This is the second album from Indiana-born but currently Nashville-based singer, guitarist and bandleader Travis, hence the title, though it has much more subtler meanings too. Musically, the album is pretty easily defined as blues-rock, though there is a greater variety that that term usually implies, from the pop-tinged 60s Wilson Pickett flavour of the opener to the untamed, crunching, slow-ish grind of the closing ‘Slow Cooker Man’. Between these two you’ll find plenty of powerhouse sounds, such as the riff-driven ‘In The Worst Way’, the up tempo, incendiary, ‘Dancin’ With The Devil’ and the pounding ‘Don’t Lead Me On’, with its subtle echoes of Freddy King and Jimi Hendrix. ‘Vicksburg Blues’ – an original, by the way – opens as a down-home blues, with guitar and H. Aaron’s blues harp but without you really noticing, it transforms itself into a tough Chicago number, whilst ‘You Know You Are’ has a pop-soul feel, and ‘Casaurina Sand’ has a loosely flowing jazzy feel. ‘I Can Let Go’ is a passionate acoustic piece, and leads into the so-hip-it-hurts ‘Record Shop’.
I should have noted earlier, too, that Travis is a very fine singer as well as a very accomplished guitarist. As you might have guessed, I’m impressed.
Norman Darwen