With Passing Through, country music icon Randy Travis keeps his artistic legacy moving forward.
No other Randy Travis album cuts this deep and wide -- and that, given the struggles of his past and the odds he has beaten, makes Passing Through about as strong as any album can be.
The 16th studio album of his career, Passing Through is a 12-track compilation of outstanding songs that touch the heart, provoke the mind and keep toes tapping. From "That Was Us," a recollection of early years filled with reckless adventure, to "My Daddy Never Was," which captures a man, broken by his transgressions, at a moment of decision, the songs on Passing Through offer insight into this artist, with honesty and eloquence.
With 22 number one hits, four Grammys, five CMA, nine ACM, 10 AMA, five Dove awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Travis has achieved more than might have been expected from a kid who once seemed doomed to self-destruction. But the hard times as well as the better days that followed now nourish a style that's rooted in the lessons of life. Like George Jones, Hank Williams, and the other giants who inspired him to start singing when he was just eight years old, Travis has sung about faith and betrayal, love found and lost, honky-tonk Saturday nights and sunlit Sunday mornings, all of it with a conviction born from experience.
"Passing Through does hit on a lot of different subject matters, there's no doubt about that," Travis admits, with typical understatement. "From your faith to the things that challenge you to relationships between man and wife, it's about what people go through each day."
Coming on the heels of Rise and Shine, the critically celebrated gospel CD whose single, "Three Wooden Crosses," topped several charts and earned both a Grammy and CMA's song of the year award, Passing Through represents a determination by Travis and his partners at Word Records/Curb/Warner Bros. to challenge expectations -- the industry's as well as their own. "'Three Wooden Crosses' was the first time that Word had gone to country radio and gotten air play," Travis explains. "So it made sense that Passing Through would be another first for Word -- to put out an album that's pure country from beginning to end. They showed a lot of trust and stuck with me from beginning to end. I couldn't have asked for more support; they have been just wonderful."
The heart of Passing Through, though, lay in the hands of a team that has stood together during all the years of his ascendance: Travis, his wife Elizabeth Travis, whom he credits for guiding his career as well as helping him find salvation, and Kyle Lehning, who produced almost all of his albums going back to Storms of Life, a four-million seller since its release in '86. Through time their ties have strengthened, so that Passing Through testifies to three peoples' beliefs as much as to one man's gifts.
"We're family," is how Travis puts it. "Kyle and I both know what kinds of songs will work for me, as far as the melody, the range, the feel, and the production. When you work together for a while, one of two things can happen: Either you get stale, which in my opinion comes from losing interest in what you're doing, or you get to know each other extremely well. That's the case with in our relationship."