This Is Me
, his first album in three years -- after a pair of greatest-hits albums and a vanity project -- shows that while
Randy Travis
may have been takin' care of other business, his talent hadn't gone anywhere. He kicks things off with a bang on
"Honky Tonk Side of Town,"
which exploits all of
Travis
' strengths in one song, from its shuffling swinging
honky tonk
blues
melody to his shifting and rolling vocal inflections to the burning guitars, singing fiddles, and
Pig Robbins
' unmistakable piano tinkling. Before a feminist listener can catch her breath,
jumps back in with another uptempo bluesy number that will have her laughing at
"Before You Kill Us All."
There are fine midtempo
country
ballads
here too, including
Trey Bruce
's brilliant
"Whisper My Name,"
among the greatest songs
has ever recorded. The backing vocals by
Suzy Ragsdale
,
Darrell Scott
, and
Verlon Thompson
set the tune apart and accent what a grateful love song this is. There are few of these in
music, and of the ones that do exist too many are overly sentimental. This one rings like the stone truth.
Larry Gatlin
's
"Runaway Train"
is given proper choogling treatment here, with acoustic guitars ushering in
' vocal before the band underlines it all with sheer momentum and gives the title and lyric ass-kicking
credence.
Gatlin
's gift for metaphor is nearly singular, and
exploits it to the fullest here. On the
Kieran Kane
-penned
"Gonna Walk That Line,"
runs through his best
George Jones
bass singing, and
Mark O'Connor
's fiddle lifts a modern
Ernest Tubb
-styled barroom tune to a sophisticated, swinging elegance. The set closes with
"Oscar the Angel,"
the only overly sentimental song on the album and its weakest link. The message of the tune is fine, but it's pure corn. At least it's the last track.
is a better effort from
than anybody had any right to expect, and proves he is still a force to reckon with. ~ Thom Jurek