Travis is back making music again, after taking several years off. What was it that moved him to pick up the guitar and sit down at the piano again? The death of rock-and-roll and country music icon, Jerry Lee Lewis, in October 2022.

"Yes, Jerry's death moved me much more deeply than I had expected," Travis says. "In fact, I'm still grieving him now a few weeks after his death. I can't recall being this sad about the passing of a celebrity since I woke up one day when I was a boy and heard the announcement on the radio that Roy Orbison had died."

"I was blessed," Travis continues, "to have had the opportunity to see both Jerry Lee and Roy perform live." "Funny enough, being a kid from Orange County, I saw Roy play at Disneyland and Jerry play at Knott's Berry Farm. Those are two of the three concerts I am most grateful for having the chance to attend in my life."

"The third one was being able to see Chuck Berry. It was incredible to stand and watch literally less than ten feet from Chuck when he played the small stage at The Strand in Redondo Beach." Travis clearly has a deep affection for early rock-and-roll legends. He respects their place in the universe of music history, and the profound impact they made in shaping American identity and culture.

"Oh, they're huge," Travis continues. "I mean, it's not a stretch to compare their importance and enormity to the Founding Fathers of this nation. These men - Jerry Lee, Roy, Chuck, Elvis, Buddy, Bill Haley - they were innovators. Musical inventors. Or to make a medieval analogy, alchemists. Wizards. They perceived the musical signs of the times, and they seized the moment to concoct a brand new blend of existing musical genres and ingredients into this wonderful new formula called rock-and-roll."

"There's so much," Travis says, "that you can highlight about each one of them. They each contributed something a little different. And in regards to Jerry Lee, I think you could make the case that he was the most talented of them all. Sam Phillips of Sun Records, in fact, agreed with that. He said Jerry was the most talented person he had ever seen." "And Jerry Lee himself described himself ultimately as a 'stylist'. And I like that description, I agree. With his vast musical ability and range of genre, Jerry was the master alchemist - he concocted these unparalleled arrangements and this signature sound purely out of the genius of his own giftedness and musical instincts."

"If all those men I mentioned earlier are the Founding Fathers of rock-and-roll, Jerry was one of the tallest giants among them. He's like the Thomas Jefferson of the Founding Fathers of rock-and-roll, and he was also the last man standing, the last living original Founder."

"And so," Travis continues, "when we lost Jerry Lee a few weeks ago, it was truly the solemn end of an era. And not just any era. It was the end of a Golden Age." And while Travis clearly was moved by the death of Jerry Lee Lewis, why was it that he chose to go back to writing, recording and performing music again as a response to Jerry Lee's death?

"It was really two things," says Travis. "Part of it was I was just really sad, I mean, I was really grieving. For years and decades, I've been grateful that Jerry lived so long, not only so he could share his music and himself with us for all these years, but also because I knew it was giving him the opportunity to do some soul-searching and get his spiritual life straightened out, as Jerry himself would admit near the end of his days."

"So my sadness at his death with mixed with thankfulness for his spiritual awakening that he got to experience on this earth. I participated virtually in Jerry's funeral in his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana by attending via the livestream. His cousin Jimmy Swaggart delivered a moving eulogy."

"After the service, I felt strongly like I needed to sing Jerry's music. It was a way for me to mourn him and celebrate him. And so I started working on this single, and honestly it was an emotional and cathartic experience."

"But besides deciding to dive into Jerry's song as sort of a therapeutic tribute to Jerry," Travis continues, "the other reason the event of Jerry's death moved me was because of something Jerry sang in one of his songs: 'Who's gonna play this old piano after I'm not here? Who's gonna sing these sad songs to you, cause your eyes to fill with tears? Who's gonna keep these ivories talking like Jerry's doing now? Who's gonna play this old piano after my last bow? When that final curtain falls, and someday. Lord, it will, Who's gonna take my place on that stage when everything is hushed and still?'" Travis continues, "Jerry was looking ahead. Shortly before he died, in a spiritual sense, he was looking ahead also. He said in his last days, 'I know where I've been. I know where I am. And I know where I'm going.' And I think in that song, 'Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?', Jerry's also aware of the greater musical movement he's been a part of. He knows where he's been as an innovator, an alchemist, and a Founding Father. He knows he's still here as the last man standing."

