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.