Collin Raye 'Twenty Years and Change' album

For the past four years, Collin Raye has heard the same question everywhere he goes. At every sold-out concert, at every radio-station visit, the mega hit maker gets asked by fans and industry professionals alike, “Hey, man, when are you going to put out a new record?”

“My recording career isn’t done by a long shot,” Collin promises them. “I didn’t go away into hibernation. I tour all the time, so I know there’s a demand for a new album. I wouldn’t put out records again unless I thought that people really wanted them. And they do.”

Actually, he’s been working on his new Twenty Years and Change collection all along. In between the constant concert appearances, he began traveling to Nashville three years ago. During each visit, he would record a song or two.

“One of the great things about making this album was having the freedom of going into the studio with no one looking over my shoulder,” comments Collin. “I didn’t feel like I was on some kind of treadmill. I didn’t set out any timetable. I didn’t think, ‘Let’s make a hit single, right now.’ I said, ‘Let’s just make this as good as it can be, to where it sounds good to us. Then we’ll step back and look at the whole thing.’

“In the end, we wound up with 23 songs. And these 12 are the best of those 23.”

Those 12 include some instant classics, as well as some bona fide classics. In the latter category are Collin Raye’s island-flavored reinterpretation of The Bellamy Brothers chestnut “Let Your Love Flow,” a heartfelt “It’s Only Make Believe” tribute to the late Conway Twitty, a powerful reworking of the 1985 Survivor hit “The Search Is Over” and a remake of Don Henley’s “You’re Not Drinkin’ Enough” that takes the tune straight into a honky-tonk.

Always a masterful ballad singer, Collin pours emotion into the wistful “Forgotten,” the reassuring “We’ll Be Alright” and the lovely romantic “All I Can Do Is Love You.” “Hurricane Jane,” on the other hand, is a good-time rocker. “Heart” has a lusciously melodic, mid-tempo groove.

“I Know That’s Right,” the collection’s first single, has a stirring message lyric. Two other standouts are story songs. “Josephine” tells the tale of a frightened Civil War soldier writing a letter home. “Twenty Years and Change,” written by the artist, is the portrait of a man who has replaced his youthful ideals with a resigned acceptance of his older, more satisfying reality.

Working with a variety of co-producers, Collin Raye is behind every note of music that’s heard on Twenty Years and Change. That, he says, is a first for him. He is proud of his five prior Platinum albums, 25 Top Ten hits, 15 No. 1 smashes and 12 chart-topping videos. But maintaining his high standards wasn’t always easy.

“The last record I made for Sony, I’ll never forget the meeting where they said, ‘We took a poll around the building and 70% voted for this song as your single.’ I said, ‘You took a vote around the building? I thought it was between the executive, the producer, the radio-promotion department and me. The receptionist has a vote? The art department?’ It seemed that everybody was getting a say-so about song selection. You can’t make records that way.

“That’s what I love about these guys at Aspirion Records. They get excited about the music. What a novel idea, to be on a record label that shares your passion.”

Collin Raye is nothing if not passionate. His fiery delivery has made country standards of such searing ballads as “Love, Me,” “In This Life,” “Not That Different” and “Little Rock.” Always an electrifying showman, he has also blazed through such vivid rockers as “My Kind of Girl,” “That’s My Story,” “I Can Still Feel You” and “I Want You Bad.”

His commitment to music has been life-long. Collin has been singing professionally since he was a teenager. He has never held any other job.

“I grew up steeped in traditional country music,” Collin reports. “I knew every song on Johnny Horton’s Greatest Hits by heart. To this day, I can sing them to you. I think that’s where I got my love of story songs.

“We never missed a country package show when one came through Little Rock. I remember seeing Porter Wagoner & The Wagonmasters with Dolly Parton, George Jones & The Jones Boys, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride and Conway Twitty, all on the same bill! Ray Price, Buck Owens, I loved them all.”

His mother, Lois Wray, was a country singer, and he was on stage with her by the age of 7. The family moved from Arkansas to Texas when he was young, and at age 13 he and his older brother Scott formed The Wray Brothers band to entertain in the Lone Star State.

The brothers migrated to lucrative casino work in Reno, Nevada. Billed as “Bubba Wray,” Collin became a master of stagecraft and a “human jukebox” whose repertoire included thousands of songs from across the American musical landscape. The Wrays first attracted Nashville’s attention with a string of independent-label singles recorded in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s. Mercury Records signed them and issued a couple of singles in 1986-87.

But Scott tired of the road, and the band broke up. Collin had married in 1980 and fathered daughter Brittany in 1983 and son Jacob in 1985. Like his brother, he also considered giving up music. That all changed when he began making solo records in 1990. Scott, by the way, is now bandleader for new Nashville star Miranda Lambert.

Collin shot to fame with “Love, Me” in 1991. Listeners were so touched that they used its lyrics at funerals and memorial services. That set the cornerstone for a career built on meaningful songs. “Little Rock” was an anthem for the recovery community. “Not That Different” pleaded for tolerance. “In This Life” became a wedding favorite. He won awards for the child-advocacy video “I Think About You.”

Five times nominated as country music’s Male Vocalist of the Year, Collin Raye has consistently used his stardom to advance social causes. Among the organizations he has supported are Boys Town, First Steps, Al-Anon, Special Olympics, Country Cares About AIDS, Catholic Relief Services, Parade of Pennies, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, The Tennessee Task Force Against Domestic Violence, The Emily Harrison Foundation, Childhelp USA, Silent Witness National Initiative, Easter Seals and Make a Difference Day. At the 2001 Country Radio Seminar, Clint Black presented Collin Raye with the organization’s Humanitarian of the Year award in recognition of Collin’s issue-oriented music and his tireless charity work.

But when the album he released later that year wasn’t successfully promoted, Collin asked for his release from Sony. Contractual roadblocks didn’t allow Collin to seek a new record deal for a period of time. Eventually he was able to aggressively try to get back in the record business.

Thus, Collin Raye began looking for a home for Twenty Years and Change. He turned down major-label overtures to sign with Infinity Records in 2004, but that company folded, further delaying his return to disc. The Navarre-distributed Aspirion picked up his recording contract in August 2005.

The man who has topped the charts with such great songs as “On the Verge,” “One Boy, One Girl,” “What the Heart Wants,” “Every Second” and “That Was a River” is finally ready for another round of successes.

“I believe in Providence,” says Collin Raye. “I believe there’s a reason things happen the way they do. I also believe that if you’ve treated people right and you continue to work hard at your craft, things will happen. I want to keep going. I want hit records. I want to make music.”

COLLIN RAYE TWENTY YEARS AND CHANGE CUT-BY-CUT

1. “I Know That’s Right” (Bob DiPiero/Rivers Rutherford/Tom Shapiro)

Fred Mollin, who co-produced this track, found the song and played it for me. I love what it says. It’s not about being on one side of the fence or the other. It’s about how humans universally feel. I think we live in a time when society makes it very easy to make wrong seem right. So the final litmus test, for me, is in your heart, your gut. You do something because you know it’s the right thing to do.

2. “Hurricane Jane” (Eric Daly/Gordon Sampson/Troy Verges)

Obviously, I recorded this before the devastating hurricanes, so it probably won’t ever be a single. It’s just a cute, fun, punchy song that’s very cleverly written. I was originally attracted by the groove. You rarely hear that Bo Diddley/”Hand Jive” rhythm on a record today.

3. “The Search Is Over” (James Peterik/Frank Sullivan III)

This is a song that Survivor did back in 1985. I remember when the song came out. I was living in Reno, Nevada at the time. It struck me as a song I wished I could sing, because I loved what it said. It’s just a classic love song. I’ve recorded Journey’s “Open Arms,” and this is a similar thing, a big power-ballad pop song with a country take on it. I always thought this was a country song in hiding.

4. “Forgotten” (Gene LeSage/Allison Mellon)

Gene LaSage was my band leader for many, many years until he decided to get off the road this past year. He produced some of this album with me, and he writes for my publishing company. “Forgotten” is such a haunting, yet comforting thought. When I first heard it, I said, “Let’s don’t pitch this to anyone else. This one’s mine.”

5. “You’re Not Drinkin’ Enough” (Daniel Kortchmar)

I love Don Henley. He probably affected me as a singer more than anybody. When I was a teenager and learning how to do this, The Eagles were in their prime. I used to try to sing just like him. I do “The Heart of the Matter” in my live shows. This song was on his album Building the Perfect Beast in 1984. That album had so many hits on it that it’s easy to see how this was forgotten. But I always thought it was such a great song. When I recorded it, I wanted it to feel “real,” like we’re in a bar and this guy is telling the story. Because of “Little Rock,” people don’t associate me with drinking songs. But I’m a country singer. How can I not sing about drinking? And as tongue-in-cheek as this lyric is, it’s really a pretty serious song.

6. “Josephine” (Rory Feek)

I heard Rory Lee sing this at a writer’s night five years ago at the Hall of Fame Motor Inn in Nashville. I said, “Buddy, can I have that?” It took me this long to finally put it out. When I talked to him about it later, he told me it came from a Civil War letter. One of his great-great grandparents lived this. He got the grammar and everything straight from the letter. That’s why it sounds so true. We treated this one like a little movie.

7. “Heart” (Gene LaSage/Jason Blume)

Jason Blume cowrote “The Eleventh Commandment,” so I was aware of his writing. Lyrically, this is one of those songs that an English major could be proud of. It’s a very introspective thing that you want to listen to, line by line. It’s something I’ve never heard said in quite this way before – talking to your heart in the second person, like you’re having a conversation with yourself. If you have been in a situation where your heart said one thing and your head said another, and you went with your heart, usually it was wrong.

8. “All I Can Do Is Love You” (Collin Raye/Melissa Manchester)

I made friends with Melissa when I did my children’s album. She co-wrote “A Mother and Father’s Prayer,” which we made a video of. During the course of all that, I hit it off with her really well. She also wrote her hit “Midnight Blue,” which I loved. She said, “Let’s write together,” came to Nashville and sat down with me at my publishing company. I had the idea for this melody and knew where I wanted it to go. I had this simple sentiment and expressed it to her. She helped me fill in all the blanks. It wasn’t an attempt to write a wedding song. It was just meant to be something sweet. I pictured a guy sitting on the banks of the Seine in Paris, eating cheese and singing to this girl. So that’s why we added the French-bistro accordion to the track.

9. “Let Your Love Flow” (Lawrence Williams)

Martina McBride has done an album of classics. So have Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire. I’ve always dreamed of doing one, myself. But this song was never on my list. Stan Cornelius suggested it when we were in the studio together. My first thought was, “I don’t know if that fits me or not.” I said, “Well, if we’re going to try it, let’s take it someplace it’s never been.” We raised the key to make it sing higher. Because of what Kenny Chesney has been doing, there’s a place for a rum-drinking, “island” groove, so that’s what we went for. I said, “Let’s make this a cruise-ship of love.” Every time I play it in my car, it makes me want to dance. It just feels so good.

10. “Twenty Years and Change” (Collin Raye)

I have tremendous confidence in my ability to perform, but I’ve always been a little insecure about my song writing. I write way more than people think I do. The reason you don’t see more of my songs on my records is that my lyrics tend to be wordy, poetic metaphors. I’m a country music artist, so I believe that songs need to be very, very understandable. Plus, I love story songs. So when I wrote this one, I said, “I’ll make this a story about a fictitious character who just happens to resemble me an awful lot.” Except I’m not a piano player in a band called Angry Witness. Generally, what I’m trying to say in the song is that people change. The world changes you. Life doesn’t turn out the way you would have planned. You become more realistic.
One popular thing to say right now is, “and change.” You know: “How much is that car?” “Oh, forty thousand and change.” I heard somebody say that and went, “Wow: You do change over the course of time.” And so that’s where that came from. And I thought it made a nice, poetic title for the album, as well.

11. “We’ll Be Alright” (Gene LaSage/Tom Damphier)

This is another song I’ve held onto for a long time. What I love about this sentiment is that it can be a love song about two people, or it can be about mankind. It’s kind of saying, “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff.” Everything will be alright. Just relax. Everything’s going to be okay. And you know what? It usually is. I included it toward the end of the record because it’s sort of a good thought to leave people with.

12. “It’s Only Make Believe” (Jack Nance/Conway Twitty)

When Conway Twitty died in 1993, it was the night before Fan Fair began. I sang on the last night of the festival. I was struck by the fact that there had been very little talk about him dying. He had always been so kind and uplifting to me when I was a young artist. He made me feel almost like an equal. Yet, when I was growing up, he was one of the people who made me want to do what I do. So I just got up there on stage and started to sing, “People see us everywhere.” And the place erupted. I’ve had several years to think about it since then. I want everybody to know that I did this because I wanted to pay tribute to Conway. I tried to sing it exactly like he did. The fans haven’t forgotten him. I hope they will applaud this.

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Collin Raye - Twenty Years and Change