Travis Denning is a huge Southern Rock fans, citing The Allman Brothers as one of his biggest influences and the cornerstone of the music he makes. He just kicked off a new podcast series, “Headin’ Down South,” which he talks about the foundation of Southern Rock, as well as spotlights certain bands for a “history lesson” on the genre. This week, he debuted the series with part one of a look at The Allman Brothers as well as a few select songs of the iconic group.

“The influence of the Allman Brothers Band specifically to me, and not only my music but my life, was so early that I cannot tell you where it started,” says Travis. “But the earliest thing I can remember was that my dad had their Decade of Hits album, which was pretty much greatest hits. I just remember the cover. It was a blue jean jacket with an Allman Brothers patch on it, and it was just a really close up pocket of that. And that had your most basic introduction to the Allman Brothers music. Looking back now that I’ve dove back into the catalog and all this stuff, it was ‘Statesboro Blues,’ ‘Ramblin’ Man,’ ‘Jessica,’ ‘Melissa,’ ‘Little Martha.’ It was really just kind of like, I say the hits, they only had one radio hit, but it was the hit songs that even just the regular, everyday, occasional Southern Rock fan knows.”

You can listen to this week’s podcast, as well as future installments on Pandora, right here.

Travis is currently making his way up the country charts with “After a Few.”