Reviewed by John Hebden

This is a very successful fusion of rock and classical elements that will appeal to the Andrew Lloyd Webber fraternity. Travis has a powerful tenor voice and he demonstrates wonderful range, control and emotional expression over 12 consistently strong songs. He is backed almost throughout by full orchestral arrangements which rise and fall beautifully to complement the vocals, without getting too carried away. Travis graduated from Belmont University in 1992 with a church music degree and he and his producer, Kent Hooper, paid close attention to maintaining balance when putting the powerful arrangements for 'Found' together. My demo CD includes no songwriting credits, but I know Travis has included some of his own material on his four previous albums. The only song which is familiar to me on 'Closer' is John Denver's "Annie's Song", which was always a great waltz tune and lends itself to a fairly successful worship song in this context. Elsewhere, in the stirring "Sanctus" Travis trades call and response lines with a choir; "Largo" sounds like it's a performance from a Bizet opera; "We Long For You" builds slowly into a epic rock ballad; whilst "God Lead Us Along" closes the album with a very effective folkie mandolin/guitar arrangement.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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