Playing so another may live
By BECKY BELL, Longview News Journal
6/12/02

CARTHAGE — Many stars on stage have a galaxy of support at home and in their hometowns.

Take Richard Raines of Carthage for instance. He's been in search of success with his band Perfect Stranger since the band got its start in Carthage in 1986.

When his wife developed brain cancer at the end of 2001, he took time off to be at her side through three surgeries.

As their medical bills mounted, and her chances for survival dwindled, fellow band member and Carthage native Shayne Morrison helped organize a concert to benefit Lesley Raines, 33, who has been married to his friend Richard about five years.

"We put all this together in two or three weeks," Morrison said. “We didn't want to rush it, but at the same time, we felt like we wanted to do it to help out the best that we can. We aren't doctors, all we can do is play."

Hundreds flocked to Panola College's Q.M. Martin Auditorium on Tuesday night for two back-to-back performances and to hear the song that first put Perfect Stranger on the country music map, "You Have the Right to Remain Silent."

Many residents placed bids at a silent auction held simultaneously with the concert. Both events were sponsored by K International, which provides college-level membership for the Kiwanis Club.

The Panola College Circle K club organized the concert and the auction.

Area businesses and country music stars donated an array of items for the event. Neal McCoy's long Wranglers were up for grabs as were Brooks and Dunn animal crackers.

"I like this blue guitar, it just jumped out at me," said Vernell McFadden, general manager of the Best Western in Carthage, as she scanned the tables.

The acoustic guitar was autographed by Ricochet, one of Nashville's up and coming music groups which boasts the No. 1 hit, "Daddy's Money," and won the Academy of Country Music's best new group in 1997, a year after Perfect Stranger.

Ricochet singer and musician Jr Bryant, of Pecos, said the bands have been close friends since playing a gig together at Jitterbugs club in Nacogdoches.

Bryant said perhaps the concert offers a sliver of gratitude for all the sacrifices a performer's family makes, and shows the relationships some musicians share with each other.

"Usually the thanks is one line on a record, this is for my loving wife, or this award is for my family," said Bryant. "Richard's hit a tough time in his life but even if I was in Richard's shoes, I think he would do the same. It's really good feeling to know you've got that kind of friend in life."

Perfect Stranger and special guests, Dixie Creek, a Carthage blue grass group, thrilled a 400-plus crowd during the first show and an undetermined number at the latter show.

"It's times like these that the true beauty of living in a town of this size really shows up," Morrison said in the pamphlet handed out to ticket holders. "We will always be proud to tell people we are from this town and that the people of Carthage are always there when needed."

All groups planned more subdued performances than usual because of the motivation behind the concert.

It wasn't too many years ago Perfect Stranger played a benefit concert for a young woman named Leslie Allen who later died of another rare brain disease.

Morrison said through the concert he would be thinking about Richard, who is with Leslie in a hospital room at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport.

"They met when she came through an autograph line in North Carolina," he said. "We didn't know they were corresponding and then one day he said he was going to move her down here so they could get married."

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