Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 300,000 unique views

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! Well, I write a blog entry a couple of days ago spotlighting the comedy video "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing the 300,000 unique view plateau and here we are less than 2 days later and it's vaulted past the 300,000 mark. I was thinking it would only be a matter of time but wasn't sure that it would move into the 300,000 level as quickly as it did considering that it isn't being heavily promoted on social media as it once was. The video hit in October 2021 and so it's been available online for a little more than a year. The specific view count is 300,174...a pickup of 256 unique views since January 29th. I'll go out on a limb and say it was my blog entry a couple of days ago that helped push the video past 300,000 sooner rather than later. 

Something funny happened when I went to share the January 29th blog on social media. I included a link to the blog entry plus I included the video link as well. I get a message almost instantly declaring that the video I shared may contain sensitive/offensive material (?) and that it was blocked.

Now, of course, we all know the music video is harmless but it dawned on me that the video's link must've been coded to automatically set off a warning whenever anyone goes to share it. It was then that I come to the conclusion that the video's inability to be shared is what caused it to disappear from social media platforms seemingly overnight. It's something I noticed but never made mention of in any blog entry until now. In the days/weeks/months after the video made it's debut it was being shared all over the place but then it vanished. I never did accept the possibility that the video simply stopped being shared/re-posted by people on social media. I didn't accept it because it made no sense...a video doesn't just stop being shared by a mass audience all at once...and so a lot of the potential exposure the comedy video could've been getting was directly impacted. 

If I had not attempted to post a link to the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" video the other day I wouldn't have known the video was kept from being shared. The unique views that the video continues to get is truly organic...people are finding it when they search for Ray Stevens music videos since posting a direct link to the video on a certain social media platform is a no-no. My guess is those who made the decision to keep the comedy video from being shared assume it's raunchy or lewd given the video's thumbnail image of Ray standing next to the dancer. It's harmless, comical...some may say absurd...but it's certainly not offensive, raunchy, or lewd in any way. See for yourselves...   

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 300,000 unique views...

It's me once more...and I was looking over the unique view total for the Ray Stevens music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". It was uploaded onto YouTube on October 8, 2021 and it's steadily been climbing more than a year later. In numerous interviews in his past he has said that he often prefers slow discovery of his music. Now, I'm paraphrasing but that's basically what he was saying when asked why a lot of his songs and albums seem to take awhile to hit or catch on. The phrase riding a song or riding an album is music industry jargon for how many weeks/months/years a song or album is publicized. You can ride a song for months and an album for years. In some cases you can ride an album for a number of years and squeeze every opportunity from it before moving on to the next release. Well, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is one of those examples where an immediate follow-up never surfaced and it's been left up to the viral video on YouTube to promote the album it appears on, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The audio tracks have all been uploaded to YouTube including an audio track for "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" but given YouTube is a visually dominant platform it explains why the music video has reached more audience than the audio track. The music video currently sits at 299,918 unique views. In June of 2022, which I think was the last time I provided an update on the video's view count, the total was 239,004. In a little over half a year's time it received a 60,914 unique view increase. I'm hoping this blog entry focusing on the music video will help push the video past the 300,000 level. I'll keep an eye on the unique views for a few days and make note of when it reaches the 300,000 plateau. In the meantime enjoy the video!   

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" 8 month check-up...

"She's a Hoo-ooo-ooo-chie Coochie Dancer..." croons legendary entertainer, Ray Stevens, in his novelty single/music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". The release had it's debut early in October of 2021 as the lead-off, and to date, only single release from his recent comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. A belly dancer some may say...in the music video we also see a gypsy who plays matchmaker...leading Ray into the clutches of the dancer. We're at the 8 month period. The YouTube video reached the 100,000 unique views plateau by the end of October 2021. It reached the 200,000 unique views plateau by January 2022...and today the music video sits with 239,004 unique views and climbing. The mass online sharing of the video decreased, which is natural for most newly released online video content after a few hours or a few days, and so it's now down to discovery by chance on YouTube...in other words, discovery by those who weren't seeking the video out, initially, but decide to watch the video after seeing it show up in a search engine result. A lot of Ray's online audio tracks and online music videos fall into that 'by chance' category once the initial mass publicity wave dies down. 

I've never been to a large scale carnival or a circus. I've seen small carnivals and small scale circuses that passed through town...and the big top as it's popularly known, on a large field near the local school; but I never attended a carnival or a circus...just observed them from a distance...but I've been to several local county fairs.          

Ray Stevens: We're approaching 7 months...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! We're approaching seven months since the release of Ray's comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The album was released on October 8, 2021. I'm sure many of you have become familiar with the comedy songs from that album by now, but, I'm surprised that there hadn't been any follow-up music videos to "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Ray guest starred on an episode of Huckabee a couple of months ago and his performances and interview from that episode are on YouTube. Ray sang "Disorder Down on the Border", from Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, and he also sang a never before released song called "Where Are All The Twelve Year Olds?". The general public that seen that episode probably thought that the song was on the latest comedy album but it isn't. To date there hasn't been any information released as to whether the song will be on an upcoming album or if it's a song that Ray chose to sing but hasn't officially recorded. 

There are 14 comedy songs on this album...and once the fans saw the album cover we all immediately thought how similar it looked to his 1989 album, Beside Myself. The main difference between that 1989 album and the one released in October 2021 is the 1989 album featured 10 evenly split songs. There were 5 ballads and 5 comedy songs. On the 2021 release there are 14 comedy songs ranging from silly and absurd to pointed and topical. A couple of the songs are definitely in the category of social-commentary. Those songs are "Dis-Connected", "Gas", "Disorder Down on the Border", "The Quarantine Song", and the title track, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore". When you listen to "Gas", a song Ray recorded in 2021, you're going to come away with a sense that the writer was prophetic...there's a line in there that mirrors the current talking points/excuses coming out of Washington, D.C. as to why there's high fuel costs...this "Gas" song is yet more proof that fuel costs were on the rise throughout 2021...long before Ukraine came under military attack. Aside from those topical, social-comment recordings there are other styles of comedy that Ray brings to the album. "Soap Sally" continues to be a favorite as does "The Gambler and the Octopus", a type of comedy song that builds and builds until an eventual punchline. "My Better Half" is quietly funny...since Ray is singing about a man dealing with a broken relationship the lyrics reflect it. 

I may have mentioned this in a previous blog entry but there's a customer review out there, which was written on April 19th (last month), claiming that there's off-color material on this comedy album and in my opinion that simply isn't true. 

The customer, prior to leveling such a claim, said they were longtime fans of Ray and have purchased a lot of his albums but the reviewer didn't offer any examples, such as citing any lyrics, that are "off-color" on the 2021 album. There are no comment options over there and so you're left without having the chance to question the reviewer's claims or ask the reviewer to explain how they come to their opinion. The labeling of something as off-color is highly subjective. If listening to a comedy song about a "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" or the hilarious scam Ray sings about in "The Gambler and the Octopus", or hearing a version of an urban legend, "Soap Sally", rates as off-color then, as a reviewer, specifically point that out in the customer review rather than smear the entire album under a cloak of vagueness. To counter that reviewer's comments I'll say that if you're a Ray Stevens fan you're going to love this Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore album and you'll be entertained by the various styles of comedy represented. That customer review reminds of a blurb I seen about Ray's 1987 comedy album. The brief review written in 1987 criticized Ray's decision to incorporate what the reviewer more or less called 'mature comedy' onto the album. By 'mature comedy' we're left to assume the reviewer had problems with songs such as "Sex Symbols", "Three Legged Man", "The Day That Clancy Drowned", and "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy On Me"...but we'll never know since the reviewer/commentator never got specific.

When you listen to "Soap Sally" you're not going to hear anything explicit or "off-color"...what you're going to hear is a very funny re-telling of the urban legend...and this is just one of the fourteen comedy songs found on the album...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 220,000...

Hello once again all you fans of Ray Stevens! Earlier today on Ray's social media there were a couple of promo posts for the upcoming 2022 concert season at the CabaRay. The concerts return March 19th and this season they'll take place on Thursday and Saturday. In season's past, Friday and Saturday were usually concert days...but Thursday concerts aren't entirely new...if I recall correctly the first season of CabaRay concerts in 2018 took place on Thursday and Saturday. March 19th and 26th both fall on a Saturday. In April he has concerts scheduled for every Saturday...the Thursday night concerts begin April 21st. The remainder of the year Thursday and Saturday will be concert night at the CabaRay. 

Ray's music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", a video of a song from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, is nearing 220,000 unique views on YouTube. The last time I checked in on the music video was December 20, 2021 and it had 195,256 unique views. The specific total number of unique views as of this writing is 214,183. It's a pickup of 18,927 unique views in a little more than a month's time. 

