The Best of Collin Raye: Direct Hits (CD - 1997)

Personnel includes: Collin Raye (vocals); Billy Joe Walker, Jr. (acoustic & electric guitars); Biff Watson, Paul Worley (acoustic guitar); Dann Huff, Larry Byrom (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar, dobro); Sonny Garrish (steel guitar); Steve Gibson (mandolin); Larry Franklin (fiddle); Will Smith (autoharp); Steve Nathan (piano); John Hobbs (keyboards); Joe Chemay (bass, background vocals); Paul Leim (drums); Anthony Martin, Gene Miller, Dennis Wilson, John Wesley Ryles (background vocals).

Engineers include: Ed Seay, Steve Tillisch.

Producers include: John Hobbs, Ed Seay, Paul Worley, Garth Fundis, Jerry Fuller.

All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Collin Raye, a Texarkana-born country crooner, is certainly ripe for a best-of. He's only the eighth country performer in history to have his first four albums go platinum, and his singles have raced each other to the top of the country charts for years. Starting as more of a heartbreak-and-beer songslinger, Raye's sensibilities were politicized along the way, and he began to tackle more "adult" issues of the sort that don't usually get addressed in top 40 country, like "Little Rock," which deals with alcoholism and "I Think About You," a tune that takes on the tender subject of domestic violence. Both his serious side and his honkytonkin' side are represented on this definitive collection, which also includes four brand new cuts. minimize