Ray Stevens: Audio Diary 4

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! If you happen to be reading this and you're just a casual 'fan' of Ray or if you only know of him by way of something comical he's done then this fan created blog page is a perfect introduction to the music and career of Ray Stevens from the very beginning to present day. My time-line on the right hand side of the page provides a spotlight and gives highlight to practically every year in Ray's professional career. I have long since made the determination that his professional career began in 1957 when Ken Nelson signed him to Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. Prior to this Ray was making a name for himself in and around two Georgia towns, Atlanta and Albany. He had a band in high school called The Barons and worked as a disc jockey... fitting in the time to host a teenage dance program, The Record Hop, with co-host Mary Dale Van Zant. This pre-1957 activity indicated that Ray's natural talents and the skills he was perfecting would eventually lead to stardom.

In this Audio Diary 4 I'm spotlighting a recording Ray did of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", a previous pop hit for The Four Seasons. Ray does a Bluegrass version of the song and it's from his 2021 album, Melancholy Fescue. For some reason you haven't heard of this album I suggest you visit YouTube, type Ray's name and the album's title, and wait for the page to load. You'll be directed to a page that features the audio track list from that album. Every recording is fabulous but I decided to spotlight "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" to possibly entice you to check out the entire album. Ray can play the romantic lead if and when he wants... so if you still have it in your mind that all there is to Ray Stevens is silliness and comedy then this album will introduce you to the vast array of talents that Ray possesses. 

The Melancholy Fescue album is one of the albums that makes up Ray's box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The box set contains 4 CD's of diverse forms of music/iconic songs re-arranged and covered by Ray. 

Ray Stevens: The Melancholy Fescue YouTube Page

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As I'm sure you all know by now if you look up several Ray Stevens albums on YouTube you're going to find audio tracks from the albums in the search results. The complete albums are available to listen to on YouTube. In case you've never done it by now all you have to do is type in Ray's name and the album you're looking up. Now, keep in mind, not every single album from him is available to listen to on YouTube but a good chunk of them are. An album from a more recent vintage is 2021's Melancholy Fescue. It's such a wonderfully produced and recorded album...in one of my reviews I think I used the word, exquisite, to describe how I felt about the overall album. It's an album of 12 songs. The YouTube page for the album contains audio tracks to 11 of the 12 songs. "Unchained Melody", since it was previously made into an official music video, it's featured on the YouTube page for Melancholy Fescue instead of just an audio track. The music video's gotten more than 1,000,000 unique views. The YouTube playlist for the album can be found HERE.

The audio track with the most YouTube plays is "Ruby/Ruby Baby" at 5.6K followed closely by "Goin' Out Of My Head" at 4.8K. The third most played audio track from Melancholy Fescue is "Oh, Pretty Woman" at 3.4K. His rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", such a fun song, is nearing 1,000 plays as is "Twilight Time". The track that has the fewest plays is his version of "People", a song previously recorded by Barbra Streisand in 1964. It's gotten 565 plays. When you do a YouTube for Ray and the song, "People", you will not find it among the first dozen or so results. Instead what you'll get first are songs from Ray with the word, people, in the title...and although the song is called "People" you'll have to scroll through numerous video uploads to find the actual song, "People". I'm pretty sure that sort of thing is why the audio track has only gotten 565 plays, to date. If you search for the name of the album you're going to find "People" more quicker than if you do a general search for the Ray Stevens recording. The lack of exposure, apparently, for "People" is why I'm embedding the video to close out this blog entry. I know you're going to love it if you've never heard it...and if you've heard Ray's recording already I know you're going to love hearing it again!

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: "Misty" performance from 2015...

Hello one and all...earlier today Ray Stevens uploaded a performance he gave at the Casino Rama in Orillia, Canada. He has uploaded several performances from that 2015 concert onto his YouTube channel and "Misty" is the latest upload from that concert. When Ray performed that concert his rendition of "Misty" was turning 40 that year...and when you see the video I'm sure you'll notice that Ray gives just as much energy and execution into the performance in 2015 as he's given every year...going back to 1975! He simply is a great recording artist.

The video is of high quality...as are the other video clips from the 2015 concert. Ray has made it clear, however, that the Casino Rama concert was recorded for online presentation only. That announcement was made when several other Ray Stevens fans were wondering if this footage will make it's way onto any future DVD release. 

Have any of you made your way to the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom yet? You were aware that the Piano Bar is open, right? Pianist John Jonethis is appearing at the Piano Bar inside the CabaRay. Ray re-opened the Piano Bar last month and there have been several video uploads on YouTube promoting the re-opening. However, tonight is the final night of the Piano Bar exclusive...next Saturday (September 4th) Ray Stevens returns to the concert stage at the CabaRay showroom. John Jonethis had been performing at the Piano Bar on Friday and Saturday nights, beginning at 7:30pm Central time, but starting next Saturday he'll begin playing in the Piano Bar at 5pm Central until a little bit before Ray's concert begins at 7:30pm Central. Yes...Ray Stevens will no doubt sing "Misty" at the CabaRay. 

Ray Stevens: Musicians on "Sophisticated Lady"...

Several blog entries ago I spotlighted the various musicians that participated in the four digital albums that Ray Stevens released this year. As you probably know I didn't know the names of the musicians until I was able to get CD copies of those digital albums. I shouldn't say it like that, though...the musician credits aren't an automatic thing when it comes to CD's. I've got numerous compact discs without any musician credits whatsoever so I was grateful to see musician credits accompany the 4-CD Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The thing I'm doing with this blog entry is focus on the musician credits for "Sophisticated Lady", one of the songs found on Melancholy Fescue. If you have the digital album or if you have the 4-CD box set "Sophisticated Lady" is track 8 on Melancholy Fescue. If you like to keep your compact disc releases in chronological order, as I often do, Melancholy Fescue will be compact disc two in the 4-CD box set...preceded by February's Great Country Ballads and followed by April's Slow Dance and May's Nouveau Retro. 

Ray Stevens did the string arrangements on this recording. The overall project featured string arrangements from both Ray as well as Bergen White. As far as string arranging Ray is credited on 17 of the 48 recordings found on the four albums. Bergen White did the string arrangements on the other recordings. Melancholy Fescue and Nouveau Retro feature the heaviest amount of string arrangements from Ray. As far as studio musicians go on Melancholy Fescue Ray played piano, keyboards, conga drums, harp, bass, flute, and tympani. On "Sophisticated Lady", specifically, the rest of the musicians were: Ned Luberecki (Banjo); Glen Duncan (Fiddle); Jerry Kimbrough (Guitars); and Rob Ickes (Resophonic Guitar). 

When you listen to the song you're going to hear a word right out of the 1930s...the music was written by Duke Ellington in 1932...released as an instrumental in 1933...and eventually lyrics were added to the song by Mitchell Parish/Irving Mills as I wrote about in a previous blog entry. The word that you'll hear is nigh. The word means near or something that's soon to happen. I've never used that word before but I understood what it meant in the context of the song and I'm sure a lot of you can figure out what the word means when listening to the song but I thought I'd explain what the word means, anyway. 

A lot of the songs on the four albums feature phrases and words that help show the time period upon which they originated. I think it's artistically important for recording artists to keep lyrics intact on cover albums, such as the four Ray released, because it helps illustrate a song's time period. Some artists implement minor changes in lyrics of pop standards and country music classics so that it doesn't cause confusion for contemporary listeners who aren't familiar with older terminology and phrases. Unless I didn't notice there aren't any lyrical changes on any of the songs Ray recorded for the four albums released. If you discover any lyrical changes I'd like to know. 

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue unique play Totals...

Hello all...a couple months ago I composed a series of blog entries where I spotlighted the overall YouTube play totals of three of Ray's digital albums. I didn't compose a blog entry and have Melancholy Fescue in the title but I'm correcting this now. When I glanced over my archives for the month of July I seen that three blog entries have titles focusing on the unique plays on YouTube of Great Country Ballads, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro. I composed a blog entry in that same time period (July 15th) of one of the audio tracks from Melancholy Fescue, the "In the Still of the Night" medley, nearing a thousand unique plays on YouTube. That audio has since gotten 1,000 plays and then some. As all of you should know by now this digital album has since been issued in CD format as part of the 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The Melancholy Fescue digital album was originally released on March 26th and during it's first several weeks of availability it was a recurring product on Amazon's New Releases Top-100 in the Country Music Digital Album section of the online store. Arranged from highest to lowest audio plays here's a snapshot of mid July for the YouTube play totals of the Melancholy Fescue audio tracks is as follows:

