Ray Stevens: Upcoming June CabaRay concerts...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! This coming Thursday will be one of the select Thursday concert nights at the CabaRay. The concerts are each Saturday but there have been infrequent performances from Ray on Thursday evenings at the CabaRay and on June 2nd you'll be able to see the legend in concert. This will be his only Thursday concert for the month of June...so if you can't make it this week you'll be able to catch Ray in concert on June 4th, June 11th, June 18th, and June 25th. You can get your tickets and read more about the CabaRay when you click HERE. One of the things you'll find out is the doors open at 5pm and the pre-concert activity takes place inside the Piano Bar. This spacious area features pianist, John Jonethis, and a variety of beverages. Later on the gift shop opens up. If you've ordered a dinner with your concert then you should make your way to the main dining area about an hour before the concert...the dinner is served in the performance area. When you order dinner and concert tickets you can select table or booth seating. Dinner isn't served in the upstairs balcony area. You'll find all of that out when you click the link I supplied. 

June is Country Music Month...and I don't know if Curb Records will have Ray appear at CMA Music Fest this year or not. I haven't seen his name attached to any website promoting the festival. He returned to Curb Records in 2020 and if you'll remember there wasn't a CMA Music Fest in 2020 or in 2021 because of COVID...so this will be the first festival since Ray's return to Curb Records. Record labels usually put on shows promoting their artist roster which is why I wondered if Ray will take part at some point (either on Thursday, Friday, or Sunday). The event will run from June 9th until June 12th at the Nashville Bridgestone Arena. As I've mentioned in past blog entries this used to be called Fan Fair. If you notice, Ray will be in concert at the CabaRay on June 11th, a Saturday, which is usually the busiest day of the event...and in 2018 and 2019 he promoted his showroom as another destination for fans/tourists to stop by while they were visiting the Nashville area. I agree with him...so, if you plan on being in Nashville during June 9th through June 12th, make plans to stop by the CabaRay. You can purchase tickets at the CabaRay box office on the day of a concert...locals often do that. It's usually those who live miles away that take advantage of ordering online. 

Ray Stevens: "Wrapped in the Flag" Memorial Day 2022...

Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! Earlier in the month Ray released "Wrapped in the Flag", a recitation by Larry Black. Ray produced the recording and played the keyboard. It received a lot of attention the day it was released and a few days ago it was spotlighted on the website, Music Universe. The video's been accessed by more than 24,000 people (24,126 so far) and I'm hoping that number grows in the next couple of days. The patriotic and military overtone of the visuals lends itself to Veteran's Day but this recitation is uniquely tied to Memorial Day as you listen and watch. I've embedded the YouTube video below this paragraph but if you want to visit Music Universe and watch the video there or share the video from their website you can do so by clicking HERE. The reason I say that is because I'd like for that website to get some traffic for their Ray Stevens post. Anytime I come across a website that promotes the music or the overall career of Ray Stevens I leave a link in this blog so that visitors will be able to read and possibly share those websites. It enables the website authors to know that Ray has an online presence...and by accessing, liking, commenting, or sharing content about Ray it lets the website authors know that they should continue to provide coverage of Ray's music.  

Memorial Day isn't officially until tomorrow (Monday) but this is considered Memorial Day weekend nonetheless and so I decided to bring back focus on "Wrapped in the Flag"...

Ray Stevens was in concert at the CabaRay last night. He performs there on select Thursday nights and regularly on Saturday nights. I don't know if he's inserted the recitation into his concerts or not. My guess is, if it's been added to his set-list, it's played on the jumbotron above the stage...if anyone's attended a concert at the CabaRay during the month of May let us know if it's part of his set-list. Larry Black is the host of Larry's Country Diner which airs on RFD-TV. If you're familiar with Ray's music video, "The Dooright Family", Larry plays the role of Virgil Dooright.  

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville on YouTube, E-1, S-1

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I know some of you caught the YouTube debut of Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. I title this blog entry after the episode number and season number. So, because the episode that aired on YouTube yesterday happened to be Episode 1, Season 1 it appears in the blog entry title as E-1, S-1. I plan on publishing a blog entry and include a video embed of each full length episode that Ray puts on YouTube. The first episode guest stars Steve Wariner. The two of them discuss Steve's career as well as their mutual friendship with the late Chet Atkins. Steve sings "Chet's Guitar" and then he performs "Two Teardrops". In my way of thinking I believe that Ray is bringing episodes of his television series to YouTube so that it'll have a national reach once again. It had aired previously on RFD-TV and it reached a national audience but the program's aired in local PBS syndication for a number of years...but the show has never been syndicated nationally on PBS. Also, when it was airing nationally on RFD-TV, the channel wasn't available on every basic cable line-up and there were a lot of fans that weren't able to see the show even with a national airing. Anyway, what all of this boils down to is there's still pockets of the country that are unaware that CabaRay Nashville even exists...so, my guess is, in an effort to bring the series to a national audience once again it's being uploaded, once a week, on Ray's YouTube channel. The episodes will air each Friday evening at 6pm Central, 7pm Eastern. 

Ray Stevens: YouTube Audio Tracks...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Curb Records, quietly, uploaded audio tracks onto YouTube on May 19th from some of Ray's albums in the 2000's. Specific Ray Stevens albums have been represented on all kinds of websites over the decades and some of the audio tracks are readily available on YouTube if you do a search for them. Sometimes an entire album is available to listen to and sometimes there are only a handful of songs available from an album to listen to. Curb Records uploaded the audio tracks from Ear Candy (2000); Hurricane (2007); and We The People (2010). Several other Ray Stevens fans that I frequently keep in contact with have always mentioned that a recording he did in 2000, "No Lawyers In Heaven", has never appeared on YouTube. Ray recorded an album in 2000 titled Ear Candy, which you see off to the right, and it was released on his own label, Clyde Records. This comedy album was a follow-up to his 1997 album, Christmas Through a Different Window, on MCA. Ear Candy was never released to retail stores (Clyde Records didn't have retail distribution) and I don't think it was available on Amazon, which was 5 years old at the time, and hadn't been in the Music shipping business too long after starting out as an online bookstore. I've looked over on Amazon and they do have this album listed as having been available at one time as a CD and they have it listed as an Mp3 digital download as well. The one thing that will confuse consumers at Amazon and listeners on YouTube is Ear Candy is listed as 2000 Curb Records...which is an error. Clyde Records released this in 2000. It also states that the album was released on January 1, 2000 (New Year's Day) and we all know that's an error. Ray Stevens has never issued an album on any holiday...let alone New Year's! 

"No Lawyers In Heaven" comes from the pens of Paul Craft and Billy Edd Wheeler. It was later recorded by Bluegrass singer, Charlie Sizemore, and it became a big award winning hit for him...but Ray was the first artist, as far as I know, to record the song. When Ear Candy was partially re-issued in 2002 by Curb Records as Osama Yo' Mama: The Album one of the two songs from Ear Candy that was omitted happened to be "No Lawyers In Heaven"...and so, chances are, only us fans are aware of Ray's recording of the song...but all this changes starting now. "No Lawyers In Heaven", as recorded by Ray Stevens, is now going to be shared on this blog entry which will soon make it's way to social media where I'll share it there, too...

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville coming to YouTube...

