The best of the best, who taught the rest.... Merle Travis!
He invented the fingerpickin' style of guitar (called "Travis Pickin") used by virtually every Country-guitar great.
I never even heard of Merle until I went to Nashville 2 years ago.
Practically anywhere you go in Nashville, he's considered a legend who put Country-guitar on the map.
His album that goes by the same name, "Travis Pickin", is the Holy Bible of how Country guitar evolved into it's own distinctive sound and way of playing.
Read this review......
The Best of Merle Travis: Sweet Temptation 1946-1953
"Travis-pickin" is what is was called and it was a style of guitarplaying that Merle Travis popularized that influenced every Country picker from Chet Atkins to Scotty Moore and even Jerry Reed. This fine CD spotlights this overlooked giant. It's sad that Merle Travis never gets mentioned with the greats of Country Music but this CD is a sturdy reminder that he was indeed a great one. While it is his guitar playing that often gets Merle Travis mentioned in Country history books he was also a consistent chart topper during the period that this CD covers. His songs had a sense of humor ("Fat Girl"), addressed issues of the day ("No Vacancy" about the lack of housing Veterans faced when they returned from World War II, and he also wrote "Sixteen Tons". This CD is basically a replacement for Rhino's Best of from 1990 which is now out-of-print. While that CD had 18 songs this has 20 (with 13 of Rhino's appearing here, also). But the sound is better on this CD. With one glaring omission: the absence of Merle's classic coal miner anthem: "Dark as a Dungeon" (how could they skip that song!). You can find "Dungeon" on Folk Songs of the Hills, which is in print. If you haven't added Merle Travis to your CD collection this is the one to own. It's a good place to get to know a forgotten Country great.
Nuf said
