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.