Jacob Hilton a.k.a. Travid Halton
Houston singer-songwriter Jacob Hilton, 37, who records under the nom de plume Travid Halton, a portmanteau of his mother and father’s names, might balk at being mentioned in such company. (This is a thoroughly unpretentious man, who describes himself as an “archaeologist turned singer/songwriter.”)
Nevertheless, Hilton’s brand new album Obsessions, currently streaming on all major platforms and available on vinyl, CD and cassette, is a low-key though no less powerful contribution to the concept album genre. Across 10 beautifully recorded tracks, Hilton shares his experiences with childhood trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and OCD recovery.
He’s joined by some of the city’s musical luminaries, including Geoffrey Muller (bassist for The Suffers and Robert Ellis); Will Van Horn (pedal steel player for Khruangbin and Leon Bridges); Matt Serice (trumpet player for Bayou City Funk and Free Radicals); and Ellen Story (violinist for Slow Meadow and The Broken Spokes), who contributes backing vocals to the album’s penultimate track “The Great Remembering.”
Hilton is heard playing resonator guitar, dobro, steel-string acoustic guitar, banjo, and piano, giving the album an indie-folk vibe, with nods to classic country and meter-shifting prog-metal. (Slipknot, KoRn, and other nu-metal bands inspired Hilton as a teenager to pick up the electric guitar.) Throughout Obsessions, Hilton sings with a quiet urgency and a range of expression reminiscent of Jakob Dylan unplugged and Sam Beam a.k.a. Iron and Wine, but with a voice that is uniquely his own.
Hilton describes the album’s first two tracks, “Little Bayou Boy,” a bucolic homage to childhood, and “Blossom,” a harrowing, second-person description of his mother, Tracy Hall, in the throes of a severe psychotic episode, as “two halves of a whole.” Hall, who died in 2010, was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child; in 2016, Hilton went to an outdoor screening of a documentary about schizophrenia and afterward, was inspired to finish “Blossom,” a song he began at age 15 to express his conflicting feelings about his mother.
“The documentary helped me better understand my mother’s experience, even though I had witnessed it personally for years,” says Hilton. “The next day, I sat with my guitar and strummed the first few chords of the song and the first few lines of lyrics just came out effortlessly.”
Hilton has come to manage the debilitating symptoms of OCD with therapy, sessions with a licensed psychologist, and sticking to a daily routine that includes regular exercise and healthy eating. (Hilton is a talented cook and decided the photo shoot for Obsessions should take place in his kitchen.) Unfortunately, therapy without insurance can be cost-prohibitive for many people, but there are several helpful free online sources, including OCD Recovery, which provides free content on YouTube and Instagram led by people who have recovered from OCD.
While Hilton, who does indeed hold down a day job as an archaeologist, doesn’t have immediate plans to perform Obsessions live, he can imagine one day playing the entire album at a house concert, with all of the musicians on the album as special guests. In the meantime, he is completing a four-song EP, set for release early next year, that is (you guessed it) another thematically tied-together cycle of music.
Houston’s own Wayne Wilson stars in and helped create Cirque du Soleil’s new ’Songblazers’ show.
Wayne Wilson, who’s been performing in Cirque presentations for more than 20 years — and sometimes also helping create the shows behind the scenes — will be front and center, performing for a hometown crowd for the very first time. “I don’t think I have the words to express how excited I am,” says the longtime performing artist, who grew up in Houston’s North Shore area, graduated from HSPVA with high honors and was soon tapped for his first Cirque role as a college student in Minneapolis.
He says his friends and family have traveled the world to see him work — going even as far away as China. “But the first time to be a home? It feels full circle,” he says. “Something just feels really right about where I am with my career.”
Per his usual role, the now Las Vegas-based Wilson, 41, plays a clown in the new show. He’s been fascinated with physical comedy since he was a kid watching I Love Lucy and The Little Rascals reruns. Of course, at Cirque, it’s a special kind of clowning. “I don’t even wear a nose. It’s a state of being. It’s a state of reflecting the audience back to them, so they recognize and empathize with the clown onstage.
“I love doing theater, and I love doing plays,” he adds. “But with these shows, you really get to put a piece of yourself within the work unlike any other medium.”
Wilson also works in the wings, helping to develop shows like Songblazers as associate show director and comedic concept designer. “I just love the creation of these shows,” he says. “Cirque du Soleil is a beacon for creativity. If you can dream it, they have the tools and resources to help you build it.
“In one show, I wanted to have a pogo stick — 15 feet in the air,” he recalls, still a bit amazed. “And before I knew it, they built a harness and I’m on a winch jumping up and down.”
Songblazers may have the audience jumping around, too. Especially country fans. “It’s a love letter to country music,” says Wilson.
The 24th Cirque du Soleil presentation in Houston will go up at Sugar Land’s Smart Financial Centre for 16 performances, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 11. It boasts a live soundtrack with new music as well as dozens of classic songs from the genre going back generations. “As the crowd grooves to beloved country tunes, they will be entranced by the breathtaking skills of Cirque du Soleil artists, honoring the rich tradition of country music while embracing its evolving spirit,” gushes a Cirque rep. Universal Music Group Nashville presents the show, along with Cirque.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done,” says Wilson, “and I'm proud of the family I’ve built throughout the years. And I really can’t wait to bring all of them to my mother’s house.”
Indeed, he says his mom, now in Humble, will host a large barbecue for family, neighbors and her son’s Cirque pals. “I think I’m going to rent a van and bring whoever wants to come down to ol’ Sheila’s!”
Houston’s own Wayne Wilson
Besides lots of new and classic music, ’Songblazers’ will feature 'breathtaking acrobatics, awe-inspiring aerial acts and displays of extraordinary strength,’ says a show rep.
Cirque du Soleil’s new country-themed show will be presented at Smart Financial Center in Sugar Land.
’Songblazers’ will open Aug. 1 and run through Aug. 11.
Cirque’s ’Songblazers’ is described as ‘a love letter to country music.’