Ray Stevens: A Decade of Red Hot Chili

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Earlier today on Ray's social media pages the 2013 music video to "Red Hot Chili Cook Off" was spotlighted. In the description it was noted that the music video was nearing 2,000,000 unique views on YouTube. A few minutes after reading the description I went over to YouTube and checked the numbers...and it's with great pleasure to announce that the comedy music video has officially reached that milestone. When I checked the numbers earlier the unique view count was sitting at 2,000,508. I'm sure the video being spotlighted on Ray's social media outlets gave it the boost it needed to break the 2,000,000 mark. 

The video was uploaded to YouTube on March 20, 2013 (a week shy of exactly 10 years ago) and like a lot of online comedy videos from Ray they inch along until reaching half a million, then a million, and then multi-million. The video was promoted early on when it was brand new but like all songs, albums, and music videos a record company and or the recording artist moves on to the next thing several months later...but the music remains to be discovered for years and years to come...as is the case with "Red Hot Chili Cook Off", for example. 

The song was a music video-only release for almost 10 years...finally finding an album to call home...which happens to be 2021's Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The chili cook off takes place in the fictional Jalapeno, Texas. Ray samples a lot of Texas chili and has various comical reactions. There's a comical visual twist at the end of the music video...highlighting a unique advantage that video provides to a comedy song. How? Well, not only are laughs or smiles generated by the lyrics but with video there's the opportunity for sight gags that obviously couldn't be replicated on an audio recording. I'm not saying anything profound with this statement but the addition of sight gags make a comedy/novelty song even more amusing.  

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue nearing Release...

It's a sunny afternoon on this Monday and this coming Friday (March 26th) we'll be treated to the second of four all new albums from Ray Stevens, Melancholy Fescue. Last month (February 26th) we all were excited when Great Country Ballads was released. It marked the first all new Ray Stevens studio album since 2016. Last month's release still appears on Amazon's Top-100 best selling new releases ranking. This week, however, much of the focus will be shifted to Ray's bluegrass project, Melancholy Fescue. I'm having trouble typing the word, fescue, for whatever reason. It's a word I rarely type and I find myself not spelling it correctly, often. Fortunately I have spell check. I'm not saying I don't know how to spell it...it's just a word I rarely type and so it throws off my finger strikes on the keypad. 

The album's been in the planning stages for nearly 10 years. Actually, all of these albums have been in the planning stages for nearly 10 years. Ray spoke of putting together a bluegrass album in numerous interviews in 2012/2013 and in his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he wrote about his ideas for future albums and even included the working titles of some of them. He performed bluegrass renditions of "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "Unchained Melody" when he made a guest appearance on The Grand Ole Opry. "Unchained Melody" had been turned into a music video in 2013. That song is on Melancholy Fescue as is "Oh, Pretty Woman". This bluegrass project features 12 songs from the pop music world arranged in a Bluegrass style. Ray had previously did this for his 1975 recording of "Misty" and his 1976 recording of "You Are So Beautiful" but this is the first full length album from Ray Stevens to contain 12 songs arranged Bluegrass. As you can see Ray's shown on the cover of the album holding a banjo standing inside his CabaRay showroom. Ray commented recently that this particular album features songs that were never perhaps meant to be heard in a bluegrass vein; and in keeping with that mindset that's why I suppose he titled the album Melancholy Fescue rather than just calling it something like Ray Stevens sings Bluegrass.  

Here's the track list of what's on this digital download release:

1. Ruby/Ruby Baby (medley)

2. Oh, Pretty Woman

3. In the Still of the Night/In the Still of the Night (medley)

4. At This Moment

5. Twilight Time

6. Unchained Melody

7. Spring Is Here

8. Sophisticated Lady

9. People

10. Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

11. Goin' Out of my Head

12. MacArthur Park

I think the reason track three is a medley with the same titled song is due to there being a Nelson Eddy recording of "In the Still of the Night" written by Cole Porter in 1937 and then there's the "In the Still of the Night" song written by Fred Parris in 1956 and recorded by the rhythm and blues group, The Five Satins. They're two completely different songs but have the same title. It's safe to guess that Ray blended those two songs together. The single release by The Five Satins in 1956 spelled the word, night, as nite to avoid confusion with Nelson Eddy's recording. Now that I think about it I think Ray performed this medley song during a guest appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, too. We'll all find out how he officially recorded the song this Friday when Melancholy Fescue is released!!

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Twenty-Six...

Hello all...we're heading down the homestretch in this mini-blog series aren't we! We're now into the years 2013, 2014, and 2015. A lot of Ray's activity during these years were tied to the internet with the exception of a much anticipated project...but first of all was the news that the newly re-launched digital television channel version of The Nashville Network had acquired the broadcast rights to a clip-filled television series from Ray Stevens titled Rayality TV. The news was released early in 2013 in Music Row Magazine's website dated February 6, 2013.

"Red Hot Chili Cook-Off" got things underway for Ray, as far as YouTube goes, on March 20, 2013. It's gotten more than 1,000,000 unique views and the same can be said for an abundance of Ray's music video releases as of this writing. Some of the music videos broke a million unique views almost immediately while other videos slowly built accumulated unique views over the years and entered the million unique views club over the course of time.

All of the music videos have gotten even more plays than the totals show but YouTube tracks just the first view of a video on a viewer's device so as to not skew the view totals by adding multiple plays from the same computer/laptop, etc. When you see a video and it has 1,433,098 unique views, for example, that means the video was seen by 1,433,098 individual people even though it may have been played multiple times by those same people...indicating that a video that's gotten more than a million unique views equals at least two million plays if everyone watched the video more than once. If YouTube tracked the amount of plays for video content rather than unique views then the play total for a video with 1,433,098 could potentially be 2,866,196 if everyone played the video an additional time (see how the method of counting only unique views cuts out the practice of skewing the numbers?).

