I’ve never been a fan of Randy Travis’ kind of country music —
\nor of his deep-registered voice. I like my country music a bit more
\npop-flavored and my male singers with more of a tenor, soulful,
\nsound. But, that said, Travis’ foray into inspirational music is
\nstill a pleasing listen.<\/p>\n
A highlight is the song “Baptism,” written by Mickey Cates. It
\ncaptures the reality of a young boys’ baptism experience and
\ncreates a comforting, warm, almost-like-being-there type of feeling
\nwhile listening.<\/p>\n
“Then it was down with the old man Up with the new Raised to
\nwalk in the ways of light and truth I didn’t see no angels Just a
\nfew saints on the shore But I felt like a newborn baby Cradled up
\nin the arms of the Lord”<\/p>\n
Travis doesn’t fall into the trap of treating religion as
\nsomething you can only hold with white kid gloves. He includes
\nseveral up-tempo songs along with the more traditional slower
\npaced, reflective, songs.<\/p>\n
Among the better of these is the Ron Block song, “Which Way Will
\nYou Choose,” which presents the listener with making the choice
\nbetween following Jesus — or following Satan in the post-Rapture
\nworld popularized through the
\nLeft Behind<\/i> series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry
\nJenkins. It presents the classic “all or nothing” of the choice in
\na very forthright manner.<\/p>\n
Country music has long been known for “story songs” and here
\nTravis gives his listeners one of the best in “Drive Another Nail,”
\nthe story of a non-Christian carpenter who’s retiring and doesn’t
\nwant to “drive another nail.” But he realizes, at an Easter Sunday
\nservice, that his sin was responsible for driving the nails into
\nJesus Christ’s hands when he was crucified.<\/p>\n
Not every song is a winner on this project. “See Myself In You”
\nhas a rather obscure meaning and the connection to an album of
\ninspirational music is not immediately clear. “Feet On The Rock”
\nstarts off with a hokey spoken word intro and then segues into a
\nlittle rock and roll shuffle that never really makes a mark. “Don’t
\nEver Sell Your Saddle” is pure cornball and platitudes from a
\nWestern point of view.<\/p>\n
Still, the disc is a largely pleasant experience and “The
\nCarpenter,” recorded with Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, is a
\ntrue vocal treat. When Travis starts in on “Amazing Grace,” you can
\nalmost picture him out on the prairie with nothing but an old,
\nworn, guitar and the wide, wide sky.<\/p>\n
It’s a beautiful moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":25657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6472],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36863","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-randy-travis","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36863"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36863"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}