Ray Stevens: 1983 salute to Marty Robbins...

Hello to the fans of Ray Stevens!! Earlier today a video was uploaded of Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette presiding over a tribute to Marty Robbins in 1983. Ray nor Tammy sang any of his songs in this video clip but they shown performance clips of Marty over the years. Marty Robbins passed away, unexpectedly at age 57, on December 8, 1982. He was born September 26, 1925. The grief and heartbreak was massive and numerous tributes in newspapers and magazines filled the retail racks of shopping stores. His having passed away in December 1982 meant that country music awards organizations had to wait until the following calendar year before they could properly pay tribute to him. 

The Music City News organization had annually put together a television special to spotlight the hit songs of the previous year. These specials were almost always produced in December and they would get syndicated all over the country throughout the first half of the following calendar year. The 1983 Music City News Top Country Hits of the Year, reflecting on country music and events of 1982, was hosted by Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette and the first airtimes were set for January 1983. The two hosts sang solo songs and they opened the show singing "We've Got the Music Here Tonight". The salute to Marty Robbins was part of the 1983 television special. Here's the video clip of Ray and Tammy presenting the tribute...it features performance clips of Marty singing his songs. The somber tone of Ray and Tammy's voices appropriately convey the emotions among the overall country music community during the taping of this program...

Ray Stevens: Feel the Music video clip...

Hello one and all...in this particular blog entry I'm giving some spotlight to an album from Ray Stevens released in 1977. I'm doing so because of a recent video clip that surfaced on YouTube several days ago. I did a couple of blog entries centering around this album in the past...I think the last one I did was a couple of years ago (2017) when the album turned 40 but I'd have to consult the archive section off to the right hand side of the screen. In 1977 another music legend, Marty Robbins, hosted a syndicated television show called The Marty Robbins Spotlight. Ralph Emery was the announcer and each episode would focus on one or a couple of artists. The series consisted of 36 episodes in which Ray was the featured spotlight artist in one but he also had an appearance in the Chet Atkins episode as well. In that episode the two of them perform "Frog Kissing", a single that Ray published, produced, and arranged featuring Chet singing in addition to playing the guitar. The song itself was from the pen of Buddy Kalb. The episodes of Marty's series, based on my own assumption, were taped at some point in the first half of 1977 and perhaps into the summer months before they began airing in the fall and so Ray's album, Feel the Music, was widely available by the time his episode was airing.

The front of the album shows an illustration of a stereo speaker as a tie-in with the album's title. If you literally feel the music then you'll be placing your hand on an actual speaker...but, of course, the song itself has a much more deeper meaning. It's a motivational kind of song which says that you need to find purpose in life and live for yourself rather than living for other people...or, in other words, living a life in which everybody but your own self is happy. "Feel the Music" was issued as a single backed with "Dixie Hummingbird". There was also the usual promotional copy which featured "Feel the Music" on both the A and the B side. Strangely enough "Feel the Music" didn't reach the charts but then it's B-side was released as a single. "Dixie Hummingbird" received the promotional copy treatment but there wasn't a single released featuring it as an A-side. Instead, the record store employees went through and flipped "Feel the Music" over where "Dixie Hummingbird" was seen first by music consumers. The single releases didn't have an A or a B side designation anyhow. "Dixie Hummingbird", an outstanding performance, reached the middle pack of the country music chart...in that particular era the country singles chart matched the pop singles chart...each chart had 100 positions. It came oh so close to cracking the Top-40 of the country music chart. A third single from Feel the Music, "Get Crazy With Me", also reached the charts but it peaked in the lower half of the Top-100. Ironically it's B-side was none other than "Dixie Hummingbird". The back of the 1977 album features an image of Ray and the illustration of what the back of a stereo speaker looks like. The album was largely written by Ray with the exception of the Buddy Kalb composition, "Set the Children Free". The rest of the songs were all penned by Ray Stevens.

Buddy's songs didn't begin to feature prominently on Ray's albums until the mid 1980s onward. The first songwriter credit on a Ray Stevens album for Buddy Kalb was "One and Only You" on 1976's Just for the Record. The inclusion of "Set the Children Free" on 1977's Feel the Music means it's the second composition from Buddy Kalb to appear on one of Ray's albums. "Frog Kissing", the Chet Atkins hit with harmony vocals from Ray, didn't appear on any of Ray's albums but it marked a third Buddy Kalb penned song that Ray recorded in that 1976-1977 time frame.

