Travis Meadows

Travis Meadows’ personal history mirrors the dramatic arc of a classic country ballad, marked by youthful battles with cancer and addiction that steered him toward both songcraft and the pulpit, though genuine direction arrived only upon achieving sobriety in 2010. Once clean, he issued independent albums while accumulating Nashville writing credits, supplying material for Jake Owen, Eric Church, and Dierks Bentley, whose 2014 rendition of “Riser” became a chart success. That breakthrough led to a deal with Blaster Records and the October 2017 release of First Cigarette.

Born in 1965, Meadows grew up in Jackson, Mississippi after his two-year-old brother died, prompting his move to his grandparents’ home. His parents’ subsequent divorces and new families left him with them; the resulting pain prompted drug use at age eleven. Bone cancer struck at fourteen, and although he survived, the disease claimed his right leg by adulthood. In his late teens he took up music, shifting from drums to guitar by twenty-one. After an initial blues phase he relocated to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and gravitated to Christian music, spending a decade as a missionary and preacher. Nearing the end of his thirties he exited the church to pursue professional songwriting in Nashville, securing a Universal Music Publishing contract that addictions ultimately derailed.

Sobriety in 2010 prompted the immediate self-release of Killing Uncle Buzzy. The recovery-themed project drew notice from Nashville figures, yet tangible progress lagged. Universal’s contract lapsed in 2013, after which Meadows wrote intensively and previewed new material on that year’s Old Ghosts & Unfinished Business.

Although placements began in 2009 with Jake Owen’s recording of “Cherry on Top” for Easy Does It, Meadows’ profile rose sharply in 2013 when Owen scored a Top 20 Country hit with “What We Ain’t Got.” Eric Church followed with “Dark Side” in 2014, the same year Dierks Bentley cut “Riser” and titled his seventh album after it. Church later included “Knives of New Orleans” on the 2015 release Mr. Misunderstood. In 2016 both Hank Williams, Jr. and Randy Houser recorded Meadows compositions, paving the way for his 2017 signing with Blaster Records. The Jeremy Spillman-produced First Cigarette appeared that October and entered Billboard’s Heatseekers chart at number twenty-one.