Although he’s been out of the limelight in recent years, Travis remains a favorite among those who like their country music on the more traditional side. While he isn’t playing to arena-sized crowds on this tour, Travis is at home among the more intimate, theatre-sized rooms.

Travis – who helped trigger the comeback of country music in the post-Urban Cowboy 1980s – is set to release a collection of his first 15 years of hits. Titled Trail Of Memories: The Randy Travis Anthology, the collection will be released July 16 and features his top songs starting with 1986’s album Storms Of Life.

Travis’ career – guided by longtime manager and wife Elizabeth Travis – took off in 1986 with the single, “On the Other Hand.” It helped launch his first full-length major label release, Storms of Life, that summer.

For the next three years, Travis had a streak of top-selling albums and No. 1 singles, which helped set the stage for the pop-country performers to follow – namely Clint Black and Garth Brooks – in the early 1990s.

Though country music has been thoroughly dominated in the last decade by hat acts and sex symbols, Travis’ traditional approach to the music hasn’t changed. He continues to record and tour regularly, still landing singles on the charts and getting radio play.