Ray Stevens: CabaRay Nashville on YouTube E-4, S-2

Hello once again...and this is my overview of Episode 4, Season 2 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. This episode guest stars Leroy Van Dyke. The show opens up with Ray singing "Cooter Brown", an up-tempo number about a local town drunk who had no cares in the world. The song's title is a reference to a Southern United States legend about a man during the Civil War who lived on the State line separating a Union and Confederate State. It's presumably the border between Kentucky and Tennessee or West Virginia and Virginia where "Cooter Brown" lived...drunk out of his mind for the duration of the Civil War...to prevent having to fight in the war. Legend has it Cooter had family that lived in Union and Confederate States so he had allegiance to the North and the South. Ray's recording of "Cooter Brown" is on his 2015 comedy album, Here We Go Again!.

Ray speaks of moving to Nashville in January of 1962 and becoming a session musician and the head of Mercury Records Artists and Repertoire division. He speaks of the magical day in January when he was involved in three separate hit recordings. In one day at Mercury Records he was in the studio for the recording of Joe Dowell's "Wooden Heart" (playing organ), Leroy Van Dyke's "Walk on By", and his own recording, "Ahab the Arab". Leroy's recording was published by Bill Lowery and produced by Shelby Singleton...as was Ray's "Ahab the Arab". I don't know if Ray played on the "Walk on By" session or if he observed it from behind the producer's glass as Shelby Singleton ran the control board. If so that would mean Ray sat in on the recording session and witnessed it but didn't actually play on it...but he may have been an assistant to Jerry Kennedy who was often credited as "orchestra conductor" on some of Mercury's recordings in addition to being one of the mainstays in the Nashville studio system and ultimately a record producer in his own right. Jerry Kennedy is credited as being one of the guitarists on "Walk on By". Ray introduces Leroy Van Dyke and they discuss Shelby Singleton, Jerry Kennedy, and several more. Leroy mentions that he attempted writing songs and it led him to be a co-writers of "The Auctioneer". Leroy performs "Walk on By" after telling it's origins and how he talked the powers that be into allowing him to record the song. Leroy mentions that what sold him on the song was the follow-up line to the song's title: "Just Walk on By...wait on the corner...".

Ray touched on most of the high points in Leroy's career...even asking him to reveal his age. This was asked by Ray because I feel he wanted the audience to take in/appreciate the stamina and mental sharpness of a man in Leroy's age bracket. Leroy was also heavily involved with the Country Crossroads program. The series was created by Bill Mack (the late disc jockey/songwriter known as The Midnight Cowboy) and he hosted it for many decades. He was eventually joined by co-hosts...one being Jerry Clower (beginning in 1973) and the other being Leroy Van Dyke. His involvement with that series wasn't brought up in this episode of Ray's television show but I thought I'd insert it into this overview nonetheless. 

After the performance, Ray's live-action/limited animation music video for "Gone for Good" is played. This is followed by Leroy's performance of "The Auctioneer". We get a second dose of limited animation as Ray shows the "Misty" music video and the episode closes with Ray singing "The Bricklayer's Song". 

Ray Stevens: Forty Five at Fifty Three...

One of the aspects of the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom in West Nashville is the interior design. While the exterior of the showroom is wonderful to look at the interior is obviously much more wonderful to behold. The performance area includes pictorial tributes to various people behind the scenes that were instrumental in the shaping of Nashville as Music City, U.S.A. and while some of the names on the wall are familiar to a general audience there may be some that aren't. The booth's inside the showroom are named for record producers, for example, in addition to their name and imagery on the walls. I'll be including a video embed near the end of this blog entry that takes a brief tour of the CabaRay prior to it's grand opening. In the video you'll notice a white piano sitting on stage. I don't know how long the white piano was in use but in every photo I've seen and when I visited the CabaRay back in March he had the ever popular red piano on stage. The video clip was posted on YouTube on January 9th and the CabaRay had it's grand opening later that month.

This opening paragraph about the CabaRay leads into the overall focus of this blog entry. While I've written frequently about a number of Ray Stevens single releases I felt like writing a blog entry about a particular recording titled "The Old English Surfer". This song, written by Ray, was released as the B-side of a single on Mercury Records in the summer of 1965. The A-side is "Mr. Baker the Undertaker".

The recording was produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. When you watch the video clip later on in the blog entry you'll see their names along the CabaRay wall. The song can be classified as pure novelty as can it's A-side. This recording came along at a time when Ray's main focus happened to be in the production side of the music industry. Ray had two separate careers going at the same time. He had a recording contract with Mercury Records while he played on sessions and did production work for acts primarily on the Monument Records label but he also produced, arranged, and played on the recording sessions of lesser known acts on a wide variety of labels in the Mercury and Monument family of subsidiary labels. Ray didn't have a recording contract with Monument Records during this time and so any studio recording from Ray that appeared on vinyl was under the control of Mercury Records. This unique scenario of working for two competing record labels ended, though, by late 1965. He became a recording artist for Monument Records, interestingly enough, with his next single release and so "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" / "The Old English Surfer" happened to be the final single release on him, at the moment, from Mercury Records. He returned to Mercury Records later on for a series of single releases and an album but the bulk of his recordings for the label arrived during the 1961-1965 time frame.

"The Old English Surfer" is a song about what you'd think it would be about. The novelty song uses the massive popularity of the surfer craze sweeping pop music but doesn't feature conventional 'surf music' in the background. Instead it features some sound effects of gurgling/bubbling water and an electric guitar contributing surf-type accompaniment. In the song Ray tells the story of an Englishman that works at a beach and how his violin controls the flow of the waves. According to the song the action takes place in the year 1542 and Ray assures the listener that this was well before Jan and Dean made their debut. Aside from that one reference to contemporary pop act, Jan and Dean, the rest of the song centers around the violinist's prowess and Ray's manic vocal delivery. In closing here's the video clip from earlier this year as Ray walks around the performance area of the CabaRay...

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Hall of Fame episode

Good early Monday morning!! I'm a bit depressed over the loss of the Feedjit traffic counter. I always looked forward to visiting the blog and see how many visitors had stopped by and where they were from, etc. etc. I've replaced it with a service called StatCounter which doesn't provide the country of origin of visitors which the previous service did...StatCounter only shows the total number of times the blog's been accessed. When I visited the blog yesterday morning the StatCounter shown the blog had accumulated 6 visits since it's installation. This morning it shown a total of 24...so, in a way I'm glad I can still see something of a visitation total for my blog but it doesn't provide location or time of day, etc. etc. But anyway...this blog entry is about the fourth episode of Season Six of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville.

This episode originally aired on local PBS syndication the weekend of April 28th and it was uploaded onto Ray's video site just this past weekend. Speaking of which...Ray has a second option for people to view his video programming. He now has a Roku channel in addition to RayStevens.tv. The Roku channel can be accessed HERE. I know nothing about Roku but I've heard of it for a number of years and so for those that are familiar with it you can get access, for a subscription, to all of Ray's video content...with the allure being the episodes of his television series...which a lot of fans routinely complain that their local PBS station doesn't carry it. Those two video sites provide a solution.



Season Six's fourth episode, titled Hall of Fame, marked the first episode of the series to air at the CabaRay showroom. The curtains pulled apart after Bill Cody's introduction...and you see his familiar lit up signature on display behind the band...and Ray promptly launched into "Nashville". This was the only performance at the CabaRay, though, as the bulk of the episode highlighted clips from previous episodes...singling out Hall of Fame members or recording artists performing songs produced by Hall of Fame members. After Ray's performance of "Nashville" the camera faded from the stage and the next thing we see is Ray speaking about the CabaRay and how up until tonight the episodes had been taped at one of his recording facilities on Music Row but from here on out the episodes will originate at the CabaRay.

Ray takes the viewer on a tour...reading an inscription on the wall which provides visitors a brief background on why Ray wanted to build the showroom and have it spotlight people behind the scenes (session musicians, arrangers, and record producers). Ray is next seen in front of the Owen Bradley booth. There are red booths inside the CabaRay named for legendary record producers.

Ray speaks about Owen's legacy as well as Harold's. This sets up the performance of "Crazy" by Harold Bradley (on guitar) and Mandy Barnett (vocals) from the third season (it's first on PBS). Ray next speaks of Chet Atkins and of their long history in and out of the music industry. He mentioned that he produced a novelty record on Chet which became a hit. Although he doesn't mention it by name it's "Frog Kissing". Ray speaks of playing on numerous recording sessions for Chet...and on one session he did string arrangements for the Bobby Bare recording, "Streets of Baltimore", which Chet produced. Ray plays a clip of Bobby's performance of the song.

Ray speaks of Shelby Singleton next...and he tells the viewer that Shelby's responsible for the production of "Ahab the Arab". Shelby produced the recording sessions at Mercury Records during the time Ray recorded for them and in those days the record company typically had one or two head producers who were responsible at production of all artists on the roster which is why people like Shelby, Chet, Owen, and several others were in charge of so many sessions. Ray name drops a couple of other songs Shelby produced, "Harper Valley, PTA" and "Hey Paula", but then a clip of "Walk on By" by LeRoy Van Dyke is played. Ray doesn't mention that he played on the recording session. Ray next speaks about Fred Foster and Monument Records. A clip of "Orange Blossom Special" by Charlie McCoy is played. Ray talks about Billy Sherrill and the recordings he produced...citing "He Stopped Loving Her Today"...which leads into a clip of one of the song's writers, Bobby Braddock, performing it on a keyboard.

The next producer spoken about is Jerry Kennedy...a legendary figure as a session musician and producer. He produced nearly everything The Statler Brothers and Tom T. Hall recorded during their years at Mercury Records...also producing sessions on Roger Miller. Ray plays a clip of himself performing "King of the Road". Ray closes the show detailing more things about the CabaRay prior to the closing credits. There isn't a closing dance...I don't know if it'll be worked into future episodes though...during the closing we see images of the trophy case and other areas of the CabaRay interior.

The special guest this weekend happens to be Moe Bandy. This episode will be uploaded onto his video sites next weekend. This will mark a return to a more typical episode...minus the retrospective and clip-filled assemblage of the previous two. As such Moe's episode will hold the distinction of being the first complete episode to air on the CabaRay stage. When it's uploaded onto Ray's video site I'll watch it and provide a recap next weekend.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Leroy Van Dyke

Hello once more...and in this blog entry I'm focusing on Episode Four, Season Two of Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville. Local PBS stations originally aired this in June of 2017 but the local PBS station in my area didn't air it. It's one of two episodes I watched this morning from the DVD of Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville, Season Two.



Season 2, Episode 4 kicks off with Ray opening the showing performing "Cooter Brown", a song from his 2009 CD, One for the Road. It's a fun, uptempo sing a long song if you've never heard it before. Afterward he introduces Leroy Van Dyke. There are a couple of things that you may or may not know concerning an interesting connection between both Ray and Leroy. After a fade in Ray is at the piano and he makes mention of moving to Nashville on January 2, 1962 but had participated in the recordings of three million selling singles. Joe Dowell's "Wooden Heart", his own recording of "Ahab the Arab", and "Walk on By" by Leroy Van Dyke. During the conversation Leroy mentions his gratefulness for Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. He also makes mention of Bill Lowery...all three were associated with Ray's early years in Nashville, too. Jerry Kennedy became a top record producer for Smash Records and later on it's parent, Mercury Records. He produced a lot of recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom T. Hall, and The Statler Brothers...and he co-produced Ray's 1983 album on Mercury Records, Me.

Trivia: Ray's 1983 album happened to be his final studio album, to date, featuring a co-producer.

Leroy tells the story of "Walk on By" and the concept of song shopping at publisher houses. He mentioned that "Walk on By" happened to be a song he came across but was repeatedly told it was unavailable for recording because it wasn't completed. Leroy speaks of being adamant and insisted upon hearing the song for himself. He remarked that when he heard the demo recording he realized the song wasn't complete because of it's abrupt stop at the end of a phrase. Eventually the song was completed and Leroy recorded it and it was released on Mercury (published by Lowery Music). It spent a total of 19 non-consecutive weeks at number one...beginning in the fall of 1961. It was amidst it's streak at number one on January 20, 1962. At the time it was spending it's 13th non-consecutive week at number one. It's 19th and final week at the top happened to be the week of March 3, 1962. Leroy performs the song and this is followed by the animated music video of "Gone for Good".

