Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 9:37 a.m.
A Las Vegas casino might seem an odd place for gospel music, but Randy Travis is out to prove the two can be a match made in heaven.
The veteran country star begins a four-night stand at The Orleans Showroom Wednesday night with cuts from his three recent inspirational albums in his planned set list.
"When I was first putting some of those gospel songs in the show, I asked a couple of people who are friends pastors of churches, actually if I could do this," Travis said. "They said, 'There are more people in a casino than sitting in a church who need to hear that message. So do it wherever, whenever.'"
Tonight, Travis performs at an actual church, the Cathedral of Faith in San Jose, Calif. From there it's on to the Table Mountain Casino in Friant, Calif., and then The Orleans for more traditional theater concerts.
"I'm not a preacher, and I don't stand on a stage and attempt to do that," Travis said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Fe, N.M., this week. "I just don't have that gift. I'm a singer. So it's no problem for me to go from one to the next, from a church to a casino."
Travis said his Las Vegas shows will focus primarily on his country material, which should please fans making their way from the National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center for the 10:30 p.m. concerts.
"When we are booked to do a country show, I know people come in to hear certain hits, so that's what I'm going to do," Travis, 44, said. "Years back, when I was seeing country artists that I admired, be it Conway Twitty, (Merle) Haggard, Tammy (Wynette), Loretta (Lynn), whoever, I wanted to hear the hits. So I know that's what people come in expecting."
Travis' audiences can count on hearing such hits as "On the Other Hand," "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "Honky Tonk Moon," songs that hail from Travis' mid-to-late 1980s heyday.
But, Travis advised, be prepared for a few numbers from 2000's "Inspirational Journey," 2002's "Rise and Shine" and last month's "Worship and Faith."
Response to that new music has been overwhelmingly positive, Travis said.
"People really seem to enjoy something new that they haven't heard, if you explain to them what it is, of course," he said.
One song certain to be included in all four Vegas shows is "Three Wooden Crosses," a cut off "Rise and Shine" that achieved success not only in gospel circles, but on the country charts.
The track tells the story of a "a farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher" who perish in a bus accident. This year it became Travis' first No. 1 hit since 1994 earned him the Country Music Award for Song of the Year.
"I knew, if radio gave it a shot, it sounded like something that could work, no doubt," Travis said. "But I think it surprised us all, because it truly became a bona fide hit."
Once a hard partier who often ran afoul of the law during his younger years, Travis laughs about the strange turn his career has taken toward gospel success.
"From where I came from years back with all the drugs and the alcohol ... I mean, I was arrested no telling how many times, and not just for drunk driving. It was things like breaking and entering and stealing vehicles," Travis said. "I got to the point of finally realizing I needed to do something to straighten out. So I was baptized 12 years ago."
These days, Travis hears similar stories from fans who show up to catch his inspirational performances.
"People started coming to our shows who had gotten away from church or who had never even gone, just to hear us because they like the country stuff," he said. "One woman said her son was saved at one of our shows, that he has since been baptized and is a different person today.
"That's so different than anything I thought I would hear about what I said, sang, wrote, whatever, considering my past. It's turned out to be what they would refer to as music ministry, and it's a wonderful, wonderful thing."
Even as he has explored gospel themes, Travis has not left the country world. He said he has finished recording about half of his next country album, along with several tracks for his next gospel CD.
In recent years several critics have speculated that Travis' move toward gospel music has been the result of a growing dissatisfaction with the state of the country industry.
That's not exactly true, says country's original multiplatinum artist. On the other hand, he's not entirely comfortable with much of what he hears on country radio stations today.
"To be honest, I think over the year we've drifted as a business," Travis said. "I think we drifted away from our roots and got a little bit too heavily involved with pop-oriented songs and pop-sounding productions. I'm a traditionalist.
"But I'm not turning away from the business. When I do gospel music, it sounds like a country song. I don't care what the message is. I don't care if you put an orchestra behind me. It's still going to sound like a country song.""
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