Ray Stevens: 2021 Christmas Bundle...

Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens, is offering a Christmas Bundle sale at his online store. As you can see on the plaque, Ray Stevens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. The items in the bundle can be purchased separately but if you choose to do that you'll pay shipping and handling for each item...the allure of the sale for a lot people is the elimination of a shipping fee for each item...during one of these kind of sales you only pay one shipping fee for all items offered. The items being offered are a red CabaRay Christmas tree ornament, a CD copy of his most recent Christmas release, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me, and the just released Merry Video Christmas DVD. The Christmas Bundle sale lasts until December 18th. Some of you, like myself, have nearly everything in the Ray Stevens online store. I don't have a lot of the CabaRay items, however, but I do have most of the other items in his online store. The CD is named for a song that Ray turned into a music video. He appeared in the video with a collection of stuffed animals and puppets. Elsewhere on the album is "Claws, A Cat's Letter to Santa". When the CD was brand new I was hoping that particular song would become a music video but none ever came about. "Merry Christmas" was put on the CD...it had originated as a YouTube music video. A song that Ray wrote, "Christmas Bells in the Steeple", closes out the album...and at the time of the CD's release Ray posted a video describing the song and that it had originally been recorded by Perry Como. Although Ray wrote it he never recorded the song until this CD came along. In a Christmas CD full of highlights one of those being "All I Want For Christmas Is You", the song that Mariah Carey wrote and a song you likely hear each Christmas season. Ray sings it serious...and the fact is that 7 of the 10 songs on here are performed non-comically. The only comedy on here are his renditions of "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth", "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", and "Claws, A Cat's Letter to Santa". The DVD, on the other hand, contains 6 music videos and was released the day after Thanksgiving (this past Friday). It's now part of this Christmas Bundle sale. You can visit Ray's online store and take a look at the Christmas Bundle when you click HERE. Once you arrive there you'll see the new banner promoting the Christmas Bundle sale...I've embedded it below...

Ray Stevens: Upcoming CabaRay concerts...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! The month of December at the CabaRay showroom is shaping up to be really festive and although there hasn't officially been an announcement made of Christmas-themed concerts I've seen several photos of recent concerts at the CabaRay to know that there's a Christmas look on the stage. The third season of concerts at the CabaRay is nearing an end. Technically this should have been the fourth season of concerts but due to the pandemic in 2020 there wasn't a season's worth of concerts last year. The CabaRay opened early in 2018 and he set the tradition of having a New Year's Eve show that year on the last day of December. The second season, 2019, kicked off in the late spring and ran through New Year's Eve. Ray had also started to present a charity golf tournament each year...but the pandemic last year brought an abrupt postponement and there wasn't one scheduled in 2021. I don't know if he'll begin those charity events again in 2022 or not. In 2020 the pandemic upended normality. Ray attempted to have a third season of concerts at the CabaRay kick off in the spring of 2020...and he did put on at least one concert...but he made the announcement that the 2020 season would be postponed until further notice. Late in 2020 he attempted to re-open the CabaRay but like earlier in the year, after one concert, he closed the showroom down for a second time.

As the months went by in 2021 and more and more people were getting vaccinated and the psyche of the country, for the most part, had moved on from being paralyzed with panic and fear about the virus Ray made the announcement that he'd be re-opening the CabaRay in the fall of 2021. If I recall correctly the announcement was made soon after the Governor of Tennessee lifted the restrictions and protocols that had been in place throughout nearly all of 2020 and half of 2021. The concerts scheduled to take place in the month of December at the CabaRay kick off this Saturday, December 4th. There will be five concerts at the CabaRay in December. There's a concert on the 4th, 10th, 11th, 18th, and on the 31st (New Year's Eve). Afterward we'll have to wait and see when the 2022 concert season gets underway. My guess it'll be sometime in the spring...late March or early April. I'd be surprised if the season gets underway in May or June...but we'll all wait and see what the forthcoming concert schedule looks like as we get several months into 2022. 

Now, if you happen to be a detailed fan of Ray Stevens, you'll know that he used all of that 'free time' in 2020 to finish up a lot of albums that he'd been working on for several years. The 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, and the Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore comedy album were a result of all of the free time Ray had in the recording studio. The box set was several years in the making. The early half of 2021, according to things he's said in interviews, saw him working on albums to be released sometime in the future. One of those future albums is a sequel to the 4-CD box set. It will have 4 compact discs and feature even more covers of standards recorded by Ray Stevens. Once Ray re-opened the CabaRay for the third season of concerts, at last, there seemed to be a sense of normalcy once again. Ray has appeared in concert at the CabaRay every Saturday night since re-opening the showroom on September 4th. 

Ray Stevens sings "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town"...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! We're beginning the final week of November...the month of December is fast approaching. As far as blog entries go this wasn't as busy a month as previous months...mainly because there wasn't a lot of daily online activity from Ray on his social media pages. It had been a week since anything new popped up on Ray's YouTube channel, for example. Also, because of the lead-in to Thanksgiving and the long weekend coming to an end for a lot of people, it cut down on the opportunities for me to create blog entries that spotlight the latest happenings in Ray's career.      

In the meantime I'm awaiting the arrival, in the mail, of the DVD I recently ordered from Ray's online store. It's the DVD of 6 Ray Stevens Christmas music videos! In this video clip from CabaRay Nashville that I've embedded below you'll see Ray perform a rousing rendition of "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town". 

