Travis Meadows bottomed out in 2010. The Mississippi native had accumulated a lifetime of struggle: an orphan who, as a child, lost his brother to drowning and his leg to cancer; a missionary who’d traded the bible for the bottle; a songwriter eaten up by Nashville and his own addictions.: “The short version is that I just gave up,” admits Meadows. “I’d been in rehab four times, and jail a couple of times. I was spiraling and didn’t know how to get out. I had every kind of crisis you could have: a midlife crisis, a marriage crisis, a crisis of faith, a career crisis. Then I made Killin’ Uncle Buzzy, which was accidental.”: Therapy as he fought for sobriety and never meant for release, the songs on the 2011 LP tumbled raw honesty in Meadows’ roughened voice. Their brutal grace in the fall and reach for redemption made their author a favorite for country superstars including Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, and Eric Church. Last year’s exceptional follow-up, First Cigarette, presented Meadows on sturdier ground.: “When people started calling and asking me to play these songs, I thought they were kidding,” he says. “It was almost impossible. I still have great insecurities, but life is so strange and complicated and beautiful. It’s just perfect.”
Tue., Sept. 25