Ray Stevens and the upcoming New Year...2023

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! This is my annual New Year's Eve post on this fan created blog and we're just hours away from reaching 2023. This past year was filled with all kinds of adjustments as the now-archaic pandemic restrictions/regulations were slowly being lifted and life was slowly getting back to normal. These events had been set in motion in the latter half of 2021. This is why, in my point of view, the pandemic life is rather archaic and by now should have been put in everyone's rear view mirror in a car going 65 mph. Ray kicked off the 2022 concert season at the CabaRay showroom in the spring and wrapped up the final concert of the season just last night. As far as recorded music output goes it was a down year, well, almost. Although, as far as we know, the songs haven't been officially recorded Ray nevertheless premiered several new songs in his guest appearance a couple months ago on the television show, Larry's Country Diner. Ray performed "Cup Holders" and "When Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene" in addition to performing "The Gambler and the Octopus" and "Where Are All the 12 Year Old's?". The latter song had actually saw it's public performance debut in 2021 when Ray guest starred on an episode of Huckabee. On that same episode he also performed "Disorder Down on the Border". I hadn't been able to attend any concerts at his CabaRay and so I don't know if he's performed "Cup Holders", "Where Are All the 12 Year Old's?", or "When Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene" for his CabaRay audiences or not. 

Ray has already revealed that the 2023 concert season at the CabaRay will begin sometime in March. Let's not forget that on January 24, 2023 he'll have a birthday! The human embodiment of the energizer bunny, Ray Stevens his own self, will reach 84. In 2022 Ray Stevens was elected to the Musicians Hall of Fame and he was a co-recipient (with Brenda Lee) of the Cecil Scaife Visionary Award.  

It's difficult to predict whether or not he'll have out any new albums in 2023. In 2021 he issued, through Curb Records, 5 albums: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, Nouveau Retro, and Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. In bygone years 5 separate studio albums issued in one calendar year meant the material could be worked for a number of years. However, in this digital online internet age we live in, where the audio tracks from an album can get thousands of plays in a matter of hours, no longer is it advantageous in my opinion for any recording artist to ride a couple of albums for 3 to 4 years. Oh, it can be done...but the way music is now consumed the appetite is much too large and audiences want music almost instantaneously...they don't want to wait for the traditional process to play out of artist's releasing one single, then another, and then the full album and then another single or two after an album's released. Now, having said that it's difficult to predict if any new albums from Ray will arrive in 2023, with Ray having performed several songs that are new to us in this current calendar year it's highly possible that a new Ray Stevens album or two will emerge in 2023. 

What are a few of the upcoming album anniversaries for 2023? Well, his second studio album released in 1963, titled This is Ray Stevens, reaches 60 in 2023. Hitting 50 in 2023 is the overlooked Losin' Streak album as well as the much more publicized Nashville album. In a previous blog entry I mentioned his 1983 Me album hitting 40 in 2023. I'll be highlighting some of those albums and some of the songs in addition to highlighting odd-year anniversaries such as a look into 1994, just as an example. I leave you with Ray Stevens performing "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" from his CabaRay Nashville television series. Unless there's breaking news I'll communicate with all of you Ray Stevens fans next year!! 

Ray Stevens: "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" performance

Hello once again!! Some of you may have seen this video by now but just in case you haven't I came across an early 1980's performance from Ray Stevens of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out". If you're as deep into the music of Ray Stevens as I am then you are probably aware of this song. It was written by Ray and debuted on his 1983 Mercury Records album, Me. This studio album was a one-album deal for Mercury. He had been on the RCA Records roster the last several years (1979-1983) and in the latter half of 1983 he began work on Me. In fact, the album become available right at the end of the year and much of what publicity and marketing it generated didn't come along until 1984. There were three singles released from this album. Listed A-side/B-side: "Mary Lou Nights" / "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" was issued first followed by "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" / "Game Show Love" and then "My Dad" / "Me". Ray wrote most of the songs on the 1983 album. Dale Gonyea wrote "My Dad". Ray co-wrote, with Buddy and Carlene Kalb, "Special Anniversary". Buddy and Carlene wrote "Piedmont Park". "Yolanda", which features a guest vocal by Ray's daughter, Suzi Ragsdale, is credited to writers named J. Hooper and K. Sutherland. The remaining 7 songs were written entirely by Ray Stevens. The 10 song track list of the 1983 Me album:

1. Love Will Beat Your Brains Out

2. Mary Lou Nights

3. Special Anniversary

4. Piedmont Park**

5. Me

6. My Dad**

7. Yolanda**

8. Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee

9. Kings and Queens

10. Game Show Love

Song titles with an asterisk are those not written or co-written by Ray Stevens. I'm not going to embed the video of Ray singing "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" just in case it's removed from YouTube at some point in the future. I will, however, provide a link to it. You can watch the video of Ray's performance when you click HERE. 

Ray Stevens: The 2022 CabaRay season nearing it's end...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! As we're nearing calendar transition, going from 2022 to 2023 this coming weekend, it feels now's the right time to remind you all that the last two concerts of the 2022 season at the CabaRay showroom will take place this coming Thursday and Friday. The dates, specifically, are December 29th and December 30th. There will not be a New Year's Eve concert this year. This is Ray's fourth concert season at his showroom. Ray began performing concerts at the showroom in 2018. If it weren't for the pandemic Ray could've been coming off his 5th full season of concerts but CabaRay performances in both the 2020 and half-way through the 2021 seasons were almost non-existent. So, it is what it is, Ray is instead coming off 3 full seasons (2018, 2019, 2022) of CabaRay concerts this week. In September 2021 Ray re-opened the CabaRay.. normally, the concert season would've kicked off in March...but in 2021 the CabaRay re-opened in the fall and he performed concerts weekly over the next 4 months. So, technically, Ray's performed at his showroom 3 full seasons (2018, 2019, 2022) and 4 months in all of 2021. Ray usually keeps the Christmas decorations up until the final concert of the season but I don't think there will be Christmas songs performed during the final two concerts of the year, however. Those wanting to attend the final two concerts of the season at the CabaRay showroom can purchase your tickets here. I realize that if you live multiple states away chances are you're probably going to want to purchase tickets in person rather than have them arrive in the mail. They offer a Will Call service...you'll purchase tickets on their webpage and they'll hold them for you. When you arrive at the CabaRay have the proper paperwork/confirmation number handy and you'll be given the tickets you purchased. I would suggest you call the showroom, though, and get the specifics of the Will Call service. I used that service when I attended a concert there in 2018. You can purchase tickets or find their phone number when you click this LINK. 

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville on YouTube E-3, S-3

Hello all once again!! I've been so busy at my work...this time of the year doesn't leave us much free time, which is why I haven't been as active online, but the company I work for will not be in operation for several days due to the upcoming Christmas holiday and so I've got several days of free time...and in this blog entry it's an overview of Episode 3, Season 3 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The guest on this episode is gospel artist, Michael W. Smith. In the world of gospel and contemporary Christian music Michael W. Smith is the equivalent to country music's George Strait or pop music's Elton John. In the gospel field he's one of the biggest recording artists with dozens of hit singles and awards. Specifically he's sold more than 20 million albums; won 45 Dove Awards; amassed over 30 number one hits in the gospel/Christian format; won 3 Grammy awards. He had his first success in the early 1980s and his songs and albums were marketed as 'inspirational pop' before officially being marketed as 'contemporary Christian'. 

Ray opens the show singing "Dry Bones". I heard Ray sing this song on a television special, a telethon to be more specific, hosted by Gary Chapman. Ray recorded it and put it on his 9-CD box set, Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, issued in 2012. The song's inclusion on that box set was more as a reference to the humorous performance of the lyrics and how it specifically points out every bone in the body being connected to one another. It's a lyrical tongue twister and that's largely why it was originally classified as a novelty. Ray would later feature that song on his 2014 Gospel Collection album. Ray introduces Michael W. Smith and makes mention of the many hit recordings and awards Michael's won. They speak of Amy Grant and how some of Michael's songs were recorded by her...and this leads to a discussion about Albert E. Brumley. Ray brings up his own recording of "Turn Your Radio On" and how it was a pop and country hit. They speak about Michael's latest album, Hymns II, available only at Cracker Barrel. 

