Ray Stevens 1992 performance: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival"...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! A couple of days ago Ray uploaded a performance he gave of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" from his former theatre in Branson, Missouri. The performance is from 1992. Ray taped a complete concert at his former theatre in 1992 and split it in half and sold it in two separate VHS tapes: Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live!. Those VHS tapes were released in 1993. The performance of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" appears on More Ray Stevens Live!. Ray never released that particular VHS through television direct marketing...it was only sold at his theatre's gift shop and through his former fan club...so it wasn't as widely known as Ray Stevens Live! at the time. You'll see not only Ray perform the song but you'll see the big video screen above the stage playing snippets of the music video. This video screen and the insertion of music video content is what Ray said inspired him to begin releasing VHS tapes of his songs. In the beginning there was a VHS release only sold at his theatre called Ray Stevens Video Hits. This led to the extended edition, in 1992, of Comedy Video Classics which became a blockbuster VHS for two years in the Home Video market. The 1992 release featured five of the music videos from the Video Hits release with three all new music video productions bringing the overall total to eight music videos. One of those newest music video productions for Comedy Video Classics was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and you'll see it playing as Ray sings the song at his former Branson, Missouri theatre...

Ray Stevens: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity...

It's finally Friday!! I was not at my computer much on Thursday and so I missed the big DVD news from Ray Stevens and so I'm commenting on it now. Not one, not two, but Three brand new DVD releases have become available at Ray's web-store. First off there's the long awaited DVD release of Get Serious! that I wrote about in my previous blog entry on Wednesday...wondering when a DVD release would become available...then on Friday morning I'm alerted to the news that a DVD of that 1995 movie has finally saw the light of day in DVD format. The movie runs 110 minutes...that's 1 hour, 50 minutes...and it's a whimsical story that parallels a not too humorous situation that all kinds of comedians were facing by the early 1990's. Honestly, though, the situation facing many comedians by the early '90s had been slowly building since the mid to late '70s but it wouldn't be until around 1991-1992, that era, where the situation seemed to form like a noose around comedians, in general.

Well-established comics, whose popularity was originally obtained in a different time period but were by now viewed as legendary figures, were also being subjected to the mentality of a contemporary society and many legendary comics were tainted by the accusations of political incorrectness by a modern-day audience.

Get Serious!, in it's own way, addresses the concept of political correctness while a secondary plot addresses the music business and how industry conglomeration and predetermined airplay at radio stations destroys the chances for anyone creative or unique to make it given how similar radio programmers want the music to sound. In the movie Ray becomes a fugitive, of sorts, running from a local policeman whose formed a posse comprised of people that Ray's sang about in his songs. The music executive and his minions are also in pursuit because of Ray's refusal to get serious and stop singing comedy songs. Now that the movie has finally become available on DVD you all can purchase the film that I've glowingly commented on the last several years. The link will be at the end of the entry.

Secondly, there are the DVD releases of a concert filmed at The Welk Theater in Branson, Missouri. The concert is broken up into two parts and so the DVD comes into two volumes. The first volume is called Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity. As the more consistent readers of this blog are aware, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of "Ahab the Arab".

The second part of the concert comes in a DVD titled Patriots and Politics. Those who attended the concerts down at The Welk Theater and those who read the reviews and saw some of the pics were let it on how the second half of the concerts were politically oriented. His Tea Party music videos had become popular on You Tube and so it was only natural that this part of his career would be showcased in a concert setting, too.

As you know, politics is a highly debatable subject matter. Some of the concert goers who hadn't necessarily paid much attention to Ray's career and were going because of the older songs they remember him for were genuinely surprised by the political segment. Some liked it and others did not. I assume the polarizing effect of politics is what led to the item description for this particular DVD release. When you click it's link you'll see what I mean.

There are CD versions of those DVD concerts...if you're budget minded you'll probably prefer the soundtracks since they're a bit cheaper than the DVD counterpart. However, Ray has always been a visual attraction...using a lot of sight gags and props in his performances...which is lost to a person listening to an audio CD.

Here's the titles of the DVDs once more:

Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity

Patriots and Politics

Get Serious!

The DVD main page can be found here at: Ray Stevens DVDs. Once there you can click each of new releases to read the information.

Ray Stevens Fall Concerts...Get Ready!!

