If you watch much of RFD-TV then you're familiar with the series, Larry's Country Diner. It's been on the air/in production for quite a long time. It's hosted by Larry Black and it features a regular cast of characters in a diner setting. Some of their episodes, prior to COVID-19, were taped inside the Ray Stevens CabaRay whereas most of their episodes are taped on a sound stage in Nashville in a diner setting. There's a small audience that the host and regular cast entertain with one liners and conversational jokes. The audience is served food and beverages. The show prides itself on it's realistic, live feel and each episode closes with the on-screen announcer, Keith Bilbrey, asking viewers to tune in next week "where the camera's keep rolling..." and then the cast, in unison, shouts out "...and we don't care!!". It's their way of saying that you'll see anything and everything, bloopers and all.
On an episode that aired not too long ago one of the guests happened to be Buddy Kalb. The episode was billed as the quarantine version due to Tennessee law prohibiting mass gatherings. The show featured all the cast members on tape from remote locations (most of them from their own house) and the guest, Buddy Kalb, was seated with a guitar inside the recording studio located inside the CabaRay. You can watch the episode HERE. The link takes you to the Facebook Watch-Live page. The show aired on-line and viewers left commentary throughout the episode by way of Country Road TV. I caught the episode when it aired on RFD-TV. Anyway, Buddy Kalb spoke about his career and sang several songs. He is part of the Ray Stevens Music group and has assisted Ray in many endeavors over the decades. He is first and foremost a writer...he either writes or co-writes with other collaborators...or writes songs himself and most of them are recorded by Ray Stevens. In music videos Buddy is often seen as the straight man or the comic foil depending on Ray's performance. Buddy plays the role of "The Blue Cyclone" in the music video of that song. In "Surfin' U.S.S.R." Buddy is seen as the cigar smoking woman from Moscow U.
In the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" music video, a song Buddy and his wife, Carlene, wrote, Buddy can be seen as Harv Newland. I'd read where his wife, Carlene, is playing the role of Sister Bertha but I thought it was the late Janice Copeland who appeared as Sister Bertha. Buddy appears in the music video for "It's Me Again, Margaret". He's playing the policeman with the binoculars. Buddy's sidekick in that scene is Ray's late brother, John. The woman playing Margaret looks like Sister Bertha...some sources say it's Carlene Kalb but I could swear it's Janice Copeland playing those two roles. Buddy's name on songwriter credits is C.W. Kalb, Jr. One of the recent Ray Stevens music videos featuring Buddy is "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore"...he plays the TSA agent.
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