The performance by Leroy of his second biggest hit, "Auctioneer", is the follow-up and he mentions that he's been an auctioneer in a professional capacity during his lifetime. Ray asks how old Leroy happens to be and he said 86. His birth date is October 4, 1929 and the episode was produced during a taping session in 2016 prior to his 87th birthday. Leroy turned 88 on October 4, 2017. He joked that the secret in his looking a bit younger than his age is a diet of formaldehyde mixed into his coffee. This led Ray into telling how his grandfather used to mix gun powder into his oatmeal.

The music industry is a funny thing...although statistically "Walk on By" is his biggest hit I'd bet those familiar with Leroy Van Dyke will cite "Auctioneer" first and foremost. It hit the Top-10 on the country chart and the Top-20 on the pop chart in 1956...the very first chart recording of his career...and "Walk on By" came five years later. The animated music video of "Misty" follows Ray and Leroy's discussion on age and Ray closes the show performing "The Bricklayer's Song"...something I don't think I've ever seen Ray perform on television before. He recorded it in 1993 for his album, Classic Ray Stevens. It's a song that had been around for decades prior to his recording of it and I'm surprised it had never become some sort of music video from Ray by now...but I guess the lyrics tell such a descriptive story that you really don't need an actual visual to enhance an already hilarious story.

Episode Five of Season Two guest stars The Bellamy Brothers. I plan on watching some more episodes from the Season Two DVD of Ray's television show later on today. Once I take notes and come up with commentary to construct a review I'll have a recap of their episode and maybe more during the overnight hours.

Ray Stevens on Speaking Freely...April 2002...

Hello one and all...a fellow Ray Stevens fan brought to my attention an interview that Ray gave back in 2002 for the Speaking Freely program. For years I had seen the interview on-line but had never seen a video...I wasn't aware one existed. This discovery via social media happened yesterday on my Facebook page even though the upload hit YouTube a couple days ago.



The interview is conducted by Ken Paulson.

The video and a transcription can be found HERE. I had seen this page years ago and to my knowledge a video never existed (if one existed you'd think I'd have embedded it on one of my blog entries by now) but yet there's a video box on that page and so you can either click the video here or click the link and watch it there and read along. According to the data the interview took place on April 1, 2002. Longtime fans of Ray no doubt ill get a thrill seeing him perform abbreviated versions of "Osama Yo' Mama" (at the time it happened to be among the Top-5 best selling country music songs). Ray also talks about and performs pieces of "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", "Ahab the Arab", "Mr. Businessman", "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" and he speaks about the changes in the music industry.

Keep in mind that this took place in 2002...and this kind of interview happened to be a rarity back then because Ray's not exactly known for being one that bares his soul for all to see and he doesn't do that here, neither, but it's one of the rare times he's given in-depth recollections of his life and times. He's a private man and he's not the sort that likes to get personal or open up about his off-stage happenings. Ray's opened up a little bit more since then, however...read his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, and you'll see what I mean...but by no means is it a "tell-all" book but that interview/video is a treasure trove of anecdotes and performances.

***CONCERT ALERT***

If you're in the area Ray Stevens is going to be in concert Saturday night August 1st  (tomorrow) in Hiawassee, Georgia at the county fair. The tickets became available back on May 22 but given that the concert's tomorrow night and if you're wanting to attend I'd suggest you call the venue and see if walk-up tickets are available.

You can read about the Georgia appearance HERE.

If you missed the chance of getting tickets to that concert in Georgia and aren't able to attend you can call this morning beginning at 10am and purchase tickets to Ray's October concert in Bowling Green, Kentucky at the SkyPac venue. The concert is to be held on October 2. The next night Ray is going to do 2 separate concerts at the Country Tonite Theatre in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Ray has 2 concerts scheduled for September. One of them is in Branson, Missouri at The Andy Williams Theatre on September 12th and then on September 19th he'll be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the Alabama Theatre.

These concert dates are part of his Here We Go Again! Tour. You can read all about the October concert by clicking HERE or you can see his tour schedule by clicking HERE and selecting the venue from one single page.

To purchase your copy of his current CD, titled Here We Go Again!, click this LINK. It features "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" and "You Didn't Build That"...both songs have been turned into YouTube music videos.