Ray Stevens: "Gas" at 10.9K...

Here on this August 31st night I report that the current Ray Stevens novelty song, "Gas", has gained more unique views to stretch into 10.9K territory. The specific total is 10,906 unique views. The pattern lately is every 5 to 6 days there seems to be an accumulation of 100 unique views or more. The audio track reached 10,700 on August 21st, then it rose to 10,805 on August 27th, and today on August 31st "Gas" has reached 10,906 unique views. I'll keep tracking the progress of the audio track until a new single release becomes available...whether that follow-up will be audio-only or it's released as a music video remains to be seen. We know that Ray is to release a new comedy album in October...so presumably there will be another song to emerge before the release of the new album. Anyway, as I stated, I'll continue to track the unique view totals of "Gas" on YouTube until the next release comes along. Now, based upon the numerical pattern, I suspect that the "Gas" audio track will reach the 11,000 mark by the end of the week.

Ray Stevens audio track: "Sweet Dreams"...

Hello all...we're going back half a year to February 2021 when Ray Stevens released Great Country Ballads as a digital download on Curb Records. The digital album hit the internet on February 26th. If you search the archives here, for the month of February 2021, you'll find my review of the album. You can also find my review over on Amazon. Great Country Ballads was the first of four digital albums from Ray Stevens released this year. Those four digital download releases were released last month, in CD format, in a box set titled Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. I've uploaded audio tracks from Great Country Ballads before and this blog entry focuses on another audio track, "Sweet Dreams", that can now be found on both Great Country Ballads and Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The song is a country music classic...but it also crossed over and reached the pop music audience. Here's a small summary of the song's history... 

The song's writer, Don Gibson, reached the Country singles chart twice with the song...and each time it finished in the Country Top-10. There's a 1956 Top-10 recording and then there's a 1960 Top-10 recording...but in between the two Top-10 renditions from Don Gibson there was a massively popular rendition in 1956 by Faron Young. In fact, the Top-10 recording by Faron Young, was the bigger hit...eclipsing the peak position of Don Gibson within the same year. Although the song had become an established country hit in the late 1950s a recording by Patsy Cline became a big hit in 1963. She died in an airplane crash in March 1963...and her recording hit the chart in April. It reached the Country Top-10 and crossed over to the pop chart...reaching the Top-50 nationally which enabled her recording to become the definitive one with audiences outside of country music. It would be her rendition, in years and decades to follow, that overshadowed the earlier recordings from Don Gibson as well as Faron Young.

Now, a little more than a decade later, Emmylou Harris would reach number one with her recording...and Reba McEntire had a Top-20 country hit with it. The song, as mentioned, became a country music classic and versions of the song were recorded by dozens of recording artists. On Great Country Ballads Ray Stevens gets his chance at "Sweet Dreams" and it's got a nice, easy-going delivery. Ray overdubs his own vocals in different harmonies to create background accompaniment for this recording. Glen Duncan is the fiddle player as well as the mandolin player on the recording. Ray plays keyboards and is credited with synthesizer generated instrumentation (such as trombones, harps, etc.) and he is also credited on this album as a drummer. I don't know if the drum is also created with a synthesizer or if Ray is actually playing a set of drums. Denis Solee plays the saxophone while Jerry Kimbrough plays guitar. In fact, every track on the album features instrumentation from Ray, Denis, and Jerry. You're going to love the Ray Stevens recording of "Sweet Dreams".      

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century"...a month later...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens once again!! It's been a little more than a month since the release of the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The official release date was July 23, 2021. For some reason or another the Amazon product page has a release date of July 7, 2021...but of course this is inaccurate. The correct release date is July 23rd. Also, if you visit the Amazon product page you'll see that they have 16 copies of the 4-CD box set available. This is the first time that I've seen a specific number given...usually the product page states that it's unavailable or that it'll be in stock soon. Since the product page features the statement that there are only 16 copies available I decided to write a blog entry about it. I'm doing this because I know that some people prefer to purchase music through Amazon out of habit and due to comfortability. There are those who aren't familiar with or don't want to purchase music directly from any recording artist's website or any record label's website, no matter who the recording artist or record label happens to be, and so consumers automatically turn to Amazon in most cases to get their music. The downside is if the music is consistently unavailable for purchase where most people choose to shop, such as Amazon, chances are it'll cause a consumer to just move on and never think to return to see if something's become available. So, for those who prefer purchasing music through online stores like Amazon, there is a limited supply of 16 copies of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century now available. I led off the blog entry mentioning how Amazon has the wrong release date on the product page. This is the banner that appeared on Ray's social media prior to the 4-CD box set's release...

The banner has changed, slightly, since then to read 'Available Now'. Anyway, I post that image because it states exactly when the 4-CD box set was released. As mentioned I have no idea where Amazon got the July 7, 2021 date. Some may ask why am I coming across all worked up over an error like that. It's a pet peeve of mine is all I can say. I prefer seeing accurate information...even on something that some may consider trivial like an album's release date. My review of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century was published on Amazon back on July 28th. I had written it days earlier and posted it here on my blog page but I wasn't able to post it to Amazon until their product page enabled reviews to be submitted. You read that correctly, and as odd as it sounds, for several days after the box set was released Amazon wasn't allowing any reviews to be submitted. I don't think I'd ever seen that kind of thing happen before. 

So, then, the 4-CD box set's been available for one month and six days. Ray posted several video clips promoting the collection several weeks ago. A lot of publicity had already been generated in the first half of the year when Curb Records was issuing one Ray Stevens digital album per month...and this box set contains CD copies of those four digital download albums. There hasn't been any sort of write-up or publicity generated outside of Ray's social media for Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. There were several write-up's earlier in the year from country music websites promoting Great Country Ballads as well as Melancholy Fescue, for example, and those publicity pieces mentioned the forthcoming box set but there hasn't been, to date, an official promo piece appearing in those websites that have spotlighted the release and availability of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. Those websites reach people outside of the Ray Stevens orbit. 

The music heard on the box set runs the gamut from country music to pop music to torch songs to bluegrass music. There's love ballads, up-tempo sing-a-longs, lighthearted lyrics, heavyhearted lyrics, there's dramatic productions, there's uplifting messages and painful messages in the songs Ray Stevens sings on the box set. In the video promo, uploaded back on July 23rd, Ray mentions that the box set is available at his own website as well as other select stores. Amazon is one of those other online stores...and there's 16 copies of the 4-CD box set available there at the moment.   

Ray Stevens: Don Schlitz interview...

Songwriter Don Schlitz was born on this day and to celebrate the birthday Ray Stevens uploaded an interview he did with the songwriter on an episode of CabaRay Nashville. The two share some things in common...besides both being accomplished songwriters they're both members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ray Stevens was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 whereas Don Schlitz was inducted in 1993. Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019 whereas Don Schlitz was elected two years earlier in 2017. Don is also a member of the National Songwriters Hall of Fame. That particular Hall of Fame isn't format specific...it's a combination of songwriters of all music styles. His home state of North Carolina inducted him into their North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010. Similarly Ray Stevens was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Don has written and co-written dozens of songs in his career. Music historians like to rate songs by their commercial performance, above all else, and when they do this the bulk of his biggest hits as a songwriter were recorded by Randy Travis. A lot the songs Don wrote were in collaboration with Paul Overstreet...as well as other songwriters. 

To give you an indication of the songs by Randy Travis that Don had a hand in writing: "Forever and Ever, Amen", "Deeper Than The Holler", "On the Other Hand", "Point of Light", and "Heroes and Friends". He won CMA Song of the Year and Grammy awards for "On the Other Hand" and "Forever and Ever, Amen". His songwriting career got off the ground in 1978 when Kenny Rogers recorded "The Gambler". This song went on to win CMA Song of the Year and a Grammy. Don was also the writer of "The Greatest", a single that Kenny released in 1999 which was described by nearly all music critics as a 'surprise hit' considering that it had been nearly 8 years since he'd last been on the country singles chart (late 1991/early 1992). A couple of other songs Don Schlitz had a hand in writing: "40 Hour Week" by Alabama, "The Old School" by John Conlee, and several songs recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter: "I Take My Chances", "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", and "I Feel Lucky".

In the video clip Ray opens by singing a piece of the song "16th Avenue"...and then brings out Don Schlitz. Ray asks Don how he came to be a songwriter in Nashville. Don tells of his origins in North Carolina and how astonished he felt learning that a person could make a living as a songwriter. He sings a medley of several songs in the video clip...

Ray Stevens: The CabaRay Showroom re-opens in one week...

Well, here we are...one week from today Ray Stevens will re-open his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. The re-opening is scheduled for September 4th. The doors to the facility open at 5pm Central and during that time fans will have access to the Piano Bar. I visited the CabaRay in 2018 and we (my brother and I) were free to roam around and look at the art work on the walls, the trophy case upstairs, and all of the other eye catching sights inside the CabaRay. The CabaRay gift shop, when we were there, opened up approximately a half an hour before the main doors to the showroom. In 2018 the Piano Bar opened at 5pm; the Gift Shop opened at 6pm; and the doors to the showroom (the actual area where the concert takes place) would open at 6:30pm. This season it's just a little bit different. The fans who choose a dinner option will begin being seated at 5:30pm Central. The fans who purchase concert-only tickets will begin to take their seats at 6:30pm Central. It's mainly a dinner theater...and for the fans that order a dinner they should be seated inside the showroom beginning at 6:30pm. All of the food is fixed ahead of time on the day of the concert...all of it is based on the online orders. 

When you order tickets online and you specify a dinner option, when you show up on the day of your concert, you will enter the showroom when the doors open and, obviously, find your seat; several minutes later, after a waiter or waitress brings out napkins, straws, and your choice of soft drink (or water), the food you ordered when you purchased your concert tickets will be brought out to you within minutes. So, just in case you have never gone to a CabaRay concert yet, you don't order your food in person on the day of the concert. You order it when you purchase your tickets and then the cooks prepare it on the day of the concert and they bring it out to you once you show up. The showroom has balcony seating...but dinner isn't served up there for obvious reasons. Nobody wants to have food or utensils accidentally falling down from the balcony and onto someone's table or body...and so if you purchase balcony seating (the cheaper tickets) remember that food isn't going to be served up there. The showroom is an intimate gathering place...and if you decide to purchase balcony seats for economic reasons you're still going to have an awesome view of everything. The showroom isn't so spacious that balcony seating will cause Ray to look ant size...so there's no need to be concerned over that. Also, you don't have to purchase a dinner in order to sit downstairs. They changed the seating policy in 2019. You can choose to purchase concert-only tickets and sit among those who are eating. In 2018 everyone who purchased floor seating (non-balcony seats) automatically had a dinner...but that changed in 2019. 

My guess is some of the fans/concert goers wanted the ability to attend a CabaRay concert and sit at floor level regardless of whether or not they chose a dinner option.   

You can visit the CabaRay webpage by clicking HERE.    

Ray Stevens: "Misty" performance from 2015...

Hello one and all...earlier today Ray Stevens uploaded a performance he gave at the Casino Rama in Orillia, Canada. He has uploaded several performances from that 2015 concert onto his YouTube channel and "Misty" is the latest upload from that concert. When Ray performed that concert his rendition of "Misty" was turning 40 that year...and when you see the video I'm sure you'll notice that Ray gives just as much energy and execution into the performance in 2015 as he's given every year...going back to 1975! He simply is a great recording artist.

The video is of high quality...as are the other video clips from the 2015 concert. Ray has made it clear, however, that the Casino Rama concert was recorded for online presentation only. That announcement was made when several other Ray Stevens fans were wondering if this footage will make it's way onto any future DVD release. 

Have any of you made your way to the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom yet? You were aware that the Piano Bar is open, right? Pianist John Jonethis is appearing at the Piano Bar inside the CabaRay. Ray re-opened the Piano Bar last month and there have been several video uploads on YouTube promoting the re-opening. However, tonight is the final night of the Piano Bar exclusive...next Saturday (September 4th) Ray Stevens returns to the concert stage at the CabaRay showroom. John Jonethis had been performing at the Piano Bar on Friday and Saturday nights, beginning at 7:30pm Central time, but starting next Saturday he'll begin playing in the Piano Bar at 5pm Central until a little bit before Ray's concert begins at 7:30pm Central. Yes...Ray Stevens will no doubt sing "Misty" at the CabaRay. 

Ray Stevens: Gas at 10.8K

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! "Gas", the current novelty song from Ray Stevens, has pushed into the 10,800 area in online play on YouTube. As of this writing the audio track, "Gas", has 10,813 online plays. The audio track reached 10,700 YouTube plays on August 21st and it's increased by 113 YouTube plays since that time. People are either finding the song on their own or they're discovering the song in this blog. As of this writing "Gas" remains the only single from Ray's forthcoming album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, which is due out in October. The audio track hit YouTube on June 3rd...next Friday the single will be at the 3 month mark. In the past most record companies usually promoted a single for at least 3 months before moving on to the next single release. 

Now, of course, I'm speaking of the era in which record companies sent their music to radio stations. Today we're listening to music in a lot of different ways...and once it's put online it's typically there for years and years...and so with that business model a single can take as long as it needs in order to 'breakthrough'. Ray, for as long as I've been a fan, continues to conduct his career in the traditional way...so perhaps he or Curb Records will release a new online single the further we get into September...just prior to the release of the comedy album in October...but then again they may just wait until release day to issue a new song to coincide with the release of the album. Whatever they end up doing I know that I'm excited about purchasing the new album in October!! It's going to be Ray's first comedy album in 6 years...and "Gas" will be among the songs on it... 

Ray Stevens audio track: "Put It In Your Ear"...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! One of the various comedy albums that Ray released in his career was Shriner's Convention in 1980. The title track reached the Top-10 on the Country singles chart early in 1980 and it was soon followed by the album which also reached the Top-10 on the Country album chart. The only single release from the album, in the U.S., was "Shriner's Convention" backed by "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me". His comical rendition of "Hey There" was released as a single in Canada and overseas. The album had 9 tracks on it...not the typical 10 or 11 tracks that appear on a vinyl album. It was Ray's first all-comedy album in 6 years. 

