Ray Stevens audio clip: "Bouquet of Roses"...

The music is soothing to hear...the sounds are overflowing with jazzy arrangements and I defy anyone to say they won't fall in love with these songs all over again once you hear Ray Stevens sing them with his all-new music arrangements! I am, of course, referring to Ray's current digital download album, Great Country Ballads. I have written a review of the album several blog entries ago and I've embedded several audio clips of songs from the album. This time around I'm embedding an audio clip of his rendition of "Bouquet of Roses", a song popularized by the late, great Eddy Arnold in 1948. In fact, when the 45-rpm vinyl single was created and released to the market in 1949 Eddy's recording of "Bouquet of Roses" was among the first selections offered in the first batch of this new creation, a 7-inch record. 

It was the only recording in that collection from a country music artist. Although Eddy's hit was among the first-ever 7-inch vinyl singles to be released it was the first for a country singer...which is why in country music circles he holds the distinction of being the first country singer to have a recording pressed onto a 45-rpm vinyl single. 

Ray uploaded his audio recording on his Facebook page but I've had issues in the past when embedding video from Facebook onto this blog page. The video's size and presence break up the overall look of the blog entry and so I'm embedding the audio clip from YouTube instead. In case you're wondering about the commentary from earlier in the blog entry I felt a little backstory on "Bouquet of Roses" and Eddy's rendition was in order before you all take a listen to the lovely rendition from Ray Stevens. Smooth country, smooth jazz, soft music...where the saxophone is the main instrument...no matter how you describe it they're all Great Country Ballads! 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Float"...

Well, in this blog entry which happens to be my 240th of the year, I'm embedding a particular recording from Ray Stevens that comes from his 1973 album, Nashville. The recording is an instrumental...it features heavy emphasis on two of the most polar opposite instruments in the music world: the steel guitar and the trumpet! The instrumental is titled "Float" and not only does it feature those two instruments it also incorporates the piano and guitars...but when you listen to it you're going to hear an abundance of the trumpet, the performance's main instrument. Ray wrote and arranged this recording as well as produced it.  

If you follow Ray's career with any degree of an in-depth nature you'll know that he can play the trumpet...he's credited as a trumpet player on some of his recording sessions and he is credited as a timpani player on his 1985 album...notably heard on the chicken clucking fanfare called "Thus Cacked Henrietta". That's the only recording on that album to feature a timpani, by the way. Those thundering beats heard throughout that recording is Ray striking the timpani. You can search YouTube for video of musicians playing a timpani and once you hear those strikes being applied you'll immediately recognize Ray's "Thus Cacked Henrietta", which itself is based on the fanfare portion heard in a classical music piece titled "Also sprach Zarathustra", written by Richard Strauss. When you see a timpani you'll know they're also referred to as kettledrums. 

Now, since Ray can play a trumpet, I've always assumed that he's the one playing the trumpet on the "Float" recording...but I can't definitively answer that, yet. The musicians aren't credited on the back of the 1973 Nashville album and there's no notation anywhere crediting Ray as the trumpet player on that recording. I'm assuming the steel guitar player is Jay Dee Mannes, the same steel guitarist who played on some of Ray's other albums of this time period. Steel guitarist Larry Sasser used to do concert dates with Ray...Larry also doubled as a dobro player if needed. Hal Rugg played the steel guitar on a couple of Ray Stevens recordings as did John Hughey. I've not done hardly any blog entries where I've spotlighted the musicians that have appeared on Ray Stevens albums over the decades...one day I'll get around to writing a blog about the musicians. 

Some of his albums, like 1973's Nashville, doesn't feature a credited musician list so it's anyone's guess who played on what recording. Ray famously likes to keep it simple when it comes to the studio musicians that appear on his albums...some have appeared on his albums for more than 30 years. There was once a time when, in the 1990s, the musicians that appeared on Ray's current albums were the same ones that appeared on his 1970s albums. In an era where there's a lot of turn-over when it comes to studio musicians and road musicians Ray's continually managed to keep a small group of them together for decades at a time (studio musicians and concert musicians) and the same goes for his harmony singers! Now, yes, of course, there's been some turn-over...some musicians may retire or they pass away...or some want to move on and do other things but for the most part the people he surrounds himself with tend to stay with him for decades.