Alright all you Ray Stevens fans out there...Lend Me Your Ears...Ray Stevens is kicking off his fall concert series on September 11th in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The show starts at 7pm Eastern time. He'll be appearing at the Alabama Theatre for one show and then on September 15th he'll kick off his lengthy stay at the Welk Resort in Branson, Missouri. Well, lengthy as in September 15th through October 23rd. Those able to attend any of his concerts should cherish them...there's no telling if Ray will do any concerts in 2011...only time will tell. He's been semi-retired from the road and any appearance he gives usually turns into a big event among his fan base. Ray's concert series in Branson will feature gaps between show dates. A link to two promo pages for his Branson concerts is featured in this blog but I'll manually write out the concert dates:

September 15th and 16th: Two shows each day; 2pm and 8pm
September 17th and 18th: One show; 8pm
September 22nd and 23rd: Two shows each day; 2pm and 8pm
September 24th and 25th: One show; 8pm
September 29th and 30th: Two shows each day; 2pm and 8pm
October 1st and 2nd: One show; 8pm
October 6th and 7th: Two shows each day; 2pm and 8pm
October 8th and 9th: One show; 8pm
October 13th and 14th: Two shows each day; 2pm and 8pm
October 15th and 16th: One show; 8pm
October 20th and 21st: Two shows each day; 2pm and 8pm
October 22nd and 23rd: One show; 8pm

In the second link you'll see a couple of short video commercials for Ray's upcoming concerts in Branson.

The Welk Resort

Ray Stevens Welk Resort Advertisements

Ray Stevens: Let's Rewind and Fast Forward...

Good Friday mid-morning to all Ray Stevens fans out there. Today I felt like playing rewind and fast-forward. As a child of the '80s I'm all too familiar with cassette tape...although CD's also have a rewind and fast-forward feature, no two words, specifically "rewind" and "fast-forward", had ever caused so much annoyance...that is, if it pertained to a cassette tape. I remember many times rewinding and fast-forwarding various cassette tapes, pausing ever so often, and writing down the words. Way back in the old days for me that was how I could remember song lyrics...I'd write them out on a piece of paper. As time went by I learned to remember lyrics through repetitious playing of the songs. Even though I don't memorize songs anymore I still remember the lyrics to all of the Ray Stevens songs that I learned...but nowadays it isn't something that I do. Admittedly, though, as an adult I simply don't have the time or desire to consume myself with songs over and over...it's something most kids and teenagers participate in still...but I've passed that stage. When it comes to Ray Stevens, though, I find myself remembering lyrics here and there of his modern material but as far as knowing lyrics word for word it doesn't come as easy.

Let's rewind now...I know all of the lyrics to the songs on the above Collectors Series release. I happened to obtain this collection while I was a teenager in the early '90s. The songs on this collection all come from RCA Records...the label Ray recorded for during the early '80s. This is still the only compilation release featuring exclusively RCA material. His RCA albums have yet to be re-issued in CD or Mp3 format and if you come across a CD version of this grab it! The collection was originally released in 1985 and then it was re-issued in 1987 which is what you see here. As I mentioned in previous blog entries the only difference between the 1985 and 1987 versions is "One More Last Chance" is featured in the 1985 release while "Put It In Your Ear" takes it's place in the 1987 re-issue.

Let's fast-forward now...over 20 years later...2010 marks the year that Ray returns to Branson, Missouri. This time around, as I mentioned in a previous blog, he's the headliner at The Welk Theater for a month of concerts starting on September 15th and running almost non-stop through October 23rd. He'll have some breathers, of course...there's a couple of times where he isn't in concert there for 4 days and then there's another stretch where he takes almost a week off...so there will be plenty of days off...but for the most part he'll be busy as ever as he gets back into the routine of stage shows once again. Also, 12 of the concert dates will feature two shows...there will be a 2pm concert and an 8pm concert. The other 12 concerts will start up at 8pm. Below is a You Tube commercial promoting the concert series...



A few months ago there was another video commercial promoting Ray's upcoming concerts but in that commercial it used audio clips and other related material. In this commercial, as you can see, Ray participated in it. For those who don't know...the name of Welk carries a certain, distinct image for a lot of the older age bracket and so in the commercial Ray plays up that upper-crest/affluent image. A lot of the younger people may not know of Lawrence Welk and so it helps to know that bit of information when you watch the commercial. I shouldn't know who Lawrence Welk was...given my age...but I'm a nostalgia nut and that explains that.

Ray Stevens and the Music Video Market

To date the hit count for the most current Ray Stevens music video, "We The People", is sitting at 2,726,020. The play count that I'm using is for the official music video release from Ray Stevens' You Tube channel, also known as Ray Stevens Music. There have been other people who have uploaded the music video but I'm only citing the numbers from what is considered the official video release by Ray Stevens Music.

As the calendar flips over from February to March we're still eagerly anticipating a full-length CD of songs which will contain "We The People" among other selections. Given that there wasn't a new CD available in February it leaves me to think that March is the magic month. The music video will reach it's third month anniversary on the 11th...it was December 11, 2009 that the music video made it's debut on You Tube. Music videos go hand in hand with Ray Stevens...his music videos, as I've commented on in previous blog entries, have gained millions of views on You Tube over the last decade. Ray, himself, only last year created a You Tube site but fans and the public in general had long since uploaded Ray's various music videos to where his music videos are commonplace on a myriad of video hosting sites.

This connection with music videos goes back to 1992 and the release of Comedy Video Classics. The 1990's were very successful for Ray Stevens in a way that could not have been predicted in the previous decade. In the 1980's Ray revamped his career and his image into that of a country comedian full-time. In the 1960's, 1970's, and the first half of the 1980's he fought against the comedy/novelty image in spite of his commercial successes and his seemingly natural comic abilities.

As the 1990's dawned Ray set in motion the music video era of his career. It began after he opened up his popular theater in Branson, Missouri in the summer of 1991. He decided to open up the theater after sensing that Branson was on the brink of becoming a major tourist attraction. Also, the idea that the fans would come to see the artist instead of the artist traveling all over the country to see the fans, may have had something to do with it, too.

He made a series of comedy sketches and music videos to play on the large screen at his theater and they became so in-demand that a home video was released and sold at his gift shop. This spawned Comedy Video Classics...a home video collection of eight music videos from Ray Stevens. The collection was sold on television and in newspaper advertisements throughout the latter half of 1992 and into mid 1993. The collection sold over two million copies and became a landmark in the mail-order industry. In the late summer of 1993 Ray issued two home videos: Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live!

The first collection was sold exactly the way Comedy Video Classics was sold. The live home video of one of his Branson concerts would go on to sell over a million copies at both television and retail outlets. The second live home video was exclusive to Ray's fan club and his theater gift shop. Sad news in the fall of 1993 arrived when Ray announced that the 1993 season was his final at the theater he opened in 1991. Ray remained visible in Branson, Missouri off and on throughout the rest of the 1990's, however, appearing at other theaters. He did a series of concerts at Wayne Newton's theater and then, if I'm not mistaken, did a series of concerts at the Grand Palace Theatre. Wayne's theater was formerly known as The Five Star Theatre.

In the meantime Ray had filmed and released another home video. This one, released in 1995, was titled Get Serious! and it followed the sales successes of his previous two mail-order collections. In the last few years of the 1990's Ray remained busy doing concerts at the Acuff Theater, which was across the street from the Opryland attraction in Nashville, Tennessee.

Opryland was in operation for 25 years: 1972-1997. As far as I know there are road signs in Nashville that point the way to where Opryland used to be but in it's place is OpryMills, a string of shopping stores, that opened to the public in the summer of 2000. I've heard stories that tourists who aren't terribly in the know when it comes to all things Nashville see those Opryland road signs and become baffled when it leads them to a shopping mall and not a theme park. I don't know if those signs are still up, though. The closing of Opryland wasn't well publicized, neither, which only adds to the confusion that exists. The lesson here is to those who don't pay much attention to country music. Since the mainstream media doesn't report on the goings-on in Nashville and they don't report on country music unless a country singer does something embarrassing, the lesson to be learned is to rely on your own research and rely on your own findings because you're not going to learn much from the mainstream media when it comes to country music.

However, this blog page as well as Ray's web-site, will teach you all you have to know when it comes to Ray Stevens.

By the way, the Acuff Theatre, where Ray did those series of concerts in the late 1990's, is now called the BellSouth Acuff Theatre. BellSouth is the name of a phone company that services the south. As always, this blog site is not affiliated with Ray Stevens. It's simply a fan-generated site. In whatever small way I feel as if I'm doing my part at promoting Ray's music and career, which is what I like doing.

