September 30, 2023
Ray Stevens: Upcoming October CabaRay concerts
Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! The month of September has flown by and here we are on the last day of the month and so it's time to take a look at the upcoming October CabaRay concerts. There will be five concerts from Ray in the month of October. How can that be for a month that has 4 weeks in it? Well, he's added a Thursday concert. As you can see from the photo it's almost as if Ray is saying "come see me at the CabaRay" and I hope you all will do so if you hadn't already. I am pretty sure some of you live so far away that it would probably be impossible to make the trip to Nashville. However, if you live just one State away or if you're actually in Tennessee and have yet to make the drive to Nashville to see Ray at his CabaRay showroom I highly encourage you to. There's not a terrible seat in the venue and if you choose to you can add a dinner to your experience. Also, there's a piano bar and a gift shop to visit while there. Ray Stevens will be in concert during these dates in October: 7th, 14th, 21st, 26th, and 28th. You can click this CabaRay LINK and plan your trip to see Ray in concert.
Labels:
2023,
CabaRay,
live music,
Nashville concerts,
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ray stevens in concert
September 18, 2023
Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville on YouTube Bundle, Part Five...
Hello fans of Ray Stevens!!! The last installment of the CabaRay Nashville bundle series that I wrote on this blog was back in early July so I think it's about time I posted a new installment. In part five I've randomly selected episodes of Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series to embed. Episodes of the show make their YouTube debut every Friday night. Some of these episodes making their YouTube debut had previously aired on RFD-TV but a bulk of them aired on local PBS affiliates across the country. There are some local PBS stations still carrying episodes of the television series but a much wider exposure, even larger than RFD-TV's reach, began when Ray started uploading one episode per week on his YouTube channel. There are/were quite a few fans of Ray that didn't live in areas where local PBS stations carried his music/talk show and so for those fans these episodes will be new to them. If you've been a fan of Ray's for any length of time (longer than 5 years) then you should be familiar with this television series even if you hadn't had the chance to see it until episodes of it began debuting on his YouTube channel. If you've been a long time fan of Ray and are aware of his signature songs but don't necessarily keep up with his career then this television series might be all new to you as well. In Part Five I'm embedding the following episodes... click each guest star's name to see the episode on YouTube...
John Rich holds the distinction of being the only guest to have two separate episodes. Ray explained that there was so much footage taped that he and the production team decided to make two episodes out of the recorded footage. Whenever the series airs on PBS in local syndication it's always in batches but in chronological order and the two episodes with John Rich are always shown as they were intended to be shown... Part one airs first followed by the second part the following week.
Labels:
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Deana Carter,
John Rich,
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Rex Allen Jr.,
talk show
September 11, 2023
Ray Stevens: Texarkana columnist discusses "The Streak"...
Hello fans of Ray Stevens! I was browsing through some Google search results and come across an article posted in the Texarkana Gazette. The author of the article is Doug Davis and he wrote a retrospective on "The Streak", one of Ray's comedy songs from 1974. There isn't any explanation as to the reason for the song being singled out given that it's next year, 2024, which will mark it's 50th anniversary. The essay details the song, it's inspiration, and the sales accomplishments the single achieved. The single, globally, sold more than 5 million copies.
The webpage that is home to that particular newspaper in Texarkana is a subscription based site but it provides visitors a set amount of "free views" before the content is exclusive to subscribers. For those curious and want to read the author's summary of "The Streak" you can click HERE. As long time fans of Ray Stevens, as most of you readers and I happen to be, you won't discover anything new when you read the article but I thought that since it's a story on Ray Stevens and one of his songs I'd share it here on my blog page.
Labels:
1974,
2023,
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September 2, 2023
Ray Stevens: Spotify Digital Single Release...
Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Well, take a look over there at what I came across on the internet today. A fellow fan of Ray's alerted me that Spotify had a studio recording of the Bubba/Charlene comedy song available to listen to. Several months ago I shared with you all an audio performance of Ray from Larry's Country Diner singing the song. Spotify as well as Amazon both have the recently released studio recording. Now, as you all know, Amazon sells their digital download singles for 99 cents (or more) whereas Spotify provides the audio content free of charge. As you can see from the photo the official title of the song is "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". I don't know the reason for attaching the word, since, to the official title since all this time we fans of Ray Stevens have been calling it "Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". I love the studio recording, too. Some may prefer the recording from the TV show since it contains elements of reaction from the studio audience, etc., but it's the studio recording that sounds more crisp and sharp. One of the things I took note of was the record label. In what I call the fine print it credits CabaRay Records. This caught my eye since he's been signed to Curb Records since 2020. I have recurring correspondence on social media with Ray's online crew, as I call them, and I was under the impression that Ray would be issuing music on Curb Records well into the decade so it caught me by surprise that the website credits CabaRay Records rather than Curb. It's purely topical comedy blending with southern comedy. Southern comedy is aan under-appreciated and, critically, a much maligned form of comedy given it's simple, direct approach without the gloss of sophistication or urbanity.