All in all YouTube became a very popular tool to get music to the people and Ray benefited handsomely from the instant exposure...as of this writing his video's have gotten tens of millions of unique views collectively. I'd never attempt to add up every single unique view total for everything he's uploaded so far but let's say, as I already have, the estimated totals are in the ten of millions. Out of the blue Ray, in May of 2013, uploaded a music video of "Guilt For Christmas" onto YouTube. It's one of those kinds of unexplained aspects of his career...unpredictable is the better word. The recording is an update...featuring Ray in his exaggerated Austrian-German accent...delivering the lyrics. The original 1997 recording of the song lacks this. Upon the release of this video clip Ray began uploading practically all of his DVD content onto his YouTube channel as well as a lot of the VHS material that hadn't, to date, been uploaded yet. In addition to the VHS and DVD material making their on-line debut there were the goldmine of vintage clips of Ray in 1970 from his summer television show finally surfacing. The footage on those video clips had not been seen since their original airing on NBC television in the summer of 1970. The clips featured Ray, of course, as well performances from some of his cast-members: Lulu, Mama Cass, and Steve Martin. All of these video clips remain on YouTube for all to see and enjoy.

On September 23, 2013 along came a new music video release in the form of "Nashville". When the music video emerged the song was in it's 40th anniversary...Ray had originally written and recorded the song in 1973...and he had also titled one of his 1973 albums after the song. The music video celebrated the arts and culture of Nashville, TN and includes numerous images of attractions and landmarks in and around the downtown area. The song had long been a favorite of mine so it's anyone's guess as to the reason it was never made into a music video sooner but at long last a video emerged in 2013. Now, given that the original contained dated references, some additional replacement lyrics had to be furnished to keep the song up to date but that's to be expected. I like the footage that shows Ray next to the Chet Atkins statue...but then again I like the entire music video. On the heels of the music video release of "Nashville" come his Bluegrass version of "Unchained Melody"...this video hit YouTube on October 2, 2013. The video was meant to be a hint of an upcoming release and I happen to know the working title of the project as I'm sure a lot of you do, as well, if you've paid attention to Ray's interviews of the last several years. The project has yet to see a release, though. Ray's take on "Unchained Melody" had actually had a try out during one of his guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry several years earlier...he performed "Unchained Melody" as well as "Pretty Woman"...both in a Bluegrass style. As of this writing only "Unchained Melody" has surfaced in music video format.

Ray continued issuing vintage video clips onto YouTube...including the 1987 television commercial he did for The Best of Ray Stevens. He also uploaded news clips surrounding the so-called controversy with "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" in 1987...including footage of him in the studio recording/rehearsing the song and discussing his reasons for recording it. A regional commercial he did for Toyota in the mid 1980's emerged on YouTube as well. In March of 2014 Ray re-launched Rayality TV as an on-line series. This clip-filled program had recently wrapped up a year long run on digital television in January 2014 and so the series was repackaged, edited, and presented as an on-line series. A lot of the scenes that take place inside a retirement home called The Encore had been filmed in 2009/2010 for a similar series Ray produced called We Ain't Dead Yet!. I didn't make mention of this back in the installments of this mini-blog series where I was focusing on 2009 and 2010 because it was overshadowed by the meteoric rise of the political music videos he was issuing and I wanted to keep the focus explicitly on the YouTube music videos of that time period from Ray.

In the summer of 2014 Ray issued his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He went on a book signing tour throughout the second half of the year and did radio station interviews. In a lot of the media coverage Ray pointed out the reason for the apostrophe after his last name. He wanted to make sure that readers were aware that this book happened to be a memoir...not a soul bearing autobiography...and that it's the view of Music City, U.S.A. as seen through his eyes and through his personal experiences.

The memoir, although not a soul bearing life story, does feature a lot of commentary about the music industry from Ray's perspective and how he points out all of the changes that have taken place since he arrived in Nashville back in January 1961. Ray points out that there have been a lot of changes, both good and bad, over the course of his time in Music City and unlike a lot of his peers/contemporaries he embraces technological advancement and welcomes new sounds and whatever else comes along to keep the music industry fresh and innovative. There are moments in the memoir where he laments some of the policies of the music industry and how personal bias can get in the way of recognizing achievement or ignoring achievement. He discusses this sort of thing in the memoir when he relates how, in 1974, the awards shows failed to recognize the popularity of "The Streak" when it was by far the largest selling single of the year. He embraces the influence of computers and how easier it is to multi-track...but he misses the days of where everyone was in the recording studio during the making of an album...and so he acknowledges a down-side to all of this advanced computer technology, too. Along side the personal commentary there's photos of Ray from all decades sprinkled throughout...a lot of the images are exclusive to the memoir and hadn't been shared on the internet. One of the first major events scheduled for the book arrived at the Nashville Public Library in late June of 2014. Ralph Emery, one of Ray's longtime friends, interviewed Ray at the library in which a book signing by Ray took place following the interview.

In the fall of 2014, specifically August 19th, Ray released a brand new CD titled Gospel Collection on the Bill Gaither record label. The publicity/promotion was handled by the Gaither's while Ray made some appearances on southern Gospel programs. The song being spotlighted from the CD was "If Jesus Is a Stranger" from the pen of Don Cusic. Ray performed this song at almost all of his appearances for the remainder of the year and beyond. As Ray had two projects going at the same time (the memoir and the gospel CD) he added a third release on September 22, 2014 in the form of the politically charged music video, "If You Like Your Plan". This was Ray's first political music video since "Grandpa Voted Democrat" hit YouTube back on November 3, 2012.

The 2014 video dealt with the realization that the publicly promised 'if you like your plan, you can keep it' from Obama had become blatantly false. If you recall the Obamacare legislation from 2009/2010 and passed into law wasn't to start to really take effect until several years later...and the promise made that people would not have to drop their chosen healthcare coverage if they liked it proved false...and one of the main headlines in 2014 were stories of people having to drop the healthcare they've had for years because the private healthcare companies weren't meeting the new Federally mandated rules set up through the IRS. "If You Like Your Plan" is one of the few politically themed music videos from Ray to remain a music video...the audio has not been made available on any CD release. When you watch the music video keep notice of Ray, as a fictional Obama, you'll see Ray's Obama become more and more of a clown as the video makes it's way toward the end. A very funny running gag that one way or another wasn't appreciated or it wasn't caught, in my opinion, by those that viewed the video at the time. The backdrop also changes scenes based on fictional Obama's appearance.

Not too long after the on-line release of "If You Like Your Plan" came another new music video from Ray titled "Nero Fiddled" on October 10, 2014 (nearly five years ago). This particular video is unique in that Ray appears with his back to the camera throughout the video...sawing away on a fiddle in the role of Emperor Nero. The song is also one of his more darker offerings in comparison to his other music videos criticizing Obama's policies. The music video begins with a Viewer Discretion disclaimer and then the song begins...a narrative that takes Obama to task for misplaced priorities, misguided strategies, and a general lack of concern when it comes to the movement of the country's enemies. The "Nero Fiddled" music video coming so soon after the release of "If You Like Your Plan" mirrors the events that took place a year earlier when the music video for "Nashville" hit on September 23, 2013 and then "Unchained Melody" hit on October 2, 2013. When two music videos are released back to back like that it's almost as if Ray was asking viewers to take their pick. "Nero Fiddled", just as "If You Like Your Plan", hasn't made it's way onto CD. The two songs remain music videos on YouTube. Ray's on-line series, Rayality TV, came to a conclusion in October 2014 but this wasn't the end of this particular series.

As the calendar flipped to 2015 one of the first things Ray did in the new year was issue a brand new music video, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". The song hit YouTube on February 24th and it's from the point of view of a deranged man in an asylum...something that's visually made reference to in the video but if you're listening to the audio track then it comes off as a novelty song from a man that's slightly senile and thinks the country/pop singer is watching his every move. Taylor appears, if you hadn't seen the video, in photographs and there's video trickery at play in which we see a photo shopped Taylor appearing as if she's looking through binoculars at Ray. She has famous facial expressions...particularly her eyes...and pay attention to who turns out to have been 'watching' Ray the entire time. The song was written by Ray, Buddy Kalb, and Chuck Redden. A couple of weeks after the debut of "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me", which to date has gotten 2.4 million unique views on YouTube, came the release of a brand new album...the comical Here We Go Again!. There were a couple of serious songs on this album but by and large it was filled with comedy. The project was issued on Player Records...rather than the usual Clyde Records...on March 15, 2015. The serious performances include his cover of "What'd I Say" (written and made famous by Ray Charles), "Little By Little", and a very rousing cover of "Hearts Made of Stone", a rhythm and blues song from the mid 1950s.

Don Cusic provided "There Must Be a Pill For This" whereas Ray, Buddy Kalb, and Chuck Redden wrote a second song contained on the album...this song, "You Didn't Build That", became a music video on YouTube on May 19, 2015. This song ventures into politics once again as it's title references an expression Obama coined during one of his many speeches where he was criticizing local businesses and laborers, in general, for taking credit for the work they did but in Obama's mind the real thanks should go to Government because, in his mind, if not for the Federal Government and Local Government, construction workers, for example, wouldn't have received their building permits. If not for Government approval radio and TV stations wouldn't exist due to the presence of the FCC. It's a bizarre point of view and it became the focal point for "You Didn't Build That".

The Nashville Public Library, in late May, presented That Nashville Music...a salute to the Nashville Now television series that Ralph Emery hosted for a decade (1983-1993) on TNN. Ray appeared at this special event along side Con Hunley, Lorrie Morgan, and Barbara Mandrell. Gary Beatty was recruited to reprise his role as announcer and it come off as a typical episode of Nashville Now albeit as a very loose and casual production considering it was taking place inside a library and it wasn't being broadcast all over the country.

Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery: 2015

Now then...by the summer of 2015 Ray was still very active as he promoted his memoir, his new CD, and he even found time to begin planning and pre-production on a very ambitious project...a kind of project that had been tried several times throughout his career and even though the saying goes "third time's the charm" this project was more like the fifth or sixth time's the charm...and I'll pick things up in the late summer/early fall of 2015 in my next installment on the road to the Country Music Hall of Fame in the career of Ray Stevens!!

Ray Stevens: Hot Chili and Barbeque...

Hello once again...an early Sunday morning has me looking at a couple of food related music clips from recently elected Country Music Hall of Fame (CMHOF) member, Ray Stevens. There's been something of a food topic over the last several blog entries...the previous blog entry focused on a mid 1980s television commercial for ice cream that Ray Stevens did for the Flav-O-Rich company. Prior to that I wrote about a 2013 music video from Ray titled "Red Hot Chili Cook Off" which was also being highlighted on Episode 8 of Rayality TV. When I watched the music video I took note of the unique view total and at that time (April 28th) it had 955,945 unique views...a day later it increased to 956,436. As of this writing the six year old music video is sitting at 961,377. Now, that is an increase of 5,432 unique views in a week's time (going back to April 28th)...I think it's quite an achievement for a six year old on-line music video to obtain over five thousand unique views. Now, of course, given that the video had been showcased on Rayality TV on April 26th that, too, more than likely caused RFD-TV viewers to search for the video on YouTube after having seen it on Ray's clip-filled series...so I'm not going to take full credit for the music video's 5,000-plus increase in unique views but speaking of his clip-filled television series...

This past Friday (May 3rd) Episode 9 of Rayality TV aired on RFD-TV (airtime is 1:30pm Central, 2:30pm Eastern). Ray's promo for that episode is below...



Also taking place on May 3rd was the uploading of "Barbeque", a live performance of the song from an episode of CabaRay Nashville, which guest starred Lee Roy Parnell. In the performance of the song Lee Roy is playing the guitar. It may have been deliberate or coincidental but when Ray recorded the song for his 1990 album, Lend Me Your Ears, Lee Roy Parnell was among the studio musicians on that project...and so, chances are, given his guest appearance on Ray's show that's why he was seen playing the guitar with the rest of Ray's band during "Barbeque". A limited animation music video of the song emerged on DVD in 2005 but has since been uploaded onto YouTube. The video used the 1990 audio recording. Ray's CabaRay 2018 performance of "Barbeque" could be the first time he sang it on television since 1990. I recall seeing Ray perform the song on an episode of Nashville Now right around the time Lend Me Your Ears was brand new. The song was never pushed as an actual single in 1990...that distinction fell upon two songs that became much more popular as music videos: "Sittin' Up With the Dead" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...but nevertheless "Barbeque" was one of those great Ray Stevens comedy songs that took on a life of it's own with fans over the decades. Ray, as far as I know, doesn't perform the song as part of his concert set-list, neither, so this may be the only time you'll see him perform the song on stage for quite some time...

Ray Stevens and his Latest Video Clips...

Oh yes it's another fan created blog about Ray Stevens written by me that you're reading at the moment and based on my previous blog entry it got me thinking a little about simian songs from Ray's career. I touched on this subject many blogs ago but with the recent YouTube upload of "Too Much Monkey Business" I decided to re-visit the topic. I also decided to write this blog entry to pass along specific unique view numbers for the latest video clips from Ray Stevens that are on YouTube.



