Ray Stevens: Performances from "Larry's Country Diner"...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens! Some of the most recent video uploads on social media centering around Ray are his performances on Larry's Country Diner. This country music television show had a decades long run on RFD-TV and it went out of production recently. Repeat episodes have continued to air and a lot of the content is on YouTube. Earlier this month, September 7th to be exact, a short playlist of Ray Stevens appearances on Larry's TV show debuted on YouTube. The playlist contains 4 performances from various points in time. The videos feature not only Ray's music performances but also his banter with the host and his jokes hurled at the audience. The playlist is comprised of the following songs: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", "The Gambler and the Octopus", "The Preacher and the Bear", and "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". 

Now, in addition to that video playlist, there have also been several video uploads from Ray's guest appearances on Larry's TV show. The video of his performance of "If Jesus is a Stranger" was uploaded a week ago. Ray recorded that song for his 2014 gospel album, Gospel Collection. The 2014 album received a follow-up a couple of years later titled Just a Closer Walk With Thee. 

Here is Ray's performance of "If Jesus is a Stranger"...

If you want to examine the numbers (unique views) of the various Ray Stevens video performance uploads from Larry's Country Diner here is a list of the most recent unique views for numerous video clips from the show. These numbers are in rounded figures, not in exact numerical data. For example, a video that's gotten over 9,100 unique views will be shown on the list as 9.1K. Now, keep in mind that the numbers will change over the course of time. The year following each video upload is when they debuted on YouTube. There are a few songs on this list that were performed by Ray on more than one episode and those performances are on YouTube as well but I decided to highlight performances by him at random. "If Jesus is a Stranger", for example, was performed by Ray one two different episodes, years apart from the other, but I singled just one of those performances out and reported the unique view data. In case you're wondering the letter, K, stands for thousand. So, 22K would mean that the particular video upload has gotten more than 22,000 unique views but less than 22,100 which would be written as 22.1K

I have highlighted in bold print the video uploads that have gotten more than 100,000 unique views. If you're reading this blog entry 10 days, 10 weeks, or 10 months from now these numbers will be higher as time goes by but as of September 29, 2024 here are the numbers on YouTube for 10 Ray Stevens performances on Larry's Country Diner:

1. If Jesus is a Stranger; 2024 upload  9.1K unique views

2. Ray Stevens Playlist; 2024 (as seen above; 4 performances)  4.1K unique views

3. Amazing Grace; 2024  6.6K unique views

4. Dry Bones; 2024 upload  22K unique views

5. Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene; 2024  500K unique views

6. The Gambler and the Octopus; 2023  400K unique views

7. Ray Stevens Episode (Season 22); 2023  196K unique views

8. Ray Stevens Episode (Season 19); 2024  7.6K unique views

9. You're the Cupholder of My Life; 2023  1.9K unique views

10. Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?; 2023  4.6K unique views

Ray Stevens: A collection I wish I Had...

Hello once again! Ever since I began this fan created blog centered around legendary Ray Stevens one of the albums that I've often spotlighted and singled out is a release simply titled The Best of Ray Stevens. Now, if you're a dedicated fan of his, then you'll know that The Best of Ray Stevens or a variation of that title is the title of many compilation albums that have been released on Ray over the decades. Some may wonder how does a fan keep it all straight given the similar titles of compilation albums and some may have trouble keeping track. One of the things I've always done is relay the year of release or the record company name. For example The Best of Ray Stevens released by Mercury Records in 1970 could be referred to as The Best of Ray Stevens (Mercury) or The Best of Ray Stevens (1970).