Ray and Michael perform "I'll Fly Away". Michael had remarked that he used to sing the song a lot but not quite in the way that Ray does it. Michael sings while Ray plays the piano. This is followed by Ray's performance of "This Old House". It was unusual to see Ray perform a song in the middle of the show...usually the guest sings/banters with Ray and then the guest sings the main song in the middle of the program followed by either a classic music video from Ray and a closing song OR just a closing song. So, then, after Ray sang "This Old House" he brought out Michael W. Smith who sang "Shine On Us"...seated at Ray's red piano. This rousing power ballad was followed by music Professor Don Cusic telling the origins of "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" which Ray performed to close out the episode.  

Ray Stevens: YouTube Christmas Playlist...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! We're a few days from Christmas 2022 and for a lot of us we're going to be under a sub-arctic deep freeze for several days beginning early Friday morning. Wind chill readings will reach something like -30 and so it's not sure what's to come in the days ahead. Some people are getting blizzard/white-out conditions while others will get light snow (by comparison) aided by the sub-zero wind chills. Earlier this evening Ray Stevens shared his YouTube playlist of Christmas songs. The playlist contains 46 publicly available songs and Christmas-themed performances but there are 14 videos not available. My guess is those particular videos were once part of the playlist but weren't watched/shared as much and therefore become private/hidden. The playlist is a combination of music video productions and live performances from his CabaRay Nashville television series. There are various renditions of "Santa Claus is Watching You" in the playlist...including an audio of the 1962 recording, a live performance from the 1980's on Nashville Now, the 1985 music video, and a performance on CabaRay Nashville. Although Ray recorded an album of comical, funny Christmas songs he also recorded an album of traditional, serious Christmas songs plus an album of both funny and serious Christmas songs. The album titles are Ray Stevens Christmas Through a Different Window; Ray Stevens Christmas; and the third is titled Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. To view the YouTube playlist click HERE.

This particular Christmas album features 10 recordings. The entire album is great but some of the songs I'm highlighting will be among your best of the best I'm sure. First off there's the title track, "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me". Ray made this into a playful music video...complete with stuffed animals...and it's one of the few original Christmas songs to come out of Nashville in decades. Jeff Bates and a disc jockey by the name of John Ritter (not to be confused with the late actor) wrote the song. Ray performed it on his CabaRay Nashville television series, actually, before the song was released on CD. Ray follows this serious recording... yes, in spite of the amusing looking video, it's still a serious recording... Ray follows it with 6 consecutive Christmas songs that range from whimsical to hilarious: first off there's the back-to-back recordings of traditional Christmas songs - "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman". We then have "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" a recording which had previously appeared on Ray's 2012 9-CD box set, Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. We next have Ray and his marvelous cover of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" which also comes from the 2012 9-CD box set. Track 6 is the original, "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". It's from the pen of Taylor Craven and Tommy Moore. Track 7 is Ray's outstanding rendition of "All I Want For Christmas is You"... the same song written and popularized by pop singer Mariah Carey. If you're wanting to hear a different rendition of the song... done completely serious but in the Ray Stevens type of style... look for the embed of the audio track at the end of this blog entry!

The final three songs on the 2016 CD are all originals, too. "Merry Christmas" is a statement on political correctness and how it's perfectly fine to publicly say "Merry Christmas" in addition to, or instead of, the generic Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings. The song had become a hit on Ray's YouTube channel prior to it being released on CD. "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day" is a song from the 1960s that Brenda Lee had previously recorded. She released her recording of it in 1964. Ray's music arrangement compliments the lyrical sorrow. The album's closer is a song Ray had written in the early 1960s and Perry Como, of all people, ended up recording it... the spiritually themed "Christmas Bells in the Steeple". Now, then, are you all ready for Ray's fabulous rendition of "All I Want for Christmas is You"??? Here it is...

Ray Stevens: Cecil Scaife Visionary Award Co-Recipient...

