Merle Travis
Wikimp3 information about the music of Merle Travis. On our website we have 54 albums and 70 collections of artist Merle Travis. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Merle Travis represents Country genres.
Biography
[Edit]Merle Travis was virtually without peer as a guitarist and songwriter. A unique stylist, he was respected and prominent enough to have an instrumental style ("Travis picking") named after him, and only Chet Atkins even comes close to the influence that Travis had on the way the guitar is understood and played in country music. (Indeed, Atkins was initially signed to RCA to be that label's Merle Travis.) As a songwriter, he wasn't far behind, with originals such as "Sixteen Tons" crossing over as popular standards in the hands of other artists. He even played two different vital and indirect roles in the development of rock & roll, and was no slouch as a recording artist, with his own share of chart hits and novelty songs.
Merle Robert Travis was born on November 29, 1917, in Rosewood, KY. His father was a coalminer, and the family lived on the bare edge of poverty; eventually this experience, coupled with a phrase that Travis' father used to describe their lives, became the basis for the song "Sixteen Tons." His very first instrument was a five-string banjo, but when he was 12 year old his older brother gave him a homemade guitar. Travis was lucky enough to have as neighbors Ike Everly, later the father of Don and Phil, and Mose Rager, who played in a unique three-finger guitar style that had developed in that area of Kentucky. Travis learned this approach as a teenager and grew astonishingly proficient in a repertory that included blues, ragtime, and popular tunes. It wasn't enough to earn a living, and he survived by working in the Civilian Conservation Corps as a teenager.
His first break came during a visit to his brother's home in Evansville, IN, in 1935, where his chance to entertain at a local dance resulted in membership in a couple of local bands and a chance to appear on a local radio station. By 1937, he was a member of Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, and a year later he'd moved on to the Drifting Pioneers, who found a permanent broadcasting gig at Cincinnati's WLW. The Boone Country Jamboree radio show kept the group busy until World War II came along and forced it to disband. While a member of the Drifting Pioneers, Travis acquired a national following, and also began playing with Grandpa Jones and the Delmore Brothers in a gospel quartet called the Brown's Ferry Four. He later teamed up with Jones as "the Shepherd Brothers" as the first artists to record for the newly founded King Records label in 1943. He and Jones even exchanged songs and found the sources for a few songs together — it was while out with Jones one day at a black church in Cincinnati that Travis heard the sermon that became the song "That's All."
Travis spent a short stint in the Marines, but was quickly discharged and returned to Cincinnati. During the late winter of 1944, he headed for Los Angeles, where he began making appearances in Charles Starrett's Western movies and playing with Ray Whitley's Western swing band. With guidance from Tex Ritter and bassist Cliffie Stone, in 1946 he released the topical song "No Vacancy" — dealing with the displacement of returning veterans — along with "Cincinnati Lou," and earned a double-sided hit. His next major project was a concept album, Folk Songs of the Hills, which was intended to compete with Burl Ives' successful folk recordings. The record, released as a set of four 78-rpm discs, was a failure at the time it was released in 1947 (it wasn't even transferred to long-playing disc until nearly ten years later). However, it yielded several classics, among them the Travis originals "Sixteen Tons," "Dark as a Dungeon," and "Over by Number Nine," as well as introducing such standards as "Nine Pound Hammer"; it also became a unique document, depicting a beautiful all-acoustic solo guitar performance by this master virtuoso.
The initial failure of the folk album aside, 1947 began a boom period in Travis' career. In addition to writing the million-selling hit "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!" for his friend Tex Williams, he had a half-dozen Top Ten records himself, including "Divorce Me C.O.D.," "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed," and "Three Times Seven." Travis also devised the first solid-body electric guitar, coming up with a model which, when perfected by Leo Fender, would become a key element in early rock & roll. The string of hits didn't last, but Travis' career continued uninterrupted, with performances on stage, television, and record. Beginning in 1953, he landed a fairly visible movie role in one of the biggest films of the year, From Here to Eternity, where he performed "Re-Enlistment Blues," and it was around that same time that he began playing on all of his friend Hank Thompson's records. In 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford had his crossover hit with "Sixteen Tons," and it was around that same time that Travis acolytes such as Atkins were making a major impact on music themselves. Scotty Moore, who'd first been influenced by Travis from his radio performances, had become Elvis Presley's lead guitarist, and a year after Elvis hit nationally, the Everly Brothers (themselves Atkins disciples) started topping the charts.
Travis was one of those musical figures who was referred to constantly, either musically or literally, by dozens of major figures, but he was never able to ascend the charts himself again. Much of the problem lay in his personal life. Along with a reputation as one of country music's top axemen, Travis also became known as a wildman, especially when he drank. He was arrested more than once for public intoxication and drunk driving — on his motorcycle — and in 1956 there was a highly publicized report of police surrounding his home after he assaulted his wife. Then, during the early '60s, he was hospitalized briefly after being arrested while driving under the influence of narcotics. He managed to pull his professional life together in the mid-'60s to do one new folk-style album, Songs of the Coal Mines, which, like its predecessor Folk Songs of the Hills, failed to sell on its original release. His other albums — mostly instrumental, such as Walkin' the Strings — proved much more significant and influential at the time as standard acquisitions for aspiring guitarists. He still played occasionally and became something of a star on the college folk circuit, teaming with Atkins for the Grammy-winning Atkins-Travis Traveling Show in 1974. Travis finally seemed to settle down after he married his fourth wife, Dorothy — the former wife of his longtime friend Hank Thompson — and focused once again on music. He recorded tribute albums to the Georgia Wildcats and began working again with old associates like Grandpa Jones, and it looked like Travis was to enjoy a resurgence of musical and public acclaim. At age 65, however, he suffered a massive heart attack and died the following morning.
