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Why Randy Travis is still worth listening to

Memory is a funny thing. I have a memory of hearing Randy Travis sing on the radio in 1978, probably on the AM country station I occasionally listened to in my 1967 Camaro convertible, the one that had been left top down in the rain and run into two bridge abutments before I spent $500 on it, the car my brother showed me as a lesson in what not to buy.

It's a really strong memory, too, a song I heard him sing with the line "work your fingers to the bone/and what do you get?/bony fingers!" that I typed out at my typesetting terminal and printed out and waxed and pasted on the console of the Comp IV that my friend Betty worked on at SeaGraphics. I think her name was Betty. She was an older woman, a kind woman, a good typesetter, and the only person at that shop who took the time to teach me that setting type was more than simply typing the words right. And she had Sonics tickets, back when blue collar types could afford such things; one night she either gave me tickets or let me drive her to the game, I can't remember.

It was probably Hoyt Axton singing, now that I think about it, and I note with barely restrained anticipation that the fine folks at the Australian reissue label Raven are about to reissue Axton's Fearless on one of their splendid two-fer LP packages. I'm hoping I'm still on their mailing list, and, by way of further digression, was delighted to note that Darrell Scott pointed to that album in the liner notes of his new album of covers, which he calls Modern Hymns and which is being released by Appleseed. (Although I think Mr. Scott rushes his take of "The Devil" a bit, but it's a quibble.)

Randy Travis, of course, had his first #1 hit in May of 1986 with the masterful country song, "On The Other Hand," part of country's brief new traditionalist movement. (It went #1 almost in time for his 27th birthday; Randy Travis and I were born a few weeks apart in 1959, and on Tuesday Susan and I sat in church pews to say goodbye to a friend who was born those same few weeks, so I am keenly aware of that time just now.) By which point, the spring of 1986, SeaGraphic had long gone down the tubes and I'd started my own typesetting shop, and was already in the process of selling the equipment to an office partner. I listened to a lot of country music, on KMPS, back then, even took another office partner to see the Judds' final tour, with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, sat with her in the third level of the Paramount Theatre trying to remember why I liked live music and wondering why she kept dating some guy who wasn't me, even though I was hardly her type. (Nor she mine, to be fair.)

The point, I guess, is that it feels like Randy Travis's voice has been a part of my life forever. He's right in there with Hoyt Axton and Don Williams (and not so far from JJ Cale, though I've never bought one of his albums), one of those easy, calm, inescapably masculine voices that strokes the psyche and is carefully unafraid to betray emotion.

In the main, Travis has ended up being a mainstream country artists whose career is best summarized by greatest hits packages, and I can't remember the last time I played a new release of his and could hear more than a trace of the electricity and craft and beauty he can bring to a song. Even, oddly enough, in his gospel albums.

So I didn't have a lot of hope for this new one, Around The Bend. But I was doing some typing here and his is a comforting voice to work to, and it had come in the mail, and I was tired of all the stuff on the shelves that also came in the mail from people I've never heard of that none of the rest of y'all will ever hear of, but whose dreams will not easily be rebuked by the likes of me.

They'll call this one a return to form, I suppose. And I suppose it is, though I can't guess and no longer care whether country radio will notice. But in these friendly confines I'd like to encourage you all to notice, for he still has that great, deep, resonant, kindly voice. And, this time, he has some songs which deserve that voice: "You Didn't Have A Good Time," a tri-write from Kris Bergsnes, Jason Matthews, and Jim McCormick about the drunk we all used to hang out with (and some of us still do); "Every Head Bowed," a wry memory piece by Brent Baxter and Brandon Kinney; "Faith In You," an intriguing tri-write from Tom Douglas, Joe Henry, and Matt Rollings (the last of whom is best known as Lyle Lovett's keyboard player); and the spectacular "From Your Knees" from the pen of one of Nashville's two or three best country songwriters, Leslie Satcher (and I suppose she'll never get to make another album on her own; more's the pity).

There's some dross. He doesn't do much with Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," and the opening "Around The Bend" (from Tania Hancheroff, Marcus Hummon, and Tia Sillers) begins in wonderful voice, but settles into a hackneyed chorus, supported by a chorus of voices.

But it's a pretty good record. Hugh Prestwood's "Love Is A Gamble" is a sweet song, the kind of thing John Anderson could turn his voice around, too. "Everything That I Own (Has Got A Dent)" is the kind of loser's anthem that Jerry Reed made a nice and somewhat improbable living singing (this one's from Tony Martin and Mark Nesler).

It's a pretty good record, and sometimes that's a pretty good thing. That's what Travis makes, pretty good records. And every once in a while he nails a song. The thing I like about Around The Bend is that it's alive, again. That the three songs stickered on the cover as potential singles aren't the ones that I would pick, that the choices aren't obvious, that the filler is only barely filler, for the most part. That I'm pretty sure if I were to make a compilation that tried to justify my fondness for his voice, three or four of these tracks might make the cut. That's a significant accomplishment for a guy whose first country #1 was twenty years ago.

And if you don't love that voice when it's rippling through the speakers...I can't help you.

I started to title this little digression, "Why Randy Travis still matters." But I'm not sure he ever mattered, not the way George Jones or Billy Joe Shaver or Loretta Lynn matter. Mattering isn't what it's all about, not all the time. Sometimes it's just nice to hear a friendly voice offering a few well-chosen words.

Posted by grant on July 31, 2008 1:21 PM | Permalink