"But he's also aware in that song that he won't be here forever. And he wonders how this beautiful genre of music, with all it entails, will carry on through the next generation."

"There's a sense of needing to pass the torch expressed in that song," Travis says. "And by my going into the studio, in a sense I was unconsciously answering a sort of call to arms from Jerry. I'm willing to accept the torch. And I don't mean that as me saying I'm anything special. Lord knows there are many companions in the country world who carry on and embody the musical heritage with more talent than I could ever dream of possessing."

"What I mean is, the carrying on and preserving the tradition, this cultural treasure known as country and western music, this torch that the last Founding Father just handed off to us, it's not for little ol' me to carry alone. It's meant for all of us in the country and roots music family to respect, revere, and enjoy, and to help others to continue to enjoy for generations to come."

"And so," Travis concludes, "that's why I'm back. That's why I'm making and sharing music again. And that's why I'm doing it with none other than a Jerry Lee Lewis song, and I'm happy to share my new single with y'all, my version of Jerry's "Bonnie B". And I'm looking forward to sharing much more music with y'all in days to come."

Just as Travis describes Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Elvis, and Bill Haley as the great Founding Fathers of rock-n-roll, Travis' father, Sammy Masters, is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and played his own part in the development of early rock-and-roll.

"Yes," Travis says, "I would say my dad was one of the Founding Fathers, but definitely like one of the minor Founding Fathers. Like you know all those guys who signed the Declaration of Independence, but you don't really know much more about them, while you easily recognize Ben Franklin or Washington or Jefferson? Yeah, my dad was like one of those minor guys. Ha ha." "He was there at Independence Hall. (My dad actually was on Dick Clark's TV show 'American Bandstand' on the same episode as Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker.) My dad signed the Declaration of Independence. But he doesn't have the name recognition of the great giants among the founders of rock-and-roll." Travis' father, Sammy Masters, passed away in 2013. Does Travis see his role in the collective carrying on of the torch with his music a direct tribute to his father and his music in particular? "Well yes, of course," Travis says. "My daddy was the lens through which I learned and started to create music when I was young. His influence on my musical path cannot be overestimated, and so in a sense every time I sing, I am paying tribute to my dad and the legacy he bestowed upon me."

"I grew up in honky tonk culture, even though as a kid I never went to a honky tonk bar. But every gig my dad had that was family-friendly or outside at a festival or anywhere a kid could go, I was there." "I was inhaling the second-hand smoke of my dad's bandmates. I was hearing behind the scenes, in between sets on stage, all the talk of these musicians, several of whom had played with major stars. And I was playing piano with them in my dad's band as young as twelve years old, getting a chance to learn Hank Williams and Marty Robbins tunes in my formative years."

"But there was so much more," Travis concludes, 'to my father's influence on me in nurturing my love for traditional country and rockabilly and rock-and-roll. It was his stories that he told at the dinner table or as I drove with him to see my grandma at her farmhouse in Bakersfield."

"Whether it was his story about his Bakersfield friend Buck Owens, whose purchase of the rights to one of my dad's songs paid the downpayment for the first house I lived in with my family as a baby, or the story of my dad singing on the radio with Bob Wills in Tulsa when my dad was twelve years old, or the story of my dad playing one of his new songs for his songwriter friend Willie Nelson, a song of my dad's which Willie and their other musician friend Patsy Cline liked so much that she recorded my dad's song and it became the B-side to her smash hit "Crazy", which was written by Willie - all of these stories and experiences with my dad growing up established my country and roots music DNA."

"And I can't wait to share my new music with y'all as we all continue to enjoy the wonderful musical heritage these great names I've mentioned have bestowed on us who live on in this generation."

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