Ray Stevens: Performances from "Larry's Country Diner"...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens! Some of the most recent video uploads on social media centering around Ray are his performances on Larry's Country Diner. This country music television show had a decades long run on RFD-TV and it went out of production recently. Repeat episodes have continued to air and a lot of the content is on YouTube. Earlier this month, September 7th to be exact, a short playlist of Ray Stevens appearances on Larry's TV show debuted on YouTube. The playlist contains 4 performances from various points in time. The videos feature not only Ray's music performances but also his banter with the host and his jokes hurled at the audience. The playlist is comprised of the following songs: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", "The Gambler and the Octopus", "The Preacher and the Bear", and "Since Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". 

Now, in addition to that video playlist, there have also been several video uploads from Ray's guest appearances on Larry's TV show. The video of his performance of "If Jesus is a Stranger" was uploaded a week ago. Ray recorded that song for his 2014 gospel album, Gospel Collection. The 2014 album received a follow-up a couple of years later titled Just a Closer Walk With Thee. 

Here is Ray's performance of "If Jesus is a Stranger"...

If you want to examine the numbers (unique views) of the various Ray Stevens video performance uploads from Larry's Country Diner here is a list of the most recent unique views for numerous video clips from the show. These numbers are in rounded figures, not in exact numerical data. For example, a video that's gotten over 9,100 unique views will be shown on the list as 9.1K. Now, keep in mind that the numbers will change over the course of time. The year following each video upload is when they debuted on YouTube. There are a few songs on this list that were performed by Ray on more than one episode and those performances are on YouTube as well but I decided to highlight performances by him at random. "If Jesus is a Stranger", for example, was performed by Ray one two different episodes, years apart from the other, but I singled just one of those performances out and reported the unique view data. In case you're wondering the letter, K, stands for thousand. So, 22K would mean that the particular video upload has gotten more than 22,000 unique views but less than 22,100 which would be written as 22.1K

I have highlighted in bold print the video uploads that have gotten more than 100,000 unique views. If you're reading this blog entry 10 days, 10 weeks, or 10 months from now these numbers will be higher as time goes by but as of September 29, 2024 here are the numbers on YouTube for 10 Ray Stevens performances on Larry's Country Diner:

1. If Jesus is a Stranger; 2024 upload  9.1K unique views

2. Ray Stevens Playlist; 2024 (as seen above; 4 performances)  4.1K unique views

3. Amazing Grace; 2024  6.6K unique views

4. Dry Bones; 2024 upload  22K unique views

5. Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene; 2024  500K unique views

6. The Gambler and the Octopus; 2023  400K unique views

7. Ray Stevens Episode (Season 22); 2023  196K unique views

8. Ray Stevens Episode (Season 19); 2024  7.6K unique views

9. You're the Cupholder of My Life; 2023  1.9K unique views

10. Where Are All The 12 Year Old's?; 2023  4.6K unique views

Ray Stevens: "Gas" at 10.2K

Isn't it wonderful to be a fan of Ray Stevens!! Yes, as you can see, I decided to start off this blog entry with the image of his Country Music Hall of Fame plaque. I have this in the pictorial time-line but I realize most may not have the time or want to go looking through the time-line and so that's why I decided to feature it in this blog entry. In case this is news to you...Ray Stevens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. He went in the same year as country music duo Brooks and Dunn; and retired record producer, Jerry Bradley. As a fan of Ray Stevens his election to the Country Music Hall of Fame, in my opinion, was long overdue. Currently he's enjoying online success with his YouTube content as well as his 4-CD box set, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. One of those online successes is his novelty song, "Gas". There isn't an actual music video for this song but the audio track on YouTube continues to generate unique views/plays on a daily basis. When I last composed a blog entry about "Gas", back on July 31st, it had 10,143 plays. Since that time the audio track has gained 90 additional plays to bring itself to 10,233 YouTube plays as of August 3rd. The audio track has never been pushed/promoted on Ray's social media. When the novelty single became available in June what shown up on his social media were links to purchase the single. Curb Records, at the same time, uploaded the audio onto YouTube. The audio that I've been sharing on this blog is the audio track Curb Records uploaded. In my way of thinking "Gas" could reach even more people if the audio were to appear in it's entirety on Ray's Facebook or YouTube page. The play that it's getting on YouTube is from organic searches and discovery from suggested video that appear on the right hand side of the screen while people are viewing other Ray Stevens content on YouTube. However, having said all that, I'm thrilled to see "Gas" with more than 10,000 YouTube plays...audio content usually pales in comparison to video content (obviously!)...and so it's a testament to Ray's following that audio content can rack up more than 10,000 unique views.

