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2022 |
Happy Birthday greetings to the entertainment legend, Ray Stevens!! Born Harold Ray Ragsdale in Clarkdale, Georgia on January 24, 1939 the recording artist, record producer, musician, songwriter, music arranger, music publisher, comedy video star, and comedian is reaching 85 today! Oh yes, the legendary Ray Stevens reaches 85 and if you're as much a fan of Ray as I am then you already know about what lays ahead in 2024. The news broke several days ago that 2024 will be Ray's final full season of concerts at his
CabaRay showroom. There will be a Valentine's Day concert in February but then the 2024 season will get underway in March. I wrote about the upcoming 2024 season several blog entries ago but it was prior to the news being released that this year will be his final full season of concerts. In numerous articles that have shown up online reporting on the news the one common statement in all of them are the quoted lines from Ray where he makes it clear that he isn't retiring...but that he is winding down his concert performances. He indicates that he'll continue to record songs (his studio is within the
CabaRay building) and that he's wanting to get back into production work of other recording artists. The photo of Ray that I chose to insert into the blog is from 2022. He's displaying his
Musicians Hall of Fame plaque. It's a few minutes until 3am here locally and I'm almost certain that Ray's social media will have a birthday post which will invite hundreds of likes, shares, and comments. In birthday's past he'd post a video of his staff/crew presenting him with a single candle birthday cake...and being sung '
Happy Birthday'.
In some of the quoted remarks from Ray that appear in the articles about the CabaRay he mentions that he'd been in show business/entertaining audiences since he was 15. When I read the quote I immediately thought of his years on Georgia radio while he was still in high school. If you look at the pictorial time-line off to the right of this page you'll see a photo of Ray and the radio microphone. This being 2024 and him reaching 85 today it's mind blowing to realize that Ray's been in entertainment, in one form or another, for 70 years, give or take a few months. There's still a few more years to go before we celebrate the 70th anniversary of his very first professional recording, "Silver Bracelet", from 1957...but Ray is officially in his 7th decade of recording (1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s). Oh, and what a way to celebrate an 85th birthday and 7 decades of recording by witnessing your most recent music video release nearing half a million unique views on YouTube. Ray Stevens is truly unique and one of a kind. Happy Birthday!!!
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