Collin Raye’s voice carries bigger message to country fans

Country singer Collin Raye has performed countless concerts throughout his 25-year career in music, but it was a string of concerts in the Portland area more than 30 years ago before he made it big that changed his life. 

While playing the nightclub circuit in Oregon, Raye became friends with fans Lil and Dick Ellington and noticed the “bold crucifix” Lil wore around her neck. Though he grew up Southern Baptist in De Queen, he was always intrigued by Catholicism. He went with the couple to Mass for the first time at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Portland.

“When I walked in the church I immediately felt this heavy presence. Not a dark presence, it was a beautiful, but heavy, feeling in the room. I saw everyone at the kneelers and it was very reverent and that’s not what I was used to,” Raye, 56, told Arkansas Catholic before his Oct. 22 concert at the Arkansas State Fair in Little Rock.

But at Mass, “I thought, ‘Wow, there’s something in here I’m not used to.’ I would later find out what that was, it was the body of Christ.”

While his faith was rooted in biblical teachings, Raye said, “I was looking for something. I loved my biblical knowledge I had been taught, but I felt like there had to be more to it.”

Raye converted to Catholicism at 23 years old, with the Ellingtons as his sponsors.

“By the time RCIA was over I realized that the Catholic Church was probably the only church that was actually living exactly by the Bible. Yet I had been taught when I was a kid ‘Oh, they don’t even believe in the Bible.’”

Music with a message

While Raye had honky-tonk hits in the ’90s with songs like “That’s My Story,” “Little Red Rodeo” and “My Kind of Girl,” he realized there could also be a higher purpose for his music.

“I basically started praying ‘Lord, if you allow me to, that door to open and for me to walk through it and have some success, then I’m going to take that as a gift from you and I’m going to try to honor you in everything that I do,’” Raye said. “And so, ‘Love, Me,’ my first hit, was about enduring love past the grave, and I thought this fits me really well, this fits what I want to do.”

Debuting in 1991, “Love, Me” was his first No. 1 single. Throughout his career, he has more than 20 top 10 singles on country Billboard charts and 13 albums, including his latest album in 2013 “Still on the Line,” a tribute to good friend and country legend Glen Campbell, a Delight, Ark., (Pike County) native. In 2014, he released his autobiography “A Voice Undefeated.”

He has tackled several social issues through his music, including “I Think About You” about the abuse and exploitation of women which earned him the 1997 Academy of Country Music Video of the Year Award and “Little Rock,” about a recovering alcoholic, which was a 1994 song of the year nominee at the Country Music Association Awards.

Raye has been involved in several charitable organizations and events, including Catholic Relief Services, Special Olympics and in February, he performed at the “Two Nations, One Faith” event at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas, before the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Ciudad Juarez was broadcast. 

Faith and good works

However, closest to his heart is The Haley Bell Blessed Chair Foundation, started in 2010 in memory of his granddaughter Haley who died from undiagnosed neurological conditions. The foundation provides support and assistance to families of the cognitively and physically disabled, primarily with specialty wheelchairs which can cost $5,000 to $7,000 not covered by insurance.  

“I know it makes Haley happy and it’s a way to keep her legacy, her name, her awesomeness alive, but ultimately I think it’s a sign of faith too because it shows people don’t feel sorry for yourself when these things happen,” Raye said. “… He more than gives back for whatever you lose. He replenishes it in many different ways. You don’t get that child back, but he will never leave you abandoned, he promised that. And he’s never abandoned us.”

Aprille Hanson Spivey

Aprille Hanson Spivey has contributed to Arkansas Catholic as a freelancer and associate editor since 2010. She leads the Beacon of Hope grief ministry at St. Joseph Church in Conway.

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