He had 21 Top 10 country hits. Now he’ll sing in Idaho to raise money for Ammon Bundy
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Michael Deeds, Idaho Statesman columnist
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – If far-right politics is music to your ears, an Idaho gubernatorial candidate has a concert for you.
But it won’t be in Boise. Nope, this one’s gonna rock Emmett.
Supporting Ammon Bundy’s run for office, country singer Collin Raye will perform Wednesday, Feb. 23, at Stoney’s Road House, 1050 Cascade Road, in the redeveloped Boise Cascade Mill complex.
This is a “Keep Idaho IDAHO concert,” a press release explains. It’s “a private event hosted by the Ammon Bundy for Governor campaign, open to the public.”
Despite Bundy’s infamous fondness for chairs, this won’t be a reserved-seat show. General-admission tickets cost $55 in advance, $65 at the door (if still available).
Raye, 61, has sold millions of albums since breaking out in the early 1990s. He’s had 21 songs reach the Top 10 of the Billboard country charts, including four No. 1 hits: “Love, Me” (1992), “In This Life” (1992), “My Kind of Girl” (1995) and “I Can Still Feel You” (1998).
Bundy, 46, has resisted millions of arrests. Kidding! It just seems like it. This “anti-government militant and activist” (Wikipedia’s words) has made Idaho news repeatedly for run-ins with the law since he moved here in 2015. (Yep, the guy “keeping Idaho IDAHO” is a Phoenix transplant.) Among other things, Boiseans know him as the cowboy-hat dude who got wheeled out of the Idaho State Capitol in an office chair, handcuffed, after being charged with trespassing and resisting arrest in 2020. (The incident did inspire at least one amazing Halloween costume.)
Costume day a Longfellow elementary ? pic.twitter.com/vDh5u4kUWv
— Erik Johnson (@cheferikred) October 29, 2021
If you do really want your own seat at the fundraising concert headlined by Raye? Sponsorship tickets with reserved tables are being sold at collinconcert.com. There’s even a VIP platinum package for $5,000. Hey, with extremist politics, expect a few extreme prices.
Besides, this event already is a source of cheap entertainment. If you peruse the comments after Ammon Bundy for Governor’s recent Facebook post advertising the Raye concert, you’ll see what I mean.