Nashville, Tenn., — Country music superstar Randy Travis will visit the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s Ford Theater on Friday, November 7, for a rare public interview. Travis, whose powerful yet understated baritone and hard-country aesthetic changed the course of country music in the mid-1980s and ushered in the New Traditionalist era, will talk about his career and his new CD, Around the Bend, with Museum Editor Michael Gray. The program, which will begin at 1:00 p.m., is included with Museum admission and is free for Museum members.

Immediately following the interview, Travis will sign copies of Around the Bend in the Museum Store. Please visit the Museum’s web site for signing details.

Born in tiny Marshville, North Carolina, in 1959, Randy Bruce Traywick was encouraged early in life to play and sing country music. His father, Harold, bought Randy and his three brothers guitars and exposed them to the recordings of Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams and others. By the age of 10, Randy and his brother Ricky were performing at fiddlers’ conventions, private parties and VFW halls throughout the South. Randy dropped out of school in ninth grade to pursue music full-time, and fell into a rough and rowdy lifestyle that led to a series of scrapes with the law.

At age 16, Randy entered and won a talent show in Charlotte hosted by Country City, USA. The club’s owner, Lib Hatcher, took Randy under her wing and set him back on the straight and narrow. She gave the fledgling singer a job performing at the club and began managing him. Randy’s first taste of success came in 1978, when he enjoyed a minor hit on the country charts, “She’s My Woman,” produced by Joe Stampley and released on the independent Paula label.

In 1981, Hatcher and Travis, by then known as Randy Ray, moved to Nashville and took jobs at the Nashville Palace, a club near the Grand Ole Opry. Hatcher managed the venue while Randy performed, cooked and washed dishes. Although Music Row was initially slow to respond, eventually Warner Bros. A&R executive Martha Sharp took notice. She heard in Randy someone who could shepherd traditional country fans – many of whom had been put off by the Urban Cowboy-influenced pop sounds of the early 1980s – back to the fold, and signed him to the label. Warner Bros. changed his name to Randy Travis, and Sharp paired him with producer Kyle Lehning, a fortuitous partnership that would endure for decades.

In late 1985, Travis enjoyed his first Top Ten hits. The following year, Travis’s major label debut, Storms of Life, was released. Fueled by numerous hit singles including “1982,” “On the Other Hand” and “Diggin’ Up Bones,” the album became an instant classic, spending eight weeks at #1 and selling more than three million copies. Storms of Life was followed up by the 1987 release of Always and Forever, which contained Travis’s first hit as a songwriter, “I Told You So,” and the career record “Forever and Ever, Amen.” Always and Forever spent an incredible 43 weeks at #1 and sold more than five million copies.

Storms of Life and Always and Forever helped reconnect the country genre with its authentic roots, and ushered in what became known as the New Traditionalist era in country music, a return to classic country instrumentation and plaintive, honest lyrics. Travis’s millions of fans included everyone from George Jones to the Rolling Stones, and he was lauded with dozens of awards, including the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award (1986) and Male Vocalist of the Year Award (1987 and 1988) and Grammys for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, in 1987 and 1988.

Travis, who wed manager Lib Hatcher in 1990, continued to enjoy chart success throughout that decade. He also devoted time to acting, appearing in more than a dozen films and TV movies, as well as in the TV series Matlock and Touched by an Angel.

By the turn of the century, Travis had made a successful foray into gospel music, and his Atlantic Records/Warner Bros. album Inspirational Journey won 2001 Dove Awards for Bluegrass Album of the Year and Country Recorded Song of the Year for his single “Baptism.” In 2003, Travis’s single “Three Wooden Crosses” (from the album Rise and Shine) won both the Christian Country Music Association’s and the CMA’s Song of the Year Awards. The following year, it was similarly honored with both a Dove Award and a Song of the Year accolade from the Academy of Country Music. Rise and Shine and its follow-up, Worship & Faith, each garnered Travis another Grammy.

Around the Bend, Travis’s first country album in nearly nine years, was released in July 2008. The CD, which reunited him with producer Kyle Lehning, is a return to the New Country sound that Travis made famous. In reviewing Around the Bend, The Los Angeles Times’ Randy Lewis wrote that “his oaky baritone remains a rich sonic force,” and Amazon.com declared that “Randy Travis has recorded the perfect country album…again.”

These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

With the purchase of a Museum membership ($25/adults and $10/youth), visitors can attend most public programs free of charge for one year. Museum memberships also include one year of unlimited admission to the Museum, discounts in the Museum Store, SoBro Grill® and Hatch Show Print, and more.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com or by calling (615) 416-2001.