1. Ruby / Ruby Baby: 4.3K

2. Goin' Out of My Head: 4.2K

3. Unchained Melody: 3.2K

4. Oh, Pretty Woman: 2.6K

5. At This Moment: 1.1K

6. In the Still of the Night / In the Still of the Night: 1K

7. MacArthur Park: 912

8. Twilight Time: 634

9. Can't Take My Eyes Off You: 604

10. Sophisticated Lady: 420

11. Spring is Here: 502

12. People: 389

An estimated overall play total for the audio tracks on Melancholy Fescue is 19.7K. As most of you should also know "Unchained Melody" is available as a traditional music video. The unique views for that video is more than 922,000. Since this particular blog entry is focusing on the audio tracks of the digital album I, obviously, didn't include the numbers for the music video. If you were to add all of the YouTube content associated with Melancholy Fescue (the audio tracks and the music video) the overall combined play total would be in the neighborhood of an estimated 938,550. The Amazon digital album copy of Melancholy Fescue can be purchased HERE. 

In mid July the YouTube play for "MacArthur Park" was 866. Today it's 912. It's an increase of 46 plays for an audio that's a little over 6 minutes in length. Could it break the 1,000 play level? Pop music historians, as well as country music historians, have a history of bad mouthing "MacArthur Park" and it's often placed on those highly subjective and snobbish 'Worst Songs of All-Time' lists. I happen to think most of that negative reaction is simply based on the song's length, first and foremost, because if you set aside the length and just listen to the incredible music and the storyline it's a fascinating song. There's also this kind of built-in resentment of the song from those who consider themselves fans of rock and roll and what's called hard rock. 

The first recording of the song arrived in 1968 (Richard Harris) and it's official length time was 7 minutes, 21 seconds. Waylon Jennings and the vocal quartet, The Kimberlys, recorded a version which ended up winning a Grammy. Their rendition is 5 minutes, 10 seconds. A disco rendition arrived in 1978 (Donna Summer)...with multiple versions...the album rendition was 8 minutes, 27 seconds whereas the single copy was edited down to 3 minutes, 59 seconds. The Ray Stevens bluegrass rendition of "MacArthur Park" is 6 minutes, 11 seconds and I have a feeling that you're going to love his rendition of the song.  

Ray Stevens: "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century" 4-CD collection...

Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! It's been a few days since the July 23rd release of the 4-CD Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. If we're to be specific it's only the second business day but since most people purchase their music online it's 24/7 business. The 4-CD collection isn't in stock on Amazon. I've not been able to find out the reason why. It was shown to be available for pre-order in the hours before it was released but then as soon as release day arrived it changed from being available for pre-order to being temporarily out of stock...and it's remained out of stock ever since. It's a shame that it isn't available on the world's largest online store but never mind...it's readily available on Ray's official website plus it's available at the Curb Records store. The overall project's been a proven success just by judging at the amount of plays the audio tracks have gotten on YouTube since the release of Great Country Ballads back in February of this year. The audio tracks that were heavily promoted on Ray's social media, naturally, have benefitted the most and have pulled the largest YouTube plays. What shouldn't get overlooked, though, are the other audio tracks from these four albums that people have found on their own on YouTube. The audio tracks from each of the four releases consistently rack up plays. When you purchase the box set you're going to hear Ray perform songs that are arranged pop, country, bluegrass, and easy-listening/soft rock. You will also hear him tackle what were commonly called torch songs like "Cry Me a River", "April in Paris", and "Sweet Dreams".

It's lovely isn't it? The 4 compact discs come with their individual cover art, jewel case, and I'm assuming songwriter, musician, and publisher credits. Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro make up the 4-CD release. The screen cap is from the promo video that Ray uploaded this past Friday. As of this writing the promo video's gotten a little over 1,000 unique views on YouTube and a little over 5,000 views on Facebook. Where can your purchase this 4-CD set?? I've provided two links...one is to Ray's official website and another is to the Curb Records store. If you visit the Curb Records store you'll see all of the songs listed from each compact disc. There's a universal purchase link on the Curb website. Stream/Purchase/Download. This link appears below any music product in the Curb Records store whether it's a digital album or a compact disc. You, as a Ray Stevens fan, make the choice between whether you want to purchase Iconic Songs of the 20th Century from Ray's webstore or if you want to purchase it from the Curb Records store. If you're reading this and you live in Tennessee chances are you might come across this 4-CD box set in your local Walmart store so if you haven't done so already take a look and see if it's there. In the video promo Ray mentions that it'll be in select retail stores...but didn't specify...so I'm assuming he's referring to regional/local shopping stores in the Nashville area. The collection contains 48 songs.  

RAY'S STORE   

CURB RECORDS STORE

Ray Stevens: It's release day for "Iconic Songs of the 20th Century"...

Well, release day for Iconic Songs of the 20th Century has finally happened!!! The box set from Ray Stevens contains CD copies of his previously released digital albums. I checked Amazon and I looked at the webstore over on Ray's website and it's also available for order there, too. The Amazon product page for the box set, as of this writing, shows that it's available as a Pre-order. I'm assuming that Amazon's official time zone is Pacific...which means as of this writing it's a little past 10pm out West. Here where I am it's nearly 1am. I mention this each time Ray has released new projects. Amazon waits until it's release day in their time zone. As mentioned the box set is also available on Ray's webstore. If you visit the webstore you'll see photos of all four of the discs. Also, on Ray's webpage, you'll see a sideview of the box set. I was assuming the box set would have to be opened up to reveal the discs but the box design they went with features the discs stacked in jewel cases on top of one another and to remove a particular CD from the box set you slide the jewel case from the right hand side of the box. The thing that I'm thrilled with is the fact that the discs are inside individual jewel cases with cover art. I was thinking that the discs would just be sitting in paper sleeves on top of one another in a box but based on the image shown on Ray's webstore each disc has it's own jewel case and cover art. I bring that up because I had originally thought the images shown for each digital album were only for online promotional purposes but, as said, I'm thrilled to see that the discs will be in cases with cover art. I'm assuming musician credits will also be available for each release. As you see on the box set's cover art it's subtitled The Soundtrack of Our Lives. 

I'll be including links to both Amazon and to the official Ray Stevens webstore near the closing of this blog entry. 

This won't be my only blog entry today...as the Central and Eastern time zones begin their day 7 or 8 hours from now I look for some official publicity from Ray's social media to hit the internet surrounding the release of this box set. Once Ray starts to publicize the box set, as I'm thinking he will, I'll be on the lookout for any news articles, write-ups, video promos, or whatever it might be to pop up online. Once I come across any and all publicity for this release I'll blog about it. I won't be writing a traditional review of the box set because I have the music already through my purchases of the four digital albums and I've written individual reviews of each digital album. I'll be purchasing the box set because I want the music on CD and I'm buying it for the cover art and the musician credits and for any potential personal comments from Ray that might be found if there's a fold-out cover. Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, on Amazon, can be purchased by clicking HERE. If you prefer to purchase it directly from Ray's webstore you can do so HERE. The box set is also being sold on the Curb Records online store. The product page for the box set at the Curb Records website only shows the track list for Great Country Ballads rather than having the whole 48 song track list of the box set visible. The four CD's are: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, Slow Dance, and Nouveau Retro.  

I'll be looking at various Amazon New Releases and Best Seller Top-100 lists to see if the box set makes an appearance at some point and yes, if it happens, I'll blog about it. I'd also like to say that the box set is not as expensive as I thought it might be. The price, before taxes, is $24.98 on Amazon and three cents cheaper on Ray's website, $24.95. This is an incredible value for four compact discs with 12 songs each...at that price it means that each disc would sell for a little less than $6.00 each, before taxes, if they were being sold separately. The banner below is just a promotional banner...it isn't a link. The links to Amazon and to Ray's webstore I've previously posted above. When you click the promo banner you'll not be taken to any online store. I stress this because for some of Ray's albums I'd always post a promo picture banner, much in the design like what you see below, and I got feedback that it was being mistaken for a link to an online store. The promo banner for Iconic Songs of the 20th Century seen below is just a photo...it isn't a link. 

Ray Stevens: "In the Still of the Night" medley nearing 1,000 YouTube plays...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I had some fun gathering the YouTube play totals of Ray's Nouveau Retro digital album in my previous blog entry that I've decided to do the same with Melancholy Fescue. Prior to listing the audio tracks from most unique YouTube plays to the least let me create awareness for the medley, "In the Still of the Night / In the Still of the Night", from Melancholy Fescue. This medley is comprised of two different songs with the same title. The first song in the medley originated in 1937 and was performed by Nelson Eddy. There have been dozens of recording artists over the decades that have recorded the 1937 song. The second song in the medley originated in 1956 and was performed by the Rhythm and Blues group, The Five Satins. The 1956 "In the Still of the Night" is probably the most remembered for several reasons: It being closely associated with a national music style, Doo-Wop, and so the song is always going to garner mention whenever historians write about Doo-Wop. Also, the 1956 song emerged after the creation of rock and roll and during a time when Rhythm and Blues was crossing over to the Hot 100 and therefore more attention is made for the 1956 song. Also, Ronnie Milsap had a big Country hit with "Lost in the Fifties Tonight" in 1985 and that song sampled lyrics from 1956's "In the Still of the Night"...which increased the exposure and ultimate familiarity of the 1956 song to new generations of music listeners. On Melancholy Fescue Ray Stevens, as mentioned, does a medley of both songs of the same name and it's great.

