Ray Stevens: Itunes/Apple Music Sale...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Yesterday evening at 7:30pm Ray's social media pages put out the announcement that all five albums released in 2021 on Curb Records are going on sale for a limited time on the Itunes/Apple Music site. The sales price for all five digital downloads will be $6.99 and the sale will last until May 27th. So, for those of you that want the digital albums at a lower price than they usually sell for make a visit to Itunes/Apple Music and take advantage of the offer. I have Ray's profile page from that music site available in this LINK. Once there you'll see the Album section. The five albums on the main profile page are the ones that are currently on sale: Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, Nouveau Retro, Slow Dance, Melancholy Fescue, and Great Country Ballads. The latter four albums come from the 2021 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. If you purchased the CD copies last year then you know they come in a box. Ray continues to issue CDs because he knows a lot of people like to own physical copies of albums...CD purchasing is something that's lost on a lot of people under 30, though...but then again those people aren't the only ones that listen to music and not everybody wants to listen to music from a cellphone speaker. Ray thinks of the music consumers that appreciate art work, album design, and musician credits...but he also has his music available to those that choose to listen through online music sites/streaming services. 

In case you're new to Ray's career and haven't done much online research about him yet the art work for the four CD's released in the box set last year are over on the right hand side of the page. Those four albums, just like Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, are all $6.99 a piece until May 27th on Apple Music. The four albums from the box set represent decades worth of iconic songs from various music genres all done in Ray's own interpretations and arrangements. The names of the albums almost tell you what the songs will be about. Great Country Ballads is Ray's album of country music classics delivered in a pop crooning fashion...as if they come straight out of the Great American Songbook. Slow Dance is an album chock full of love songs...most of them from the actual Great American Songbook...but re-arranged and delivered in a different way. Nouveau Retro carries a sub-title of What's Old Is New Again. As you can see, for this album cover, Ray appears as Father Time next to Ray's actual baby photo. On this album Ray has recorded his versions of early rock/pop, rhythm and blues songs but with different music arrangements and tempo's. Melancholy Fescue is Ray's symphonic Bluegrass album. In case the concept is new to you try hearing a song in your head that has banjos, fiddles, and mandolins playing along side trombones, trumpets, and saxophones...with occasional appearances of the steel guitar and you'll be hearing symphonic Bluegrass. Ray puts this kind of musical blend on his versions of songs that originated in rock and pop music. What he did with those four albums was take well established, iconic songs from a music genre and re-arrange them to sound as if they come from another music genre. Those four albums and the comedy album written about earlier are on sale for $6.99 a piece in the Itunes/Apple store until May 27th!! 

Ray Stevens: Goldmine Magazine Write-Up...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I was browsing the internet late last night and I came across a write-up/promo about Ray that was brand new to me. The publish date shows January 24, 2022 but last night was the first time I'd come across it. The article comes from Goldmine Magazine. If you're not familiar, Goldmine is a music collector organization. They usually publish price guides for vinyl singles and albums. I have one of their price guide books from the 1990s. It was my reference book, prior to the internet, when it came to vinyl single releases in Ray's career. The price guide listed the single releases in his career and which record label released them. I don't know when this write-up was written. The byline states that it was written by a writer named Lee Zimmerman. The writer mentions that Ray is 83 (the age he reached on January 24th) but there's no mention of Ray's wife (who passed away on New Year's Eve) or of the recent passing away of Ray's longtime friend, Ralph Emery. It's a great article, though, touching on Ray's longevity and his Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set and the individual CD's contained in the box set. There's also mention of the CabaRay and how it re-opened in September 2021 following the lengthy shutdown amidst the pandemic. The write-up, overall, comes across as if it were written either in November 2021 or sometime in early December 2021 with a future publishing date on Ray's birthday, January 24, 2022. The promo appears in the Goldmine Magazine's Where Are They Now? feature which you can read when you click HERE.    

Ray Stevens: Write-Up in The Nashville Musician...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! An hour ago Ray's social media posted a new write-up about Ray in the pages of The Nashville Musician. The author of the article is Warren Denney. Ray appears on the cover of the current issue (October - December) and the article can be read when you click HERE. It's an online copy of the publication...

The article covers a lot of ground...it's several pages in length. There's a lot of reporting on his early years as a recording artist. Ray mentions several radio stations he listened to in his teen years, and earlier, and champions the concept of people listening to a variety of music styles. He remarks that radio has changed dramatically and with all radio stations programmed to fit just one style of music a general audience isn't getting any music variety as they once did. He says that the only people who get variety in their music listening are those who take it upon themselves to find it for themselves since radio doesn't program a wide variety of songs anymore. Ray mentions his years doing session work and the studio system in Nashville during his early career. The author makes mention that Ray is truly multi-talented and states that Ray is a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, music arranger, song publisher, and a video/television artist. As fans of Ray Stevens we know these things already but it's nice to see those talents mentioned to people outside of the fanbase. Yes, it's true, there are people who still think of Ray Stevens simply as a 'singer of comedy songs' or they say 'oh, he's the guy that sang The Streak' and that's it...completely unaware that Ray's skills and talents go far beyond a comedy song or two.

The author mentions the CabaRay, of course, and that it opened in 2018. There's reference made to Ray's music video success on YouTube and the author mentions Ray's recent releases on Curb Records. There is no mention of his locally syndicated PBS television series, CabaRay Nashville. The author mentions Iconic Songs of the 20th Century as well as Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. He also lists, seemingly at random, Ray Stevens albums since 2000. A notable omission being 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The career of Ray Stevens is prolific...some historians seem afraid to use that word when discussing Ray Stevens. I don't know if they think prolific should only apply to a recording artist that the historian particularly likes to hear or that the word should apply to recording artists that don't sing comedy songs. I don't know about you but I often get the feeling that some people in the country music media and the music media, in general, are reluctant to acknowledge Ray's skill and talents as well as his overall body of work. This article, though, goes a long way at showcasing Ray's lengthy body of work. Oh, before I close this blog entry, I also liked seeing the photo's and the mentioning of the various Halls of Fame that Ray belongs to. I'll never get tired of seeing photos of Ray Stevens or seeing a list of all of the various Halls of Fame he is a member of. 