Well, hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! I've been busy off-line but I've been keeping up to date with all things Ray Stevens. On the heels of Ray's most recent honor, election to the Musicians Hall of Fame, his CabaRay showroom became the focal point for the 2022 Cecil Scaife Visionary Award event. The ceremony took place last Sunday (December 4th 2022) and, in case you weren't aware, the ceremony pulled off a tremendous surprise revolving around the hosts of the event: Ray Stevens and Brenda Lee. There have been a couple of news articles published in the days following the December 4th event and it was reported that the Cecil Scaife Visionary Award was presented, in surprise fashion, to both Ray Stevens and Brenda Lee! The event is a fundraising gala and it benefits the arts. The highlight of the event is, of course, the presentation of the Visionary Award. It's named after Cecil Scaife and it's tied in to a music scholarship, the Cecil Scaife Endowment, at the Mike Curb College of Music and Entertainment at Belmont University. The co-host of the event happened to be Cecil Scaife's daughter, LaRawn Scaife Rhea. In the various reports that surfaced online it was revealed that Brenda came out to the center stage of the CabaRay to make a presentation to Ray Stevens and award him with the 2022 Cecil Scaife Visionary Award. It was reported that she was surprised when Ray was already on stage...and also holding an award. The two were surprised to learn that they were both on stage to present the Visionary Award...and neither one knew the other would be a recipient! A truly surprising moment for both of them...named co-recipients of the 2022 Cecil Scaife Visionary Award. 

The award is given to those whose life and work have made it possible for future generations to realize careers in the music industry. The two legends come from Georgia and they've worked together many times over the decades. Cecil Scaife happened to be a behind-the-scenes figure in the music industry. A record executive, music promoter, and some considered him a recording studio pioneer. In his online bio one of the things he is credited for is running one of the first multi-track recording studios in Nashville. I know that Ray utilized multi-tracking in his recordings...as early as the late 1960s...but Ray didn't officially own and operate out of his own recording studio until 1973. Another factoid about Cecil Scaife is that he began a Music Business course at Belmont University in 1971. He began his career as a record promoter for Sun Records in Memphis. 

There are a lot of photos from the Cecil Scaife gala...if you search Ray's social media pages you'll find a lot of photos. There's video of Ray, Brenda Lee, and most of the performers closing out the event singing a rendition of Brenda Lee's Christmas classic, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". 

Ray Stevens: Year End Spotify Stats

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! The year-end Spotify statistics were revealed several days ago. The legendary Ray Stevens enjoyed another massive year on Spotify. The stats show that Ray received 6.1 million streams on the platform with 1 million listeners for the year. Spotify also provides hour data...according to their stats the music of Ray Stevens accounted for 321.8K hours. I have no idea how they come up with that type of statistic but it's posted on Ray's year-end numbers for the Spotify site and therefore I'm sharing the stats here in this blog entry. Also, the music of Ray Stevens was accessed on Spotify by people in 175 countries. The year-end numbers are officially billed as Spotify Wrapped and are revealed in early December. Some more stats for Ray is the amount of times people have saved his songs. His songs have been saved by Spotify listeners more than 270,000 times. The top track of Ray's on Spotify is "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". When the numbers were revealed for 2022 the track was revealed to have been played 1,190,468 times. Some of the lesser reported stats are less about streaming and more about artist ranking. For example: 1,565 people voted Ray as their Number One Spotify Artist. 7,393 people placed Ray among their Top-5 Spotify Artists. 14,558 people had Ray among their Top-10 Spotify Artists. Spotify listeners added Ray's songs to 110,230 playlists in 2022. You can visit Ray's Spotify page by clicking HERE. Once there you'll find many, many songs...including some fairly recent songs Ray performed on the television show, Larry's Country Diner. Take a listen to all kinds of Ray Stevens songs on Spotify. You'll be thoroughly entertained. 

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville on YouTube E-2, S-3

Hello fans of Ray Stevens...this time around I'm giving an overview of Episode 2, Season 3 of the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville show. The episodes make their debut each Friday night on Ray's YouTube channel at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central. This past Friday's episode guest starred the country music band, Shenandoah. 

