Randy Travis really came out of the gate strong in his country music career, and he really hit his stride with his third studio album Old 8×10.
The 1988 masterpiece made its debut on this date, and brought the country music world a number of classic Travis hits. The country album was released underneath the Warner Brothers Nashville label, and was produced by Kyle Lehning, who worked on almost every Randy Travis album ever released.
Singles that were released ahead of Old 8×10 were incredibly successful, with songs like “Honky Tonk Moon,” “Deeper Than the Holler,” “Is It Still Over,” and “Promises” all having a great amount of commercial success.
In fact, the only one of that list that didn’t make it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart was “Promises.” Still pretty good for Travis to get three of the album’s 10 total songs to the number one spot.
Plus, if you include the word “holler” in any part of your country album or country song, it’s basically destined for greatness. It certainly worked out for Travis, who raked in the wins at the American Country Music Awards the following year.
Randy Travis won “Favorite Country Male Artist,” “Favorite Country Album,” and “Favorite Country Single” for “Deeper Than the Holler,” all thanks to his tremendous work on Old 8×10. The album itself even peaked at the number one spot on both the US and Canada Country Album charts.
If the project from Travis had a “Big Three,” it was definitely led off by the catchy “Honky Tonk Moon.”
It’s hard to get more country than this:
“Honky Tonk Moon”
But then you had the most successful song from the album, “Deeper Than the Holler.” The Travis tune makes you ask two questions: how does Randy keep cranking out country hits and is there anything truly deeper than the holler?
Travis tries to get to the bottom of it:
“Deeper Than the Holler”
Then you get to the more fast paced “Is It Still Over?” The breakup song is one of Travis’ best lyrical works, and the contagious rhythm instinctively gets the toe tapping.
Check it out:
“Is It Still Over?”
And how about that cover art for Old 8×10?
When’s the last time you put on a pair of jeans and your nicest white sweater and kicked back on a stack of logs?
God bless the ’80s.