A clip of Ray performing "Misty" on Marty's show was uploaded nearly a year ago (March 2018) and a couple days ago (February 13) the performance of "Feel the Music" was uploaded. The entire episode has never been uploaded onto YouTube but here's the most recent upload from the 1977 appearance on Marty's program...



Now then, even though the entire episode featuring Ray Stevens as the spotlight artist hasn't been uploaded onto YouTube as of this writing, the entire Chet Atkins episode (with a special guest appearance by Ray) is uploaded onto YouTube. A screen-cap from that appearance is below...

The Chet Atkins episode I'll embed further down the blog entry and the only reason I'm embedding the entire episode is because there isn't a video clip of Ray and Chet's performance from that episode. Ray and Chet would perform the song together several years later, in 1980, as part of an all-star salute to Chet's career. In that performance Ray was seated at the piano and by then had grown his recognizable facial hair...in other words he had become bearded...but the 1980 performance is just as good as the 1977 performance. The earlier performance, in comparison, comes off more lively and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the song was less than a year old when they performed it on Marty's show so by the time 1980 rolled around, with the song now going on four years old, it was still entertaining due to it featuring the novelty aspect of Mister Guitar singing.

Now, getting back to Ray's spotlight episode, I know you're all probably wanting to see the performance of "Misty" as well...and if so you can watch that performance below. In case you never seen this video clip before (it's been on YouTube for a year) it starts out with Ray and Marty in discussion and then there's a brief sketch involving a saxophone player and a violinist in which Ray interrupts with his comically exaggerated Austrian/German accent. I think the violinist is Lisa Silver. Afterward the camera returns to Ray and Marty discussing and laughing over what they just saw and eventually Ray performs "Misty"...



Now, here's the Chet Atkins episode in it's entirety. Ray Stevens makes his appearance 18 minutes into the show (actual time stamp showing 17 minutes, 53 seconds). Ray is introduced as "your average man on the street" (although you can hear the audience laugh and applaud when Ray's face appears on the video screen) but the brief routine continues as "the average man" is asked by Marty what he thinks of Chet being a singer. After some jokes at Chet's expense Marty officially introduces Ray and this leads into the "Frog Kissing" performance... 

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Summer Schedule...

Hello one and all...in my first fan-created blog post of July I have some updated information to pass along concerning the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television show on PBS. In a previous blog post from last month I posted the upcoming schedule of episodes set to air on one of the local PBS stations in my area. There are a couple of changes, however, as episodes originally posted have been removed and replaced. Beginning this weekend (officially this past Friday; July 7th) all of the local PBS affiliates that air Ray's show aired the same episode.

Over the course of the last several months (dating back to early January of this year) local PBS affiliates picked episodes that previously aired on RFD and aired those. The PBS station in my area began airing the show in late March and of those RFD episodes available to air, WCVN/KET2 broadcast 15 of them (the 15th being a gospel themed episode guest starring T. Graham Brown and it also guest starred Ray's daughter, Suzi Ragsdale). Last night's episode guest starred Harold Bradley and Mandy Barnett.

On that particular episode it carried an early '60s feel...but yet this isn't surprising considering the guests that night. Ray opened the show singing "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" which eventually led to an explanation of the song's origins and history and how, coupled with it's brisk sales success and the fact that it happened to be a comedy song, inspired him to focus on comedy for awhile and perhaps that would enable him to breakthrough and become a successful recording artist. He had to pull the single off the market after threats of a lawsuit from the copyright owners of the Sgt. Preston character but the sales attention he had gotten led him to issue another comedy song...and this one contains one of the longest song titles in existence: "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills". That song rocketed up the Hot 100 and into the Top-40 in the blink of an eye in 1961.

