Songoftheday 9/9/22 - I got rice cooking in the microwave, got a three day beard I don't plan to shave...

 
from the album Down The Road I Go (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9
 
Today's song comes from mulleted country singer Travis Tritt, who after scoring a solid string of hits on country radio throughout the 1990s, switched labels to Columbia Records and had his first crossover success (thanks in much part to Billboard changing its rules) at the close of 2000 with the somber "Best Of Intentions". The second single pulled from Tritt's Down The Road I Go album was the much more jovial "It's A Great Day To Be Alive". Written by Darrell Scott and produced by Travis with Billy Joe Walker Jr., the song is an ode to the common schlump, a guy who messed up in life and ran from his responsibilities buy still sees the brighter side of things. However there's a telling glimpse into reality with this verse...

Sometimes it's lonely, sometimes it's only meAnd the shadows that fill this roomSometimes I'm falling, desperately callingHowling at the moon, ah-ooh, ah-ooh
 
...but it goes right back to the happy-go-lucky chorus. It's a state of denial that works well with Tritt's comic pseudo-bluesy delivery, and in return he continued his winning streak. In fact, the song is his most-streamed track on Spotify by a wide margin. The music video has the singer in concert...
 

 "It's A Great Day To Be Alive" became Travis' second top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in April of 2001. The song spent four weeks at #2 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart. Tritt and the album will be back to the series for one last go.

(8/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)
 
Here's the studio version of the song... 


Back to Tritt in concert in 2004...


and finally, just Travis and his guitar at a charity show in 2021...


Up tomorrow: This country singer's romance is taking flight.


 
 

 

Comments