From the vault.
Today, country legend Randy Travis officially announced his first album of original music in over 18 years, an album called Same Old Way, which is set for release on November 13th. The 12-song tracklist spans Randy’s recording career from 1986 to 2013, and for one reason or another, they simple never got formally cut or released on an album.
Randy and his wife, Mary, say that these songs are from “the vault,” which means that they are all old songs from when Travis was still actively recording music, as opposed to being AI-assisted songs, which Travis has dabbled with before:
“Sharing the love of music for decades with listeners of all ages has been an honor of mine. I feel extremely blessed. Earlier this week, as we announced my new album and played some of the songs for the children and families at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, I was reminded of my reason for doing it.
Gratitude and appreciation welled up as emotions I didn’t expect when stories were shared about a particular song’s impact on their lives. I hope these dusted-off songs from the vault touch folks the same old way.”
Kyle Lehning, Randy’s longtime producer, is the one who assembled, remixed, and remastered a number of great songs from throughout their career together. It’s seemingly a similar project to the one Shooter Jennings is working on, which consists of three separate albums of songs he discovered from his father’s vault which were never officially recorded to be released.
Often, these types of “vault” records happen after an artist passes away, though in Travis’ unique case, he was able to be part of the process and seemingly helped make decisions on which songs to release, how they were produced, and all kinds of things of that nature. Due to Randy’s 2013 stroke, he suffers from severe language impairments, and is no longer able to sing, so something like this is very special and unexpected, and he also released another song from the record too in the title track.
Travis penned “Same Old Way” with Lehning, and even after all of their years of working together, it’s the only song the pair has written together, and the first time Lehning has had a major songwriting credit.
Travis says it’s a “joy and a blessing to be able to bring new music” to his fans:
“When life throws you a curveball, swing for the fences the ‘same old way’ and hope you knock it out of the park! Team Travis helped me run the bases on this one, and it feels like a home run! It’s a joy and a blessing to be able to bring new music to my listeners—thank you all for still showing up for me.”
Fans know that Travis can no longer sing due to the aforementioned stroke, but Lehning uncovered the tracks on this album after years of them being locked away in the vault, and after getting Travis’ blessing, but them together to make a complete album.
We all know Randy had a voice that no one else can compare to, and losing that was a huge loss for country music, so it’s just incredible that he had all these songs locked away that he can now release to fans, even if he can’t actively record new music.
I’m partial to the older stuff anyways, and I must say, it’s really nice to hear that old familiar voice again. Randy has already released two other singles from Same Old Way, “Fish On” and “I Don’t Care,” and you can listen to “Same Old Way” here:
“Same Old Way”
“Fish On”
“I Don’t Care”
Same Old Way Tracklist:
1. “I Know Where I’d Be Without You”
2. “Fish On”
3. “I Don’t Care”
4. “Just Read The Signs”
5. “Mission Of Love”
6. “I Catch ‘Em”
7. “There’s No Getting Over You”
8. “They Called It A Church”
9. “One Tear At A Time”
10. “Same Old Way”
11. “My Greatest Fear”
12. “Set The Blues Back”