Ray Stevens returns to Branson...

Ray Stevens is making a return to Branson, Missouri beginning in September and running through late October. The official time frame is September 15 - October 23. He will be what I call a resident singer of The Welk Theatre and judging by it's appearance it appears to be a rather elegant setting. The actual venue is called The Welk Resort Theatre. I mentioned this concert series in my previous blog celebrating his birthday but a video commercial was uploaded onto You Tube on Tuesday and so I thought that I'd copy and paste it here so that it could get some publicity through this blog, too.

It's my understanding that the publicity for these concerts are starting quite a few months early is because there's an anticipation that the tickets will go quickly and if they were to wait until the middle of summer to offer tickets there could potentially be a situation arise where the ticket office would be swamped with orders and have a little window of time to mail the tickets out in a timely manner. So, by starting the publicity 7 months in advance it eliminates any problems with ticket delivery caused by "last minute shoppers". I assume this video upload plays locally in Branson, Missouri and all points in between. I don't think it will air up in my part of the country and so I'm glad that the video commercial/promo was uploaded for the country and the world to see. I like that publicity picture they use with Ray in the red jacket.

2,506,382 is the play total for "We The People". The music video has officially been on You Tube for 1 month and 16 days. It was uploaded on December 11, 2009 and as a result of this song Ray thrust himself into the national spotlight. For those who have been long-time fans of Ray you may become annoyed or irritated by the mainstream music critics who make it appear that Ray's been quiet for decades. We all know that isn't true...Ray's been active in country music and country comedy for years and I suspect because those music formats aren't closely covered on a national level that's why the mainstream audience genuinely assumes Ray has been silent for years and years. It's annoying to me to read those kinds of statements and if it's annoying to me then chances are it's annoying to a lot of you as well.

I hope those who are able to see Ray in concert this year at whatever venue will enjoy the experience! In one performer you'll get an array of musical styles in a fast-moving show that, as the cliché goes, will leave you begging for more. I've been to a couple of his concerts and I know that feeling well.

Ray Stevens: Branson, Missouri era

Long-time co-host of Hee-Haw, Roy Clark, is often the one given credit for the music theater boom in Branson, Missouri. In the early 1990's, according to an interview with Roy Clark, he theorized that his own music theater gave some artists the idea to open up their own place and slowly but surely that's what happened. By 1991 the theater business down there was enormous. Roy Clark, Mickey Gilley, Mel Tillis, Jim Stafford, Ray, and several local acts all had theaters. A bird's eye view could show just how clustered the theater's were. It was like Music Row except in this case the street's are lined with theaters instead of recording studio's. I was never one of the fortunate millions that was able to catch Ray Stevens in person when he was in Branson, Missouri. The distance from here to there is simply too far and even worse was I was in high school in the early 1990s and so I had no way of going down there in the first place.

So, I was happy when Ray released a home video in 1993 called Ray Stevens Live. My parent's bought the video for me for Christmas. The television commercials had stopped airing by that time and so I found an ad for the video in a newspaper of all places. It had a mailing address and the cost, etc etc, and so during the holiday season of 1993 I finally got into my possession Ray Stevens Live. I had no access to the internet in 1993...was it even in existence back then? I also had no access to chart information, neither, so I was clueless at how commercially successful this video was. Below you will see an actual TV commercial for the home video...featuring snippets of the performances done at his theater.

During his time in Branson, Missouri his show was one of the consistently sold-out venues. His stay down there lasted two calendar years: 1991-1993, three consecutive years technically. While the theater was up and running he would perform two shows a day, six days a week. He'd take a break during the winter months but then according to his own words in no time at all he found himself having to gear up for the next season's program. In other words he felt it exhausting and monotonous and so after the 1993 tourist season wrapped up he shut down the theater and would eventually rent it out to whoever wanted to use the facility during the interim. After the rest and relaxation period he began working on his innovative direct-to-home video movie, Get Serious, which saw it's release in 1995 and just like Ray Stevens Live and Comedy Video Classics, the Get Serious home video became a top seller.

The place that was once the Ray Stevens Theatre is now the RFD-TV theater even though they still have the big road sign proclaiming it to be Ray's theater. This image is located at the start of this blog. They also kept the stage design as well...the only changes they made were to the building itself...putting up the big RFD-TV Theater logo on the building and painting some of the building a different color.