Travis Tritt

A versatile Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and actor, Travis Tritt was one of the leading new country artists of the early '90s, holding his own against Garth Brooks, Clint Black, and Alan Jackson. He was the only one not to wear a hat and the only one to dip into bluesy Southern rock. Consequently, he developed a gutsy, outlaw image that distinguished him from the pack and helped propel him to the top of the charts with platinum-selling records like Country Club. It's All About to Change, and T-r-o-u-b-l-e. His recorded output slowed in the 2000s and beyond, but efforts like The Storm (2007) found their way into the Country Albums Top Ten. Tritt staged a recording comeback in the 2020s, when he signed to Big Noise for 2021's Set in Stone and released his first gospel album, Country Chapel, in 2023.

Tritt fell in love with music as a child, teaching himself how to play guitar when he was eight and beginning to write songs when he was 14. Travis was determined to have a musical career, but his parents didn't encourage him to follow his instincts. His mother didn't mind that he wanted to perform, but she wanted him to sing gospel; his father was afraid there was no money in singing. When he was 18, he tried to settle down, work, and have a family but was unsuccessful -- he was married and divorced twice before he was 22. He continued to play music while working various jobs, including one at an air-conditioning company. The company's vice-president was a guitarist who gave up hopes of a musical career and urged Tritt to follow his dreams. Tritt quit his job and began pursuing a music career full-time.

In 1982, Tritt began his pursuit by recording a demo tape at a private studio that was owned by Danny Davenport, who happened to be an executive at Warner Bros. Davenport heard the vocalist's songs and was impressed, deciding to take Tritt under his wing. For the next several years, the pair recorded demo tapes while Tritt played the honky tonk circuit. The singer was developing a distinctive sound, adding elements of country-rock and Southern rock to his honky tonk.

In 1989, Warner Bros.' Nashville division signed Tritt, and his debut album, Country Club, appeared in the stores in the spring of 1990. It was preceded by the Top Ten hit, "Country Club." Upon the release of his debut album, Tritt entered the first ranks of new country singers. His next two singles, "Help Me Hold On" and "I'm Gonna Be Somebody," hit number one and two respectively. "Put Some Drive in Your Country," which had a clear rock & roll influence, stalled at number four, since radio programmers were reluctant to feature such blatantly rock-derived music.

Despite his success, the Nashville music industry was hesitant to embrace Tritt. His music and stage show owed too much to rock & roll, and his image didn't conform with the behatted legions of new male singers. Nevertheless, Tritt had a breakthrough success with his second album, 1991's It's All About to Change. Prior to its release, he had hired manager Ken Kragen, who also worked with Lionel Richie, Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Rogers, and We Are the World. Kragen helped market Tritt in a way that appealed to both country fans and a mass audience, sending It's All About to Change into multi-platinum territory.

T-r-o-u-b-l-e, Tritt's third album, was released in 1992. Although it didn't match the success of It's All About to Change, it had the number one single, "Can I Trust You with My Heart," and went gold. Tritt bounced back in 1994 with Ten Feet Tall & Bulletproof, which went platinum, spawned the number one single "Foolish Pride," and marked his highest position, number 20, on the pop charts. His 1995 compilation Greatest Hits: From the Beginning went platinum within six months of its November release. Restless Kind was released in 1996, followed two years later by No More Looking Over My Shoulder. Down the Road I Go was issued in fall 2000, followed by the mainstream country-leaning Strong Enough two years later.

Live in Concert appeared in 2007 from Big Bang, while later that same year Category 5 released a new studio effort from Tritt called The Storm, which was produced by Randy Jackson of American Idol fame. Category 5 folded not long after the August 2007 release of The Storm and Tritt filed a lawsuit against the label, claiming he never received royalties and lost creative control; he eventually reacquired the rights to the album and released it in an expanded version called The Calm After... in the summer of 2013. Between The Storm and The Calm After... Tritt toured regularly, often as a solo acoustic act. He documented his solo acoustic performances with the 2016 release A Man and His Guitar: Live from the Franklin Theatre, an audio/film package recorded during a show in Franklin, Tennessee. Tritt spent the next few years continuing to focus on performing, mounting a recording comeback in 2021 with Set in Stone, his first collection of new material in over a decade. He quickly followed Set in Stone with Country Chapel, a gospel album released on Gaither Music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine