Randy Travis - The Very Best Of RandyTravis (2004)

There have been plenty of Randy Travis compilations, from the initial 1992 Greatest Hits to Rhino's superb 2002 double-disc set Trail of Memories: The Randy Travis Anthology, but there is still place in his catalog for Rhino's 2004 The Very Best of Randy Travis. Essentially, this is a single-disc distillation of Trail of Memories, with 19 of its 20 tracks also featured on the previous compilations -- and it's not just that they're duplicated, it's that these are the same versions, the same single edits and mixes, that were on the two-CD set. The one new track is "Three Wooden Crosses," a 2003 single that became his first country chart-topper since 1994. It's a welcome addition, but not enough to make this necessary to anybody who already owns Trail of Memories, but for those who don't have that excellent collection, this is worth considering since it covers the same ground more concisely, providing the best single-disc overview of Travis released to date.~ Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine