Ray Stevens: T. Graham Brown CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello all the fans of Ray Stevens once again!! Yesterday was the birthday of T. Graham Brown...he reaches 66. If you're not familiar with him he was what you might consider a country/blues-soul/rocker kind of singer. He had his share of love ballads but the thing that audiences loved more, based upon their reaction, was his soulful, bluesy performances where he'd ratchet up the sound of the music as well as the sound of his voice. You will hear what I'm referring to if you're not familiar with him. 

The song that introduced me to him was "With This Ring" and come to find out it wasn't even one of his bigger hits. By the time I discovered him on the radio he'd already had a 5 year run of Top-10 and number one hits that I'd never heard before. I had limited listening of radio back then (as a kid and teenager) and I wasn't completely aware of everybody making records within country music outside of who my parent's listened to. My grandfather is the one who got me hooked on Ray Stevens songs and my parents had songs from other country singers on the vinyl albums in their collection...but my parents rarely listened to the radio unless we were all in a car going somewhere. 

My parents, obviously, controlled the radio dial in our car and if a song came on that they knew they didn't like or one that they weren't familiar with, as far as the singer goes, they'd change the station. So, chances are, T. Graham Brown may not have been someone my parent's were familiar with and so whenever a song of his came on they must've changed the station rather than listen...as far as I know that explains why I had never heard of him until I seen him sing "With This Ring" on a television show in the early 1990s...5 or so years after he put out his first album. 

On this CabaRay Nashville appearance T. Graham performs "Wine Into Water". It's a song about an alcoholic who speaks to God and asks a powerful question of him. The song was a much bigger hit than any weekly music chart would suggest. Once a song connects with people, regardless of how commercially popular or unpopular the song may be, the impact can be monumental sometimes and people will remember or recall a song or a singer forever based on impact. The fact is T. Graham Brown had numerous hits yet 1998's "Wine Into Water" became his most popular for the sheer impact it has with people who hear it...

Ray Stevens: The Five Days of Halloween, Part Five...

Happy Halloween eve...here in my area the kids and younger adults did the trick or treating and running around in costumes this past Thursday evening/night but most of the country waits until either tonight or actual Halloween day (tomorrow) to participate in the trick or treating and scary movie watching, etc. etc. I've been writing this mini blog series for several days and in this installment I'm spotlighting a 1988 performance by Ray Stevens of "The Booger Man". The song comes from his comedy album that year, I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. I've seen Ray sing this song twice on television but this is my first time seeing this particular performance. The song is about a couple out on a date but it begins with Ray declaring that he isn't afraid of various monsters and characters from famed horror movies...he name drops several well known characters but admits that "The Booger Man" is the one thing that scares him. Terry McMillan is on hand in this 1988 performance on Nashville Now. Terry played the harmonica on the recording and so he's standing near Ray in the appearance. You'll also see Nashville Now musicians Larry Sasser (steel guitar), Jerry Whitehurst (piano), Fred Newell (electric guitar), and the camera may pick up footage of Billy Linneman (bass). I don't know the drummer's name. Larry Sasser, ironically enough, was credited as a Dobro player on Ray's 1988 comedy album...but he's known for playing steel guitar. When Ray was a guest host on Nashville Now in 1991 one of the people Ray interviewed was Larry Sasser and they discussed their experiences together in the music industry. Ralph Emery, the host of Nashville Now, is seen at the beginning of the video.

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 130,000 unique views...

Well, in this blog entry I'm focusing on Ray's music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". It's been several days since I've had the music video in the spotlight and in that time the video's gotten nearly 5,000 additional unique views. It brings the total number of unique views, to date, from 125,239 back on October 24th to 130,221. A pickup of 4,982...18 unique views short of an even 5,000. I came across a blurb about this song in the latest edition of the Music Row online magazine...in the weekly feature written by Robert K. Oermann...and he gave it a positive reaction just as he did a few months ago when Ray issued the novelty song, "Gas", which is also on Ray's current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video was uploaded on YouTube the very day the comedy album was released, October 8th. 

"Gas" has only been available as an audio track. Curb Records issued an audio track of "Gas" on June 4th which was several months before Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore was released. Then, following the comedy album's release, "Gas" appeared as an audio track again...this time as one of the featured tracks on the comedy album. The earlier audio track features promo art showing a line of cars at a fuel station...a duplicate audio track is also on YouTube with promo art featuring the official album photo of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The June upload of "Gas" has more than 11,000 plays whereas the October upload of "Gas", as of this writing, has over 1,800 plays. YouTube is, of course, a video hosting site and the unique views of video content greatly outnumber the plays of audio tracks that get uploaded there. The music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" has over 130,000 unique views, so far, but the audio track of the same song is nearing 3,000 plays and both the music video and audio track hit YouTube on the same day! If Ray were to ever put out a music video of "Gas" I think it would generate hundreds of thousands of unique views, too...but for now "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is the current music video.

Ray Stevens: The Five Days of Halloween, Part Four...

In the previous blog entry I spotlighted a Ray Stevens novelty song from 1964...in this blog entry we're fast forwarding 44 years where we find ourselves in 2008 and the recording, "Witchcraft". The song had previously been a hit for Frank Sinatra in 1957 and Ray recorded his version in 2008 on the salute album, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. The song's writers are Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. Ray's Sinatra album was later issued by Curb Records in 2009. The Sinatra salute album is great and in this Halloween-themed blog entry "Witchcraft" is an obvious selection to spotlight. There's an audio track from the 2008 album on YouTube...but there's also a performance of the song by Ray on his CabaRay Nashville television show. The performance is also on YouTube and it's also on Ray's Halloween YouTube playlist and so I've decided to embed the performance, too...

I hadn't decided if I'll post Part 5 on Saturday or wait until the 31st...actual Halloween day. More than likely I'll post the 5th and final Halloween-themed blog entry Saturday evening or night. In that blog entry I'll include a couple more Ray Stevens songs centered around Halloween and take a look into the month of November.

Ray Stevens: The Five Days of Halloween, Part Three...

Well, hello all the Ray Stevens fans!! In this installment of the Halloween week blog series I'll be embedding an audio of a novelty song from Ray that he wrote and recorded in the mid 1960s which ties into the Halloween spirit. The first thing, though, is to provide a link to the YouTube playlist of Halloween songs over on Ray's YouTube channel. He has a Halloween Playlist...it's been there for several years but he's added more songs/music videos to the playlist over the course of time. The latest addition to the Halloween playlist is the audio track of "Soap Sally". There will be another addition to the playlist, soon, but at the moment it's comprised of 12 songs...some of the songs are in the form of audio tracks, some are performance videos from television appearances, and some are music video productions...and it's anyone's guess what the 13th song to the playlist will be when they add it. You can see the songs that are on Ray's Halloween Playlist by clicking HERE. 

The Halloween song I'm focusing on in this blog entry is 1964's "Laughing Over My Grave". This spooky song deals with a man who's constantly cheating on his girlfriend...but one day he suddenly gets this paranoid feeling after receiving a disturbing look from her. He plays like he's secure and in control of things...declaring at one point that he's 'too cool to die'...but, in truth, he's now scared of what will happen to him. His guilt ridden mind works overtime wondering not if, but when, she'll get her revenge and as an added hook you'll hear Ray's falsetto, haunting laughs at various points throughout the song. It's the B-side of "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer". 

Ray Stevens: The Five Days of Halloween, Part Two...

Happy Halloween week Ray Stevens fans...and in this blog entry I'm putting the focus on two spooky songs that deal with legends and the kind of local small town folklore that's passed from one generation to another. I'm debating in my mind which song to embed first...and I think I'll go with a 2009 recording from Ray Stevens titled "Hangin' Around". This song is set in southern Georgia and it tells the eerie story of a child of a policeman named Grady whose wife died giving birth. Ray tells of the girl, named Lady, who later in life hooks up with a woman named Sadie. Eventually the two leave town but return half a year later with a guy, Tony, who Lady says is her husband. Sadie eventually goes crazy, we're told, and Tony disappears. Ray lets us know that some people in town say Tony's in the swamp "Hangin' Around" and as the music plays in the background with sharp hits on the harmonica the mood is dramatic and ominous as Ray sings about perhaps the locals are going to find much more than tree limbs and things twisting in the winds. What is Ray telling us? "Hangin' Around" is from his 2009 album, One For the Road. That album was originally sold exclusively at Pilot truck stops during the first half of 2009 before it was eventually made widely available. The song wasn't highlighted much and the album itself was overshadowed by a music video release in December 2009...but it was a good album nonetheless. Here's "Hangin' Around"...  

Another Halloween-type highlight, a spooky song is from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. It's "Soap Sally"!! Yes...the tale of the woman in the woods who takes great pleasure in throwing her victims into cauldrons so she can cook them up. I've spotlighted the song in a blog entry not too long ago but given it's Halloween week I'm spotlighting it once again! It's so engaging and funny but maintains the spooky, funky overtone throughout...I know you're going to love it...

Ray Stevens: The Five Days of Halloween...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! I usually do one or two blog entries per year focusing on the Halloween songs that Ray has recorded. The songs, I don't believe, were never recorded specifically for Halloween...they're songs that fit the Halloween theme. I title this blog entry as such due to it being five days before Halloween on October 31st. I don't plan on writing a blog entry every single day until the 31st but you never know...once I get on a roll I sometimes can go on and on.

An hour ago Ray uploaded onto his Facebook page his performance of "Haunted House" from an episode of the CabaRay Nashville television show. The novelty song is connected to a performer who went by the name of Jumpin' Gene Simmons. He put the song out in 1964 and had a hit with it. The song had previously been recorded several years earlier, in 1958, by Johnny Fuller but it's the 1964 recording by Jumpin' Gene Simmons that made an impact and the one that appears on numerous novelty song various artist compilation albums. Ray recorded his rendition of "Haunted House" for his 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, released in 2012. He uploaded an audio track of the song onto YouTube in 2019 and last year he uploaded the performance from CabaRay Nashville. Today he added the television show performance onto his Facebook page...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" unique views update...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I didn't realize I hadn't written a blog entry in a couple of days. I had been busy off-line (putting contact paper on my bedroom wall...not as easy as it sounds) and doing other off-line things...one day led to another...but here I am again. I kept up to date on Ray's social media posts, though, so it wasn't like I've been living under a rock the last couple of days. An update on the unique views of Ray's current music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", finds it with 125,239. This is a pickup of 5,302 since the last time I'd written a blog entry about the music video. At the time the unique view total was 119,937. 

His comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, continues to chart among the Amazon Top-100 New Releases, Country CDs and Vinyl. I didn't include a copy of the ranking in this particular blog entry...instead, as you can tell, I decided to post an image of his comedy album. I hadn't, I don't think, posted a photo of the back of the album yet. If you recall I've posted a lot of photos within the last several weeks...most of them centering around the comedy album...but near the end of this blog entry I'll be posting what the other side of Ray's comedy album looks like. One of the recent social media posts from Ray is a promo for his Halloween playlist on YouTube. The playlist features music videos, audio recordings, and live performances of Ray with a Halloween overtone. When I looked at the playlist earlier I suggested that they should add a song from the new comedy album to that playlist. "Soap Sally", in particular, is a spooky song about a witch with a cauldron and the evil that exists in her mind. I hadn't gone over to his playlist, yet, to see if they added that song to the list or if there's any sort of reaction about my suggestion. Some of the songs on that playlist include "Rockin' Teenage Mummies" (1965); "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" (1966); "The Booger Man" (1988); the music video and a live performance of "Sittin' Up With the Dead" (1990, 2016), "Haunted House" (2012) ...and so, in my way of thinking, "Soap Sally" doesn't seem like it would be out of place on a playlist like that. Have a look at Ray's current hit music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer"...

Ray Stevens: "Down in Mexico" audio track...

Hello all once again!! If you're a long time Ray Stevens fan then you know how much he idolized the music of The Coasters. Ray has recorded numerous songs over the decades that were originally recorded by the group. Some of those were "Along Came Jones", "Little Egypt", "Yakety Yak", "Searchin", "Poison Ivy", "Western Movies", and a few others. The group was actually a contemporary of Ray. A lot of people make the assumption that The Coasters were some kind of group that Ray grew up listening to as a kid when in fact The Coasters were hitting, nationally, right around the time Ray was just entering the music industry on a regional level in the 1950s. "Down In Mexico" was, in fact, the first major hit for The Coasters in 1956 and it appeared on their 1957 album, The Coasters. Their rendition features what became synonymous in nearly all of their songs: a raucous saxophone. The song comes from the pen of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller...the writers for almost all of the best-known songs released by The Coasters. When "Down in Mexico" was hitting in 1956 for The Coasters Ray was working as a disc jockey on a local radio station in Georgia...and as it turned out he was several months away from recording his debut for Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. 

"Down in Mexico" is more or less a love song...telling the story of a guy who goes down to Mexico and finds himself in a honkytonk where he comes across a piano player, Joe, wearing a purple sash. Throughout the song the line '...in a honkytonk Down in Mexico...' is heard often by backup harmony. In the rendition by The Coasters it's the various members of the group singing the harmony vocals...in the Ray Stevens rendition it's Ray's over-dubbed voice providing the background harmony. A wild dance erupts between a Mexican dancer and the guy that walked into the honkytonk...and all kinds of Mexican flavored instrumentation is heard throughout. Ray plays most of the instruments by way of his synthesizer. Buddy Skipper is credited with playing the tenor saxophone...Ray is credited with baritone sax...but there isn't a saxophone solo like there is with The Coasters rendition. 

One of the major differences in the Ray Stevens rendition besides the advance in music technology and audio advancements is the differences in the fade out. On The Coasters rendition Carl Gardner speaks in a Mexican-American accent as the song fades out. Ray mimics this same approach during the fade out but adds in a whole lot more vocal effects that elaborate on the man's excitement over encountering the obviously vivacious and alluring Mexican dancer. So, then, add this to the list of Coasters songs that Ray Stevens has lovingly brought back...

