East Texas singer-songwriter Travis Bolt met us at The Red Building on Nashville's Music Row during AMERICANAFEST 2025 to deliver three heartfelt and semi-autobiographical songs from his debut record Burning Bridges, coming out March 6, 2026.
The session begins with the song that helped put Bolt on the map, a song about love and loss called "Never Tried Cocaine," in which he ponders the strength of the medication needed to ease his pain. Much of the debut record is connected in some way to a really tough personal situation that resulted in his wife leaving after just six months of marriage. The second song in this session, "Coming Home," deals with his marital disaster head on.
These songs don't wallow in the grief, they process it and reemerge as art. In addition to giving his art to the world, the act of performing also helps Bolt manage his Tourette's. As he explains, "Part of what drove me to the road, playing music as a full time career, was that it was the medicine I didn't have to pay for."
Last up in Bolt's No Depression Session is "Seasons," another transformation of personal trauma into song. Proceeds from the album version of the song will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI's alliance includes more than 650 state organizations and affiliates that work in communities raising awareness, providing support and education to those in need.
Please enjoy this performance, and stay tuned for more No Depression x AMERICANAFEST '25 sessions in the pipeline!
Setlist:
Never Tried Cocaine
Coming Home
Seasons
Read next
SPOTLIGHT: Jude Brothers’ Kaleidoscopic Album ‘Dogwood Maiden Voyage’ Navigates Through Nature and Reinvention
Editor's Note: Jude Brothers, whose new LP titled Dogwood Maiden Voyage is due out September 25 via Gar Hole Records, is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for September 2026. Stay tuned all month for more about this Ozarks singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Jude Brothers needs the
Buddy Miller Mixes Country-Soul Classics With Fresh Originals on Self-Titled Return
Buddy Miller has recorded music under his own name for the last 30 years, but his influence on roots music stretches far wider. He began playing in the ’70s in Austin, where he met his future wife Julie Griffin when they both were in a band called Partners in Crime.
In The Deep End With The Mary Wallopers
Labor Day is not a recognized holiday in Ireland. So while much of the US and Canada were enjoying a day off — the result of protests for fair working conditions organized by trade union workers from the late 1800s — it was just another Monday in Dundalk, in the far northeast
Comments ()