The song originated in 1932 and was a 10 week number one hit for bandleader, Ted Lewis. It's from the Tin Pan Alley era of pop music. The song appeared in the movie, The Crooner. The song's writers happened to be Ira Schuster, Jack Little, and Joe Young. The song became a hit several times for several performers as time went on. An act billed as Johnny Long and His Orchestra had a million selling hit with the song in 1946. Ray shows, once again, how he can perform practically all kinds of music. Denis Solee and Buddy Skipper are a treat as the duo saxophonists who are right up near Ray during the performance...indicative of how much emphasis he wanted on the saxophone during his performance. You're going to love it...

Ray Stevens: "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" comedy CD vaults upward...

It's me once again!! The current comedy album from Ray Stevens, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, vaults upward again on Amazon's Country New Releases CD list and as of this hour is among the Top-40. The highest that the comedy album reached on this particular Amazon chart was 28 within the first few days of it's release. The comedy album was released on October 8th in CD and Mp3 format. The audio tracks have gotten thousands of plays on YouTube and the official music video from the album, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", has more than 187,000 unique views so far. The comedy album, as mentioned, can be heard on YouTube and a number of other online sites. You can also purchase the CD or the Mp3 on a number of websites. The Amazon product page for the comedy album can be found HERE. Those of you that have heard all of the songs from the comedy album do you have a favorite, yet? I usually don't have just one favorite. I like all of his songs. The one that I was listening to the most was "Dis-Connected" and then there's "Soap Sally" and "Old Dog". I watched the video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" numerous times and prior to this album's release "Gas" was what I was listening to the most since it was the first audio release from the album. The audio racked up more than 12,000 plays on YouTube in the months prior to Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore becoming available. "The Gambler and the Octopus", "Coco Cabana Band", and "My Better Half" are more favorites from Ray's current comedy album. 

From the current Ray Stevens comedy album...have a listen to "Soap Sally"...

Ray Stevens: Merry Video Christmas DVD...

Hello all...we're wrapping up Thanksgiving weekend as we head into Sunday morning. Did you visit or order anything during the discount sale at the Ray Stevens online store this past Friday? The sale was for Friday only and I put in an order for the DVD you see on the left side of the screen. A Merry Video Christmas from Ray Stevens is the 6 music video collection. I made mention of this DVD release in a previous blog entry. There's a message from Ray that's attached to the publicity release for this DVD. He mentions that he didn't realize he had enough Christmas music videos for a DVD collection...and someone suggested that he has at least 6 Christmas music videos and they decided to release a DVD with 6 Christmas music videos. The photo you see isn't the actual size. I edited some of it so that it wouldn't be a really lengthy rectangle going along the side of the blog text. The full image shows the rest of the scarf and it shows Ray with his hands in his front pockets. You can see what the full length photo looks like when you click this LINK to Ray's online store. 

When I purchased my copy of the DVD it was on sale but the sale was one day only this past Friday. I wrote a blog entry about the online store discount sale. You can read that blog entry in the Archives here. The 6 music videos on this DVD are: "Santa Claus is Watching You", "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me", "Redneck Christmas", "Nightmare Before Christmas", "Guilt for Christmas", and "Merry Christmas". There are a couple of Christmas music videos not on the DVD...the missing videos are "White Christmas" and "Blue Christmas". I covered a lot of this information in the blog entry focusing on last Friday's online discount sale at Ray's webstore but for those that don't look up my older blog entries in the Archive section I decided to share some of the information about the DVD and music videos again. 

Once I receive the DVD in the mail I'll write an overview/review. I don't know what the back of the DVD looks like. Sometime the backs of the DVD cases have a different photo of Ray and sometimes it features a list of the music videos found on the DVD along with songwriter, publisher credits. I'm guessing the DVD release will be on his own label, CabaRay Entertainment, but then again it may be a release distributed by Curb Records. 

Ray Stevens: Thanksgiving and More...

Here we are...the day before Thanksgiving. Have you noticed that there hasn't been any sort of heavy publicity for Thanksgiving Day events? In times past, during the week of and leading up to Thanksgiving Day we'd usually see commercials for the football games, the parades, movies of the week centered around the family, and just an overall feelgood atmosphere. The holidays, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas, were always a time when differences were set aside and the spirit of goodwill and friendship filled the air. 

A few weeks ago I noticed after Halloween came and went the local stores began putting up their Christmas items. The various cable TV movie channels began airing their Christmas movies. We've seen television commercials with Christmas overtones already featuring Santa Claus and in some commercials Ebenezer Scrooge. Thanksgiving, by comparison, hasn't gotten much attention and I find that strange. I guess I took notice because it's so blatantly obvious now. Thanksgiving is a day that the politically correct has long since wanted to abolish...and given who's running the country now the advocates are getting their wish, somewhat, considering the lack of media coverage of various Thanksgiving Day events. Tomorrow may be different. When I click on the television around noon to start my day of football watching there might be a lot of Thanksgiving tradition and atmosphere on the actual day...but leading up to Thanksgiving you wouldn't know it's tomorrow without having to look on a calendar since the media has all but ignored it.  

Here's a LINK to my previous Thanksgiving post...written a couple of days ago. In that blog entry I made mention of some of the things to be thankful for as a fan of Ray Stevens. When I looked into my blogger stats I seen that an older blog entry I'd written about Thanksgiving had gotten a slight resurgence in discovery. The name of that blog entry is 'Thanksgiving Feast'. The name of the blog entry I wrote a few days ago is 'Thanksgiving 2021'. I'm running out of titles. I thought about naming this blog entry 'Turkey Drumsticks and Stones' but I couldn't think of any Thanksgiving food that ties in with stone unless an eccentric Aunt brings over fruitcake or undercooked dumplings. I love chicken and dumplings but I don't like fruitcake...which is mainly associated with a Christmas dinner. I love mashed potatoes and noodles and turkey and practically everything else. I don't like sweet potatoes...some people like them. I'm not a fan of cranberry sauce, either. We never have alcohol at any dinner. I drink pop and my parent's drink coffee. We have leftover food at Thanksgiving! I usually heat up food fixed on Thanksgiving for several days. The thing that gives the most leftovers is the turkey, obviously, and second are the chicken and noodles. The noodles fixed resemble thick homemade noodles. Do you re-heat the turkey leftovers or eat it cold?

I usually re-heat the slices/pieces of the leftover turkey. My parent's aren't as picky...they'll eat it re-heated or cold. When I mentioned alcohol and leftover turkey I thought of the phrase, cold turkey. I then began to think of the few alcohol related songs that Ray Stevens has recorded over the years. Ray hasn't recorded many of them...but those that he's recorded are entertaining. The first one that leaps to mind is "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down". Ray recorded the song in 1969 and it was fabulous. It's historically documented as being a non-hit for Ray but he charted with the single here in America and overseas. I don't have the stats in front of me at the moment but in some locations overseas, I'm thinking Australia and perhaps New Zealand, or perhaps up in Canada, his rendition of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" appeared on the weekly sales charts in those countries in 1969. The song, from the pen of Kris Kristofferson, is about a guy with a hangover on a Sunday morning. Johnny Cash, in 1970, recorded the song and it became a number one country hit and a pop hit. Ray was the first recording artist to put the song out. The B-side of this particular pressing of the song is "The Minority", a marvelous social commentary song Ray recorded in 1968. Off the top of my head I don't think Ray recorded another song dealing with alcohol until the comical "Happy Hour is the Saddest Time of the Day" in 1984. That song deals with a couple that's since split-up, we assume over excessive drinking, with the woman deciding to leave and seek sobriety while the guy mourns over her leaving him. Throughout the song the man pouts when thinking back on all of their good times, how many drinks they took in while a couple, etc. Listen for the references to drunk behavior, name-dropping of alcohol brands, and the music accompaniment. It'll sound crazy my saying this but the music itself sounds tipsy, woozy, drunk. 

In 1987 Ray recorded the comedy song "The Day That Clancy Drowned". In this humorous tale we're told of a man named Clancy who worked at a brewery in Milwaukee. One day while examining a 60,000 gallon vat of beer he slipped and fell. Ray tells of how Clancy, for a few minutes, actually fought being rescued from the vat...almost happy to be swimming in and eventually drowning in a vat of beer. A few years later, in 1990, Ray recorded the bouncy "Jack Daniels, You Lied To Me Again". That song is a conventional bar room love song where a guy blames his choice of alcohol on the frequent mistakes he's made with his relationships. In 1997 Ray recorded "Too Drunk To Fish" and he turned it into a hit music video. 

In 2008 Ray recorded "Bubba, The Wine Connoisseur". In that song Ray tells us about a southern guy with a unique way of wine tasting. He becomes so famous that he eventually changes his name, slightly, when he begins tasting French wine. He informs us he wants to be called Boo-Bah instead of Bubba since he feels French wine has made him way more cultured. 

A year later Ray recorded "Cooter Brown", a funky up-tempo comedy song about a wild man born on New Year's Eve who spends his time making all of the beer joints, night clubs, and water holes in town. We're told he's a flashy dresser with lots of gold rings and jewelry. The guy loves to drink so much he had a tattoo on his arm that stated "don't let me drive". 

There are several songs that Ray recorded which take place inside a bar and there are some songs that feature a bar room setting at some point. "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone", from 1985, takes place mostly inside a wrestling arena and later, a bar room. Ray's captivating 1988 recording, "Blood and Suede", recounts a fictional car wreck of a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz in an affluent area of Los Angeles. In the song Ray mentions Mullholland Drive and the crash involved a rock and roll singer in his Porsche listening to his own greatest hits album too loud while a drunk driver in a Mercedes speeding away from Gucci's slammed into the Porsche. The subject matter of the song is dark, as you can tell, but I found the song incredible. It features a whistle similar to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. A 1980 love ballad, "Night Games", is about singles bars.  

Earlier in 1980, "The Watch Song" tells of a guy who's sitting inside a bar room minding his own business when in walks another guy. The guy minding his own business is accused of seeing another man's wife. The husband challenges the guy to step outside the bar and fight. The accused obliges and is beaten up by the jealous husband. The enraged husband not only beats the guy up but he stomps on the guy's watch. Ray plays the role of the unlucky guy beaten up...and throughout the song continually asks help and advice from John Cameron Swayze. When Ray recorded the song in 1980 the television commercials for Timex were everywhere and their spokesman was newsman John Cameron Swayze. On Ray's current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, a comedy song titled "The Gambler and the Octopus" takes place inside a bar. 

When you visit the CabaRay showroom for upcoming Ray Stevens concerts you're going to notice the Piano Bar. It's the place most people are at prior to and after a concert. 

Ray Stevens: The Online Store Discount Sale...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Ray put out the word that his online store will be putting on a discount sale this coming Friday. Every item in the online store, regardless of what it happens to be, will be 20 percent off. The discount is applicable to books, CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, hats, etc. I'll be putting in an order for one or two items this coming Friday during the sale. As a longtime fan of Ray and a frequent shopper at his online store I have almost everything. There's a lot of items in the CabaRay section of the online store that I don't have in my personal collection, yet. However, I do know one item I'm for certain going to put in an order for and that's the DVD, Merry Video Christmas from Ray Stevens. 

The DVD contains 6 Christmas music videos. Now, as we all know, we can watch these music videos on his YouTube channel but there's still an allure of having the music videos on backup in DVD format and for collector's it'll be a nice addition. The DVD isn't available for purchase, as far as I know, until November 26th, the day of the discount sale. The cover art comes from publicity surrounding the "Merry Christmas" music video. The 6 music videos on the upcoming DVD are: "Santa Claus is Watching You", "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me", "Redneck Christmas", "Nightmare Before Christmas", "Guilt for Christmas", and "Merry Christmas". There are a couple of Christmas music videos from Ray that weren't included in the collection. One of those is his rendition of "White Christmas" and the other is his rendition of "Blue Christmas". Those two music videos are on YouTube, though, but weren't included in this upcoming DVD collection. The link to the online Ray Stevens store is HERE. Those of you planning on seeing Ray in concert at his CabaRay showroom there's one more concert left in the month of November. That concert is this coming Saturday. Then, during the month of December, Ray will put on four concerts on the 4th, 10th, 11th, and 18th. He'll then take the following Saturday night off (it being Christmas) and return on December 31st for the New Year's Eve concert. This will likely be the final concert at the CabaRay until sometime in the spring of 2022...prior to the summer season getting underway. I don't know if he'll be putting on any concerts during the first couple of months in 2022. The calendar for next year hasn't been filled out yet but I'm assuming that he isn't going to be putting on any concerts during the months of January, February, and most of March.

Ray Stevens: Latest Comedy Album Update...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! In the last couple of days the latest comedy album from Ray Stevens, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, hadn't appeared on the Amazon Top-100 New Releases, Country CDs, list. It's returned to the Amazon list today. When you visit the Amazon product page for the CD copy or the digital download you'll see the two reviews I'd written. I wrote a review for the digital download and it was published October 11th on Amazon. I previously wrote a review of the CD and it was published October 8th on Amazon. I have no idea why Amazon posted both reviews on both product pages rather than keeping each review separate. My review for the digital download has received 1 helpful rating. The review I wrote for the CD copy has gotten 5 helpful ratings. The two reviews are mostly the same except for some specific editing on my part. When I wrote the CD review I mentioned the liner notes and musician credits in the fold-out cover. Now, obviously, when I edited that review for the digital download I took out the section that mentioned the fold-out cover and musician credits since it obviously didn't apply to a digital download. Anyway, Amazon has both reviews posted on each product page. 

An updated look at the YouTube unique views for "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" finds the video with 183,442. This is a pickup of 6,441 from by last check-in on the totals back on November 18th. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is the lead-off song on Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Track two is "Coco Cabana Band" followed by "Gas". Elsewhere on the comedy album is "The Quarantine Song" and "Red Hot Chili Cookoff". I hope Ray puts out a video of the title track, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore", or "Dis-Connected". I think either song would strike a chord with people...and it's with online music video that Ray Stevens reaches the general public nowadays.   

Ray Stevens: Thanksgiving 2021...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! It's fast approaching Thanksgiving...this coming Thursday! I call it Thanksgiving week. I'm sure most of you do. I'll be engaged in what I'm typically engaged in every Thanksgiving and that's a lot of food and whole lot of football. Turkey, dressing, perhaps dumplings, but definitely chicken and noodles and a whole lot of mashed potatoes and homemade macaroni and cheese...in front of the television watching whatever games are on. 

In years past I'd post a blog entry centering around things to be thankful for as a Ray Stevens fan. This year is no different. One of the things to be thankful for is what seems to be his desire to always seek different ways in which to entertain his fans. To the outsider you'd probably never think that Ray puts in a lot of effort and work into his recordings...some may think it doesn't take much to walk into a recording studio and sing "comedy stuff". Oh how wrong that mindset happens to be. There isn't an album of Ray's that hasn't included his input...from the obvious such as Ray singing the songs to being the music arranger on just about everything he records. Also, some of you know that he's a musician and plays a wide variety of instruments while in the studio. When Ray is on stage he simplifies things by playing the piano...but he'll usually have a guitar when singing "Gitarzan". If you've seen video of him in the late 1970's he'd have a guitar on his back, literally, while seated at the piano. 

Speaking of the guitar...this photo of Ray Stevens is from that very same late 1970's time period I was referencing in the above paragraph. I'd seen Ray use a guitar when singing "Honky Tonk Waltz", one of his single releases in 1976, on a couple of television shows. In each performance he incorporated the acoustic guitar. I don't know if he wasn't using an acoustic guitar player in his road band or if he simply wanted to play the guitar at various moments in the song. The musicians aren't credited on his 1976 album, Just for the Record, and yet whenever he sang "Honky Tonk Waltz" he'd play a guitar at the beginning and during the music break...alternating between it and the piano. So, perhaps he played the guitar on the studio recording and wanted to play the guitar during the concert performances, too? I don't know if we'd ever find out given the lack of musician credits on the 1976 album. In getting back to the topic of this blog entry...another thing to be thankful for is having Ray Stevens enthusiastic and upbeat...and very prolific. He released five albums this year...and he said in a recent interview that 2022 will more or less mirror 2021 as far as number of albums go! This means there will be five albums released in 2022!! It goes without saying but another thing I'm thankful for when it comes to the music of Ray Stevens is I like how he sings whatever he wants to. As far as I know he doesn't do market testing or research or anything like that...he doesn't make his decisions based on what others have to say...when he goes to put out a song or an album it'll be something that he enjoyed recording. 

I've been a fan of Ray Stevens ever since I was a teenager and probably before that...and I'm thankful for being in the right place at the right time one Saturday afternoon with my grandparent's. We were inside a pizza place...inside was a jukebox and on this jukebox was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". I picked the song out because of it's title...and that one play made me a Ray Stevens fan for life!!    

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" heads toward 180,000 unique views...

A pickup of more than 11,000 unique views brings the totals of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" from 165,480 to 177,001. It's specifically a pickup of 11,521 unique views. The music video, as you can see, is heading toward the 180,000 mark. It's my guess that the video will reach 200,000 by early next week...probably before Thanksgiving next Thursday. The song is from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Did any of you catch his interview on the Jim Bohannon radio show? I wrote a re-cap blog entry that you can find over there in the archives on the right hand side of the page. In that interview he makes mention of his tentative plans for next year and mentioned that a new comedy album will be on the way. As mentioned in my previous blog entry Ray Stevens will continue performing concerts at his CabaRay through the end of the year...bringing the current season of concerts to a close on New Year's Eve. I also made mention in several previous blog entries of Ray participating as a co-grand marshal in Nashville's Veterans Day Parade this year. It was postponed from last year. I eventually found some video of the parade. I can't remember which video footage I was watching. It was either WKRN or another station in Nashville...it wasn't WTVF...I'd already looked over their video footage. In all of the video footage I'd seen one of the video's did show the co-grand marshal car for the Military...but the co-grand marshal car that Ray was suppose to be in, for Music, wasn't shown on camera. The parade has two grand marshal's each year: one representing Military and one representing Music. If I ever come across photo or video of Ray at this years parade I'll post it in a future blog entry. In the meantime here's "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Ray sings about his newly found girlfriend being hot from head to toe...and that he met her at a midway about an hour ago. It's an up-tempo sing-a-long...

Ray Stevens: Concerts at the CabaRay...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! There are 7 concerts remaining on the 2021 calendar at the CabaRay showroom. Time has flown by...it seems like yesterday the CabaRay was having it's re-opening...but it's been more than 2 months since the CabaRay re-opened early in September. The upcoming concerts dates are: November 20th and 27th; December 4th, 10th, 11th, 18th, the 31st. That final date of the year is, of course, a New Year's Eve concert. You can read about the CabaRay and purchase concert tickets by clicking HERE. If you're a recipient of the monthly e-mail newsletter from Ray Stevens you should be aware of an upcoming release sometime after Thanksgiving. The holiday falls on a final Thursday each November and this year the actual Thanksgiving date is the 25th. So, mathematically, we're 10 days away from Thanksgiving. I've gotten most of the major items that'll be fixed that day (Turkey; stuffing; noodles; chicken broth; dinner rolls; etc.). I know none of that has anything to do with Ray Stevens but since Thanksgiving is next Thursday I couldn't resist. In an update on something I mentioned in a previous blog entry: I haven't come across any photos of Ray at the Veteran's Day parade. There were rain showers that day in Nashville but I saw a re-cap article of the parade that stated that Ray was co-grand marshal...but it's odd that there hasn't been any photographs posted online of Ray at the Veteran's Day parade. Perhaps being a co-grand marshal is just an honorary title and he wasn't physically at the parade? Perhaps he participated virtually? The only online media coverage I'd seen of Nashville's parade came from WTVF-TV but they shown only a few moments from the parade as it was in progress but it wasn't a detailed look at everyone who participated in it. There were numerous other parades that day throughout Tennessee...that other local television stations reported on. I'm surprised no video exists of the parade in it's entirety. I don't know if Ray will make mention of his involvement in the parade during the next concert at the CabaRay this Saturday...but for those that go to the concert keep that in mind. Ray usually shows up in the CabaRay Piano Bar following a concert...in this setting he may discuss the Veterans Day parade if asked about it. 

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 170,000 unique views...

Hello all once again!! I've been away for a few days...the room where I keep my computer was getting re-painted and it took awhile for the project to get finished. I was able to check my e-mails and check some of the social media posts from Ray Stevens and that was about it. I'm on a laptop...oh yes, I know I could've taken it from this room but I prefer sitting at my desk whenever I'm online rather than sitting in the living room or in the kitchen. 

I was looking at some of the technical information surrounding this particular blog and saw where some visitors were accessing some of my older blog entries focusing on Christmas songs from Ray. It's mid November...and next Thursday is Thanksgiving...and the day after officially begins Christmas Season...and things usually get slow in the music industry around the holidays. Ray will continue to put on concerts at the CabaRay showroom, though, and he's added a New Year's Eve concert to the calendar as well. I took a look at the recent unique views of Ray's current music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". In my previous blog entry I highlighted the fact that the music video was nearing 150,000 unique views! Well, in the last several days, the music video's jumped to 165,450 unique views!! This is an increase of 15,955 unique views in less than 4 days time. I had initially thought the music video had reached it's peak recently (there were several days where the music video was bringing in a little over 2,000 unique views daily) but it got a jolt of new activity beginning in the final days of October and particularly in early November. The flurry of new activity could be centered around the various interviews he's been giving. First, there was a write-up on Ray's career and an interview in a publication called The Nashville Musician back on November 2nd. Then, on November 9th, he was interviewed on the nationally syndicated Jim Bohannon radio show. The music video, by the way, soared 6,637 unique views between November 8th and November 11th. Then, three days later, the video captured an additional 12,557 unique views...bringing the unique view total at that time to 162,082 on November 14th. An increase of 3,398 brings us to our current total of 165,450 unique views.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 150,000 unique views...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It's Veterans Day 2021 and a lot of local towns and cities across the country had some kind of Veterans Day parade. There were plenty in Tennessee. I don't live in that State but since this is a fan created blog page about Ray Stevens that's why I mentioned Tennessee. Ray was a co-grand marshal of Nashville's Veterans Day Parade this year. A re-cap published by WTVF television mentioned that Ray was the co-grand marshal. I had heard of this a week or two ago but there wasn't much publicity surrounding his participation and so I think I may have mentioned of Ray's involvement once. I had found out about Ray being named a co-grand marshal of the parade when I came across The Nashville Ledger webpage a couple of weeks ago. I have not come across any photos or any video content of Ray as the co-grand marshal, though, from this morning's parade. There's video content by WTVF-TV but there's no footage of the grand marshal portion of the parade. I'm hoping some photo or video content emerges. The last time Ray participated in a parade was in 2019 when he was the Grand Marshal of a local Shriner organization. The re-cap published on WTVF-TV's webpage states that Ray was a co-grand marshal but I'm wanting to see photos or video of it...and as of this writing nothing has turned up online yet.

The main focal point of this blog entry, however, is Ray's current comedy music video. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is nearing 150,000 unique views. The specific totals as of now are 149,525. This is a pick-up of 6,637 unique views going back to November 8th. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries I don't know if Ray is going to ride this music video for the rest of the year or if he'll put out a new one by year's end which will carry over into the first several months of 2022. Enjoy watching the music video below. It's from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore.  

In a previous blog entry I mentioned that on the Jim Bohannon radio show Ray said that he's currently working on more albums...including a comedy album. So, like 2021, there will be a lot more new recordings from Ray Stevens in 2022 to look forward to. 

Meanwhile, at the CabaRay, he has the stage decorated in Christmas scenery. I'm sure he'll be adding in Christmas songs during the month of December. There are three more concerts scheduled at the CabaRay for the month of November and there's five concerts scheduled in December. Ray recently added a New Year's Eve concert to the 2021 CabaRay calendar! If you're planning on going out on New Year's Eve this year I suggest you go to the Ray Stevens CabaRay. There's a Piano Bar inside the CabaRay, for those that aren't yet aware, and you'll be able to drink alcoholic beverages while inside the CabaRay. You've always been able to order wine and mixed drinks at the CabaRay but in case there are those wondering about New Year's Eve the answer is yes...you'll be able to drink alcohol. Now, I have to assume, there's a purchase limit. I don't think they're going to allow people to get out of their minds crazy drunk or behave wildly as if it's Times Square. There's an air of sophistication within the walls of the CabaRay...but it isn't high-brow. The interior decorations and the overall design is what gives it that sophisticated look. It's spacious, too, but it maintains an intimate feeling and that's often something not easy to achieve. 

There was no New Year's Eve celebration in 2020 to ring in 2021 for obvious reasons. This will be the third New Year's Eve concert at the CabaRay following the 2019 and 2018 celebrations.     

Ray Stevens: My re-cap of Ray's interview with Jim Bohannon...

Talk about a surprise!! Hello fans of Ray Stevens...and in this blog entry I'm providing a recap of a recent interview Ray gave to radio talk show host, Jim Bohannon. I happened to be on social media today and came across mention of Ray being part of Jim's radio program. I went to Jim's official webpage and looked up his radio affiliates and the air-times. As in times past I make the assumption that guests outside of politics on a talk radio program are typically scheduled during the last hour or the last half hour. My assumptions were proven true. I found a radio station that airs Jim's radio program from 10pm until 1am and as soon as it hit Midnight, give or take a few minutes, I clicked the Listen Live feature on the radio station webpage and awaited for the introduction of Ray Stevens.

Ray's interview was in the final half hour of the show. Now, prior to the bottom of the hour break, the first couple of lines of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" began playing. Jim remarked that Ray will be on in a moment. This re-cap will include spoilers...so if you want to wait until the podcast becomes available you should avoid reading any further. 

