Ray Stevens: Opry Country Classics May 11th

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens! I was seriously thinking about opening this blog entry with this kind of welcome: Hello all of you fans of Country Music Hall of Fame member, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member, Musicians Hall of Fame member, Georgia Music Hall of Fame member, Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame member, Cecil Scaife Visionary Award winner, 2-time Grammy winner, and 9-time Music City News Comedian of the Year recipient...legendary Ray Stevens!!! Now, of course, that's quite a lengthy introduction so now you know why I decided not to go that route. This particular blog entry, though, is more of a promotional piece for the upcoming Ray Stevens guest appearance on WSM radio's Opry Country Classics. The show's been a mainstay on WSM radio for well over 10 years and it's been hosted by Larry Gatlin during it's entirety. It's a recurring, seasonal series that typically airs during the late spring and into the summer and early fall months on WSM radio. The program is performed on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry inside the Opry House. The episode featuring Ray is set to air this coming Thursday May 11th at 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern. The line-up for Opry Country Classics is as follows: Larry Gatlin (host) and on this episode his two brothers, Steve and Rudy, are also going to appear. Carter Faith and William Michael Morgan are also scheduled to appear. Ray Stevens will be on hand as will Jeannie Seely. 

It's anyone's guess what Ray will sing...typically when he guest stars on the Opry or on Opry Country Classics he'll sing s couple of his signature songs that the general public is familiar with but sometimes he'll sing something brand new or something that he's been performing in concert but hasn't officially recorded yet. Ray recorded a duet with Jeannie Seely a couple of years ago...their rendition of Paul McCartney's song, "Dance Tonight". They've never performed it publicly...maybe they'll sing it together this coming Thursday night? If you've been reading some of my recent blog entries you'll know that Ray took part in a sing-a-long novelty called "Grits" released by Pat Boone. One of the other guest vocalists on the song were The Gatlin Brothers. Perhaps Larry will bring up the recent experience recording with Pat Boone? The show airs on WSM radio this coming Thursday night and you can listen to the radio station by clicking HERE. 

Ray Stevens: A look back to 3 years ago...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I just come over from one of Ray's social media pages and was reminded that on this day in 2018 he received his star on the Music City Walk of Fame in downtown Nashville. The walkway is located directly across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame. The walkway is a tourist attraction and because of this there is a large sign that sits out front that reads Music City Walk of Fame Park. If there wasn't a sign showing the way a tourist wouldn't even realize it's even there unless they researched the area beforehand. As you could tell the Music City Walk of Fame is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The names of recording artists, of all music formats, are pressed onto material (I'm assuming either stone or marble) and they're placed into the walkway throughout the park. When my brother and I went to Nashville a few months after Ray's CabaRay was opened to the public, early in 2018, we went to the Music City Walk of Fame Park. The two of us were walking along the sidewalks of downtown Nashville, after having parked the car in a lot, and as we were on our way to the Country Music Hall of Fame I spotted this park across the street and so we went over there and walked around looking at the names of singers on the walkway. I remember thinking to myself "why isn't Ray part of this walkway?". Anyway, my point is, we visited the walkway nearly half a year before Ray received his Walk of Fame Star in August. The recipients of Stars on the walkway aren't tied to country music exclusively...but the bulk of walkway Stars are country music personalities...and that's simply because country music is the dominant form of music in Nashville even though all kinds of music is recorded there. Ray received his Walkway Star along side Jeannie Seely, Brenda Lee, and pop artist Ben Folds. Bluegrass/Country singer, Ricky Skaggs, was on hand to present Ray Stevens with a Walkway Star. 