Ray Stevens: "Turn Your Radio On" at 50...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It was during this time of the year in 1971 that Ray was nearing the release of his rendition of "Turn Your Radio On". The single was released late in October and it hit early the following month. The single was Ray's third consecutive gospel recording following "All My Trials" and "A Mama and a Papa". Those two single releases hit the Easy-Listening audiences...resulting in two back to back Top-20 hits. On the left side of the page is one of the many picture sleeves that accompanied the vinyl single, "Turn Your Radio On", backed with "Loving You On Paper". I typically don't pick favorites when it comes to picture sleeves on singles but of all the picture sleeves to accompany the single I like that light blue picture sleeve the best. Some may prefer other ones but that's my favorite one...of the ones I've seen. The first three singles from the then upcoming Turn Your Radio On album (released early in 1972) all featured B-sides of non-gospel recordings. The reason for this is because the single releases came months before the recordings for the full length album and as a result the B-side recordings weren't gospel/religious in tone and two of the B-side recordings never appeared on the 1972 Turn Your Radio On album. The B-side of "A Mama and a Papa" was a sultry love ballad called "Melt" that has never appeared on any Ray Stevens album. The B-side of "All My Trials" was "Have a Little Talk With Myself" (a previously released A-side single from 1969). The four single releases from the 1972 album were: "A Mama and a Papa", "All My Trials", "Turn Your Radio On", and the gospel/rock hybrid rendition of "Love Lifted Me". That fourth and final single release was a hit record in the country of Bangkok. When that bit of trivia is mentioned it brings a lot of disbelief but I seen the international music chart in Billboard, called 'Hits of the World', in a 1972 issue and it shown Ray's recording of "Love Lifted Me" among that country's hit songs for several weeks. That single's B-side in general release was one of his recordings from 1970, "Monkey See, Monkey Do", but on promotional copies of the vinyl single the B-side was "Glory Special", which is one of the songs on Ray's 1972 gospel album. It's baffling why the promo single had a recording from the album as a B-side but the commercially released single of "Love Lifted Me" featured a previously released song from 1970...anyway...

"Turn Your Radio On" became a pop, Easy-Listening, and country music hit in the final months of 1971 and into early 1972. The initial release of the single late in 1971 means that it's just about to reach it's golden anniversary...50 years!! 

Ray's rendition of "Turn Your Radio On" is what I grew up hearing on several compilation albums that were released on Ray...most notably 1987's Greatest Hits on MCA Records. The song comes from the pen of Albert E. Brumley...a writer of several gospel standards. There have been several modifications to the song over the decades with lyric additions and lyric deletions but the lyrics heard in the Ray Stevens 1971 rendition are what I'm familiar with the most. Decades later (in 2014) Ray updated the song and included alternate lyrics for each verse but kept the familiar chorus of the song intact. Since I'm spotlighting the 1971 rendition, which turns 50 in the not too distant future, here's the audio recording of the 1971 rendition...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 120,000 unique views...

It's me once again...I decided to give it a few days before I wrote another blog entry detailing the Ray Stevens music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". The last one I wrote, back on October 16th, the video had surpassed 100,000 unique views. The specific total was 100,021. Today the video sits with 117,040 unique views. This is a pickup of 17,019 unique views in a span of four days. This is usually an indicator that the video's reached it's initial peak...but I do think even more and more people are going to discover the music video and it'll soon surpass 200,000...but it'll take time now that all of the publicity surrounding the release of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore has quieted down...the comedy album and music video hit on the same day, October 8th on YouTube, and during the first several days the music video soared in unique views until reaching the 100,000 mark on October 16th...it took a week and a day for the music video to break 100,000 unique views. The music video, as mentioned, has been on YouTube since October 8th (12 days ago). If you go by that math it's very possible that the music video will surpass much more than 120,000 unique views on October 24th. The video could even surpass that total at some point tomorrow...so I'll obviously pay attention and see if it surpasses 120,000 or more unique views at some point tomorrow.

Ray Stevens: Gary Puckett performance on CabaRay Nashville...

A couple of days ago (October 17th) was the birthdate of Gary Puckett. If you're familiar with 1960s pop music you should be familiar with him and his band. They billed themselves as Gary Puckett and The Union Gap. They wore replica uniforms of the Union Army while on stage and in their album cover photos. Union Gap happens to be an actual place in Washington State...near a town called Yakima where Gary was partially raised...he also attended school in Twin Falls, Idaho and graduated there in 1960. Later in the decade he formed a group called Gary and the Remarkables...and this group was eventually given a new name, Gary Puckett and The Union Gap. 

The group, commercially, had a massive two year run of success, from November 1967 through early 1970, with 7 singles that hit the Top-50 portion of the pop singles chart (5 of them reaching the Top-10). Gary guest starred on an episode of the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television show. 

In the episode Gary spoke of the formation of The Union Gap band plus his earlier years with a group called The Outcasts. He spoke of going solo while utilizing The Union Gap name for his back-up group...but eventually the band's name was phased out and from that point forward he billed himself as Gary Puckett. He and The Union Gap's biggest recordings were "Woman, Woman", "Over You", "Lady Willpower", and "Young Girl". In 2019, on Gary's birthday, Ray uploaded a video of a brief interview of Gary and a performance of "Over You". Last year on Gary's birthday Ray uploaded video of "Woman, Woman" and this year, on Gary's birthday, Ray uploaded a video clip of Gary singing "Young Girl". All of those video uploads come from the same CabaRay Nashville episode and here's the footage of "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett...

Ray Stevens: "Dis-Connected" audio track...

Hello all once again! I didn't want to get ahead of Ray and so I've held back writing a blog entry focusing on the audio track, "Dis-Connected". Earlier today on his Facebook page Ray posted an audio link to "Dis-Connected" and so I'm embedding the audio track in this blog entry. It's a song that I thought may become a future music video...and perhaps it will...but for now they're advertising the audio track. It's also worth noting that once the YouTube audio track appeared on Ray's Facebook page the play total shot up. I point this out because I think it's important to let a general audience know that a majority of Ray Stevens fans are reactive rather than pro-active. Music, or the latest news, has to appear on his official Facebook page before a large amount of the fanbase becomes aware. I go out and find news and information about Ray on my own...but I realize not every fan of his is like I am...but when I seen the play totals on YouTube of "Dis-Connected" rise so dramatically after it was posted on Ray's Facebook page it reminded me of how reactive most of the fanbase happens to be. The audio track had received several hundred new plays on YouTube today on the strength of it being shared on his Facebook page. 

This song, from the new Ray Stevens comedy album Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, is a whimsical story of online dating and online relationships. Ray sings it from the point of view of someone who's at a loss in all of this virtual madness. He mentions the concept of virtual reality given how many people, today, seem to exist on a device rather than interact in person. It's a bouncy sing-a-long song dealing with a relationship that's crumbling because the other person prefers the high tech gadgetry of smart phones and social media sites. Ray name drops numerous social media platforms and online jargon in the song. It's a little more than 2 and a half minutes and so it's one of the shortest songs on the comedy album. 

