Ray Stevens: "Here We Go Again!" CD from 2015 on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all once again! I just come over from Amazon and I was looking over the various best seller lists and seen that the 2015 Ray Stevens comedy CD, Here We Go Again!, sitting in the Top-40 of Amazon's best selling New Releases. I wondered why the CD would be placed on that list...it was released in 2015...and then I seen on the product page that it now shows Curb Records instead of MRI/Player Records. Ray's Player Records is a subsidiary of his own label, Clyde Records, and the subsidiary record label was what the CD was originally released on in February 2015. However, when you visit the Here We Go Again! product page on Amazon, it states that Curb Records began distributing the CD and Mp3 beginning in February of this year. The CD copy of Here We Go Again! on Curb Records was released first followed by the Mp3 in March 2021.

When I was looking through the list of Best Selling New Releases in the Digital Country music format and I came across this CD I wondered what was going on...and as I explained in the paragraph above Curb Records has added this particular Ray Stevens album to their catalog and given it's the first of May Here We Go Again! is technically seen as a 'new release' for Curb Records even though it's been around since 2015. The main song from the comedy album is "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". Since then he's uploaded performances of the song from his CabaRay Nashville television show...and he also uploaded a performance of "There Must Be a Pill For This". This is the album which also features "You Didn't Build That", a topical song that was turned into a music video in May 2015 as the follow-up to "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". The "You Didn't Build That" video, to date, has amassed almost half a million unique views. The view count so far is 450,637. Ray added a previously released song on this collection, "Come to the U.S.A.", from 2010. The title lends itself to the overall theme of the airport/travel cover art. On the back of the CD the songs are listed as if they're on an incoming flight board at an airport. Some of the other songs on this CD, for those that do no have it in their collection yet, are: "Little By Little", "Pickin' On the Chicken", and the salute/tribute to Jerry Clower, "Knock Him Out, John". Curb Records added a playlist over on YouTube of the songs on this CD. I may write some blog entries and include audio tracks of some of the songs from that CD whenever the mood strikes.

Ray Stevens sings "Pickin' on the Chicken"...

Me and Ray Stevens CD, 2015

Earlier today the audio of "Pickin' on the Chicken" emerged on the social media sites of Ray Stevens. It's track six on his 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!. If you're familiar with Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series (locally syndicated on PBS stations) then you'll know that he's performed this song on an episode of the television series. The song comes from the pen of Ray's longtime associate/collaborator, Buddy Kalb. As a song it gets into the mind of a chicken who is obviously annoyed that his species has become the brunt of so many jokes, punchlines, expressions, and sayings by humans and he's fed up with it. The chicken wonders out loud why are people picking on the chicken when 'we' haven't harmed a soul or did anything to deserve it. It's a novelty song in the purest sense of the word...layers upon layers of absurdity and I mean that in a good way. Throughout the song the chicken points out the various phrases and nick-names that reference a chicken. If you hadn't heard the song I'll point out in advance that he isn't singing it in any sort of clucking manner. There are moments in the song where he lets out with some cackling but there's no humanized 'chicken speak'. The fact that it isn't entirely dominated with chicken clucks and animal sounds may disappoint some but it's a cleverly worded song nevertheless. The photo depicts Ray at an airport in front of an awaiting Limo with a gorilla for a chauffeur. The back of the CD has the track list of songs written as if they're on a flight schedule at an airport.

The disc itself features imagery of Ray as Gitarzan and a monkey placed into an illustrated depiction of an airplane's control panel. The CD was released on Ray's label, Player Records. I don't know why it wasn't released under the Clyde Records label. This is the only release on Player Records...further CD releases from Ray carry the label, CabaRay Entertainment. In the distance, though, it looks like that's the Clyde logo just beyond the Limo and on the tail of the plane that's in the air. I wonder if that flight in the air is called "Southern Air"...it would be an inside joke recalling one of Ray's novelty songs from 1986 if that were the case.



The notable songs found on this CD happened to be 2010's "Come to the U.S.A.". That song had originally appeared on a CD from Ray in 2010 in addition to a music video of the song hitting the internet that year. "You Didn't Build That" was released as a music video single on YouTube on May 19, 2015 (five years ago next Tuesday). The official first release from this CD arrived as a music video on February 24, 2015, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". The CD closes with a salute to the late southern comedian, Jerry Clower (1926-1998), on "Knock Him Out, John". I wrote about this CD several blogs ago spotlighting the fact that it reaches 5 this year. Search the archives if you want to read more commentary about the 2015 CD.

Ray Stevens: More than 100 Million YouTube unique views...

Hello one and all!! I was over on YouTube looking over some stats surrounding the video clips/music videos from Ray Stevens. As of this writing the combined number of unique views of the various videos uploaded to his YouTube channel currently sits at 111,624,798!!! So, it's a little more than an even 100 million.

I found myself looking through the stats because in the comment section over on the official YouTube page for the video clip advertising his 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!, as February's sale of the month in his on-line store, I left a reply addressing a statement made by someone else that said, and I'm paraphrasing: "...probably no one born after 2000 has any idea who Ray Stevens is...".

In my reply I openly wondered if the comment was a baited statement just waiting for someone to bite...of which I gladly bit because it sounded like a statement that was partially true and I felt I could offer a factual reply and explain how, as a recording artist, you can make a comfortable living without your music ever making an appearance on a weekly chart. If you find an audience and they like what you do and you continue to reach people and build your audience and they purchase your music or attend your concerts, etc. etc. then you don't actually need your image and music plastered all over entertainment magazines and on radio.

The reply I gave, specifically, was: "Oh well, it's their loss, even though it sounds like a baited statement just waiting for someone to bite which I'm gladly doing. The recently inducted Country Music Hall of Fame legend, Ray Stevens, I don't think relies on age specific demographics or ever did...pure entertainment is all that's necessary...but you're somewhat accurate about those born after 2000...but I'd argue that he's known by a lot of people under 35. It isn't just a collection of people 60 and older watching his YouTube videos. He has his own slice of the gigantic internet pie.".

Here's some facts you can't argue with...

He's had a YouTube channel since 2009 and he's had his own website since, at least, the late 1990s. I came onto the internet by way of Web-TV in 2002 and Ray had a website then and he has one still. The design of his website and product availability in his web-store has obviously changed over the years but he's had an internet presence for nearly 20 years. The YouTube channel hit the internet on July 13, 2009. As I mentioned at the top of this blog entry the total number of combined unique views obtained by all of the video uploads on his channel currently sits at 111,624,798. It's a fantastic stat for an entertainer that turned 81 years of age a couple of weeks ago on January 24th.

I'll bet there will be somebody out there who, upon reading what I just wrote, will feverishly scour YouTube for an entertainer older than Ray and check the combined unique view total of that performer's video uploads and if it's larger than Ray's they'll cheerfully plaster the information all over social media sites just to diminish Ray's total. Childish, yes, but it's speaks to the lengths of what people will do on social media. There are some people who resent Ray's successful career. You may be asking yourselves: Are there people that deliberately resent any kind of success Ray Stevens has? It's sad but true...but there are people out there like that and I'm making that accusation based on years of on-line experience on my part and seeing with my own eyes the kinds of things said about his music and his business decisions on various social media sites.

An example being his 1992 performance of "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O." which was part of his 1993 VHS, Ray Stevens Live!. The performance was uploaded onto Ray's YouTube channel on June 12, 2013. The reaction, as of this writing, consists of more than 3,700 thumbs up ratings and 105 thumbs down ratings. A hysterical performance, for sure, and highly entertaining but apparently that wasn't the case for 105 people. The video itself has 423,786 unique views as of this writing. There will be those that say "nobody has to like the same style of music...or the same singer..." and that's a perfectly fine statement...but what I'm getting at is there are people who purposely click videos for the sole purpose of thumbing it down or leaving vile comments...or they do both. If you don't like a singer then why access their video content in the first place...but of course I answered that rhetorical question already just before asking it. It gives those with anger a chance to show it off. The deliberate nature of a person thumbing down a video or writing scathing remarks simply because they do not like that artist is something that can't be stopped, unfortunately...along with all the positives that come with the internet there also come the negatives.

Shifting gears...after months of procrastinating I finally got around to clearing some space for my two new record players that I received as Christmas gifts. A couple of my turntables were stolen, pretty much, as part of a complicated family issue revolving around my grandfather's power of attorney and the disappearance of a lot of my items I kept in storage at his house. I managed to retrieve all of my vinyl, my modest collection of TV Guides, and everything else of mine from his house but the two record players came up missing and I've never been able to find them. Anyway...I received two turntables this last Christmas, to replace the two that came up missing, but I had them sitting in their boxes unopened...I hadn't figured out where I'd put them. The wait/procrastination ended this past Friday and I have the turntables out of their boxes and sitting in my room. One of them is close to the desk I'm sitting at and another is close to my bedroom door. I have the one near the bedroom door sitting on top of a couple of crates...the crates contain the vinyl albums and vinyl singles I've purchased over the years. Those items had been sitting next to my desk on a stand...and so with the relocation of the vinyl items into the crates it created space for the other record player. I listened to Collector's Series this morning. Yes...I just had to play a Ray Stevens album to break in the new record player with. The compilation album of eight songs that RCA issued in 1985...so that particular collection is 35 this year. It's the only compilation to spotlight some of the recordings he issued on RCA Records during his tenure with them. He signed with them late in 1979 and ultimately released three studio albums on the label in 1980, 1981, and 1982; followed by a Greatest Hits album in 1983. The 1983 release only featured two recordings from his RCA period, "Shriner's Convention" and "The Dooright Family", while the remaining eight songs spanned the years 1968 through 1975...so it wasn't necessarily dominated with RCA recordings...but Collector's Series continues to remain the definitive collection of his RCA recordings. One of my new record players appears in this photo. The lid doesn't lift up all the way which perhaps is a good thing...like the hood of a car if you want the lid to remain open you lift the lid and then prop the second half of the attachment into a designated space on the first half of the attachment and it acts like a lock and it keeps the lid opened. I hadn't played anything on the other record player near my desk, yet. That'll come later today and yes it'll be another of my vinyl Ray Stevens albums holding the distinction of being the first thing played on that record player, too.

Me and one of my new Record Players: 2019

Ray Stevens: Here We Go Again!...February Sale of the Month...

Hello one and all...for the month of February the Ray Stevens web-store is offering his 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!, at a discount price. If you frequent his on-line store you should be familiar with the month long discounts/deals placed on random items. This particular deal of the month is a discounted sales price for 2015's Here We Go Again!. If you search my archives that year you'll see that I wrote a lot of blog entries surrounding lead-up to the upcoming release, the release itself, and the music contained on the album I wrote in the form of a review. The main song that emerged from the CD was "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" which appeared as a music video on YouTube prior to the release of the CD. That video eventually racked up millions of unique views throughout 2015 and the following years. Ray performed several songs from the CD on his CabaRay Nashville television program, including the one referring to Taylor Swift. On an episode of his television show that aired last night on a local PBS station he performed "Walkin' the Dog", a song from this 2015 CD. There are episodes of his show where he also performed "Pickin' on the Chicken", "Little By Little", and "There Must Be a Pill For This".



If you don't yet have a CD copy of this don't miss your chance at purchasing it for the discounted price. As you see on the video screen there is no shipping and handling fee. If you already have a digital Mp3 of this album why not get the CD counterpart. I love having CD copies because of the art work, the information, and sometimes you'll receive on a CD some sort of exclusive content by way of images or even liner notes that aren't reprinted a CD's product page in an on-line music store. This particular CD features a fold-out booklet containing the lyrics of every song, who wrote them, and the music publisher credits. There's also a message from Ray in the fold-out booklet. So while it might make sense to purchase music as Mp3's instead of purchasing a physical CD of music, chances are you're missing out on some of the perks of having an actual CD instead of just having digitally transmitted audio tracks from an on-line store to your on-line device.

Ray Stevens: CD at Five...

March 2015

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! It's the start of a new week and as you all should know we'll close out this week celebrating the birthday of the one and only Ray Stevens on January 24th. I don't want to post too much about that today due to my desire to save my commentary for this coming Friday and so I'll get to the topic of this blog entry...the fifth anniversary of Here We Go Again!. I'm a couple months early (the CD was released March 23, 2015) but I decided to go ahead and spotlight the anniversary of it's release now so that it doesn't interfere with blog entries I'll be writing that month surrounding the third season of his CabaRay showroom getting underway the same month. Who knows? Perhaps by the time we reach March there will have been a new Ray Stevens CD hit the market or at least a new on-line music video? I sound like a broken record, of course, but I am anxious to hear whatever new recordings are forthcoming from recently inducted Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens. When this CD was issued in the spring of 2015 the music video, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me", had already taken off on social media. The video was released on February 24, 2015 a month and one day ahead of the CD. The video had gotten nearly half a million unique views on YouTube by the time the CD became available. As of this writing the unique view total is 2.5 million. The specifics in numbers are 2,543,458. 



I wrote a review of the CD on this fan created blog page as well as on Amazon. Now, according to the product details over on AMAZON, there are 14 copies of the CD left in stock. You can also purchase a CD copy from Ray's on-line web-store, of course. I was reading my review prior to composing this blog entry and I noticed there are a couple of typo's as well as a sentence where I left out some words. I don't know if other people deal with this but a lot of time I find myself typing words that I'm saying to myself and in my mind I think I've typed them but sometimes when I go and re-read what I've written I'll notice a word or two had been left out. I don't know if it's a case of the mind being quicker than the hands or not. I'm going to paste my 2015 review below with the corrected typo's and odd sentence. I'm not going to edit the review over on Amazon, though, but I've copied and pasted my review below with the corrections...

***This review contains spoilers***

After taking a detour, of sorts, over the last 5+ years and releasing some hilarious political songs on a couple of CD's, plus issuing a 9-CD box set called "The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music" (containing his versions of novelty songs of the last 50+ years), a majestic gospel CD last year called "Gospel Collection, Volume One", and a memoir titled "Ray Stevens' Nashville"...after those projects, Ray Stevens returns to country comedy on his latest CD.

The cover art, as you can see, takes place in an airport setting. In a touch of silliness, a gorilla plays the part of the chauffeur. On the back of the CD the songs are listed as if they're flights posted on the Arrival board. The CD's first single release arrived in music video form a month ago...titled "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" it's a story of a man that's obsessed with the belief that he's being stalked by the pop-country singer because, according to him, he sees her everywhere and given that her likeness appears everywhere he happens to think she's stalking him. The song has a comical twist ending, though. Throughout the song he insists that Taylor's up in a tree looking at him with binoculars.

After the bouncy opening track about Taylor we're treated to Ray covering one of his musical idols, Ray Charles. I pretty much know that the purists that'll hear the Ray Stevens rendition of the Ray Charles classic "What'd I Say" aren't gong to like it. After all, they may ask, how can you top a Ray Charles recording?

I don't necessarily believe Ray Stevens set out to try and top the classic rendition from Ray Charles, though. I think that Ray Stevens simply wanted to record the song and so he did. I happen to love the rendition. Even if some may groan about the idea of someone other than the late Ray Charles performing that song at least it gives Ray Stevens an opportunity to display his obvious love for classic Rhythm and Blues music.

Aside from the song about Taylor Swift, one of my other favorites from this CD is "There Must Be a Pill For This". This one is vintage Ray Stevens...it tells the story of pills...and the enormous quantity of pills that are on the market for everything under the sun. Pills to help thick people lose weight, and pills to help frail people gain weight. It's a satire on pills...miracle pills, specifically...and as an added pleasure there's a parody of those lengthy disclaimers that appear as voice-overs on healthcare commercials.

The tempo changes for the next song, "Walkin' the Dog". In this one Ray sings of constantly bickering with his wife. Instead of moping around the house he simply goes outside, gets Rover, and walks the dog. He reckons that once he starts to take the dog for a walk he may run into a woman putting on the dog (presumably to be a possible new love interest). Track Five is thrilling...a cover of "Hearts Made of Stone". I looked up the song's title and found out that it had been a Rhythm and Blues hit in 1954 for a group called The Charms. I had heard a brief audio clip of Ray's recording on Amazon and since that time I had been wondering the reason for the 1950's-style of audio (complete with echo!) but I eventually found out the reason for the distinctive arrangement when discovering it had originally been recorded in the 1950s by The Charms as previously mentioned. It's clearly the stand-out song on the CD if only for it not vocally sounding like anything else. I love the over-dubbed do-wah harmonies heard throughout.

The most country sounding recording on the entire CD is "Pickin' on the Chicken". This one, too, is one of my favorites. In the song Ray sings from a chicken's point of view and he demands to know the reason so many negative expressions are associated with chickens, hens, and eggs. Throughout the song we're treated to a list of expressions and sayings that put the chicken in a bad light...expressions like 'madder than a wet hen'; 'that's chicken feed'; 'He's got egg on his face'; 'One flew the coop'; etc. Ray also manages to get in a reference to Willie Nelson, too, in a laugh out loud funny one-liner.

The second-most country sounding recording is "The Baptism of Stumpy Brown". The song is about an atheist that suddenly finds religion in his 90s and insists on being baptized as a result. The frail body in a raging river is bound to cause some incidents...and Ray tells of those in this story. Inspiration surfaces in the song "Little by Little". There is a song on here called "You Didn't Build That"...let's just say I find it hilarious...but it's something that more than likely is not going to go over too well with, say, fans of the President. That song is followed by a contemporary classic in the form of the illegal immigration anthem "Come to the U.S.A." (a song from 2010). Illegal immigration is a hot topic and one that's consistently controversial. Although I'm reviewing the CD there's an Mp3 copy for sale, too, and that means customers can pick and choose the songs they want to purchase from Here We Go Again!. I prefer having a physical copy of the CD.

Along the lines of manhood and masculinity comes "A Handshake Will Do", track 11. The lyrics cry foul on guys hugging other guys unless it's called for and Ray gives examples for when it's okay. Ironically, on the day this CD went on sale, a picture of Larry Gatlin attempting to hug Ray appeared on Ray's social media sites. There's no reference to this song as far as the picture is concerned, though. I call it just one of those ironic coincidences.

Ray had appeared as a guest artist on the Grand Ole Opry on March 21st on a segment hosted by Larry Gatlin.

The CD's closing track, "Knock Him Out John", is another one of my favorites. I call it a tribute to the late Jerry Clower. It's a recap of Jerry's story of the time he and some of his friends went hunting for raccoons and ended up having an encounter with a lynx. Ray's recording is the story set to music. Ray does his rendition of Jerry's holler and it appears at various moments during the song's chorus.

I thoroughly enjoyed the CD...his restless energy and incredible vocals are on full display on this CD!

***End of CD Review***

Yes, that's me displaying my economy sized pill box as a visual tie-in with one of the songs found on the 2015 CD, "There Must Be a Pill For This". The song is from the pen of Don Cusic and if you're a more dedicated fan of Ray Stevens then you're fully aware of Don Cusic or at least should be. He's written a couple of songs that Ray's recorded within the last 6 years. He wrote an essay within the pages of an accompanying booklet of Ray's 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, in 2012. If you have Ray's 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, you'll see Don's name credited as the book's editor. Don wrote a gospel song that Ray recorded called "If Jesus is a Stranger" which can be found on Ray's CD, Gospel Collection, Volume One. I looked up his history and career at the time and discovered that he happened to be a college professor and had authored numerous books and is often referred to as a Professor of Music. Don wrote "There Must Be a Pill For This", by the way. When Ray's television series, CabaRay Nashville, debuted in the fall of 2015 Don Cusic appeared in several early episodes dressed in a graduate gown for a segment spotlighting a song featured in Ray's 9-CD box set. Don would give a brief history of the song prior to Ray's performance of it on the show. If you visit the Amazon link I provided for his 2015 comedy CD you'll notice there isn't credit listed for the songwriters. The CD comes with a fold-out mini booklet which contains the lyrics of all the songs, the writers, and the publishing company. It also features commentary from Ray on the back of the booklet.

Here is the track list and the songwriters:

1. Taylor Swift is Stalking Me (Ray Stevens, Chuck Redden, and Buddy Kalb)
2. What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
3. There Must Be a Pill For This (Don Cusic)
4. Walkin' the Dog (Jim Ferguson)
5. Hearts Made of Stone (Eddie Ray and Rudy Jackson)
6. Pickin' on the Chicken (Buddy Kalb)
7. The Baptism of Stumpy Brown (Buddy Kalb and Allison Speer)
8. Little By Little (Buddy Kalb)
9. You Didn't Build That (Ray Stevens, Chuck Redden, and Buddy Kalb)
10. Come to the U.S.A. (Buddy Kalb and Matt Cline)
11. A Handshake Will Do (Matt Cline and Max T. Barnes)
12. Knock Him Out, John (Buddy Kalb)

Excluding a Christmas CD release in 2016 the Here We Go Again! CD, to date, is the last studio album that Ray has issued. Yes, even though the 2016 Christmas release is technically his last studio album to date, I'm excluding it because it's a seasonal album. Since the release of the 2015 we've had the 2016 Christmas CD in addition to a couple of DVD releases featuring Season One and Season Two episodes of his CabaRay Nashville television series. In interviews since 2016/2017 Ray has often mentioned that he has a backlog of recordings awaiting release. He's been so busy, though...first off with the production of his television program...and then with the grand opening of the CabaRay showroom in 2018. So, as mentioned at the top of this blog entry, I'm hoping some new projects come along during the first half of 2020. Here's some trivia...it was on this date in 1962 that Ray recorded "Ahab the Arab". I usually don't have recording dates memorized but I was reading various websites during the writing of this blog entry and I came across that tidbit of information in a post on social media from Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone?. It's a Facebook page and I often write commentary whenever there's a post about Ray Stevens. I'll more than likely wait until this coming Friday to write another blog entry...on Ray's birthday...unless some major news is issued concerning the release of new music.

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: Flashback 2015...

I've decided to try out a series of flashback blog entries. I don't necessarily think it's considered repeating yourself because the commentary/opinions you'll be reading reflect my thoughts at the time of the writing...so it's not as if I'm copying/pasting past blog entry content and passing it off as new. In this experiment I've picked the year 2015. I pick that year because it's a pivotal year...a turning point in the career of Ray Stevens even though, like many other moments in his career, you don't notice it being a turning point until you're a couple years removed from it happening. Ray is the only recording artist that I can think of that can have multiple twists and turns in a career at any given moment and have it not negatively impact his career whatsoever or have it define his career.

Early in 2015 Ray released a comedy album, Here We Go Again!. This comedy album remains, to date, his last secular release. He issued a Christmas album in 2016 titled Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me and then, in 2017, he released Just a Closer Walk With Thee/Gospel Favorites, a sequel to 2014's Gospel Collection, Volume One but Here We Go Again! remains his last album of mostly original songs. I say mostly original because the 2015 album included a couple of cover songs and the inclusion of a recording from 2010. As mentioned in the above paragraph this flashback experimental series of blog entries isn't going to copy/paste commentary I've made in the past. If anything I hope to pick up on things I may not have noticed or didn't think to comment on at the time.

Here We Go Again! contains 12 recordings of various styles. To be sure it's a comedy album...but there are a number of songs that channel early rock music as well as rhythm and blues. The album was released early in March of 2015...where it had followed the on-line release of a music video on YouTube from Ray on February 24th. It was a little out of the norm for Ray to issue a music video and then more or less a week later have the album it's on become available for purchase...usually there's a waiting period of several weeks between a lead-off single (in this case a lead-off music video) and the release of the album. Nevertheless the lead-off release from Here We Go Again! arrived in music video form on YouTube in the name of "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". Ray co-wrote the song with Buddy Kalb and Chuck Redden and as you could guess the music video became a viral hit and, again, as you could guess, a lot of that had to do with the video's subject matter being Taylor Swift. The song/video came at a time when she was everywhere...country radio, pop radio, country music television, MTV, VH-1, magazine covers that catered to various music formats, etc. etc. and at the same time there were a lot of really bizarre stories popping up on-line of people thinking that they were being stalked by the singer. The utterly bizarre nature of such claims goes hand-in-hand with Ray's song. There's a twist ending to the story but you'll have to wait until near the end of the song to hear it.

On the back of the CD you'll see the track list written on a mock-up of an airline arrival board. The front of the CD, above, has Ray at an airport setting in front of a Limo...with a gorilla being the chauffeur. If you look in the background you'll see a trailer of a semi truck with Clyde Van Lines written on it above the Clyde Records logo. The irony is this CD was released on Player Records which I'm assuming served as an in-house label and I don't think the Player imprint appeared on any further releases from Ray. There's a mini fold-out booklet contained within the CD sleeve. The booklet features a photo of Ray and his comments surrounding the CD and there's lyrics printed for all of the songs, too. "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" continues to attract unique views but a recent statistical search shows that it's gotten more than 2.3 million unique views. Included on this CD is another song Ray co-wrote with Buddy Kalb and Chuck Redden. The trio wrote "You Didn't Build That" and it became a music video on YouTube, ironically enough, four years ago yesterday: May 19, 2015. That particular music video's gotten a little over 300,000 unique views. The CD also features, as mentioned earlier, a song from 2010 titled "Come to the USA". On the album it follows "You Didn't Build That". Elsewhere on the album there's his cover of "Hearts Made of Stone" which I had to look up back in 2015 because Ray sings it against a background reminiscent of the 1950s. I had initially thought that Ray performed the song like that on purpose and that it was a new song but then I thought that maybe it's a cover song. Ray does his version of "What'd I Say", a classic originally recorded by one of Ray's music heroes, Ray Charles. "There Must Be a Pill For This" was written by Don Cusic and that's a name that's become associated with Ray over the last 5+ years. Don helped put together the 2012 9-CD project, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, and he later supplied Ray with a couple of original gospel songs: 2014's "If Jesus is a Stranger" and 2017's "Just a Touch of Jesus". The latter co-written with Buddy Kalb. You can purchase the 2015 album, as well as most of the music Ray has issued over the last 10 to 15 years, at his web-store. Here's the product page for the 2015 ALBUM.

In addition to this comedy album in 2015 and the two music video hits that emerged from it the biggest and some might say shocking and unexpected news of the year came in the late summer/early fall of 2015. It was around the late summer time frame that on-line reports began to show up revolving around Ray's plans of becoming a television talk show host. The episodes of this as yet to be announced series had already been recorded weeks in advance and so on November 7, 2015 the debut episode of Ray Stevens' Nashville aired on RFD-TV with Steve Wariner as the special guest. In the first and second seasons of the show there was a segment featuring Don Cusic dressed in a graduate's gown, referred to as Professor Cusic: Doctor of Music, giving historical information about an upcoming song Ray was to perform. A lot of the information was tied into the mini-book he wrote for Ray's 2012 encyclopedia box set. Don happens to be a real college professor and so it was like art imitating life. The television series became a popular show on RFD-TV throughout 2016. The popularity led to more episodes being produced throughout the year. In total 26 first-run episodes and a Christmas themed episode aired between November 7, 2015 and December 31, 2016. This time frame also included the repeat cycle of all 27 episodes. In fact, RFD-TV aired a marathon of episodes as special programming on New Year's Eve.

The show had reportedly become the top rated series on the cable network but upon concluding it's repeat cycle Ray announced that the series was departing RFD for local PBS syndication. 52 first run episodes aired in local PBS syndication beginning in July of 2017 (following a repeat period of the 26 episodes originally shown on RFD). Those repeats were airing in the first half of 2017 on local PBS stations. The first-run PBS exclusives began on July 7, 2017 and the last first-run episode aired the weekend of July 6, 2018. By this time the name of the series had changed to Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The change in name happened in January 2017 when the show began airing on PBS. The show continues airing all over the country on local PBS stations and in December 2018 it returned to the RFD airwaves, too, in it's former time-slot on Saturday nights. Ever since the debut of his television program in the latter half of 2015 and continuing on with the 2018 opening of his showroom, CabaRay, Ray's career has gone through various twists and turns that nobody would have expected at the beginning of 2015 when "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" and Here We Go Again! made their debuts. 

Ray Stevens upcoming Tour Dates...

Ray Stevens has six concerts planned for the months of September and October. These are part of his mini-tour titled Here We Go Again which began earlier this summer. Up first is an appearance in Branson, Missouri on September 12th at The Andy Williams Theatre. Tickets went on sale in May...if you hadn't called about tickets by now it may be too late to get a seat near the stage. You need to call 1-800-MOON-094 or visit the promo page HERE.

The second concert planned for this month is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at The Alabama Theater on September 19th. You can read all about it and purchase tickets HERE 

On September 26th Ray has another guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. You can listen to the Opry on the radio and on the internet but if you prefer to attend in person you can purchase tickets by clicking HERE. At the moment the page only has 3 performers listed for that date but there's going to be more performers scheduled by the middle of the month.

The first concert scheduled for October takes place at the SKyPAC venue on October 2nd. This is an acronym for Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center. A video clip debuted on YouTube earlier today promoting the upcoming concert and you can see it below...



The next day, October 3rd, he'll be in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to perform 2 shows at the Country Tonite venue. The first one being 3pm and the second being 8pm. You can read about it HERE.

6 days later on October 9th he'll be up in Ontario, Canada at the Casino Rama. You can read about it HERE.

Ray Stevens: Additional Concert Dates Announced...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!

In case you hadn't taken a look at the Ray Stevens tour page yet or hadn't seen his most recent Facebook post there have some additions to his Here We Go Again Tour. The tour date I previously mentioned for Ontario, Canada at the Casino Rama on October 9th is on his tour page now. A couple of other dates have also been added...first off on November 14th he'll mark his return to the Renfro Valley Barn in Mount Vernon, Kentucky. The other additions are far off in the future: a concert date scheduled in Bremen, Georgia for April 16, 2016 at the Mill Town Music Hall and a concert at the Blue Gate Theater in Shipshewana, Indiana on May 21, 2016.

You can read all about those additions and other concerts previously announced by going to Ray's EVENTS page at his official website. His next concert takes place on September 12th in Branson, Missouri. I've been thinking of what song from Ray's current CD could make for a comical music video and I've decided on "There Must Be a Pill For This". I also thought of Ray, in chicken costume, acting out "Pickin' on the Chicken" in video form. That one could also be rather amusing.

PURCHASE CD HERE

Ray Stevens: Here We Go Again! Tour...

It's me again all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I've been on one of my hiatuses but this one had nothing to do with the lack of activity in the career of Ray Stevens but instead my absence can be traced to personal reasons dealing with a health ailment of my father that, at the moment, seems to be on the brink of correcting itself but he hasn't had an "all clear" notice from any of his doctor's yet. He suffered an aortic dissection and ever since it happened (April 29th) I hadn't been keeping complete attention on much of anything for the last month and a half. I hadn't had the time and on the rare moments that I've had the time I've been too tired to put together a blog entry.

Several things have happened during my hiatus. One of the things that happened is Ray Stevens released a new YouTube music video, "You Didn't Build That". It's gotten a little more than 28,000 unique views since it's debut a couple of weeks back. It's a song from his current CD, Here We Go Again!. The song, the moment I heard it for the first time, cried out "turn me into a music video!!", and I'm happy to see that he's made a music video of it. It's a social commentary message about Obama...and here's the video...



This is the follow-up to "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". That particular video's gotten more than 200,000 unique views so far...and I hope the current music video makes a run into that category, too, and rake in hundreds of thousands of views.

As of this writing Ray should be getting ready to end his concert in Franklin, North Carolina if it hasn't ended by now. It's 9:25pm as of this moment. His concert for tonight at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts was set to get underway around 7:30pm. According to a Facebook post the concert happened to be a sell out. This concert date is the first of many in a tour that Ray's titled Here We Go Again!...named for his current comedy CD. In one of Ray's Facebook posts it makes mention of the fact that there should be additional concert appearances added in as they're confirmed but at the moment these are the current concert dates for Ray Stevens in 2015...

June 13 – Gulfport, Miss. – Island View Casino

Aug 1 – Hiawassee, Ga. – Anderson Music Hall

Sept 12 – Branson, Mo. – Andy Williams Theatre

Sept 19 – North Myrtle Beach, S.C. – The Alabama Theatre

Oct 2 – Bowling Green, Ky. – SKyPAC / Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center

Oct 3 – Pigeon Forge, Tenn. – Country Tonite Theatre (2 shows)

Nov 21 – Deadwood, S.D. – Deadwood Mountain Grand Event Center

As you can see there's a lot of gaps between appearances and so I'm thinking additional concert dates are going to start popping up.

I highlighted in bold print the next concert appearance...tomorrow night in Gulfport, Mississippi. Those reading this may want to check out that venue and, of course, check out all of the other venues if you're interested in attending any of the concerts. Ray hasn't done a lot of concert dates in the last several years and one of the things I often come across on message boards and in comment sections of music videos is people asking if he's going to be in concert anytime.

For those that routinely ask if Ray's planning on doing any concert dates I'd strongly advise you, if you live in the region of these concert appearances, to think about attending them. The concerts announced so many months in advance it gives fans the chance to plan ahead. Ray doesn't tour often and so it would be a terrible decision if you were to shrug off these concert appearances for something next year...there's no guarantee he'll do any touring next year...so don't miss out!

Here are some links promoting Ray's upcoming tour and appearances...

TOUR

GEORGIA AUGUST 1st

Ray is returning to Branson, Missouri this coming September. An advertisement (using music video clips from 1992) is on YouTube...call the number displayed on the screen for tickets...