Now, then, here is the list of audio tracks from the digital album and their unique YouTube play totals as of this writing. The letter, K, represents numbers in the thousands. 4.3K is an audio track, for example, that's received anywhere from 4,300 to 4,399 unique YouTube plays. The list is ranked from most audio plays to the least:

1. Ruby / Ruby Baby  (4.3K audio plays)

2. Goin' Out of My Head  (4.2K audio plays)

3. Oh, Pretty Woman  (2.6K audio plays)

4. At This Moment  (1.1K audio plays)

5. In the Still of the Night / In the Still of the Night  (999 audio plays)

6. MacArthur Park  (866 audio plays)

7. Twilight Time  (611 audio plays)

8. Can't Take My Eyes Off You  (578 audio plays)

9. Spring is Here  (484 audio plays)

10. Sophisticated Lady  (402 audio plays)

11. People  (369 audio plays)

The digital album has 12 songs...the song that isn't on that list is his recording of "Unchained Melody". The reason why it isn't listed is because Ray had previously released the song, as a music video, in 2013. Curb Records didn't put the audio track of "Unchained Melody" onto YouTube due to there already being an official music video available. The recording heard on the 2013 music video is the same one found on Melancholy Fescue. The music video, to date, has gotten more than 919,000 unique views. Since "Unchained Melody" is available only a music video rather than as an audio track, too, I didn't include it in the above list. I'll be composing blog entries of the other two digital albums of Ray Stevens from this year and providing the YouTube play totals of each audio track. 

Ray Stevens: "Jolene" performance by Rhonda Vincent...

On the birthday of Rhonda Vincent this year Ray Stevens has posted a performance from his CabaRay Nashville television series of her singing "Jolene", a song written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton. The song was released, originally, by Dolly in 1973 and hit number one. Rhonda often mentions being a big fan of Dolly...in 2020 Rhonda became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. She had been a guest performer at the Opry for nearly 20 years before being invited to become a member. She's the most awarded Bluegrass performer with more than 100 awards from various Bluegrass organizations for her albums, songs, as well as awards recognizing the overall Bluegrass band. Her group is called The Rage...and much like a lot of the Bluegrass acts the band often gets equal billing. Examples include: Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top Express, Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys, The Del McCoury Band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Allison Kraus and Union Station, Flatt and Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys. The Stanley Brothers, Carter and Ralph, were billed on their records as The Stanley Brothers and in small print just underneath their names were The Clinch Mountain Boys. Rhonda's group is billed as Rhonda Vincent and The Rage. Last year Ray uploaded a video of Rhonda singing "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" but this time around, as mentioned, Rhonda is singing "Jolene"...

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue promo...

Hello all once again...this promo was posted on Ray Stevens' Facebook page a couple of days ago but today it was uploaded onto YouTube. I prefer embedding video content from YouTube. It's a 37 second promo for Melancholy Fescue, the Bluegrass digital album Ray Stevens released earlier this year. The album is subtitled High Class Bluegrass because the songs that appear on the album are the kind you'd not expect to hear in a bluegrass arrangement. In the promo Ray mentions his 1975 recording, "Misty", and explains that Melancholy Fescue is an expansion on the concept of turning pop standards into Bluegrass performances. I love all the performances on the digital album but the songs I often mention whenever I write about this album are the greatest of the great: "Goin' Out of My Head", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Twilight Time", "MacArthur Park", "Unchained Melody", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". In case you hadn't heard any of those Ray Stevens recordings go to YouTube and look them up. Also, contrary to what a skeptic might think upon hearing the music, Ray doesn't just add a banjo and therefore consider it 'bluegrass'. Some Bluegrass purists may think this prior to listening to the songs on Melancholy Fescue. The arrangements that Ray came up with not only feature a banjo but there's fiddles, steel guitar, and mandolins playing against big band-style orchestrations. It's truly a fascinating album. Wouldn't it be neat if this particular album would get some sort of Grammy nomination? The organization, for decades, has prided itself on awarding trophies based on artistic accomplishments rather than commercial accomplishments. How about a nomination for Melancholy Fescue in the Best Bluegrass Album category? One of Ray's contemporaries, Dolly Parton, won the award in 2001...so it isn't out of the ordinary that an artist that isn't primarily known for Bluegrass gets a Grammy or is at least nominated for a Grammy in that category. Why not Ray Stevens? The Best Bluegrass Album category was created in 1989. I don't know anything, off the top of my head, about the process of how things are considered for nomination or even how to reach the powers that be who determine who gets nominated. The 2021 Grammy awards have already aired (for music released in 2020) and so if a miracle would happen, and Ray would get nominated, the Grammy awards would be handed out early in 2022 covering the year, 2021. In the meantime, when you watch the promo you'll hear his rendition of "Twilight Time" in the background... 

