I Think About You (CD - 1995)

Personnel: Collin Raye (vocals); Billy Joe Walker, Jr. (acoustic & electric guitars); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Larry Byrom, Dann Huff (electric guitar); Paul Franklin, Dan Dugmore (steel guitar); Larry Franklin (fiddle); John Hobbs (accordion, piano, Hammond B-3 organ, synthesizer); Ed Seay (6-string bass); Joe Chemay (bass, background vocals); Paul Leim, Lonnie Wilson (drums); Tom Roady (percussion); Dennis Wilson, Curtis Young, John Wesley Ryles, Anthony Martin (background vocals).

Recorded at The Money Pit, The Music Mill and JTM Recording, Nashville, Tennessee.

I THINK ABOUT YOU is definitive, radio-ready American country music: slick and sentimental, with a strong Texas tenor at the helm and some of Nashville's best songwriters backing him up. Collin Raye follows up the chart-topping success of his hits "Love, Me," and "In This Life," with this latest effort, a collection of catchy tunes, but with a catch--Raye sings songs that are about much more than broken romance and honky-tonk nights.

"I Think About You" is a perfect example of Raye's commitment to sing about real, gut-level issues, and the emotions they bring out. These are songs that he says he "wants to be the kind people feel are their own." And there's probably not a young father in the world who can't identify with the title track, in which Raye surveys the unsavory, abuse-filled lives of certain modern women, and worries about the fate of his own eight-year-old daughter.

Musically, Raye plays it as straight as can be--guitars jangle along happily on numbers like "Sweet Miss Behavin'," or pick out full, lonesome notes on ballads like "Heart Full Of Rain." The chord changes are big and bold, but never over the top, and his back-up musicians know how to produce a perfect blend. In many ways, this disc defines the modern country sound--with a well-placed steel guitar line in "Rain," or maybe with the single cymbal riding the beat throughout the intro of "What If Jesus Comes Back Like That." I THINK ABOUT YOU is always tasteful, never nasty, smoothly professional.

Personnel: Collin Raye (vocals); Anthony Martin (vocals); Billy Joe Walker (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Dann Huff, Larry Byrom (electric guitar); Larry Franklin (fiddle); John Hobbs (accordion, piano, synthesizer); Ed Seay (6-string bass); Paul Leim (drums); Tom Roady (percussion); Curtis Young, Dennis Wilson , John Wesley Ryles (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Ed Seay.

Recording information: JTM Recording, Nashville, TN; Money Pit; Music Mill.

Photographer: Frank Ockenfels.

Arranger: Joe Chemay.

After attempting a somewhat rougher approach with Extremes, Collin Raye returned to his smooth ballad stylings on I Think About You. Though he still sings the occasional honky tonk raver, the high points on his fourth album come when he slows the pace down. I Think About You does suffer from a few bland tracks, but the album does demonstrate why Raye was one of the most popular country singers of the mid-'90s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize