Tritt, Travis

views updated

TRAVIS TRITT

Born: James Travis Tritt; Marietta, Georgia, 9 February 1963

Genre: Country

Best-selling album since 1990: It's All About to Change (1991)

Hit songs since 1990: "Anymore," "Can I Trust You with My Heart," "Foolish Pride"

Aperformer whose gritty style owes a heavy debt to rock music, Travis Tritt was one of the most popular new country artists of the 1990s. Unlike other male country singers of the era, Tritt resisted the popular "hunk in a cowboy hat" trend by leaving his head uncovered and cultivating a rugged "outlaw" image that recalled 1960s and 1970s performers such as Waylon Jennings. Compared to smooth 1990s country stars such as John Michael Montgomery and Brad Paisley, Tritt's singing is grainy and tough, his muscular voice suggesting a strong blues influence. As a writer, Tritt has displayed an ability to evoke time-honored country themes of loneliness and heartbreak, integrating them into an electrified modern setting. Tritt's unrepentant style caused him to fall out of favor during the late 1990s, an era marked by increasing slickness in mainstream country. By 2000, however, he had rebounded with a new label affiliation and a ballad hit, "Best of Intentions," that emphasizes country's new pop sensitivity.

Learning guitar at age eight and writing his first song at fourteen, Tritt set his sights on a music career while still a child, although his practical-minded parents discouraged his artistic ambitions. His childhood musical influences included country stars such as Jennings, as well as rock groups Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Eagles. Enduring two marriages and divorces by the time he was twenty-two, Tritt supported himself by working on a loading dock and later for an air conditioning company, all the while performing in clubs in his native Georgia. In 1982 he made a demo recording for a small studio, whose owner, Danny Davenport, was also a talent scout for Warner Bros. Records. Over the next several years Tritt refined and sharpened his unique rock-based country sound and, with Davenport's help, signed with Warner Bros. in 1989. Tritt's debut album, Country Club (1990), is a well-rounded effort that ranges from the rocking "Put Some Drive in Your Country" to the tender ballad "Help Me Hold On," Tritt's first number one country hit. On the album's title track, Tritt establishes his rowdy, down-home image: "I drive an old Ford pickup truck / I do my drinking from a Dixie Cup."

In 1991 Tritt released his breakthrough album, It's All About to Change, featuring his second number one country hit, the warm love ballad "Anymore." Proving his versatility, Tritt performs the up-tempo rocker, "Bible Belt," and old-fashioned heartache ballads such as "Nothing Short of Dying," with equal conviction, while displaying flashes of sardonic humor on the tongue-in-cheek "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)." Capturing the gravelly intensity of great country singers of the past such as George Jones, Tritt delivers the song with an exaggeratedly callous edge. "Here's a Quarter" became a favorite at Tritt's flashy live concerts, often spurring audience members to throw quarters on stage. Both T-r-o-u-b-l-e (1992) and Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof (1994) continue Tritt's winning formula; the albums were accompanied by slick videos that recast him as a sexy, leather-clad rocker. In 1996 Tritt released one of his finest albums, The Restless Kind, a restrained, stripped-down sound supplied by noted rock producer Don Was. The album's hit, "More Than You'll Ever Know," inspired by Tritt's third wife, Theresa Nelson, is notable for its warmth and honesty: "I know living with me ain't always easy / I dam up emotions some men just let flow."

By 1998 Tritt was no longer hitting the upper reaches of the charts with frequency, his rough-and-tumble sound having been supplanted by gentler country vocalists such as Kenny Chesney. Although he never fell off the charts completely, Tritt was becoming a casualty of country's late 1990s crossover sound, which adopted the heavily orchestrated qualities and nice-guy lyrical messages of pop music. By 2000 he had left Warner Bros. and signed with Columbia, releasing Down the Road I Go (2000) and scoring his first number one country hit in six years, "Best of Intentions." His voice still strong and assured, Tritt imbues the gentle ballad with sincerity and tenderness. While the remainder of the album is less pop-oriented, sporting a rock sound that recalls the spirit of his early work, it successfully repositions him within the top rank of country singers. Another fine album, Strong Enough, followed in 2002. On the album's opener, "You Can't Count Me Out," Tritt revels in his new popularity: "I'm back in the saddle, doing better than a body should . . . you can't count me out yet."

One of the most rock-oriented of 1990s country performers, Travis Tritt won fans with his bold, spirited sound and fine voice. Never content with following the latest country trends, Tritt diminished in popularity near the end of the 1990s, but regained his commercial strength in 2000, balancing his rock instincts with country's new pop-styled sensitivity.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Country Club (Warner Bros., 1990); It's All About to Change (Warner Bros., 1991); T-r-o-u-b-l-e (Warner Bros., 1992); Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof (Warner Bros., 1994); The Restless Kind (Warner Bros., 1996); Down the Road I Go (Columbia, 2000); Strong Enough (Columbia, 2002).