Randy Travis – I’ll fly away

Randy Travis spent a considerable chunk of the 2000s recording gospel for various offshoots of the Christian label Word Distribution, and the 2010 release I’ll Fly Away rounds up 14 of these cuts, adding for good measure a bonus track of “Three Wooden Crosses,” the 2002 hit from Rise and Shine (his major-label gospel album that kick-started the whole trend). It’s a well-chosen collection of standards all given simple, effective readings by Travis; they’re proudly traditional but not stubbornly so. There are no surprises, either in approach or selection, but there aren’t meant to be: I’ll Fly Away is merely a very good way to sample the best of his gospel recordings of the new millennium.