Ray Stevens: "Melancholy Fescue" returns to the Amazon Top-100...

Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! I always make a point to take a look at the Amazon rankings on their various lists whenever something new is released on Ray Stevens. Ever since Ray released the first of his four digital albums this year back in February I've checked the Amazon rankings. I check the digital music rankings in both the country and comedy sections to see if something from Ray makes an appearance. I typically only do this in the days and weeks after Ray's released a new album or single. Ray's second digital album this year, from March, has made a return to the Top-100 list in Amazon. The digital albums he's released this year have all appeared at various positions on Amazon's digital music Top-100 New Releases list...and Melancholy Fescue made it's return to that list yesterday. When I was checking in I saw that the digital album was ranked in the Top-40 of Amazon's Top-100 and so I took a screen cap of it. It's still in the Top-100 at this hour. I don't know if people online are discovering some of the songs from that digital album or not as to why it made a return to Amazon's Top-100...but it's a remarkable album...and it features fabulous renditions by Ray Stevens of songs like "Twilight Time", "Goin' Out of My Head", "Oh, Pretty Woman", "At This Moment", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", and "MacArthur Park". I'm embedding a medley from the album. The medley features two songs by the name "In the Still of the Night". Some may be familiar with one or the other while some may be familiar with both songs. One of the songs titled "In the Still of the Night" became a massive hit for one of Ray's music industry friends, Ronnie Milsap, and I'm sure most of you reading this will be more familiar with the song that Ronnie had a hit with. Uploaded onto YouTube by Curb Records here's the "In the Still of the Night/In the Still of the Night" medley...

Ray Stevens: My Reviews of His Recent Digital Albums...

Hello all once again!! I was pondering over whether or not to compose a blog entry featuring links to my reviews of the previous four digital albums from Ray Stevens that I posted here on my fan-created blog page or whether I'd provide links to the reviews I posted over on Amazon. The reviews are identical. I write my reviews of Ray Stevens songs and albums here on my blog and then I paste them over on Amazon's customer review section. I don't write the reviews on Amazon first because the wait time for them to appear online takes days and so I write them here, publish the review in a blog entry, and then I copy/paste my review over on Amazon. Ray began his series of digital album releases this past February with Great Country Ballads. He followed that a month later with the bluegrass flavored Melancholy Fescue. This was followed in April by Slow Dance which was followed last month by Nouveau Retro. If you're a Ray Stevens fan the past several months have been filled with a flurry of activity...it marks the first time in his career that four complete studio albums have been released on Ray Stevens. Off the top of my head I'm thinking that the last time multiple studio albums were released on Ray Stevens in a single calendar year was 1997 when we seen the release of the comedy albums Hum It and Christmas Through a Different Window. There were numerous releases from Ray on his own Clyde Records label between the years of 2003 and 2012 and so he may have issued two studio albums in one calendar year in that time frame but nothing's springing to mind. Well, anyway, I know this is the only time in his career that he's released four studio albums in one calendar year and that's the point I was making in the first place. 

Great Country Ballads REVIEW

Melancholy Fescue REVIEW

Slow Dance REVIEW

Nouveau Retro REVIEW

I have any link that I post set to where they open up in a new window. Anyway, those are my album reviews. If you want to read those same reviews that are also posted on this blog simply go over there to the archives on the right hand side of the screen and look up each review during the months of February through May of this year. 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "At This Moment"...