I love the album cover. I like the design and I like the photo of Ray that's used. I also like the coloring. Now, eagle eye fans of Ray or those that already are aware, will notice that in the lower left hand side there's a K-Tel mark. That's the record company that issued this particular The Best of Ray Stevens in 1980. As mentioned earlier there can be a lot of confusion for those that are new to Ray's career and are browsing through his album discography given there are several compilation albums using the same title. For this particular album it might be best to explain that it had been released a year earlier by a company called Imperial House. That particular release happened to be a 2-LP set but as you can see it contains the same title, lettering, coloring, and photo that the 1980 K-Tel release has. The 1979 release has the phrase, 2 Record Set, on display just below Ray's name with the Imperial House mark on the lower left hand side of the album cover. The image shown first is the 1979 Imperial House 2-LP release. The 1980 release wasn't a 2-LP collection but it did feature 18 of the 20 recordings found on the 1979 release. The 1979 2-LP set features 20 recordings ranging from the 1960s through his then most recent recording, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". However, do not let the inclusion of that 1979 recording fool you. It's the only Warner Brothers recording by Ray to make the album's track list. The label skipped over the recordings he did in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Here is the track list of that 1979 double album. LP One, Side 1: "Ahab the Arab", "Indian Love Call", "Harry the Hairy Ape", "Unwind", and "Gitarzan". LP One, Side 2: "Mr. Businessman", "Along Came Jones", "Freddie Feelgood", "Nashville", and "Turn Your Radio On". LP Two, Side One: "Everything is Beautiful", "America, Communicate With Me", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", "The Moonlight Special", and "The Streak". LP Two, Side 2: "Misty", "Have a Little Talk With Myself", "Isn't It Lonely Together?", "Bridget the Midget", and "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". The two recordings left off of the 1980 K-Tel release were "Unwind" and "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". 

A budget minded person may ask oneself: why did the 1979 release with 20 recordings contain 2 vinyl albums yet the 1980 release with 18 recordings contain just 1 vinyl album? I wish I knew the answer. Perhaps the company that issued the 1979 release wanted the allure of having the advertisement of "a 2-LP collection!!" to accompany the sales campaign. It's a collection I wish I had. By the way, did I say that the album photo is one of my all-time favorites of Ray Stevens? I think I did...yeah, I did...

Ray Stevens: My "Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" Review...

Well, well, well.. here I am once again and I'm finally posting my review of the most recent Ray Stevens recording, "Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club". I wrote the review back on September 13th, the day the song became available for order/download. It was not published on the internet until nearly a week later. If I recall correctly the review was published on September 19th but when you visit Amazon's product page for the digital single you'll see September 13th as the publish date since it's that date I submitted the review. 

As I had assumed back on the 13th this photo of Ray is indeed the publicity photo being used on the various online/streaming music sites to promote the newest release. This is the review I posted over on Amazon. As a long time fan of Ray Stevens I eagerly anticipate each new release from him. I've been a fan for decades... going back to the mid to late 1980s. The eye catching title of his recent recording, "The Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club", had me curious to how the overall song would sound. I was thinking to myself how that title would be worked into a song and sure enough Ray found a way! The song, written by Ray and another writer, Nick Sibley, is a very lively story of a woman named Ida and her double life at a gentlemen's club in Tulsa where she goes by the name of Tassie. There's some irony and a twist ending, of sorts, so it's best to pay close attention as the mile a minute lyrics come at you. As said it's a lively song but it's also very up-tempo. I listened to it 3 times before I was able to take in all of the activity taking place within the lyrics of the song. It's a very entertaining comedy song and the energetic harmonica lends itself to the sound that Ray was apparently going for. This comedy song, as far as I know, is going to be one of the songs on an as yet to be released Ray Stevens album. I don't know if the album will be issued by the end of 2024 or not. 

When you listen to the song yourselves you're going to love it as much as I did. The twist ending, which I intentionally kept vague in my review on the 13th, has to do with Dakota telling Ida that she looks like a woman at the gentlemen's club. Ida's reaction upon hearing this gives her the courage, perhaps, to give him a piece of her mind, angry at him for being there in the first place. You can listen to the song by way of this YouTube embed.

Ray Stevens: "Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club" now Available..

Well, hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!!! This is official single release day of Ray's new single, "The Boom-Boom Gentlemen's Club". Have you heard it yet? The audio track is on all of the usual places on social media where you can listen to music. I listen to audio tracks on YouTube or Spotify depending on which site I have open on any given day. I purchased the single over on Amazon earlier today and wrote a small review. I don't know when the review will be posted on their site. Once it becomes posted over there I'll copy and paste it in a future blog entry and add more information as well. At the moment I don't know who the musicians are. I'm making the assumption that the keyboard player is Ray. The harmonica is the dominant instrument and a few of us fans of Ray were wondering if it was being played by Charlie McCoy. I know that Ray uses a synthesizer a lot but I don't think this is a harmonica coming from any kind of synthesizer. I asked about the musician credits, particularly the harmonic player, in a social media post today. I hope to have an answer at some point today. The song is about a woman named Ida and a guy named Dakota. She leads a double life in that she goes by an alias, Hassie, in a gentlemen's club in Tulsa. Dakota, meanwhile, frequents this place and unbeknownst to him he doesn't know who Hassie really is given the make-up and clothing she wears when she's doing the kind of work she does. It's a cute, fun song... and I've listened to it 4 times since it become available. It's an up-tempo song and Ray sings it fast, too, so you're bound to need to hear it multiple times to catch everything he's singing about. There's a lot of activity going on. You can hear the song when you click this LINK. Once you open the link you can choose which music service you're familiar with. If you read this blog entry weeks or months from now and the link doesn't work simply search for Ray's name and the song title on YouTube or Spotify. 