The August 14th upload, "Too Much Monkey Business", has received 3,124 unique views so far. This is something of a dramatic pick-up since writing about the clip yesterday. I'm too modest to think my blog sharing helped it receive additional unique views but something definitely caused the video to get nearly a thousand more unique views. I'm not going to monitor the unique view numbers of either video clip on a daily basis. I used to do this in the past with other YouTube videos that Ray would upload but I no longer do that. Every so often I'll check the unique view count of these two videos and provide information on this blog at that time.



The August 17th upload, "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me", has received 20,068 unique views as of this writing. Yes, you read that correct, it's surpassed the 20,000 plateau as I write this. This video has also received a dramatic rise in unique views since I last wrote about it yesterday. The subject matter revolves around the medical profession and this is something that's been highly topical ever since politics crept into things in a major way in 2010. Although the song itself has nothing to do with that side of the medical profession (healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. etc.) it nevertheless is a song dealing with doctors...more specifically primary care doctors/family doctors and the frustrations all of us have when visiting the doctor. So the topicality of the subject matter gives it more of an edge in social media and you're seeing the results.

Simian silliness in song has been part of Ray's career dating back to the early 1960s. The cover photo of TV Magazine off to the left, though, is from the summer of 1970. The first notable recording spotlighting this happened to be 1963's "Harry the Hairy Ape". The recording became a Top-20 pop and a Top-20 Rhythm and Blues hit. Something more surprising is the fact that it's peak position was higher on the Rhythm and Blues chart. The song tells the story of an ape that spends his days attempting to scare people and it eventually leads to his becoming a rock and roll star. It was originally released on his 1963 album, This is Ray Stevens. 1969's "Gitarzan" took the fictional Tarzan and his jungle family and turned them into rock and roll performers. Although this Top-10 million selling pop hit is definitely more about it's parody of Tarzan as a rock and roll guitarist nevertheless there's the memorable vocal appearances of both Jane and their pet chimpanzee, Cheetah. The chimp is referred to as a monkey in the recording although technically Cheetah was a chimp. In this song the chimp likes getting intoxicated prior to his performances but you can't tell it based on the fervor in which he contributes to the jungle band. Why am I even making a distinction between a chimp and a monkey? You never know in this day and age...if I didn't make that distinction there would be somebody out there raising a fuss about Ray referring to a chimp as a monkey. Some people can be way too over-analytical. Ironically, Ray re-recorded "Harry the Hairy Ape" for the 1969 Gitarzan album. If you've got a lot of compilation albums released on Ray it's likely the 1969 recording of "Harry the Hairy Ape" that are on most collections. When the limited animation music video was produced of the song they used the 1969 recording instead of the 1963 recording.

In 1970 there came a song titled "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and it's from his Unreal album. The song itself had nothing to do with the simian but had more to do with social commentary and the slang phrase of people seeing other people behaving or thinking in some fashion and therefore adopting the character traits of others rather than being true to one's own point of view. The song itself adopts that slang phrase and also adds envy to the equation in which members of society, in general, attempt to mimic their peers as far as fashion, physical appearance, and income are concerned. A neighbor has a house with two garages and so that may inspire somebody else to top that and have a house built nearby with a three car garage. A person holds a certain belief but doesn't dare speak their mind for fear of being shunned by society and as a result this person adopts the opinion of "a majority" just to fit in...and at the crux of "Monkey See, Monkey Do" is the painting of society as a zoo as Ray asks us to find a mirror and look at ourselves. It goes hand in hand with the A-side of the single, "Come Around", a marvelous song criticizing excess, hypocrisy, and close mindedness found in some sectors of society. The picture sleeve of that particular single release you see above is from the overseas market. In America the A-side of the single was "America, Communicate with Me".

In 1984 Ray decided to do his version of the theme song of "The Monkees" television series. The song features Ray performing the theme song in a Monkees-like vocal performance at various moments throughout but the obvious highlight are the two greatly exaggerated fictional Austrian performers (Wolfgang and Fritzy) that frequently bicker and argue back and fourth as they attempt to perform their version of the theme song. You can find that hysterical performance on the album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens.

In November of last year Ray uploaded a music video of "Aba Daba Honeymoon". The music video appeared out of the blue. Ray had recorded the song at some point in 2010/2011 for inclusion on his mammoth box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The music video had been in existence since 2013 according to the video details on YouTube but it had never been uploaded onto the internet until November 2017. The song dates back to 1914 and so it was nearly 100 years old prior to Ray bringing it back when he decided to record it for his 2012 box set. It had been recorded numerous times and there were several pop hits of the song in the 1950s and it's chorus was parodied in a long running series of television commercials for Frito's. The song is incredibly simple if not entirely fictional as far as it's plot goes: a monkey and a chimpanzee fall in love and get married in a ceremony in which a baboon is the preacher. The nonsense phrase of the song's title is explained as monkey talk. The fun of the song is how the tempo of the song gradually moves higher and higher and the lyrics are performed in such a frenzied fashion aided by the use of some scat-singing, too, before the tempo falls back down for it's conclusion. Ray's version is outstanding...musically speaking and the actual vocal performance. The video features a cameo appearance of Ray as Gitarzan near the beginning.



This brings us, chronologically, to the performance from his CabaRay television series of "Too Much Monkey Business". Ray hasn't officially recorded the song but this performance of the song has become a video release on YouTube and that is what I started this blog entry with.

Ray Stevens: Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me...

Yes, it's me and I'm posting the blog entry I hinted about in my previous post. In this blog entry I'm spotlighting the recently uploaded music video from Ray Stevens, "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me". This song goes back a bit in the career of Ray Stevens and was first heard in 1987 on his comedy album, Crackin' Up. That's the album which features Ray dressed as Humpty Dumpty on the cover. I've mentioned the album and this particular song numerous times in blog entries over the last decade but it wasn't until this morning that I knew a music video had been made. Ray once had a series on a retooled version of The Nashville Network titled Ray-ality TV. It was a series that featured a hodgepodge of sketches and clips mostly from his archives but there would be exclusive content as well. This music video (from 2013) happened to be one of the latter. It had never been on-line until Ray uploaded it yesterday evening. I wasn't on-line yesterday evening and so I didn't see the video until this morning when I arrived home from work. Ray re-recorded "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me" and eventually placed it on a CD titled Laughter is the Best Medicine. That CD remains, to date, the only place you can find the obscure "PSA Song". Anyway...here's the music video for "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me". The timeless lyrics reflect all of our frustrations. Appearing in the video along side Ray are Sabrina (as the nurse) and the legendary Ralph Emery (as the doctor).

Ray Stevens: Aba Daba Honeymoon...

Hello all...a brief blog entry as we welcome in the month of December! Also, as I was not on-line much yesterday, I didn't know until I checked social media sites that Ray quietly released a brand new music video...well, not brand new...it's from 2013 but it's brand new to the internet. A music video I had no idea existed...a video for his recording of "Aba Daba Honeymoon". The song was recorded by Ray for his 2012 project, the 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, and there happened to be an on-line commercial for it in which a snippet of the song is performed and there's a couple of gorilla's on the scene. Well, this is a full-length music video! The song itself dates back to 1914 and not many people can accurately recite the lyrics because they're deliberately performed at such a fever pitch. Ray, of course, can sing practically anything and he does a great job on the song...a whimsical video as we usher in the month of December...

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 7...

Friday means Rayality TV and webisode 7 is up for viewing. This time around a health inspector drops by to inspect The Encore (the retirement home introduced in webisode 1 and seen periodically since). There's a comical scene of 2 hippies (Buddy Kalb and Ray) and the reactions from the other side of the door from the health inspector. Norro Wilson (music producer/songwriter) has a closing scene in a comical exchange with the inspector. In between the hippie sketch and Norro's scene, you'll see the sped up, frenzied performance of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" by The Itty Bitty Squirt Band. Keep your eyes open for Norro's participation in that sketch, too. The man playing the health inspector looks similar to the man that played Harv Newland in Ray's 1995 Get Serious! movie. Louise Mandrell appears as the judge near the beginning of the clip.

Ray Stevens Unchained...6 Months later...

A great big good morning to all the fans of Ray Stevens! I'd been going through some of Ray's You Tube music videos in my Favorites list and realized that his last long form music video arrived half a year ago in October 2013. Of course, Ray's been uploading other kinds of video content in the interim but October 2013 is the last time a music video by him became available for on-line viewing.

Ray's version of "Unchained Melody" (an internationally famous recording associated with The Righteous Brothers) debuted on You Tube on October 2, 2013 and since that time it's received 32,373 unique views. Ever since it's October debut there has not been much official publicity surrounding it and so it's gotten over 30,000 unique views through on-line sharing such as what I'm doing right now. Since it's been half a year since it's debut there might be some people out there that will be seeing this for the first time...



In the comments section for the music video, one of the people appearing in the band identified mostly everyone, except the identities of the drummer and the guitar player: Banjo (Ned Luberecki), Dobro (Ron Ickes), Fiddle (Shad Cobb), Mandolin (Brent Mason), and the Bass (Ben Surratt). The latter's name should be familiar to Ray's fans. If you look at the credits on a lot of Ray's recent projects you'll see Surratt's name listed as the recording engineer.

I have no idea if he plays the Bass on Ray's contemporary recordings but for whatever reason the musician credits aren't listed on Ray's projects as consistently anymore. Ray mentions several of his band members in his autobiography, both former and current, as well as the various producers and engineers that have worked on his albums over the decades.

The Ray Stevens You Tube webisode...

Hello all...I just got back from Friday errands and found out that Ray Stevens uploaded the first webisode of his brand new You Tube series. The installments are apparently going to run a little more than 6 minutes each and a different installment will appear on his You Tube and Facebook pages each Friday.



The Judge is played by Louise Mandrell. The sheriff (Dudley Dorite a/k/a Bubba) is portrayed by Buddy Kalb...a long time friend of Ray's and since the early-to-mid '80s he's been a songwriter for Ray, too. Look for a cameo appearance by Darrell Waltrip.

I can't wait to see each webisode every Friday!!

Ray Stevens 1970 Summer Program...

An early Monday morning...and a reminder that those that may want to purchase any Ray Stevens item and have it potentially arrive before Christmas, place your orders by December 18th...that's this coming Wednesday! Ideally, these orders are for credit/debit card holders. If you don't mind if something arrives after Christmas then simply send a money order or a check through the mail.

In all likelihood, though, if you plan on placing an order today, tomorrow, or Wednesday but mailing in the payment (check or money order) then that payment more than likely is going to arrive at Ray's office after the 18th of December cut off date (unless you live local). The reason for the December 18th cut off date is because that's the latest one can place an order and have it in transit ahead of Christmas.

Ray's web-store has their annual shipping disclaimer posted in red letters at the store's Main Page.

My CD suggestions for those last minute shoppers are: The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music; The Spirit of '76; We the People; both of the Christmas CD's; plus Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What??; New Orleans Moon; and Bozo's Back Again. There's a DVD section, too, that you should explore.

Several days ago I received in the mail my copy of a magazine titled Southwest Georgia Living. I purchased this magazine because Ray Stevens appears on the cover and the hype surrounded the accompanying article and obscure pictures. It's a delightful article/story, featuring several pictures of Ray that you can't find anyplace on the internet. The magazine's cover has Ray as Santa during a photo session for his 1997 Christmas CD. If you visit their Facebook page you'll see the magazine's cover. This is a time sensitive comment so if you come across this months from today chances are their Facebook page will be showcasing the current issue at that particular time but for now it's the Ray Stevens issue. Is this magazine for sale on-line? The answer is no! Is this magazine available at all book stores? The answer is no! How did I get a copy of it? The answer is simple: I took the initiative and e-mailed the magazine's office staff as soon as I found out that the magazine existed and asked how could I get a copy of this magazine considering that I don't live in Georgia. I received a reply that provided a mailing address and total cost and so being the obnoxious fan that I am, I didn't hesitate...and off I sent a check to the magazine. I would not be surprised, though, if the issue with Ray turns up on eBay at some point...magazine back issues often do.

