Ray Stevens sings "Marie, The Dawn is Breaking" ...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! In this blog entry I'm going to embed a Ray Stevens performance from the CabaRay. In this performance Ray sings "Marie, The Dawn is Breaking", a song written by Irving Berlin in 1928. The original lyric and performance is simplistic in nature but in the course of time some recording artists have added their own musical take on the song given it's sparse lyrical content. The song was written for a movie in 1928 titled The Awakening. Ray performs a rendition of the song that is tied to a rhythm and blues group called The Four Tunes. They sold millions of copies of the song. Their rendition is up-tempo, lively, and unique compared to the slow ballad, mid-tempo ballad approach by pop music crooners. The song also has heavy connections to the Dorsey Brothers and Big Band acts...but like a vocal performance, instrumentals can be interpreted in any tempo. Some instrumentalists play the song softly while others play it raucous. Tommy Dorsey as well as a group known as The Bachelors recorded versions of "Marie, The Dawn is Breaking". Ray Stevens performed the song in a 2018 episode of CabaRay Nashville...some 90 years after the song emerged from the pen of Irving Berlin. 

Ray Stevens: Upcoming May CabaRay concerts...

Ray Stevens has two concerts left in the month of April at the CabaRay. He will be in concert tomorrow evening (4/28) and again on Saturday (4/30). This is the month where Ray began to include select Thursday evenings for concerts in addition to Saturday evening. As we look ahead to the month of May we find that Ray Stevens will be in concert at the CabaRay on the 7th, 12th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. Now, as of this writing, there's only one Thursday evening concert scheduled in May...it'll be performed on the 12th. I'm sure that if other concerts are scheduled on the remaining Thursday evenings they would've been added to the calendar by now. So, for now, Saturday evening will be the majority of concerts from Ray Stevens at the CabaRay during the month of May. In my previous blog entry I mentioned that John Jonethis would be in performance inside the Piano Bar and I included a video promo. On the days featuring a Ray Stevens concert the Piano Bar will open at 5pm...on Friday evenings, which Ray isn't performing this season, the Piano Bar will open at 7pm. I had left a message on social media that may confuse people when I commented that the Piano Bar is open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I didn't specify that the Piano Bar is only open on Thursday if Ray happens to have a concert scheduled at the CabaRay that evening. I don't want to delete my social media comment and there's no option to edit it and so I'll more than likely re-post the link to my previous blog entry and use different, more specific information. In the meantime here's the LINK containing all of the ticket information for Ray Stevens concerts at the CabaRay. 

Oh, by the way, how do you like the photo of Ray that I decided to use? It's a screen cap from a television appearance literally 50 years ago. Ray Stevens guest starred on two episodes of Hee Haw in 1972. This screen cap is from his second appearance. On this episode Ray sang "Gitarzan" and "Isn't It Lonely Together". In Ray's other guest appearance in 1972 he sang "Turn Your Radio On" and "Along Came Jones". If you notice, a lot of Ray's comedy performances on Hee Haw often featured some of the ensemble cast in the background. It's my guess that the show's producer, Sam Lovullo, wanted to have a lively atmosphere, visually, in the background during one of Ray's comedy songs. In a 1980 appearance he sang "Shriner's Convention" with some of the cast seated around him. When you see Ray Stevens in concert at the CabaRay he performs on a stage that extends into the audience area...so even now he still prefers to have an audience close by. Don't forget to click the link above for concert and ticket information.

Ray Stevens: Friday Night Piano Bar...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! In my previous blog entry I made mention that I was surprised that the CabaRay Piano Bar was still operational on non-concert evenings. I visited the CabaRay webpage and they've put the John Jonethis promo inside a link that reads: "Piano Bar Friday Nights are Back!". The promo originated in July of 2021 and at that time it was visible further down on the main page. When you click the LINK you'll see the promo detailing pianist John Jonethis playing at the Piano Bar on Friday evenings beginning at 7pm Central. On Ray Stevens concert evenings the Piano Bar opens at 5pm and closes just prior to Ray's concert. The Piano Bar then re-opens following Ray's concert and stays open until, usually, Midnight. The Piano Bar offers all kinds of mixed drinks and from what I've read there are drinks named after characters and catchphrases in Ray's comedy songs. You can also purchase souvenir bottles of CabaRay Wine or purchase a bottle and drink it responsibly while inside the Piano Bar. When you're inside the Piano Bar you'll not only see the piano John Jonethis plays but you'll, of course, see the bar and the drinks available. There are seats/tables situated all over the Piano Bar. There's a long table that goes along the outside of the piano for those that want to sit right up next to the piano. There's traditional bar seating, too...and a bartender on hand. There's a balcony area where you can look out over top of the Piano Bar. There's even a dance floor area for those that want to engage in dancing during a John Jonethis performance. When you're inside the room and seated at the bar, the piano will be located off to your left. The Piano Bar is officially called The Bill Lowery High Spirits Emporium. Ray has previously uploaded various videos promoting the Piano Bar. Three 13 second video promo's appeared on YouTube last year when Friday and Saturday performances by John Jonethis made their debut. Earlier today one of those videos was re-uploaded with new graphics to reflect the new schedule: Fridays at 7pm. You'll see the interior of the Piano Bar in the video...

Ray Stevens: Thursday concerts at the CabaRay...

We're getting close to the expansion of concerts at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. Starting tomorrow, April 21st, Ray will be in concert at the CabaRay on Thursday evening in addition to the Saturday evening concerts. When you visit the CabaRay webpage and search the Event section you'll find the calendar. If you search ahead to the month of May you'll see that there are two consecutive Thursday dates, the 19th and 26th, without a concert scheduled. The concert schedule for 2022 is subject to change...the month of July, for example, only has Saturday concerts listed rather than Thursday and Saturday. So, I'm guessing that the concerts haven't officially been declared for those specific Thursday dates, yet, and the closer we get to July those dates will become available. You can read about the CabaRay and choose concert dates by clicking HERE. In a recent interview with Bill Cody on WSM radio Ray mentioned that the Piano Bar will be open on concert days starting at 5pm but then mentioned that it's open for several hours on Friday evenings...on non-concert days...and in the interview he remarked that the resident pianist, John Jonethis, has quite the following. I seen an advertisement about John performing at the CabaRay Piano Bar on Friday evenings months ago but the advertisement is no longer online...so I was surprised to hear from Ray in that interview that the Piano Bar remains open on Friday evenings when there isn't a Ray Stevens concert scheduled. I wrote a blog entry about the Bill Cody interview of Ray but in case you don't have the time to search the archives here's a link to the interview...click HERE. 

Ray Stevens: An Evening's Escape to the CabaRay...

We're here on another Saturday and in a few hours from now Ray Stevens will take the place at his CabaRay showroom for another concert. If you find yourself nearby and want to see Ray in concert and check out the interior of the showroom, and stop by the Piano Bar and his gift shop then make your plans to visit the CabaRay in person. Fans of Ray Stevens flock to the showroom as do a general public who know that Ray puts on a one of a kind show. It's an intimate setting but spacious enough to where you don't feel as if you're sitting on top of the next person. The interior of the showroom is something to behold...tables and booths make up the floor level seating while in the balcony there's theater style seating. Why are there tables and booths you may be asking? In case you're new to the CabaRay it can also be described as a dinner theater. You'll be able to order a main dish with a choice of beverage (pop, water, or CabaRay brand wine) and a salad. So, as to not confuse anyone, it's not a place where you can order fast food. While there don't be looking for hamburgers, french fries, pizza, cheese sticks, etc. on the menu because you won't find it...it's like a fine dining atmosphere and you'll be served a Gourmet-style dinner of your choice. Actually, to be more specific, once you order your concert tickets you'll be able to select the dinner option of your choice. You can also choose to purchase concert tickets only or purchase the dinner and a concert option. 

What generally happens is once you order your concert tickets and select a dinner option you'll be given a special confirmation number. When you enter the CabaRay and find your table a waitress or waiter will arrive and you'll be informed your dinner is on the way. The table being reserved ahead of time when you purchase your concert tickets will inform the staff to begin preparing/cooking the food you ordered once they see you've arrived. 

Much more information about the dining aspect of the CabaRay can be viewed HERE. There are two photo's of the showroom featured in that link. The first picture is how the current configuration of the showroom looks...featuring Ray's red piano. The second picture is a publicity photo of the showroom in it's earliest configuration with a white piano and the tables further away from the stage. When you get to the showroom it'll look more like the first picture in that link. When my brother and I attended a concert there in 2018 we sat at one of the tables right next to the stage. This coming Thursday, April 21st, Ray will begin performing an additional concert at the CabaRay. It means that beginning April 21st and for the remainder of the year Ray will be performing two concerts a week at the CabaRay (Thursday and Saturday). In addition to the previous link you should also click this LINK in order to purchase your tickets to the CabaRay!! This is Ray's fourth concert season at his CabaRay showroom (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022). The 2021 season got underway in the final months of the year following a lengthy closure due to COVID restrictions. This is the showroom's first full season of concerts since 2019.

Ray Stevens: Recent Interview with Bill Cody...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I was looking through some social media sites I belong to and was alerted to a recent interview Ray Stevens gave on Bill Cody's radio program on WSM radio. Bill and Charlie Mattos share the airwaves on the series Coffee, Country, and Cody. The radio program is simulcast on Circle Television each morning. However, the video content of the Circle TV broadcast isn't available...instead, interviews are made available as audio podcasts with the title card of the show filling the YouTube video screen. The interview Ray gave comes from the March 31, 2022 episode of Bill's radio program. The audio link became available yesterday and as mentioned I found out about the interview about half an hour ago. If video ever surfaces from the Circle TV broadcast I'll upload it in a future blog entry. Today, when I learned of this interview having taken place on March 31st, I wondered why there wasn't any promo ahead of time...however, at least with the audio online and the ability we all have of sharing it on social media sites, those that missed the interview will now be able to listen to it for themselves. Earlier in the year Ray made a guest appearance on Mike Huckabee's television show. Ray was in the television studio with the band and the show's announcer, Keith Bilbrey, but Mike appeared on video from a different location. It was on this episode Ray performed "Disorder Down on the Border" and a brand new song, a ballad called "Where Are All The Twelve Year Olds?". This recent interview with Bill Cody is Ray's second major media appearance of 2022.

Wasn't the interview great? Bill opened things up by referencing Ray's website and how the first thing that shows up is a large image of Ray's recent comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Bill brings up the late Norro Wilson. Ray spoke of the CabaRay and it's new season of concerts and along the way got into a discussion about the photographs that line the walls of the showroom. Ray spoke of his arrival in Nashville in 1962 and his 60 year friendship with Ralph Emery who passed away in January this year at age 88. Bill brings up Ray's Country Music Hall of Fame induction in 2019 and Ralph being the one that presented Ray with the golden medallion at the Hall of Fame. There are a few more areas of discussion in the interview that you'll be hearing when you listen to the podcast. As you can see, the YouTube video features only a title card of Bill's program. If video surfaces of Bill and Charlie in the radio studio with Ray on a video screen I'll upload it in a future blog entry. Until then we have the audio.   

Ray Stevens: It's the birthday of John Schneider...

Hello all once again! Earlier today Ray Stevens posted a clip of John Schneider from an episode of CabaRay Nashville. Today is the birthday of John Schneider and the video is a performance of "I've Been Around Enough to Know". The song was John's first of four number one country hits. John had become an internationally recognized face due to the action/adventure series he starred in, 127 episodes as Bo Duke on the 1979-1985 series, Dukes of Hazzard. He became a country music singer in the early 1980s...with his first hit song being his rendition of "It's Now or Never" in 1981. John's recording, largely due to the original being tied to Elvis Presley, also became a pop and adult-contemporary hit. John's first four albums and first series of single releases were on an independent label called Scotti Brothers during the years 1981 through 1983. His recording career soared the following year when he joined MCA Records. If you know your Ray Stevens history then you're already aware that Ray and John were label mates on MCA for a period of time. John's tenure on MCA lasted 3 years (1984 through 1987) while Ray's lasted 5 years (1984 through 1989). John's recording of "I've Been Around Enough to Know" kicked off a run of 10 consecutive Top-40 country hits that ran until the fall of 1987. There were 9 singles peaking inside the Top-10, with 4 reaching number one. John continued performing at country music venues throughout the rest of the 1980s and frequently in the 1990s but his acting career remained solid...appearing in numerous television programs and movies of the week. 

His next major role in a weekly series arrived in 2001...cast as Jonathan Kent on Smallville. He appeared in 105 episodes during the program's first 5 seasons and then appeared infrequently in 2010 and 2011. Throughout the 2000s he continued to show up as a guest on television series and star in television movies...landing his third major television series in 2013, the soap opera The Haves and The Have Nots. In that series, which aired for 8 seasons until just last year on Oprah Winfrey's network, he co-starred as Jim Cryer. A character some would call an anti-hero or more to the point: duplicitous, amoral, adulterous, sleazy, and no good.

Well, of course, John was simply playing a character in all of those television shows and movies...but he's being himself on this guest appearance on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...and here's his performance of "I've Been Around Enough to Know"...

Ray Stevens sings "It's Me Again, Margaret"...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! A few days ago Ray uploaded a performance of "It's Me Again, Margaret" taken from a concert he gave at Casino Rama in 2015. The concert happened to be taped and performance clips from that concert have appeared on Ray's YouTube channel in the last couple of years. If you ever see Ray Stevens in person you'll know that he rarely performs songs on stage the way he recorded them in the studio and from concert to concert he adds or subtracts lyrics. I've often felt he does this to establish a connection to the people in the audience...he looks out into the audience and sometimes smiles throughout a performance and often during a comedy song he'll use facial expressions or engage in other kinds of non-verbal comedy...purely to entertain an audience. I wonder if he intentionally performs the way he does because he wants to make it look real and natural? There are plenty of recording artists who've remarked that they block out everything when they reach the stage and they focus on the performance. I think Ray focuses heavily on the songs while he's in the recording studio...working on making what he feels will be the best recording...but once he hits the concert stage he perhaps can't, or doesn't want, to pretend there's no audience sitting out there and so I imagine that he loves communicating with an audience and wouldn't have it any other way. He puts emphasis on different lyrics in each performance as if he's striving to allow his songs to evolve and change...rather than sound exactly as they did on a recording. He also does stand-up/one liners in between his songs. 

"It's Me Again, Margaret" is a standard in Ray's career. It's been in his concerts ever since 1984 and in 1992 he made a music video of the song for the VHS, Comedy Video Classics. He performs the song, most of the time, while wearing a rumpled hat...but sometimes he doesn't. In some of the real early performances he didn't use a hat...but later on he began to use one...and probably seeing that it got laughs it became a fixture and it's turned into a beloved prop. I've seen performances where simply holding up the hat drew large applause...they knew from seeing the rumpled hat that the song was soon to be performed...it's the only song that I can think of that gathers anticipatory applause. I was in the audience at the CabaRay in 2018 and as if on cue once he began talking about the hat the audience began to applaud...and once the song was concluded there was thunderous applause and whistles. 

Here now is Ray Stevens, from 2015, performing that beloved novelty, "It's Me Again, Margaret", but this is one of those rare performances where he's not using the rumpled hat...but it's still fun to watch..

Ray Stevens: Upcoming April CabaRay concerts...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! We've entered the month of April...and the first of April is always April Fool's Day. A local radio station usually programs comedy/novelty songs on April Fool's Day during the morning time slot. The month of April for Ray Stevens means the first full month of concerts at the CabaRay! This month Ray will perform 7 concerts. The dates of those concerts are April 2, April 9, April 16, April 21, April 23, April 28, and April 30. You can purchase concert tickets and take a look at some of the interior decoration inside the CabaRay when you click HERE. 

The legendary Ray Stevens opened the CabaRay early in 2018. The showroom's construction took a little bit more time than expected...there were several months of unforeseen inactivity at the construction site due to Government regulations, zoning laws...but the biggest holdup was securing a building permit. Once the permit was approved the bulk of the construction got underway. The showroom, as you can tell, was several months behind schedule as a result...and because of that the showroom didn't have it's grand opening in the late summer of 2017 as initially anticipated. The initial grand opening was in January 2018...a VIP concert was performed on that day. The grand opening for the general public would happen a month later. I attended a concert there in March 2018. It was the first time I'd been to Tennessee...but my frame of mind back then had me bound and determined to attend a concert at the CabaRay. As a long time fan of Ray Stevens and having not been able to attend any of his concerts at his former venue in Branson, Missouri (too long of a road trip) I had it made up in my mind that somehow, someway I'd get to Nashville and catch Ray Stevens in person at the CabaRay!! I felt it was something I was destined to do...and I'm glad I attended a concert there and experienced the gift shop, the piano bar, and took in all of the sights within the CabaRay.