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" latest News...

Well, well...the latest news surrounding the Ray Stevens 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, is that it's flew up the Country New Releases Top-100 on Amazon. On the Top-100 New Releases, CDs and Vinyl, for country music, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century had been moving it's way back down the Top-100 within the last week after having risen to the Top-40 half of the list. It fell out of the Top-100 the last number of hours but it made quite a comeback, yet again, by ranking this hour among the Top-40 Country New Releases in CDs and Vinyl on Amazon. Although Ray has an upcoming album in three weeks I don't want anyone thinking that I'm going to move on from the box set or from some of his other recent works and concentrate exclusively on the upcoming album. The thing I prefer doing is whenever Ray puts out something new within months of having released something else I pay attention to both releases for awhile...and then I slowly focus my attention on whatever the current release happens to be but I also periodically look at a previous release just in case something noteworthy pops up and I'll share it here on this fan created blog page. Iconic Songs of the 20th Century is also in the Top-40 New Releases in Soundtracks. On that list it's sitting at 32 this hour while, as you can see, it's sitting at 34 among the Top-100 Country CDs and Vinyl New Releases on Amazon. The 4-CD box set contains compact disc versions of Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. Each of those albums are available online for downloading/streaming in addition to being available in the box set as compact discs. Ray explains it all in this advertisement uploaded on YouTube back in July...

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue YouTube Playlist...

Well, yes, it's me once again!! I find myself unable to stop writing blog entries about Ray Stevens all of the sudden! Isn't this like my third or fourth blog entry today?? I predict, though, this will indeed be my final blog entry of the day...on Saturday nights I'm typically in front of the television. I DVR Ray's television show, CabaRay Nashville, and watch it at a later date. It airs at 8pm Eastern on a local PBS channel on Saturday nights. Now, of course, as I type this the Piano Bar inside the CabaRay showroom is just getting underway...the pianist John Johnethis is the resident pianist there. Nashville is in the Central time zone...so it's just a little bit past 5pm there. Those attending the Ray Stevens concert tonight seating will begin at 5:30pm if you've chosen a dinner option. Then, at 6:30pm, seating begins for those who purchased concert-only tickets. Ray Stevens will hit the stage an hour later at 7:30pm. 

In a lot of my blog entries this year I've advertised the various albums Ray has issued. Ray issued four digital download albums earlier in the year and then, in late July, he packaged all of those albums together in compact disc format for the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The individual albums, in case you're not familiar, are: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. In this blog entry I'm embedding the Melancholy Fescue playlist from YouTube. Once you click the link you'll be taken to the playlist...there, if you're not familiar with a playlist, you'll see all 11 audio tracks from the album and 1 music video. Each of the tracks are available to play in their entirety. The music video of "Unchained Melody" is part of the playlist...for whatever reason the audio track for that particular song wasn't made part of the audio playlist. You can play songs out of order by selecting which ones you want to hear or you can click the Play All button and hear the entire album from beginning to end. To hear the audio tracks click HERE. I will more than likely post the playlists of the other three albums in future blog entries. As you can see this particular album features songs in a bluegrass flavor...but there's a deliberate symphonic presence mixed in.

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" returns to Amazon's Top-40...

Hello to the Ray Stevens fans! We're here on September 8th and I'm here to report that Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, the 4-CD box set from Ray Stevens, has climbed back into the Top-40 on Amazon's Country CD and Vinyl New Releases list. The box set's been moving all over the Top-100 Country CD and Vinyl New Releases for several days and it's once again back among the Top-40 titles within the Top-100.

The highest peak position on the Amazon Country CD and Vinyl Top-100 occurred on August 6th when it peaked at 38. On a separate list, Soundtracks, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century reached a peak of 30 back on August 6th. At this hour the 4-CD box set also sits at 38 on the Top-100 New Releases in Soundtracks. That list is an all-format list...all music styles make up that particular list. The subtitle for Ray's 4-CD box set is The Soundtrack of Our Lives. As I've opined before I'm guessing that Amazon also places the box set there because the word, Soundtrack, is in it's title. The website must have some sort of coding that detects the word, soundtrack, and therefore it automatically gets placed on a list of compact discs that contain songs from movies and television shows. Ray's box set isn't exactly a movie or television soundtrack...the word, soundtrack, in this scenario is meant to describe songs recorded in the 20th century that became iconic or have stood the test of time. It can also refer to songs that meant something to specific generations of people, but hadn't had the same durability, and yet remain iconic to some. The product page over at Amazon states that there's 20 copies of the box set available. I've lost track how many times a disclaimer like that has appeared on the product page of Ray's 4-CD box set. Compact discs aren't as in demand as digital downloads...but then there's the major return of the vinyl album. 

I remember a few years ago when portable turntables were being released as novelty items (I purchased several) and now record companies are issuing contemporary vinyl albums through Amazon...and there's a vinyl album section in the local Walmart stores, too, which feature contemporary artists on vinyl; and the re-issue of classic titles enable current record buyers to get vinyl copies of classic albums. Ray's box set, as far as I know, will remain in compact disc format. Each of the compact discs that are inside the box set are available as digital downloads. I don't know if Curb Records would ever issue a vinyl collection containing four individual vinyl albums in a carrying case...which is what they'd have to do if anyone would want Iconic Songs of the 20th Century in vinyl format. Yes, for the sheer novelty and one of a kind nature of it, I'd purchase a vinyl copy of the box set if it ever became available. I know vinyl has made a retail comeback but record companies are still limited in the amount of vinyl they'll offer...so if Curb would ever entertain the idea of issuing Iconic Songs of the 20th Century in vinyl format it would be in extremely limited quantities...nevertheless, I'd be among those in line waiting to purchase it! 

You can purchase the compact disc copy at Amazon when you click HERE.  

Ray Stevens: Labor Day 2021...

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans on this Labor Day 2021!! I don't mind holidays...but sometimes I get in such a pattern that when the holidays roll around my routine gets messed up. I'm something of a news hawk and when holidays roll around, like today, cable news channels tend to slack off on news reporting and instead fill the airwaves with "special programming" or clips from earlier in the year. 