Ray Stevens makes the cover of the Pasadena, California issue of TV Week, June 14, 1970. This is the first time I have seen this and as a result it's the first time it's been posted on this fan created blog. As soon as I seen this on-line I immediately saved the image thinking that it'll soon become unavailable and just as obscure in months, years to come just as it's been since 1970. Thankfully there are those such as myself and others that deliberately collect and save any image of Ray they come across because of just how obscure his vintage appearances truly are. Speaking of his 1970 summer program for Andy Williams...you can still take in all the fun and laughs on his You Tube channel. The clips from his summer program continue to be discovered daily but if you haven't seen these clips yet, go to You Tube or better yet click This Link and explore his videos. His most recent uploads are the first 2 and then the various clips from the 1970 summer program are listed. I posted most of the clips back in the late summer/early fall of this year but there had never been any sort of national publicity campaign from Ray about those clips being available for You Tube viewing and so for those most part the clips have garnered less than 2,000 views a piece. There are 3 uploads from the summer program that have gotten more than 2,000 and those are the performances of "Gitarzan" (4,684), "Ahab the Arab" (3,715), and "Everything Is Beautiful" (4,352). This, if anything, demonstrates perfectly the power of familiarity...those three songs are among his biggest recordings and so it's no surprise that the performances of those specific songs from his 1970 summer program would net the most viewers. Technically, "Ahab the Arab" is performed along side a cast performance of the Beatles "Let It Be" but it goes to show that out of all the clips posted from his summer program, the familiar song titles are the ones that captured the most action.

Havin' a Ray Stevens Christmas...

It's a cold, blustery December morning in this part of the country. 18 days left until Christmas 2013. It's December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. It's long been the norm that every 5 years there's typically a national memorial of some kind...this being the 72nd anniversary of the 1941 attacks perhaps explains why there's not been much coverage of it in the national media like there had been in 2011 during the 70th anniversary (2011 also marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks). As the day goes on there probably is going to be some stories about December 7, 1941...I don't think a total overlook is going to happen...

This blog entry is about some more Christmas music videos that fans of Ray Stevens can enjoy. In my previous installment I mentioned the "Blue Christmas" (comedy version) available as a music video. It's really a neat video...even more perfect on a cold morning around breakfast time.



Ray made the rounds of several television programs last Christmas season and performed the comical version of "Blue Christmas" in a medley with other Christmas songs. It's been available on You Tube ever since the local channel uploaded it around this time in 2012. You can see that particular video HERE. It's from a local station in the Nashville area. In the performance he does "White Christmas", "Blue Christmas", and "Redneck Christmas".

The official music video of "Redneck Christmas" is located below...



The at-a-glance unique views for all of the Ray Stevens Christmas music videos, as of December 7, 2013 are here:

1. Santa Claus Is Watching You; 2009:  463,881

2. Nightmare Before Christmas; 2010:  325,544

3. Merry Christmas; 2012:  132,003

4. Redneck Christmas; 2012:  114,129

5. White Christmas; 2012:  21,961

6. Blue Christmas (comic version); 2012:  14,259

7. Guilt For Christmas; 2013  5,683

Some explanations are in order, though. The music videos that emerged in 2012 all arrived in December. As you can see "Merry Christmas" has the most views among the ones that arrived in December 2012. A lot of this has to do with the song's politically correct theme and the commentary on the politically correct influence during Christmas season. The fact that a music video can debut just 3 days before Christmas (and hardly no major publicity) and be able to reach more than 100,000 people is still something to be proud of, in my opinion. "White Christmas" arrived on December 3, 2012 while "Blue Christmas" (comic version) arrived on December 21, 2012. A day later both "Redneck Christmas" and "Merry Christmas" hit the internet. The video that has the least views, "Guilt for Christmas", arrived in the summer of this year and has 5,683. The Christmas video, arriving in May, fully explains the reason for the small turn viewer out. There's not a lot of people that search for Christmas songs and videos in the spring/summer months.

The thing that the music video has going for it (besides the appearance of Ray Stevens) is that it's also a musical jab at political correctness, following in the snowy path of "Merry Christmas" and "Nightmare Before Christmas".

Share the video with those that have not yet seen it..."Guilt For Christmas"...



I don't know if Ray is waiting until it gets more closer to Christmas to start re-introducing these videos once more but I decided to start a little bit early during the last several blogs I've written.

Oh yes, the Christmas CD's from Ray Stevens are still available for purchase. Don't forget, he has 2 Christmas CD's chock full of the sounds of the season.

The comical Christmas CD can be found by clicking Christmas Through a Different Window.

The non-comical Christmas CD can be found by clicking Ray Stevens Christmas.

Ray Stevens upcoming CD...

As a third shift worker I am typically asleep at this time of the day but about an hour ago I woke up and decided to visit the internet and see if anything was happening in the world of Ray Stevens. I visited a social media site and sure enough an interview had taken place during my nap. This interview happened during a call to the Mike Huckabee Show. The interview dealt with the announcement that an upcoming CD is to be released in January 2014 titled Onward Christian Soldiers. Ray had spoke of this CD before and a couple of articles on various internet sites made mention of this CD but this is the first time a definitive announcement's been made regarding it's release. As soon as I found out that Ray had been interviewed I immediately began searching for any audio link...even though the interview had taken place an hour earlier I was able to find an audio link posted on Huckabee's Twitter page. Typically, audio links rarely become available so soon after an interview has taken place but this time there's a link. The clip runs a little more than 10 minutes and you'll hear Ray discuss the idea behind the CD and he mentions the image that'll appear on the CD's picture sleeve. Long time fans will immediately recognize the image that Ray describes but according to the interview a Cross symbol will be edited into the picture.

The audio link of the Mike Huckabee interview with Ray Stevens is located HERE and near the end there's a small sampling of an upcoming song from the Onward Christian Soldiers CD, "If Jesus is a Stranger".

Ray Stevens: Christmas Sale...

Good day after Thanksgiving all Ray Stevens fans!! There's a discount sale going on at the Ray Stevens on-line store...purchases that total, prior to shipping and handling, $20.00 or more, you'll be able to get a 20 percent discount off the purchase. You can read about the offer HERE. The sale began on November 20th but it lasts through December 18, 2013, so it's basically a month long special offer. That link takes you to Ray's main site. Once there, you can navigate around and enter the "Store" section by clicking on the tab in the upper right side of his page.  

*** Keep in mind, for those that come across this blog entry days or months from today, this blog is being composed on November 29, 2013. ***

It happened about one year ago, December 22, 2012 to be specific, Ray Stevens released a powerful music video (in my opinion) simply titled "Merry Christmas" in which he shined the spotlight on the assault on Christianity that seems to have become the norm and the uneasiness people seem to have nowadays of saying the phrase, 'Merry Christmas', but rather offer 'happy holidays' or 'seasons greetings'.

That particular music video struck a nerve and in a matter of days more than 100,000 unique views had been tabulated for the on-line video. Released just days before Christmas 2012, it didn't have a longer 'shelf life' beyond the end of the year but seeing that we're officially in the Christmas season it's time to bring out the Ray Stevens Christmas festivities once more and I'll start it off with none other than "Merry Christmas".

I'll embed other Christmas related music videos as we get closer to Christmas Day.



Wasn't that fabulous?? So far the song isn't commercially available on any CD or Mp3. I imagine that it'll come up for sale this time around, though!

Once more, here's the link to the Ray Stevens Christmas Offer.

Ray Stevens: Losin' Streak on cassette...

I sometimes, but not all the time, provide links to eBay items. This is one of those times. I came across an interesting Ray Stevens item on eBay a few minutes ago. My first blog post of 2013 dealt with a 1973 album from Ray titled Losin' Streak turning 40 this year. I have no doubt seen this item at some point in the past and probably even posted about it but it's not something that always comes up for sale on eBay and so when it does I make mention of it. Given how obscure the LP of Losin' Streak is, a cassette copy is even more obscure...but yet that's what I seen up for sale on eBay! It's described as a private listing but you can read all about the cassette copy of Losin' Streak HERE. The shipper resides in Australia.

Ray Stevens took part in the star studded tribute to George Jones this past Friday. He sang in a group that included the likes of John Conlee, Larry Gatlin, Bobby Bare, Stonewall Jackson, and several others. The group sang "When The Last Curtain Falls", "Still Doin' Time", and "Someday My Day Will Come". A piece of this performance is on You Tube, the last part of song one and the complete song two. The home made video's sound is okay to decent...you'll see Ray only a couple of times, though, and only once is it a close-up. Be sure to look at the big video screen to see the much clearer, up-close picture of Ray a few seconds into the start of the video. He's standing the middle of Larry Gatlin and John Conlee.

Ray Stevens and the Politics of the Situation...

Yes, I'm still around...and so is Ray Stevens...but it's been a lengthy drought as far as anything brand new to discuss and create awareness for. A couple of months ago I had been creating blog entries all about the clips of Ray Stevens taped during his 1970 summer TV program that were popping up on You Tube with frequency. It was during that point in time that a recent appearance from Ray Stevens on a Fox News Channel program hit You Tube. August 15th...a little more than 3 months ago...an upload titled The World According to Ray Stevens appeared on You Tube. I watched it several times and posted a link on my Facebook page back then. I didn't post the link on my blog page at that time because I felt that the subject matter (hard hitting political commentary) would clash rather heavily with the lighthearted 1970 clips I was posting.

Obamacare is front and center in political discussion once more and the canceled health care policies of millions upon millions of Americans has become a harsh reality. Those that studied Obamacare and stated all that's bad about it consistently remarked that there is language in it in the form of Federal mandates that private insurance companies have to meet, or else, those companies have no choice but to drop customers. The idea that Obamacare would have no effect on people's health care coverage had long been pointed out as a lie ("if you like your current heath care coverage, you can keep it").

After all of the cancellations had been sent out and therefore had taken effect, Obama once again shown his penchant for ignoring existing laws while creating new laws out of thin air (Congress/the Legislative Branch is the only branch of Government that can make laws or amend previous laws, a President doesn't have this authority! Obama should have learned this, as we all did, in grade school Social Studies or even a junior high Government/Civics class).

Anyway, in his usual dictatorial style, Obama demanded that private insurance companies "reinstate the policies they canceled as a result of the health care mandates and simply ignore what the law states"; given all of this it's a perfect opportunity to spotlight the Ray Stevens interview from a couple of months ago where he speaks about politics and his humorous approach at dealing with all the madness. 



Ray's heavy involvement in political humor and commentary began late in 2009, around this point in time, during the first year of Obama's time in the White House while the looming Obamacare was making it's way through Congress. A video, "We the People", became an on-line video hit and throughout 2010 and on into 2012 Ray supplied the on-line video community with a series of politically charged music videos. His videos have reached more than 25,000,000 people during the last 4 years and there's no telling how many times the videos have been watched by those millions of people. You Tube only counts 1 view per computer, commonly referred to as a unique view or a unique visitor. Multiple visits to the same video aren't counted in the visitor/view totals.

This means, you could watch one of his videos, "Mr. President - Mr. President", 3 times in a row, every day for a year straight, but only that first initial view is ever counted toward the view total that appears just below the video screen on it's main page. This system is in place to deliver accuracy for advertisers and to display accurate totals based on visitor total, rather than play totals, for the artists and or record companies. Play totals skew things too much. If You Tube used play totals, for example, a Ray Stevens video that has more than 4 million visitors could realistically have 20 million plays if you factor in multiple plays from the same visitor. See how skewed and misleading "play totals" can be? That is why "unique visitor" totals are used on You Tube instead of play totals.

The "Obama Budget Plan" has more than 2 million visits so far. The specific total is 2,729,860. This video, debuting on April 25, 2011, had it's biggest impact during the budget debates and all of the fiasco surrounding the debt limit and debt ceiling and the constant back and fourth among Obama, the Republicans in the House and the Senate, and the officials that make up the Congressional Budget Office. Given that the reputation of Obama and mostly all Democratic Presidents through history is to spend enormous amounts of money that the nation doesn't have and then raise taxes "on the rich" in an attempt to make up the loss is at the heart of this particular song/video. The humor, or painful truth, is displayed in the plot of an average American family that decides to emulate the Federal Government and print as much money as possible using a printing press. However, reality sets in for this family and the outcome is played out in video form...but yet members of the Federal Government that participate in the same thing aren't treated as criminal, unethical or immoral.



The video for "Obama Nation"...at the moment it's gotten 949,434 unique views. It hit You Tube on July 23, 2012...



Voter fraud's become an underlying theme in a lot of elections in recent history. Accusations of it or factual proof of it no doubt inspired "Grandpa Voted Democrat". The video hit You Tube on November 3, 2012 prior to the 2012 Election cycle and it's been seen by 335,103 people. To date, this is the last political song that Ray Stevens has issued in video format...