Ray Stevens: 12 days and counting to New Single...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! It's me once again...and this time around the blog entry is focusing on an upcoming new song set to be released on September 13th. So we're 12 days and counting to the new single. What is it's title?? Well, it has the eye-catching title of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club". Ray posted a teaser of an upload on his social media sites but it only features a few seconds of the music intro. Initially I thought it may be an instrumental and I asked those in the know if there will be lyrics or if it's an instrumental. I got a reply stating that it contains lyrics but they were only providing a teaser, intro music only, to generate awareness that a new comedy song from Ray is soon to be released. I was given the name of an upcoming comedy album but I won't make mention of it as to not get in the way of their marketing/publicity strategy in the days leading up to and after the song's release online. 

As far as I know there won't be a music video of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" but maybe there's one in the works, that's just me guessing; and, I'm also under the impression that this upcoming comedy album, whenever it gets released, will feature the official recordings of songs Ray has performed on stage at the CabaRay and on select media appearances the last couple of years: "You're the Cupholder of My Life", "Where Are All The 12 Year Old's That Use to Mow My Lawn?", "The More You Cry", and the audio track of "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". The first two songs mentioned were performed on an episode of Larry's Country Diner as was the last song mentioned. Ray had also performed "Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?" on an episode of the Huckabee television show. "The More You Cry" has only been performed in concerts at the CabaRay. 

When promoting the upcoming single release of "The Boom Boom Gentlemen's Club" Ray used the photo showing him looking inside the top of a microphone as seen above. I don't know if that's the photo that'll accompany the single release on September 13 when it begins appearing on numerous online music sites. 

Ray Stevens: 1986 performance of "The Streak"

Well, hello out there!!! No, you're not reading any kind of typo or anything.. it's my first fan created Ray Stevens blog post since April 29th of this year. Why such a long hiatus you may be asking yourselves? It was my own self-imposed hiatus from blog writing. I remained active on Ray's social media pages in the meantime leaving commentary and interacting with other people leaving comments on Ray's social media pages, mainly Facebook. If you follow Ray's social media you know that he's kept those pages active, too, with a post or two per day and lots of video attachments. He's continued to perform concerts at his CabaRay showroom and as most of you may know this is his final season of concerts. He broke the news back in January before this upcoming concert season began. 

In this blog post I'm sharing a recent video upload from Ray's YouTube channel. On August 26, 2024 a concert performance of Ray delivering "The Streak" from 1986 made it's debut on social media. If you're a fan of Ray Stevens you're going to love it and if you happen to be a student of Ray Stevens, meaning that you know a lot about his life and career in addition to being a major fan, you're going to know that this 1986 performance comes during his first stint with MCA Records. He was right in the middle of that lengthy series of comedy albums and riding a wave of discovery, or re-discovery, depending on the knowledge of the individual music listener. The performance took place in July 1986 which means it happened a month after Ray won his first Music City News Comedian of the Year award. Ray would win this high profile, fan-voted award every year for 9 consecutive years (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994). 

In this 1986 performance you'll see Ray decked out in sunglasses, dark green clothes, and at various moments wearing a yellow CAT hat. The thumbnail image of the video shows this but just in case you view this blog post in the future and the image is gone due to some sort of glitch I thought I'd let you all know what he appears in ahead of viewing. I love the green clothing. The temperature in St. Clairsville, Ohio must have been in the 80s or low 90s that day. When the performance of "The Streak" is over you'll see Ray jog off-stage carrying a suit. He must have began his set wearing the jacket but then, as he literally got hotter, removed it. The song originally hit in 1974.. there have long been rumors that actual streakers could be seen at his concerts but I've always doubted that kind of thing happening. It's possible that streaking took place near a concert venue, fair, or festival he was performing at or somewhere in the vicinity if it happened to be what they call a college town but within the audience of a concert I don't think such things happened but it's fun to say it did. Boogity Boogity... here's Ray Stevens and "The Streak"...