In between 1975 and 1980 he recorded/released all types of songs...mostly country-driven love ballads and an occasional novelty single. The fact that Shriner's Convention was Ray's first all-comedy album in 6 years meant that he was focused on serious, non-comical recordings...even though, in his concerts, he would bounce around from serious to comedy and back to serious then back to comedy (as he does to this day). The fact that there wasn't an abundance of single releases from this album goes hand in hand with Ray's intent on focusing on non-comedy recordings. 

I've read trade publications, online, from this time period where a few months after Shriner's Convention was released Ray was quoted as saying that he was working on the follow-up album, which would be ballads and dramatic recordings. By the end of the year Ray issued the first single release from the Shriner's Convention follow-up album, the wonderful "Night Games" ballad. It would be another 4 years following the late 1980 release of "Night Games" before Ray would begin to market himself as a country comedian...but have a listen to the great "Put It In Your Ear" from the 1980 Shriner's Convention album! The song is from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr. and it comes across as a love ballad but there's a couple of comical interludes in the song that may take you by surprise.

Ray Stevens: Rex Allen, Jr. sings "Crying in the Chapel"...

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! The days are seemingly flying by...the next thing we'll know it's going to be Saturday September 4th and grand re-opening of the CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. September 1st is next Wednesday. I'll write a couple more blog entries about the CabaRay re-opening the closer we get to September 4th. Meanwhile...

Rex Allen, Jr. was born on this date in 1947. The son of the late cowboy singer/actor, Rex Allen, the son nearly followed in his father's footsteps. The most noticeable difference between father and son is that Rex Allen, Jr. received weekly television exposure for many years on The Statler Brothers Show on The Nashville Network. That television series was the highest rated show on the cable channel during it's entire 7 year run (1991-1998)...and for most of the show's history Rex Allen, Jr. was a featured vocalist. He also hosted the spin-off series, Yesteryear, but returned to The Statler Brothers Show when the spin-off series ended production. He wrote one of the State songs for Arizona titled "Arizona". Rex Allen, Sr., by contrast, achieved the bulk of his visibility in Western movies and was among Hollywood's Silver Screen Cowboys which also featured Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Lash LaRue, and Hopalong Cassidy. Rex, Sr. also lent his voice to hundreds of commercials, movies, and documentaries. He narrated a number of Disney movies (The Incredible Journey and Charlotte's Web, just to name two).

When Rex Allen, Jr. guest starred on Ray's CabaRay Nashville series he spoke about Rex, Sr. and he spoke of his own recording career as well as the family's close ties to Arizona. The subject of "Crying in the Chapel" came up...which Rex Allen, Sr. recorded in 1953...long before the song became synonymous as an Elvis Presley gospel song in 1965. Rex, Sr. took the song to the Top-10 on the Country chart as well as the Top-10 on the Pop chart in 1953. 

  

Ray Stevens: Collin Raye sings "Love, Me" on CabaRay Nashville...

Hello Ray Stevens fans! If you were listening to country radio in the 1990s you were going to hear the songs of Collin Raye. I remember when he came onto the scene in 1991 with a song called "All I Can Be is a Sweet Memory" from the pen of Harlan Howard. It's a song that I associated with Conway Twitty...he'd recorded it in 1985. Collin had a Top-40 country hit with the song in 1991...and his very next release, "Love, Me", would reach number one early in 1992. It's the birthday of Collin Raye and when he appeared on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville "Love, Me" was one of the songs he performed. Collin had a string of Top-10 hits starting with "Love, Me" in late 1991/early 1992 and running through "Couldn't Last a Moment" in 2000. On Collin's birthday last year Ray uploaded a clip from CabaRay Nashville of the interview he did of Collin and the performance of "My Kind of Girl". This year the video clip is "Love, Me"...

Ray Stevens: "Gas" at 10.7K

Earlier this morning I took a look at the unique views/YouTube plays for the current novelty song from Ray Stevens, "Gas". When I checked the totals earlier today it had 10,695 plays. That was a 30 play increase from the day before. Now, just a few minutes ago, I decided to check the totals and it's sitting with exactly 10,700 plays.

As far as I know, given that there's been no news releases to the contrary, everything that's scheduled to take place in Ray's calendar of events will continue to proceed. His comedy album is still expected to be released in October, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, and in less than 2 weeks from now (September 4th) he's expected to re-open his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. I came across a blurb while searching the internet for Ray Stevens stories and I hesitate to make mention of it because it's well in advance and things are always subject to change...but on October 6th, according to the Opry website, Ray Stevens is scheduled to make a guest appearance on the Wednesday Night Opry. 

Guest appearance you ask? Yes, as hard as it may be for some to believe, Ray isn't a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He has made guest appearances on the Opry many, many times over the decades but he isn't a member of the Opry. A basic explanation as to why some country recording artists aren't Opry members goes back to a decades long rule that had to do with the number of appearances a member had to make per year. A long held rule stipulated that members had to play at least 25 to 30 Saturday nights per year at the Opry; and with 52 weeks in a year, that meant that a recording artist who happened to be an Opry member, well, that recording artist would only get the chance to play a venue that paid more for a Saturday night appearance 22 to 27 times a year because the rest of their Saturday nights would be spent taking in a basic union scale performance fee at the Opry. That appearance requirement no longer is enforced...it hadn't been enforced for more than 30 years, I guess, but that's a big reason why a lot of recording artists that had legendary careers in country music weren't members of the Grand Ole Opry. Also, the Grand Ole Opry isn't limited to just Saturday night anymore. The Friday Night Opry came along in 1979...and this was followed in the next couple of decades by the Tuesday Night Opry and the Wednesday Night Opry. The Saturday night broadcast is the only one referred to as The Grand Ole Opry but all of the Opry broadcasts take place on the same stage...either at the Opry House or downtown at The Ryman Auditorium.  

When Ray appears at the Opry I'm going to go ahead and speculate that he'll be promoting the comedy album during this October appearance...since that album is scheduled to be released in October...but it's hard to tell what he'll perform. There's the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, that could also receive publicity with this October performance. Will Ray sing "Gas" at the Opry or will he sing some new comedy song that none of us have heard? Will he sing any of the songs from the 4-CD box set, too? Will he decide not to sing anything new and instead unleash a classic like "It's Me Again, Margaret" or "Everything is Beautiful" on the Opry audience? The closer we get to that October 6th date I'll blog about it more.  

Ray Stevens: A look back to 3 years ago...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I just come over from one of Ray's social media pages and was reminded that on this day in 2018 he received his star on the Music City Walk of Fame in downtown Nashville. The walkway is located directly across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame. The walkway is a tourist attraction and because of this there is a large sign that sits out front that reads Music City Walk of Fame Park. If there wasn't a sign showing the way a tourist wouldn't even realize it's even there unless they researched the area beforehand. As you could tell the Music City Walk of Fame is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The names of recording artists, of all music formats, are pressed onto material (I'm assuming either stone or marble) and they're placed into the walkway throughout the park. When my brother and I went to Nashville a few months after Ray's CabaRay was opened to the public, early in 2018, we went to the Music City Walk of Fame Park. The two of us were walking along the sidewalks of downtown Nashville, after having parked the car in a lot, and as we were on our way to the Country Music Hall of Fame I spotted this park across the street and so we went over there and walked around looking at the names of singers on the walkway. I remember thinking to myself "why isn't Ray part of this walkway?". Anyway, my point is, we visited the walkway nearly half a year before Ray received his Walk of Fame Star in August. The recipients of Stars on the walkway aren't tied to country music exclusively...but the bulk of walkway Stars are country music personalities...and that's simply because country music is the dominant form of music in Nashville even though all kinds of music is recorded there. Ray received his Walkway Star along side Jeannie Seely, Brenda Lee, and pop artist Ben Folds. Bluegrass/Country singer, Ricky Skaggs, was on hand to present Ray Stevens with a Walkway Star. 