Hello one and all...in this latest fan created blog entry about Ray Stevens I'm relaying some information that was posted online a couple of hours ago. If you're familiar with Ray's half-hour television series, CabaRay Nashville, then you'll know that it once aired nationally on RFD-TV under it's original title, Ray Stevens' Nashville. It then moved to local PBS syndication. At the time of the move I recall remarking in one of my blog entries, or, it may have been on a social media site, but I remember telling other fans of Ray Stevens that he's simply moving from one set of letters to another (from RFD to PBS). Ray's association with PBS has lasted, to date, for 5 years. Ray's television series made it's debut on RFD in November 2015 and it left the airwaves in early January 2017. In that time span 26 first-run half hour episodes aired and they were repeated. The show became the most-watched original series on RFD and second only to reruns of Hee Haw. When Ray and RFD decided to part ways in the latter half of 2016 one of the events that took place was a day-long marathon of the show. All 26 episodes aired back-to-back. After the 26th episode from the marathon aired, CabaRay Nashville officially ended it's association with RFD early in January 2017. While all of this was going on, though, Ray had been producing new half hour episodes of the show that we, at the time, thought would air on RFD. However, in the final weeks of 2016 we were informed of the show moving from RFD to PBS and that the title of the show was changing to Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville. The first airdate of the show on PBS affiliates happened January 6, 2017. The first 26 episodes to air on PBS stations each week were the episodes that had previously aired on RFD. In the summer of 2017 all-new episodes of the series began to air on local PBS affiliates. 

Now, ever since the show moved from RFD to PBS, there have been all kinds of comments from the fans that their local PBS stations don't or won't carry Ray's show. There was, for a brief time, an online subscription based service called Ray Stevens Backstage which featured the PBS episodes. That is where I first saw some of the PBS episodes of the show before a local PBS affiliate in my area began to air Ray's show. Although I was now able to watch his show each week on a local PBS station I knew that a lot of other Ray Stevens fans were unable to. So, I began writing reviews of each episode. You can find those reviews in the archives. CabaRay Nashville, while still airing on local PBS affiliates, made a return to RFD in early 2019. In addition to that series, RFD also began airing a half hour sketch filled series from Ray called Rayality TV. The sketch series aired in a daytime time-slot while CabaRay Nashville aired in a prime-time time slot. The two programs remained on RFD until November 2019. I wrote a blog entry that month all about the abrupt removal of Ray's shows from the RFD schedule and you can find it in the archives. The departure from RFD, for a second time, came a month after Ray's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. While all of this was going on Ray had opened up his CabaRay showroom early in 2018 and episodes of the show were still airing on local PBS affiliates.

Then, today, the announcement was made that beginning May 27th Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville would begin airing on YouTube. I saw a video reminder on Ray's YouTube channel a few days ago and wondered what was going on. In a message to some other fans of Ray I speculated that he might be testing the waters on YouTube to see what the reaction will be to full-length episodes of the program. I had a wild assumption that perhaps he might produce some more episodes of the show and release them on YouTube, first, and then add them to the syndication package currently airing on PBS. However, in the announcement that was made this afternoon, Ray Stevens will be uploading a full-length episode of his television series once a week on his YouTube channel. The upload will happen every Friday evening at 6pm Central, 7pm Eastern. He didn't indicate whether or not he'll be uploading the episodes in chronological order but I assume that's how they'll be uploaded. In his social media post about the YouTube debut he also mentioned that the main reason he decided to do this is because of the build-up of concerns from fans that have never been able to see the program after it left RFD. 

There were a lot of fans that weren't aware that the show had returned to RFD in 2019...and there were also fans of Ray that didn't even have RFD on their channel line-up. So, with the decision to air full-length episodes on YouTube once a week starting May 27th, there will be so many fans of Ray Stevens and fans of the guest stars on the show, that will probably be watching the show for the first time. I, for one, can't wait to see the reactions from other Ray Stevens fans who, for whatever their reason, never had the chance to see the television show before. Now, starting May 27th, everybody can watch full-length episodes of Ray's CabaRay Nashville series.     

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Showroom WTVF Interview...

