Ray Stevens: Upcoming June CabaRay concerts...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As we head near the end of May let's turn our attention to the month of June. Specifically, the concert dates at the CabaRay showroom next month. Now, if you know your country music, you'll know that June has always been referred to as Country Music Month for as long as I can remember. I have never looked it up to find out exactly why the month of June has that designation for country music...but I'm guessing that it has something to do with the various events within country music that take place each June. First off it's the month that features the CMA Music Fest...a series of concerts where recording artists (both established and newcomers) interact with their fans. It was originally known as Fan Fair and it was held in June...then decades later it was re-titled CMA Music Fest. The long out of print country music magazine, Music City News, held an annual awards show each June...and for many years it was something of a centerpiece of Fan Fair. Ray won the Music City News Comedian of the Year award every single year from 1986 through 1994 (Nine consecutive years!). The awards were fan-voted. The organization also had a Songwriter Awards gala...and Ray co-hosted the event a couple of times and he performed on that particular program, too. When you visit the CabaRay you'll be able to see his various awards...including the 9 awards as Comedian of the Year (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994). He has his awards housed in several display cases. Almost all of Ray's awards are a direct result of you, the fan...yes, it's worth noting that he has what I call music insider awards from music publishing companies (specifically BMI) and he's been elected to several Halls of Fame...but the bulk of his awards and plaques reflect the amazing support the fanbase has shown him over the decades. The fans are responsible for all of his Comedian of the Year honors; the readers of Country Weekly magazine awarded him a Golden Pick Award as their Favorite Comedian in 1995; and not to forget all of the Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum songs, albums, VHS tapes, and viral online music videos...and during the month of June think about stopping by the CabaRay showroom while you're in the vicinity of Nashville during Country Music Month. It's on River Road just west of downtown Nashville. Ray will be in concert at the CabaRay showroom during the month of June on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th. You can read all about the showroom and purchase your tickets when you click HERE. 

Ray Stevens: Memorial Day Weekend 2023 Online Store Sale

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Yes, I know that's quite a lengthy blog entry title but this happens to be Memorial Day Weekend 2023 and there's a sale going on at Ray's online store. It began Friday afternoon and it runs until Monday night at 11:59pm just before the stroke of Midnight. Anything in Ray's store is 20 percent off. There are quite a few new items and I'm so glad to see those type of items being offered for sale...for example there's several new T-shirts plus an increase of coffee mugs. There's a coffee mug promoting "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival" with the title on one side of the cup and it features a cartoon image of a squirrel...then there are big, bright letters that reads 'Hallelujah' on the other side of the cup. One of the new T-shirts promotes the squirrel song and it features the cartoon illustration of the squirrel. There are several new items in the store promoting the CabaRay showroom...one of which is a koozie. I came close to making an order for it but I opted to order a couple of other things instead. 

In my previous paragraph I made mention of how I'm glad to see those types of items in his online store. I say that because, over the years, there had always been a limited supply of merchandise when it came to apparel, hats, coffee mugs, and trinkets featuring either Ray's name or one of his songs, a catchphrase from one of his songs, or his likeness. The bulk of merchandise in Ray's online store, historically speaking, had always been music related (CDs, VHS tapes, and eventually DVDs). So, yes, I'm glad that there's been such an increase of merchandise over the last number of years. I'm also glad because it gives me new Ray Stevens items to purchase for my personal collection. I'd had nearly everything that the online store had been offering for the last several years. The items that I'm slowly but surely adding to my personal collection are those that are CabaRay branded and whatever new item that comes along...such as those I mentioned in the first paragraph. One of the new items I purchased was the Shriner's Convention coffee mug. When it arrives in the mail I'll take a photo of myself showing it off. I plan on purchasing some more coffee cups later...but, of course, I know that when I get around to purchasing some more of those coffee mugs they won't be discounted like they're currently marked down to during this weekend's sale. If you click the link at the end of this blog entry between now and May 29th before 11:59pm you'll see the banner for the Memorial Day Weekend sale. You can either click that banner when you go to Ray's main page or click the store tab on the top right hand side of the page. If you want to bypass the main page you can visit Ray's official website store when you click HERE. 