Ray Stevens: "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" remains on Amazon's New Releases Top-100...

Hello Ray Stevens fans from all over...and as you can see in the image off to the left the current comedy album from Ray Stevens, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, is still hanging in the Top-50 portion of the Amazon Top-100 New Releases (CDs and Vinyl, Country) this hour. The print may be small for many but it's ranked 47 among the Top-100 New Releases. I may have touched on this in a previous blog entry but if you do a digital music search for Ray's new album on Amazon you'll have to type in Ray's name AND the album's name. If you simply type in Ray's name you're not, for some reason, going to be able to see Ray's new album in the search results. I have no reason why Ray's new album isn't listed on Amazon's digital music page when you do a search for his name...but it's been available for 10 days now and it's still not easily found if you perform a digital music search unless you type in his name and the name of the album. Now, if you do a search for Ray Stevens CDs over on Amazon Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore is the first item in the search results. Again, I have no idea why the digital copy isn't as easily found in a search result as the compact disc is. For this reason I'm leaving a link to the digital copy of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Those who want to find the digital copy of the album click HERE. Also, if you want to listen to the new comedy album on other different sites you can click this LINK and it'll list all of the various streaming sites and online music sites that the new comedy album can be accessed/downloaded/streamed, etc. A lot of people choose YouTube or Spotify. Amazon is among the companies listed in the link I provided. There's various ways to hear/purchase Ray's songs. I often just narrow it down to Amazon, YouTube, and his own webstore. 

I don't know if Ray is planning any other kind of media appearances for the remainder of the month. He did a lot of activity in the lead up to the album and music video's release. He appeared in a high profile role as a guest announcer on Mike Huckabee's show last weekend; he spoke about the songs on what was then his upcoming comedy album in the online edition of People magazine which got spread around on social media for a couple of days prior to the comedy album being released; and just this past Tuesday he was a guest on the Grand Ole Opry...plus he's been putting on concerts at his CabaRay showroom every Saturday evening since early September. I'm in that anticipatory mood...I'm anxious to see what Ray will be doing next!  

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Saturday Night, October 16th...

A hello one and all to all the fans of Ray Stevens who stop by this blog entry or stumble upon this blog entry! Those of you attending a concert at the CabaRay showroom tonight you'll probably be treated to a performance of Ray's current music video hit, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". I came across a comment on Ray's social media by a recent concert goer who said that he enjoyed seeing Ray perform the song at the CabaRay last month...so, apparently, Ray was trying the song out on the fans at his CabaRay concerts before the music video emerged on YouTube. There's three concerts left during the month of October. Tonight's concert and then the concerts on October 23rd and October 30th. There will be four concerts in November on the 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th. As of this writing there isn't going to be any Christmas themed concerts in December...but that might change the closer we get to December. The month of December at the CabaRay has Ray performing concerts on the 4th, 10th, 11th, and 18th. Now, Ray may indeed bring out the decorations and insert Christmas songs into the set list as he did in 2018 and 2019 but as of now there isn't any advertisements for a Christmas-themed CabaRay production this year. 

If you'll notice for the month of December there's two dates back to back. Ray will perform a rare Friday night concert on December 10th. He's doing this because Christmas Eve falls on a Friday this year so that means Christmas Day will be on a Saturday. Now, obviously, Ray isn't going to be putting on a concert on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and as far as I know he won't be putting on a New Year's Eve concert on December 31st the following week, so, in an effort to have four concerts in December he's adding a Friday show on December 10th. Now, having said that, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that if there's demand that perhaps he'll put on a New Year's Eve concert as he previously did in 2018 and 2019. That's just my assumption, keep in mind, for as of now there isn't a New Year's Eve concert scheduled. New Year's Eve falls on a Friday this year. On the upcoming CabaRay concert calendar there isn't any concert scheduled for December 31st...but if they decide to put on a concert that night I'll blog about it.

<--- Don't you just love seeing that Country Music Hall of Fame plaque? Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. A long overdue honor. Anyway...the doors open at the CabaRay at 5pm. This is when the Piano Bar opens. Ray takes the stage beginning at 7:30pm. There was a contest on Ray's Facebook page last week. It was a contest running from October 11th through October 15th. The prize was two free tickets to the CabaRay. The contest required people to Like AND Share a specific Facebook post on Ray's page. The winner of the contest was announced yesterday and it was someone I've known of, online, for more than 10 years. If you visit Ray's Facebook page and search the posts you'll discover the winner's name. I didn't enter the contest because I knew I'd have no way down there. Tickets to the CabaRay concerts can be purchased HERE. The information box on the page I left a link to shows the Box Office hours. On Saturday the Box Office actually remains open until shortly before show time at 7:30pm...most people, who don't choose to purchase a dinner before the concert, walk up and buy their tickets on the day of the show at the ticket window. If you purchase your tickets online and choose to pick them up in person you'll need to, obviously, go to the CabaRay ticket window/Box Office during business hours and pick up your tickets in person.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 100,000 unique views...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! As a lot of you probably have been wondering I can officially announce that the current music video from Ray Stevens, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", has surpassed 100,000 unique views in a week's time. The music video hit YouTube last Friday evening (October 8th) and within a week it's risen to more than 100,000 unique views. From here on out it'll be interesting to see just how many more unique views the music video reaches...the total as of right now is 100,021. Yesterday I had written in a blog entry that the music video was nearing 90,000 unique views but here we are witnessing it surpass the 100,000 level. Earlier in the evening (late Friday night) I was monitoring the video, just briefly, and I was watching the unique views grow and grow until it entered 99,000 and I was hoping it would just be a matter of hours before it crossed into 100,000 territory. When I returned to the computer and checked the video statistics I seen that it pushed into the 100,000 territory and so here I am writing a blog entry about it.

On the heels of this hit music video I wonder if he'll put out further music video content featuring songs from the album? As soon as I find out if any music videos will be on the horizon I'll make mention of it in a future blog entry.    

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 90,000 unique views...

 

An increase of 14,469 unique views has pushed "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" near 90,000 unique views in a week's time. The total so far is 88,235!! It's hard to believe that an entire week's gone by since the release of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore and this music video. The two arrived on October 8th...and just this past Tuesday Ray Stevens was holding the Tuesday Night Opry audience in the palm of his hand as he sang "The Quarantine Song", "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", and "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". Saturday night Ray will be on stage at his CabaRay showroom at 7:30pm Central. The doors open at 5pm for the Piano Bar. I'm sure he'll be singing those three songs at the CabaRay. 

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, Ray's new comedy album Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore continues to appear on Amazon's Top-100 New Releases (CDs/Vinyl, Country). It's was on the Amazon Top-100 back when it was still available for Pre-order (beginning September 24th) and so it's nearing a month of being among the Top-100. It's floated around the Amazon Top-100 and reached a peak of 29 back on October 12th. As of this writing the album is at 43. The music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is the main focal point at the moment...but there will come a time when a follow-up will emerge. I've not really thought about such things because of all the excitement surrounding the release of the album plus the release of the new music video. Those of you who have now since heard all of the songs on the new album what would be the next release? Some of the people I speak to on social media think "Coco Cabana Band" might be the next single/video. Ray was the subject of an article not too long ago and the author provided an embed of the YouTube audio track of "Coco Cabana Band" rather than the music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". So, could "Coco Cabana Band" be what comes next? Personally, though, the song I want Ray to push next is "Dis-Connected". However, if "Coco Cabana Band" isn't the song he promotes next nor is it "Dis-Connected" I think it may in fact be the title track, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore". We'll see what happens!! In the meantime enjoy the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video...

