Like Randy Travis before him, and any number of other major artists who've outstayed their welcome at their initial label, Travis Tritt has broken away from Warner Bros. and found new life at a new home, in his case, Columbia. His label debut, Down the Road I Go, is a splendid return to form for one of the most successful and distinctive country stars of the '90s.

The album starts out with the restless swagger we've come to expect from Tritt. "Down the Road I Go", one of three songs he co-wrote with Bob Dipiero and Dennis Robbins, is about Splitsville: "Let me tell you baby/ If you want to pin me down/ Better get your hammer, girl/ And nail me to the ground," he sings, laying it on the line. "You call me insane/ Honey, that's my middle name."

Musically, the tune is tightly arranged, and shows a stripped-down toughness, which Tritt, who co-produced with Billy Joe Walker Jr., clearly intended for this collection, drafting big name guitarists such as James Burton, Albert Lee, Ray Flacke, Brent Mason and Mac McAnally into service here. Also noteworthy are the steel/acoustic slide player Dan Dugmore, fiddler/mandolinist Aubrey Haynie, keyboardists Pig Robbins and John Jarvis, and Dobro master Jerry Douglas. There's even some banjo, courtesy of Carl Jackson.

The down-home approach works wonders on the second track, "Livin' on Borrowed Time", which opens with a bluesy Dobro and a perfectly rendered Jimmie Rodgers yodel from Tritt. On "It's a Great Day To Be Alive," it's a lovely Celtic fiddle break, plus an exuberantly illustrative line: "Well I might go get me a new tattoo/ Or take my old Harley for a three day cruise/ Might even grow me a fu manchu."

Other key tracks include first single "Best of Intentions," a beautiful ballad about not being able to live up to material promises while staying true in love, and "I Wish I Was Wrong", a track co-written by former Wagoneer Monte Warden that showcases Tritt's soul-infused vocal playing off the pedal steel. On "Never Get Away From Me," he approximates Waylon Jennings' tone and phrasing; another Tritt-Dipiero-Robbins collaboration, the song was inspired by Jennings' committed relationship with wife Jessi Colter.

Down the Road I Go also contains two songs co-written by Tritt and good ol' country-rocker Charlie Daniels. "If the Fall Don't Kill You" is marked by the ensuing words "Lord, the heartbreak will," while "Southbound Train," the album closer, offers a rollicking country boogie spotlighting the musicians as much as the singer. The teaming with Daniels, on a train song no less, further underscores Tritt's return to a tradition that he continues to not only preserve, but also carry forward.

----

Entertainment Weekly (10/6/00, p.87) - "...Stepping beyond Southern rock's confines with bluegrass, R&B, and deep-dish country, he proves to be an affecting interpreter of complex emotion..." - Rating: B

-Greatest Hits: From The Beginning:
Journal Of Country Music (Vol.18, No.1, pp.52-54) - "...Tritt is one of those charming young hellcats as much influenced by Lynyrd Skynyrd as Hank 'n' Willie, and his GREATEST HITS...has a roiling variety....Tritt evinces his country-rock loyalty by covering a...Steve Earle song...and his show-biz shrewdness by including his version of [a] Platters rock oldie..."

-Restless Kind:
Entertainment Weekly (9/6/96, p.77) - "On his most countrified effort yet, the rebel Georgian pairs with producer Don Was for a stripped-down record that shelves the distorted Southern rock guitars for fiddles, Dobro, and spirited vocals..." - Rating: B

-T-R-O-U-B-L-E:
Entertainment Weekly (9/4/92, p.68) - "..Tritt once again mines the working man's dual sense of pride and inferiority.." - Rating: B

-Ten Feet Tall & Bulletproof:
Rolling Stone (12/1/94, p.124) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...hews closer to country....A monster writer as well as singer...rightfully stakes his claim to his own place in the country pantheon...manifests so mightily country's time honored-traits of character and credibility...

-The Lovin' Side:
Entertainment Weekly (2/15/02, p.69) - "...Evocative..." - Rating: B

-The Rockin' Side:
Entertainment Weekly (2/15/02, p.69) - "...Testosterone-fueled barn burners..." - Rating: A