When you visit the Music City Walk of Fame the Ray Stevens star is located next to the Ben Folds star. In fact, the star directly behind Ray in the photo off to the right is the one for Ben Folds. In that photo Ray gives us a zany grin...and he's looking off to his right. There are several photos of Ray from the Walk of Fame ceremony that you can find on the internet. There's one of Ray and Ricky Skaggs in front of the star...several photos of Ray with his arms spread apart, nearly identical to the photo on the right, but with different facial expressions in each one. Some of the non-country performers that have a Star on the Music City Walk of Fame are: Peter Frampton, Steve Winwood, Michael McDonald, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, and Steven Curtis Chapman just to name several. The Music City Walk of Fame is a tourist attraction, as mentioned, and if you receive a Star on the Walk of Fame there's a lot of ceremonial festivities that take place. It gets overshadowed, figuratively and literally, by the Country Music Hall of Fame which sits across the street but never let that fool you into believing that those who receive a Star on the Walk of Fame aren't just as honored. All you need to see are Ray's photographs during the Walk of Fame ceremony and hear his acceptance speech to know how tickled he happened to be that people thought enough about him and felt him worthy enough to give him a Star on the Music City Walk of Fame. Now, several months after Ray received his star on the Walk of Fame (a little less than 6 months later), he received the news that he was going to be one of the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ray would be elected in the Veterans Era category in 2019. In several commentaries from him following the news release and after the induction ceremony later that year he was just as thrilled as he'd been in 2018 when he received a Walk of Fame Star. 

Ray Stevens: Jeannie Seely sings "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy"...

It's Jeannie Seely's birthday...and earlier today a video of her singing "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy" on the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television series appeared on YouTube. The performance is from her guest appearance on Ray's television show...the video also includes the interview segment from the show. The song was written by Jeannie and her former husband, the late songwriting legend Hank Cochran. A recording of the song appeared on Merle Haggard's 1978 album, I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall, and when the title track was released as a single Merle's recording of "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy" was selected as the B-side. Jeannie's been part of the music industry since the early '60s first as a songwriter as well as a country music on-air personality in radio and television in California. One of her songs, co-written with Randy Newman, was "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is". It became a hit for the rhythm and blues singer, Irma Thomas, in 1964. It was around that same point in time several country music artists had recorded several of her songs as album cuts. 

Her breakthrough as a recording artist happened in 1966 with the recording "Don't Touch Me". The song won a Grammy and it was instrumental in her becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1967 where she remains a member and performs frequently. She also hosts an online radio series...Ray Stevens was a guest not too long ago. She and Ray recorded a duet together last year, "Dance Tonight". Ray's involvement in Jeannie's album on Curb Records last year sparked renewed interest from the label for Ray Stevens, by the way, and his previous 8 releases have been for Curb Records:

1. Everything is Beautiful 50th Anniversary- single (October 2020)

2. Everything is Beautiful / United We Stand- single (October 2020)

3. The Quarantine Song  (December 2020)

4. Great Country Ballads (February 2021)

5. Melancholy Fescue (March 2021)

6. Slow Dance (April 2021)

7. Nouveau Retro (May 2021)

8. Gas - single (June 2021)

Here now is the interview of Jeannie Seely and the performance of "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy"...the photo you see on the piano is the album cover of the recent release that Jeannie was promoting at the time of her guest appearance on Ray's television show...

Ray Stevens chats with Jeannie Seely...

Hello one and all!! Earlier today, if you happened to have been on any of the Ray Stevens social media accounts, you'd know that Ray spoke a little with Jeannie Seely on her satellite radio series on Sirius XM. Her show, Sundays with Seely, airs each Sunday from 12pm until 4pm Eastern on Channel 59. It's on the Willie's Roadhouse channel. She led off the fourth hour with Ray as a guest. She spoke of her new recording contract with Curb Records and she gave Ray a lot of credit with helping get her signed to the label. He modestly said that he didn't necessarily deserve much credit. She spoke about the 50th anniversary of "Everything is Beautiful" and asked him about it. She brought up the fact that there's two renditions of the song available. Ray spoke about how one rendition features a new opening bridging it to contemporary times while the other rendition is a medley with "United We Stand". Ray and Jeannie recorded a duet titled "Dance Tonight". The duet is on her new CD but several blogs ago I mentioned that the song can be purchased by itself as a digital download, too. She brings up their duet and then asks Ray about the CabaRay. He informs the listeners that he'd love to have the CabaRay opened but the pandemic is keeping the facility closed but he's hopeful all of the talk about vaccines being ready by the end of this year will help returns things to normal. Jeannie tells Ray a story about a friend of hers and that when her friend was 9 years old she wanted to sing "Everything is Beautiful" at her church. The request was granted. Jeannie remarked it was the first time the church ever allowed any song to be performed that wasn't part of the church's traditional hymnal. Ray was almost speechless upon hearing Jeannie's story. The chat was brief but it was publicity and exposure...and in these pandemic times, any opportunity to get your latest happenings to the public and inform those that might be outside your immediate fanbase, the better. 

