Travis Tritt - The Storm (2007)

Travis Tritt's decision to put Randy Jackson at the helm of his first album for a new label isn't as weird as it might appear--before American Idol made him a household name, Jackson played bass for Aretha Franklin and Journey and was an A&R man at various record companies. And gastronomically speaking, Tritt--Georgia born and raised--always mixed a good portion of blue-eyed soul with his country black-eyed peas. So this R&B-heavy album--greasy in spots and balls-to-the-wall bluesy throughout--isn't as much of a surprise as the fact that Tritt schizophrenically includes two oh-so-wrong Diane Warren ballads, neither of which suits his personality or his phrasing. Happily, Tritt finds a more suitable home covering Richard Marx's "You Never Take Me Dancing," a funky meditation on the men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-Venus theme (dig the black background shout-outs), and stretches out on the it's-my-fault-she-left-me plea of "Should've Listened." Throughout, Tritt sprinkles a little Allman Brothers stardust (particularly on the title track), and drives the Southern-rock nail home with Hank Williams Jr.'s "The Pressure Is On," a cheating man's lament that's as deep-dish Southern as rhubarb pie. There are other high points, particularly Kenny Wayne Shepherd's blistering guitar solo on Tritt's cover of his gritty "Somehow, Somewhere, Someway." But the two songs Tritt wrote with Marx ("Doesn't the Good Outweigh the Bad") and Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas ("What If Love Hangs On") typify the album as a whole--good, but not truly great. Watch him deliver his masterpiece next time out.