Album Spotlight: Killin' Uncle Buzzy
"This record documents almost seven months of me climbing out of a hole that I dug for myself.
A glimpse into the thoughts and honest emotions found in their struggle.
It's not all of them by a long shot but every one is true.
Part exorcism,
Part exercise in creativity.
Part killing "Uncle Buzzy" & part finding me again.
These 10 songs are done, I am not.” - Travis Meadows, April 2011
That’s the introduction to Travis Meadows’ album Killin' Uncle Buzzy, which was released 10 years ago. Few albums are as personal, inspirational, and just straight up brutally honest as this one from a decade ago.
Meadows, who grew up in Mississippi, is one of the deepest songwriters you’ll see on a mainstream record’s writing credit list. He’s written songs recorded by major players in Nashville like Jake Owen, Dierks Bentley, and Eric Church. His style of writing isn’t for the faint of heart. While many songwriters in the corporate realm focus on the sound of the music and how to create a song that will shoot up to #1 on the charts, Meadows writes from a place of realism. Instead of catchy songs about drinking and having a good time, he writes about how his alcoholism almost killed him and wrecked a lot of the relationships with his family. Which is the basis of this album.
Killin’ Uncle Buzzy is something of a concept record. While it doesn’t create a traditional character and follow them from Track 1 to Track 10, it doesn’t have to. Meadows puts himself as the main character in his own story. It’s the story of his sobriety and the pitfalls and the honest truths that come with it. When Meadows was in rehab for the last time, his counselor suggested he keep a journal. Instead of journaling, he wrote songs which became this project.
From the opening song “Minefield” to the closer “Learning How to Live Alone”, this album is chocked full of secrets and things very few people would have the nerve to say out loud. Meadows doesn’t shy away from the hole he’s dug himself and the real world repercussions of his addiction. This album isn’t a “How I Beat Alcoholism 101” course, but it’s full of life lessons and hyper specific examples of Meadows’ worst moments. On ‘Good Intentions’, he relapses. Meadows sees a bottle of vodka in his freezer, takes a swig, and calls his sponsor Roger to ask for his help again before he kills himself or goes insane. It’s a callous moment, as he tries to describe why just having good intentions isn’t enough. It takes action and the work to do better.
He describes that work he is putting in on ‘Learning How to Live Alone’. Meadows sings about cleaning his home in anticipation of his son staying the weekend and that he stays home, goes to bed early, and watches TV when his son isn’t there so he’s not tempted to pick the bottle back up. He states that this “every night, might be what I need/I think this whole thing will wind up being good for me” even though he doesn’t know how to deal with all the freedom he has post-rehab.
The most fascinating thing about this record is the emotional and storytelling depth it has. While there’s a lot of direct responses to how Meadows is handling sobriety, it really tells the full scope of how he got there. My personal favorite track on the ‘Grown Up Clothes’, he discusses his father’s own battle with alcoholism and how now that he’s older, he understands where his dad’s decisions came from. It’s a self-reflective song that allows Meadows to really dig deeper into his own personal issues and start healing. On ‘It Ain’t Fun No More’, there’s anger towards himself and is the moment in the record where you can hear Meadows say “I’m done with this for good”. ‘Davidson County Police’, he comes to terms with his younger, more wild and rebellious self.
There’s also a couple songs where Meadows sees the other side of the road on his journey through sobriety. ‘God Speaks’ is a tender song about his better half while ‘Let it Go’ is more of an anthemic track that has him hailing “It don’t do no good to complain about the pain you can’t outgrow/let it go”.
I haven’t even spoken of ‘What We Ain’t Got’ yet, which is undoubtedly the most known song on the record. If you’re a Jake Owen fan, you may remember the song as being a single in 2014 off his Days of Gold album. While it only reached the top 20 with radio, it became one of the best songs released to radio that year. Even though I love Owen’s version, Meadows’ original from 3 years prior is still superior. There’s something about the heartbreak in his voice that just helps the listener connect with the song.
All these songs help connect the dots in Meadows’ life and his journey from being a young child with unreliable parents to one day becoming a preacher to being an alcoholic who was uninvited from the Bluebird Cafe writer nights to a man who simply is trying to work on himself and do better than he was before. Meadows reminds us that we are all works in progress and that work is never done.
As a fan of country music, this has been one of my absolute favorite albums to listen to and deserves to be recognized as a launching point of one of the genre’s best writers. As a child of 2 alcoholics, there’s a lot in this record I can directly relate with personally, but even if you aren’t an alcoholic or addict, the absolute bone-chilling candor in this record is refreshing. There’s a whole lot of worth in saying things that most people wouldn’t dare to say out loud. Killin’ Uncle Buzzy is a therapeutic masterclass in how simple words can change lives and lift spirits. Whether you stream it or buy it (he JUST released CDs and vinyl for it’s 10th anniversary), make sure you listen to this one.