If you prefer seeing a conventional form of advertisement then click this link and it'll take you to a promo page for Ray's concert on September 12th in Branson. The tickets are on sale now...

RAY STEVENS IN BRANSON 2015...

Ray Stevens: The Taylor Swift Music Video, entry Eleven...

Hello all...it's a very early Monday morning but I felt like getting the week started with a blog entry featuring some updates on the current music video from Ray Stevens, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". As of this moment the video's gotten 136,300 unique views...this is a pick-up of 9,737 additional discoveries since my previous posting of the numbers. 



As I mentioned in my previous blog post Ray performed the song at the Opry this past Saturday night along with "Hearts Made of Stone" (it's the second time he performed the Taylor song). Each of those songs are on his current comedy CD, Here We Go Again!, and that particular release can be purchased through various on-line stores such as AMAZON. That link takes you to the CD's product page.

In the meantime how many people out there have a lot of Ray Stevens in your personal collections? I have a lot of his songs in one format or another (LP's, 45's, cassettes, CD's, and Mp3) and I've got several magazines that either have articles about him or feature interviews with him...some of those magazines have Ray on the cover which is an added plus. I have VHS tapes and DVDs of his music videos and I have some of his television appearances from The Nashville Network on VHS (appearances from the mid-late 1990s). A long held desire of mine had been to gain possession of every television appearance/performance Ray Stevens ever did. That happened to be a goal of mine during my teen years...as I've long since been an adult I've realized such a goal is highly unobtainable but at least I can say I have all of Ray's studio albums in one format or another. Starting with the release of 1,837 Seconds of Humor in 1962 and ending, for the moment, with the 2015 release of Here We Go Again!.

The one format that I don't have any of Ray's songs is 8-track...I don't even have any 8-track cartridges anymore nor do I possess an 8-track player. I've posted about 8-tracks before and the nostalgia factor that accompanies them but I don't think I'd enjoy listening to an 8-track nowadays...a lot of the ones my grandparent's had featured songs broken in multiple parts (lots of fade in and fade outs). I've become too accustomed to hearing songs in their entirety with no interruption...there's also the fact that an 8-track can malfunction easier than a cassette. 

Any mechanism that has a reel of tape is vulnerable to technical glitches but through experience the 8-track seemed to be more vulnerable to the reel of tape being ate...and pulling an 8-track out of it's slot after something like that happens can damage the actual player. In the meantime check out Here We Go Again! from Ray Stevens...the latest offering from the Clown Prince of Country Music...

Ray Stevens: April 18th Opry re-cap...

Hello once more...as promised in my previous blog entry here's a brief re-cap of the Ray Stevens guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry yesterday evening. In my blog entry from yesterday I erroneously stated that the Opry's host during Ray's appearance was going to be Jim Ed Brown. Unless I had been thinking of him earlier in the day or happened to see a picture of him, or, had actually seen his name listed in close proximity to Ray's I never would've posted the wrong information but something told my brain to type Jim Ed and that's what I happened to do but in actuality the host of the Opry segment that Ray appeared on happened to be the family group, The Whites. The half hour segment featured songs by them and a couple of songs by a gospel artist named Chris August...and then it came time for Ray Stevens!

Ray came out and spoke about his current Here We Go Again! comedy CD. He mentioned that his previous guest appearance at the Opry took place only a couple of weeks ago and that he performed a certain song that night...and due to demand he performed it once more...the song being "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me". He followed-up the performance with "Hearts Made of Stone" (!).
The live performance doesn't have the echo effect that the studio recording has and I was completely surprised that he chose that particular song to spotlight considering some of the other songs on the CD have more of a country flavor but I'm glad he performed the song, though. At least I can say I heard him perform the song in case he never performs it again. In case you missed the April 18th performance you can check the Opry's Archive page. At the moment the page is updated through April 14th (this past Tuesday Night Opry broadcast). You'll have to periodically keep checking the Opry Archive Page to see when they upload the April 18th broadcast. I'll also do the same and of course I'll post a link to the April 18th broadcast in a future blog post. Remember, though, the link I'll be posting in a future blog is for the complete broadcast...it isn't going to be a link to only the segment Ray Stevens appears on. The first segment is hosted by Jeannie Seely. 

Ray Stevens: April 18th...Opry Guest Appearance...

Good late afternoon, early evening!! Ray Stevens is scheduled to make a guest appearance on the Opry tonight at 7:30pm Central, 8:30pm Eastern. This is a rather quick follow-up guest appearance for Ray...he appeared on the Opry last month (in a segment hosted by Larry Gatlin) and performed his current hit, "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me", for the first time.

On tonight's Opry Ray is going to appear in the segment hosted by Jim Ed Brown. He may perform the Taylor song again or he may spotlight something completely different. You can listen to the Opry performance by clicking HERE and then clicking the appropriate listening options once the page opens. I'll post a re-cap either later tonight or tomorrow about Ray's Opry segment.

The music video for Ray's current hit has obtained 134,093 unique views so far.

I came across a recent interview of Ray Stevens...this one appeared on YouTube today and it's conducted by an interviewer named Rabbi Sol Solomon. It appears as part of an internet series called Dave's Gone By. You can hear the interview HERE. I happened to like it...Ray gets a lot of time to discuss various aspects of his career and those he's worked with in the music industry. Near the end the host brings up Ray's 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Some of the other subjects discussed include his current CD, Here We Go Again!, the Ray Stevens' Nashville memoir, political comedy, and the dramatic changes in the music industry and the impact of social media.

Ray Stevens: The Taylor Swift Music Video, entry 10...

