by Chad Campbell, senior producer
The entire reason for this trip to Nashville was an idea for a musical dinner party in Bob’s honor hosted by Suzi Ragsdale. The former guest of this show talked about putting a spa tour together where she would lead a group in yoga, cook a dinner for them and then perform some music for the group. Bob opted to skip the yoga portion, but the dinner and music went off without a hitch at Suzi’s house. She also helped us land an interview with her famous father, Harold Ray Ragsdale, though he’s much better known to the world as Ray Stevens. He’s won two Grammy Awards, one for his hit song “Everything is Beautiful” and one for his country arrangement of the jazz standard “Misty.” But Stevens is even better known for his novelty songs such as “The Streak” “Ahab the Arab” and “Mississippi Squirrel Revival.” These days, Stevens is letting his politics show and making satirical videos mocking political correctness, global warming and US immigration policy. Click here for Ray Stevens’ website where you can view some of his videos.
Here’s a slideshow of our visit with Ray Stevens.
And here are pictures from the October 27th performance of Music City Roots.
Click here to read Craig Havighurst’s blog about the performance we saw.
We almost didn’t make it to Music City Roots, thanks to a two-hour delay for our flight out of DC. By the time we finally landed and drove down to the Loveless Barn, the show was half over. But I’m glad we made the extra effort. We got to witness Jerry Douglas play and the McCrary Sisters with and without Mike Farris. Then there was the jaw-dropping finale, a jam session featuring all of the night’s performers doing “This Little Light of Mine.” Click here to see the video of the full show from October 27th.
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