It's a fun music video as I've said often. It hit YouTube back in October of 2020. Now, as far as the CabaRay concerts are concerned here's a video advertisement with even more information...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 200,000 unique views...

Hello all...we're kind of in limbo as we near the end of 2021 and anticipate 2022...two days since Christmas and I've still got some left-overs from the Christmas feast. In a few minutes I'll be heating up some of those left-overs. On Christmas we have ham instead of turkey. The Christmas menu is just slightly different than Thanksgiving but there's one thing both have in common in our house and it's the feeling of over-eating and eagerness to sleep that occurs several hours later. I was looking at the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" unique views and they're nearing 200,000! The total as of now is 199,530! If you're a fan of Ray Stevens and you haven't yet seen this music video...which, to me, sounds surprising considering that it made it's debut early in October. Nevertheless, if you hadn't seen the music video or heard the audio track yet it's a song about a guy and some of his friends who go to a carnival. The guy comes across a belly dancer and upon a session with a fortune teller he has it made up in his mind that the belly dancer and he are made for one another. The naïve nature of the guy is the hook of the song...as we hear how he has no idea that he's being used and we're told that he was ultimately taken advantage of by the belly dancer...we're told this bit of news near the end of the song when a policeman shows up. The song is from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore.

Ray Stevens: Current Comedy Album Update...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! We're now 3 days away until Christmas. I've purchased just about everything I planned on purchasing...and this is new for me because I'm usually part of the crowd that waits until the last minute. I was over on Amazon looking up information about the current comedy album from Ray Stevens, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The product page for the CD copy over on Amazon can be found HERE. When you're there you'll see a link to the digital download/Mp3 of the album just in case you prefer the Mp3 over the compact disc.

Three days from Christmas and we find Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore continues to appear on Amazon's New Releases Top-100. In this hour the comedy CD is ranked 68. The music video release of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is nearing 200,000 unique views. I was going to write a blog entry promoting the fact of the music video nearing 200,000 but I decided I'd hold off and write a blog entry about it reaching 200,000...and this may be in the next few days or in the final days of 2021. The music video peaked in social media sharing by early November. The video had made it's debut on October 8th...the day the comedy album was released. The song that I'll continue to advocate to be his next single/video release is "Dis-Connected". Who says a person has to be 19 or 20 to feel the negative impact of social media in a person's life? Ray name dropping various social media platforms and inserting online jargon within the performance of the song are the hooks which create potential interest and attention. I'm hoping "Dis-Connected" gets more and more publicity in the new year.  

If you've been a fan of Ray Stevens or have known of him for only the last 10 to 12 years you'll know how much attention he gives to social media and YouTube in particular. He has his music and his music videos available for all to see so he's very much aware of the main social media sites and online music companies that are out there. It's true that he's entrusted a few close associates to run his social media (most often it's his grandson) but obviously Ray's aware of the power of social media and he's used the various opportunities the internet provides to reach audiences he ordinarily wouldn't be reaching. Radio and television stations cater to specific age groups whereas the internet is open to all age groups...meaning that your product is likely to be found/discovered on the internet a whole lot quicker than it would be if you waited around for radio or television to accept your product. "Dis-Connected" comes from the pen of Bryan Kennedy. The writer previously recorded the song and put it out and Ray delivers his rendition of the song on Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. I've shared "Dis-Connected" in the past but I'm sharing it again... 

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" reaches 190,000 unique views...

Hello once more all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! Some of you probably won't be able to see the fine print in the image off to the right. I had to make the image small so it wouldn't take up too much text space. It's the most recent Amazon placement for Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, the current comedy album from Ray Stevens. The CD is ranked at number 88 this hour on Amazon's list of Top-100 New Releases in CD/Vinyl in the Country music format. I often check this Top-100 list to see where Amazon's placed the CD...sometimes when I check it's up near, or among, the Top-50 and sometimes it's in the bottom 20 of the Top-100 like it currently is. There are days when the CD isn't even in the Top-100 but then it shows up for multiple week appearances. The first single release from the album happened to arrive in June...a novelty song called "Gas". It has never been made into a music video but it was released as an audio track by Curb Records...and that particular audio track received more than 12,000 plays on YouTube. When the comedy album was released in October, "Gas" was issued as an audio track on YouTube for a second time. The audio track released in June features, as a promo photo, a fictional gas station with a line of cars waiting to fill up. The audio track of "Gas" that was released in October features the cover art from Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore as a promo. The October audio track has a little over 2,000 YouTube plays compared to the more than 12,000 plays of the June audio track. They're the same recording. I say that just in case anyone was wondering if there's a difference between the audio track that shown up in June and the audio featured on the album. 

When the comedy album was released in October several online music sites promoted a couple of songs. One of the online sites promoted the audio track, "Coco Cabana Band". Elsewhere on the internet were music sites promoting the music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Now, it shouldn't come as a surprise, but a music video or any type of visual content is going to gain a whole lot more attention and it's potentially going to lead to a lot more online sharing than an audio track will. The "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video has 192,140 unique views. In the song Ray and a few of his friends are at a carnival where he meets up with a belly dancer. The two visit a fortune teller/gypsy who, predictably, tells Ray that he's found his soul mate. He proposes marriage...even going so far as to give her his high school ring. As the song progresses we're told that one day behind a tent spelled the end of Ray's one-sided romance as he tells us that he can't recall much of what went on except that he woke up and saw a policeman returning him his billfold and high school ring.   

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 190,000 unique views...

We've made it to December!! Hello the last month of the year...and as I looked upon the unique view totals of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" I seen that it's nearing 190,000 unique views. The specific number is 187,687. In a couple of previous blog entries I made mention of the music video having peaked...but it isn't a word meant to be taken literally. An online music video will continue to obtain unique views as long as it's online and attached to a popular recording artist which Ray Stevens happens to be. However, as far as pulling in tens of thousands of unique views per day as it was doing in the days and weeks after October 8th, I don't believe the video will see those kinds of numbers on a daily basis again and so when this phase of a video happens I tend to say that it's peaked. 

During a 7 day period from November 22 to November 29 the video had gained 3,531 unique views. Compare this to the amount of unique views racked up between November 14 and November 18. In that four day span the video had gotten 11,521 unique views. Now, from November 18 to November 22 the video had gotten 6,441 unique views. Prior to today the last time I looked in to see the YouTube numbers for the video was November 29 and it was sitting at 186,973...and two days later, December 1st, it's sitting at 187,687. I could've held off looking at the video's numbers for another day or two but I wanted to have a blog entry published on the first day of the month and it's still too early to starting embedding Christmas music video content. Those will begin to appear mid-December and lead into Christmas Day. The song comes from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore.

Ray Stevens: "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" comedy CD vaults upward...

It's me once again!! The current comedy album from Ray Stevens, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, vaults upward again on Amazon's Country New Releases CD list and as of this hour is among the Top-40. The highest that the comedy album reached on this particular Amazon chart was 28 within the first few days of it's release. The comedy album was released on October 8th in CD and Mp3 format. The audio tracks have gotten thousands of plays on YouTube and the official music video from the album, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", has more than 187,000 unique views so far. The comedy album, as mentioned, can be heard on YouTube and a number of other online sites. You can also purchase the CD or the Mp3 on a number of websites. The Amazon product page for the comedy album can be found HERE. Those of you that have heard all of the songs from the comedy album do you have a favorite, yet? I usually don't have just one favorite. I like all of his songs. The one that I was listening to the most was "Dis-Connected" and then there's "Soap Sally" and "Old Dog". I watched the video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" numerous times and prior to this album's release "Gas" was what I was listening to the most since it was the first audio release from the album. The audio racked up more than 12,000 plays on YouTube in the months prior to Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore becoming available. "The Gambler and the Octopus", "Coco Cabana Band", and "My Better Half" are more favorites from Ray's current comedy album. 

From the current Ray Stevens comedy album...have a listen to "Soap Sally"...

Ray Stevens: Latest Comedy Album Update...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! In the last couple of days the latest comedy album from Ray Stevens, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, hadn't appeared on the Amazon Top-100 New Releases, Country CDs, list. It's returned to the Amazon list today. When you visit the Amazon product page for the CD copy or the digital download you'll see the two reviews I'd written. I wrote a review for the digital download and it was published October 11th on Amazon. I previously wrote a review of the CD and it was published October 8th on Amazon. I have no idea why Amazon posted both reviews on both product pages rather than keeping each review separate. My review for the digital download has received 1 helpful rating. The review I wrote for the CD copy has gotten 5 helpful ratings. The two reviews are mostly the same except for some specific editing on my part. When I wrote the CD review I mentioned the liner notes and musician credits in the fold-out cover. Now, obviously, when I edited that review for the digital download I took out the section that mentioned the fold-out cover and musician credits since it obviously didn't apply to a digital download. Anyway, Amazon has both reviews posted on each product page. 