Harold Bradley, a legendary guitar player/session musician and brother of the late Owen Bradley (himself a legendary music figure), talks of his background and history in the music industry. Owen happened to be a producer at Decca (later renamed MCA) and eventually opened what was to be known as The Bradley Barn (a recording studio inside a converted barn). Prior to this, however, both Owen and Harold worked in what was referred to as The Quonset Hut. The facility happened to be located at a house on 16th Avenue and 1954 is the year it opened for business...attaching a Quonset Hut to the house later on...which originally was intended as a film/TV studio but over time it became part of the recording studio. Owen and Harold sold the studio to Columbia in 1962 and, as mentioned, The Bradley Barn came into existence a couple of years later. Ray and Harold discuss their identical first and middle names: Harold Ray Ragsdale (the birth name of our Ray Stevens!) and Harold Ray Bradley. They speak of Patsy Cline and this eventually brings out Mandy Barnett. She sings "Crazy" and "I'm Confessin'" as Harold plays the electric guitar. Given the length of time spent with Harold and Mandy there wasn't much time for some of the familiar segments. There was a Video Jukebox segment featuring the limited animation music video, "Barbecue", and a closing song from Ray...a performance of his early '60s hit "Harry the Hairy Ape".

This begins the official third season of Ray's television show. The updated schedule of episodes can be found below. The air-dates listed below fall on Friday but that doesn't mean Friday is the official day of the week the show airs. Some local PBS affiliates air the show on Friday evening while a bulk of the PBS affiliates air the show on Saturday or Sunday evenings. As mentioned the first episode has already aired here...some PBS affiliates are airing that episode today...some PBS affiliates aired the episode on Friday.

July 7 – Harold Bradley and Mandy Barnett

July 14 – Shenandoah

July 21 – Michael W. Smith

July 28 – B.J. Thomas

Aug 4 – Rhonda Vincent

Aug 11 – Restless Heart

Aug 18 – John Michael Montgomery

Aug 25 – Baillie & the Boys

Sept 1 – Tommy Roe

Sept 8 – Mark Wills

Sept 15 – Duane Eddy

The last three episodes on the above list weren't originally scheduled to air when I provided what turned out to be a tentative list of future episodes in a previous blog. The last three episodes are going to air here on September 2, 9, and 16. Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville Schedule.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville DVD and Series: My Examination!!!

Hello out there...all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! The DVD of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, Season One arrived in the mail this past Friday (June 16th). It's a 4-disc collection featuring 13 episodes of his television series. Once you play any of the discs there's an advertisement for Ray's website and mention of the upcoming CabaRay venue. Ray provides a voice over as his chicken clucking recording of "In the Mood" plays in the background. The main menu consists of various options that a viewer can select. You can choose to "play all episodes" (4 half hour episodes are featured on 3 of the 4 discs) and that's the choice I often select on my other DVD's but you can select the "choose a program" option and pick specific episodes to watch and there's even an option where only the performances are available and that's in the "choose a song" selection. There isn't a list of the 13 episodes on display on the back of the DVD case...so if you hadn't purchased the DVD yet and you want to know what episodes are part of the collection read further because I'll be posting an episode list. Now, of course, you can choose to wait until you purchase the DVD and read the menu...but I thought I'd make mention of the fact that an episode list is going to be at the bottom of this blog entry.

The first season consists of 13 regular episodes and one Christmas episode. Technically 13 episodes are referred to as a half season and 26 are considered a full season because everything is based upon a once a week air-time and a 52 week calendar year (26 first run episodes plus 26 repeats equals 52). I explained a lot about Ray's production cycle in my previous couple of blog entries but in any case this collection features 13 episodes with all of them showcased in chronological broadcast order based upon it's current run on PBS stations across the country.

The series originated as a lot of you know on the cable channel, RFD, in November of 2015. It's first season on RFD consisted of 14 episodes (one of those episodes, which isn't part of the PBS syndicated package, was the Christmas themed episode). From here on out I'll be referring to the episode lists as Season One/RFD; Season Two/RFD and Season One/PBS. All of the episodes currently airing on PBS affiliates originally aired on RFD.

