Travis Tritt

Among the pack of new country singers to emerge in the early '90s, Travis Tritt was the only one who pursued a strict no-hat policy, forging an outlaw sound that made his spiritual distance from Nashville as clear as the finest moonshine. Tritt's It's All About to Change album is a masterful crossover.

"Put Some Drive in Your Country" is the perfect illustration of Travis Tritt's outlaw status: the single was just too rock 'n' roll for purist country ears and would have gone higher on the C&W Top 40 with a little more help from the top bananas at the radio stations. Then there's T-R-O-U-B-L-E's killer title track, originally laid down by Elvis Presley. Enough said.

Travis Tritt's rockin' Southern update of the honky-tonk tradition has produced a consistent sound that he can proudly call his own. Producer Don Was tapped into his deepest, most twangy roots on the comparatively overlooked Restless Kind, and Tritt is quite clearly enjoying himself with Mary Stuart on "Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best."

You've got to hand it to Travis Tritt: He's stuck to his guns, refusing to wear the regulation Stetson despite his multiple ascents of the country charts. A homegrown Georgia outlaw and proud of it, he has too much rock 'n' rebellion in his bones to ever become a Nashville conformist. Musically, Tritt always shows the same fighting spirit that allowed him to break away from his blue collar, day-job shackles in the first place. Hats off to you, Travis.