There have been a couple of politically themed commentaries from Ray that have appeared since November 2012, titled 'Politically Speaking', plus several interviews of Ray discussing political issues such as the one at the start of this blog entry, but as far as a conventional music video is concerned, "Grandpa Voted Democrat" is the last political one as of November 18, 2013. This was an off year, too, as far as major national elections, but I look for this video to bounce back again during the 2014 Election cycle.

One of his videos is close to entering the million visitor realm, "Mr. President - Mr. President". This video hit You Tube on September 27, 2011 and it current has 998,494 unique views...



As more and more of Obamacare is unleashed on people the mood is certainly favorable for a new video/song directed toward the situation.

Ray Stevens: A spring 2013 TV appearance...

 Hello all...I had seen pictures of Ray and the host of this program on-line but could never find a video link or podcast of the show until now. Ray appeared on a television program called Behind the Scene with Kenny and Friends back in April of 2013. I've provided a LINK containing the video clip. I originally had the video embedded but I couldn't get the measurements to fit correctly and so I edited out the embed altogether.

The interview runs for almost half an hour. In the interview Ray speaks about his TV program on TNN. It had been airing since January 2013 and by that time had been on the air for just 3 months when this interview took place. Unfortunately, I looked at the most recent television schedule for the new version of The Nashville Network (now calling itself Heartland TV) and I didn't see Ray's clip-fest television program, Ray-ality TV, listed. I don't know if it's on hiatus or if it's not part of the channel anymore. There hasn't been any information about it's fate that I've been able to find.

I was never able to get the new TNN anyway but I'd sure like to know if his TV program is still a part of their channel or not. I guess I could e-mail Ray's people or inquire about the program on the Heartland site. Early on-line stories about the program stated that 26 episodes had been put together. This is a typical number for a TV season. Since there's 52 weeks in a year, and the program airs weekly, 26 first-runs plus 26 re-runs adds up to 52. It appears that the 26 completed episodes have since aired and the powers that be have decided not to re-run those 26 episodes (giving the program a life-span of half a TV season).

Ray Stevens...Unchained...

Oh what great music video news I bring this morning...the brand new Ray Stevens music video to "Unchained Melody". This is a taste of things to come on an upcoming CD from Ray...a collection that I've often mentioned for about a year or so. I received an e-mail alert and became aware of a new video from Ray. The CD is going to be titled Melancholy Fescue and as you could perhaps tell from it's title it's going to be a Bluegrass-tinged CD. The things that I've read over the course of the last year indicate that the songs are more than likely going to be pop standards (love ballads) and early rock and roll songs done in a bluegrass style.

It was about a year ago, October 6th 2012 to be exact, Ray appeared as a guest during the Grand Ole Opry's 87th birthday broadcast. He appeared during both Opry shows on the 6th. In his first appearance of the night he performed "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" and "Everything Is Beautiful". In the second appearance he performed "Misty" and a bluegrass version of "Pretty Woman". The latter performance was said to be part of an upcoming experimental bluegrass CD he'd been working on titled Melancholy Fescue.

Okay, to keep things straight, that Opry appearance/performance happened on October 6, 2012...and almost 1 year has passed and as if on (fes)cue here comes a video for "Unchained Melody"...



Once the CD becomes available for purchase I'll put in an order for it ASAP!! In the e-mail the language alluded to a digital download...but I hope a physical CD will also become available. I prefer having a CD of music that I can hold in my hands.

So far the unique views for the latest music video release are 2,453. The totals for the "Nashville" music video are 12,331.

Ray Stevens and Nashville...

Here we find that the calendar has turned to October and at the moment the news surrounding Ray Stevens continues to be his "Nashville" music video. In my previous blog entry I had mentioned that the video had gotten a little more than 2,000 unique views...it's been a little more than 1 week since the video hit You Tube and the totals as of this minute are 11,633. The video arrived on September 23rd and it's been available, specifically, for a week and two days.

On September 30th, a web-site called Nashville Country Club posted a copy of the article that appeared on Nashville.com the day that the music video debuted. I'm often finding or becoming aware of articles about Ray Stevens that originate on one site and then appear on another. I sometimes offer links and sometimes I just make references. The September 30th publicity piece can be seen HERE. It's nice to see other sites latch onto and share news about Ray Stevens and promote his videos at the same time but, admittedly, when I saw the link to this story with it's headline of 'Ray Stevens Debuts New Video' I assumed it would've been something brand new but as I mentioned it's great to see other sites pick up on Ray's videos.



The Fall Clearance Sale at Ray's music store ended a couple of days ago. I'm glad I finally decided to purchase New Orleans Moon during that sale because it's back at it's normal selling price. During the sale it was available for less than $6.00 but since the sale ended it's sitting at it's usual $10.95 selling price. The bonus items that I received included several CD singles, one I already had, but several that I didn't have. Another free item arriving with the order was the Let's Get Political book. Again, it's something I already had, but that particular free copy that came with the CD is now put away in my collection while the other one that I purchased last year remains at arm's reach. Also part of the bonus gifts was an extended play CD containing selected songs from The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music.

The EP, referred to as a sampler, is something that I didn't already have but I had those songs on the Encyclopedia release. Casual fans that perhaps purchased items during the sale no doubt added to their individual collections with items that are obscure and often not being offered for sale anymore.

Ray Stevens 2007 CD...

Yesterday evening I checked my mail box and the item that I ordered from the Ray Stevens store had arrived. I had purchased 2007's New Orleans Moon and the first thing I noticed when I opened up the CD's case is that there is no picture of Ray. Obviously I knew that the image on the front of the CD shown the New Orleans night life but all this time I had thought Ray's picture perhaps appears on the back of the CD or at the very least inside the fold-out sleeve but, surprisingly, his face doesn't appear anywhere. I had the songs on my previous computer from the time I had bought the digital download but I never had a physical copy of the CD until now.

The Fall Clearance Sale at Ray's store is still going on. It lasts through September 30th and you can visit Ray's store by way of his official web-site or by clicking HERE to visit the store directly. There's a 'free gift' being sent with every order. I don't know if the gift is the same for each order or if every order receives a different free gift and so I'm hesitant to state what came along, for free, with my order just in case it isn't the same as someone else.

The unique views for the latest on-line music video from Ray Stevens, "Nashville", is a little more than 2,000 at 2,151 and climbing. The video is great but you all don't need to just take my word for it. I assume those that are reading this have either already seen the video by now or have heard of it but in case you hadn't seen it yet you can see it HERE.