Some people plan vacations in the days leading up to Labor Day...the same holds true for just about any holiday...while some prefer just to escape from view and then re-emerge once a holiday is over with. Locally on the eve of Labor Day there's a massive fireworks show...a tradition that goes back to at least the mid or late 1970s...sponsored by a local radio station and several local businesses. The event is said to mark the end of summer and start of fall. Oh how I don't like to hear about the fall...because that means it's nearing winter...and those daily 45-50 degree temperatures again...with overnight lows in the upper 30s. It's at that point in time I wish I had a "Great Escape" and I could vanish during cold weather. Speaking of this...one of many great recordings from Ray Stevens arrived in 1968, titled "Great Escape". The song originated on his Monument album, Even Stevens, and it was issued as a single with "Isn't It Lonely Together?" on the B-side. "Great Escape" is in the same vein as several songs from Ray Stevens in this time period. A social commentary, first and foremost, where Ray sings about the aggravations and frustrations of a work schedule where appearance is more important than anything else, in an unidentified city, and how he yearns for the "Great Escape" to the quieter, peaceful sounds of rural America...or possibly even the suburbs...since he sings about heading to his subdivided home. The music is strong, as is happens to be in any Ray Stevens recording, and the vocalization is punctuated by numerous stings from the horn section and there's a heavy marching beat on the drum throughout. The melody is catchy as is some of the lyrics...see if you don't end up singing to yourself or hearing Ray's voice singing "...Great Escape! The Great Escape!!" several times in your head after listening to the song.

Some may ask if "Great Escape" is appropriate for Labor Day. Some may think it isn't...since the sentiments expressed in the song is a desire to get away from the job and get back to the tranquil life at home. However, in my way of thinking, Labor Day can be celebrated several ways. Some choose to celebrate it as a day when all workers/laborers get recognized for the work they do. Some companies go a step further and are closed on Labor Day as a sort of thank you. Then there are those who feel that Labor Day should be a federally mandated holiday where all workers/laborers should get the day off as a thank you rather than have it left up to each individual business to decide. I've worked in places where we had to work on Labor Day...but yet those who worked in 'Administration' got the day off...and I believe that is the big reason why so many workers get outraged when having to work on Labor Day (or any holiday, for that matter). It never made any sense back then and it still doesn't make any sense why clerical workers/corporate employees get nearly all holidays off but the non-Administration workforce doesn't. 

As all of us know, Ray Stevens has made music his life's work. He's been active in the music industry, as a professional recording artist, since 1957...still a teenager at the time. He's also worked as a record producer, music arranger, musician, songwriter, song publisher, music video performer, and for many years was a landlord of multiple properties on Music Row before selling off the last of his properties a few years ago and settling down with the CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. Ray's labor of love is making music and performing. Buddy Kalb, a long-time associate of Ray's and someone who's written songs with or for Ray Stevens since the late '70s, wrote a song about a singer/songwriter dedicated to his craft called "It's My Job". Ray performed it on an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television show but he's never recorded it in his studio as far as we know. So, in closing on this Labor Day 2021, here's Ray Stevens singing "It's My Job"...it sounds as if it was written just for Ray...and perhaps it was...

Ray Stevens: September 4th CabaRay Concert feedback...

Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens!! Several blog entries ago I mentioned that I'd be on the lookout for any sort of social media posts from those that attended the September 4th Ray Stevens concert at the CabaRay. The performance last night was Ray's first at the CabaRay since a brief re-opening in the fall of 2020. On Ray's social media, very early this morning after Midnight, several people who attended the re-opening of the CabaRay last night posted their reactions. A couple of hours ago another concert attendee also shared their experience. When you visit Ray's Facebook page look for the September 4th post that features the CabaRay marquee shown above. That's where the concert reactions are posted. I asked a few questions of those who attended the September 4th concert. I asked if Ray sang anything from Iconic Songs of the 20th Century...and I listed some of the songs from that 4-CD box set. I also asked if he sang his current novelty song, "Gas". As of this writing, which I began composing around 11:35am, I hadn't gotten a reply yet. I'm guessing those that attended the concert at the CabaRay are still asleep or they hadn't returned to their online devices yet. I'll inform you all in a future blog entry if I receive any replies or not. As you see on the CabaRay marquee there's a message about the Piano Bar. That advertisement most likely will change from the message stating the return of Ray Stevens to a more traditional message like Ray Stevens Live Every Saturday Night or Ray Stevens In Person Every Saturday Night. The Piano Bar, prior to September 4th, was open to the public on Friday and Saturday evenings beginning this past July. Now that the 2021 concert season is underway the Piano Bar will now be open at 5pm but only on the day of the concert...which is every Saturday evening. Prior to Ray returning to the CabaRay, the above marquee message states Friday 7pm for the Piano Bar but the advertisements, which included several YouTube videos uploaded in July, stated Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30pm. Well, anyway, as mentioned the Piano Bar will now only be open on Saturday evenings at 5pm and then it'll re-open following each Ray Stevens concert. The reactions from those who attended last night's concert were all positive. Now I'm going to go over and refresh Ray's Facebook page and see if there's any new posts about last night's concert.    

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" Amazon Top-100 Update...

Hello to all you Ray Stevens fans!! As you can see in the photo on the left side of the screen Iconic Songs of the 20th Century is nearing the Top-40 portion of the Amazon Top-100 New Releases in Country. The format in which it sits at this position is CD's and Vinyl. When I wrote my blog entry I mentioned that the 4-CD box set had returned to the Top-100 after having fallen off for several weeks. When I wrote the previous blog entry the box set was sitting at number 59 on the Top-100 Country New Releases/CD's and Vinyl and number 58 on the Top-100 Soundtracks/CD's and Vinyl. As you can see it's shot up to number 42. The 4-CD box set had previously risen into the Top-40 Country New Releases...the highest the box set had risen was number 30 on August 6th...so you can that it's been almost a month since the box set was sitting in this area of Amazon's Top-100. It wasn't uncommon, though...Iconic Songs of the 20th Century was released on July 23rd and typically a brand new release will sit among the Top-50 or higher on release day somewhere on Amazon and continue to appear on Top-100 lists in the days that follow. Some releases will bounce around the Top-50 for weeks at a time...while other releases take up residence in the Top-100 and bounce around from hour to hour. Then there are some releases that have a big opening day or week and then vanish from Top-100 lists. 