Ray has had taping sessions at various times throughout 2016 and into this year and those episodes are going to start airing on PBS stations at some point later this year. The footage is in post-production. Then, in 2018, he plans on taping his episodes from the actual CabaRay venue after it officially opens. I was at long last finally able to see the first episode and episode nine!! In episode nine John Conlee performed "Common Man" after talking about his radio background. Jeff Bates appeared on the program, too, and after performing his song he and Ray spoke about Conway. Ray and Jeff also mentioned "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me". Given that the episode originally aired in early January of 2016 it wouldn't be until November the same year that a music video emerged of the song...and eventually an entire Christmas CD soon after that. As most of you know I wasn't able to see Ray's television program during it's original run on RFD and couldn't see it on PBS until WCVN/KET2 began airing it on March 25th of this year.

The series is taped in bits and pieces and assembled into separate half hour programs during marathon-style taping sessions. In a lot of ways the recording and production of the series resembles Hee Haw. 

As mentioned...there are 13 episodes on this 4-disc collection...but for some reason there's a bit of a difference in the broadcast order of RFD and PBS.

Curiously, in addition to the Christmas episode (from December 26, 2015) not being among the episodes airing on PBS (so far) and therefore not on this DVD there are 2 episodes from Season One/RFD not on this particular DVD, either. The January 2016 episodes guest starring Lee Greenwood and Darryl Worley (January 23rd) and T. Graham Brown and Suzi Ragsdale (January 30th) are not on this DVD because, technically, those episodes haven't aired on PBS stations yet even though they originally aired during Season One/RFD. Those 2 episodes aren't scheduled to air on PBS stations until later. The local PBS affiliate in my area carrying the program, KET2, which is a sub-channel of PBS affiliate WCVN (part of Kentucky Educational Television), has the January 23rd episode airing on September 16th and the January 30th episode airing in a couple of weeks, July 1st. This is a perfect illustration of local PBS affiliates picking and choosing the episodes they'll be airing from those made available.

What happened is 2 episodes from Season Two/RFD, perhaps by mistake or by design, have aired on Season One/PBS already. An episode guest starring Gene Watson from June 18, 2016 (Season Two/RFD) aired on the local PBS station a couple of weeks ago on June 3rd. On June 10th the episode guest starring James Gregory (Season Two/RFD) aired on PBS stations. The 13th and final episode of Season One/PBS guest stars Billy Dean and it aired just this past Saturday on the PBS channel in my area (June 17th). This is also the final episode of Season One/RFD from March 19, 2016. So, for whatever reason, PBS stations haven't aired a couple of January episodes from Season One/RFD but they did air a couple of summer episodes from Season Two/RFD to fill-in the gaps.

Season One/RFD Air-Dates/Broadcast Order:
1. Steve Wariner: November 7, 2015
2. Larry Gatlin: November 14, 2015
3. Bobby Bare: November 21, 2015
4. Don Schlitz: November 28, 2015
5. Charlie McCoy and Lori Stegner: December 5, 2015
6. Bobby Braddock: December 12, 2015
7. Jimmy Fortune: December 19, 2015
***Special episode: Suzy Bogus (Christmas program; hasn't aired on PBS): December 26, 2015***
8. Aaron Tippin: January 2, 2016
9. John Conlee and Jeff Bates: January 9, 2016
10. Tanya Tucker and T.G. Sheppard: January 16, 2016
11. Lee Greenwood and Darryl Worley: January 23, 2016 (hasn't aired on PBS yet; scheduled to air on WCVN/KET2 on September 16, 2017)
12. T. Graham Brown and Suzi Ragsdale: January 30, 2016 (hasn't aired on PBS yet; scheduled to air on WCVN/KET2 on July 1, 2017)
13. Billy Dean: March 19, 2016

Season Two/RFD Air-Dates/Broadcast Order:
1. James Gregory and Helen Highwater String Band: May 7, 2016 (aired on WCVN/KET2 already)
2. Bobby Goldsboro: May 14, 2016
3. Williams and Ree: May 21, 2016
4. Bellamy Brothers: June 4, 2016
5. The Gatlin Brothers: June 11, 2016
6. Gene Watson: June 18, 2016 (aired on WCVN/KET2 already)
7. Collin Raye: June 25, 2016
8. Bill Anderson: July 2, 2016
9. Sylvia: July 9, 2016
10. Con Hunley: July 16, 2016
11. Leroy Van Dyke: July 23, 2016
12. Janie Fricke: July 30, 2016

Here are the episodes that have aired and those yet to air on the local PBS affiliate in my area. You will notice that WCVN/KET2 isn't planning on airing much of what aired during the Season Two/RFD line-up. So I am hoping that more DVDs of his television program become available throughout the year!! Also, the first 13 episodes listed below are exactly what appears on Ray's latest DVD project...

WCVN/KET2 Air-Dates/Broadcast Order:
1. Steve Wariner: March 25, 2017
2. Larry Gatlin: April 1, 2017
3. Bobby Bare: April 8, 2017
4. Don Schlitz: April 15, 2017
5. Charlie McCoy and Lori Stegner: April 22, 2017
6. Bobby Braddock: April 29, 2017
7. Jimmy Fortune: May 6, 2017
8. Aaron Tippin: May 13, 2017
9. John Conlee and Jeff Bates: May 20, 2017
10. Tanya Tucker and T.G. Sheppard: May 27, 2017
11. Gene Watson: June 3, 2017 (from Season Two/RFD)
12. James Gregory: June 10, 2017 (from Season Two/RFD)
13. Billy Dean: June 17, 2017

1. Bobby Goldsboro: June 24, 2017
2. T. Graham Brown and Suzi Ragsdale: July 1, 2017 (from Season One/RFD)
3. Harold Bradley: July 8, 2017
4. Shenandoah: July 15, 2017 (footage taped February 2017)
5. Michael W. Smith: July 22, 2017
6. B.J. Thomas: July 29, 2017
7. Rhonda Vincent: August 5, 2017
8. Restless Heart: August 12, 2017
9. John Michael Montgomery: August 19, 2017
10. Baillie and the Boys: August 26, 2017
11. Con Hunley: September 2, 2017 (footage taped February 2017)
12. Jimmy Wayne: September 9, 2017
13. Lee Greenwood and Darryl Worley: September 16, 2017 (from Season One/RFD)

The second group of 13 episodes consists of some programs originally meant for RFD but weren't aired (based on social media postings late last year during taping sessions by the guest stars) and there are some from a taping session held earlier this year and those episodes will be brand new to all of Ray's fans since they hadn't aired before. The 11th episode is Con Hunley's second guest appearance. He appeared in an episode that RFD aired in July of last year. There was a taping session held in December of 2016 and those episodes are no doubt also part of the second group of 13 episodes WCVN/KET2 is scheduled to air.

From June 26th to June 30th Ray is going to be busy taping footage for even more episodes of the television series. These episodes are probably not going to start airing on PBS affiliates until maybe late fall or early winter this year. Once those episodes air, however, as I mentioned earlier, additional episodes are going to be taped at his CabaRay venue!

You can purchase the 13-episode, PBS-aired First Season DVD by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens and Marty Robbins...1977...

Hello once again!! Although Ray Stevens is busy behind the scenes getting things prepared for the next season of his television series there is another vintage appearance I'm about to promote on this fan-created blog. Call it perfect timing due to my habit of celebrating anniversaries involving Ray Stevens...but 40 years ago the one and only Ray Stevens was the featured Spotlight Artist on Marty Robbins obscure syndicated television series, Marty Robbins Spotlight. Late last year an episode spotlighting Chet Atkins appeared on YouTube and as a special guest, yes, it was Ray Stevens. I commented at the time that it would be great if the episode spotlighting Ray would appear on-line and like a wish come true such a thing happened this morning.

The episode is entertaining from start to finish. You don't ordinarily associate Ray with a Marty Robbins, for example, but this is another example of Ray's ability to adapt and interact with anybody. It reminds me of the time that Ray guest starred on an episode of George Jones' television series...there again he's appearing on a program hosted by someone you normally don't picture interacting together and yet the two come off as long-time friends. The same thing is true in the episode of Marty's program. Ray performs an outstanding "Feel the Music" and later, "Honky Tonk Waltz". He and Marty perform several bits together (a song medley, for example, features both of them at the piano) and there's an interview segment. One of the funniest parts of the episode is Ray in a trench coat, speaking in a thick German-American dialect, and performing a leg slapping routine. 

Throughout the segment featuring Ray and Marty at the piano the camera would frequently focus in on Marty's faux disbelief in hearing how varied Ray's musical styles happened to be...in the medley performance Ray gives his take on "What I'd Say" by Ray Charles and in a surreal moment Ray sings the first verse and chorus of "I Write the Songs", the smash hit recorded by Barry Manilow...why do I call it surreal? It's due to the fact that a couple of years after this episode aired Ray would record a song inspired by the sound and song titles from Barry's string of hits. Here is an example of one of those Marty Robbins comical looks of disbelief...

Marty's television series ran in syndication for a couple of years. I've seen information citing 26 episodes exist and other sources mention 24 episodes. I've even come across on-line sites stating the program has 52 episodes but I'm pretty sure only 24 (or 26) is the actual number. If anybody knows for sure how many actual half hour episodes of Marty Robbins Spotlight there happens to be leave a comment. It's a mystery to me, at least...and speaking of television programs...Ray himself has a television series...

Ray's television series, as a reminder, has jumped from RFD to PBS. It's been airing on scattered PBS stations since January after airing for a year and a half on RFD. The title has also changed from Ray Stevens' Nashville to Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville. The plan is to eventually tape episodes of the television series from the CabaRay venue.

Construction on his CabaRay entertainment venue is also well underway. It's still expected to open in the latter half of this year. Ray has periodically posted photo's of the venue's construction. The story of Ray embarking on construction of the venue broke in March of 2016 which is how the general public became aware but the most loyal of fans had been aware of the proposed venue for a couple of months prior. Does anyone not have the New Orleans Moon CD? In case this is all new to you the CD came out in 2007 as a salute to the music/culture of Louisiana a couple of years after Hurricane Katrina. The CD hit in March 2007 as an exclusive offered at Ray's web-store. It became available all over the internet in July of that year. It's been 10 years since it's release (technically a decade next month) but for the rest of this month (February) you can get the CD at a mark down price in celebration of Mardi Gras. I've been having a bit of trouble accessing the Store area of his website. Just in case you have the same trouble I'd suggest calling his office and ordering the CD over the phone. You can find ordering information/phone numbers at his official website by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: The Pop Goes the Country DVD's...

I hope the makers of the Pop! Goes the Country DVD's come out with a disc devoted to the many Ray Stevens appearances...preferably episodes that haven't been issued on DVD yet. Ray appeared on the show quite a few times and in many cases these programs are the only televised appearances of Ray Stevens during key moments of his earlier career.

In addition to the performances, which are a treat, you'll also see the interview segments. Ralph Emery hosted the program during the first 6 years (1974-1980) and upon Emery's departure in 1980 Tom T. Hall took over as host and remained with the program until it's end a few seasons later. Here is another chance to get your Pop! Goes the Country DVD collections featuring episodes starring Ray Stevens. In the links below you'll be taken to the Classic Country DVD item page where you can read in more detail.

Each DVD features multiple episodes starring various country artists but I'm singling out which Volumes, so far, contain a Ray Stevens episode...

Volume 4 (1975 episode)

Volume 9 (1977 episode)

Volume 15 (1979 episode)

Volume 17 (1981 episode)

Volume 24 (1978 episode)

The Volume 24 release is the most recent offering. Ray is clean-shaven in the 1977 episode. It is in this 1977 episode where he and Ralph Emery discuss at length the success of the fictional Henhouse Five Plus Too and their chicken clucking country/pop single, "In The Mood". I mention that because it isn't referenced in the DVD item description. In the 1979 episode Ray, I'm assuming, performs "Shriner's Convention" for the very first time on television weeks before it was issued as a single early in 1980. He opens the show with a performance of his 1976 Top-20 hit, "You Are So Beautiful". I'm barely scratching the surface...he also performs medley's of previous hits in addition to his interview segments with the host. In the 1979 episode he demonstrates the various styles of piano playing by offering the styles of Floyd Cramer, Ray Charles, and a brief Jerry Lee Lewis. In the 1975 episode Ray performs "Misty", "Indian Love Call", and "Twilight Time" in their entirety in addition to delivering a cultured version of "The Streak" which leaves Ralph Emery and the other guest, Sammi Smith, in fits of hysterical laughter. I hadn't purchased the DVD with the 1978 episode on it and so I can't go into detail about that one...yet...but I should have it in my possession sooner rather than later.