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" pushes beyond 900,000 unique views...

Hello all!! I've been watching the NHL play-off's and baseball games on and off throughout the weekend. I still don't know all the in's and out's and rules when it comes to ice hockey but I've been something of a casual viewer of the sport for a number of years. On last night's episode of Ray's locally syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville, the guest star was Rex Allen, Jr.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry that I wrote I remarked that the moment that I find out if Ray's current music video, "Quarantined", has reached the 900,000 unique view plateau I'd write a blog entry about it. Well, today is the day. I looked at the numbers several minutes ago and "Quarantined" sits at 910,038. Has anyone else managed to maintain some of their sanity during the pandemic? Have you given up and succumbed to Government over-reach? Have you gotten to the point where you're numb to all things COVID-19, social distancing, and face masks and has both the elected and un-elected bureaucrats beaten down your once proud independence? The best thing to do, outside of voting this November, is to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all while listening to the Ray Stevens "Quarantined" video...over 900,000 people have seen it so far...



A recurring situation I've come across is the video embeds that I share in my blog entries sometimes are not showing up in the actual blog. When I go to preview my blog entries before I click publish I always see the videos posted in preview and so I assume they're showing up on the published blog entry. When I posted a video clip in a previous blog entry it failed to show up after publishing but was appearing in preview. It's a nuisance.

The most recent audio release from Ray Stevens is technically a Jeannie Seely recording. In my previous blog entry I promoted their "Dance Tonight" duet and wrote a review of the song. The Mp3 is available for purchase on Amazon. Her album is called An American Classic and it features a blend of solo and duet recordings. One of those duet recordings is with Ray Stevens on "Dance Tonight", from the pen of Paul McCartney.

You can read my commentary about Ray and Jeannie's "Dance Tonight" and find a link to their duet by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: "Dance Tonight" with Jeannie Seely...

Well, here I am again...blogging about the multi-talented Ray Stevens!! If you're keeping track of all things Ray Stevens then you should be aware that Jeannie Seely's new album, An American Classic, was released today and it contains a duet with Ray. It became available at midnight on many on-line retail stores. I purchased a copy of her duet with Ray Stevens, "Dance Tonight". Her album is on Curb Records and the producer is Don Cusic (a name that should be familiar to Ray Stevens fans).

I've long since heard their duet...I purchased my copy of their recording around 2am this morning! I decided not to write a review until later in the day so as to not get ahead of any publicity that might surface surrounding the CD's release. Yes...for those that are aware...you can purchase a physical copy of the CD through Amazon but I opted to purchase an Mp3 of Jeannie's duet with Ray. I had written about Ray's upcoming duet in early July and then I wrote a follow-up blog entry earlier this month. Once I mentioned the name of their duet, "Dance Tonight", I was contacted by several on-line friends of mine informing me that the song had previously been recorded by Paul McCartney and it had apparently been well known for many years but I don't closely follow the careers of a wide array of recording artists. I have general knowledge of a wide array of recording artists and I like listening to a lot of them but I'd only consider myself a completely devoted fan of Ray Stevens...which should come as no surprise.

Now then...after purchasing "Dance Tonight" I listened to it and at first I thought it was going to be a sing-a-long the all way through because the song begins with Ray, Jeannie, and a choir of background harmony singers singing the chorus of the song. However that wasn't the case. Jeannie sings a solo in her trademark smoky voice and Ray chimes in on a verse but the focal point in the recording is the music itself rather than the lyrics. The party atmosphere of the song is hammered home thanks in large part to the background vocals...usually the atmosphere is created through the melody itself...but in this case the atmosphere sounds alive. The original by Paul McCartney, which I hadn't heard until this morning, obviously carries the same melody but the production is different. In his rendition he does a whistling solo and the production, by comparison, is minimal to the duet. In Ray and Jeannie's duet there isn't a whistle solo and there's a lot of production to it. The prominent instrument in this duet is the fiddle. Once I was informed that Paul McCartney had recorded the song originally I kept myself from listening to his recording...I wanted to be surprised when I purchased Ray and Jeannie's duet version this morning.

You can purchase your copy of "Dance Tonight" by clicking this LINK.

Ray Stevens and Jeannie Seely: "Dance Tonight"...

Well it's me once again...the second blog entry of today. I've mentioned Ray Stevens' involvement in the upcoming Jeannie Seely album, An American Classic, in a previous blog entry or two. Ray will be singing a duet with Jeannie on a song called "Dance Tonight". The album is being released on Curb Records on August 14th and it's produced by Don Cusic.

If you follow Ray's career or are a frequent reader of this fan created blog then you'll already know that Don Cusic is involved in Ray's career, too. Don was the editor of Ray's 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He appears on early episodes of Ray's locally syndicated PBS series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, as Professor Cusic. He wrote a lot of liner note information surrounding Ray's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music box set. Also, he wrote "If Jesus is a Stranger" which Ray recorded for the Gospel Collection CD and co-wrote, with Buddy Kalb, "Just a Touch of Jesus", on the follow-up gospel CD, Just a Closer Walk With Thee.

Jeannie's An American Classic is being released as a digital download. It's available for pre-order on Amazon and you can do so by clicking HERE. There are 13 songs on the album. Now, if you're just wanting the duet she does with Ray Stevens titled "Dance Tonight", you'll have to wait until the project is released on August 14th before individual songs can be purchased separately. For whatever reason they don't let customers pre-order individual songs like they allow customers to pre-order entire digital albums.

When you visit Jeannie's official website and click on the Merchandise area you'll be able to order a physical copy of the CD and even have it personalized. I'm assuming the physical CD will be available in the Opry gift shop and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and available through her website. I'll be writing more about her duet with Ray Stevens, "Dance Tonight", on August 14th once I make my purchase!

Ray Stevens: Jeannie Seely CabaRay Nashville performance...

Ray Stevens and Jeannie Seely

Yesterday it was Jeannie Seely's birthday and Ray Stevens' social media sites featured video footage of her guest appearance on CabaRay Nashville. The clip below features the interview portion of the show. Jeannie speaks of her trek from Pennsylvania to California and from there she made her way to Nashville. She tells of how she got the nickname 'Miss Country Soul' and being on Monument Records. She and Ray were on Monument Records at the same time. She joined the Grand Ole Opry on September 16, 1967 and at the time of this show's taping she was heading toward her 50th anniversary milestone with the Opry. She and Ray sing a duet of "Make the World Go Away", a screen cap of their duet appears above. The two officially recorded a duet, "Dance Tonight", which will appear on Jeannie's upcoming album due out next month.

Ray Stevens: Upcoming duet with Jeannie Seely...

Hello all!! While searching around on the internet I came across more information about Ray Stevens involvement in an upcoming project from Jeannie Seely. In a blog I wrote several blogs ago I mentioned that Ray had recorded a duet with Jeannie but I couldn't find out much...until now. In an article posted in The Tennessean newspaper back on July 2nd it was revealed that Jeannie would be issuing a new project in August and that the duet she recorded with Ray would be the final track. The collection is titled An American Classic.

The producer of Jeannie's project happened to be Don Cusic, a name that should be familiar to all fans of Ray Stevens by now. The first single release from Jeannie's CD will emerge tomorrow...a duet with Willie Nelson. July 6th is also Jeannie's birthday. As many know by now Willie's recorded duets or performed on stage with just about every major recording artist of the last 50 years. Ironically, Ray Stevens is the extreme opposite...he rarely records duets. In his career I think he's recorded less than 10 duets...off the top of my head here they are...

"Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" (1995 duet with Connie Freeman)

"The Streak" (2005 duet with Cledus T. Judd; it's on the Ray Stevens tribute album Cledus recorded)

"This One Burger King Town" (2007 duet with T.G. Sheppard)

"Retired" (2009 duet with Brent Burns; Ray recorded a solo version of this song, too)

"Temptation" (2012 duet with Lori Stegner)

"That's My Desire" (2019 duet with Beegie Adair)**

In the case of "That's My Desire" he recorded it twice with Beegie Adair. One of the recordings is performed straight while a comical version was also recorded. The two duet recordings with Ray are included in her duets CD, Grover's Hat Project.

