Randy Travis is trying to recall his last meaningful conversation with a fellow member of the country music pantheon.
“I don’t even know who was the last country artist that I really spent any time with,” he said recently from his home in Santa Fe, N.M. “I guess it was Ricky Skaggs at the Grand Ole Opry. I had just come off stage and he was going on. He congratulated me on how well ‘Inspirational Journey’ was accepted and invited me over to his house to do some Bible study.”
Travis’ “Inspirational Journey” CD, released in 2000, showcased a different side of the singer from what most fans knew. In the mid-1980s, he rocketed to stardom as the standard-bearer for country’s “new traditionalist” movement. His rich, warm baritone graced a set of indelible songs that recalled the classics of George Jones, Vern Gosdin and Lefty Frizzell, rather than the slick country-pop of the day. Travis sold millions of records and logged a long string of chart-topping singles.
But “Inspirational Journey” is a gospel album, albeit gospel that sounds much like Travis’ country music. What sets it apart is the evangelical slant of lyrics based on biblical themes. Augmenting the original compositions is a stark reading of the traditional hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Playing new venues
Earlier this month, the contemporary Christian label Word Records released “Rise and Shine,” Travis’ second “country gospel” album. To promote it, he is staging a series of free concerts at churches around the country.
Travis, 43, still does secular shows with a full production and eight-man band in theaters, arenas and casinos.
But in churches, it’s just him strumming an acoustic guitar, accompanied by Lance Dary and Joe Manuel on guitar and harmony vocals. These stripped-down performances are dedicated almost entirely to gospel material.
“But just about every place that we’ve gone, somebody with the church — a lot of times it’s the pastor — makes a request (for a secular hit), and we’ll do one here and there,” Travis said. “‘Forever and Ever, Amen’ is one of those songs that crosses a lot of boundaries. Another one is ‘He Walked on Water.’ They both work well in a Christian environment.”
While making “Rise and Shine,” Travis also recorded songs for his next secular country album. That album has yet to find a label home.
In the churches, he has a higher purpose.
“We’ve met some people who were a little skeptical,” he said. “You could see that when we’d first walk into the church. They’re wondering, ‘What are you doing here? Is this just to sell a few more records?’ But in the long run, they have seen that is not what it is.
“So many people come into churches to hear us because they like the country stuff we did years back. Some end up joining the church, some get saved and get baptized. We’ve made some wonderful friends over the last two years of doing this.”
Rebel days
Randy Travis was born Randall Bruce Traywick in Marshville, N.C., in 1959. Early on, he demonstrated a profound talent for both music and troublemaking. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and ran up a string of arrests, most fueled by substance abuse.
But he always kept singing. He won a talent contest at a Charlotte honky-tonk. When the club’s proprietor, Lib Hatcher, learned that he faced a court date that could send him to prison, she offered to speak on his behalf.
Hatcher’s promise to take Traywick under her wing and give him an honest job moved the judge to grant the singer one last chance. Traywick went to work at Country City, washing dishes and singing. At 18, he cut his first single for Paula Records, a song called “She’s My Woman.”
Rechristened Randy Travis, he notched his first Top 10 single, “1982,” in 1985. The following summer, his debut Warner Bros. album, “Storms of Life,” became the first multiplatinum album in country history, selling more than 3 million copies. Travis was hailed as the leader of country’s “new traditionalist” movement, paving the way for Clint Black, Dwight Yoakam, Alan Jackson, Ricky Van Shelton and Garth Brooks.
Travis’ second album, “Always and Forever,” came out on his 28th birthday in 1987 and sold 5 million copies, thanks in part to “Forever and Ever, Amen,” the year’s biggest country single. He toured continually and won Grammys and Country Music Association awards. His square-jaw good looks landed him roles on television and in films.
He eventually notched 25 hits in the Top 10, and stands as one of the 10 best-selling country artists of all time.
In the 1990s, Travis scaled back his touring. Four years ago, he and Hatcher, whom he married in 1990, moved from Tennessee to Santa Fe. Even before the move, new artists were replacing him on the airwaves.
Travis holds out hope that some songs on “Rise and Shine” will find a home on country radio. “There are some songs, like ‘Everywhere We Go,’ where we talk about taking the Ten Commandments off the schoolhouse wall, that it’s pretty obvious are not country songs,” Travis said. “That’s pretty much just laying it on the line, and you’ll either agree or disagree.
“But there is no reason in the world that ‘Three Wooden Crosses’ and ‘When Mama Prayed’ would not work on country radio. Those two are more like country songs.”
Regardless of whether country radio embraces them, Travis will be singing them in churches during evangelical performances that are often accompanied by altar calls where listeners are invited to come forward and proclaim their faith.
“The first time I heard a lady refer to this as ‘music ministry,’ I didn’t know what she was talking about,” said Travis, who doesn’t subscribe to any specific denomination. “But that is what it feels like. It’s causing people to come into churches and get saved. This is my way of doing that.” (RNS)
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