Ray Stevens: The Nouveau Retro YouTube Playlist

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! A couple of blog entries ago I spotlighted the YouTube playlist of Ray's Melancholy Fescue album. Today I'm spotlighting the YouTube playlist of Nouveau Retro. In 2021 Ray released 5 albums. Four of those albums were sold together in a box set called Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. A fifth release, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, was issued by itself, not part of the box set. Each album in the box set was also available separately and, because of this, each album became more easily accessible online. The various online music sites offered the box set where all four albums could be received in one download or you could get each one separately. YouTube, via Curb Records, has made each of the albums available, too. The Nouveau Retro album contains pop music standards and a couple of songs with strong ties to country music. Slang descriptions might bring to mind the phrase, torch songs, for this album features the Ray Stevens renditions of "April in Paris", "Cry Me a River", "Mountain of Love", "Earth Angel", and "You Don't Know Me", just to name five. The collection contains 12 songs. In case you're wondering that's a real baby photo of Ray Stevens on the album cover. Ray, of course, is in costume as Father Time. The subtitle of the album is What's Old is New Again. You can listen to the album on YouTube when you click HERE. You can watch Ray briefly discuss the 2021 album in this YouTube clip.

Ray Stevens: Nouveau Retro promo...

Here we are on a Saturday afternoon...earlier in the day a promo video from Ray Stevens appeared online. This time around it was a video promo for Nouveau Retro. This is the album that contains his renditions of "Mountain of Love", "Earth Angel", "Lay Me Down Roll Me Out to Sea", "You Don't Know Me", "April in Paris", and others. Ray had uploaded three previous promo videos within close proximity to each other but one for Nouveau Retro hadn't made it's way to the internet until today. The video promo for Great Country Ballads hit the internet on June 26th whereas on July 7th a video promo appeared online for Melancholy Fescue. The video promo for Slow Dance soon followed on July 10th. Several thousand unique views have the first three video promo's individually collected so far. The just released Nouveau Retro video promo is sitting at 351 unique views as of this writing. I composed a blog entry about this very album the other day and I included a couple of photos of myself with the CD copy of Nouveau Retro...one photo has me with a beard and another without. This video promo is for the digital copy of Nouveau Retro...which is why you'll hear Ray make mention of the various online platforms where you can listen to/purchase the music. The CD copies of all four of those digital albums are exclusive to the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. Here's the video promo for Nouveau Retro...

Ray Stevens: "Mountain of Love" climbs to 1,000 plays...

Hello once again...several blog entries ago I wrote about the Ray Stevens audio track of "Mountain of Love" nearing 1,000 unique YouTube plays. As of this writing the unique plays for the audio track sit at 1,004. The song is on the Ray Stevens digital album, Nouveau Retro, on Curb Records. This was the fourth digital album Ray released this year...the song that was being pushed in the days and weeks following the digital album's release happened to be Ray's rendition of "April in Paris". That particular audio track, since it was shared on Ray's official social media, has gotten more than 4,500 unique plays. A majority of Ray's fans tend to not be too pro-active...which means they're not likely to search, on their own, for new Ray Stevens music or search the internet for news about Ray Stevens or look up images of him. They wait until Ray's announcements are posted on his social media about the release of new songs, new albums, new music videos, etc. Given that "April in Paris" was posted on Ray's social media it makes sense that it's the audio track with the most unique plays. "Mountain of Love" is in third place...a little over 1,000 plays so far. "Blue Moon" has quietly become the second most-played audio track on YouTube from the Nouveau Retro digital album. A breakdown of the unique YouTube play count for the Nouveau Retro album is located below...from the most plays to the least plays. Most of you should know that 4.5K means any number between 4,500 and 4,599. The letter, K, references YouTube plays in the thousands.

1. April in Paris  (4.5K unique plays)

2. Blue Moon  (2.2K unique plays)

3. Mountain of Love  (1,003 unique plays)

4. Young Love  (932 unique plays)

5. Earth Angel  (877 unique plays)

6. Lay Me Down, Roll Me Out to Sea  (658 unique plays)

7. Cry Me a River  (625 unique plays)

8. Indian Love Call  (574 unique plays)

9. You Don't Know Me  (460 unique plays)

10. Talk to Me  (398 unique plays)

11. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows / Over the Rainbow  (377 unique plays)

12. No, Not Much  (352 unique plays)

Ray Stevens: "Mountain of Love" nearing 1,000 YouTube plays...

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans...as most of you may already know, if you've read some of my blog entries, is that I like to quote statistics when available. I was looking over the video uploads of Ray Stevens on his YouTube channel and noticed that his audio track, "Mountain of Love", is oh so close to reaching 1,000 plays. Several blog entries ago I wrote about the presence of Ray Stevens on social media. He has several pages where his music and happenings are posted about (Facebook and Twitter) in addition to his own website. His music is just as easily accessible on the social media sites and on digital download platforms. As of this writing "Mountain of Love" sits at 991 plays on YouTube...I'm hoping it will reach 1,000 by days end...and maybe with the help of this blog entry it'll reach 1,000 and more. YouTube, since it's a video hosting site, uses the word, views, instead of plays. Since "Mountain of Love" is an audio track and not a music video I often use the words view and play interchangeably...but plays would be more accurate for an audio track since a user is listening to something rather than viewing something. Take a listen to the Ray Stevens rendition of "Mountain of Love" from his Nouveau Retro digital album...

Ray Stevens: The Think Country Music Write-Up...

Hello Ray Stevens fans...while looking online for news and new photos of Ray Stevens to add to my personal collection I came across a write-up of the current digital album from Ray Stevens, Nouveau Retro (What's Old is New Again). The article promotes the current digital album and includes a link to a recent online article written about Ray Stevens which appears on the webpage of The Tennessean. The promo article is on a webpage called Think Country Music and it was written by Denise Zylow. You can read the article by clicking HERE. 

When you read the article you notice the headline, obviously. When I read the headline I immediately thought that the article would make it sound as if this digital album had just been released but when I begin reading I was happy to see that the author informed the readers that Ray had issued four digital albums in the past four months and that in July he'll issue a box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, which will be filled with CD copies of the four digital download albums from earlier in the year: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. Those digital albums were released during the months of February, March, April, and May. On the current digital album some of the songs are "April in Paris", "Earth Angel", "Mountain of Love", and "Cry Me a River". The delight of each of the four digital albums is hearing Ray interpret them and on top of this we're also hearing his music arrangements for each and every performance.    

Ray Stevens: My Review of "Nouveau Retro"...

As a longtime fan of Ray Stevens I've listened to hundreds upon hundreds of recordings by the legendary Country Music Hall of Fame member. I've also read a lot of reviews over the decades pertaining to songs, albums, music videos, or concerts from Ray Stevens...at one point there were several book reviews when he released his memoir back in 2014. However, I come across a description in a review from several decades ago that characterized Ray more as a recording artist than a recording star. The author of that description meant it as a compliment...explaining that throughout Ray's career he's been more focused on the music rather than maintaining focus on "being a star". Ray himself, in his memoir, remarked that he was always more focused on making records and working on the arrangements, the production, the publishing, and he left the marketing and the publicity in the hands of whatever marketing firm the record company was associated with or in most cases it was left up to the record label's internal marketing team to promote his music (some of the record labels he was on didn't necessarily handle marketing that great, but that's another story!). The series of digital albums that Ray's been releasing in the first half of 2021 go to great lengths to showcase his versatility when it comes to music styles and it puts the spotlight on his music arrangement skills and his production skills. Every aspect of a Ray Stevens album is under his creative control...and when you listen to Nouveau Retro you'll hear a recording artist perfectly comfortable leaping from style to style. The album kicks off with his urgent rendition of "April in Paris" and the jazzy ambience of this performance sets the mood for the first 5 tracks on the album.

