This is contemporary country music of exquisite purity. This is the soundtrack of a generation. This is the music of the incomparable Randy Travis.
From his 1985 breakthrough hit “On the Other Hand” to his 2009 single “Turn it Around,” Randy Travis has demonstrated flawless taste in lyrics and immense finesse as a vocal stylist. He has inspired, and continues to inspire, all lovers of honest music.
I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits of Randy Travis is a look back at one of Nashville’s most impressive catalogs. Its title song has been revived as a 2009 hit single by Carrie Underwood. Its newly recorded selections are a rollicking bopper with jangling guitars called “You Ain’t Right” and a sweet, lilting meditation titled “Love’s Alive and Well.” The rest of the two disc set’s selections are the songs that made this man a superstar.
With lifetime sales in excess of 20 million, Randy is one of the biggest country male record sellers of all time. Thirteen of his prior albums are Gold. Eight have gone Platinum. Two are Double Platinum. Another is Triple Platinum, and 1987’s Always and Forever has sold more than five million copies. His other honors include six Grammy Awards, nine Academy of Country Music statuettes, 10 American Music Awards, two People’s Choice awards, seven Music City News awards, seven Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association and five Country Music Association honors. In addition, three of his performances earned CMA Song of the Year honors, “On the Other Hand” (1986), “Forever and Ever Amen” (1987) and “Three Wooden Crosses” (2003).
In 2004, Randy was honored with his own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been a member of the cast of the Grand Ole Opry since 1986.
Like most great Opry stars, he comes from humble beginnings. This North Carolina native paid his dues in small-town honky tonks for years before he moved to Nashville to seek his fortune. Under his real name, Randy Traywick, he released a small-label single when he was 18 years old. Armed with that credential and little else, he and manager Elizabeth Hatcher moved to Music City in 1981. She took a job running The Nashville Palace nightclub and hired Randy as its dishwasher. He soon graduated to short-order cook. In between flipping burgers, he’d get up on stage to sing.
This went on for four long years. In response to Elizabeth’s repeated attempts to get him a recording contract on Music Row, she was told he was “too country.” Fortunately, the nightclub was located close to the Opry House, and several of the Opry’s stars became boosters. The show’s Jeanne Pruett recorded Randy’s “I Told You So.” Renamed “Randy Ray,” he also recorded it on his 1983 independent LP Randy Ray Live at the Nashville Palace. Opry star Jimmy Dickens penned its admiring liner notes. Barbara Mandrell, Ralph Emery and Johnny Russell were among the others who praised his talent.
Although Warner Bros. Records had previously rejected him, the company relented and signed the singer in 1985, renaming him “Randy Travis” in the process. That June, Randy sang “On the Other Hand” at Nashville’s annual Fan Fair festival, and the crowd of 20,000 went wild. In August, it became his debut single. Initially, it failed at radio. In December, “1982” was issued as his second single. The tune became his first top-10 hit. Now the label took the unprecedented step of re-releasing “On the Other Hand. This time, it became his first No. 1 smash.
Storms of Life was issued as Randy’s debut Warner Bros. LP in June 1986. It contained his first two hits as well as his next two, “Diggin’ Up Bones” and “No Place Like Home.” Randy Travis became the first country artist to go Platinum and Multi-Platinum with his major-label disc debut. Critics began hailing him as the leader of a “new traditionalist” movement in country music.
“Some people look at it like it’s a new trend,” Randy commented. “But to me, it’s just an old type of music that’s being accepted by a wider group of people than it used to be.”
His old buddies at the Opry were elated by his success. On Dec. 20, 1986, Randy Travis was inducted into the show’s cast, fulfilling a lifelong dream. He also won the CMA Horizon Award that year.
His 1987 smash, “Forever and Ever, Amen” was named the CMA Single of the Year and won a Grammy. Thanks to “I Won’t Need You Anymore (Always and Forever),” “Too Gone Too Long,” “Honky Tonk Moon,” “Deeper Than the Holler” and his long-delayed single release of “I Told You So,” Randy was named the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year in both 1987 and 1988. By the time of 1989’s “Deeper Than the Holler,” “Is It Still Over” and “Promises,” Randy was country music’s “crown prince.” But he retained the humility, politeness and graciousness that still characterize his personality today.
By the dawn of the 1990s, Randy Travis was country’s top-earning star. By the time he turned 30, he’d sold more than 13 million records. His revival of Brook Benton’s “It’s Just a Matter of Time” topped the charts in 1989 and was followed by 1990’s “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart, his biggest chart success to date. “He Walked on Water” scored next, followed by “A Few Ole Country Boys,” a duet with his idol, George Jones. In 1991, “Heroes and Friends” was issued as the title tune to his all-duets CD. In addition to the Jones pairing, that album also included “We’re Strangers Again,” as a hit duet with Tammy Wynettte.
Randy and Elizabeth were married in Hawaii on May 31, 1991. But there was no “settling down” for the couple. His career continued at a furious pace. In 1991-92, Randy stormed the charts with “Forever Together” and “Better Class of Losers,” both co-written with his younger admirer, Alan Jackson. “If I Didn’t Have You” and “Look Heart, No Hands” became back-to-back No. 1 hits in 1992.
He surged back to the top with a quartet of smashes in 1994-95 – “Before You Kill Us All,” “Whisper My Name,” “This Is Me” and “The Box.” The scampering vocal workout “Would I” (1996) and his sterling revival of Roger Miller’s classic “King of the Road” (1997) became two of his most memorable singles of the late ‘90s. In early 2003, the riveting story song “Three Wooden Crosses,” became a gigantic Randy Travis comeback hit.
His 2008 CD Around the Bend was nominated for two Grammy Awards and was the original source of his singles “Faith in You” and the current “Turn It Around.” To her delight, Carrie Underwood was invited to become an Opry cast member by Randy in that same year. It was, fittingly, just after she performed her revival of his “I Told You So” on March 15, 2008.
In addition to having a phenomenal recording career, Randy Travis has appeared in many films and TV movies. His movies include Fire Down Below with Steven Seagal, Black Dog with Patrick Swayze, Frank and Jesse with Rob Lowe and The Rainmaker with Jon Voight, Danny DeVito and Matt Damon. He appeared in White River Kid opposite Antonio Banderas, Ellen Barkin, Lily Tomlin and Bob Hoskins. His costars in Texas Rangers were Dylan McDermott and Usher. Most recently, he has co-starred in the supernatural dramas The Visitation (2006) and The Wager (2007).
Travis also appeared in two 2003 episodes of TV’s Touched By an Angel, and he has been featured on five other episodes of that show over the years. Other series that have cast him as a guest star include Matlock, Blues Clues, Sabrina, Hey Arnold and King of the Hill.
“Somebody researched it and found out that I’ve done more than 40 projects, TV and film-wise. I was surprised to hear that. Because I’ve always done far more music stuff than acting. There’s no doubt that I’m mostly performing music, either in the studio or in live performances.
“Years ago, when producer Kyle Lehning and I started working together, Kyle said to me, ‘You know, I want to help you make the best records we can make. But ultimately it boils down to you singing the songs. So if you don’t love it, don’t do it.’ And that’s still what it kind of boils down to. If I don’t absolutely love it, I don’t record it.”
Kyle Lehning has produced every Randy Travis hit record. He and Elizabeth Travis are just two of the steadfast people in Randy’s life. Several of his band members have been with him for decades. Jeff Davis, his road manager, is a veteran of 20 years.
“I’ve been fortunate to have people around me who are good at what they do, and who care about me,” says Randy softly. “I’ve been a blessed man.”