Ray Stevens: "Gas" passes 9,000 unique views...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! As you could probably guess it's often tricky when trying to come up with a blog entry title focusing on the current novelty song from Ray Stevens, "Gas". So, then, I came up with a title that ties into the main focus of the text. "Gas", the audio track over on YouTube, has reached the 9,000 unique view plateau...and all of it based largely on organic online discovery. Keep in mind that "Gas" is going to be on a comedy album that Ray releases this October...it isn't going to be on the box set he releases next month. The music on the box set next month, Iconic Songs of the 20th Century, will be the songs he recorded on the four digital albums that were released earlier this year. The four digital albums will be in CD format for this box set next month. "Gas" will be part of a comedy album in October titled Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. 

Ray Stevens: Vinyl 45 at 35...

Let's take a look back to the summer of 1986 in the career of Ray Stevens. He was preparing for the release of his third studio album for MCA, Surely You Joust, and on this comedy album were a number of songs that have since grown into classics in his career. The main attraction from the album was the lead-off comedy song, "Southern Air", which features Jerry Clower and Minnie Pearl as guest vocalists. The song, from the pens of Stuart Dill and Brent Holmes, is about a southern airline apparently put together with scraps of wood with a screen door on the side. The song kicks off with Ray doing an impression of an airplane propeller trying to start...then finally does...amidst the sounds of shattered glass. Ray sings the song and acts as narrator while Jerry Clower plays the pilot and Minnie Pearl plays the role of the stewardess. It was a Top-40 hit on the Country Single Sales chart in the latter half of 1986. "The People's Court" was released as a single from the album, too. Ray's performed a couple of other songs from the 1986 album in concert. "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat" was recorded for this album...later becoming an animated music video. "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" is another favorite song from the fans and it, too, became a music video in the mid 1990s while "The Camping Trip" was made into an animated music video in the mid 2000's. You can read a much more detailed review of Ray's 1986 comedy album in the archives here. Earlier this year I wrote a blog entry about Surely You Joust turning 35 this year. 

When I saw Ray in concert a few times he performed the whimsical love song "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?". I don't know how long this particular song's been in his setlist but he also performed it during his concerts in Branson, Missouri in the 1990s...video of him performing it at his former theater is on YouTube. The song was included in the 1987 Greatest Hits, Volume Two release and later on it was turned into two separate music videos: a live-action music video arrived in 1995 and an animated music video arrived more than a decade later. The song comes from the pen of Buddy Kalb...known more formally as C.W. Kalb, Jr.  

MCA released "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" in the latter part of 1986 and it was a song being promoted a lot by Ray in the early part of 1987 and inserting it into his concerts. The song is more or less about a guy who finds out an old flame of his is getting married...from the old flame herself. The guy is told of all the wonderful things her new boyfriend has accomplished which include how rich he is, how he's got several college degrees, how he constantly works out in a gym, etc. to which the guy counters his old flame's happiness by pointing out all of the wonderful things he, himself, is capable of doing such as wiggling his ears, crossing his eyes, drinking mugs of beer one after the other, making balloon animals, etc. and he leaves her with the question "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?". In the 1995 music video Ray included scenes and performers from the movie that the music video originated from...which happened to be his VHS home video release, Get Serious!. In this 1995 music video performance some of the lyrics, toward the end of the song, are exclusive to the music video and they didn't appear in the 1986 recording. The reason Ray's wearing a chicken suit in the music video is because, in that part of the Get Serious! storyline, he and girlfriend Charlene MacKenzie (Connie Freeman) were on the run from Dudley Dorite (Buddy Kalb) and Coy (Tim Hubbard) and the two decided to hide in a chicken coop with the rest of the chickens.  

Ray Stevens: June 2008 Ralph Emery Live appearance...

Arriving on the social media sites of Ray Stevens this morning is the June 2008 interview on Ralph Emery Live!. This show aired for a number of years on RFD-TV prior to that network's massive availability. The channel is carried by a large number of cable providers but that wasn't always the case. I wasn't able to get this channel, initially, but by the time it became part of our standard line-up Ralph Emery Live! had ended production and only a handful of repeat episodes were airing on the network. The two episodes guest starring Ray Stevens never repeated on the network once RFD became more widely available. I have never seen Ray's first appearance on this interview show in it's entirety and until today I hadn't seen the full episode of his second appearance. In this second appearance Ray speaks a lot about what's been going on his career up to that point in time. Ralph takes phone calls and reads e-mails that were sent in. A lot of the callers ask questions about songs that, to borrow a phrase from radio DJ Eddie Stubbs, are "deep catalog". In other words they ask about songs that Ray recorded at different points in his career that only the more loyal of fan is aware of...it's always an interesting exchange because Ray recalls a lot of things about most of the songs he's recorded but then there are times when a song is so obscure that even he himself has some difficultly recalling the situation surrounding it's recording.

Throughout the duration of the interview Ralph asks Ray about his most notable recordings but then there's conversation surrounding one of those obscure songs, "Butch Babarian". Ray talks about that recording...saying it was based on the Busch Bavarian beer commercials and the backdrop of the Alps and mountain climbing played a factor in the creation of the song. Ray recites some of the lyrics and does a brief yodel impression similar to what's found on the original recording. When you watch Ray speak of the song and do the yodel impression you're reminded of Ray's remarkable longevity in the music business. Here he was in 2008 reciting lyrics from a novelty single he put out in 1964. It's breathtaking to realize that Ray is currently in his 63rd year as a recording artist...but at the time of this June 2008 interview he was in his 51st year as a recording artist. Elsewhere in the interview he spoke of how he was going to start touring again. He mentioned that he had been on hiatus from the road for two years (on the heels of his two season run at his former theater in Branson, Missouri) and that he'd start doing show dates once again. I was able to catch him in concert in 2008 and another time in 2009...and I seen him a third time in concert in 2018 at his CabaRay showroom.

Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery; 2008

In most of their exchanges Ralph asks Ray questions that have the potential for comical, one-liner responses. The photo above of Ray giving one of his famed looks of sly grin puzzlement while Ralph is all smiles is a similar pose that could easily have taken place in 1978, 1988, 1998, 2018...but the photo is from 2008. The folksy, down-home demeanor that Ralph projects in his interviews also means that he could ask a question that may get a potentially embarrassing response or he could ask a question that, in hindsight, may seem embarrassing but at the time seem pertinent. Ralph, in some of the rare moments when he himself is being interviewed, has remarked: "I can't believe I asked him/her that kind of question!" when he looks back on interviews he's conducted with country music artists over the decades.

Ralph makes reference to Ray's DVD 'Cartoon Video Collection'. Several limited animation music videos are played - "Gone for Good" being one of them. Ralph asks Ray about "Shriner's Convention". Ray speaks of the motorcycle he used to ride out on stage in his concerts at his former Branson, Missouri theater. The Ray Stevens interview is great as they usually are...click the video below to watch...

Ray Stevens: What's Planned for 2015??

An early New Year's Eve hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens!! As has become the tradition each year I speculate and opine on things to come in the new year as far as the career of Ray Stevens is concerned. Here's hoping that 2015 is the year a couple of much-anticipated projects see the light of day: a Bluegrass CD, a novelty song CD, and Volume Two of the Gospel Collection. If the follow-up to the gospel CD is to be in the near future I assume it'll arrive around Easter but that's just my guess because for all we know Ray could issue Volume Two this coming January...but that doesn't seem likely. Ray has also, at various times throughout 2014, mentioned that he's also working on a CD of non-political comedy songs.  

A lot of us Ray Stevens fans have been aware of a future Bluegrass project from Ray...he's made mention of the project several times over the years (!) and as mentioned in the above greeting here's hoping the project gets a release in 2015. I believe it was early 2013 or it may have been in late 2013 when Ray appeared as a guest on the Grand Ole Opry and made mention of an upcoming Bluegrass project and performed "Pretty Woman" in a Bluegrass arrangement. His music video of "Unchained Melody", in Bluegrass-style, is also a song that's to be on this anticipated release. In early interviews he stated that the CD's title is Melancholy Fescue...but it's hard to tell if that's going to remain the official title or if it's just the working title.