Title: Singles Collection 56 (CD1)
Artist: Merle Travis
Genre: World Music, Country, Rockabilly, Folk
Title: Divorce Me C. O. D: The Country Chart Hits & More! 1946-1953
Artist: Merle Travis
Genre: Country
Title: Country Music's 2 Guitar Greats Merle Travis & Joe Maphis
Artist: Merle Travis, Joe Maphis
Genre: Country
Title: Flat-Picking Spectacular
Artist: Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, Arthur Smith, Zen Crook
Genre: Country
Title: Reality Check (feat. Steve Legacy & Jalin Ford) - Single
Artist: Merle Travis
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rap, Punk Rock
Title: Singles Collection 56 (CD2)
Artist: Merle Travis
Genre: World Music, Country, Rockabilly, Folk
Collections
Title: Country Music You Love
Genre: Country
Title: The Early Roots of Rock 'N' Roll, Vol. 1
Genre: Rock, Rockabilly
Title: Lookin' Better Every Beer
Genre: Country
Title: Merle's Boogie Woogie
Genre: Country
Title: Time Was, Vol. 3
Genre: Pop
Title: I Fall To Pieces (10 Timeless Country Songs)
Genre: Country
Title: The Rag Roots of Jazz (Remastered)
Genre: Jazz
Title: Country Hits
Title: Live from the Old Town School, Vol. 1
Genre: Kids
Title: Totally Bluegrass
Genre: Country
Title: 20th Century Bluegrass Masters
Genre: Country
Title: 20 Golden Country Waltzes
Title: The Legends of Bluegrass 6
Genre: Country
Title: The Legends Of Bluegrass 8
Title: The Legends Of Bluegrass 7
Title: The Legends Of Bluegrass 3
Genre: Country
Title: Rhythm of the Mountains: Bluegrass Explores Its Roots
Genre: Country
Title: Hats Off! A Tribute to Bill Monroe
Genre: Country
Title: Country Music Golden Oldies Volume 2
Genre: Country
Title: Country for Kids: I Like Cowboy Songs Vol. 3
Genre: Country
Title: Bluegrass! Then and Now (CMH 25th Anniversary)
Genre: Country
Title: Hats Off! A Tribute to Flatt & Scruggs
Genre: Country
Title: The Greatest Stars of Bluegrass Music
Genre: Country
Title: Red, White & Bluegrass
Genre: Country
Title: 100 Greatest Bluegrass Hits
Genre: Country
Title: Country, Vol. 7
Genre: Country
Title: That's Bluegrass! CMH 20th Anniversary
Genre: Country
Title: The Legends of Bluegrass 2
Genre: Country
Title: Bluegrass for Beginners
Genre: Country
Title: Grand Ole Country Live Vol. 4
Genre: Country
Title: Great Songs, Vol. 4
Genre: Pop
Title: Rockabilly Rumble, Vol. 10
Genre: Rock, Country, Rockabilly
Title: The Absolute Best of Bluegrass Gospel
Genre: Country
Title: Country & Western Music Hit Parade, Vol. 2
Genre: Country
Title: I Found a New Baby
Genre: Country
Title: You Are My Lucky Star
Genre: Pop
Title: It's All In The Name - The Boys
Genre: Pop
Title: Hillbilly Boogie, Vol. 3: Crazy About the Boogie
Genre: Country
Title: RV Songs : Life on the American Road
Genre: Country
Title: The Story of Traditional Country, Vol. 6
Genre: Country
Title: The Sensational Sounds of Bluegrass
Genre: Country
Title: Smokin Country Hits, Vol. 3
Genre: Country
Title: Wabash Cannonball: 20 Classic Train Songs
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country Hits!
Genre: Country
Title: Cliffe's Stone Radio Transcriptions 1945-1949
Genre: World Music
Title: Country Guitar Finger Pickin' Licks, Vol. 1
Genre: Country
Title: Moodlifters
Featuring albums
Title: In the Jailhouse Now : Prison Songs & Murder Ballads
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Country, Alternative Country
Title: Of Thee I Sing: A Bluegrass Celebration of America
Artist: Various Artists & Various Artists
Genre: Country
Title: Pioneers of Bluegrass: Featuring 20 of Bluegrass Music's Greatest Hits
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Country
Title: Good Old Country Songs - Traveling America 1 (Western Swing+Hillbilly+C&W)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Country
Title: Epic Americana: Pre-War Blues, Country & Folk
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Blues, Country, Songwriter/Lyricist