Ray Stevens: "Old Dog" audio track...

Hello once again!! We've reached the end of another week...and a somewhat busy week for Ray Stevens. His comedy album continues to appear on Amazon's New Releases Top-100. It's ranked on the CDs and Vinyl/Country Music list. My review of the digital copy of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore is on Amazon. I had previously written a review for the CD release, too, and I was going to leave it at that but then I decided to post a review of the digital copy as well. I own a CD copy and the digital copy is in my online music library at Amazon. 

As I delve into more embedding of select audio tracks from the new Ray Stevens comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, I make my way to a selection called "Old Dog" from the pens of Frankie Lackey and Corene Lackey. I had heard this song done as a duet between Ray and Tanya Tucker on an episode of his television show, CabaRay Nashville. On this comedy album Ray sings it solo. I had never heard of the songwriters before and so I looked up their names and discovered that they've been involved in music for quite a number of years/decades, locally, in Georgia. "Old Dog" is a love song of devotion and it's got a catchy, up-tempo country sound. I could see Ray perform this song on any number of television shows or at his CabaRay showroom...and I'll bet if he ever put it into his concert set list it would be a crowd favorite.

Ray Stevens audio track: "Soap Sally"...

Now, not being too familiar with a lot of folklore and tales passed down from generations, I was unaware of the legend of "Soap Sally" until I heard this brand new comedy song from Ray Stevens from Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. He tells us all about the woman and the things she does to potential victims. From the pen of Buddy Kalb comes this tale of witchcraft, evil, and some may say debauchery and amorous. Ray's recording of "Soap Sally" shouldn't be confused with Tommy Roe's recording with the same title. Ray's recording is a completely different song. In this version of the urban legend Ray sings about a nude "Soap Sally" who, if she catches you, she will turn you into soap. A line in the song goes "...she'll catch ya, she'll hex ya, she'll tie you up with rope...". The story takes place in a town called Smoke Valley in 1999. One day someone from out of town decides to venture into the woods and contact "Soap Sally". In spite of being warned of her evil and insanity the out of town stranger glibly responds isn't everyone a little crazy? So, he makes his way into the woods and encounters "Soap Sally"...and it's at this point in the song where amorous kicks in...pointing out that there's someone for everyone, apparently. I don't think this will be released as a single or music video but I decided to spotlight it anyhow. The new comedy album from Ray touches all kinds of moods and subject matter and "Soap Sally" is one of the wildest comedy songs on the album from a lyrical standpoint.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 70,000 unique views...

The unique views continue to rise for the latest Ray Stevens music video. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" has surpassed 70,000 unique views. The specific unique view total as of now is 73,766. This is a dramatic increase since my previous blog entry. At that time the music video was nearing 60,000 unique views...and now it's over 70,000. It's an increase of 16,154 unique views since my previous blog entry!! The audio track, also on YouTube, has more than one thousand plays. It's the most played audio track from the new comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The audio of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" ranks number one in YouTube audio plays at 1.6K followed by "Coco Cabana Band" (1.3K audio plays) and the title track, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" (1.1K audio plays). The rest of the audio tracks from the album that Curb Records uploaded onto YouTube are below 1,000 plays. The ones closest to breaking into 1,000 YouTube audio plays are "My Better Half" (830 audio plays) and "The Gambler and The Octopus" (785 audio plays). Here's the hit music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer".

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 60,000 unique views...

Hello all...it's me once again!! I decided to take a look at the unique views of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" and not only has it surpassed 50,000 but it's nearing 60,000 unique views. Later this evening will mark the 5th day that it's been on YouTube. The video debuted October 8th...this coming Friday will mark one week. The same holds true for Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. It was released last Friday, October 8th. The unique views as of this writing for the music video are 57,612. This number could change by the time I post this blog entry to the internet. Ray performed this song during his appearance on the Tuesday Night Opry yesterday. I'm sure that there were those in attendance who hadn't heard of the song, yet, and probably searched YouTube for it on their phones or computer once they returned home. In a previous blog entry I cited the unique views at 43,543. It jumped to 48,685 later on and then reached 57,612 several hours after that...bringing us to where we are right now. I hope more and more people discover the music video and his new comedy album!! 

Ray Stevens: Tuesday Night Opry re-cap...

Oh it was a rousing Ray Stevens performance at the Tuesday Night Opry!! Bill Cody introduced Ray and made mention of the locally syndicated television show that Ray hosts, CabaRay Nashville. Bill happens to be the announcer of Ray's television show. Ray walks out and says that it's great to be there...and that it's good to be anywhere thanks to COVID. He mentioned not being able to put on that many concerts because of COVID last year and during the first half of 2021. He's been putting on concerts at his CabaRay showroom since September when it re-opened. He joked that he's been off the stage for so long he forgot the words to all of his songs. He launched into a bouncy rendition of "The Quarantine Song"...a very subtle and different arrangement than what I'm used to hearing. The audience laughed during various moments in the song...and cheered during the line where Ray hopes the kids will go back to school. After the performance he made some jokes about the virus and then launched into a story that ultimately ended up about a wet t-shirt contest. This choice of subject matter set up the next song, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Ray promoted the fact that the song is on new album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. After this performance Ray told a joke about squirrels and GPS which set up "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". He performed the song and ended his portion of the show to thunderous applause. Bill Cody mentioned once more that Ray was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame...the class of 2019. Ray was in fine voice, as usual, and very on...in that I mean he was very up-tempo in his speaking voice and in his vocal delivery while singing. At one point during "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" I thought he himself was going to break out in revival as he recounted how the squirrel made laps inside Sister Bertha's dress, for example, and again as he sang other famous lyrics from the song that have become catchphrases among Ray Stevens fans over the last 30 plus years. 

Ray Stevens: Session Musicians Lost to Time...

Hello all...and welcome to another blog entry all about Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens. As you can see the photo off to the left side of the page is the cover photo of 1968's Even Stevens album. Now, in my opinion, this is another great Ray Stevens album but at the time it was considered his breakthrough album in terms of serious recordings. Ray had always recorded serious love ballads and midtempo love songs since the beginnings of his career. He began to insert novelty songs into his career right around the same time...the flip-side of his debut single, "Silver Bracelet", for example, was the novelty "Rang Tang Ding Dong". That single arrived in 1957. So, he's always balanced serious and comedy. Even Stevens, on the other hand, was a full album of serious songs. There are a couple of social commentary songs on here but by and large it's an album filled with a combination of love songs and social commentary. The main song from the album is "Mr. Businessman" but that one overshadows other great recordings like "Great Escape", "The Minority", "Isn't It Lonely Together", and "The Earl of Stilton Square". 