Hello to all of the fans of Ray Stevens!! There's been a second contest added on top of the other contest I wrote a blog entry about a few days ago. Back on May 11th a contest got underway on Ray's Facebook page where if you Like and Share the post you'd be entered to win several items, which included a copy of the 2012, 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. That contest ended on May 13th. Then, on May 16th, Ray announced that the 5 albums he released last year were going on sale for $6.99 a piece at the Apple/iTunes store. The sale runs until May 27th. The albums are: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, Nouveau Retro, and Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. A couple of days ago (May 19th) Ray announced another contest on his Facebook page and the prize would be 4 free concert tickets to the CabaRay. As with the previous contest you have to Like and Share the post. As of this writing there's 903 Likes and 675 Shares. Ray's Facebook page can be found by clicking HERE. I didn't enter the contest because I know I won't be able to attend any concert there. If you're able to go don't pass up the chance to attend a concert at his CabaRay. WTVF, local Channel 5 in Nashville, did a feature on Ray's CabaRay and it was uploaded onto Facebook yesterday evening. I was away from the internet for several hours Friday evening and night but when I returned a little after 1am I seen that Ray had posted a video clip from WTVF. When Ray's comedy album was released in October 2021 he appeared on WTVF to promote it...and this new video clip is meant to promote the CabaRay. It was featured on the news segment, Talk of the Town. The video hasn't been uploaded onto YouTube so I'm unable to provide an embed video, for now, but you can watch the video when you click HERE. The link takes you to the WTVF webpage and the feature on Ray's showroom. They also provide a link to the CabaRay website.

Ray Stevens: Itunes/Apple Music Sale...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Yesterday evening at 7:30pm Ray's social media pages put out the announcement that all five albums released in 2021 on Curb Records are going on sale for a limited time on the Itunes/Apple Music site. The sales price for all five digital downloads will be $6.99 and the sale will last until May 27th. So, for those of you that want the digital albums at a lower price than they usually sell for make a visit to Itunes/Apple Music and take advantage of the offer. I have Ray's profile page from that music site available in this LINK. Once there you'll see the Album section. The five albums on the main profile page are the ones that are currently on sale: Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, Nouveau Retro, Slow Dance, Melancholy Fescue, and Great Country Ballads. The latter four albums come from the 2021 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. If you purchased the CD copies last year then you know they come in a box. Ray continues to issue CDs because he knows a lot of people like to own physical copies of albums...CD purchasing is something that's lost on a lot of people under 30, though...but then again those people aren't the only ones that listen to music and not everybody wants to listen to music from a cellphone speaker. Ray thinks of the music consumers that appreciate art work, album design, and musician credits...but he also has his music available to those that choose to listen through online music sites/streaming services. 

In case you're new to Ray's career and haven't done much online research about him yet the art work for the four CD's released in the box set last year are over on the right hand side of the page. Those four albums, just like Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, are all $6.99 a piece until May 27th on Apple Music. The four albums from the box set represent decades worth of iconic songs from various music genres all done in Ray's own interpretations and arrangements. The names of the albums almost tell you what the songs will be about. Great Country Ballads is Ray's album of country music classics delivered in a pop crooning fashion...as if they come straight out of the Great American Songbook. Slow Dance is an album chock full of love songs...most of them from the actual Great American Songbook...but re-arranged and delivered in a different way. Nouveau Retro carries a sub-title of What's Old Is New Again. As you can see, for this album cover, Ray appears as Father Time next to Ray's actual baby photo. On this album Ray has recorded his versions of early rock/pop, rhythm and blues songs but with different music arrangements and tempo's. Melancholy Fescue is Ray's symphonic Bluegrass album. In case the concept is new to you try hearing a song in your head that has banjos, fiddles, and mandolins playing along side trombones, trumpets, and saxophones...with occasional appearances of the steel guitar and you'll be hearing symphonic Bluegrass. Ray puts this kind of musical blend on his versions of songs that originated in rock and pop music. What he did with those four albums was take well established, iconic songs from a music genre and re-arrange them to sound as if they come from another music genre. Those four albums and the comedy album written about earlier are on sale for $6.99 a piece in the Itunes/Apple store until May 27th!! 

Ray Stevens: "C.C. Rider" CabaRay performance...

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans!! Ray Stevens will be in concert at the CabaRay for three Saturday evenings this month. Tonight (May 14th), then the next two Saturday evenings (May 21st and May 28th). Earlier this morning Ray uploaded a performance of "C.C. Rider" from the CabaRay showroom. Some may know of that song from the Las Vegas-era concerts of Elvis Presley...but it's origins go farther back. Ray doesn't sing the entire song...what he does is he performs several lyrics, repeatedly, with a lot more emphasis on the music. It's a song that concert goers say is one of the songs he performs so it's part of his current set-list, I assume. Looking at the performance it appears as if it's the concert opener...and so apparently he's changed the opening number from "Such a Night" to "C.C. Rider". 

I was at the CabaRay in 2018 and he opened with "Such a Night". Now, obviously, every performer changes their set-list and their concert opener from time to time but isn't it funny that once you see a recording artist in person the set-list on that night tends to become a permanent fixture in your mind? 

A lot of the recording artists I'm aware of prefer opening their concerts with an up-tempo song...either one of their recordings or a well-known sing-a-long to set a mood...then, by the middle of the concert there's more ballads inserted. 

It's only my assumption but I feel that recording artists of Ray's generation, who have accumulated years of recordings, often find that there's limited slots in a set-list to insert newer songs since the audience often shows up to hear the songs they're familiar with. Ray's set-list is built around several signature songs...a few of them performed as a medley...with less than a dozen slots for new songs (specifically, songs from a current album or a song that hasn't been recorded yet but is being tested for audience reaction). Ray has never recorded "C.C. Rider", by the way, but he performs it at the CabaRay. To read about the CabaRay showroom and purchase your tickets to a Ray Stevens concert click HERE.      

Ray Stevens: 1989 performance of "Charlene MacKenzie"...

A couple of hours ago Ray Stevens uploaded a 1989 performance of "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene MacKenzie How To Drive". The novelty song comes from Ray's 1988 album, I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. It was one of two single releases from the album...the other single, "Surfin' U.S.S.R.", was made into a music video and become more widely known through it's appearances as a music video on The Nashville Network. The music video was on the video lists of TNN when MCA decided to release Ray's follow-up single in September. MCA released the Charlene MacKenzie single in the fall of 1988...a few months after the release of the album. Cashbox magazine, in their September 17th 1988 issue, highlighted the novelty single as one to pay attention to. The song, in case it's new to you, is about a guy who attempted to teach a deaf girl how to drive. The song's setting takes place in the late 1950s and it has an early rock and roll, peppy music arrangement. Ray sings about teaching Charlene how to drive in his 1957 Chevrolet but due to her partial deafness she mishears words and one thing leads to another. The single's B-side is "I Don't Need None of That", from the 1988 album. Ray performed "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene MacKenzie How To Drive" on the Hee Haw 20th Anniversary television special in 1988. The performance in this blog entry, however, is from 1989 on hour long television special that aired on The Nashville Network called An American Music Celebration. At the beginning of the video you'll see Ray with a top hat in his hand and he softly tosses it off to the side...indicating that he had finished a performance of another song prior to launching into the Charlene MacKenzie song. I'm guessing that he performed "The Streak" ahead of Charlene...when Ray sang "The Streak" in concert he'd use a top hat near the end of the song. Here now is Ray Stevens, from 1989, performing "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene MacKenzie How To Drive"...

Ray Stevens: "Feel the Music" reaches Sapphire...

