This was a lovely surprise.  I still remember the first time I ever heard Ray Stevens (Jeremiah Peabody) and it never occurred to me that he would have another record, let alone such a long and varied career as he has had.  Most people just think of him as a purveyor of funny songs (and he's really good at that!!)  But as you look over his whole career, he's also had some great serious songs, had success as an arranger and producer, won a Grammy for his "arrangement" of a bluegrass version of Misty, has made recordings where he did multiple voices (even a Flamingo-esque version of Indian Love Call)   He's hosted TV shows, written a book, and built a beautiful new Nashville showcase venue, CabaRay.  It's late, and I'm sure I'm leaving some things out.  What an amazing talent.  As I said on my Facebook page, Ray Stevens should be in every Hall of  Fame there is.  How many people who started out at the same time he did are still doing new and different things every day?  Let us not forget that he convinced Chet Atkins to moo like a cow on the crazy Henhouse Five Plus Two version of In the Mood!  (And on Nashville Now, he wrote and got everyone to join in on singing Ralph You Have Embarrassed Us All.)

With Nashville becoming more and more the liberal cesspool,  what with the conservative and pro-American music he's been making lately, I'm surprised they put him in the Hall of Fame.  My favorite is Throw the Bums Out.  Oh, and his two best serious songs are Funny Man and Get Crazy With Me.