Hard to believe this one never made an album.
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.
With that being said, however, he’s been on a tear, slowly rolling out vaulted tracks that were recorded before his stroke in 2013 and, more importantly, without the use of AI.
After rumors were swirling about a vaulted album for quite some time, during the grand opening of the Randy Travis Room at Nashville Palace in June, 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 in July, Travis would drop the first single off the upcoming album, “Fish On,” And today, he’s back with its second single, “I Don’t Care.”
As we know, Travis has a long-history of delivering some certified heartbreakers throughout the course of his career, scoring hits with the likes of “I Told You So,” “Three Wooden Crosses,” “Is It Still Over?” “No Place Like Home” and many more. With “I Don’t Care,” I have a hard time believing it was never released years ago.
Written by the “Deeper Than the Holler” singer himself, along with Michael Curtis, the song feels like classic Randy through and through. Filled to the brim with some gorgeous steel from Dan Dugmore and some beautiful touches of fiddle throughout, the vault track ultimately feels timeless.
Beyond the stellar production, “I Don’t Care” is a tried-and-true heartbreaker, finding Travis reeling from a broken relationship. Exploring themes of apathy, the chorus’s hook is a simple yet effective one, which sees him choose to reject forgiveness and, instead, walk out the door and leave her behind.
“You ask me where I’m going
And if you’ll ever see my face again
You want me to forgive you
And tell you that it doesn’t have to end
I hear you say you’re sorry
You compromised the love we used to share
I don’t know. I can’t lie
I don’t care”
It should go without saying that “I Don’t Care” is the best track we’ve heard from Travis since he began releasing songs over the past few years. Being AI-free, the song feels like a classic through and through, which makes it hard to believe it was placed in the vault for so long in the first place.
“I Don’t Care”
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