The box set contains 48 tracks. Some of the tracks feature a medley of two songs. In each individual compact disc there's a fold out cover...and these fold out's are filled with musician credits, songwriter credits, publisher credits, and there's written commentary from Ray on each fold out cover. The four compact discs are: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. All four of the compact discs had previously been released as digital downloads but this box set was put together mainly for those that still prefer to have music on compact disc as well as for a souvenir item for those who attend concerts at the CabaRay showroom. I'm sure the box set will be available for purchase in the CabaRay gift shop which, as mentioned, is another reason for the need to have a box set compact disc collection available. 

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" returns to Amazon Top-100...

Hello one and all...we're a nearing 1am here on September 2nd and I just returned from looking over the various Top-100 lists on Amazon. I was pleasantly surprised to see the 4-CD Ray Stevens box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, in the Top-100 New Releases list again. The box set is charting on both the Top-100 Soundtracks as well as the Top-100 Country CD's and Vinyl list. 

As if on cue the new month kicks off with Iconic Songs of the 20th Century on Amazon's Top-100. I've often checked the Top-100 on a daily basis and this is the first time it's been listed since mid August. A quick look at my online photo gallery shows that August 19th was the last time the box set appeared on any Top-100 list on Amazon. Yes, before you can ask, I took screen caps on most of the days that Iconic Songs of the 20th Century appeared on Amazon's Top-100 so that I can have them for future reference. Why? Well, it's so that if anyone months from now or years from now wants to say things that are inaccurate about this box set, such as it didn't reach any chart, I'll have the screen caps from Amazon to correct any inaccuracy that might come up. If this 4-CD box set is something that you're just now hearing about, well, it's available on Amazon as well as Ray's online webstore. I alternate between which webpage I leave a link to. In some of my blog entries I've left links to both websites. Since we're focusing on the box set being among the Top-100 New Releases on Amazon's Country CD's and Vinyl list here's a link to AMAZON. 

This coming Saturday, don't forget, Ray Stevens is returning to the concert stage at his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. Those of you who are attending on September 4th be sure to leave messages about your experience at Ray's social media. He has an active Facebook and Twitter page where concert goers can post about their time at the CabaRay. He even has a Facebook page all about the CabaRay, too. The announcement about the CabaRay re-opening was made back in the spring. It was in March. Now, during that point in time, several wondered why make an announcement so many months in advance. I was wondering the same thing, too, but now here we are 6 months later and it's 2 days before showtime at the CabaRay. 

I've been speculating in some of my previous blog entries that Ray might promote the songs found on the 4-CD box set. He's never performed many of these songs in a concert setting yet. He performed "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "Unchained Melody" during a guest appearance at the Opry a number of years ago...but at that time this box set and the music found in it was still in the planning and pre-production phase. I don't even think, at that time, there was any thought of putting together a box set like this. I think there was just so much unreleased songs building up that a plan was formulated and it was put into work this year...the plan resulted in releasing one digital download per month (February, March, April, and May) and then issue those digital albums as compact discs in a 4-CD box set called Iconic Songs of the 20th Century (which they did in July). Those of you who attend any of his CabaRay concerts be sure to visit his gift shop!! I am sure he'll have the 4-CD box set available for purchase there. 

Ray Stevens: Showtime at the CabaRay in Three Days...

Hello all...welcome to a brand new month!! The month of September, as of this writing, is set to be a big month...the main reason for that is the re-opening of the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom in West Nashville!! Ray opened the CabaRay in January 2018 and did two full seasons of concerts there (2018 and 2019). As all of you know he, like everyone else in the country, fell under strict health guidelines from local, State, and Federal heath departments. Mandates, edicts, and all kinds of other restrictive measures were put in place in late spring of 2020 and from that point in time until nearly a year later life as we knew it was either halted, restricted, and in some cases irreversibly altered. Lockdowns on a national scale came and were later lifted...and vaccines emerged. Ray attempted to re-open the CabaRay in the fall of 2020 and he intended on implementing the health department requirements but, those requirements, they were so intrusive it created a less than stellar experience for those that attended the few concerts Ray performed. He decided to close the showroom down and wait until he could fully open up the showroom restriction free. Now, nearly a year later, Ray is giving the re-opening a second go around this coming weekend. The re-opening date is September 4th, this coming Saturday. You can read all about the CabaRay by clicking HERE. Here's to a fun and fascinating third season of concerts at the CabaRay! That link takes you to the official CabaRay webpage. The video below is a promo for the CabaRay, too. 

I'm thinking that among the songs Ray will incorporate into his setlist are some from his 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. In my mind I think songs from Ray's 4-CD box set, like "Goin' Out of My Head", "Unchained Melody", "Oh, Pretty Woman", "Stardust", "Slow Dancing", "Sweet Dreams", and "Crying Time" should be inserted into his setlist and perhaps some will. I'd like to see Ray, on video, singing any one of those songs...particularly "Goin' Out of My Head". Well, we actually do have Ray on video singing "Unchained Melody"...but video footage from the CabaRay of him singing those songs is something I'd love to see. It's Showtime at the CabaRay in Three Days...September 4th!!

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century"...a month later...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens once again!! It's been a little more than a month since the release of the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The official release date was July 23, 2021. For some reason or another the Amazon product page has a release date of July 7, 2021...but of course this is inaccurate. The correct release date is July 23rd. Also, if you visit the Amazon product page you'll see that they have 16 copies of the 4-CD box set available. This is the first time that I've seen a specific number given...usually the product page states that it's unavailable or that it'll be in stock soon. Since the product page features the statement that there are only 16 copies available I decided to write a blog entry about it. I'm doing this because I know that some people prefer to purchase music through Amazon out of habit and due to comfortability. There are those who aren't familiar with or don't want to purchase music directly from any recording artist's website or any record label's website, no matter who the recording artist or record label happens to be, and so consumers automatically turn to Amazon in most cases to get their music. The downside is if the music is consistently unavailable for purchase where most people choose to shop, such as Amazon, chances are it'll cause a consumer to just move on and never think to return to see if something's become available. So, for those who prefer purchasing music through online stores like Amazon, there is a limited supply of 16 copies of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century now available. I led off the blog entry mentioning how Amazon has the wrong release date on the product page. This is the banner that appeared on Ray's social media prior to the 4-CD box set's release...

