Collin Raye has always had a voice best suited for ballads. However, at times, he has been known to stretch his vocal boundaries with unique results that have ended up feeling like a signature vocal trademark that, ultimately, works for him. Likewise, he is most associated with his glut of sensitive love songs or overwrought message ballads with strong melodies if not saccharine lyrics.
“She’s with Me” is yet another Ballad, but it deviates from Collin Raye’s typical penchant for overdoing it. Instead, it is a slow, vocally restrained song with a message, but one that is worth exploring.
It is about a father who is charged with caring for a child with a severe disability. Instead of feeling saddled by the task, he feels blessed by the opportunity, but is willing to acknowledge the challenges as well, which is often lacking in songs such as these. While this, again, still threatens to cross over into the overwrought message camp, Raye, with his high clear tenor, manages to add an element of integrity that seems unforced and sincere.
However, although the instrumentation is merely guitar and strings, it is clearly designed for the adult contemporary format rather than country music.
Grade: B
Listen: Collin Raye, “She’s with Me”
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