Checking the anniversary calendar for 2015 there's several big projects that reach a milestone this coming year.

First and most importantly is Ray Stevens reaching 76 next month on January 24th.

Starting things off...reaching 45 in 2015 is Ray's monster hit from 1970, "Everything is Beautiful". The single re-defined 'Ray Stevens' in the eyes of the buying public. Even though Ray had long displayed his serious side on many albums and single releases since the late '50s, "Everything is Beautiful" cemented his image as a pop vocalist and pretty much all of Ray's single releases during the 1970s were non-comical (exceptions included a novelty single late in 1970, a comedy LP in 1974, and a couple of out of the blue novelty releases later on that decade). Also, Ray had a major boost in his career thanks to consistent exposure on television. He'd become one of the recurring guests on Andy Williams' television program in 1969...Ray was named the host of Andy's summer program in 1970...and Ray remained a frequent guest on Andy's program through 1971. "Everything is Beautiful" became the summer television program's theme song/music. In America the single had hit #1 for 2 weeks on the pop chart and #1 for 3 weeks on the Adult-Contemporary chart (spanning the months of late May through late June 1970). The single entered the Hot 100 in April 1970 and by it's 9th week it took control of the #1 spot. It vanished from the pop chart after it's 15th chart week but it continued to appear on several international charts. Ironically, the single had it's biggest impact just prior to Ray taking over Andy's television program in late June. The single had already left the Top-10 portion of the pop chart by the time the first episode of Ray's summer program aired. Nevertheless, the exposure of the song each week (theme music) helped sales of the album, Everything is Beautiful, and the single continued to register sales even after the song became a recurrent. The 1970 album hit the Top-40 half of the Billboard 200 in July...the title track and "A Brighter Day" are the only self-written songs on the album. The rest of the recordings are Ray's versions of contemporary pop songs of the era. The summer television program ran from June 20 to August 8.

Other single/album releases from 1970 that are turning 45 in 2015 are: "America, Communicate with Me" and "Sunset Strip", both from Ray's album, Unreal!!!. Each single reached the Top-10 on the Adult-Contemporary chart...but their impact on pop music listeners/consumers didn't duplicate the smashing success of "Everything is Beautiful" (pop music consumers then, much like today, are traditionally the under-40 audience...the advertiser targeted 18-34 age group). 

Oh, before I forget...Andy owned the Barnaby Records label that Ray recorded for during the first half of the 1970s (1970-1975) and Andy's brother, Don, was Ray's manager for many, many years.

Here's a performance of "Everything is Beautiful" from that very summer television program in 1970 as hosted by Ray Stevens...



In December 1970 "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" hit the music scene. Oh yes, amidst the angst, protest, and unrest of 1970 Ray Stevens hadn't lost his funny bone and this funny bit of comical mayhem emerged as a single. It had it's biggest impact in the early half of 1971...nevertheless, the novelty single entered the charts in late December 1970 so it, too, reaches 45 in 2015.

Reaching 40 in 2015 is Misty. Released in 1975, the Misty album featured Ray's versions of several pop standards delivered in various original arrangements. The album, of course, is named for one of his single releases that year, "Misty". The single's arrangement (most notably piano, fiddle, and iconic steel guitar) earned Ray his second Grammy. Previously, "Misty" had been made popular by Johnny Mathis. His recording featured a much more slower vocal and even slower music. Prior to that, one of the song's composers, Erroll Garner, had an instrumental recording on the market. Johnny Burke wrote lyrics to Erroll's music. Ray turned the song around and gave it an up-tempo, Bluegrass-flavored presentation. This jolt in music arrangement for a song popularly known as a slow ballad sums up the Misty album. The songs that Ray covers are arranged in the opposite of what's popularly familiar. "Misty" became a Top-5 country music hit, a Top-20 pop hit, and a Top-10 hit internationally (music surveys published in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Austria ranked the song in their Top-10). In addition to "Misty", other single releases from the album include: "Indian Love Call" and "Young Love". Ray included 2 original songs on the album, among the cover songs: The self-written "Sunshine" is a toe-tapping sing-a-long and then there's the romantic "Take Care of Business". It's been said in several publications that the song's writer, Layng Martine, Jr., sought inspiration for it's title by the popular hook line in Ray's 1968 hit "Mr. Businessman". Aside from those similarities there's nothing else in common between the songs. Ray's versions of "Lady of Spain", "Deep Purple", and "Cow-Cow Boogie" are great, too!

