Country traditionalist Randy Travis loosens up a little.
Randy Travis. Around the Bend. Warner Bros.
Ever since Randy Travis came on to the country scene in the 1980s, he's shown a remarkable ability to latch on to sterling material, but too often there's been something wooden in the rigid way he sang.
Now 49, Travis sounds positively human in his first straight country album in eight years.
Apparently, he found something vivifying in the belly of the gospel music he immersed himself in for his last several outings.
His oaky baritone remains a rich sonic force, but now he's figured out how to bring spontaneous emotion through lively swoops and dives as he negotiates melodies, adding a few twists and turns to what the writers gave him to work with.
As Waylon Jennings famously said about Porter Wagoner, Travis is a country traditionalist who couldn't go pop with a mouthful of firecrackers.
The songs reflect that, hewing to timeless themes of loss (the single Dig Two Graves), sin (You Didn't Have a Good Time), the more lighthearted (Every Head Bowed) and redemption (the title track, Turn It Around).
Some songs leave you wanting to hear what George Jones or John Anderson might have done with them, but a quarter-century down the line, Travis finally seems comfortable inhabiting his human skin.
- Randy Lewis
