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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZTRAVIS, Randy(b Randy Bruce Traywick, 4 May 1959, Marshville NC) Country singer with sepulchral voice and ballad style. Sang country with older brother Ricky. A tearaway youngster, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and was often in trouble with the law. Lib Hatcher ran a country music night club where he worked in the kitchen and sang; she testified on his behalf the last time he got in trouble and began managing him (after they'd been together twelve years they got married, but divorced in 2010). He performed as Randy Traywick '77-80, recorded for Paula Records '78; moved to Nashville '81 and worked at Hatcher's Nashville Palace. As Randy Ray he released album Randy Ray Live '84. He signed to Warners '85 and changed his name; his debut album Storms Of Life was a spectacular no. 1 country hit in the USA '86, with four top ten country singles, including 'On The Other Hand' and 'Diggin' Up Bones' at no. 1. Always And Forever '87 was also no. 1; both albums went platinum (1m copies), still unusual for country albums at the time. Travis, whose appeal to the country audience lies in its essentially conservative taste, was the first of the successful 'New Traditionalists' and opened the floodgates for Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Clint Black etc. Between '86 and '92 he had 14 no. 1 country hits including 'Forever And Ever Amen' (CMA Single of the Year '87), 'Deeper Than The Holler', 'Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart', 'Look Heart, No Hands'. Heroes And Friends '90 was a set of duets featuring George Jones, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard etc. He teamed with Jackson to co-write 'Forever Together' no. 1 '91 and also co-wrote Jackson's 'She's Got The Rhythm (And I Got The Blues)' no. 1 '92. He sidestepped into acting, appearing in TV mystery series Matlock, made-for-TV movies At Risk, Dead Man's Revenge, Frank And Jesse etc. Success on singles chart dropped off mid-'90s, though he returned to no. 1 with 'Whisper My Name' '94, and his albums all continued to be hits, including Old 8 X 10 '88, No Holdin' Back '89, High Lonesome '91, Wind In The Wire '93, This Is Me '94, Full Circle '96, all on WB. Travis had sold 25 million albums and had problems with alcohol when he suffered a nearly fatal stroke in 2013. He was still relearning how to read and write in 2019, but published a memoir of redemption, Forever And Ever, Amen, with experienced ghostwriter Ken Abraham, whose wife is a stroke survivor, and who said he had tried to capure Travis's feelings and the twinkle in his eye, a challenge 'with someone who couldn't speak to you in a sentence.' Travis's second wife Mary said, 'Ken did a beautiful job of what I'd call unscrambling scrambled eggs and putting them back in the shell.' (Reporting by Don Steinberg in the Wall Street Journal) |