Travis Tritt Album: “The Rockin' Side”

Travis is a master at everything from soft country ballads to southern rock. This collection supposedly concentrates on the latter. However, a couple of tracks here don't fit the theme while a couple of obvious choices were overlooked. "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'", Travis's duet with Marty Stuart, is included here. While this is a good song & I like it a lot, it's nothing more or less than a honky-tonk country song. Not very "rockin'". Travis's cover of the Eagles' "Take It Easy" is also here. Again, nothing against the song. But just because it's by a "country rock" band doesn't necessarily qualify it as a "rockin'" song. Actually, it's pretty easygoing (hence the title).

On the flip side, where's "Homesick", unquestionably Travis's hardest-rocking song & one of his very best? This was an absurd omission. A case can also be made for "Southern Justice", a moody, almost Bad Company-ish song with a "rockin'" chorus.

The new isn't all bad, though. There are great country-rock & southern-rock tracks here, such as "Put Some Drive in Your Country" (in which he pays tribute to Duane Allman), & Travis's hard-charging cover of the great Jude Cole song "Start the Car". Other very good tracks here include "Looking Out For Number One", "Blue Collar Man" & "Hard Times and Misery". Taken as simply a collection of Travis Tritt songs, this is an excellent cd. But given it's "rockin'" theme, it could've been a lot better.

Travis Tritt is more of a country & western artist, but on this one much of the songs has an ass kicking" yiaaaah" rock and roll feel over it with a stream of country on some of the tracks, as they are the weakest one on this CD. But how can you possible go wrong when you use Little Feat as a backing band on tracks like the "fast moving" Bible Belt, (Track 3). The ones i realy like is rock and roll tunes like that which shows the rock and roll side of Travis Tritt. Maybe we can call it "foot stomping" rock & roll, with a dash of hard rock feel. Like Track 2 T.R.O.U.B.L.E which sometimes has the magic of Jerry Lee Lewis with the "humping" and "stomping" over the piano, with enough woooha and yiaah to make youre feet move automatically to the rythm. Skip trough the slower ones, which doesnt show his "real rockin side" . Sorry to say i don`t like his version of the Eagles hit Take it Easy, otherwise this is a fine collection which realy shimmering one most of the tracks, on the "rockin" side, but not one the slower ones which doesnt has the right "rockin sting".

TRAVIS TRITT-THE ROCKIN' SIDE: When hatless honky tonker TRAVIS TRITT emerged in the 90s with PUT SOME DRIVE IN YOUR COUNTRY, he wasn't just blowing smoke; the earthy southern rock and RNB sides of ZZ TOP, THE ALLMANS, and ELVIS permeated much of his best work. Although TRITT enjoyed a handful of big ballad hits (gathered on his companion compilation THE LOVIN' SIDE), the soul man belter was most effective goin' full throttle on a boisterous blaster like T-R-O-U-B-L-E or THE WHISKEY AIN'T WORKIN with his buddy MARTY STUART. TRITT's influences are earmarked with a tasty version of TAKE IT EASY that almost outdoes THE EAGLES, not to mention ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION's jaunty jailbreak jingle BACK UP AGAINST THE WALL...although it would have been twice as nice if his hard-edged cover of ARS' HOMESICK had also been included. Two co-writes with last surviving SKYNYRD member GARY ROSSINGTON, and the fire and brimstone barnburner BIBLE BELT (with a blistering backing assist from LITTLE FEAT) up the ante, making THE ROCKIN' SIDE a gutsy purchase for country fans who wanna kick up their boots a little.

RATING: FOUR REBEL YELLS

A absolute must for R & R scolars and fans alike, a great album.