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.