The reason I title this blog entry the way I do is because there's no online information about the session musicians for this album. We can all assume Ray is the piano/organ player. On the back of the vinyl album it credits Ray as the co-producer as well as music arranger on all but three of the recordings. Fred Foster is credited as a co-producer. Jim Malloy is credited as an assistant engineer and a production assistant. Charlie Tallent is the engineer. Now, beyond those credits, that's it. There is no musicians credited. I received a comment on a previous blog entry about the musician credits for Even Stevens. Instead of allowing the comment to languish in the archives I decided to write a blog entry answering his question. The question came from 'Great Song Podcast'. There are musician credits on Ray's 1969 follow-up albums, Gitarzan and Have a Little Talk With Myself, but there weren't any for 1968's Even Stevens. We could assume some of the musicians on those albums worked on Even Stevens, too, but I don't like to make those kinds of assumptions when it comes to session musicians. 

Anyway, the session musicians for Even Stevens are lost to time...unless someone comes along and knows the list of musicians for that Monument album and reveals them. I wouldn't know who to ask for such information. I don't know if Ray would've kept the musicians list all these years later or not.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 40,000 unique views...

Wow...I can hardly keep up with the rising unique views of the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video from Ray Stevens. Earlier I composed a blog entry detailing that the music video had surpassed 30,000 unique views (33,557) and here I am composing a blog entry spotlighting that the music video has surpassed 40,000 unique views! The totals on YouTube at the moment are 43,543! This is an increase of 9,986 unique views. You know, I don't think I'd be exaggerating when I say that I see this music video moving into the 50,000 range by this evening...or perhaps by this afternoon. 

In addition to the news about the music video I also have some news about Ray's comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. It's reached a new peak position on the Country CDs and Vinyl New Releases Top-100 list on Amazon. In a previous blog entry I mentioned that the new comedy album was sitting at 30. 

A new peak position of 29 is where it was listed during the last hour. The Amazon Top-100 lists change hourly. Here's a fact some out there may find a bit odd...Ray's new comedy album, while among the Top-100 New Releases in Country CDs and Vinyl at number 29, it isn't showing up among the Top-100 New Releases in Country Digital Music...a bit odd considering most people purchase music digitally rather than order compact discs. If you're new to this blog entry welcome aboard! If you're wondering why I post about such technical things like chart data, statistics, surveys, songwriter credits, musician credits, and all of that it's because I feel it provides a service that isn't being filled. You're not going to find a blog page this detailed about Ray Stevens. His official webpage and social media are great but, as far as I know, there isn't any other Ray Stevens fan that blogs about his music or career. There also doesn't appear to be any kind of congregated area online, outside of his official social media, where his music is promoted/spotlighted. If you go to any online store and search for Ray's music you'll likely find images of long out of print CD's or you'll see music downloads from more than 10 years ago. Also, a good number of online music sites offer an dated artist bio of Ray from 20 some years ago. So, I take it upon myself to promote his music, both past and present, and to document the various happenings of his career both past and present. I wrote as much in the About Me area but every now and then I incorporate my goal for how I want this fan created blog to come across within a blog entry. I came across a promo for Ray's current music video and the comedy album. It's on a webpage called ClassicCountryMusic dot com. 

I didn't include a link because the promo features an error. The error is the assertion that "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is his first music video in years. This is untrue. We fans of Ray Stevens are very aware of his three music videos last year: "The Quarantine Song" which more than 3 million people have seen, "Everything is Beautiful 50th Anniversary", and the medley "Everything is Beautiful / United We Stand". Prior to those music videos in 2020 there was a Christmas-themed music video, "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me", in 2016, "Dear America" was released earlier the same year, and prior to those a couple of music videos to songs from his 2015 comedy album appeared online. I guess that the writer of the promo was thinking of those 2015 video releases and therefore totally unaware of anything Ray had done the last 6 years.

Ray Stevens: Tuesday Night Opry Appearance...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It's 15 minutes till 1am and October 12th means that Ray will be appearing at the Grand Ole Opry tonight. The Tuesday performances are billed as the Tuesday Night Opry. Ray is scheduled to appear in the second show tonight. There's an hour long segment, then a 15 minute intermission, and then a second hour long segment. I don't know at what time Ray will make his appearance. In times past he'd appear during the final half hour since he's a guest rather than an Opry member. I've also listened to previous guest appearances from Ray where the Opry managers turned over an entire half hour segment to him. However, I don't think it'll be like this tonight because there's several other performers appearing during the hour. There are four acts appearing in the second show which is scheduled to air from 8:15pm - 9:15pm Central time: Maggie Rose, Ray Stevens, Henry Cho, and Old Crow Medicine Show. I've read that he'll be performing three songs. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" will be one of the songs...another will be "The Quarantine Song". I don't know which of those he'll do first. I think he'll probably get things started with "The Quarantine Song" and then sing one of his older songs and then close with the current video single, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". 

However, he may start things off with one of his older songs and then launch into the newest release. Still, he may begin with "The Quarantine Song" and lead into "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" and close his set with an older song. If you're in the area and are planning on attending the Opry performance tonight here's the LINK to the Opry schedule where there's also information on tickets, etc. If you're reading this blog entry well after October 12th chances are that link won't be active...or it may remain active but include a message stating that the performance has already happened. In the Eastern time zone Ray's appearance will be somewhere in the 9:15pm - 10:15pm time frame. I'll be listening to the appearance and provide a recap later tonight. 

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 30,000 unique views...

Hello all once more!! Yesterday I wrote a blog entry about "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 25,000 unique views on YouTube. Throughout the rest of the day and into the overnight hours this latest Ray Stevens music video continued to obtain unique views...so much so that when I wrote the previous blog entry the video had gotten 23,105 unique views at the time. Today it's increased by more than 10,400 unique views! The total number of unique views for the music video, as of this writing, is 33,557! I'll check back on the numbers later this evening and during the overnight hours. 

Ray is going to make a guest appearance on the Tuesday Night Opry tomorrow night...I made mention of this in my previous blog entries. I'm sure there will be several reminders of this guest appearance tomorrow on various social media platforms. Earlier today a contest was unveiled for two free tickets to the CabaRay showroom!! All you have to do is go to Ray's official Facebook PAGE. Once there all you have to do is Like and Share the Facebook post which contains details about the contest. That post appeared this morning at 9am. So, for those of you who read this blog entry in the coming hours and days, you'll have to visit his Facebook page and search for the October 11th 9am post and simply Like and Share it for your chance to win 2 CabaRay tickets. As of this writing there are 104 Likes and 27 Shares. The contest ends October 16th so it's six days long. The winner of the 2 CabaRay concert tickets will be randomly chosen and the winner can choose any concert on the 2021 CabaRay calendar (except New Year's Eve). I'm assuming the winner will be announced early this coming Saturday...just in case that evening's concert is the one that the contest winner chooses to attend. 

I'll add that since this is a contest for concert tickets I'm sure they're going to want serious participants. If you know you're not going to be able to attend the concert don't participate. I know I won't be able to make my way down to Nashville and so I only Liked the Facebook post and I didn't Share the post. If you know you're going to be able to attend the concert then by all means Like and Share the post once you visit Ray's Facebook page. 

