Country Club

Travis Tritt grew up singing gospel, bluegrass, and traditional country, and his naturally diverse talents made his debut album a smash in 1990. Hailing from Marietta, Ga., Tritt could easily play the lovable good old boy (“Country Club”) and then turn around and slay an audience with a genuine R&B tearjerker (“If I Were a Drinker”). Tritt’s crossover success was due to his ability to build bridges between opposing traits. He could be rural and cosmopolitan at the same time; he could be traditional and contemporary. He could even be black and white. Certainly Nashville wasn't accustomed to the funk-rock-country hybrid of “Put Some Drive in Your Country,” but Tritt made it seem as natural as the swift, banjo-inflected “Dixie Flyer.” He saw himself as a son of both Otis Redding and Waylon Jennings and never acted like there was anything contradictory about it. A line from “Son of the New South” epitomized his philosophy: “I hold on to some old ways, I ain't scared to try the new/But when it comes to what I change, I'll be the one to choose.”