The upcoming duet with Jeannie Seely will be a version of "Dance Tonight", a song from the pen of Paul McCartney. I am making the assumption that Jeannie's project will be available for digital download in addition to it being available as a physical CD.

Ray and Jeannie were both honored in 2018 with Stars on the Nashville Walk of Fame. Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. Jeannie's been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1967. Jeannie appeared on an episode of Ray's PBS series, CabaRay Nashville.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Jeannie Seely

Hello once again...picking up where I left off in a previous blog entry...I found out that the new Ray Stevens video streaming website will air new episodes of his PBS television series a week after they've originally aired on PBS. This means that last week's episode (November 25th) guest starring Jeannie Seely was uploaded today. The December 2nd episode, guest starring Don McLean, will be added to Ray's web page on December 9th. I make mention of this for those that have also subscribed to Ray's new video streaming website and perhaps may have wondered when the additional episodes of his PBS television series are to be added to the site.

The November 25th episode guest starring Jeannie Seely and it was another great production. The show opened with Ray at the piano...opening the show with a marvelous version of "Hallelujah, I Love Her So". He introduces Jeannie and she tells of her upbringing in Pennsylvania and how when she got old enough she drove from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to become a singer. After awhile of living in Los Angeles an executive sent her to Nashville, Tennessee in 1965.

She makes mention of her becoming a member of Monument Records in 1965 and that Ray was one of the first people she met. Ray was, at the time, working for Monument as a session musician, arranger, and producer while recording songs at Mercury Records. Eventually he was able to record for Monument once his recording contract with Mercury expired. Jeannie talks about her breakthrough recording, "Don't Touch Me", and how she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1967. This leads into a conversation about her current CD, Written in Song.

The CD, released this past January, features 14 tracks...12 of which are songs she had written or co-written during her career that had been recorded by other artists but she, herself, had never recorded them. 2 of the tracks are exclusive to the release. The episode was taped in the latter half of 2016 prior to the CD's official release date.

Ray brings up duet recordings and how she'd never recorded with him before and this leads into their performance of "Make the World Go Away". The choice of song, in hindsight, set up a brief discussion about the song's writers, Hank Cochran (Jeannie's ex-husband). She had long made joking references about her marriage to the songwriting legend during her Opry appearances and her sharp wit and well timed ex-husband one liners became a signature of her personal appearances and she didn't disappoint during her appearance on Ray's program. Although he passed away in 2010 she told some ex-husband jokes which received a lot of laughter because you could see she was telling them with no real malice or hatred intended. She wrapped up the segment by offering advice, half-jokingly, about marrying lawyers (which she did in 2010).

Discussion returns to her Written in Song CD and she tells the story of a song she and Hank wrote called "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy". She mentions that she never recorded it herself because it was written to be sung by a male singer...she then said that it dawned on her that she could simply re-write a couple of lyrics and have it come across as her telling a story about the life of a rodeo cowboy. It was inspired, according to her recollection, by her nephew's life as a rodeo cowboy. She tells of it being recorded originally by Merle Haggard. Those interested in hearing his version it can be found on his 1978 album, I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall. Jeannie's version is on her 2017 CD and you can see it on this episode of Ray's PBS show.

After performing the rodeo song she sang her signature hit, "Don't Touch Me" (another song written by Hank Cochran). Ray closes the show singing his version of "Rags to Riches" which had been a huge pop hit for Tony Bennett. If you're keeping track this is another episode in which Ray opens and closes the show performing his versions of vintage pop hits.

As mentioned earlier in the blog entry last night's episode (December 2) guest starred Don McLean but it didn't air here locally. I'll watch it on Ray's streaming video website next Saturday. This means that on December 9th I'll be catching the December 2nd episode via Ray's site and then later that day I'll be able to see the current episode when it airs on the local PBS channel (due to their pledge break having ended by then). The December 9th episode will guest star Felix Cavaliere. I'll write two blog entries next weekend focusing on the December 2nd and December 9th episodes.