Ray Stevens sings "The Gambler and the Octopus"...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! In the last half year or so I had posted several blog entries centering around the next-to-last episode of Larry's Country Diner guest starring Ray Stevens. I posted a blog entry spotlighting the audio tracks of Ray's performances that were uploaded onto YouTube and Spotify, specifically, since I feel those sites are incredibly user friendly and easier to navigate. I later wrote a blog entry that featured my review of that Ray Stevens episode of Larry's Country Diner. The full episode is on YouTube and I've posted it. However, the individual music performances of Ray from that episode hadn't been uploaded in video form onto YouTube...but we're probably about to get all of those performances from the November 2022 episode as separate video uploads. Why do I state that? Well, it's because his performance of "The Gambler and the Octopus" from that November 2022 episode was uploaded onto YouTube yesterday. If my hunch is right we'll probably get individual on-camera performances of the other songs he sang on that episode. The song comes from Ray's recent comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. 

Although it's been on the market for a couple of years, now, it's still considered his recent studio album because he hasn't released any new studio album since. In the music industry there's a phrase called 'riding an album'. I touched on this in a fairly recent blog entry. It's jargon for the time spent either promoting an album or the songs from an album...and usually a record label or a recording artist will spend at least 1 year or typically no more than 2 years 'riding' an album. 

The album was released in October 2021 and so we're technically 1 year and 7 months since the album's debut. I don't know if Ray will be releasing anything in the near future but perhaps by October when the 2021 comedy album is 2 years old (an eternity in the music industry) there will be a new studio album for our listening pleasure. In the meantime, however, this is the 2022 performance of "The Gambler and the Octopus" on Larry's Country Diner. The screen-cap used on YouTube captures Ray at a moment in the song where he's in the process of grinning prior to shaking his head in disbelief over how confident the gambler seems to be. Some of you that look at the screen-cap may think he's crying but he isn't. 

Ray Stevens: This CD is Silver...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! I'm quite sure you're familiar with the photo of Ray that appears on this 1998 release. This compilation celebrates a Silver Anniversary is year...released 25 years ago by Varese Sarabande. Titled The Country Hits Collection it randomly collects mostly album tracks from several Ray Stevens albums of the early to mid 1970s and gives them a spotlight. This was important in 1998 because the vinyl albums those album tracks originally appeared on were, and still are, out of print but much, if not all, of the songs on this collection have since become available digitally on the internet. Does it mean this collection is no longer a vital item in your Ray Stevens collection due to most of the songs being readily available online? Of course not! This CD comes with a fold-out booklet full of commentary/notes and numerous photos of Ray...and that right there is cause for fans to seek out this CD on various online stores or auction sites. If you're a fan in the manner in which I happen to be then reading liner notes/essays/commentary about Ray is just as good as having the music. I recently purchased an issue of Country Music Magazine from 1981, for example...yes, the magazine is 42 years old this year, but what drove me to purchase the magazine on eBay is because it features an article/interview of Ray Stevens. It had been available online for awhile from various sellers but I happened to see one at the right price and bought it...it arrived in the mail last week. The magazine cover features Burt Reynolds. I make mention of this because, although it's a magazine and not an album, because it has an interview with Ray Stevens I decided to purchase the magazine. So, then, if you're like I am and want to read about Ray and his music but you don't have the CD, Country Hits Collection, go ahead and purchase it if only for the fold-out cover/liner notes and photos. 

The liner notes in the CD's fold-out cover were written by a writer named Mike Ragogna. As far as photos are concerned there's a close-up photo of Ray from 1970 and there are a couple of images of advertisements that originally appeared in music trade magazines. There are 16 recordings on the CD and the first 5 tracks were single releases: "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" (1969); "Turn Your Radio On" (1971); "Nashville" (1973); "Misty" (1975); and "Young Love" (1976). The back of the CD lists all 16 songs, the songwriters, and which album the song originally appeared on and the album catalog number and for the single releases it also includes the catalog number for the single release and it's peak in Billboard's pop or country chart. The back of the CD doesn't provide chart data for Easy-Listening/Middle-of-the-Road/Adult-Contemporary nor are Billboard's competitors included (Record World, Cashbox, Radio and Records). Some of the songs were issued as B-sides...and there's one song on here, "Piece of Paradise", that had only appeared as a B-side on a single release and was never part of any album. This collection remains the only showcase on CD for that 1975 B-side. It's A-side, "Indian Love Call", isn't on this collection, ironically. 

Here are the 16 songs on this 1998 CD...

1. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down

2. Turn Your Radio On

3. Nashville

4. Misty

5. Young Love

6. She Belongs To Me; 1970

7. Losin' Streak; 1973

8. Just One of Life's Little Tragedies; 1973

9. Easy Loving; 1973

10. Sunshine; 1975

11. Take Care of Business; 1975

12. Undivided Attention; 1973

13. Destroyed; 1973

14. Loving You On Paper; 1970

15. Piece of Paradise

16. Deep Purple; 1975

"Young Love" happened to be a single release by Barnaby Records on Ray Stevens in December 1975 and it was his next-to-last single for the company. His very last single for Barnaby would be "Mockingbird Hill" backed with "Lady of Spain" early in 1976 but by then he had joined Warner Brothers Records and was recording his debut album for the label in the early months of 1976...which, my guess is, that very last single for Barnaby, "Mockingbird Hill", was something contractually obligated which is why there's next to no publicity for the release in any music trade magazine of that time period. Research I've done on Ray Stevens indicates that early 1976, in music trade magazines, centers around his debut single and album for Warner Brothers and I've not come across any mention of Ray's "Mockingbird Hill" or "Lady of Spain" recordings but we know the recordings were issued on a single. Their release on a vinyl single is why you'll see one or both of those songs on various compilation albums released on Ray Stevens.     

Ray Stevens: "New Orleans Moon" CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens and those of you that stop by for pure curiosity sake. A couple of days ago Ray's social media outlets featured a performance from him from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. The performance is of "New Orleans Moon", a song he co-wrote and recorded in 2007 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city in 2005. In fact, Ray recorded and released an entire album of songs celebrating Louisiana and specifically, New Orleans, in 2007 and he titled it New Orleans Moon. Ray co-wrote "New Orleans Moon" with a writer named Chuck Redden. When Ray uploaded the performance onto his social media pages there were quite a few that reacted with surprise and a constant reply from people was "I'd never heard this song before...". Whenever I read comments like that I either roll my eyes or, more than likely, I take the opportunity to educate those who leave those kinds of comments as to where they can find a song or an album from Ray that they've never heard of. 

You can find the New Orleans Moon album at Ray's website inside his online music store. He doesn't provide digital/Mp3 audio and so you'll have to purchase the compact disc (CD) if you purchase it from his online store. Now, if you choose, you can listen to the songs from the album on a number of music streaming sites. You can find it on Spotify, for example. If you're a fan of Ray I'd urge you to create a free Spotify account, if you don't have one, and add Ray's music page to your favorites and listen to Ray's songs, free of charge, and create your own music library of Ray Stevens songs. Why? Well, the amount of plays that Ray receives goes into the year-end totals that Spotify reveals and we, as fans of Ray, like to see his page and his music recognized. You can also do a YouTube search for the album title and once you do the search results will provide you with the album playlist. 

Ray Stevens: Today's Nashville Interview...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! A few blog entries ago I wrote about an appearance from Ray Stevens on a lifestyles show titled Today In Nashville. This may sound confusing to follow along with but there's also another television program called Today's Nashville. Ray taped an interview for that series several weeks ago at the CabaRay showroom and it became available on YouTube yesterday. The Today's Nashville series is religious based. Although the entire interview wasn't centered around religion there were numerous aspects within the interview where the host, Terry Squires, asked Ray about several gospel songs he'd recorded plus his satirical 1987 recording, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?". Ray spoke at length about his career and his experiences in the music industry. Since the interview takes place within the CabaRay they spoke about the showroom and he spoke about some of the photo's that are on the walls of the showroom. "Everything is Beautiful" was discussed along with the reason for it's creation...he needed a theme song for a future TV show he was going to host in the summer of 1970 for Andy Williams on NBC. There were several aspects of his career from beginning to present day that were discussed. When you watch the video you'll see a few snippets of Ray from video shoots and from TV appearances. A couple of photos of the CabaRay's interior are also shown...including the album cover wall and the trophy case. 

In the photo at the beginning of this blog entry it features Ray showcasing how the traditional vocal of "Love Lifted Me" is performed in church and on countless gospel albums but then he demonstrates his arrangement of the song. He did an upbeat recording for his 1972 album, Turn Your Radio On...almost sounding like rock and roll. Barnaby Records released the song as a single and the only place it hit was in Bangkok. When you look in Billboard magazine's Hits of the World section in 1972 (the magazine's archives are available online) you'll eventually come across Ray's recording of "Love Lifted Me" among the top selling single releases in Bangkok. There is a brief discussion of another song, "If Jesus Is a Stranger", from the pen of Don Cusic. Ray's recording appears on his 2014 gospel album, Gospel Collection Volume One. The album was distributed by the Bill Gaither organization. 

The interview is a little less than half an hour. You'll probably, if you have a keen eye, detect a couple of edit marks within the interview. Edits are almost always commonplace in any taped interview and most of the time the edits are did to keep the interview crisp and on-topic in case the interviewer or the subject of the interview trails off into different directions...and edits are also done if there's some sort of mechanical/technical issue that comes along during the live-to-tape recording. Such issues can be edited out prior to being broadcast. Also, a taped interview with edit marks indicate where commercials should be inserted if being aired on commercial television. Here's the Ray Stevens interview...click to play...

