RANDY TRAVIS: Storms of Life, probably his most autobiographical song title fits well

RANDY TRAVIS: Storms of Life
DIANE DIEKMAN
University of Illinois Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$34.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Randy Travis’s 1986 breakthrough put him at the forefront of Nashville’s new traditionalist sound and, in the words of Garth Brooks, saved country music. The singer’s warm baritone and all-time classic songs like “Forever and Ever, Amen” landed him atop the charts sixteen times. His cross-genre appeal brought a level of multiplatinum success that no country artist before him had ever achieved.

Diane Diekman’s biography follows the life and career of one of country music’s most beloved figures. Steered from a troubled path as a teen, Travis served a long apprenticeship under manager and future wife Lib Hatcher before being rejected by the Nashville music industry as “too country.” The single “On the Other Hand” and his smash debut album did away with the doubters and began a dominant four-year run that stretched into ongoing success as a recording artist, trailblazing live performer, and actor in film and television. Diekman uses dozens of interviews and in-depth research to fill in the details of Travis’s pre-fame life and his enormous impact on country, popular, and gospel music. From there, she pivots to telling the story of the singer’s difficult divorce from Hatcher, subsequent problems with alcohol and run-ins with the law, and the challenges he overcame in the aftermath of a devastating 2013 stroke.

Informed by a wealth of new research and interviews, Randy Travisis the first in-depth biography of the country music legend.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A rough start in life is, more often than not, the end of a person's hopes for more than the bare minimum from the society we live in. There are not many who can say they've overcome legal trouble, drug and alcohol addiction, and gone on to change the face of US popular culture...Travis all but singlehandedly revitalized country music at a time when it was lost in the wilderness.

And all this with no slowing of the hard parts. His manager/first wife was eighteen years older than him, also his guardian and married to someone else when they met and began their affair. The way that would get him canceled today...! The truth is he was in love with Lib Hatcher for all the many shifting and fleeting reasons one person falls in love with another. That really emerges from this biography, because it's never stated that way. Author Diekman isn't spilling celebri-tea in this book. She presents lots of facts as context for the (eye-opening) events of Travis's life. He emerges from these pages a lot clearer than a cursory review can convey.

I myownself have always loved his country music more than the gospel side of his career. (Surprise!) I get a lot more clearly why he sings religious music than I did before, but I still don't want to listen to it. His faith seems to be the crutch that helped him rise above the ravages of addiction. Like all crutches, it fails occasionally. These are not events Author Dieckman glosses over, or dwells on particularly. The details of Travis's life aren't stinted, particularly his all-important career (which is the reason we care about the rest of his life)...perhaps too much so for a casual fan's interest to stay focused. Don't be afraid to skim the days and dates.

I'm glad to say that Author Diekman pays quality attention to Travis's music in its social, as well as personal, context. I was reinforced in my fondness for his song "On the Other Hand," my personal favorite of his songs. It gives the chronological organization of the book more verve than that technique often does. I noted a heavier emphasis on the events of his earlier career over later events; it could be I was responding to my familiarity with his post-fame life, or could be a calculated decision to foreground the lesser-known roots of the tree we see.

I'm going out on a limb to say I think the main audience for the read is the existing fan. I can't see someone only mildly interested in country music wanting to commit this kind of attention to someone they were not already familiar with.

A good gift, then, for your fan giftee. Not the most general of audiences, but usually clearly visible on the Yule list.