Travis Harris & The West Coast Turnarounds

This past weekend Travis Harris & The West Coast Turnarounds released one of the greatest country music albums to come out this year and they're calling it Honky Tonks & High Water. If you're within driving distance of the state of Kentucky we recommend you head over to Square Lounge & Restaurant in Sommerset, KY for their album release show on June 20th. This album has all the things you love about country music and none of the waste you hear come out of a corporate release. This is a self-released, real-deal, country music album... fiddle, peddle steal, crying songs, dancing songs, and then some... it's all there. We expect there's plenty more where Honky Tonk's and High Water came from and we're glad for it. We couldn't be more glad about the fact that Travis Harris not only puts together a great band but can write a real good song, or two.. really more than few. We think music fans who love what country music stands for and is meant to sound like will be thankful for this release too. - wildamericanradio.com

I hear a lot of folks complain about the lack of "real" country music out there. There's no denying that, but most of these critics are looking in the wrong place to try to find it. Country is a way of life, and that way of life is rural. Spare me the frustration of listening to some citified drugstore cowboy singing about "the hills" when he's a damn flatlander, or telling stories about driving down dirt roads when he'd have to drive an hour from his home in the city to get to them. It's not merely mimicry, it's a minstrel show.

Travis Harris is country. He drives a big rig for a living (hence the name of his band, The West Coast Turnarounds) and lives out in Monticello, Kentucky (population 6,188). He doesn't have a neck tattoo, and he doesn't sing about satan every other song--and that's probably because he doesn't feel like he has to prove anything to anybody. And he doesn't have a damn thing to prove either, his songs will tell you that.

Yet Harris' songs aren't boastful, they're just honest. Give a listen to the first track, "Prosperity," the story of a family displaced from their land by a power company reservoir, and try not to be convinced of his talent and purpose. The album isn't all Steve Earle-seriousness, though. The next track, "Bardstown," is an exercise in Bakersfield barroom honky tonk, recalling the wry tear-in-your-beer wit of Harlan Howard, and he gives Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" a back story on "Dirty Red Bandana".

If you're guessing that there's an Outlaw streak running through Harris and the Turnarounds, you're right. But what sets them apart from the dime-a-dozen imitators out there is that they're not content to copy their influences, and are hard at work stamping their own brand. If there's any comparison to Harris' voice, it's fellow Kentuckian Sturgill Simpson's--but that almost definitely has to do more with a shared geography than influence. Harris sings--and sounds--like what he is: a small town, blue collar, man--and that's what country music needs more than anything these days. If you're looking for the real deal, you'll find it here. - Wild American Radio