For rock & roll fans, when they imagine what a country music concert must be like, it usually consists of lower-volumed music, lots of cowboy hats in the crowd, and a setlist full of twangy ballads about two-timing men and broken-hearted women. Obviously, they haven’t seen Travis Tritt. Yes, he has ballads and drinking songs, and sometimes he allows the softer, emotional side of himself to take a spotlight or two; but the energy level that he propels off that stage ranks right up there beside any rock concert experience … except Gwar. No one does a concert like Gwar.
The point is, if you like even just one of his songs, when you stand in that crowd waiting for that one particular hit, you’re going to get caught up in the whirlwind of pumped-up guitars, even louder drumbeats, and a slew of songs that make that double-digit priced ticket look like a bargain. Welcome to the world of Travis Tritt live.
The man, born and bred in Georgia, with his accent still intact and his manners still honorable, was an everyday country boy who ended up being a country music superstar. “The biggest influences that I ever had growing up were, of course traditional country was always my center,” Tritt told me during our 2021 interview for Glide. “But I was also equally influenced by southern rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, the Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels, people like that. And then I loved blues.” He eventually took that love onto barroom stages across the South. “Back in those days, in the early eighties and right up until we released the first single in 1989, I was playing every honky tonk, biker bar, pool hall, bowling alley, beer joint that you could find.” To get noticed, he bought a Fender Strat and amp and started kicking up the volume, and just like that he started morphing into the man onstage you know today.
Tritt brought his full 6-member band to Studio A at the IP Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, this past Friday night and lit up a bonfire on a cold coastal night. Currently out on a solo acoustic tour, sharing stories while videos and images float across a screen behind him, tonight was not one of those shows. He was prepared to throw out some cayenne pepper under your ass and that’s exactly what he did. But there were four elements within that performance that you may, or may not, have noticed about Travis Tritt.
First, this was a band performance. When you think of solo artists, you tend to forget there is a band behind them, helping them to achieve the embellishments of a song. Oftentimes, they are faceless to you and you tend to just see them as sparkly accents to what the artist in the middle is doing. Not in the case of Tritt. His music thrives on the band and the gentlemen to his left and right were excellent. Keyboard player Jared Decker, guitar player Wendell Cox, drummer LeJoe Young, bass player Jimmy Fullbright, fiddle/mandolin/acoustic guitar player Brian Arrowood and pedal steel/dobro player Leroy Powell shot off rockets all night. Powell’s slide dobro solo on “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive” and his intro to “Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde” were prime examples of just how far these men as an entity can raise the bar. Sure, Tritt’s songs can hold up to being only a vocal and an acoustic guitar but feed them through these guys and they become supersonic.
Second, Tritt is not given enough recognition for his guitar playing. When you hear the name Travis Tritt, you think of his eye-winking, playful vocals on such songs as “Country Club,” “Here’s A Quarter” and “T-R-O-U-B-L-E.” But the man can pick on a guitar. After telling the audience about his admiration for Charlie Daniels, “who was excellent at everything he ever did,” Tritt proceeded to pick out some chords that spoke a volume of emotions before easing into “Long-Haired Country Boy.” This moment was one of the most powerful points during his 17 song set.
Although Tritt began the show with two songs – “Put Some Drive In Your Country” and “Move It On Over” – on electric guitar, he spent most of the night with acoustic guitars, which did not detour the show into mellowness. Even a slower song such as “Smoke In A Bar” from his 2021 album, Set In Stone, was treated, by the crowd at least, as a BIG rock song.
Third, the songs have yet to become stale. It doesn’t matter one hill of beans that “Here’s A Quarter” is about to turn 31 years old in May (when it was released off the album, It’s All About To Change) or that “I’m Gonna Be Somebody” is a year older than that. The songs hold up. No one in the crowd yawned at hearing “Anymore” for the hundredth time. No one rolled their eyes when Tritt hit the opening chords of “Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde;” in fact, it was quite the opposite. The roar of the crowd was ear-splitting when those first notes hit them. They sang the chorus of “Country Club” by themselves and they threw up the cell phone lights during “Anymore.”
And fourth, the man is genuine. All night, Tritt laughed, smiled and joked with the audience. When introducing his drummer, who was from Oklahoma but now called Pigeon Forge his home, Tritt remarked how they sure wished he looked a little more like Dolly Parton. He spoke appreciatively about how his fans made his first album of new music after 13 years debut at #4 on the country music charts. He spoke at length about his love for Veterans and our soldiers currently in the military and made sure actual Vets appeared in his video for “Anymore,” saluting them at the conclusion of the song, causing the crowd to show their loudly voiced appreciation (Biloxi is home to the Keesler Air Force Base).
Tritt also honored his musical heroes. Starting with Daniels’ “Long-Haired Country Boy” and ending with a double shot of Waylon Jennings. Donning a black hat and electric guitar, Tritt showcased “Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” and “Lonesome, On’ry & Mean.” Earlier in the show, he had covered “Move It On Over,” the first hit song by Hank Williams Sr, and The Eagles’ “Take It Easy,” which brought about that band’s reunion in the 1990’s.
A night out with Travis Tritt, whether he’s kicking and spinning with his band or alone in a spotlight, is a night worth living more than once. His solo tour continues through February before starting up his band Set In Stone tour in March, something he has been looking forward to since he released his album of the same name last May. “So many people are just longing for that experience of going back to live shows and live concerts and the sooner we can get back to that, the happier I think everybody is going to be,” he told me last year. And as he said on Friday night – “God, this is fun for me!” Hey Mr Tritt, it was for us too.
SETLIST: Put Some Drive In Your Country, Move It On Over, I’m Gonna Be Somebody, The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’, Where Corn Don’t Grow, Smoke In A Bar, Take It Easy, Anymore, Long-Haired Country Boy, Country Club, Here’s A Quarter, They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That No More, It’s A Great Day To Be Alive, Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde, Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, Lonesome On’ry & Mean, T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
Live photos by Leslie Michele Derrough
