Travis started learning to play guitar around age 7 or 8. He got his first bass, a red Fender, for Christmas when he was 10.

  “I can remember laying in the floorboard of our ’78 Ford Ranger with the speaker rattling on the low notes right in my ear. I think that helped me focus on the bass lines in the songs. Daddy had an Emmylou Harris 8 track, and I thought it would be so cool if I could play that bass like they did on C’est La Vie (You Never Can Tell), and Two More Bottles of Wine. After seeing Steve Bryant with J.D. Crowe and the New South, and T. Michael Coleman with Doc and Merle Watson I knew for sure I had to learn how to do that.”

  With Travis on Bass and his brother Chad on Mandolin, they began learning songs with their Dad who played Banjo and Guitar. Around that same time Bob started playing Dobro, they picked up a Banjo player named Steve Moore and became known as Anderson and Moore. Playing local venues with this group helped Travis hone his performing skills.

  In Travis’ senior year of High School, Blake Roberson came to B.C.H.S. as a new teacher. He was also a working musician, playing with bands around the area. Sometimes Blake would organize and participate in jam sessions with some of the kids that could play, during study periods. These “study” sessions and occasional gigs with Blake were a good education in Classic Rock, Blues and anything people were dancing to in the clubs, and would eventually lead to stints with the bands Catfish Soup and Rock Bottom with Blake’s son Dylan and his friend Chad Tabor. “When Rock Bottom split up I played with Larry Miller and Clear Creek for a while, until Steve James, Stoney Olendorf and I started a band called Heart’s Desire and that lasted for about two years.

  While exploring different kinds of music, Travis has always managed to stay in touch with his Bluegrass roots by playing with the Bottom Dollar Band and his family band which now includes two younger sisters, Patti and Molly on fiddles. “As bassist for Hard Rain I try to provide a solid foundation, so everybody else can pretty much do what they feel. The upright makes it a little more challenging for me, but it blends so much better with the other instruments. Carrie’s vocals make you want to just stop and listen sometimes. I think as a whole we still have a lot of undeveloped potential, and I’m looking forward to pulling it all together.”

Travis is sponsored by GHS Strings