Ray Stevens announces last year of scheduled performances at Nashville's CabaRay Showroom

Grammy award winner and Country Hall of Fame member Ray Stevens has announced that he will be slowing down live performances after 2024 to focus on recording.

This year, the almost 85-year-old Stevens plans to kick off his final run of regularly scheduled, live concerts at his West Nashville CabaRay Showroom. The CabaRay will continue to see performances from other entertainers in the space.

The singer-songwriter, best known for his hit "This Mississippi Squirrel Revival," "The Streak" and "Misty" has long been one of Nashville's performance staples. A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Musicians Hall of Fame and with a star on the Music City Walk of Fame, Stevens has cemented himself as one of the city's major traditional pop influences.

Stevens' comedic singer-songwriter career has spanned 60 years, with more than 40 million albums sold. In 2018, Stevens opened the CabaRay Showroom, a live music venue and dinner theater located in West Nashville.

"I've always been in the music business, since I was 15 years old, and I've traveled all over the world, played shows, written, and recorded a lot of successful records. And so I was tired..." Stevens said. "The reason I built the CabaRay was I was just tired of the road, tired of traveling or having to get on a plane or bus to go where I needed to perform. And so I built the CabaRay!"

Stevens has performed hundreds of weekly concerts in his very own entertainment space, a 35,000 square foot venue inspired by the feel of an old Las Vegas casino showroom, seating 700 people.

"I've had a long run and a good run," Stevens told The Tennessean. Reflecting on his long and fruitful music career, Stevens feels like he is in a place where he can cut back on performing, but performing "has a hold on" Stevens, and he isn't quite ready to retire.

He plans to stop regularly performing at my CabaRay Showroom at the end of 2024, but he still plans to perform occasionally after the end of the year, both at the Showroom and other venues.

"I really want to concentrate on recording and I'm still writing songs and in the studio producing records," said Stevens, who built a recording studio at the other end of the CabaRay.

Stevens is prioritizing writing and recording his own songs, but also recording Donna McManus, one of his background singers, and John Jonethis, a pianist and singer who performs at the CabaRay.

"There are some people in my organization that have shown me how good they are, how talented they are," Stevens said warmly about his CabaRay colleagues.

"I'm just doing what I've always done and trying to make music. I love what I do and I do just want to continue to do that as long as I can," said Stevens.

Stevens will begin his final 2024 show cycle on March 16 and plans to continue through December. He will also perform a special Valentine's Day concert on February 14.

"I'm looking forward to this final year, it's going to be a good year," said Stevens. "I'd like to see everybody come out if they can and see the show."

Tickets for Stevens' last run of concerts at CabaRay are on-sale now and can be purchased at raystevenscabaray.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Grammy winner Ray Stevens turning toward recording music