Vale, Eddy Arnold, Ray Charles, and Mickey Gilley. It's been recorded by hundreds of recording artists and on this digital album Ray Stevens takes his turn at the song and hits a home run. Now, not to be overlooked, is the finale: "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows / Over the Rainbow". The medley features a little over a minute's worth of lyrics from "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" before it morphs into "Over the Rainbow" for the duration of the song. Ray had recorded "Over the Rainbow" in 1975...and in this 2021 recording he instrumentally modernized his arrangement and he also sang it almost note for note as he did in 1975! He hits a lot of high notes pretty much matching his 1975 rendition. Nouveau Retro was the fourth in a series of four digital albums Curb Records released on Ray Stevens this year. In June all four of those digital albums will be released in CD format in a box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The box set will enable us to discover the names of the musicians on these recordings, too. 

Ray did an extraordinary job with this digital album and the previous three. His music arranging skills were put on full display and it also spotlighted the diversity of music styles he likes to record...something which has always been there throughout his career...yet often overlooked/overshadowed by his novelty songs.