Ray opens the show with a hilarious performance of "Ned Nostril". In the performance his backing band get to act out the wheezing, coughing, and sneezing. It's Ray's vocals we hear but the camera is on the band as they take out tissues and play the part of Ned's backing band. We get some close-up's of the trio of harmony singers as they not only pretend to be sneezing, coughing, and wheezing into tissues but they're also repeating the "ikky-ikky, ukky-ukky" nonsense phrase. The full title of the comedy song which Ray wrote and originally recorded in 1984 is "Ned Nostril and His South Seas Paradise Puts Your Blues on Ice Cheap at Twice the Price Band, Ikky-Ikky Ukky-Ukky". Ray recorded it as a Johnny Cash parody...complete with hum interjections, a Cash-style music arrangement, and Ray doing a broad vocal impression of Johnny Cash. Ray then introduces Shenandoah.   

This band was founded in 1984 and it broke through in 1987. In country music at that point in time there were only a few groups/bands with major success. The long established Statler Brothers as well as The Oak Ridge Boys were technically billed as vocal groups whereas Alabama, Sawyer Brown, and Highway 101 were billed as vocal bands. Alabama had been formed in the late 1960's, actually, as a regional country/rock band but they didn't have national success until 1980. Sawyer Brown, formed in 1981, began it's run of national success when they joined Capitol Records, ironically, in 1984...the year Shenandoah was being formed. Highway 101 was formed in 1986 and they had instant success a year later. Shenandoah, however, tasted some success in 1987 but it wouldn't be until the latter half of 1988 and especially into 1989 that the vocal band launched into their run of successes. 

Once Shenandoah hit the big time as a national act it either coincided, or was the impetus, for the explosion of country music bands and groups. As the 1990's got underway the vocal bands I mentioned were joined by another band, Diamond Rio, in 1991. The Oak Ridge Boys were also part of the lengthy group acts vying for radio's attention. The Statler Brothers moved to television in 1991 and began a long running variety show which put their recording career in the backseat for much of the decade.

The lead singer of Shenandoah is a guy named Marty Raybon. In interviews he's often the one that speaks for the group even though any member is free to speak. He was their lead singer from the band's 1984 formation until 1997 but he returned to the band in 2014 following solo projects. They perform "Two Dozen Roses", one of their biggest hits. Ray and Marty do a comical exchange involving the numbers 30 and 60. Marty remarks that the band is in their 30th year...Ray replies that he's in his 60th year. Marty doesn't specify if he's referring to the band's formation in 1984 or their national breakthrough in 1987. I'd say he's referring to the band's breakthrough considering that CabaRay Nashville didn't make it's debut until November 2015...and Ray, in 2017, was definitely in his 60th year as a recording artist (having released his first recordings in 1957). 

The audience interacts a lot with the band's songs...and Marty tells the story of the love ballad "I Wanna Be Loved Like That" which is followed by their performance of the song. Ray follows this up with a spotlight on his band member, Tommy White. Ray tells a brief history "Sleep Walk" and how it became an instrumental pop hit in 1959...pointing out how ironic it was that a steel guitar instrumental, an instrument universally associated with country music, became a big pop hit. Tommy performs the instrumental and he's aided by the other members of Ray's band. Shenandoah makes a return and performs a third song...arguably their greatest hit of all time based on radio recurrent factor and general audience familiarization, "Church on Cumberland Road". 

Ray closes the show speaking of an album he said he was working on, Slow Dance, and he performs a song that he says will be on the album. He closes the show singing "Only You and You Alone". Slow Dance did indeed see a release...and "Only You and You Alone" is the opening number on the album. The Slow Dance album is one of the four albums eventually released in 2021 in his box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Ray Stevens: Musicians Hall of Fame photos...

Hello out there all you fans of Ray Stevens!! Several days ago Ray was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame. There was a shortage of photos from the event but this past Thursday a lot of photos from Ray's portion of the event were uploaded to his social media pages. I'm going to post a couple of the photos in this blog entry. They'll be part of a collage. The Musicians Hall of Fame honors music and those who play music...and it's not an organization that pushes one style of music. Ray Stevens has long been a recording artist that has performed pop music, country music, comedy music, gospel music, middle-of-the-road music, and he has a love for classic rhythm and blues which could be heard in many of his earlier recordings. Some of his music influences were Ray Charles, The Coasters, The Drifters, and numerous stand-up comedians and radio comedians. 

Ray Stevens; 2020

In the late 1990's The Nashville Network aired a television special on Ray called The Life and Times of Ray Stevens. The hour long television special was part of a recurring series of biographical programs on country music recording artists. When the special originally aired, in 1999, it was the longest look into the personal side of Ray Stevens to ever appear. If you're new to Ray's music/career then it's best for you to know that Ray isn't one of these artists that bares his soul and gets too detailed about his personal life in his interviews. The television special opened up a lot of what had been held back from public consumption including his feelings on music and his experiences as a piano player in guitar town (as Nashville is commonly referred to). The TV special enabled fans to hear Ray speak about his music influences, too, in a more relaxed format. 

The next opportunity for the public to learn more about Ray's off-stage goings on and his thoughts on an assortment of topics wouldn't arrive until 15 years later (2014) when he released his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. The 1999 TV special and the 2014 memoir are vital for any Ray Stevens fan. Now, I'm sure some of you haven't seen the 1999 Life and Times special, but if you visit his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville you'll see Ray's career on full display through the presence of numerous publisher awards, Gold and Platinum album and VHS plaques for millions of sales; numerous certifications, awards, and photographs line the walls and fill various trophy cases. 

You'll see his 9 Music City News Comedian of the Year trophies; A Golden Pick award from Country Weekly magazine when their readers voted him Favorite Comedian; You'll see a replica Star from the Music City Walk of Fame; His Country Music Hall of Fame medallion is on display and I'm sure the latest Musicians Hall of Fame medallion will also be on display. You'll see him perform and you'll see the Piano Bar and the gift shop. Ray's career is on display under one roof...the CabaRay showroom. It's Christmas season at the CabaRay and all the information can be found HERE. Ray's concerts are held on Thursday and Saturday.

In the collage above, in panel one, we have Ray holding the trophy showing him as an inductee of the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2022 and wearing the medallion presented to him at the Musicians Hall of Fame last month. In panel two it's Ray and longtime friend/collaborator Buddy Kalb. In panel three we have Ray, hands gripped, looking debonair with the medallion peeking out from his jacket.  

Ray Stevens: Upcoming December CabaRay concerts...

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans!! December promises to be a busy month at the CabaRay showroom. The Christmas concerts got underway last month but since we're officially in December that means the Christmas concerts are going to have even more of an impact. Ray will be performing 8 concerts this month. There will be a Thursday and Saturday concert during the next 3 weeks beginning tonight. The Christmas concert dates are December 1st, 3rd, 8th, 10th, 15th, and 17th. There will be a week off (no CabaRay concerts scheduled for December 22nd or 24th) and then Ray will return on December 29th and December 30th. You can get tickets for any of the concerts by clicking HERE. 

On December 4th the Cecil Scaife Visionary Awards will be presented at the CabaRay showroom. The event is also using the marketing line of Nashville Celebrates. The official hosts are Ray Stevens and Brenda Lee. There will be a line-up of performers at the charity event. There's a promotional video on YouTube and tickets for the dinner and concert are SOLD OUT...but tickets are still available for the concert itself. So, if you want to attend the ceremony, you can order tickets for the concert only. The dinner tickets, as mentioned, are sold out. The voice over on the promo video is where I learned that the dinner and concert tickets were sold out yet concert-only tickets are still available. This video is for the December 4th charity event/concert and because it's a video for a one-time event chances are this video will eventually get removed from YouTube once the event concludes on December 4th...and for those of you reading this well after December 4th and you see a blank video box below then you'll know the reason why. 

There is no concert scheduled for December 31st New Year's Eve which falls on a Saturday this year. I have a feeling as to why there isn't going to be a New Year's Eve concert this year but I'll hold off publicly stating my thought until we learn more.