Stand back or else risk getting run over by Coy...oh yes, 2015 will mark the 35th anniversary of "The Shriner's Convention", commercially released in early 1980.

One of Ray's Gold albums, I Have Returned, turns 30 in 2015. The album hit the market in the latter half of 1985 and ultimately climbed to #1 in early 1986 on the Billboard Country Album chart. Single releases from that project included: "The Haircut Song", "The Blue Cyclone", and the seasonal "Santa Claus is Watching You". The re-recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" became Ray's first music video (for more information on that song see my 2014 Christmas day blog post in the archives).

A couple of other recordings from that 1985 album have become popular amongst fans of Ray Stevens and have since been immortalized in music video form: "Hugo the Human Cannonball" and "The Pirate Song". Strangely enough "Kiss a Pig" nor "Punk Country Love" have entered music video territory...but the two songs are hysterical in their own kind of way.

Turning 20 in 2015 is Ray's 1995 direct-to-home video movie, Get Serious!!. This home video movie became the third best selling video project for Ray Stevens during the 1990s (following 1992's Comedy Video Classics and 1993's Ray Stevens Live!). Since the home videos were sold through direct marketing during their initial availability the titles weren't eligible to enter the Billboard sales charts (no retail availability). The 1992 home video entered the Billboard video chart in May of 1992, several months after it's explosive run on television. Get Serious!! seen a retail release in late 1996 (almost a full year after it's direct marketing campaign began) and it entered the Billboard video chart in January 1997 and it remained among the top selling home videos through the fall of 1997.

And so, here's to an upcoming new year...and here's hoping that it'll be filled with a lot of Ray Stevens music!!

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 8...

It's Friday...and that means another installment of Rayality TV!!! This one is more of a hodgepodge of sketches and video clips rather than a look-in at The Encore retirement home. In the clip below you'll see Ray in a psychiatric theme as Sickmind Fraud, then Ray tells us about a certain phone call to a lady named Margaret, and then Ray and company tackle the tabloid gossip papers. Sprinkled throughout is a video clip of Ray and Sylvia performing "Makin' Cookies", a parody of an early pop song titled "Makin' Whoopee". Sylvia had a string of country music hits in the early to mid '80s.



The sketch about The National Supermarket Checkout Examiner is based on a very funny song Ray recorded in 1991 called "Tabloid News". The video footage had been taped during that point in time, too. The song can be found on Ray's 1991 comedy album on Curb Records, #1 with a Bullet. You can buy the digital download of "Tabloid News" HERE. Once there you can click the audio sample and here a 30 second clip. If you prefer to purchase the entire Mp3 album, rather than just the individual song, you can click HERE. The project originally became available on cassette and CD in 1991. Later, both were unavailable (out of print). In 2005 Curb Records re-released Ray's 1990 and 1991 studio albums on CD format. Several years later the material became available in Mp3 on-line format.

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part 32...

Studio LP 32 came along in 2000 on Ray's own label, Clyde Records. As many of Ray's fans are well aware, his audio output had slowed down as his home video releases increased. Ear Candy, the name of the 2000 project, is a quaint 10 song offering. The image doesn't pick up the details of the cover photo too well but there's a giant candy cane sticking through one ear and protruding out the other. Now, of course, it's a photo trick but it rates up there with other visually memorable photo pics through the years. The title refers to the derogatory term applied to music that's sweet, non-threatening, and suitable for practically any age. This particular studio album didn't receive a lot of publicity considering his home video release of Funniest Video Characters around the same time period was attracting more advertisements. No matter...most of the songs on this 2000 Ear Candy release would achieve much more attention a few years later when Ray signed a deal with Curb Records, the label he recorded for during most of the 1990's. As mentioned, there are 10 songs on here. Ray co-wrote, with Glenn Fortner, a song titled "Deerslayer". This song would later become a music video experiment but the plot deals with a guy who hits a deer. He pulls the deer into his car and that's when all the chaos happens. It features a catchy hook line within the chorus with frequent pleas for 9-1-1 assistance. Buddy Kalb contributed most of the other songs. He and his wife wrote "The Hustler", a ballad that tells the story of a young pool player attempting to defeat a legendary pool hustler. The song, as I later found out, dates back to the mid '80s and was originally recorded by the late Mel McDaniel. It's anyone's guess why Ray didn't record the song the first time around but at that point in time he was concentrating on filling his albums almost exclusively with humorous songs. "The Hustler" and "Safe at Home" were the two non-comical ballads of the project. "Safe at Home" has a patriotic and nostalgic flavor and it made it's debut on this 2000 project. It's a song that Ray inserted into his concerts almost 3 years ago.