When you visit the Music City Walk of Fame the Ray Stevens star is located next to the Ben Folds star. In fact, the star directly behind Ray in the photo off to the right is the one for Ben Folds. In that photo Ray gives us a zany grin...and he's looking off to his right. There are several photos of Ray from the Walk of Fame ceremony that you can find on the internet. There's one of Ray and Ricky Skaggs in front of the star...several photos of Ray with his arms spread apart, nearly identical to the photo on the right, but with different facial expressions in each one. Some of the non-country performers that have a Star on the Music City Walk of Fame are: Peter Frampton, Steve Winwood, Michael McDonald, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, and Steven Curtis Chapman just to name several. The Music City Walk of Fame is a tourist attraction, as mentioned, and if you receive a Star on the Walk of Fame there's a lot of ceremonial festivities that take place. It gets overshadowed, figuratively and literally, by the Country Music Hall of Fame which sits across the street but never let that fool you into believing that those who receive a Star on the Walk of Fame aren't just as honored. All you need to see are Ray's photographs during the Walk of Fame ceremony and hear his acceptance speech to know how tickled he happened to be that people thought enough about him and felt him worthy enough to give him a Star on the Music City Walk of Fame. Now, several months after Ray received his star on the Walk of Fame (a little less than 6 months later), he received the news that he was going to be one of the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ray would be elected in the Veterans Era category in 2019. In several commentaries from him following the news release and after the induction ceremony later that year he was just as thrilled as he'd been in 2018 when he received a Walk of Fame Star. 

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville Behind-the-Scenes

Hello to all of the Ray Stevens fans!! It's been a couple of days. I sometimes take a break and let those who venture into this Ray Stevens Music Journey have a chance to read up on some recent and older blog entries that I've written before they're buried in the archives. Ray uploaded the Behind-the-Scenes documentary of his CabaRay Nashville television series. This documentary was released on DVD a few years ago and at one time was a gift that was sent to people supporting local PBS stations carrying Ray's television series. The series has aired in local PBS syndication for a number of years...there's 78 half hour episodes. It's a nearly half hour documentary and you'll see Ray and those involved with the show discuss the production and you'll see rehearsals and you'll see the announcer, Bill Cody, who doubles as the documentary narrator. It's like a combination life story of Ray Stevens with behind-the-scenes footage from his television series sprinkled throughout. A lot of the artists who have made appearances on Ray's show are also part of the documentary as are the band members. It's a real fun documentary to watch...a lot of footage of Ray interacting with the stage crew, the band, and rehearsing. There's even footage of him literally writing music notes on a sheet of paper for the band. I guess it was a music arrangement that he'd just thought up and it hadn't been transformed onto standard size music sheets yet. It's a fast moving half hour documentary.

Ray Stevens: Photos from Iconic Songs of the 20th Century...

The title of this particular blog entry has more to do with the photos of Ray Stevens that appear on the back of the compact discs contained in the 4-CD Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set. The box set, by the way, continues to chart in the Country New Releases Top-100, CDs and Vinyl format, on Amazon. As I reported on nearly a week ago Amazon is once again out of stock of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. It's one of those things I'll never understand...other box sets that appear on Amazon haven't gone through the sort of roll out that Ray's box set has. For one thing it was not available for purchase at Amazon on release day...then once it became available for purchase there they placed a disclaimer on the product page indicating it would take at least a month to two months for shipment to take place...and now it's returned to being unavailable/out of stock. Now, of course, if you purchased your copy of the box set through Ray's online store as I did you wouldn't have any such shipment issues or delays. The link to Ray's online store is HERE. The link will open up to the box set product page and from there you can place your order. If you've never ordered anything from his official webpage then you'll need to register an account (create a username/password) and once registered you'll be able to place an order. 

The titles of the 4 compact discs are: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. Those of you who are long time Ray Stevens fans and already have this box set in your collection you've no doubt seen these photos. Ray posted them on his social media the other day and I'm going to share them in this blog entry. I'm going to share them as a collage. I'm going to post four collage panels and each one will feature the front and back of each compact disc.

Great Country Ballads, as most of you know, was the first of four digital albums from Ray Stevens to be released this year. Curb Records released it digitally back in February. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Melancholy Fescue, his Bluegrass album, was the second of four digital albums from Ray Stevens to be released this year. Curb Records released it digitally back in March. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Slow Dance, filled mostly with love songs and pop standards, was the third of four digital albums from Ray Stevens to be released this year. Curb Records released it digitally back in April. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Nouveau Retro, a kind of random selection of pop standards, torch songs, and rhythm and blues standards transformed by Ray Stevens with different music arrangements, was the fourth and final digital album from Ray in this 4 album series. Curb Records released it digitally back in May. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. There wasn't any photo on the back of Nouveau Retro, as you can see. I don't know why. Anyway...all four of those compact discs are contained in the Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set! 

Ray Stevens: The CabaRay re-opens in less than a Month...

Hello one and all...in less than a month from now Ray Stevens will re-open his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. The grand re-opening in September 4th...and if you look at a calendar that's 2 weeks from this coming Saturday (August 21st). In the meantime the CabaRay's Piano Bar re-opened back on July 9th. It's been open every Friday and Saturday featuring John Jonethis. The Piano Bar is like a warm-up show during the nights Ray Stevens is there. John Jonethis plays the piano while the customers sit around at tables listening or talking quietly among themselves. Ray re-opened the Piano Bar on July 9th, to my way of thinking, as a sort of test to see if people were comfortable enough to attend a public event. It's been open now for at least a month, every Friday and Saturday evening, and so it must have passed it's test. 

The John Jonethis residency at the Piano Bar is using a title now: Nightlife in Nashville. At the moment the Piano Bar opens at 7:30pm on both days. When Ray begins performing at the CabaRay showroom again on September 4th the Piano Bar will open up at 5pm...then it will close down during Ray's concert...and then re-open after Ray's concert ends. The Piano Bar remains open until sometime around Midnight following each Ray Stevens concert. It's become something of a tradition that Ray, sometimes, will make an appearance after the concert inside the Piano Bar. The official name of the Piano Bar is the Bill Lowery High Spirits Emporium. The CabaRay showroom re-opening on September 4th is on a Saturday. 

Ray Stevens: "Gas" at 10.6K

Never fear, Ray Stevens fans, I am here reporting on the latest numbers for "Gas"...the audio track on YouTube that Ray and Curb Records uploaded. It's hard to believe that the novelty song is already more than two months old...it was uploaded on June 4th. Thousands of people have heard "Gas", so far, but I remain the only person online that's blogging about it on a consistent basis. As of this writing "Gas" has reached 10,612 people and personally I think that's pretty good for an audio track that hasn't gotten nearly the amount of promotion and publicity that a major record label, such as Curb Records, could provide. It's mystifying why there hasn't been much publicity surrounding the song...and yet more than ten thousand people have discovered it through YouTube. By saying what I just did I'm more or less curious why the song hasn't been promoted much on country music websites...earlier in the year several websites publicized his digital album releases but the same attention, or the same publicity, whichever word you choose to use, hasn't found it's way to "Gas"...yet...   