Ray Stevens: Opry Country Classics May 11th

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens! I was seriously thinking about opening this blog entry with this kind of welcome: Hello all of you fans of Country Music Hall of Fame member, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member, Musicians Hall of Fame member, Georgia Music Hall of Fame member, Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame member, Cecil Scaife Visionary Award winner, 2-time Grammy winner, and 9-time Music City News Comedian of the Year recipient...legendary Ray Stevens!!! Now, of course, that's quite a lengthy introduction so now you know why I decided not to go that route. This particular blog entry, though, is more of a promotional piece for the upcoming Ray Stevens guest appearance on WSM radio's Opry Country Classics. The show's been a mainstay on WSM radio for well over 10 years and it's been hosted by Larry Gatlin during it's entirety. It's a recurring, seasonal series that typically airs during the late spring and into the summer and early fall months on WSM radio. The program is performed on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry inside the Opry House. The episode featuring Ray is set to air this coming Thursday May 11th at 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern. The line-up for Opry Country Classics is as follows: Larry Gatlin (host) and on this episode his two brothers, Steve and Rudy, are also going to appear. Carter Faith and William Michael Morgan are also scheduled to appear. Ray Stevens will be on hand as will Jeannie Seely. 

It's anyone's guess what Ray will sing...typically when he guest stars on the Opry or on Opry Country Classics he'll sing s couple of his signature songs that the general public is familiar with but sometimes he'll sing something brand new or something that he's been performing in concert but hasn't officially recorded yet. Ray recorded a duet with Jeannie Seely a couple of years ago...their rendition of Paul McCartney's song, "Dance Tonight". They've never performed it publicly...maybe they'll sing it together this coming Thursday night? If you've been reading some of my recent blog entries you'll know that Ray took part in a sing-a-long novelty called "Grits" released by Pat Boone. One of the other guest vocalists on the song were The Gatlin Brothers. Perhaps Larry will bring up the recent experience recording with Pat Boone? The show airs on WSM radio this coming Thursday night and you can listen to the radio station by clicking HERE. 

Ray Stevens: songwriter Layng Martine, Jr. discusses Ray...

Hello fans of the legendary Ray Stevens!! I came across a video clip on YouTube yesterday of songwriter Layng Martine, Jr. discussing his association with Ray and how much of an impact Ray had on his career. If you're a long time fan of Ray then you will probably know some of the things that Layng discusses in the interview but don't let that persuade you not to watch the video clip. Layng, based upon the things he discusses, loves Ray Stevens as much as we all do. When you watch the video you'll easily follow along as Layng talks about meeting Ray for the first time and how unassuming and modest Ray happens to be. Layng became a writer for Ray's publishing company and the two had a pair of massive hits as a writer/publisher team. Layng elaborates on Ray's work ethic and talents in the recording studio. He also lets a lot of us Ray Stevens fans know what it was like being in the recording studio with Ray and watching him make records. Layng has nothing but praise and respect for Ray as a person as well as high praise for Ray as a singer/songwriter/musician/publisher. Layng sheds some light on Ray's modesty as well as his integrity. The two hits that they enjoyed were "Rub It In" and "Way Down". The former had actually been recorded by Layng...released as a single on Barnaby Records in 1973 and produced by Ray...but the record company released it at the wrong time of the year. However, not all was lost. Billy 'Crash' Craddock recorded the song and it became an enormous hit...and sharing in that success was Layng as the writer and Ray as the publisher. The other big hit for the writer/publisher duo came in 1977 with "Way Down", recorded by Elvis Presley. It was released in what turned out to be the final months of Elvis' life...reaching the Top-10 not long after he passed away. Ray published more songs that Layng wrote but those two were the biggest commercial hits. The video's title is 'Writing for Ray Stevens - Layng Martine, Jr.'. The interview is conducted by Otis Gibbs. It is a fascinating and fabulous interview but rather than just go by my obviously pro-Ray Stevens biased opinion take a look for yourselves. The video clip is a little more than 13 minutes in length and it goes by quickly, too...it's that engaging and informative. Do you know what an escalator is? Keep your ears open for that topic as you enjoy this video. The photo they used of Ray is from a photo session in 1975. A very similar photo later, in 1980, appeared on the cover of a September issue of Country Song Roundup. It might even be the same photo but with the outdoors backdrop cropped out.