After an audio snippet of "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore", Jim welcomes Ray to the show and asks about the title track of the new comedy album. Ray speaks a little about the song's inspiration before Jim brings up "The Quarantine Song". Ray related the story of how he had performed the song on a television show last year and that, afterward, they decided to put that performance on the internet. Ray spoke about the viral success of the song. Jim then brought up social media and "Dis-Connected". Ray, through portions of laughter, said that it was a song he co-wrote with one of record producer Jerry Kennedy's children, Bryan, and the risks of online dating and how some people are too pre-occupied with the internet to have a real relationship. Jim asks Ray if he was a class clown during school. Ray responds that he may have been seen as a class clown but that he was never deliberately trying to be comical or anything. 

Jim brings up the storylines in standard country music and pop music songs and how they're all a variation of saying I love you or I don't love you, etc. and he praises Ray for always having a unique/distinctive selection of songs. Jim brings up Branson, Missouri and Ray recounts his years at the theater he once owned. He pointed out that back then he used to do 12 concerts a week. He would perform a matinee show for tourists and later that night perform a night show for another bus load of tourists. I'm sure locals were also part of the Branson audiences but I'd say 80 percent of the audience make-up of all concert venues were those on vacation or from out of town. 2 concerts a day for 6 days a week for 6 months a year (1991, 1992, and 1993). Jim asks about Weird Al and remarks that it seems a lot more difficult for Ray since he uses original ideas for comedy songs rather than do parodies. Ray comments that he finds parody songs funny but it's something that he doesn't do. Ray spoke about how he's been making records since 1957...approaching 65 years as a recording artist...and that he's put out all kinds of recordings. Jim credits Ray's unique talents and comedy as a major factor for that longevity. After a commercial break Jim plays an audio snippet of "Disorder Down on the Border". 

As a tie in with the current events of that song Jim asks if Ray feels the need to be inspired by current events much. Ray comments that he doesn't necessarily watch TV or listen to the radio newscasts exclusively for ideas but he picks up on phrases or picks up on things that people seem to be talking about and usually those bits of information inspire the writing process. Ray makes mention of the CabaRay showroom...and that he's putting on concerts every Saturday night. He mentioned that he hopes to expand to where things used to be in 2018 and 2019 by having a concert on Friday and Saturday nights but for now it's only Saturday. Ray said that they're getting things back to where it was prior to 2020's shutdown. He talked about the design of the showroom, too. Jim brought up "The Streak" and then "Everything is Beautiful". Jim remarked that since he knew Ray more for comedy he was, at that point in time in 1970, expecting "Everything is Beautiful" to eventually have some sort of comical gag or punchline but yet it was a straight-forward, serious song. Ray told the story of the song's origin and that it won a Grammy in 1971. 

The final portion of the interview Jim asked Ray if he had a bucket list. Ray commented that he doesn't have many future goals or anything to check off but said that he's sure that there are things that he'd like to do or try at some point but they're not of any burning desire. Ray did remark that he's working on an all-new comedy album!! There wasn't any kind of discussion about what it would be (as far as album title or song selections) and I'm sure it won't even be released until well in 2022 but hearing Ray, in his own words, say that he's working on a new comedy album while promoting his current comedy album was like the icing on the interview cake. 

I'm including a link to Jim Bohannon's podcast page. At the moment the November 9th show isn't listed but I'm sure that if you're reading this blog entry several days from now the link will include a podcast of the November 9th episode. Click HERE for the podcast list.  

Ray Stevens: "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" at One Month...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It was exactly one month ago that Ray Stevens released his comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The music video that was released on the same day that the comedy album became available, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", has more than 142,000 unique views on YouTube. The album has soared up the Amazon New Releases Top-100 once again...at this hour it's sitting at 61. The hit music video has 142,888 unique views, specifically. This is an increase of 3,902 over the last couple of days.

In my previous blog entry I highlighted a CabaRay concert that an online friend of mine went to this past Saturday. I'm sure he's still excited about having gone...as I happened to be in the days after the concert I attended at the CabaRay in 2018. As mentioned in the previous blog entry he made sure to take a whole lot more photos of the interior than I did and he even did some video captures which is something I couldn't do with my older model cell phone.  

Ray Stevens sings "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat"...

Hello one and all...a fellow fan of Ray Stevens attended a concert at the CabaRay this past Saturday night. He posted several photo's from his time inside the showroom. I didn't think to take a lot of photos from inside the showroom when my brother and I were there in 2018...he had the better quality phone but he opted to take photos of inside the Country Music Hall of Fame. We went to the Hall of Fame before going to the CabaRay later that evening. Anyway, the photos were great as were some of the audio snippets he was able to get. 

Earlier on Sunday Ray uploaded a performance of "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat" from his CabaRay Nashville television series. The song, from the pen of Buddy Kalb, originated in 1986 on his Surely You Joust comedy album. As kid I always thought of the Hee Haw television show whenever I'd hear this song. I had no idea why at that time...but looking back I must've felt the song had so much country comedy in it. I could visualize the entire story due to the lyrics being so descriptive and I could picture it being played out by the Hee Haw cast. 

Ray performs the song on stage/in concert a little bit differently than he recorded it. In the recording you'll hear maraca's representing snake hissing and rattle's rattling and it's sang up-tempo. In the live performances the tempo's lowered and delivered in ballad form rather than frenetic pace as the 1986 recording displays. In the recording there's also more music accompaniment. When he sings it on stage a lot of the synthesizer-based special effects featured in the recording aren't heard. There's a limited animation music video of this song available to view on YouTube. It originated on a DVD release in the mid 2000's.     

Ray Stevens audio track: "My Better Half"...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It's been awhile since I've spotlighted an audio track from Ray's current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Today I'm spotlighting a comical love song...something of which Ray has recorded plenty of over the decades. "My Better Half", from the pen of Bobby Braddock, is a clever twist on the heartache/heartbreak type of country song...clever in that the lyrics reflect the focal point of the song. Ray plays the role of a man separated from his love interest. It's never revealed if he's singing about a wife or a girlfriend. He declares that she's his better half...but because she's his better half everything in his life is singular and it's reflective in the comical lyrics. 

It's a song you'd have to hear to understand or to even appreciate the cleverness. I'm embedding the audio track of "My Better Half" in this blog entry. There are only three musicians, total, on this recording. Buddy Skipper is the tenor saxophonist. Jerry Kimbrough plays electric and acoustic guitars. Ray is credited with playing the drums, bass, electric keyboard, trombone, and harp. He's also singing the harmony vocals. I'm making the assumption that the drum, bass, and harp instrumentation comes from one of Ray's synthesizers. I can't picture him bringing in a full sized harp for just one recording.

If you have the CD copy of the new album there's a photo of Ray in the fold out showing him with a broom, a different large tie than what appears on the album cover, but retaining the Emmett Kelly 'Weary Willie' sad clown look. Ray was dressed nearly identical to Emmett Kelly's clown in the music video for "Shriner's Convention" in 1995, by the way. I know you're going to love "My Better Half"!!    

Ray Stevens: Write-Up in The Nashville Musician...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! An hour ago Ray's social media posted a new write-up about Ray in the pages of The Nashville Musician. The author of the article is Warren Denney. Ray appears on the cover of the current issue (October - December) and the article can be read when you click HERE. It's an online copy of the publication...

The article covers a lot of ground...it's several pages in length. There's a lot of reporting on his early years as a recording artist. Ray mentions several radio stations he listened to in his teen years, and earlier, and champions the concept of people listening to a variety of music styles. He remarks that radio has changed dramatically and with all radio stations programmed to fit just one style of music a general audience isn't getting any music variety as they once did. He says that the only people who get variety in their music listening are those who take it upon themselves to find it for themselves since radio doesn't program a wide variety of songs anymore. Ray mentions his years doing session work and the studio system in Nashville during his early career. The author makes mention that Ray is truly multi-talented and states that Ray is a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, music arranger, song publisher, and a video/television artist. As fans of Ray Stevens we know these things already but it's nice to see those talents mentioned to people outside of the fanbase. Yes, it's true, there are people who still think of Ray Stevens simply as a 'singer of comedy songs' or they say 'oh, he's the guy that sang The Streak' and that's it...completely unaware that Ray's skills and talents go far beyond a comedy song or two.

The author mentions the CabaRay, of course, and that it opened in 2018. There's reference made to Ray's music video success on YouTube and the author mentions Ray's recent releases on Curb Records. There is no mention of his locally syndicated PBS television series, CabaRay Nashville. The author mentions Iconic Songs of the 20th Century as well as Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. He also lists, seemingly at random, Ray Stevens albums since 2000. A notable omission being 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The career of Ray Stevens is prolific...some historians seem afraid to use that word when discussing Ray Stevens. I don't know if they think prolific should only apply to a recording artist that the historian particularly likes to hear or that the word should apply to recording artists that don't sing comedy songs. I don't know about you but I often get the feeling that some people in the country music media and the music media, in general, are reluctant to acknowledge Ray's skill and talents as well as his overall body of work. This article, though, goes a long way at showcasing Ray's lengthy body of work. Oh, before I close this blog entry, I also liked seeing the photo's and the mentioning of the various Halls of Fame that Ray belongs to. I'll never get tired of seeing photos of Ray Stevens or seeing a list of all of the various Halls of Fame he is a member of. 

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" on it's way to 140,000 unique views...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans and welcome to the month of November!! Well, technically, it's the second of November but it's my first blog entry of the month. I checked the CD's and Vinyl/Country New Releases over on Amazon before I began writing this latest blog entry and seen where Ray's current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, is ranked 61 at this hour on their Top-100. The comedy album's been on this list since it was released back on October 8th. Yes, in less than a week, it'll be one full month since the comedy album was released! 

The first single release from the album happened months earlier, "Gas", as a promotional audio track by Curb Records. The record company also included the previously released "Red Hot Chili Cook Off", previously only available as an online music video, it was placed as an audio track on the new comedy album. You can purchase your copy of Ray's new comedy album by clicking HERE.

The official lead-off single from the comedy album, though, happened to be "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" which had a splashy entrance as an online music video back on October 8th. The video's gotten 135,849 unique views since early October. A couple of days ago the video was sitting at 130,221 and it's received 5,628 additional unique views since October 29th. It's possible that the video will reach/go over 140,000 unique views by mid-week or by the end of this week.