Swampland.com

Based in Spartanburg, SC, Silver Travis first came together while still in high school during the early 1980’s. The band was heavily influenced by home town heroes The Marshall Tucker Band, and even recorded a 45 single at Tucker’s Creative Arts Studio in Moore, SC. The band played around the East Coast for a few years before disbanding. Then in 2004 a chance meeting between old friends set the stage for a full scale reunion, and the boys haven’t looked back since.

With a successful debut, One Monkey Don’t Spoil The Show under their belt, Silver Travis set about writing a new volume of songs that are even better than the first ones, and enlisted the producing and engineering talents of former Marshall Tucker members Tim Lawter and Rusty Milner to create a solid, rocking, oftentimes beautiful masterpiece.

The unique and awe inspiring vocals of Big Rick Cash are the core of the Silver Travis sound, coupled with the red hot blistering guitar work of Randall Calvert, as well as Mike Satterfield on the drum kit, Joey Parrish on bass, Terry Collins on B-3, and John Gillie on rhythm and acoustic guitars. 

All twelve songs are winners in anyones book, from the rocking “You Done Me Wrong” and “Wishing Well” to the John Gillie penned title track “The High Road,” with its tight harmonies and infectious sing-along melody. Cash excels on the beautiful ballad “Bad Case of Loving You,” a personal favorite, and the Latin flavored instrumental “El Segundo” brings in the guest artistry of founding Marshall Tucker Band members Paul T. Riddle and Jerry Eubanks to great effect.

Gillie also contributes the memorable “Southern Poet” and the outlaw country tinged “Honky Tonk Shuffle.” 

“Rooster” is a true blues tune the band has been performing live for several years now, and it rocks, as does “Time for a Change” and “Drivin’ Me Wild,” a tune that features a sort of Gov’t Mule arrangement.  “Low Down Ways” is another mellow rocker with that Marshall Tucker feel, and “Saw Mill Road” kicks off with some tasty Dobro pickin’ before turning it up to eleven with some fine country rock. Like so many others, it’s a song about a girl. Imagine that.

Silver Travis have everything it takes to make any Southern Rock and modern country fan grin from ear to ear. It’s early in the year, but you can pretty much count on this one being in my Top Ten of 2009. There’s no other band that sounds like Silver Travis, and no other singer like Rick Cash. You owe it tom yourself to experience them.

-Michael Buffalo Smith