Keep in mind that "Gas" will be part of an upcoming comedy album from Ray Stevens in October called Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. I don't know if "Gas" will be issued as a music video prior to the comedy album's release or if the audio track will remain the chosen method of pre-album publicity. We don't know if there will be a different comedy song released just prior to the comedy album in October. If you had never heard "Gas" you'll love it...and if you've already heard it...listen to it again or share it with your online friends and family.   

Ray Stevens: Heartland Network "Country Classics" Upcoming Appearance...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Earlier this month Ray Stevens was a guest host on Country Classics, a television series airing on the Heartland Network. On that episode Ray provided introductions for a series of music videos by the likes of Alan Jackson, Lorrie Morgan, John Berry, and others. I just found out that later today at 4pm Eastern Ray Stevens will once again appear as a guest host on Country Classics. The description on the program's social media site states that Ray will be introducing music videos of Marty Stuart, Jeannie Seely, The Bellamy Brothers, and others. Those videos didn't play when Ray guest hosted back on August 2nd...so this will be a different episode with a different set of music video introductions from Ray. The promo on social media for this episode states that "Guest host Ray Stevens is back with an all-new episode of Country Classics from the Ray Stevens CabaRay!". In the August 2nd episode there was a unity theme...featuring music videos of Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning" as well as Ray's "Dear America". We'll find out later today what the overall theme of the August 16th episode is when it hits the airwaves at 4pm. If you don't get Heartland Network on your television you can watch online on the It's Real Good TV website or on Get After It Media by clicking HERE. I provided the link to Get After It Media because once you open that particular website there's a big 'Watch Heartland' button and after you click that button you'll be watching the channel. If you choose It's Real Good TV you'll need to search around the website for access to Heartland Network. As a re-cap: Ray Stevens guest hosts Country Classics today on the Heartland Network at 4pm Eastern! As of right now it's 90 minutes till showtime!

Ray Stevens audio track: "Rusty Old Halo"...

Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans! A release by Ray Stevens from a little more than 5 years ago in June 2016, Just a Closer Walk With Thee: Gospel Favorites, is the subject of this blog entry. Well, to be more specific, one of the audio tracks from that album is the main focal point of this blog entry. The album contains 12 tracks...two of the tracks are medley performances...and among the 12 there's three tracks that are original works: "Do You Hear Somebody Knocking?" (Buddy Kalb, writer), "Something's Comin'" (Buddy Kalb, writer), and "Just a Touch of Jesus" (Don Cusic, writer). The 2016 album was a follow-up to a 2014 release, Gospel Collection Volume One, and each album is part of the Gaither Gospel Series. Ray's Clyde Records imprint joined Bill Gaither's company in the distribution of both gospel albums. The 2014 release contained a lot more medley performances...but with the 2016 release there's, as I said, only two. 

One of the audio tracks from Just a Closer Walk With Thee: Gospel Favorites is "Rusty Old Halo". The song comes from the pen of Bob Merrill and some associate the song with Mahalia Jackson and the Falls-Jones Ensemble as they were the first to record the song in 1955 and she was a legendary figure in gospel/spiritual recordings going back to the early 1930's and so when she recorded the song she more or less put it on the map, as the saying goes. When Ray released the 2016 gospel album and I did some research I found out that "Rusty Old Halo" is also heavily associated with Hoyt Axton. In fact, if you do an online search for the song in 2021 as I also did in 2016, the first results to show up is video and image content of Hoyt Axton. He'd released an album by that title in 1979 and his recording hit the Country Top-20 that year. The song's storyline deals with the behavior of an un-named person...and based on that person's actions on Earth the witness of the behavior suggests that if that person is allowed into Heaven he'll hopefully get a "Rusty Old Halo" and several more unflattering gifts. Ray's recording, in a word, is fabulous! The music arrangement is great and the background harmonies (all Ray Stevens) go hand in hand. 

Ray Stevens: Music arranger, music publisher...just some of his awesome talents..

If you're a regular visitor to this fan created blog or if you're very knowledgeable about the career of Ray Stevens then you should know that in addition to being a recording artist Ray is also a songwriter, a record producer, a musician, a music arranger, and a music publisher. Ray has produced and arranged practically everything he's recorded since the mid 1960s. A co-producer is something rare on a Ray Stevens album although he's enlisted a couple over the decades. In addition to being the producer and arranger of his own recordings what many people don't even know is that Ray spent many years as a session musician, music arranger, and for a little while was also in the Artist and Repertoire department at Mercury Records and later, Monument Records. Ray had a lot of first hand experience...a/k/a on the job training...in the early to mid '60s as a music arranger/session musician in addition to being tasked with finding songs for other artists on the label. In April 2010 Ray Stevens was honored with a certificate officially recognizing him as a Nashville Cat. This title/honor is bestowed on session musicians...and even though Ray's recognition came almost 40 years after he began limiting his appearances on other artist's songs it was still fun seeing Ray interviewed about his session work and listening to him speak about the artists he'd worked with along the way at Mercury and Monument...as well as the work he did on recordings with developing/unknown acts. 

His association with Dolly Parton during her years at Monument Records gets a lot of publicity but he was also involved, at some point or another, in the careers of Brook Benton, Margie Singleton, Leroy Van Dyke, Ronnie Dove, Pete Fountain, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Bare, Joe Dowell...as well as working with a group of artists who emerged, as he did, from the Georgia music scene in the late '50s and early '60s: Jerry Reed, Billy Joe Royal, Tommy Roe, and Joe South. The common link among the Georgia acts happened to be music publisher, Bill Lowery. Ray also played on several recordings by Elvis Presley in the mid '60s time period. An often told story is how Ray and Charlie McCoy were hired to play trumpets on an Elvis session. The irony being that Ray's main instrument was a piano while Charlie's main instrument was harmonica...but they were selected to play twin trumpets on an Elvis session. Ray is a multi-instrumentalist as is Charlie McCoy.

All of us know that Ray produces and arranges almost everything he's recorded...but here are just a few of the songs recorded by other performers featuring music arrangement by Ray Stevens...

In September 1964 Dusty Springfield recorded the following songs that Ray arranged: "Guess Who?", "Live It Up", "Here She Comes", "Now That You're My Baby", "I Want Your Love Tonight", "If Wishes Could Be Kisses", "I Wanna Make You Happy", and "Don't Say It Baby". Ray was also the orchestra director according to album credits. Those recordings were spread out over several mid '60s albums. Ray was also a music arranger for several recordings by Dottie West between the years of 1965 and 1967: "You Took the Easy Way Out", "Before the Ring on Your Finger Turns Green", "Wear Away", "I'll Help You Forget Her", "Give Him My Love", "No One", "Childhood Places", "Everything's a Wreck", and "Like a Fool". Something you also may not know is the massive hit from Bobby Bare in 1966, "Streets of Baltimore", featured Ray Stevens as the music arranger. He isn't credited as the arranger on the single release but if you have the Streets of Baltimore album he's credited on the back of the album cover.