An updated look at the YouTube unique views for "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" finds the video with 183,442. This is a pickup of 6,441 from by last check-in on the totals back on November 18th. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is the lead-off song on Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Track two is "Coco Cabana Band" followed by "Gas". Elsewhere on the comedy album is "The Quarantine Song" and "Red Hot Chili Cookoff". I hope Ray puts out a video of the title track, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore", or "Dis-Connected". I think either song would strike a chord with people...and it's with online music video that Ray Stevens reaches the general public nowadays.   

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" heads toward 180,000 unique views...

A pickup of more than 11,000 unique views brings the totals of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" from 165,480 to 177,001. It's specifically a pickup of 11,521 unique views. The music video, as you can see, is heading toward the 180,000 mark. It's my guess that the video will reach 200,000 by early next week...probably before Thanksgiving next Thursday. The song is from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. Did any of you catch his interview on the Jim Bohannon radio show? I wrote a re-cap blog entry that you can find over there in the archives on the right hand side of the page. In that interview he makes mention of his tentative plans for next year and mentioned that a new comedy album will be on the way. As mentioned in my previous blog entry Ray Stevens will continue performing concerts at his CabaRay through the end of the year...bringing the current season of concerts to a close on New Year's Eve. I also made mention in several previous blog entries of Ray participating as a co-grand marshal in Nashville's Veterans Day Parade this year. It was postponed from last year. I eventually found some video of the parade. I can't remember which video footage I was watching. It was either WKRN or another station in Nashville...it wasn't WTVF...I'd already looked over their video footage. In all of the video footage I'd seen one of the video's did show the co-grand marshal car for the Military...but the co-grand marshal car that Ray was suppose to be in, for Music, wasn't shown on camera. The parade has two grand marshal's each year: one representing Military and one representing Music. If I ever come across photo or video of Ray at this years parade I'll post it in a future blog entry. In the meantime here's "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Ray sings about his newly found girlfriend being hot from head to toe...and that he met her at a midway about an hour ago. It's an up-tempo sing-a-long...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 170,000 unique views...

Hello all once again!! I've been away for a few days...the room where I keep my computer was getting re-painted and it took awhile for the project to get finished. I was able to check my e-mails and check some of the social media posts from Ray Stevens and that was about it. I'm on a laptop...oh yes, I know I could've taken it from this room but I prefer sitting at my desk whenever I'm online rather than sitting in the living room or in the kitchen. 

I was looking at some of the technical information surrounding this particular blog and saw where some visitors were accessing some of my older blog entries focusing on Christmas songs from Ray. It's mid November...and next Thursday is Thanksgiving...and the day after officially begins Christmas Season...and things usually get slow in the music industry around the holidays. Ray will continue to put on concerts at the CabaRay showroom, though, and he's added a New Year's Eve concert to the calendar as well. I took a look at the recent unique views of Ray's current music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". In my previous blog entry I highlighted the fact that the music video was nearing 150,000 unique views! Well, in the last several days, the music video's jumped to 165,450 unique views!! This is an increase of 15,955 unique views in less than 4 days time. I had initially thought the music video had reached it's peak recently (there were several days where the music video was bringing in a little over 2,000 unique views daily) but it got a jolt of new activity beginning in the final days of October and particularly in early November. The flurry of new activity could be centered around the various interviews he's been giving. First, there was a write-up on Ray's career and an interview in a publication called The Nashville Musician back on November 2nd. Then, on November 9th, he was interviewed on the nationally syndicated Jim Bohannon radio show. The music video, by the way, soared 6,637 unique views between November 8th and November 11th. Then, three days later, the video captured an additional 12,557 unique views...bringing the unique view total at that time to 162,082 on November 14th. An increase of 3,398 brings us to our current total of 165,450 unique views.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 150,000 unique views...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It's Veterans Day 2021 and a lot of local towns and cities across the country had some kind of Veterans Day parade. There were plenty in Tennessee. I don't live in that State but since this is a fan created blog page about Ray Stevens that's why I mentioned Tennessee. Ray was a co-grand marshal of Nashville's Veterans Day Parade this year. A re-cap published by WTVF television mentioned that Ray was the co-grand marshal. I had heard of this a week or two ago but there wasn't much publicity surrounding his participation and so I think I may have mentioned of Ray's involvement once. I had found out about Ray being named a co-grand marshal of the parade when I came across The Nashville Ledger webpage a couple of weeks ago. I have not come across any photos or any video content of Ray as the co-grand marshal, though, from this morning's parade. There's video content by WTVF-TV but there's no footage of the grand marshal portion of the parade. I'm hoping some photo or video content emerges. The last time Ray participated in a parade was in 2019 when he was the Grand Marshal of a local Shriner organization. The re-cap published on WTVF-TV's webpage states that Ray was a co-grand marshal but I'm wanting to see photos or video of it...and as of this writing nothing has turned up online yet.

The main focal point of this blog entry, however, is Ray's current comedy music video. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is nearing 150,000 unique views. The specific totals as of now are 149,525. This is a pick-up of 6,637 unique views going back to November 8th. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries I don't know if Ray is going to ride this music video for the rest of the year or if he'll put out a new one by year's end which will carry over into the first several months of 2022. Enjoy watching the music video below. It's from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore.  

In a previous blog entry I mentioned that on the Jim Bohannon radio show Ray said that he's currently working on more albums...including a comedy album. So, like 2021, there will be a lot more new recordings from Ray Stevens in 2022 to look forward to. 

Meanwhile, at the CabaRay, he has the stage decorated in Christmas scenery. I'm sure he'll be adding in Christmas songs during the month of December. There are three more concerts scheduled at the CabaRay for the month of November and there's five concerts scheduled in December. Ray recently added a New Year's Eve concert to the 2021 CabaRay calendar! If you're planning on going out on New Year's Eve this year I suggest you go to the Ray Stevens CabaRay. There's a Piano Bar inside the CabaRay, for those that aren't yet aware, and you'll be able to drink alcoholic beverages while inside the CabaRay. You've always been able to order wine and mixed drinks at the CabaRay but in case there are those wondering about New Year's Eve the answer is yes...you'll be able to drink alcohol. Now, I have to assume, there's a purchase limit. I don't think they're going to allow people to get out of their minds crazy drunk or behave wildly as if it's Times Square. There's an air of sophistication within the walls of the CabaRay...but it isn't high-brow. The interior decorations and the overall design is what gives it that sophisticated look. It's spacious, too, but it maintains an intimate feeling and that's often something not easy to achieve. 

There was no New Year's Eve celebration in 2020 to ring in 2021 for obvious reasons. This will be the third New Year's Eve concert at the CabaRay following the 2019 and 2018 celebrations.     

Ray Stevens: My re-cap of Ray's interview with Jim Bohannon...

Talk about a surprise!! Hello fans of Ray Stevens...and in this blog entry I'm providing a recap of a recent interview Ray gave to radio talk show host, Jim Bohannon. I happened to be on social media today and came across mention of Ray being part of Jim's radio program. I went to Jim's official webpage and looked up his radio affiliates and the air-times. As in times past I make the assumption that guests outside of politics on a talk radio program are typically scheduled during the last hour or the last half hour. My assumptions were proven true. I found a radio station that airs Jim's radio program from 10pm until 1am and as soon as it hit Midnight, give or take a few minutes, I clicked the Listen Live feature on the radio station webpage and awaited for the introduction of Ray Stevens.

Ray's interview was in the final half hour of the show. Now, prior to the bottom of the hour break, the first couple of lines of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" began playing. Jim remarked that Ray will be on in a moment. This re-cap will include spoilers...so if you want to wait until the podcast becomes available you should avoid reading any further. 

After an audio snippet of "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore", Jim welcomes Ray to the show and asks about the title track of the new comedy album. Ray speaks a little about the song's inspiration before Jim brings up "The Quarantine Song". Ray related the story of how he had performed the song on a television show last year and that, afterward, they decided to put that performance on the internet. Ray spoke about the viral success of the song. Jim then brought up social media and "Dis-Connected". Ray, through portions of laughter, said that it was a song he co-wrote with one of record producer Jerry Kennedy's children, Bryan, and the risks of online dating and how some people are too pre-occupied with the internet to have a real relationship. Jim asks Ray if he was a class clown during school. Ray responds that he may have been seen as a class clown but that he was never deliberately trying to be comical or anything. 

