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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZRAYE, Collin(b Floyd Collin Wray, 22 Aug. '60, DeQueen AR) Country singer with a smooth tenor voice, concentrating on lyrically powerful songs, consistently in the country top ten in the mid-'90s resulting in gold and platinum albums. His mother Lois was a regional star in the 1950s who opened for Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. Collin and his brother Scott formed a country-rock outfit the Wray Brothers Band, performing covers of pop and country hits in Reno casinos, Collin known at this time as Bubba Wray; they recorded on minor labels '83-5, signed to Mercury '86 as the Wrays with minor country hits; Collin went solo '88 and refined an exciting stage style in Nevada night clubs; signed to Epic '91 as Collin Raye and had a no. 1 with 'Love Me'. His debut album All I Can Be went gold; top ten entries '92-7 with further no. ones 'In This Life' '92, 'My Kind Of Girl' '95; 'Little Rock' '94 was a song about alcoholism, picked up by Alcoholics Anonymous (the video including helpline phone number). He was still based in Reno, which meant lack of CMA awards (they tend to go to Nashvillians who court CMA). His albums were all going platinum including In This Life '92, Extremes '93, I Think About You '95. Further sets were The Walls Came Down '98, Counting Sheep and Tracks 2000, Can't Back Down 2001. He broke with Epic/Sony and his next album was in Smith Music Group's series Live At Billy Bob's Texas 2004, recorded at the Fort Worth venue. |