An interesting bit of information is a Charlie Rich recording from 1966, "No Home". Ray Stevens is credited, in big letters, as the music arranger on the vinyl release of the song from Smash Records. However, when that label's parent company, Mercury, re-issued the single in 1974 the music arranger (Ray Stevens) wasn't credited. Charlie, by that time, had moved to Columbia Records and the Epic imprint. Once Charlie's breakthrough single hit in 1973 and following a series of four straight number one hits there was a rush of archive recordings of Charlie from the 1950s and 1960s released in the aftermath from Sun Records and RCA Records. As mentioned "No Home", the 1966 Charlie Rich recording that Ray arranged, was re-issued as a Mercury single in 1974. Now we move into the music publishing aspect of Ray's career. As I mentioned earlier Ray has published almost everything he's recorded since 1966. He's had a couple of music publishing companies over the decades...the most used publishing imprint was Ahab Music Company. This publishing company was not only attached to all of the songs that Ray Stevens composed but the company was attached to numerous songs written by Layng Martine, Jr. for a number of years in the early '70s. Layng's compositions while he was a writer for Ray's publishing company were recorded by numerous artists throughout the '70s and into the '80s. Layng recorded a song he'd written, "Rub It In", and Ray was the publisher. Layng's recording became a chart hit in 1971 but the timing of it's release proved to be a problem and it didn't hang around too long on the charts. Billy 'Crash' Craddock recorded a version of the song a couple of years later and it became a monster hit for him...selling millions of copies...and given that Layng was it's writer and Ray was the song's publisher the two of them shared in the success of Craddock's hit. 

"Way Down", from the pen of Layng and published by Ray, was recorded by Elvis Presley. It holds the distinction of being the final hit single from Elvis during his lifetime...it was on the singles charts in 1977 at the time of his death. A song that Ray co-wrote, published, and recorded in 1976, "Can't Stop Dancing", would become a Top-20 Pop hit in 1977 for The Captain and Tennille. Ray produced and published a novelty song from Chet Atkins, "Frog Kissing". The song came from the pen of Buddy Kalb and it featured Chet singing in addition to playing guitar. Ray sang harmony vocals on the recording. A couple more recordings from Billy 'Crash' Craddock, from the pen of Layng Martine and published by Ray Stevens, became hits: "Just a Little Thing" reached the Country Top-30 in 1976 and then the eye catching song title, "Hubba Hubba", became a Country Top-20 hit in 1978. It was in the mid '70s time period when Ray's publishing company was given a new name: Ray Stevens Music. In addition to the singles from Billy 'Crash' Craddock the Gentle Giant, Don Williams, recorded one of Layng's songs that Ray published, "Time On My Hands", and it appeared on Don's Visions album. The song was later issued as a single in Germany in 1978. Dicky Lee's Top-30 Country hit in 1979 from the pen of Layng Martine that Ray published, "Workin' My Way To Your Heart", soon followed. 

Reba McEntire had an early hit in 1981 with another Layng Martine song that Ray published, "I Don't Think Love Ought To Be That Way". It almost made it into the Country Top-10...peaking just outside. Reba's brother, Pake, had a Country Top-20 with "Every Night" in 1986...from the pen of Layng Martine and published by Ray. Now, then, with the exception of Ray's own recordings that he either wrote, co-wrote, or were written by or with Buddy Kalb, the Pake McEntire single from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr. would be the final publishing credit for Ray Stevens Music to reach the singles charts until 1992. Mark Petersen joined Ray Stevens Music and two of his songs became massive hits for Sammy Kershaw. Ray published "Cadillac Style" (1992) and "I Can't Reach Her Anymore" (1994). In 2010 a song co-written by Ray's daughter, Suzi Ragsdale, titled "Bad Angel", was recorded by Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, and Jamey Johnson. This trio recording, though not released as a single, was nominated for a Grammy in 2011. Ray was the music publisher of that recording.

Now, then, that's a generous overview of the career of Ray Stevens as a music arranger and music publisher. It's by no means definitive. I'm still discovering songs that Ray either produced, arranged, published, or was part of the session musicians for other recording acts over the last 6 decades (1960-1970, 1970-1980, 1980-1990, 1990-2000, 2000-2010, 2010-2020). I take notes if I ever come across such information and like now I'll put it in a blog entry. I began writing this blog entry a little past 11pm...and I glance over at the clock and it's past 2am!! I've been on this particular blog entry for more than 3 hours!! Enjoy all of that technical information I've researched and provided...and the next time you read something on the internet from somebody insisting that Ray Stevens is 'just a comedy act' think about this blog entry and share it with them. It'll open their eyes to a more complete picture of Ray Stevens.  

Ray Stevens: A Versatile Recording Artist He Is...

Now, of course, for those of you who are long time fans of Ray Stevens then you don't really need to be introduced to the wide variety of songs that he's recorded over the various decades. All of us know how widely varied the music of Ray Stevens truly is but yet there are still some that only think of comedy when they hear the name 'Ray Stevens'. Ray is truly a versatile recording artist and in this blog entry I'll be embedding several performances from Ray that highlight that versatility in music styles. In the meantime, though, I came across some commentary the other week from those who had watched a video on YouTube that Ray had uploaded a number of years ago. The commentary was revealing in a lot of ways. One comment contained some incorrect information...somebody had remarked that Ray was still performing at a theater in Branson, Missouri. The remark was written as if the person was very sure of his accuracy. In reality Ray hadn't been in Branson regularly since he did a series of concerts at The Moon River Theatre in 2012 following the death of Andy Williams. Ray, prior to that, had been in Branson for a series of concerts at The Welk Theater in 2010. Ray last performed on a regular, nightly basis in Branson during the 2005 and 2006 seasons headlining his former theatre. He'd leased it out to the Country Tonite organization for 10 years, 1994-2004, but then that organization decided to exit Branson. Ray did some interior redecoration of the theater in 2004 and into 2005...and he re-opened his Branson theater later that year. He sold the theater in 2006. Now, in the previous decade, Ray was a regular performer in Branson for 3 seasons (1991, 1992, and 1993) at the same theater he'd leased out to Country Tonite for 10 years. 

Anyway, my point is, the commentary I came across on YouTube was, what's the best description, it was stuck in a time warp...or it was as if the commentator's memories were so frozen in a certain time period that he genuinely believed that Ray Stevens, after more than 30 years, was still performing in Branson, Missouri. Now, being the type of fan that I am, I just had to leave a reply and bring some of them up to speed on all things Ray Stevens and that he's currently headlining his own place in Nashville, Tennessee...it'll be re-opening this September 4th...it's called the CabaRay. It's my understanding that had I not left a reply then they would be completely unaware that Ray no longer performs at a theater in Branson. 

If you have a wide collection of Ray Stevens albums or have seen him in concert then you know that he sings all types of songs. Oh, yes, he sings all types of songs...and even though comedy is what many people come for he nevertheless shows off his ballad side, too, on both the older and newer songs. Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, for example, is his latest release. It's a 4-CD collection of four albums that were previously released digitally. The 4-CD box set is mainly for those, like myself, collectors, who also like holding music in their hands whether it's on a compact disc or on vinyl...but the 4-CD box set will also, no doubt, become an item in his CabaRay gift shop, too. It's my hunch that the bulk of sales for the box set will come by way of the gift shop...to my way of thinking there will be those who will see the product inside the gift shop, some who may not even be on the internet much if at all, and will purchase it directly, in person, and bypass online mail order. Now then...here's a small collection of audio from Ray Stevens demonstrating the various types of songs he's recorded over the decades...

Anyone that considers themselves a Ray Stevens fan should know "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". Ray recorded the song in 1961 and the video above is from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. Yes, you read the year correctly...Ray wrote and recorded the song in 1961...60 years ago. In fact it was released as a single in July of 1961. What were you doing around this time 60 years ago? Chances are, if you were a teenager or young adult, you were hearing "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" and thinking how groovy....cool...and funny this Ray Stevens guy happens to be. 

Now we're going to jump from crazy novelty to Ray Stevens giving us his take on the Frank Sinatra classic, "That's Life". Ray recorded a CD titled Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!? and among the Sinatra songs that Ray covered happened to be "That's Life". Here we have Ray performing that song on an episode of CabaRay Nashville...from inside the CabaRay...

Wasn't that fun to watch?? I'll bet you didn't realize that Ray Stevens sang the classic songs made famous by Frank Sinatra...and sang them with just as much gusto as Sinatra. So, then, I've embedded a crazy novelty song and a Sinatra classic...both performed by Ray Stevens...now we're going to spotlight one of his performances of a stone-cold country music classic, "Abilene", which was made famous by George Hamilton, IV. 

As you can see from the video this performance was also taped inside the CabaRay. It was taped for one of the final, as of this writing, episodes of CabaRay Nashville. There are currently 78 episodes of Ray's television series...9 of the episodes were taped inside the CabaRay. The first sixty nine episodes were taped at a recording studio in downtown Nashville in the years prior to the CabaRay having it's grand opening in 2018. The television show went into production in 2015 and it remained in production until the spring of 2018.

Now, this blog entry focusing on the versatility of Ray Stevens, it wouldn't be complete without his recent recording of "MacArthur Park". This is a fantastic performance...if you hadn't heard his rendition of this iconic song you're going to love it. There's a lot of instrumentation...and Ray plays almost all of the instruments by way of a synthesizer and he does the string arrangements. The song is part of the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, featured on Melancholy Fescue.

Ray Stevens: "Gas" at 10.5K

Well, here we are on a steamy Friday the 13th and in this blog entry, as you can tell by it's title, the Ray Stevens comedy song, "Gas", has moved into the 10,500 play total. The unique views for the "Gas" audio track is 10,521. This is a pick-up of 103 plays over the last 4 days; back when I posted a previous blog entry "Gas" was sitting with 10,418 audio plays. Everything seems to be on schedule...the comedy album that "Gas" will appear on is still slated to be released in October. The name of the soon to be released comedy album is titled, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. I'm wondering if the title of the album will also be the name of one of the songs...it's hard to tell. Ray has named his albums after song titles a lot of time...most of those have been with the non-comedy albums he's released...while most of his comedy albums use phrases associated with historical figures or catchphrases. The cover art of the comedy albums are almost always tied into the album's title...giving consumers a visual. I can't wait to see the cover art for the upcoming comedy album...in the meantime the audio of "Gas" is featured below... 

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" Online Update...

Well, it's me once again!! I've been keeping track of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century and it's appearances on Amazon's New Releases Country Top-100 within the last couple of weeks. The 4-CD box set reached a peak position of number 38 on the CD/Vinyl list of Country New Releases and a peak position of 30 on the CD/Vinyl list of Soundtrack albums. The 4-CD box set continues to chart on the CD/Vinyl Country New Releases. I visited Amazon earlier today and discovered, however, that the 4-CD box set is once again 'temporarily out of stock'. It had been available for purchase and Amazon had been accepting orders for awhile...and during that time Iconic Songs of the 20th Century bounced all around the Amazon Top-100. This hour it's sitting at 94. A place where the 4-CD box will likely never become temporarily unavailable is at the official Ray Stevens webstore. I purchased my box set there several weeks ago and I've put it in my collection with the rest of my Ray Stevens albums. The music from the box set is in my online music library...the music got there from when I purchased the digital albums separately during the first half of this year. You can purchase the 4-CD box set HERE. I posted this several blog entries ago but I decided to share it again...it's a 40 second video clip of Ray promoting Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The video promo hit YouTube back on July 23rd...

Ray Stevens: The Birthday of Jerry Kennedy

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! Today is the birthday of one of Ray's close friends in the music industry, Jerry Kennedy. The two often worked on recording sessions together. If you have Ray's first two studio albums on Mercury Records (1,837 Seconds of Humor and This is Ray Stevens) you should be familiar with Jerry Kennedy's name. If you have any albums or vinyl singles from The Statler Brothers, Tom T. Hall, Roger Miller, country music releases by Jerry Lee Lewis, then you should be familiar with his name because Jerry Kennedy was the record producer for those artists during their time on Mercury Records and their affiliates in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Jerry conducted the orchestra on those early 1960's Ray Stevens albums as well as co-produced, with Shelby Singleton, numerous singles Mercury released on Ray in the early to mid 1960s...and nearly 20 years later Jerry Kennedy co-produced an album with Ray in 1983. That album, Me, is thrilling. The album contains 10 songs and here they are...in random order: "My Dad", "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out", "Game Show Love", "Me", "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee", "Special Anniversary", "Piedmont Park", "Mary Lou Nights", "Kings and Queens", and "Yolanda". As mentioned Ray Stevens and Jerry Kennedy produced the Me album. To date it's the last Ray Stevens studio album to feature a co-producer. One of the single releases from Mercury Records on Ray Stevens in the mid 1960s is this crazed novelty called "Mr. Baker the Undertaker". Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy were the record producers...

Ray Stevens: "Gas" at 10.4K

Well, here we are at the start of a brand new week...yes, it's 4pm but it's my first time to be online after doing some offline errands (going to the store; checking my mailbox at the post office; etc.). The current novelty song from Ray Stevens, "Gas", has gained even more organic views on YouTube. In a previous blog entry I spotlighted the video reaching more than 10,300 and in this blog entry I'm reporting that "Gas" continues to climb in play total...now it has 10,418 YouTube plays. As of this writing the comedy song is still scheduled to be on an upcoming Ray Stevens comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. This comedy release is scheduled for October...and it looks as if it'll continue to remain an October release. I hadn't seen any sort of social media posts to indicate that the album would be released ahead of schedule and so, for now, it'll remain an October release. We also don't know if Ray will release another song from this upcoming comedy album in the days leading up to it's release or if "Gas" will remain the only single until after Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore gets released. I'm anxious to discover the songs that'll be on that collection. The October comedy album will be his first all-comedy album since 2015. 

Ray Stevens audio track: "Earth Angel"...

Several months ago back on May 25th I uploaded the Ray Stevens audio track of "Earth Angel". The song is on his Nouveau Retro album. The definitive version for a lot of people is the recording by The Penguins, a rhythm and blues group, who took the song to number one on the Rhythm and Blues chart and into the Pop Top-10 (peaking at number 8). There was also a rendition of the song out in the same year by The Crew-Cuts, a group that specialized in covering Rhythm and Blues songs for the Pop music market. In those days (early to mid '50s) recording artists or their songs didn't freely cross-over from one music format to another as is often commonplace today. 