Well, hello Ray Stevens fans!! As longtime readers of this fan created blog should be aware of by now I love the recordings Ray did for the Warner Brothers label in the mid to late 1970s. I like all of his songs...but I have a particular love for that era in his recording career. I've often wondered the reason for this...maybe it's because as a child growing up I wasn't as familiar with Ray's songs from that particular record label. It could also stem from, as I've discussed often, the sound of his recordings in this time period. There's a specific sound that you hear on the Ray Stevens Warner Brothers songs that you don't hear before and after he was on the label. Then again it could just be my own ear hearing things unique to that specific time period in his recording career (1976-1979). Well, in 2022, his 1977 album, Feel the Music, reaches 45. The gem stone that represents a 45th anniversary is Sapphire. This gem can come in different colors...I prefer blue. I had thought about typing out this blog entry in blue color but I decided I'd just use that color a few times. The album contains 10 songs...9 of the songs were written by Ray Stevens. There are several music styles heard on this album, too. A bluesy flavor dominates songs like "Blues Love Affair", "Junkie For You", and the title track, "Feel the Music". However, the title track starts out as if it's going to be a bluesy ballad but lyrically it's a motivational number...and the tempo picks up dramatically as the song reaches it's conclusion. All of the songs on the album are sensational, in my opinion. One thing to keep in mind, though, is the sound may be, to some, indicative of 1970s country music. I don't have a strong opinion, either way, with how the sounds in country music have changed throughout the decades but from beginning to end on this album you'll hear certain moments, if you're a student of country music of the late 1970s, where you'll know it's from that time period. 

The Warner Brothers label is the first to market Ray Stevens as a country music artist. If you were look up album reviews or write-up's in music magazines about Ray Stevens from the early to mid 1970s chances were he was being covered by Pop music and Easy-Listening music journalists and critics. When he'd cross-over to country music, frequently, beginning in the early 1970s, the country music section of weekly music magazines would feature reports on his albums and singles, too. As a legitimate cross-over artist he went decidedly country once he joined Warner Brothers in 1976. His second album for the company, Feel the Music, featured a couple of single releases. One of those releases was "Dixie Hummingbird" which reached the Country Top-40 in Record World magazine. In a 12 week run on the Country singles chart in Record World, beginning on June 11, 1977 the single reached it's peak on August 6, 1977 in it's 9th week. Ray Stevens reached the Top-40 with several single releases on the pages of Record World and Cashbox magazine which missed the Top-40 in Billboard magazine. "Dixie Hummingbird" is one of those examples of Ray having a Top-40 hit single in a publication other than Billboard. Another single release from the 1977 album arrived earlier in the year in the form of "Get Crazy With Me". This single reached the various music charts...achieving it's highest chart ranking in Record World where it peaked below the Top-40 on March 26, 1977. It was a single that had a funky sound to it. 

As mentioned the album reaches 45 this year...and in case you're wondering the front of the album is an illustration of a stereo speaker. Ray wants you to quite literally, "Feel the Music". The back of the album features an illustration of the back of a stereo speaker...and a photo of Ray Stevens is placed in a position where you'd normally find the manufacturer's warrantee taped. The illustration is so detailed you'll think you're looking at the back of a real stereo speaker. There's a gospel flavored sing-a-long on here titled "Save Me From Myself" and a slow love ballad called "Daydream Romance". The album reached the Top-50 Country Albums on Billboard and the Top-40 Country Albums on Record World...reaching it's highest peak in Record World in April 1977. If you are interested in hearing some of the songs on this 1977 album you can always look them up on YouTube. Ray has the audio of "Feel the Music" on his YouTube channel and there's also a performance of the song from the Marty Robbins television show on YouTube. If you love "Get Crazy With Me" as much as I do then you're going to love the entire Feel the Music album!! 

The ten songs on this album, not in chronological order, are: Feel the Music; Daydream Romance; Alone With You; Blues Love Affair; Dixie Hummingbird; Set The Children Free; Junkie For You; Road Widow; Get Crazy With Me; and Save Me From Myself.   

