Travis Roberts’ fascinating narrative trajectory begins in South Korea. Born into a military family, he moved all over the place as a child before eventually landing in Amarillo, Texas, where he sang in church on Sundays. The rest of the week, he listened to George Strait, Waylon Jennings and whatever country music he could find on the radio. He learned to play guitar when his parents split up, had his first brushes with punk and was utterly transformed by Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road.
After some hard battles with drinking and drugs, Roberts sobered up and got serious about music. He caught the attention of fellow Texas artist Dalton Domino, which led to his signing with New West. All of 25, Roberts has lived enough (and fought enough) to fill the shoes of someone twice his age—and it sounds like it on his debut, Rebel Rose, available tomorrow.
Here’s a sneak preview.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Bellmarie”
“This is the opener we wanted for this record. It’s rowdy, big and loud. We threw a bunch of baritone on it, and it was awesome. The song is about delusion and relationships.”
2) “Ink Ain’t Dry”
“I didn’t want to write this song or record it, but (producer) Dalton Domino pushed me to finish it out. It’s top three for me on the record now—just high-energy rock ’n’ roll. It feels like jumping off a bridge into river rapids.”
3) “Kudzu”
“This is my favorite song on the record. It’s about the girl I was seeing when I dropped out of West Texas A&M. I took the idea from the kudzu vines that kind of crept over everything where I grew up in Knoxville, Tenn. It’s a sweet track with a ton of cool sounds.”
4) “Rebel Rose”
“A song about beautiful things with rough edges. If this record needed a quick thesis, this says everything I meant to say. It’s the perfect thermometer between the extremes.”
5) “Arapahoe”
“This is the only track on the record I didn’t have a hand in writing. Rhett Uhland wrote it, and he’s one of my favorite songwriters. It’s the country-est song on the record—and it feels like our home in the Texas Panhandle.”
6) “Minefields”
“This song is drop-D madness. I’m a punk and pop/punk guy at heart. It wasn’t supposed to be on this record when we walked in, but it was on it when we walked out. It wins the ‘most fun live’ award.”
6) “Hereford Blues”
“I used to sell band instruments and accessories out of the back of a van at Tarpley Music. I loved the job, but there was one train that would always keep me stuck for about an hour—and there was a sheriff who’d catch you if you tried to speed past it. I was mad enough to write a song about it, and Ray Wylie Hubbard helped me finish it in Spanish. That’s super-duper cool.”
7) “All My Friends”
“I wrote this song after I got sober and lost a couple of the friends I had in treatment. I miss them dearly.”
8) “Fake Magnolias”
“This song is about my wife and her flower allergies. It’s the perfect ending to this record, but, funny enough, it’s not my wife’s favorite. It’s a Southern-rock love song. I hope it leaves you wanting another one.”
See Travis Roberts live.