Nouveau Retro is completely different than his previous digital album, Slow Dance, even though both fit under the same umbrella. In this latest digital album you're going to hear some slow ballads backed with symphonic arrangements but you're also going to hear some mid-tempo songs as well. When I was looking over the track list for this album I noticed "Blue Moon" as track two. I had completely forgot that the song originated back in the 1930's...a crooning pop hit in 1934...so I was surprised to hear a ballad rendition of the song! I was so used to hearing the doo-wop rendition by The Marcels that I'd grown up hearing on Oldies radio stations in the 1990s and 2000s. Ray's rendition has a mid-tempo feel to it...the way he belts out the song's title with such energy! The tempo lowers a bit on track three, "Earth Angel". Now, this is a song that I first heard on the movie, Back to the Future. I'm sure most people in my age group were introduced to the song in that movie. It's a song I could picture Ray singing at any number of sock hops in the late '50s. There were two versions of the song released in the same time period...the Top-10 pop, number one Rhythm and Blues release by The Penguins came along late in 1954 and peaked within the early part of 1955 while a recording by The Crew-Cuts reached the Top-10 of the pop charts as well. 

After opening the digital album with three songs arranged in a pop-standards flavor he switches gears and delivers a piano-heavy ballad with gorgeous music accompaniment on "Lay Me Down, Roll Me Out to Sea". Although all of the songs on here had previously been recorded by other artists the title of track four sounded oddly familiar. I did some research and discovered why it sounded so familiar...it had previously been recorded by Barry Manilow. It appears on his 1975 album, Tryin' To Get the Feeling. Ray does the song so well...incorporating a gospel inflection...perhaps a lively spiritual inflection to match the soft key strokes on the piano. For track five, "Cry Me a River", Ray comes across like a male torch singer...and if you're familiar with the storyline of the song you'll understand the reason why I use the torch singer description. Ray's decision to include it on Nouveau Retro had me thinking back to an article I'd read about his alumni class reunion in 2007. One of Ray's high school friends remarked that when she and Ray were on local radio together she preferred songs like "Cry Me a River" by Julie London...and she said that Ray always wanted to play suggestive, playful songs by Rhythm and Blues artists. Those artists, at the time, weren't considered mainstream...which is why The Crew Cuts version of "Earth Angel" was a bigger pop hit while The Penguins had the bigger Rhythm and Blues hit. 

Okay now...we're at track six! This song jumps right out at you...it's an up-tempo recording and Ray superbly tackles "Mountain of Love". I grin throughout the entire performance. The song is bouncy and it has this rockabilly feel...it's not very up-tempo in the vein of Johnny Rivers or Charley Pride but compared to the first 5 tracks on Nouveau Retro "Mountain of Love" is very up-tempo. I think it's one of the highlights of the entire digital album. Ray covers himself in the next three songs. Ray previously recorded "Talk to Me" for his 1978 album, There is Something On Your Mind. The instrumentation on this 2021 recording is modernized but he kept the same arrangement. The same thing holds true for "Young Love" and "Indian Love Call"...both songs were previously recorded with Ray's arrangements on his 1975 Misty album and on this 2021 digital album he kept his original arrangements but used modernized instrumentation. 

The pop song "No, Not Much" appears as track ten. This is a song that builds upon irony and tells how the man doesn't think much about the girl or anything else in his life...only to contradict himself time after time...eventually asking himself if she ever walks out on him would he like it? The response? "No, Not Much"! Ray delivers his version of the pop-standard "You Don't Know Me", track eleven. The song comes from the pen of Cindy Walker...research says she gave Eddy Arnold co-writer credit because he thought up the song's title and storyline...but she wrote the lyrics. A classic love ballad it became a hit for the likes of Jerry Vale, Eddy Arnold, Ray Charles, and Mickey Gilley. It's been recorded by hundreds of recording artists and on this digital album Ray Stevens takes his turn at the song and hits a home run. Now, not to be overlooked, is the finale: "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows / Over the Rainbow". The medley features a little over a minute's worth of lyrics from "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" before it morphs into "Over the Rainbow" for the duration of the song. Ray had recorded "Over the Rainbow" in 1975...and in this 2021 recording he instrumentally modernized his arrangement and he also sang it almost note for note as he did in 1975! He hits a lot of high notes pretty much matching his 1975 rendition. Nouveau Retro was the fourth in a series of four digital albums Curb Records released on Ray Stevens this year. In June all four of those digital albums will be released in CD format in a box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The box set will enable us to discover the names of the musicians on these recordings, too. 