In those days if there was a big selling hit in the country music market, for example, pop radio disc jockeys would demand a recording of the song by a pop music artist rather than play the country music recording. The same was true for Rhythm and Blues. If a song in that format was a big sales hit then pop music stations would want a recording of the song from a pop music artist rather than play the Rhythm and Blues recording. In Country music most disc jockeys preferred country artists stick with country music rather than bring in "outside music" from the pop and rhythm and blues worlds. 

Some recording artists in the country format were able to break such unwritten rules due to their overwhelming popularity while other country singers actually had some of their recordings and albums reaching the pop music charts...a rarity for country music in the '50s...but a recording artist like Ray Stevens absorbed all kinds of music in his youth and because of that he's never been one to be tied down to one music format. Musically non-conformist his songs and his albums have appeared on pop and country charts; and for a stretch of, let's say 10 years (1969-1979), his music routinely appeared on both the pop and the country charts...usually simultaneously. There were several appearances from Ray on the Rhythm and Blues charts in the early 1960s. Since 1980 he's been marketed as country as well as country comedian but, to me, Ray Stevens remains uncategorized and uneasily defined and I like it that way!!

Ray's rendition of "Earth Angel" is fabulous, in my opinion, and as of this writing it's gotten 914 YouTube plays. In mid July, when I wrote a blog entry about the YouTube play for the audio tracks on Nouveau Retro, the play total for "Earth Angel" was 878. Now with 914 that's a pickup of 36 organic plays in less than a month.  

Ray Stevens: BJ. Thomas sings "Mr. Businessman" on CabaRay Nashville...

Hello once again!! Those of you who are also fans of the late B.J. Thomas may know that he'd recorded a version of a song Ray wrote and released as a single, "Mr. Businessman". B.J.'s version of the song was recorded the very same year Ray released his recording...1968. In the video clip below you'll hear Ray and B.J. discuss the song...you'll also hear B.J. joke about the length of the song and cautions those who attempt to sing "Mr. Businessman" by advising that it's very easy to lose your place and lose yourself in the song if you're not careful. In other words he's saying that it's an easy song to mess up, lyrically, if you're not completely into the performance. 

He says that his recording of the song was never put out as a single because he didn't want to compete with Ray. The rendition that B.J. recorded matches the mid-tempo rendition found on Ray's 1968 Monument Records album, Even Stevens. Ray would later re-record the song as a ballad and this rendition was placed on a Greatest Hits album from Barnaby Records in 1971. B.J.'s recording of the song is on his 1968 album, On My Way, on Scepter Records. The big single from that album, for those curious, was "Hooked on a Feeling". Here's the video clip of Ray Stevens and B.J. Thomas where they discuss and perform "Mr. Businessman"...

Ray Stevens: Musicians on "Sophisticated Lady"...

Several blog entries ago I spotlighted the various musicians that participated in the four digital albums that Ray Stevens released this year. As you probably know I didn't know the names of the musicians until I was able to get CD copies of those digital albums. I shouldn't say it like that, though...the musician credits aren't an automatic thing when it comes to CD's. I've got numerous compact discs without any musician credits whatsoever so I was grateful to see musician credits accompany the 4-CD Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The thing I'm doing with this blog entry is focus on the musician credits for "Sophisticated Lady", one of the songs found on Melancholy Fescue. If you have the digital album or if you have the 4-CD box set "Sophisticated Lady" is track 8 on Melancholy Fescue. If you like to keep your compact disc releases in chronological order, as I often do, Melancholy Fescue will be compact disc two in the 4-CD box set...preceded by February's Great Country Ballads and followed by April's Slow Dance and May's Nouveau Retro. 

Ray Stevens did the string arrangements on this recording. The overall project featured string arrangements from both Ray as well as Bergen White. As far as string arranging Ray is credited on 17 of the 48 recordings found on the four albums. Bergen White did the string arrangements on the other recordings. Melancholy Fescue and Nouveau Retro feature the heaviest amount of string arrangements from Ray. As far as studio musicians go on Melancholy Fescue Ray played piano, keyboards, conga drums, harp, bass, flute, and tympani. On "Sophisticated Lady", specifically, the rest of the musicians were: Ned Luberecki (Banjo); Glen Duncan (Fiddle); Jerry Kimbrough (Guitars); and Rob Ickes (Resophonic Guitar). 

When you listen to the song you're going to hear a word right out of the 1930s...the music was written by Duke Ellington in 1932...released as an instrumental in 1933...and eventually lyrics were added to the song by Mitchell Parish/Irving Mills as I wrote about in a previous blog entry. The word that you'll hear is nigh. The word means near or something that's soon to happen. I've never used that word before but I understood what it meant in the context of the song and I'm sure a lot of you can figure out what the word means when listening to the song but I thought I'd explain what the word means, anyway. 

A lot of the songs on the four albums feature phrases and words that help show the time period upon which they originated. I think it's artistically important for recording artists to keep lyrics intact on cover albums, such as the four Ray released, because it helps illustrate a song's time period. Some artists implement minor changes in lyrics of pop standards and country music classics so that it doesn't cause confusion for contemporary listeners who aren't familiar with older terminology and phrases. Unless I didn't notice there aren't any lyrical changes on any of the songs Ray recorded for the four albums released. If you discover any lyrical changes I'd like to know. 

Ray Stevens audio track: "Sophisticated Lady"...

One of the great performances by Ray Stevens on his Melancholy Fescue album is his rendition of "Sophisticated Lady". I liked the song from the moment I heard it...and the first time I'd heard the song was this past spring when I purchased Melancholy Fescue. The song's origins go back to 1932...written originally as an instrumental by Duke Ellington. It was released as a single in 1933 and it became a hit song. Mitchell Parish wrote lyrics to the song soon after and shares credit with publisher, promoter, and artist manager, Irving Mills. The song became a jazz standard...the lyrical rendition of the song being covered by so many recording artists over the decades and the instrumental rendition also becoming a jazz standard. An irony about "Sophisticated Lady" is, while the lyrical rendition has appeared on numerous albums by both pop and jazz artists, the 1933 instrumental by Duke Ellington remains the only rendition to have appeared on a weekly music popularity chart. 

I intentionally haven't listened to any other lyrical version of "Sophisticated Lady" but based on the Ray Stevens recording the song has some unusual phrasing but the melody is great and of course the Bluegrass flavor adds to the fun...but lyrically the song tells a much different story as we're told about a woman who fell out of love with someone in her past, perhaps out of selfishness, and now she's attempting to find someone else...and we're told that this "Sophisticated Lady", in private, cries about her earlier actions and we're left with the mental picture of some woman lonely as a result of an earlier relationship decision she made. It's a somewhat clever and different variation of the torch song...traditional torch songs would lyrically tell stories of women begging, sobbing, torn up over a lost love. Yet here we're told of a woman who still has strong feelings for a former flame but publicly she hides it...in her guise as a "Sophisticated Lady". The Bluegrass flavor of the recording is incredible and, yes, it invites toe-tapping and it creates a positive, cheery atmosphere masking the sadness of the lyrics. I wrote a blog entry about this recording back in the spring but I decided that I wanted to highlight it again...and I'll more than likely include a link to the audio track or embed it another blog entry soon.