Judging by the reaction to the contest post I take it a lot of people are aware that you should only participate if you know you're going to be able to attend. 104 Likes and 27 Shares...it means there's 27 people who have Liked and Shared the post, so far, indicating 27 people know they'll be able to attend a concert if they win the contest. This is the text of the Facebook post pertaining to the contest. When you're over on Ray's Facebook page look for this October 11th 9am post to Like and Share if you're wanting to win 2 CabaRay concert tickets...

Ray Stevens: "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans!! I had been keeping track, somewhat, of the Amazon Top-100 New Releases list. Ray's comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, went on Pre-order at Amazon a couple of weeks ago. It was showing up in the CDs and Vinyl Country New Releases Top-100 on Amazon for several days prior to the album being released on October 8th. Since it's release it's continued making appearances on this Top-100...achieving it's highest ranking, to date, this hour (11pm - 12am) at 30. The CD listed at number 30 is in the image below. I know it's small and perhaps barely visible but trust me it's a screen cap showing the new comedy album among the Top-30 in Amazon's Top-100. Country New Releases/CDs and Vinyl. This position of 30 on the Top-100 breaks the previous peak of 35. Some of the other positions on the Top-100 over the last couple of days for Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore include 94, 88, 38, 35, 43. There have been more Top-100 positions but those are the ones I wrote down in my notes for quick reference. Since it's October 11th some of those Top-100 positions were during the Pre-order time frame on Amazon. The CD copy, on release day, was listed unavailable. It was then shown as being In Stock later in the day.  

The comedy album was released, as mentioned, on October 8th and it's now October 11th here in the Eastern time zone. Ray will be a special guest on the Grand Ole Opry this coming Tuesday. According to the schedule Ray will be on sometime during the 8:15pm - 9:15pm time frame. The time is approximate given it's a live radio program. There will be an hour long opening segment, 7pm-8pm, then a 15 minute intermission, and then the second hour gets underway. The Tuesday Night Opry can be heard online on the Grand Ole Opry website. You can also listen to the Opry on the WSM radio website. One of the songs Ray will be performing is "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". In a recent blog entry I embedded the audio track of "The Gambler and The Octopus". I'm also going to be sharing another audio track from the comedy album. A few blog entries ago I spotlighted a webpage that featured the audio track of "Coco Cabana Band". Now that Curb Records has uploaded all of the audio tracks onto YouTube I can embed that audio track here on the blog rather than share a link containing the song. In the song Ray has a lot of fun with mimicking apes, monkeys, etc. and doing a hefty amount of scat singing. "Coco Cabana Band" tells the story of five primates from the Congo who end up in Gulf Shores, Alabama inside a beachfront restaurant as members of a band. It's a musically driven recording...a lot of bluesy overtones with a laid back approach which clashes perfectly with the scats and shrieks from the band.

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 25,000 unique views...

Isn't this fun...I was all set to write a blog entry about "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" breaking into the 20,000 unique view level and by the time I begin writing I took a quick glance over at YouTube and seen that music video is nearing 25,000 unique views. The specific totals are 23,105. Now, the last time I wrote a blog entry about the music video, the totals were below 17,000 and now they've risen to over 23,000. The song is from his new comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The album has 14 songs on there and with the music video hitting the way it has you tend to naturally overlook the remaining 13 songs on the album. This is why, in my previous blog entry, I embedded the audio track of "The Gambler and The Octopus" just to break up the string of blog entries about the music video. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" getting close to 25,000 unique views on YouTube in a couple of days...will it reach 50,000 two days from now...and then 100,000? Ray will be appearing at the Grand Ole Opry this coming Tuesday and "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is one of the songs he'll be performing. 

Ray Stevens: "The Gambler and The Octopus" audio track...

Ray Stevens adds to the growing list of bar room songs in country music with this whimsical story about "The Gambler and The Octopus". The song, on his new Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore album, is an in-depth story about about a gambler, an octopus, and a bartender. A gambler walks into a bar and he begins to make bets with the bartender. He tells the bartender that the octopus he brought with him can play any kind of music instrument. The first bet will only cost the bartender two free drinks. The octopus crawls out the jar and plays a flugelhorn. This costs the bartender two drinks. Then the skeptical bartender says there's no way the octopus can play a saxophone. The gambler says that the octopus not only can play the saxophone but upon conclusion of the performance the bartender will have to allow the gambler four free drinks which is double the amount of the first bet. 

One of the recurring phrases about the octopus that you'll need to pay attention to is "...he rolled around the bar and then on the ground..." for this is repeated after each instrument the octopus plays. The bartender then gets agitated and swears that the octopus won't be able to play the kind of instrument in the backroom. Moments later the bartender returns with bagpipes. The octopus sees the bagpipes and then starts to "roll around the bar and then on the ground" clinging to and squeezing the bagpipes...it made music so the gambler received eight free drinks...one for each arm of the octopus...but the comical twist to the story revolves around what the octopus thought the bagpipes were. It's a whole lot more comical when you listen to Ray tell the story...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 20,000 unique views...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" continues to rack up the unique views on YouTube. The total just before I began writing this blog entry was 16,362!! I have periodically kept up to date throughout Saturday when it comes to this music video and it's reaching all kinds of people...consider that it was sitting with 8,502 unique views a couple of blog entries ago and now it's nearly doubled that total with 16,362. The speed with which the video is accumulating unique views means that by the time I finish writing this blog entry the total number of unique views could be near 17,000. 

Did you DVR the Huckabee television show Saturday night? I ask that because a lot of you may have went to Ray's Saturday night concert at the CabaRay...and seen Ray in person. On Friday he was in Hendersonville, Tennessee taping the Huckabee show. Ray was the guest announcer...filling in for Keith Bilbrey. The taped show aired nationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network last night at 8pm Eastern. It was one of those super rare instances in which Ray was competing with himself. First, he was in person at the CabaRay putting on a concert which began at 7:30pm Central. Second, in this geographic area, repeats of his CabaRay Nashville television series was airing at 8pm Eastern. Third, his appearance as a guest announcer on Huckabee was airing nationally at 8pm Eastern. Ray acted as guest announcer only. He didn't perform any songs nor did he engage in any discussions with Mike Huckabee. Ray was on camera numerous times, though, standing at the announcer podium leading into commercials and coming out of commercials. Huckabee acknowledged Ray's legendary status and thanked him for filling in for Keith Bilbrey. It was nearly 45 minutes into the show when Huckabee promoted Ray's new comedy album. I hope Ray goes back on the show soon and performs a song or two from the new comedy album. "Dis-Connected" or "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" would fit in nicely.     

Ray Stevens: My Review is on Amazon...

As we await night time to arrive I've decided to pass the time by composing a blog entry about my album review of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore being submitted on Amazon. In my previous blog entry I mentioned that it wasn't on Amazon yet...but after I posted my previous blog entry I went to my e-mail inbox and found a message from Amazon stating that my review had been posted. This teaches me to look in my e-mails before composing a blog entry. Seriously, though...the album review I had written yesterday on Amazon is now on the product page of Ray's new comedy album. You can read my Amazon review by clicking HERE. 

