"Ray Stevens' Nashville" is much more than an extensive and entertaining biography of a Comedy Music Legend who brought us multimillion selling hits like "The Streak" and "Gitarzan" or the Grammy winning cultural classics "Misty" and "Everything is Beautiful" along with the all-time top selling "Comedy Video Classics." It is the story of how the sleepy southern city of Nashville grew and blossomed into the international music mecca that it is today. Ray Stevens was there as it all came together, whether playing on recording sessions with Elvis and singing backup for Waylon Jennings or as a part-time substitute background singer with the famous Jordanaires among many others. All of this in addition to winning the "Comedian of the Year" award, for his unique comedy music 9 years in a row. "Ray Stevens' Nashville" is an entertaining insider's behind the scenes look at Nashville with one of the architects and laborers who built it and constructed the world famous "Nashville Sound." This is a fun and informative read that will have you laughing and learning with the turn of every page.
Ray Stevens' Nashville is a Nashville you will love, too. Ray takes you behind the scenes into the recording sessions and into the dressing rooms and shares his Nashville with us in a very entertaining way. It's fun, informative and funny. If you are a fan of Ray Stevens, country or pop music, or the city of Nashville, you will love Ray Stevens' Nashville. Ray Stevens was recently described in the Nashville Tennessean newspaper as the most talented man on Music Row. Not bad for a guy who moved to town in 1962 with all of his worldly possessions in the smallest U-Haul trailer available at the time, and as he'll tell you, "It wasn't full." A Hall of Fame songwriter, Grammy award winning vocalist and arranger with numerous Gold and Platinum Records, and nine consecutive Comedian of the Year statuettes, Ray says he is a 'piano man in a guitar town,' which makes the career of this imaginative and prolific musician even more notable. Many Nashville recording artists have a couple of country hits, buy a few new flashy cars and a hillbilly bus and go off performing around the country to make room for, you know, "the new kid in town," the "next big thing." But Ray Stevens didn't have a couple of hits, he had a string of them and he didn't buy a bus and leave town, he rented a plane so he could fly home and sleep in his own bed every night. He didn't view his success as a fast burn, but simply the natural result of doing his job well, and he never got tired of that job. His is an American dream story of humble beginnings, talent, and hard work. He has always gotten up every day and gone to work, just like his folks taught him to do, and the way his mill employee father modeled for him. Part of the answer of his long success is that he has never comfortable with being a Star. In fact, he is a very reluctant celebrity, always shunning limos, presidential suites, and the star treatment in general. When told a production company would send a limo for him he replied, "Just tell me the address, I have a car and I've been driving since I was 16." He loves Nashville, it's his adopted hometown. He likes breakfast with old friends every Saturday morning at a small neighborhood restaurant, and being able to be at work after just a 15 minute drive. He loves the architecture, the people, the business, and being surrounded by the best musicians in the world that he can call on at a moment's notice to come to one of his state of the art recording studios and help him create that most elusive of all things-- a Hit Record.
"Ray Stevens' Nashville" is much more than an extensive and entertaining biography of a Comedy Music Legend who brought us multimillion selling hits like "The Streak" and "Gitarzan" or the Grammy winning cultural classics "Misty" and "Everything Is Beautiful" along with the all-time top selling "Comedy Video Classics." It is the story of how the sleepy southern city of Nashville grew and blossomed into the international music mecca that it is today. Ray Stevens was there as it all came together, whether playing on recording sessions with Elvis and singing backup for Waylon Jennings or as a part-time substitute background singer with the famous Jordanaires among many others. All of this in addition to winning the "Comedian of the Year" Award, for his unique comedy music 9 years in a row. "Ray Stevens' Nashville" is an entertaining insider's behind the scenes look at Nashville with one of the architects and laborers who built it and constructed the world famous "Nashville Sound." This is a fun and informative read that will have you laughing and learning with the turn of every page.
The Fundamentals of Judo identifies the essential techniques that define Judo as a fighting art and looks at how students should practise and develop these key skills. The core techniques are analysed in depth and through step-by-step photography for the benefit of both beginner and experienced Judo players. The analysis of each technique reflects Ray Stevens' detailed technical knowledge and experience as a Judo player.
"In a collaboration between curators at The Columbus Museum and the Chrysler Museum of Art, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, works toward a primary objective: to introduce the Thomas-related materials housed at The Columbus Museum to a broader public, and to demonstrate how those materials reshape the narratives surrounding the artist. The wealth of material in The Columbus Museum's collection-from student work of the 1920s and marionettes from the 1930s, to home furnishings, ephemera, and little-known works on paper-offers a robust, but until now untold, account of Thomas's artistic journey. Taking cues from Thomas's wide-ranging interests and her broad network of collaborators and supporters, our museums also sought a scholarly approach that resonated with the artist's own disregard for silos, borders, and other arbitrary limitations. Assembling an interdisciplinary advisory committee of more than twenty scholars of diverse backgrounds and experiences, the curators convened a two-day gathering at the University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection in January 2020 to illuminate varied aspects of Thomas's creativity and amplify the show's interdisciplinary approach. By applying interdisciplinary approaches to a range of artistic objects, the overall project presents new insights into Thomas's diverse forms of creativity while offering an inspiring look at how to lead a rich and beautiful life"--
Chairman at the Board is an intimate, funny, and absorbing look at the music business by an insider who has recorded a host of the greatest musical artists from the 1970s to today. Bill Schnee takes the reader inside the studio--behind the curtain--and through the decades with a cavalcade of famous artists as he helped them realize their vision. After his high school band was dropped by Decca Records, Schnee began his quest to learn everything he could about making records. Mentored by technical guru Toby Foster, mastering guru Doug Sax, and recording legend Richie Podolor at his American Recording Studio, he immediately began recording the top acts of the day as a freelance engineer/producer in Hollywood. Clive Davis soon hired him to work for CBS where he partnered with famed music producer Richard Perry. Schnee went on to record and/or mix many of Perry's biggest albums of the '70s and '80s, including those by Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Art Garfunkel, and The Pointer Sisters. With his deft personal touch with musicians, he continued to engineer and/or produce the likes of Marvin Gaye, Thelma Houston (the Grammy-nominated, direct-to-disc album I've Got the Music in Me), Pablo Cruise, Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, the Jacksons, Huey Lewis and the News, Dire Straits, and Whitney Houston. With over 125 gold and platinum records, and two Grammys for Steely Dan's Aja and Gaucho, Schnee has been called a living legend--recognized and respected in the industry as the consummate music man with an incomparable career that he lovingly shares with his readers in humorous detail.
PERMISSION TO FLY tells the true story of a boy born into a kind and happy family who grows to realize the executive world his father inhabits may not be his destiny. Thanks to his remarkable mother, Layng is given "permission to fly" early on as he begins his amazing journey of many painful-but-educational steps, and missteps, and love.
In this riveting personal story, award-winning, bestselling country music recording artist Merle Haggard takes you on a tour through his house of memories, offering a fascinating look inside his turbulent yet successful life. Merle reveals the true stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the loss of his father when he was nine, after which his childhood disobedience transformed into full-blown delinquency that eventually landed him behind the cold walls of San Quentin. He gives tribute to his mother and relives the painful memory of her death. He shares the lessons he learned from a life shaped by violence, gambling, and drugs, never shying away from the fact that he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. And he talks about the music he loves—how, ultimately, it has defined the man he is.
