Randy is BACK.
Simply put, Randy Travis’ journey over the past 13 years has been nothing short of incredible. If you recall, the “Three Wooden Crosses” singer suffered a massive stroke back in July 2013, which was caused by a complication of his congestive heart failure. At the time, doctors only gave him a 1% chance to live, but Travis pulled through.
The stroke, as we all know, did not come without its consequences, however. Despite surviving in what can only be described as a miracle, Travis has remained severely affected by it, developing aphasia and being extremely limited in terms of both speech and his ability to sing. In fact, Travis’ wife, Mary, recently revealed that the doctors advised her to “pull the plug” on the 7x Grammy winner after he developed a plethora of different hospital-born viruses, including Serratia, Pseudomonas and a staph infection while in the hospital.
Thankfully, the living legend has been seemingly making more appearances than ever over the past few years. Beyond releasing two new songs, “Where That Came From” and “Horses In Heaven,” with the help of AI (which has opened up an entirely new can of worms around the music industry recently) and guest vocalist, James Dupré, over the past two years, Travis has recently been touring extensively around the U.S. along with his original backing band and Dupré once again serving as a guest vocalist for all of his hits.
Back in June, during the grand opening of the Randy Travis Room at Nashville Palace, Mary and Randy would tell us here at Whiskey Riff that they have plans of releasing a full-length album of even more vaulted tracks from the legend.
“We got a full deck. We have a whole new album coming out of archived music. It’s stuff that he had sang before the stroke. It’s been mastered, mixed and ready to go. We’ll be having a new album.”
After reconfirming that the album is ready to go earlier this week, today, Travis and Co. are gearing up for the project with the release of the first new track from the vault, “Fish On.”
Being assembled, remixed, and remastered by Kyle Lehning, Travis’ longtime producer, “Fish On” transports you straight back to the early days of the “Deeper Than the Holler” singer. Beyond capturing his iconic voice beautifully, Lehning does a masterful job capturing that classic sound present on just about any song early in his career, complete with some fiddle, twangy electric guitar and piano.
As for the song itself, it does exactly what the title suggests and finds the North Carolina native on a journey to make a living on the water, fishing ocean to ocean.
“We’re going ocean to ocean and all points in between
Headin’ for some waters few have evеr seen
Rivers, lakes, streams, or bays, gеt ready, set, we’re gone
Any place we can find to wet a line is a good time
Fish on”
While it’s not exactly the most ground-breaking song lyrically, “Fish On” doesn’t really have to be. The infectious melody, coupled with an excellent recapturing of Travis’ iconic vocals, makes the track an undeniably fun outing from the living legend. At this point in his career, it’s a miracle that we’re still receiving originals from Travis, and “Fish On” is seemingly just the tip of the iceberg from this point forward.
“Fish On”
Randy Travis Tour Dates
Aug. 21 – Hiawassee, GA – Georgia Mountain Fall Festival – Anderson Music Hall
Aug. 22 – Richmond, KY – The Vine at Chenault Vineyards
Sept. 23 – Wilkes-Barre, PA – F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts
Sept. 24 – Lansdowne, PA – Lansdowne Theater
Sept. 25 – Westbury, NY – Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair
Sept. 26 – York, PA – Pullo Center
Sept. 27 – Albany, NY – The Egg Performing Arts Center
Oct. 1 – New London, CT – Garde Arts Center
Oct. 2 – Keene, NH – Colonial Theatre
Oct. 3 – Plymouth, MA – Plymouth Memorial Hall
Oct. 4 – Northampton, MA – Academy of Music Theatre
Oct. 14 – Austin, TX – The Long Center for the Performing Arts
Oct. 15 – Dallas, TX – Longhorn Ballroom
Oct. 22 – Lubbock, TX – Buddy Holly Hall
Oct. 23 – Albuquerque, NM – Popejoy Theatre
Oct. 24 – Pueblo, CO – Pueblo Memorial Hall
Nov. 6 – Oklahoma City, OK – Civic Center Music Hall
Nov. 7 – Topeka, KS – Topeka Performing Arts Center
Nov. 8 – Branson, MO – Clay Cooper Theatre
