Country singer Randy Travis stays true to his roots
Dallas morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-travis_0926gd...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Country singer Randy Travis stays true to his roots
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, September 26, 2009
By MARIO TARRADELL Music Critic
mtarradell@dallasnews.com
Randy Travis wants everybody to know that he never walked away from country music.
That shouldn't be such a proclamation, considering that even when he turned to inspirational
songs nine years ago, his sound – not to mention his trademark baritone – was still down-home to the core.
"The gospel albums were just an addition to what we already had going," says Travis by phone from Santa Fe, N.M. "We throw a bunch of gospel songs in the country performances,
and a bunch of country songs in the gospel performances."
Travis, 50, has switched back and forth from traditional country to the inspirational kind. And with 2002's
Rise and Shine, his second of five gospel country albums, he scored a No. 1 chart hit on the mainstream airwaves with the compelling story song "Three Wooden Crosses." The quality of his recordings has never faltered, whether we're talking about his heralded debut, 1986's
Storms of Life, or 2004's uplifting
Passing Through or even his mega-seller, 1987's Always & Forever. Last year's stellar Around the Bend was called his return to mainstream country.
"They are the same records," he says. "You can pull one from
Storms of Life, one from Passing Through, one from Around the Bend
and they are the same record." Which makes radio's resistance to anything from Bend perplexing. It's as if the gospel tag hurt his chances with popular-country program directors.
"That label, 'he is a gospel artist now' ... but Around the Bend
is a country record," he says. "We are going to continue recording, and I hope we are going to continue to approach country radio. I love doing this. I love writing. I love getting onstage. I love to continually create new music. All of us singers, writers, players, we all want to continue doing it. You don't want to feel like you've gotten stale."
Randy Travis performs with the Fort Worth Symphony Saturday at 8 p.m. at Bass Performance Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth. $29-$80. www.fwsymphony.org.
I think Randy Travis is a wonderful country music artist and singer. I love a lot of different songs he has brought out whether they are new or old. He has a bunch of older songs that are awesome. He just keeps coming out with better songs. I love the one with Randy and Carrie Underwood singing "What if I said".
Buy Steroids
He has always been one of my favs too Linda. As is Rich Gosling (? on his last name and it's spelling) who now covers sports rather then music. I too, hope that he does a post concert review.
Randy is right. The only thing that changed was the subject matter to the lyrics of his gospel albums. I don't know if that has been the only basis for radio not playing him. They continue to play other artists who have a religious theme to songs.
"Passing Through" was loaded with great singles. But they barely played "Four Walls" or "Angels". Ditto for "Around The Bend". Full of great traditional country songs. Yet there are those in the media who insisted that, that too was a gospel like album. I don't know how they figure that.
Randys albums have remained consistently filled with life afirming positive messages. From the very begining of his career to date.
The traditional sounding song selections and the messages they carrried , was what everyone loved about his early albums (including music directors/radio programers) . That along with his amazing talent, is what drew people by the droves to purchase his albums and attend his shows .
It's also what keeps him on the road 9 months out of the year. ...every year! If people still didn't like that kind of music, he wouldn't be spending that much time on the road. Why radio don't get that I don't know. I wish I did. Dee
Enjoy your show tonight!
Absolutely true. The quality of Randy's recording has never faltered and his singing is never "stale." He just keeps getting better and better whether it be country or gospel. Thanks for posting that pre-show review.
Dr Don Givens
Here is a pre-show promotional write-up. I have usually enjoyed this critics write-ups. I hope he is there to do a post-show analysis also.
enjoy!!!
Always and forever...an RT Fan
Linda and Guide, Greg