It’s an Embarrassment That Randy Travis Is Not in the Country Music Hall of Fame
Let's make one thing perfectly clear. There is one thing that is unarguable.
It would be an impossibility to write the history of country music over the past thirty plus years without devoting an entire chapter to Randy Travis.
Oh, there's the numbers, the statistics alone. Over thirty Top Twenty hits. Over fifteen number one's. Albums that have sold millions and millions of copies. And on and on and on.
But Randy Travis is so much more than the 'numbers'.
I suppose the thing I've come to admire most about Randy Travis is this: He never strayed from country music. He was never embarrassed by what he sang, how he sang it. From '1982' and 'On The Other Hand' right on through 'Deeper Than The Holler', 'Forever and Ever Amen' and 'Three Wooden Crosses', when you got a new Randy Travis single or album, you knew you were going to get a damn fine real country music record.
Fads and styles, they come and go. It might be 'Outlaw' or 'Urban', 'Bro Country' or 'Hick Hop'. It's 'the thing' for a while and then it shuffles off into the dust bin of what used to be.
But country, real country, is forever. And Randy Travis is an ambassador of 'real country'. Whether sales were up or sales were down, whether it was fashionable or not, Randy Travis was (and is) the best country music out there.
I've written about several artist's who aren't in the Country Music Hall of Fame, and I'm not sure why. Eddie Rabbit, Hank Williams Jr., Crystal Gayle. It's hard to find career's that are greater than these folks. And yet...
Is it political? I don't know. Has Randy made someone somewhere mad? There's no question that Randy Travis has made mistakes, has probably embarrassed himself and his family and friends. But who hasn't? My God, the Hall is filled with embarrassing artist stories, tragic artist stories. On some level, isn't that part of the heart of country music?
And no, this isn't a 'pity' plea on the part of Randy Travis. He's been recovering from critical health issues and it might be easy to say 'Well, he's in poor health, let's vote him in'. But that's not it at all.
The bottom line: Please Country Music Hall of Fame, don't forget one of the greatest ambassador's of our kind of country that we've had in the past thirty plus years. The numbers alone would qualify Randy to join the greatest we've ever seen and heard.
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