Earlier today on Ray Stevens social media the audio clip of "At This Moment" was shared. This is one of the songs that appears on Ray's bluegrass digital album, Melancholy Fescue. The song, from Billy Vera, had an interesting life. It was originally released as a single in 1981 and it made the Hot 100 pop chart but it wasn't until 1986 that the single re-emerged based on it's exposure on the sitcom, Family Ties. This exposure caused the song to see a spike in demand and when "At This Moment" was released a second time it hit number one on the Hot 100 early in 1987. It was the same song, same recording, same artist as 1981 but it's attachment to several episodes of Family Ties in 1986 spawned a re-issue of the single and it hit the top in 1987. I never knew the name of this song but when I heard Ray's album earlier this year and "At This Moment" came on I knew I'd heard the song somewhere before. I must have heard it while having on Adult-Contemporary radio or something. The Ray Stevens bluegrass rendition of the song is fabulous...released in March of this year on Melancholy Fescue here's "At This Moment"...

Ray Stevens: Country Music People...Month of May Issue...

It's me once again...and in this blog entry I'm posting about an article written about Ray Stevens in the May 2021 issue of Country Music People. This magazine, as far as I know, isn't sold at news stands in retail stores nor is it in the magazine racks of retail stores. The origin of the magazine is European. A single issue of the magazine is 4 pounds 99 pence. The interviewer is Duncan Warwick. Ray posted images from the magazine on his Facebook page...and if you click on each image and then click the magnifying icon you'll be able to read the entire interview. 

The interview concentrates a lot on Ray's current music and the projects that he's wanting to release in the not too distant future. Later this month he'll be releasing the fourth digital album in his series of releases...in June the 4 digital albums he'll have released will become available in CD format in a Box Set. Then he'll be issuing another series of 4 digital albums followed by a volume two Box Set!! 

If you're a fan of Ray Stevens as I am...and you must be since you're reading this...anyway, if you're a Ray Stevens fan then this is like heaven on Earth right now...a lot of new recordings flowing from the legend...and even more new recordings from him on the way! If you want to purchase a copy of the magazine containing the interview...you can read about the publication and it's price by clicking HERE. If you want to just read the contents of Ray's interview then visit his Facebook page and click the images in the post dated Saturday May 8, 2021 at 12pm.

The banner above is something I created one day just for the hell of it. I took an image of Ray Stevens that just happens to be one of my favorite images from one of the various compilation albums that were released on him. I tilted the photo and then inserted the photo of Ray from his 1975 album, The Very Best of Ray Stevens, and created that phenomenal collage! No, in all seriousness, I don't think it's that phenomenal...but I like it and so that's why I'm sharing it with you all.     

Ray Stevens: "Oh, Pretty Woman" audio clip...

Hello all...as we inch closer to the Friday release of the Ray Stevens digital album, Slow Dance, the week begins with an audio clip of "Oh, Pretty Woman" from the current digital album from Ray Stevens, Melancholy Fescue. Coincidentally, this song was played over the weekend during the syndicated Country Gold radio program hosted by Terri Clark. A podcast of her interview with Ray hasn't become available online, yet, but I'll continue to keep track and see if one emerges. The song, for those that don't know, was originally recorded by Roy Orbison. In fact, when it was originally released in 1964, Ray and Roy were label mates on Monument Records. Ray signed to Monument Records in 1963 and while there he worked as a session musician, producer, music arranger, and was part of the Artists and Repertoire department of Monument Records. Ray was still a recording artist for Mercury Records until 1965...which is why he never began to put out any of his own recordings on Monument Records until the very end of 1965 and into 1966. Roy Orbison co-wrote "Oh, Pretty Woman" and Fred Foster produced it. Ray arranged this updated version in a bluegrass flavor for Melancholy Fescue. 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Sophisticated Lady"...

A great big hello to all of the Ray Stevens fans who might find my fan created blog page. Yes, this is of my own creation and I provide this blog for other Ray Stevens fans to read and find out things from a fan's perspective. A lot of Ray Stevens activity kicked off 2021...earlier in the year we learned that Ray was going to release four albums this year. We learned that he would issue them as digital downloads, at first, one album per month beginning in February and then, in June, he would release a Box Set collection of the four digital download albums in CD format. Each album features 12 songs.  

The digital album currently being promoted was released late last month, Melancholy Fescue. This symphonic Bluegrass album is wonderful...and I've said that numerous times since the day the collection became available in late March. In this blog entry I'm focusing on a song called "Sophisticated Lady" which originated as an instrumental by it's composer, Duke Ellington. A Jazz instrumental hit, originally, it later received lyrics credited to Mitchell Parish and Irving Mills. The song originally hit in 1933. It's inclusion on Melancholy Fescue, like all the songs on this digital album, is out of left field when it comes to arrangement in a Bluegrass flavor and that's why we love the album. You'll hear the banjo, fiddle, and dobro out front throughout the song but it kicks off with a guitar. Here's "Sophisticated Lady"...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Twilight Time"...

On the current Ray Stevens album, the bluegrass flavored Melancholy Fescue, one of the songs that Ray turns completely around is "Twilight Time". If you're a detailed fan of Ray's and are familiar with his 1975 appearance on Pop! Goes the Country then you might already be familiar with the arrangement of "Twilight Time" found on this album. Ray sang the song on that episode with a bluegrass arrangement so it finally makes it's official appearance on a Ray Stevens album. The banjo, steel guitar, and fiddle are all on prominent display in this sing-a-long...The Platters released a version of the song in 1958 and it was a ballad that hit the Hot 100 pop chart as well as the Rhythm and Blues chart. Prior to this the song had been recorded by The Three Suns (1944) as well as Les Brown (1945) but those two renditions were instrumentals...lyrics surfaced later from writer, Buck Ram, and The Platters released their rendition of "Twilight Time" in 1958. Ray Stevens re-arranged the song and can be heard in the audio clip below...from his current Curb Records album, Melancholy Fescue...

As many of you know I wrote a review of this album and posted it here on my blog page several days ago. I copied and pasted the review over on Amazon and it's been added to their product page over there. You can read the review by clicking HERE. The album continues to be among the Top-100 best selling new Digital releases in the Country format on Amazon.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Ruby/Ruby Baby"...

It's me once again!! In my previous blog entry I wrote about Ray's bluegrass album, Melancholy Fescue, among the Top-100 best sellers on Amazon's Digital country album list. I also mentioned that Curb Records had uploaded the songs from the album onto YouTube. The audio clip with the most unique views is "Ruby/Ruby Baby" followed by "Oh, Pretty Woman". Ray's medley "Ruby/Ruby Baby" combines the Ray Charles hit from 1960, "Ruby It's You", with "Ruby Baby", a song that was a hit for The Drifters, Dion and the Belmonts, Billy 'Crash' Craddock, and has been recorded by numerous pop and rhythm and blues acts over the decades. Dion's hit recording arrived in 1961. Melancholy Fescue leads off with the "Ruby/Ruby Baby" medley. 

Ray Stevens: Melancholy Fescue on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I've been periodically looking on the Amazon Top-100 lists and Melancholy Fescue is among the Top-100 best selling new releases in Digital Music in the Country music section. Those lists are updated hourly and so the positions for each release fluctuates throughout a 24 time period. Ray's previous release, Great Country Ballads, was on this Top-100 list for several weeks leading up to the release of Melancholy Fescue yesterday. What all did you think of "Goin' Out of My Head"? You know I loved hearing it. I'd read some commentary on social media from people who collectively were asking when Ray recorded it. Ray's been working on these albums for a number of years. If you read some of my blog entries during the 2013-2015 time frame chances are you'll come across some entries where I mention album titles like Slow Dance or Melancholy Fescue. In interviews Ray's given since 2012 he's often mentioned numerous albums he's working on and sometimes, as mentioned, he'd reveal the working titles of the albums or speak of the album's concept. He'd often speak of Melancholy Fescue and probably because it's the one with the comical album title...but a release coming up in May of this year from Ray called Nouveau Retro (What's Old is New Again) will be another eye-catching album title. 

Some may ask: "why didn't Ray release these albums years earlier?". I can't officially answer that question other than to guess and say he probably wanted to make them as great as possible...not only in the selection of songs but just as important the music arrangement and production values. 

In case you're new to his music or discovered him within the last several years on YouTube, Ray's always been the kind of recording artist that cares how his music sounds and he'll work just as hard on the production and the music as he does with his vocals. He's often quoted as saying that not only does he want the lyrics to tell a story but he wants the music to compliment the lyrics. Some artists don't really care about the music accompaniment because most artists leave that up to their record producer to figure out...but Ray is his own record producer and he's his own music arranger...and he makes his records in his own recording studio. 

On the day Melancholy Fescue was released Curb Records uploaded the audio tracks onto YouTube. The one that's received the most unique views, so far, is the "Ruby/Ruby Baby" medley. The audio tracks that Curb uploaded use the official photograph of Ray from his official YouTube channel. The way to distinguish the Curb Records uploads from those from Ray's official channel is the thumbnail background. Curb has a solid maroon color background placed behind the album's cover while the upload from Ray's official channel has an enlarged photo of the album cover in the background.