May 14, 2022

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.      

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