The Very Best of Travis Tritt (Remastered)

Album Review

Warner Brothers teamed with Rhino for The Very Best of Travis Tritt, the most comprehensive single-disc compilation of the rough-edged country singer's greatest hits to date. The two labels had teamed up in 2002 for a fine pair of Tritt collections — The Rockin' Side and The Lovin' Side, each of which includes 16 songs — but it's nice to have an all-encompassing single-disc collection like this one, especially for casual fans who don't want to buy two separate CDs. The Very Best includes the primary highlights from Tritt's Warner Brothers catalog, which began with Country Club (1990) and concluded with No More Looking Over My Shoulder (1998). Furthermore, The Very Best includes a pair of songs from Down the Road I Go (2000), Tritt's debut album for Columbia: "It's a Great Day to Be Alive" and "Best of Intentions," which charted number two and one, respectively. Plus, there are a few non-album inclusions, namely "Take It Easy," from the Eagles tribute album Common Thread (1993); the "Single Version" of Steve Earle's "Sometimes She Forgets," from Greatest Hits: From the Beginning (1995); and "This One's Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time)," from Marty Stuart's This One's Gonna Hurt You (1992). The only minor complaint is that The Very Best isn't sequenced chronologically. But at least the sequencing is logical, for the most part alternating uptempo songs with ballads. In the end, it's difficult to envision a better-compiled Warner Brothers-era single-disc collection of Tritt's music than The Very Best.