country

Collin Raye

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Nineties country balladeer — 'Love, Me' and a long run of hits sung in a tenor built for the big emotional swing.

Collin Raye was born Floyd Elliott Wray in De Queen, Arkansas, on August 22, 1960. His mother, Lois Wray, worked the same circuit as Sun Records artists including Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash in the 1950s, and later brought Collin and his brother Scott onstage to sing harmony. The two formed a country-rock outfit, billed at times as the Wray Brothers, with Collin performing under the name Bubba Wray.

He signed with Epic Records in 1990, adjusted the spelling of his surname to Raye, and released his solo debut, All I Can Be, in 1991. Its single 'Love, Me' became his first number one, and the album went platinum, the first of four consecutive Raye records to reach that mark in the United States.

His voice is a clear, wide-ranging tenor pushed hardest at the ends of choruses, suited to the ballad and story-song style that dominated country radio in the 1990s. Alongside straightforward love songs, Raye recorded narrative singles addressing alcoholism, faith, prejudice and family, among them 'In This Life,' 'Little Rock,' 'I Think About You' and 'Not That Different.'

Between 1991 and 2007 he placed thirty singles on the country charts, four of them reaching number one: 'Love, Me,' 'In This Life,' 'My Kind of Girl' and 'I Can Still Feel You.' He also charted twice on the Adult Contemporary format as a duet partner on songs by Jim Brickman.

His commercial run cooled after 2001's Can't Back Down failed to produce a Top 40 hit, and Epic dropped him soon after. He did not release another studio album until 2005's Twenty Years and Change, issued on an independent label. He has continued to record and tour, also performing gospel and inspirational material.

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