Ray did an extraordinary job with this digital album and the previous three. His music arranging skills were put on full display and it also spotlighted the diversity of music styles he likes to record...something which has always been there throughout his career...yet often overlooked/overshadowed by his novelty songs. 

Ray Stevens: Nouveau Retro on Amazon's Top-100

Hello once again to the fans of Ray Stevens! Ray's current Nouveau Retro digital album debuted on the Amazon Best Selling New Releases Top-100 yesterday. When I checked the list it was ranked within the Top-30. The positions change every hour. Ray's previous three digital albums made appearances on this list and I made note of it and so now I'm making note of his current digital album appearing there. I've been jotting down a series of opinions and thoughts on little sheets of notebook paper that I'll soon turn into a review of Nouveau Retro. I made note of several things when I first listened to the digital album and I'll be making some more notes when I listen several more times and then I'll write my review. Some of the songs that are highlights include "Mountain of Love", "April in Paris", "Blue Moon", "Lay Me Down, Roll Me Out To Sea", and the album closer, "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows / Over the Rainbow". It'll be right around this time next month that Ray will issue all four digital albums in CD format in a box set called Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. Yes, as I've often remarked, I'll be purchasing the CD box set next month because that's just how I am. If there's CD availability of a Ray Stevens digital album I order it for my personal collection. Since this will be a box set I'm assuming it'll come with some sort of a booklet or liner notes. Ray released a statement about Nouveau Retro and I'm going to paste it here. I said I'd be pasting his other statements about the previous three digital albums in a future blog entry and at some point I will...but for now I'm copying/pasting Ray's statement about his current release...

"Nouveau Retro is just my way of saying...Let's take a new look at some old standards. I guess it is a bit of a habit of mine to hear some piece of music or recording I really like and after listening a few times, begin to think of how it might be done a little differently. I just can't seem to help myself, if I were a painter I would probably want to add a little something to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at some point. One of the characteristics of really great music is that it can stand the test of interpretation or re-interpretation. A great song continues to be 'great' even when it's presented in a completely different way and this selection is definitely in the that category. When we hear a song and we like it we consider it our own. We hear people say 'They're playing our song' or 'My song.' That's because some songs become personal and we don't want people messing with them...but then...there are adventurous, curious, experimental souls like me...and hopefully you. So lay aside all previous opinions and be open to receive a little something different and behold....Nouveau Retro (What’s Old is New Again)!"

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Mountain of Love"...

Well, hello to all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! It's release day for Nouveau Retro and I purchased it about an hour ago and have listened to it already. It's great...a good selection of songs that Ray decided to bring back. You can purchase your copy of the digital album by clicking HERE. I like all the songs...one of the stand-out tracks, in my opinion, is his rendition of "Mountain of Love". Ray's rendition kicks off with what I call a mid '60s flavor...well, when I heard it I thought of that time period in pop/rock music. The song was made popular, the first time around, by Johnny Rivers. His rendition is great and has harmonica solo's. I grew up hearing the country music version from Charley Pride. Ray's rendition is up-tempo throughout and it's a bouncy up-tempo performance. If you're familiar with Johnny Rivers or Charley Pride's version you'll immediately notice the lack of female harmony singers chiming in "oh, yeah!" at various moments in the song. This lack of harmony singers is something that caught me off guard...especially since Ray's known for having female harmony singers adding a lot of accompaniment to his recordings yet for this song he decided to not utilize them. I'll be writing a review of the digital album at some point later today or over the weekend after I listen to the album several more times but I just had to share this song right away because it jumps right out at you. When it comes to "Mountain of Love" Ray, obviously, didn't want to make a carbon copy of the Johnny Rivers or Charley Pride renditions and so he recorded it this way...