In my previous blog entry I included a link to the album review that I'd written and posted here on the blog page but that link takes you to Amazon's product page for Ray's comedy album. Whenever I copy my reviews over to Amazon I typically take out or, add in, text. I do this because I may want to say more or I may want to say less and so it's never an absolute carbon copy. 

When I went to review the album I attempted to write a review of the digital copy of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, since that's the format that I purchased on Amazon. However, when I clicked the write a review button on the product page for the digital release, an error message popped up stating that it wasn't available to be reviewed. That error message happened on the day of release (yesterday!) and it didn't make any sense. Now, baffled by the error message of not being able to review an album that's been released, I went over to the CD product page a couple of minutes later and clicked the write a review button and I was able to post my review. The Amazon review of the CD is now on the product page. I don't know if I'll copy/paste that review and put it on the digital album product page or not. I might just post individual reviews of some of the songs from the album. Have any of you ever tried to do an album search for Ray Stevens on Amazon? I know that a lot of us buy Ray's albums through his webpage but have any of you did a search on Amazon for Ray's music? Does your experience mirror mine? Read on and see if this happens to you...

If you do a search for Ray Stevens over on Amazon you'll not find Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore listed among the first results. If you type the name, Ray Stevens, in the search bar in the CDs/Vinyl section you'll have to go to page 2 before you'll see his brand new album listed and that's if you search using the filter indicating 'Featured'. If you search Ray Stevens, CDs/Vinyl using the filter set at 'Release Date', which is suppose to list the releases in chronological order from recent to oldest, you won't even find Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore listed within the first 5 pages. 

The only way you're going to be able to find Ray's new album on Amazon, as of now, is to type his name and the album title. The same holds true if you search for the digital copy of the album...you're going to have to type in his name and the album title in the search bar. If you only search using his name you'll have to sift through several pages before coming across the brand new album. When the filter is set at 'Release Date' why are we having to sift through pages of music in order to find the brand new release? What if you're not a fan, in the same hyper manner as I am, but you like hearing whatever Ray puts out? If you don't know the name of the new comedy album, but you know he has one out, you're not going to be able to find it right away on Amazon if that happens to be your online music preference. For that reason I'm including an Amazon link to the digital copy of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Since it isn't easily found over on Amazon in a general search you can access the digital album by clicking HERE. 

We're less than an hour away from Ray guest announcing on Huckabee. Although we've been told that Ray is going to just announce the show I'm hoping we get a song or at least some on-camera banter between him and Mike Huckabee. The show airs at 8pm Eastern tonight on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Search your television's on-screen program guide for the channel.

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 10,000 unique views...

Well, it's me once again!! If you're a fan of Ray Stevens then you're probably already familiar with his new music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". I wrote a blog or two previously about the new comedy album and the music video...and in one of my blog entries I reported that the unique views of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" were 1,641. When I woke up this afternoon and looked at the totals the video had risen by more than 5,000 unique views! At one point early this morning the video had gone from 1,641 to 1,779 and then it rose to 2,435 before I went to bed. Upon waking up the unique views had dramatically increased to 7,700!! A pickup of 5,265! Since this afternoon the totals have continued to rise and it's moved from 7,700 to 8,502. As I'm writing this blog entry I'm guessing that more and more people are finding the music video and so that 8,502 number may be closer to or over 9,000 by the time I publish this blog entry. Since "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is climbing in unique views at such a rapid rate that's why I've titled this blog entry the way I did. It's very possible that 10,000 or more people will have seen this music video by later tonight. If and when it crosses that total I'll make note of it in a blog. I'm proud to say that some of my commentary on this music video's YouTube page has received some agreement. You're going to be singing to yourself "she's a Hoochie Coochie Dancer in this carnival show...". The way he sings 'hooo-oooo-chie' is something I look forward to hearing when I listen to the song.

My review of the comedy album containing "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, isn't on Amazon yet. I always write my reviews on this blog and then I copy/paste them over on Amazon. Once it appears on Amazon I'll also make note of that in a future blog entry. The blog entry that contains my review of his new comedy album can be seen HERE. 

In a somewhat related connection I wasn't aware of my blog count for this year having gone beyond 300. When I was looking at the statistics for this particular blog I discovered that this is the 302nd blog entry about Ray Stevens that I've written during 2021. The 300th blog entry of the year happened to be my blog entry promoting the exclusive premiere of the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video on People magazine's website yesterday. I didn't realize I had written nearly 300 blog entries this year but then again it's been a very busy year, music wise, for Ray. He put out the 4-CD box set...but prior to that he had released all 4 of the albums individually...and I was blogging about all of those releases and the eventual release of the box set. Then I wrote extensively about the novelty single, "Gas", and the audio plays it was attracting on YouTube...and on top of that he began performing at the CabaRay showroom again in early September...and now he's released a comedy album. So, yeah, when I stop and think about it I realize how easily 300 or more blog entries can emerge during the kind of busy year Ray has had. 

Ray will be in concert tonight at the CabaRay beginning at 7:30pm Central. The doors open at 5pm Central (an hour from now). If you're attending a concert be sure to set your DVR. Ray will be the guest announcer on the Huckabee television show tonight on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Here in the Eastern time zone it airs at 8pm. He is suppose to announce the show and not do any singing...but since it's Ray, and it's an unusual situation where he's selected as a guest announcer on a national television show, in my back of my mind, I think Ray might contribute to the show musically rather than be an announcer only; but we'll see what happens. In the meantime enjoy the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video!  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" arrives on YouTube...

Hello all!! I spent most of Friday writing about the new Ray Stevens comedy album on several online sites. I mean that I was writing commentary and replying to people on various social media sites concerning Ray's album and his songs, etc. I left some comments on Ray's Facebook page. His page over there and this blog page is where the bulk of my commentary about Ray is posted. Now, for most of Friday, the music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" was kept available through an embed on People magazine's webpage. It wasn't posted on YouTube for a general audience to see until several hours ago...and once it became available to a general audience the unique views began to add up. As of this writing the unique views of the new music video is already over 1,000. The specific unique view total is 1,171 and I suspect the majority of those unique views were accumulated within the last couple of hours once the video became publicly visible on YouTube rather than as an exclusive on the People magazine webpage. In the video you'll see a fortune teller and her crystal ball...she also reads special cards. Ray's carnival buddies are with him throughout most of the video. Someone on Facebook identified one of the men as Ben Surrat, Ray's album engineer and production assistant of Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. In addition to all of those people there's the dancer herself and later on a policeman shows up. 

The thumbnail image that they chose to use for the YouTube cover tells just one part of the story and the fun of the video. The point of the video isn't to hammer any sort of opinion or require deep, emotional reflection. It's simply an escapist music video filled with silliness and deliberate hamming for the camera. The album has it's share of gentle comedy like what you see and hear in the music video but there's also pointed social commentary and other forms of comedy sprinkled throughout the album. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is escapist, gentle comedy.