Phil Vassar photo by Jim Wright, courtesy of Universal Records South.

With his road band, and friends, on board, Phil had the opportunity, for the first time in his career, to really get lost in the studio. Over the course of five months, Phil—enamored with the killer drum and bass acoustics—booked Quad Studios in Nashville for days at a time. Free of ticking time clocks, Phil was able to cut several songs, 11 of which ultimately made the album.

"My guys really wanted to be there," Phil says, "they really wanted to play. So we had the chance to experiment a lot. Sometimes things didn’t work and sometime they did; in other places we really hit our stride." Looking back, Phil recognizes this recording experience as one of the most rewarding of his career. Above all, he enjoyed an unprecedented level of control—right down to the single selection.

Lead single "Bobbi With An I," an unusual depiction of an outrageous small-town cross-dressing linebacker, "would never have made it to country radio if I hadn’t sent it out myself," Phil says. A longtime favorite at live shows, the song met with early enthusiasm at radio, validating Phil’s hunch that "everyone’s sick of hearing about the economy. We all know it’s bad. Let’s just lighten up, have some fun?at least for the summer."

The song is indeed pure fun, inspired by a real-life acquaintance of Phil’s who "showed up at a club one night dressed as a girl. It was just a funny way to pick up chicks. And women were all over him!" Phil laughs. "So often in country music you hear ‘I’m so country,’ ‘She’s so country’—everybody wants to define what ‘country’ is, and if you’re different from that, you’re a freak. I don’t think it has to be that way," he says. "So we live and let live/That’s how it is/Nobody gives a second thought these days" goes the song, promoting a message of tolerance and acceptance that’s winning over a broad spectrum of country music fans from all walks of life.

Phil’s status as somewhat of a country music outsider makes him a fitting ambassador for such a message. "When I was trying to make it," Phil recalls, "I had label heads literally tell me I would have to put on a hat and start playing guitar, but I always stuck to my guns. Piano sounds are very important to me, and I’ve always wanted to put them out front." With Traveling Circus, and especially the closing track "Where Have All The Pianos Gone," Phil enjoys the last laugh as Nashville’s preeminent piano man.