THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607190058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 99 lines
TRAVIS TRITT has never been one to shy away from giving an opinion. He'll go on about Nashville's cookie-cutter mentality or the sorry way country radio treats its living legends.
Remember when he said Billy Ray Cyrus was turning country music into an ``ass-wigglin' contest''?
But he'd have to be an alchemist to explain why he and Marty Stuart click like they do. Tritt only knows that he's seen it before - about as often as he sees blue moons: George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. Waylon and Willie.
``I really have been asked that a lot, and I don't know that I can put a finger on it exactly,'' he said. ``We're really good friends offstage. We truly enjoy being around each other on stage and off.
``It's just some kind of magic that happens. In our case, it's one and one actually equals three. We've each got our own thing going, but when we get together, we have a whole new thing.''
That whole new thing would be their current ``Double Trouble Tour,'' which stops Sunday at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater. It comes on the distant heels of 1992's memorably named ``No Hats Tour.''
Which leads to a question: What was Tritt doing sporting a cowboy hat in that Woody Harrelson-Kiefer Sutherland flick ``The Cowboy Way''?
``It was part of the role,'' he said, laughing. `` `No Hats' was pretty much a statement about what was going on at the time in Nashville. Everybody looked like a copy of George Strait. But some people took it literally. They thought we didn't want 'em showing up wearing cowboy hats.''
Tritt, who rides onstage on a Harley, even wears them himself when he's on his horse or riding a tractor. He has a small farm in Hiram, Ga., where he grows high-grade Bermuda hay.
``It's kind of natural for me. I guess deep down, everybody wants to be a cowboy.''
He was speaking last week from what was supposed to be a tour stop in Connecticut. What remained of Hurricane Bertha - strong winds mostly - canceled the show, giving Tritt a rare Saturday night off. At the moment, he was deciding whether to spend it seeing ``Independence Day'' or ``Striptease.''
The unexpected break also left him time to talk about ``The Restless Kind,'' his new album due Aug. 20. He's been playing tracks from it on tour; the first single, ``More Than You'll Ever Know,'' arrived at radio stations Monday.
Listeners who have picked up on Tritt's other mega-sellers, including last year's ``Greatest Hits - From the Beginning,'' a healthy No. 34 after 43 weeks on the charts, will notice a difference.
``I've been hearing from my label for two years that country radio would like to hear more of a country record from Travis Tritt,'' he said. ``I thought `Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof' (1994) was about as traditional as I can get.
``So I thought maybe the way to do it was by simplifying the record - getting my vocals out there so if you closed your eyes, it would sound like you're sitting right next to me. That's something that I've never really had happen in the past.''
Toward that, Tritt, 33, parted with longtime producer Gregg Brown and hooked up with Don Was. They'd worked together on Tritt's track for ``Rhythm, Country and Blues'' and a TV tribute to Elvis Presley.
Because Was' credits include the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, some friends assumed the new album would be even more rocking, Tritt said. But Was has produced Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, too.
``It turned out to be a great marriage. Don said, `Travis, you wrote these songs and you play them every night, so you have an idea about what they should sound like on tape.' Obviously, I love working with someone like that.''
Not that he didn't like working with Brown; after all, theirs was a multi-platinum partnership. But Tritt wanted to throw his fans a curve.
``Every year, Music Row magazine awards those albums that use the most artists. I've won that award the last three years running,'' he said. ``That's the way Gregg likes to do things, stack a lot of information. This time, we went in and cut everything with only a little overdubbing. People will be shocked by how easy it is to define the instruments on this record.
``I've always felt that I wanted to contribute more from the production level. My fingerprints are on this album more than any album I've done, right down to the art direction. From the first day we started tracking, I've felt like this is my child.''
Don't get the idea, though, that Tritt is making some wild stylistic departure. He's still as likely to be listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Buck Owens as he is Johnny Cash and Patty Loveless.
Besides, he said, country-music fans are not known for being fickle.
``It's not like Madonna or Prince in the pop world, where you change from one day to the next. The fact is, most artists who try to reinvent themselves in country music get crucified for it. Look at Reba's (McEntire) last album. Her fans want Reba to be Reba. Mine want Travis Tritt to be Travis Tritt.
``There's a lot of new people out there. Everytime I turn on the radio, I hear five or six new people. Young Country is being promoted. I've been in there six years, and I'm considered a veteran. It keeps me on my toes.''
He has a pretty simple way of telling if he's getting through.
``The greatest award I can receive is when they hand me that gold or platinum record,'' Tritt said. ``There's no politics involved in that. It's strictly the fans going in and hearing a song on the radio and saying, I've got to have that song and hear it more.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
We talked to Travis Tritt (left) about country music, Marty
Stuart(right), life on the road and anything else that came to mind.
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW PROFILE by CNB