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Britain's own legendary bluegrass picker, singer and
songwriter Tom Travis has long been out front blazing a
trail in support of British bluegrass music. Tom is the past
chairman of the British Bluegrass Music Association and now
a life-long member. He may be best remembered for the Edale
Bluegrass Festival that he ran for many years in Derbyshire,
featuring many home-grown and international bluegrass
artists and bands including the first British performance of
a very young Alison Krauss.
Highly regarded by both British and international bluegrass
pickers, Tom has released several albums over the years.
He re-released what can arguably regarded as his best collection
of bluegrass work, A Pick From the Bunch (originally released
in1984) and has now re-released the album Rootin'
For Roots (originally on tape cassette). Tom explains,
"It was originally recorded in 1987. When I re-released
A Pick From the Bunch on CD, the sleeve notes mentioned
this album, which prompted a fan in Ulverston to enquire
about its availability. I asked the studio to prepare one
for that fan and while they were at it, they prepared six.
One then got into the hands of Larry Kelly, who writes for
Maverick magazine, and he did a very good review of it.
Proper, my distributors  saw
the review and asked for a copy. They liked it and said
they would like to release it and so it will be available
to the general public."
Rootin' For Roots sees
24 tracks opening with a couple of numbers written by the
bluegrass legend Carter Stanley "Think
Of What You've Done"
and "Baby Girl".
Later on Tom re-visits Carter Stanley's legacy with "The
Fields Have Turned Brown", a slow and bleak
tale of a wayward son returning home only to find his parents
are dead and leaves him full of despair. A couple of country
numbers given the bluegrass treatment can be found with
John Prine's "The Torch Singer"
and Mel Tillis' "Sawmill".
Tom and the band find themselves on the chain gang "Doing
My Time" (Jimmy Skinner), while Jimmy C. Newman
contributes "Cry, Cry Darling"
a number that Newman took to #4 in the country charts in
1954. A couple of Bill Monroe's songs can be found with
"Highway of Sorrow"
and "I'm On My Way"
and Travis adds his own arrangement to the gospel inclined
"God's Not Dead"
and "Me And Jesus".
There are 14 tracks in all on Rootin'
For Roots offering an exciting album from a great
team of engaging and highly efficient pickers each
projecting their own strong musical presence as they easily
weaving their magic with the quality of their musicianship
and interchanging choice of music.
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