Hello one and all...I'm back! Since the completion of my previous blog entry baseball season has started and the onslaught of rain and severe weather has prevented me from making too many detailed blogs (for the fear the electric going out in the middle of typing). Also, I'm trying to get used to these new eye glasses...they're not as comfortable as my other pair...I've actually been wearing the other pair more than the new ones.

In addition to that I deliberately wanted the blog entry about the negative impact that the healthcare law has had on my insurance coverage to be the first blog entry visitors see if they happen to access this page via it's main link.

The current music video from Ray Stevens, "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me", has had an increase in discoveries since my previous blog entry on April 5th...jumping from 115,889 to 126,563...a pickup of 10,674 unique views (for those keeping track). As you can see I posted/embedded the music video at the top of the blog entry. The video debuted on February 24th and so you can see that it's fast approaching 2 months of on-line availability...13 days to go.

The song itself can be found on his current CD, Here We Go Again!. The CD can be purchased on-line practically everywhere. Here's a link to the AMAZON product page. Once there you can either purchase the CD or search for the Mp3 copy if that's your personal preferred purchase choice. The CD became available for pre-order in February...it's official release happened on March 23. Since the time of it's release it's appeared on Billboard's Top Comedy Albums chart...debuting in the April 11th edition among the Top-10 best selling comedy releases that week. I looked on Billboard's on-line site a couple of days ago and unfortunately the CD isn't in the Top-10 for the week ending April 18th. It and another comedy project fell off to make room for a couple of debuts.

One of the drawbacks to having a 10 position sales chart is once you have the big opening week sales performance a CD usually settles into it's average sales pace and if it's not among the 10 releases in the comedy genre to sell a certain amount in a given week then it doesn't rank among the top-10 (regardless of any additional sales it obtained). Some of the CD's listed on the comedy survey have been charted for more than 1 year (!). Having said that I don't know if total weeks indicate consecutive or non-consecutive. Considering it's a 10 position chart the turnover rate is astronomical and so I'd guess and say the total number of chart weeks for the CD's on the Top Comedy Albums chart indicate non-consecutive totals. If anybody has any information you can post a comment. In my settings I have it designed so that I can read submitted comments before they're posted. So, if you submit something and I feel that it comes across cohesive and on topic I'll publish those kinds of comments. I don't publish comments that offer links and I definitely refuse to publish any comment that speaks negative toward Ray Stevens.

I may have posted this already but this is the CD of Here We Go Again! that I ordered from Amazon. I call it the non-autographed copy. I have a copy that I received in the mail a couple of days before the CD went on sale...it has an autograph by Ray Stevens and a note above his autograph personally thanking me. Also, it goes without saying, but I hope you all watch his latest music video from start to finish. It has a nice shot of Ray at the video's close standing inside his recording studio, grinning, and displaying disbelief that he put together a music video like that (an example of self-deprecation). As I mentioned earlier the music video's approaching it's 2 month 'anniversary' and it's anybody's guess if there's going to be a follow-up music video or not. I hope there's going to be some additional music videos...but marketing is going to be key in my opinion. I still believe that the song, "A Handshake Will Do", has music video written all over it. The kinds of sight gags that could be inserted into a visual production is too irresistible to by-pass. "You Didn't Build That" is another song that, if I happened to be making the decisions, I'd find too tempting to pass up. I hope either or both of those songs become music videos at some point this year. 

Ray Stevens: The Taylor Swift Music Video, entry 8...

Hello once again...I felt that it's about time I posted some updated numbers concerning the current YouTube video from Ray Stevens, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". In my previous blog entry I noted that the video had spiked in unique views largely on the strength of an article that appeared on Billboard magazine's website. It had jumped to 93,509...a pickup of more than 15,000 additional discoveries. Today finds the video having gotten 103,693 unique views and that's an increase of 10,184 discoveries during the last 2 and a half days.

Given that the video's vaulted past the 100,000 mark I suspect that the video is going to go in one of 2 different directions from here on out.

One direction might be that the video is going to be picked up and shared on various news websites in their Entertainment sections and reach a non-music audience for the first time. A non-music audience is my way of describing the audience that by and large visits news and political websites rather than visiting music sites or keeping up on the latest music releases.

Another direction that the music video might go in since it's broken into the 100,000 level is to just coast along...picking up a couple thousand unique views here and a couple thousand there. I don't think the video is going to be the single biggest publicity tool for his current CD, though. He has a couple of concerts scheduled in June...but with this being March...I just can't imagine he'll ride the current music video for 3 more months but Ray likes to plan ahead a lot of the time and he may have things planned further down the road.

As I've long since pointed out Ray Stevens is entirely unpredictable and he lives in his own universe and I mean that in a positive way. Once you get the sense that you can predict something he'll do he does something radically different than expected. He doesn't follow a set pattern even if it may seem like he does.

Now, the reason I doubt that the music video is going to be the current one from Ray by the time June rolls around is because I feel the video's possibly reached it's peak during the last couple of days after it's exposure in the Billboard article and I explain my reasoning below...

As mentioned in the opening paragraph the video received more than 15,000 unique views in the hours after the Billboard article hit the social media sites and then during the last couple of days the video's racked up 10,184 additional discoveries. That's more than 25,000 unique views over the course of a 5 calendar day period (March 24-March 29).

Unless there's some additional high profile publicity for the music video enabling it to reach the same amount of an audience size that it reached this past week the video may just coast along until the follow-up arrives. Here's the video...



You can purchase the Mp3 of Ray's current release, Here We Go Again!, on Amazon by clicking HERE. If you prefer a CD copy, as I do, you can click HERE. The page opens up to my customer review of the CD. To order the CD just click the Add to Cart button on the left side of the page next to the review. All fans of Ray Stevens are sure to love the CD as much as I do...