Another thing that caught my eye while over on Spotify was this particular Mp3 single. It and "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene" were both added to Spotify on August 30th. I listened to it and to my ears I couldn't tell any vocal difference between it and the recording that appears on his 2014 gospel album. "If Jesus Is a Stranger" is the song promoted heavily from the Gospel Collection album released on the Gaither label. The song comes from the pen of Don Cusic. I don't know why it's been re-released/re-issued nearly 10 years later but it has...and it's on the CabaRay Records label but it doesn't sound like a new recording to me. So, as mentioned, both of these digital singles were listed available on August 30th. As you can see from the photos they were from the same photo session. As of this writing there hasn't been any online information from Ray's various social media pages about either of these two digital singles being available. My guess is they want the fans to find the songs on their own, organically, rather than pushing their availability too soon. In online media anything that's found organically tends to carry a little more weight than people finding something through heavy publicity. When something is found organically, in theory, that allows a record company or recording artist know that people are searching for your online content on their own without being nudged or persuaded to do so.
Although there hasn't been much discussion about those digital download releases what did make a lot of news when it comes to Ray Stevens was in the real estate section of Tennessee's online newspapers. If you're a dedicated fan of Ray then you'll know his secondary interest is real estate and on more than one occasion he's remarked that he likes architecture and purchasing houses, fixing them up, and re-selling them so much that he briefly thought of going to Georgia Tech but decided to pursue his music interests and enrolled in Georgia State.
Down through the decades reporters nicknamed him, at various times, the landlord of Music Row because at one time he owned a lot of property and rented it, or, sold it to various entertainment conglomerates. The news of Ray putting up his residence for sale hit a couple of days ago. The news came as a shock to me because, if I recall correctly, the house was purchased because it would be within driving distance to the CabaRay showroom, which was in it's planning stages, when Ray purchased the house. We don't know, yet, if he's purchased a house nearby or if he's moved out of the area but then if he did that it wouldn't have him within reasonable driving distance of the CabaRay. He purchased the house for a whole lot less than the selling price being asked for now...but that's typical of anything that's bought and sold. You hope to sell something for a higher amount than what you paid for it.
Don't forget... you can listen on Spotify or purchase on Amazon.. "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene"...
September 1, 2023
Ray Stevens: Ronnie Milsap Tribute Concert...
Hello Ray Stevens fans!! The news broke a couple of days ago but I am just now getting around to making it part of this blog.. what news? Well, this coming October 3rd at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee the legendary country soul performer, Ronnie Milsap, will perform his final Nashville concert. Ray is going to take part in the final concert performance. I have not seen any definitive information as to what all is going to take place. It's being billed as The Final Nashville Show a Tribute to Ronnie Milsap. So, some of the things I've seen online that are mostly assumptions, is that Ronnie will individually perform a lot of his songs with the large list of guest stars. I've also seen assumptions where the guests will sing a specific hit from Ronnie's career prior to him taking the stage to close out the evening. So, as of now, I don't exactly know which format will take place on October 3rd other than knowing that whichever one it is Ronnie will definitely be performing. As soon as I heard of Ray's involvement I began thinking of Ronnie's songs and what could possibly suit Ray or, better yet, which songs would fit him like a glove should the format of the guests singing Ronnie's hits be the one that's revealed. I thought of Ronnie's hits with the titles "Nobody Likes Sad Songs", "Cowboys and Clowns", "Houston Solution", "Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me", and "Back On My Mind Again". I thought of those for a couple of reasons. Ray's songs are typically up-tempo and rarely, if ever, are the lyrics actually truly sad or mournful. In the songs that deal with lost love that he's recorded, for example, there's sadness or heartbreak in the lyrics but nothing painful. Another reason I thought of those songs is they're direct and not filled with a lot of vocal acrobatics like some of Ronnie's emotional ballads like: "Let's Take the Long Way Around the World", "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Stranger In My House", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", or "Inside".
Ray and Ronnie both share a fondness and love of multiple music styles. Whereas Ray absorbed the music of country, gospel, and pop he also loved the rhythm and blues songs that were all over the place in his youth. In addition he also loved novelty songs. Ronnie, on the other hand, loved the bluesy/soulful sounds of various recording artists in addition to loving country music and early rock and roll. Ray, as you can see, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. He is a member of various other Halls of Fame as is Ronnie Milsap, too. Ray is a few years older than Ronnie. They were both born in the month of January. Ray was born January 24, 1939 and Ronnie was born on January 16, 1943. Ronnie was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014. The two of them performed together, very briefly, in a television movie in 1979. They sang "It's Only Temporary" and a screen cap closes out the blog entry.
To recap... Ray Stevens will be among the guest stars on the final Nashville concert by Ronnie Milsap on October 3rd at Bridgestone Arena.
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