For her fourth single for Mountain Home Music Company, reigning IBMA Bass Player of the Year (she’s nominated again this year) Vickie Vaughn dishes up a funky acoustic anthem of escape in “Travel On,” with a little help from long-time pal Ronnie McCoury.
“Nathan Blake Lynn is literally the coolest person living in Western Kentucky,” says Vaughn, who grew up in the area and cut her musical teeth playing at its Kentucky Opry. “I first met him when I was a nerdy high schooler, and I heard him sing a John Hartford song. He was sporting dreads and was so talented. Years later, he wrote ‘Travel On,’ and I was pretty captivated by the feel of the song.”
With Sister Sadie’s Deanie Richardson producing (and dishing out some soulful fiddle) Vaughn and her studio band — guitarist Cody Kilby (Travelin’ McCourys), Casey Campbell (mandolin), and banjoist Wes Corbett (Sam Bush Band) — are in lively form, as she and McCoury, who produced a self-released EP for her more than a decade ago, give voice to a deliciously modern spin on a bluegrass theme that echoes the title of fellow western Kentuckian Bill Monroe’s 1959 hit, “Gotta Travel On”:
Put the wheels on the road
Try to loosen up the load
Gonna roll, roll, roll, roll, roll
Down the interstate
And I feel like I’ve gotta travel on
It’s an exuberant performance that’s given extra life by an extended outro that finds fiddle, banjo, mandolin and guitar taking turns at offering sizzling licks over a hard-grooving vamp before Vaughn takes ownership — “My turn,” she exclaims — to deliver the closing flourish on her bass.
“How could a Bluegrass song have such a sweet groove?” Vaughn recalls wondering at her first hearing of “Travel On.” “I knew there and then that I had to record it myself!”
"Travel On" is streaming in Dolby Atmos spatial audio on Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. Listen to it HERE.
