Randy Travis - "Passing Through"(Word Records, 2004) - * * * 1/2

Randy Travis was a country star who became used to surviving under the radar. After the success of his initial work in the late eighties, he dropped off the map as country fans moved on to their "big things", including the likes of Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and the ilk.

What impresses me is that this doesn't seem to have stopped Travis for a blind second. He's kept recording solid albums for the last fifteen years, even as not one of them even managed to go Gold. And even as he's passed the age when most country artists are snubbed by the industry (Johnny Cash, anyone?) Travis has decided to reinvent himself by working with a new label, which is giving him the chance to showcase himself as a roots country gospel artist.

Where his last album, "Three Wooden Crosses", dabbled in the latter, while "Passing Through" brings us a taste of what made Travis a star in the first place. Songs like "My Daddy Never Was" paint solid lyrical sketches of real people, the kind we'd meet in any midwestern town. And "Train Long Gone" is one of the best true country originals I've heard in a decade. If Travis continues to produce albums of this caliber, he'll age gracefully in a genre where you're usually considered d.o.a. at thirty.

Impressive indeed.

Randy Travis - "My Daddy Never Was"
Randy Travis - "Train Long Gone"