Ray Stevens and Larry Black: "Wrapped in the Flag"...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! A new video production from Ray made it's debut about an hour ago. The video is titled "Wrapped in the Flag" and it features Ray playing the keyboard underneath a recitation is by Larry Black. The words were written by Buddy Kalb. The recitation is 2 minutes, 8 seconds give or take a few seconds. When the news broke that there was to be a video debut from Ray featuring Larry Black I had thought it would be a song from Ray but have it feature Larry at some point so I was surprised to find out that it's instead a recitation from Larry featuring Ray Stevens playing the keyboard. I like it and I'm sure you all will, too. This recording is on Curb Records and so it may be part of a future release from Ray Stevens but it might remain as a video-only release...but since there's a Curb Records credit it has me thinking this might appear on a future album from Ray this year. I know that Ray will make a guest appearance on Larry's Country Diner in the not too distant future...and those that run Larry's social media pages hinted at this "Wrapped in the Flag" being among the performances during Ray's guest appearance.      

Ray Stevens: May 9th Video Premiere...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Those of you who follow Ray on his social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) then you're aware of the upcoming music video premiere. The news was released today that a new Ray Stevens video, "Wrapped in the Flag", will make it's debut this coming Monday which is May 9th. The video is set to premiere at 9am Central, 10am Eastern. Those who live in the Mountain and Pacific time zones should be on the look-out for the video earlier in the morning this coming Monday. Since the music video originates from the Central time zone (Tennessee) at 9am it means the Pacific time zones will be able to see the video on YouTube beginning at 7am; Mountain time zones will be able to see the video beginning at 8am May 9th. The video is already listed on YouTube with it's May 9th premiere date and the time stamp of what time it'll become available. The image used in the thumbnail of the video is of the American Flag just as you see in the image above. There hasn't been any information given as to what kind of song this is going to be. I am thinking it'll be a serious, patriotic song...and some of the hashtags being used on Ray's social media include the name, Buddy Kalb, and Memorial Day. Buddy is a longtime collaborator with Ray and so I'm thinking he's the writer of this song. Memorial Day is coming up this month and this song will no doubt have some of it's biggest impact right around the time of the holiday. The video is to include participation with Larry Black, the host of the television show, Larry's Country Diner. Once "Wrapped in the Flag" debuts on Monday and I listen to it I'll embed it in a blog entry soon afterward.   

Ray Stevens: We're approaching 7 months...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! We're approaching seven months since the release of Ray's comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The album was released on October 8, 2021. I'm sure many of you have become familiar with the comedy songs from that album by now, but, I'm surprised that there hadn't been any follow-up music videos to "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Ray guest starred on an episode of Huckabee a couple of months ago and his performances and interview from that episode are on YouTube. Ray sang "Disorder Down on the Border", from Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, and he also sang a never before released song called "Where Are All The Twelve Year Olds?". The general public that seen that episode probably thought that the song was on the latest comedy album but it isn't. To date there hasn't been any information released as to whether the song will be on an upcoming album or if it's a song that Ray chose to sing but hasn't officially recorded. 

There are 14 comedy songs on this album...and once the fans saw the album cover we all immediately thought how similar it looked to his 1989 album, Beside Myself. The main difference between that 1989 album and the one released in October 2021 is the 1989 album featured 10 evenly split songs. There were 5 ballads and 5 comedy songs. On the 2021 release there are 14 comedy songs ranging from silly and absurd to pointed and topical. A couple of the songs are definitely in the category of social-commentary. Those songs are "Dis-Connected", "Gas", "Disorder Down on the Border", "The Quarantine Song", and the title track, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore". When you listen to "Gas", a song Ray recorded in 2021, you're going to come away with a sense that the writer was prophetic...there's a line in there that mirrors the current talking points/excuses coming out of Washington, D.C. as to why there's high fuel costs...this "Gas" song is yet more proof that fuel costs were on the rise throughout 2021...long before Ukraine came under military attack. Aside from those topical, social-comment recordings there are other styles of comedy that Ray brings to the album. "Soap Sally" continues to be a favorite as does "The Gambler and the Octopus", a type of comedy song that builds and builds until an eventual punchline. "My Better Half" is quietly funny...since Ray is singing about a man dealing with a broken relationship the lyrics reflect it. 

I may have mentioned this in a previous blog entry but there's a customer review out there, which was written on April 19th (last month), claiming that there's off-color material on this comedy album and in my opinion that simply isn't true. 