The banner has changed, slightly, since then to read 'Available Now'. Anyway, I post that image because it states exactly when the 4-CD box set was released. As mentioned I have no idea where Amazon got the July 7, 2021 date. Some may ask why am I coming across all worked up over an error like that. It's a pet peeve of mine is all I can say. I prefer seeing accurate information...even on something that some may consider trivial like an album's release date. My review of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century was published on Amazon back on July 28th. I had written it days earlier and posted it here on my blog page but I wasn't able to post it to Amazon until their product page enabled reviews to be submitted. You read that correctly, and as odd as it sounds, for several days after the box set was released Amazon wasn't allowing any reviews to be submitted. I don't think I'd ever seen that kind of thing happen before. 

So, then, the 4-CD box set's been available for one month and six days. Ray posted several video clips promoting the collection several weeks ago. A lot of publicity had already been generated in the first half of the year when Curb Records was issuing one Ray Stevens digital album per month...and this box set contains CD copies of those four digital download albums. There hasn't been any sort of write-up or publicity generated outside of Ray's social media for Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. There were several write-up's earlier in the year from country music websites promoting Great Country Ballads as well as Melancholy Fescue, for example, and those publicity pieces mentioned the forthcoming box set but there hasn't been, to date, an official promo piece appearing in those websites that have spotlighted the release and availability of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. Those websites reach people outside of the Ray Stevens orbit. 

The music heard on the box set runs the gamut from country music to pop music to torch songs to bluegrass music. There's love ballads, up-tempo sing-a-longs, lighthearted lyrics, heavyhearted lyrics, there's dramatic productions, there's uplifting messages and painful messages in the songs Ray Stevens sings on the box set. In the video promo, uploaded back on July 23rd, Ray mentions that the box set is available at his own website as well as other select stores. Amazon is one of those other online stores...and there's 16 copies of the 4-CD box set available there at the moment.   

Ray Stevens: Photos from Iconic Songs of the 20th Century...

The title of this particular blog entry has more to do with the photos of Ray Stevens that appear on the back of the compact discs contained in the 4-CD Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set. The box set, by the way, continues to chart in the Country New Releases Top-100, CDs and Vinyl format, on Amazon. As I reported on nearly a week ago Amazon is once again out of stock of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. It's one of those things I'll never understand...other box sets that appear on Amazon haven't gone through the sort of roll out that Ray's box set has. For one thing it was not available for purchase at Amazon on release day...then once it became available for purchase there they placed a disclaimer on the product page indicating it would take at least a month to two months for shipment to take place...and now it's returned to being unavailable/out of stock. Now, of course, if you purchased your copy of the box set through Ray's online store as I did you wouldn't have any such shipment issues or delays. The link to Ray's online store is HERE. The link will open up to the box set product page and from there you can place your order. If you've never ordered anything from his official webpage then you'll need to register an account (create a username/password) and once registered you'll be able to place an order. 

The titles of the 4 compact discs are: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. Those of you who are long time Ray Stevens fans and already have this box set in your collection you've no doubt seen these photos. Ray posted them on his social media the other day and I'm going to share them in this blog entry. I'm going to share them as a collage. I'm going to post four collage panels and each one will feature the front and back of each compact disc.

Great Country Ballads, as most of you know, was the first of four digital albums from Ray Stevens to be released this year. Curb Records released it digitally back in February. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Melancholy Fescue, his Bluegrass album, was the second of four digital albums from Ray Stevens to be released this year. Curb Records released it digitally back in March. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Slow Dance, filled mostly with love songs and pop standards, was the third of four digital albums from Ray Stevens to be released this year. Curb Records released it digitally back in April. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. 

Nouveau Retro, a kind of random selection of pop standards, torch songs, and rhythm and blues standards transformed by Ray Stevens with different music arrangements, was the fourth and final digital album from Ray in this 4 album series. Curb Records released it digitally back in May. The compact disc copy is part of July's release, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. There wasn't any photo on the back of Nouveau Retro, as you can see. I don't know why. Anyway...all four of those compact discs are contained in the Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set! 

Ray Stevens: A Versatile Recording Artist He Is...

Now, of course, for those of you who are long time fans of Ray Stevens then you don't really need to be introduced to the wide variety of songs that he's recorded over the various decades. All of us know how widely varied the music of Ray Stevens truly is but yet there are still some that only think of comedy when they hear the name 'Ray Stevens'. Ray is truly a versatile recording artist and in this blog entry I'll be embedding several performances from Ray that highlight that versatility in music styles. In the meantime, though, I came across some commentary the other week from those who had watched a video on YouTube that Ray had uploaded a number of years ago. The commentary was revealing in a lot of ways. One comment contained some incorrect information...somebody had remarked that Ray was still performing at a theater in Branson, Missouri. The remark was written as if the person was very sure of his accuracy. In reality Ray hadn't been in Branson regularly since he did a series of concerts at The Moon River Theatre in 2012 following the death of Andy Williams. Ray, prior to that, had been in Branson for a series of concerts at The Welk Theater in 2010. Ray last performed on a regular, nightly basis in Branson during the 2005 and 2006 seasons headlining his former theatre. He'd leased it out to the Country Tonite organization for 10 years, 1994-2004, but then that organization decided to exit Branson. Ray did some interior redecoration of the theater in 2004 and into 2005...and he re-opened his Branson theater later that year. He sold the theater in 2006. Now, in the previous decade, Ray was a regular performer in Branson for 3 seasons (1991, 1992, and 1993) at the same theater he'd leased out to Country Tonite for 10 years. 

Anyway, my point is, the commentary I came across on YouTube was, what's the best description, it was stuck in a time warp...or it was as if the commentator's memories were so frozen in a certain time period that he genuinely believed that Ray Stevens, after more than 30 years, was still performing in Branson, Missouri. Now, being the type of fan that I am, I just had to leave a reply and bring some of them up to speed on all things Ray Stevens and that he's currently headlining his own place in Nashville, Tennessee...it'll be re-opening this September 4th...it's called the CabaRay. It's my understanding that had I not left a reply then they would be completely unaware that Ray no longer performs at a theater in Branson. 

If you have a wide collection of Ray Stevens albums or have seen him in concert then you know that he sings all types of songs. Oh, yes, he sings all types of songs...and even though comedy is what many people come for he nevertheless shows off his ballad side, too, on both the older and newer songs. Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, for example, is his latest release. It's a 4-CD collection of four albums that were previously released digitally. The 4-CD box set is mainly for those, like myself, collectors, who also like holding music in their hands whether it's on a compact disc or on vinyl...but the 4-CD box set will also, no doubt, become an item in his CabaRay gift shop, too. It's my hunch that the bulk of sales for the box set will come by way of the gift shop...to my way of thinking there will be those who will see the product inside the gift shop, some who may not even be on the internet much if at all, and will purchase it directly, in person, and bypass online mail order. Now then...here's a small collection of audio from Ray Stevens demonstrating the various types of songs he's recorded over the decades...

Anyone that considers themselves a Ray Stevens fan should know "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". Ray recorded the song in 1961 and the video above is from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. Yes, you read the year correctly...Ray wrote and recorded the song in 1961...60 years ago. In fact it was released as a single in July of 1961. What were you doing around this time 60 years ago? Chances are, if you were a teenager or young adult, you were hearing "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" and thinking how groovy....cool...and funny this Ray Stevens guy happens to be. 

Now we're going to jump from crazy novelty to Ray Stevens giving us his take on the Frank Sinatra classic, "That's Life". Ray recorded a CD titled Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!? and among the Sinatra songs that Ray covered happened to be "That's Life". Here we have Ray performing that song on an episode of CabaRay Nashville...from inside the CabaRay...

Wasn't that fun to watch?? I'll bet you didn't realize that Ray Stevens sang the classic songs made famous by Frank Sinatra...and sang them with just as much gusto as Sinatra. So, then, I've embedded a crazy novelty song and a Sinatra classic...both performed by Ray Stevens...now we're going to spotlight one of his performances of a stone-cold country music classic, "Abilene", which was made famous by George Hamilton, IV. 

As you can see from the video this performance was also taped inside the CabaRay. It was taped for one of the final, as of this writing, episodes of CabaRay Nashville. There are currently 78 episodes of Ray's television series...9 of the episodes were taped inside the CabaRay. The first sixty nine episodes were taped at a recording studio in downtown Nashville in the years prior to the CabaRay having it's grand opening in 2018. The television show went into production in 2015 and it remained in production until the spring of 2018.

Now, this blog entry focusing on the versatility of Ray Stevens, it wouldn't be complete without his recent recording of "MacArthur Park". This is a fantastic performance...if you hadn't heard his rendition of this iconic song you're going to love it. There's a lot of instrumentation...and Ray plays almost all of the instruments by way of a synthesizer and he does the string arrangements. The song is part of the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, featured on Melancholy Fescue.

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" Online Update...

Well, it's me once again!! I've been keeping track of Iconic Songs of the 20th Century and it's appearances on Amazon's New Releases Country Top-100 within the last couple of weeks. The 4-CD box set reached a peak position of number 38 on the CD/Vinyl list of Country New Releases and a peak position of 30 on the CD/Vinyl list of Soundtrack albums. The 4-CD box set continues to chart on the CD/Vinyl Country New Releases. I visited Amazon earlier today and discovered, however, that the 4-CD box set is once again 'temporarily out of stock'. It had been available for purchase and Amazon had been accepting orders for awhile...and during that time Iconic Songs of the 20th Century bounced all around the Amazon Top-100. This hour it's sitting at 94. A place where the 4-CD box will likely never become temporarily unavailable is at the official Ray Stevens webstore. I purchased my box set there several weeks ago and I've put it in my collection with the rest of my Ray Stevens albums. The music from the box set is in my online music library...the music got there from when I purchased the digital albums separately during the first half of this year. You can purchase the 4-CD box set HERE. I posted this several blog entries ago but I decided to share it again...it's a 40 second video clip of Ray promoting Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The video promo hit YouTube back on July 23rd...

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" among Amazon Top-40...

I just returned from the Amazon website and I got a double surprise while I was over there!! I was looking at the Top-100 New Releases rankings among country music in the CD's and Vinyl department. Earlier today Iconic Songs of the 20th Century was ranked at 53. As of this writing the 4-CD box set is among the Top-40 New Releases on Amazon...as you can see in the image off to the left the box set is sitting at 38! This is a new peak position on this list...the collection had previously reached a peak of 48. Now, if that wasn't a fun surprise to see, I decided to go over and look on the Soundtracks list. I earlier reported that Amazon is placing this 4-CD box set in the Soundtracks category, too, due in part because of the album's secondary title which is called: The Soundtrack of Our Lives. The ironic thing is, over on the CD's and Vinyl department on Amazon, in the Soundtracks category, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century is ranked at number 30 among New Releases!! The phrase 'soundtrack of our lives', as you could imagine, has very little to do with movie or television show music. When one uses the 'soundtrack of our lives' phrase it's meant to be a general representation of songs that define periods of time or some place in history for either an individual or a collective society. The box set of 4 compact discs features 12 songs per disc...a total of 48 recordings...and they collectively represent the soundtrack of society's lives. 

As you can see in the image over on the right Iconic Songs of the 20th Century sits at number 30 on Amazon in the CD and Vinyl Soundtracks department. In a previous blog entry I asked if any of you had purchased your box set yet. I take it that most of you have purchased your copy of the box set by now...with the 4-CD box set sitting among the Top-40 New Releases on Amazon it's clear that people are purchasing the box set through Amazon. Some people purchased it through Ray's own webpage...which is what I did. I wrote a review of the box set over on Amazon and posted photos of it...but because I didn't purchase it there it lacks the 'verified purchase' banner. I'll more than likely copy and paste my review over to Ray's website. My review of the box set lacks a lot of detail about the four compact discs because I've already written individual reviews of the four albums. I wanted my review of the 4-CD box set to focus just on the aesthetics and the technical information lacking on the digital albums but which is available on the CD copies. One of the songs Ray recorded, and one I'm going to heavily promote in future blog entries, is a fun little song called "Sophisticated Lady" on the Melancholy Fescue album. I've highlighted the audio track before but I think it deserves a whole lot more attention...the music accompaniment is impeccable as is Ray's vocal performance. The song has one of the most unusual melodies to sing against but that's why it's neat to listen to...so be on the lookout for future blog entries from me spotlighting the "Sophisticated Lady" audio track. 

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" and the Digital Age...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans...on this finally Friday! On August 1st I composed a blog entry focusing on Ray's 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, appearing on Amazon's Top-100 New Releases list. It's been appearing in the CD's and Vinyl category/Country music department. The box set continues to appear on that particular Top-100 list at Amazon. I've been periodically keeping track of it's rankings. Today I looked on another New Releases list...this one being the Soundtracks category. Why? Well, on the main product page for the 4-CD box set it lists that it's among the titles in the Soundtracks category. So, armed with that information, I took a look at the CD's and Vinyl category/Soundtracks department of Amazon and seen Iconic Songs of the 20th Century among the Top-100 on that list, too. The Soundtracks chart is typically built around soundtracks from movies or music from television programs...but it's obvious why Amazon would place the 4-CD box set in that category. The complete title of the 4-CD box set is Iconic Songs of the 20th Century: The Soundtrack of Our Lives. I don't type out the complete title of album releases or single releases if they happen to be lengthy. I feel the fans and the public in general will be able to find the music without my having to type out an entire album or song title. Anyway, given that the word, soundtrack, happens to be part of the album title Amazon has placed it in the Soundtracks department as well. I don't know how long it's been ranked on that specific Top-100 list since I never thought to look there prior to today. 

The 4-CD box set began appearing on Amazon's Top-100 New Releases in the final days of July when Amazon was still showing that it was out of stock/unavailable. I wrote a blog entry pointing out how odd it seemed to be that an out of stock item, without even the ability to place an order, could appear among the best selling New Releases. The box set then fell off the Top-100 but returned on August 1st. Ever since August 1st Iconic Songs of the 20th Century has ranked at various positions on the Top-100 New Releases (CD's and Vinyl/Country music). The rankings change every hour. This hour the 4-CD box set is ranked number 53. On the New Releases (CD's and Vinyl/Soundtracks) the ranking, as you can see in the above photo, is number 50. As of today the highest ranking the 4-CD box set has achieved on the CD's and Vinyl/Country music Top-100 New Releases is number 48. Also, since August 1st, Amazon has supplied the product page with an order option. I'm baffled as to why the box set wasn't available for purchase there on release day...there's never really been any sort of explanation given...but that's unimportant at the moment considering they've been selling it since August 1st. The box set's been available for purchase, since release day, on Ray's website and on the Curb Records website. In blog entries past I've given links to each of those stores. Here's a link to Ray's WEBSTORE 

The reason I've been taking notes on it's presence on Amazon is because a general audience shops on Amazon...meaning that the site reaches people who are outside of Ray's loyal fanbase. Traditionally speaking, keep in mind, music releases also need exposure to those outside of a fanbase so as to gain a broad range of potential consumers and so that's why albums and songs need to be available on websites like Amazon and that's why video gets uploaded on YouTube on a consistent basis. It's also a reminder as to why interviews on music-driven websites, radio interviews, television, and write-up's are still important advertising tools even in the digital age. 

Ray's music is available on all the major digital platforms...he recently uploaded a couple of amusing video clips advertising that fact. The appetite for content in the digital age is enormous...long gone are the days where albums and songs have the luxury of building momentum. It can still happen...but it's rare. A single release in the digital age almost immediately reaches it's peak...since it's available for purchase or streaming immediately...a record company doesn't have to wait around for a radio station to do "market research" or, for an artist, you no longer have to wonder or care if a program director wants to add your song to their playlist or if some radio consultant out there has any sort of bias against you and therefore is actively undermining your career, etc. You, as a recording artist, can put your music on the internet and usually get almost instant exposure and reaction. 

So, as you can see, there's a lot of advantages that recording artists have with releasing music directly to the consumer...but still, with all of that advantage of cutting out the burdensome anxiety of being on the good side of a radio programmer/radio personality, or, wondering if they'll add your latest song to a playlist, any recording artist should always want to reach outside their fanbase...if only to let a general audience know that you've got some new recordings available. Ray Stevens has always done this in my opinion. He'll often give interviews on satellite radio, on traditional radio, or an interview will pop up somewhere in written form and they'll sometimes be on websites where you'd not think the name, Ray Stevens, would be too familiar but yet he's always making attempts at reaching people outside his loyal fanbase. Ray's broad appeal is demonstrated even today...just look at Amazon and how they choose to categorize his music. Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, for example, among the Top-100 New Releases in the Soundtracks department...but considering the types of recordings that are abundant on the 4-CD box set it could very easily have a place among the category of Traditional Vocalists/Pop but it's not categorized as such on Amazon...yet!   

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all...and let's welcome in a brand new month!! In my previous blog entry I made mention of it being the 50th blog entry for the month of July. In addition to that it was also the 200th blog entry I've written this calendar year. I checked the archives and found that January 2010 was the only month to come close to matching 50 blog entries. In the month of January in 2010 I ended up composing 45 blog entries. So now we're beginning a brand new month and what did I find over on Amazon earlier today? I seen that Iconic Songs of the 20th Century is no longer unavailable...they have a product page up where you can place an order for the 4-CD box set...the only disclaimer being that they won't be able to actually ship any orders until late August. So, technically, they still must be out of stock but at least there's an official order page up...and so it sounds like they're planning on getting Iconic Songs of the 20th Century in stock for shipment later in the month. After I seen the Amazon product page I instinctively checked the New Releases page. In the CDs and Vinyl format, Country music department, I saw Iconic Songs of the 20th Century on the Top-100 New Releases list...all the way up into the Top-50. In my previous blog entry I mentioned that the 4-CD collection had been floating around the lower portion of the Top-100 for several days (July 28th - July 30th) eventually peaking at #94. However, as of this writing, the box set is sitting at #48. You can take a look at the Amazon product page and place an order HERE. That page won't show you the New Releases list. You'll have to manually search for that list while you're over there. The rankings change hourly...so it's hard to tell where it'll be ranked later today...but for now it's among the Top-50 New Releases in the Country music CDs and Vinyl format. You can also purchase Iconic Songs of the 20th Century directly from Ray's webstore at his website...which is what I did...and I have the box set already. Those who choose to shop Amazon exclusively, well, use the above link to place an order.

Ray Stevens: Have you gotten "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" yet?

Hello all...have you gotten Iconic Songs of the 20th Century yet? I ask that because it's the only way you can get the four digital albums that Ray Stevens released earlier this year in CD format. The compact discs in the 4-CD box set are not sold separately. So, if you prefer music on compact discs, the 4-CD box set is what you've been asking for. I was looking over at the archives here on this blog page and do you know that this particular blog entry is my 50th for the month of July!?! When I published my previous blog entry I looked over there above the pictorial timeline at the blog total for the month of July and seen that the previous blog entry was the 49th I've written this month! I don't think I've ever written 50 blog entries in one month before...but I'd have to check and see...but I wondered what the 50th blog entry in July would be about. After thinking about it for a couple of minutes I decided to have the blog entry focus on the 4-CD box set. I see that it's only fitting...my 50th blog entry of the month being about Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. A sort of numbers game if you will...50th and 20th...that's what led me to decide on the 4-CD box set taking the spotlight. It's also fitting because it's the current release from Ray Stevens...it became available on July 23rd...so it's been available for purchase for more than a week. 

Something that I noticed but didn't report on in previous blog entries is that Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, somehow, made an appearance on Amazon's New Releases Top-100 list. In the CD and Vinyl department for Country music New Releases the 4-CD box set appeared for several days...floating around the bottom half of the Top-100...in spite of it not being available for purchase on Amazon. It's not been in stock on Amazon since release day...so imagine my surprise when I seen Iconic Songs of the 20th Century show up among the Top-100 New Releases a couple of days ago. It's not listed there now...so I don't know if it was a glitch in their system or if it's common for product that's unavailable for purchase to show up on a New Releases list. The box set shown up on Amazon's Top-100 on July 28th and it remained there until July 30th...rising no higher than #94. In the hours leading up to it's release date Amazon had the box set available for Pre-order...but ever since the calendar changed from July 22nd to July 23rd Amazon has listed Iconic Songs of the 20th Century as out of stock and unavailable for purchase. So it's baffling how the box set managed to appear on the Top-100 New Releases so many days after it became unavailable for purchase. If the appearance was based on any Pre-order data the box set would've appeared on the Top-100 New Releases on July 22nd but it didn't...it shown up five days later on July 28th. So it'll perhaps always remain a mystery. You can purchase the box set on Ray's website by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: Kayden Gordon Interview...

It's me again!! Ray Stevens participated in an interview on an internet radio program hosted by Kayden Gordon. The host/interviewer is 16 going on 17 years old according to a post he left on Ray's social media. I'm hoping the link that I've included takes you to the page where you can hear the interview. It lasts a little more than 9 minutes and Ray's asked all kinds of questions. Some of the subject matter touched on is the CabaRay showroom as well as the CabaRay Nashville television series. Ray speaks about the Iconic Songs of the 20th Century and reminds us that there will be a sequel with four additional releases. The title of that box set, as of this writing, is Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, Volume Two. I don't know if that will end being the official title of the sequel but that's the title, as of now, straight from Ray himself in the interview. It's so far down the road that I'll blog more about it next year...which I'm sure is when it'll be released. You can listen to Kayden Gordon's interview by clicking HERE. 

I was taking photos of myself with Ray's box set...as most of you could have imagined if you're familiar with this blog page. One of the photos is of me displaying the Nouveau Retro CD from the box set...in one photo I'm with a beard and in the second photo I'm clean shaven. Now, I didn't shave off my facial hair just for the photo. What had happened is I shaved my face...which is something I often do...and while I was sitting at the computer I was looking at the earlier photo I had took of me with the facial hair. I decided to take another photo clean shaven. Then I decided to tie it in with Nouveau Retro and how, on the CD cover, Ray appears as Father Time with the long white beard looking over at the baby photo of Ray (who obviously at that age has no facial hair). So, here's the two panel collage of me with facial hair and one clean shaven...with Nouveau Retro as the focus...

My web-camera is good on some days and not so good on some days. Those images come from a day when the web-camera wasn't as clear as it could have been. I did some editing of them to make them look half-way presentable. The official image of the CD looks way better than how they appear on my web-camera images...

The image over there on the right is what the CD actually looks like...which I'm sure most of you are familiar with by now. I got my Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set a couple of days ago and if you ordered your copy from Ray's webstore around the same time as I did (last Friday) then you should have your box set on the way or it's already arrived. Nouveau Retro, one of the 4 compact discs in the box set, contains 12 songs that on the surface come across as they were chosen at random. The first 3 compact discs follow a distinctive theme or concept. Nouveau Retro also follows a concept...a creative concept of reviving/refreshing songs that have aged. Nouveau is a word that means 'new' while Retro is a word that means 'old', or, of the past. So, the combination of both words in addition to the subtitle state exactly what this particular album is all about. What's Old is New Again...or Nouveau Retro...presents 12 songs from the past that Ray brings back with modern day sound. This is the album that features his renditions of "Mountain of Love", my favorite of the entire album, and it also contains "Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out to Sea)", "Blue Moon", "Cry Me a River", and "April in Paris". You can get the Nouveau Retro digital album on Amazon by clicking HERE.