Raye Review Taken to Task

I belong to a group of concert-goers, and believe me, we have seen some bad performers. However, we all look forward to Collin Raye being in town and have never been disappointed by any of his concerts.

Just wanted to let you know that Mike Boehm did that young man a great injustice with his negative review of his concert (“Some Reason for Hope in a Landscape of Schmaltz,” Oct. 30).

We really don’t think that Raye, having been nominated for a Country Music Assn. award, having three platinum albums and a sold-out concert, could be as horrible a performer as described in your lengthy article.

To add insult to injury, could you have found a worse picture to print?

MARILYN PUCCI

Anaheim

Since I don’t attend very many concerts, I don’t pay a lot of attention to music critics. But I am a Collin Raye fan and was fortunate enough to attend his Cerritos concert, reviewed by Mike Boehm.

If Mr. Boehm’s point was to present a sophomoric evaluation, a la a Music Review 101 class, “Compare and Contrast the Relevance of Country Music Lyrics With the Conflict-Ridden State of Modern Society,” I suppose he did a credible job.

However, I attended the concert to escape the conflict-ridden state of modern society, and I was not disappointed. I loved being able to actually watch one of my favorite artists sing all my favorite songs, and even though we were sitting in the second row, the music was not mind-numbingly loud.

Raye’s enthusiastic audience was made up of all ages; sitting in front of me was a gray-haired couple clapping in time to music and next to me were two teenagers screaming their appreciation.

Contrary to Boehm’s scathing comments, I found Raye’s rendition of “Open Arms” one of several unexpected and delightful additions to his regular material. During the last 15 minutes, my husband and I stood with our arms around each other while Raye sang about the enduring love of an elderly couple.

There was nothing in Boehm’s review that captured the magic of the evening or even seemed relevant to the experience of the rest of us who attended the concert. Who do you suppose missed the point?

GINGER MCKAY

Anaheim