Jim brings up the storylines in standard country music and pop music songs and how they're all a variation of saying I love you or I don't love you, etc. and he praises Ray for always having a unique/distinctive selection of songs. Jim brings up Branson, Missouri and Ray recounts his years at the theater he once owned. He pointed out that back then he used to do 12 concerts a week. He would perform a matinee show for tourists and later that night perform a night show for another bus load of tourists. I'm sure locals were also part of the Branson audiences but I'd say 80 percent of the audience make-up of all concert venues were those on vacation or from out of town. 2 concerts a day for 6 days a week for 6 months a year (1991, 1992, and 1993). Jim asks about Weird Al and remarks that it seems a lot more difficult for Ray since he uses original ideas for comedy songs rather than do parodies. Ray comments that he finds parody songs funny but it's something that he doesn't do. Ray spoke about how he's been making records since 1957...approaching 65 years as a recording artist...and that he's put out all kinds of recordings. Jim credits Ray's unique talents and comedy as a major factor for that longevity. After a commercial break Jim plays an audio snippet of "Disorder Down on the Border". 

As a tie in with the current events of that song Jim asks if Ray feels the need to be inspired by current events much. Ray comments that he doesn't necessarily watch TV or listen to the radio newscasts exclusively for ideas but he picks up on phrases or picks up on things that people seem to be talking about and usually those bits of information inspire the writing process. Ray makes mention of the CabaRay showroom...and that he's putting on concerts every Saturday night. He mentioned that he hopes to expand to where things used to be in 2018 and 2019 by having a concert on Friday and Saturday nights but for now it's only Saturday. Ray said that they're getting things back to where it was prior to 2020's shutdown. He talked about the design of the showroom, too. Jim brought up "The Streak" and then "Everything is Beautiful". Jim remarked that since he knew Ray more for comedy he was, at that point in time in 1970, expecting "Everything is Beautiful" to eventually have some sort of comical gag or punchline but yet it was a straight-forward, serious song. Ray told the story of the song's origin and that it won a Grammy in 1971. 

The final portion of the interview Jim asked Ray if he had a bucket list. Ray commented that he doesn't have many future goals or anything to check off but said that he's sure that there are things that he'd like to do or try at some point but they're not of any burning desire. Ray did remark that he's working on an all-new comedy album!! There wasn't any kind of discussion about what it would be (as far as album title or song selections) and I'm sure it won't even be released until well in 2022 but hearing Ray, in his own words, say that he's working on a new comedy album while promoting his current comedy album was like the icing on the interview cake. 

I'm including a link to Jim Bohannon's podcast page. At the moment the November 9th show isn't listed but I'm sure that if you're reading this blog entry several days from now the link will include a podcast of the November 9th episode. Click HERE for the podcast list.  

Ray Stevens: "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" at One Month...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It was exactly one month ago that Ray Stevens released his comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The music video that was released on the same day that the comedy album became available, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", has more than 142,000 unique views on YouTube. The album has soared up the Amazon New Releases Top-100 once again...at this hour it's sitting at 61. The hit music video has 142,888 unique views, specifically. This is an increase of 3,902 over the last couple of days.

In my previous blog entry I highlighted a CabaRay concert that an online friend of mine went to this past Saturday. I'm sure he's still excited about having gone...as I happened to be in the days after the concert I attended at the CabaRay in 2018. As mentioned in the previous blog entry he made sure to take a whole lot more photos of the interior than I did and he even did some video captures which is something I couldn't do with my older model cell phone.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" on it's way to 140,000 unique views...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans and welcome to the month of November!! Well, technically, it's the second of November but it's my first blog entry of the month. I checked the CD's and Vinyl/Country New Releases over on Amazon before I began writing this latest blog entry and seen where Ray's current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, is ranked 61 at this hour on their Top-100. The comedy album's been on this list since it was released back on October 8th. Yes, in less than a week, it'll be one full month since the comedy album was released! 

The first single release from the album happened months earlier, "Gas", as a promotional audio track by Curb Records. The record company also included the previously released "Red Hot Chili Cook Off", previously only available as an online music video, it was placed as an audio track on the new comedy album. You can purchase your copy of Ray's new comedy album by clicking HERE.

The official lead-off single from the comedy album, though, happened to be "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" which had a splashy entrance as an online music video back on October 8th. The video's gotten 135,849 unique views since early October. A couple of days ago the video was sitting at 130,221 and it's received 5,628 additional unique views since October 29th. It's possible that the video will reach/go over 140,000 unique views by mid-week or by the end of this week.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 130,000 unique views...

Well, in this blog entry I'm focusing on Ray's music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". It's been several days since I've had the music video in the spotlight and in that time the video's gotten nearly 5,000 additional unique views. It brings the total number of unique views, to date, from 125,239 back on October 24th to 130,221. A pickup of 4,982...18 unique views short of an even 5,000. I came across a blurb about this song in the latest edition of the Music Row online magazine...in the weekly feature written by Robert K. Oermann...and he gave it a positive reaction just as he did a few months ago when Ray issued the novelty song, "Gas", which is also on Ray's current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video was uploaded on YouTube the very day the comedy album was released, October 8th. 

"Gas" has only been available as an audio track. Curb Records issued an audio track of "Gas" on June 4th which was several months before Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore was released. Then, following the comedy album's release, "Gas" appeared as an audio track again...this time as one of the featured tracks on the comedy album. The earlier audio track features promo art showing a line of cars at a fuel station...a duplicate audio track is also on YouTube with promo art featuring the official album photo of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. The June upload of "Gas" has more than 11,000 plays whereas the October upload of "Gas", as of this writing, has over 1,800 plays. YouTube is, of course, a video hosting site and the unique views of video content greatly outnumber the plays of audio tracks that get uploaded there. The music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" has over 130,000 unique views, so far, but the audio track of the same song is nearing 3,000 plays and both the music video and audio track hit YouTube on the same day! If Ray were to ever put out a music video of "Gas" I think it would generate hundreds of thousands of unique views, too...but for now "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is the current music video.

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" unique views update...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I didn't realize I hadn't written a blog entry in a couple of days. I had been busy off-line (putting contact paper on my bedroom wall...not as easy as it sounds) and doing other off-line things...one day led to another...but here I am again. I kept up to date on Ray's social media posts, though, so it wasn't like I've been living under a rock the last couple of days. An update on the unique views of Ray's current music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", finds it with 125,239. This is a pickup of 5,302 since the last time I'd written a blog entry about the music video. At the time the unique view total was 119,937. 

His comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, continues to chart among the Amazon Top-100 New Releases, Country CDs and Vinyl. I didn't include a copy of the ranking in this particular blog entry...instead, as you can tell, I decided to post an image of his comedy album. I hadn't, I don't think, posted a photo of the back of the album yet. If you recall I've posted a lot of photos within the last several weeks...most of them centering around the comedy album...but near the end of this blog entry I'll be posting what the other side of Ray's comedy album looks like. One of the recent social media posts from Ray is a promo for his Halloween playlist on YouTube. The playlist features music videos, audio recordings, and live performances of Ray with a Halloween overtone. When I looked at the playlist earlier I suggested that they should add a song from the new comedy album to that playlist. "Soap Sally", in particular, is a spooky song about a witch with a cauldron and the evil that exists in her mind. I hadn't gone over to his playlist, yet, to see if they added that song to the list or if there's any sort of reaction about my suggestion. Some of the songs on that playlist include "Rockin' Teenage Mummies" (1965); "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" (1966); "The Booger Man" (1988); the music video and a live performance of "Sittin' Up With the Dead" (1990, 2016), "Haunted House" (2012) ...and so, in my way of thinking, "Soap Sally" doesn't seem like it would be out of place on a playlist like that. Have a look at Ray's current hit music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer"...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 120,000 unique views...

It's me once again...I decided to give it a few days before I wrote another blog entry detailing the Ray Stevens music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". The last one I wrote, back on October 16th, the video had surpassed 100,000 unique views. The specific total was 100,021. Today the video sits with 117,040 unique views. This is a pickup of 17,019 unique views in a span of four days. This is usually an indicator that the video's reached it's initial peak...but I do think even more and more people are going to discover the music video and it'll soon surpass 200,000...but it'll take time now that all of the publicity surrounding the release of Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore has quieted down...the comedy album and music video hit on the same day, October 8th on YouTube, and during the first several days the music video soared in unique views until reaching the 100,000 mark on October 16th...it took a week and a day for the music video to break 100,000 unique views. The music video, as mentioned, has been on YouTube since October 8th (12 days ago). If you go by that math it's very possible that the music video will surpass much more than 120,000 unique views on October 24th. The video could even surpass that total at some point tomorrow...so I'll obviously pay attention and see if it surpasses 120,000 or more unique views at some point tomorrow.