I have followed Travis pretty much since the beginning and always liked his rowdy southern-blues-rock tinged, yet traditional country approach and his rather distinct voice. Yet, I had almost given up on him delivering something fresh and new, or exptecting him to even getting a chance from a label to try to do so - especially after the patchy "Honky Tonk History", it seems like Mr. Tritt would be history himself.
"The Storm" proves otherwise indeed! This is a soulful R&B-styled album, that stays on the easy path of love songs, without macho-clicheed Redneck anthems. Most of the time, after being halfway through a song, soulful female background-singers join in and lift the songs. One can only imagine what the album would have sounded if they had gone all the way and included a sassy horn section, such as Waylon did so excellently with his Waymore Blues Band (http://www.amazon.com/Never-Say-Die-Complete-Concert/dp/B000S6LSXE/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-9708400-4972757?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1189624438&sr=8-2).
The album is a good mix of mid-tempo and up-tempo songs, all excellently grooving, with quite a few surprises in store, starting with the souly mudcat-moan intro of the funky "You Never Take Me Dancing", written by Richard Marx and highlighting in "Rub Off On Me", a song that towards the end turns into an addictive gospel choir rendition that eventually fades off way too quick! His take on Hank Jr.s "Pressure" is a challenge and when you are familiar with the original, the first thing missing when the song starts, are the bass drums, which lets the song come off flat initially. However in the end Travis's version is not bad, as it features some interesting guitar work.
A real Travis Tritt album would be incomplete without some blues and while the title track weaves some nice blues threads into the rhythm of the song, the real blues title (not quite unexpected) sits at the end of the album. To me this is probably the only weaker point on the album, but can be more attributed to my personal taste of blues. I think Travis has delivered his blues masterpiece already, when he covered Buddy Guy on his Trouble-album and duetted with Patti Labelle on "When Something's Wrong With My Baby" for the "Rhythm, Country and Blues"-album.
All in all, this is an excellent comeback album by Travis Tritt, who shows, that he can feel very comfortable when he leaves redneck territory behind and faces Rhythm and Blues with a healthy dose of soul! Thumbs Up!
I really like this CD. If you are a Tritt fan, then you should own it. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star is because there are a few songs that seem to just be filler. This cd really is unlike most of the other CD's he's done, though. It's raw music as opposed to music designed for sales. Early in Tritts career, he put out some great music but it all seemed designed to sell. Now, it seems, he's just making music...and I think all of his fans will appreciate the gesture.
I think Tritt is at his best when he's singing music...not making an album. I also think that's exactly what he did with this...just played music.
This new cd by Travis Tritt has a lot of great music in it. I've been a fan of his for years and this cd does not disapoint.
Was good to receive this one to add to the collection though found it to be somewhat luke warm-ish overall for reasons I cannot quite pinpoint. No worries, he is still a top notch talent and this C.D. shall still be appreciated in the years to come. Thank you.
Completion and delivery of my order was great! I would definitely use this vendor again. Corner of CD case did arrive broken, but Disc inside was fine. Thank you.