The customer, prior to leveling such a claim, said they were longtime fans of Ray and have purchased a lot of his albums but the reviewer didn't offer any examples, such as citing any lyrics, that are "off-color" on the 2021 album. There are no comment options over there and so you're left without having the chance to question the reviewer's claims or ask the reviewer to explain how they come to their opinion. The labeling of something as off-color is highly subjective. If listening to a comedy song about a "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" or the hilarious scam Ray sings about in "The Gambler and the Octopus", or hearing a version of an urban legend, "Soap Sally", rates as off-color then, as a reviewer, specifically point that out in the customer review rather than smear the entire album under a cloak of vagueness. To counter that reviewer's comments I'll say that if you're a Ray Stevens fan you're going to love this Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore album and you'll be entertained by the various styles of comedy represented. That customer review reminds of a blurb I seen about Ray's 1987 comedy album. The brief review written in 1987 criticized Ray's decision to incorporate what the reviewer more or less called 'mature comedy' onto the album. By 'mature comedy' we're left to assume the reviewer had problems with songs such as "Sex Symbols", "Three Legged Man", "The Day That Clancy Drowned", and "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy On Me"...but we'll never know since the reviewer/commentator never got specific.

When you listen to "Soap Sally" you're not going to hear anything explicit or "off-color"...what you're going to hear is a very funny re-telling of the urban legend...and this is just one of the fourteen comedy songs found on the album...

Ray Stevens sings "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" in 1988...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! We're at the beginning of a new month and I plan on writing another blog entry later tonight following this one. In this blog entry to open up the month of May I'm going to embed Ray's 1988 performance on The Tonight Show. The episode originally aired February 3, 1988. The headlining guest on that episode was Betty White. The music guests in the episode almost always appeared in the final segment of the show and they typically weren't interviewed...some recording artists got to sit on the interview couch and banter with Johnny Carson...but those were reserved for a very small circle of recording artists. Anyway...in the video clip Johnny mentions that Ray is clever and humorous and has made several previous appearances on the show. Johnny promotes Ray's current album at the time, Crackin' Up. I took a screen-cap of that and saved it in my photo archives. Ray then performs "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?", which was nominated for a Grammy at that year's Grammy Awards. The song was a much bigger hit than chart numbers will show...not only did Ray get to sing it on Johnny Carson's late-night show where the song reached audiences outside of country music but in a couple of newspaper columns and radio commentaries the song was mentioned a number of times by none other than Paul Harvey. The song struck a chord for several reasons...one is it dealt with a couple of emotional subjects: religion and money. It also hit a nerve, others may may say it caused shame among the religious community, because it cast a dim view and suspicion on television preachers (televangelists) and all preachers, in general, and it caused members practically every preacher or religious figure to be on the defensive and stress that there's still good, decent preachers out there and to not get caught up in all of the negative press of a few high-profile stories.   

Televangelists were under a microscope, heavily, at this point in time and while Ray had recorded the song within the first half of 1987 and then released it as a single shortly afterward, the subject matter of the song kept the recording not far from conversation...and the longer that the relatively low but high-profile televangelist "scandals" remained in the headlines the more "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" become something of a magnet for skeptics. I think the song, whether anyone will admit it or not, did a lot of good during that time period by shining a spotlight on excessive greed within televangelism and the fact that a lot of clean-up happened shows just how spot-on the song truly happened to be. You'll probably come across websites that'll feature commentary from people who are outraged that such a song was ever written, much less recorded, and try and say it's an anti-religious song...but once you educate yourself on what the song's addressing you'll quickly realize it's a song meant to call out preachers who misuse/abuse their influence and profit off the worshipers/followers/congregation/flock, whichever description that fits. Here now is the February 3, 1988 performance from Ray Stevens of the Grammy nominated "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" followed by an abbreviated rendition of "Everything is Beautiful" so make sure you continue watching the video for the second song...