The contemporary habit of talking on cell phones while driving is the subject of "Hang Up and Drive". By now that habit's increased to texting while driving and doing all kinds of other things with cell phones while driving. This song was also turned into a music video experiment. The experiment I refer to was a series of music video productions that featured live action Ray singing in front of limited animation backgrounds. The project kicks off with the Cajun flavored uptempo recording of "Bon Temps Routlette". In this song we hear a wild story of casino inhabitants and a sub-plot centered around adultery and the wealthy. In "The Dog Song" Ray sings a song from a dog's point of view. A couple has broken up and the dog sets the man aside and tells him all the things he should have done to keep the woman there. "King of Christmas" is a comical story of what may happen if Elvis were Santa Claus. One of the songs that uses a lot of satirical nuance is "The Lady on the Radio". In this performance Ray sings about being embarrassed that his wife called in a love advice radio program and told the world their private issues. By song's end Ray exacts his revenge. The closing number, "No Lawyers in Heaven", has recently been a Bluegrass favorite by a number of Bluegrass groups but Ray recorded it in 2000 and it's never been made available anywhere but here. It's a story about lawyers, of course, as well as political correctness and it's impact on the legal system.

Most of the songs on Ear Candy would make their way onto a 2002 project that I'll write about later in an Extra feature. Since this 2000 release is a studio album I decided to refer to this as studio LP 32. The 2002 CD lifts a lot of the songs from Ear Candy and includes exclusive material as well. We'll talk about this 2002 release in the next installment!

Ray Stevens: The TSA music video, Part 2...

"The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" has surpassed the 100,000 unique view total and at the moment it's gathered 100,482 views at the 2 week mark. I've noticed that a lot of people have visited my blog page recently via on-line searches of the title of Ray's current music video...this is one of the rare moments where I get visitors based solely on a song title search. I caught a Tweet the other day from a sports radio station...a talk-show host named Chip Howard tweeted that Ray Stevens would be calling in next week (technically this week...now that it's Saturday). I have no idea if the radio host is referring to our Ray Stevens (The Singer) or someone else with the same name. There's a radio DJ who goes by the on-air name Ramblin' Ray Stevens...there's also a couple of athletes with the name of Ray Stevens...so it's difficult to know exactly which 'Ray Stevens' the talk-show host was referring to. Usually whenever I see a tweet from someone at a radio station mention 'Ray Stevens' I automatically assume it's our Ray Stevens...but KZNE radio is sports-driven and so it's wise to try and find out exactly which Ray Stevens will be calling into the station this week. I sent a tweet inquiring about the specifics...as soon as I find out anything I'll of course post about it here.

My Twitter name is also ACcountryFan and a lot of my tweets are about Ray Stevens. I'd say 99.5% of my tweets are built around Ray Stevens...either me tweeting something about him or my re-tweeting something he's tweeted.

Starting with this blog entry, as all of you frequent visitors can tell, I've changed the design/template of the page. I liked the design I'd been using but I decided to change the design...I like how the lettering is much more crisp looking and the information isn't so compact as it appeared in the previous blog design. Also, the pictures that I insert in the various blog entries will look like Polaroid pictures...with a white trim/border fitted around the images to give it an authentic look. That sort of thing was missing in my previous blog design. Also, it's much more clearer reading the labels, the blog date, and the title of the blog entries. I'll stick with this updated look for awhile. I'll probably go with something else later on.

While writing this blog I opened up a separate internet browser and seen that "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" has risen to 100,739 views on You Tube. When I started this blog entry the totals were 100,482. I believe You Tube updates their numbers every half hour or every hour.