Article successfully added.

Merle Travis The Guitar Player, Singer And Composer (CD)

Listen to sample now:
 
0:00
0:00
Please inform me as soon as the product is available again.
Please enter the digits and letters in the following text field.

$18.05 *

* incl. VAT / plus shipping costsDepending on the country of delivery, the VAT at checkout may vary.

Item is temporarily out of stock.
Approx. delivery time: up to 3 weeks. (as far as available at the supplier - can be faster, but sometimes unfortunately not)

  • CD636929
  • 0.1
(2016/Essential Media Group) 18 Tracks - 1950s Live Recordings - Great Sound Quality!! more

Merle Travis: The Guitar Player, Singer And Composer (CD)

(2016/Essential Media Group) 18 Tracks - 1950s Live Recordings - Great Sound Quality!!

Article properties: Merle Travis: The Guitar Player, Singer And Composer (CD)

Travis, Merle - The Guitar Player, Singer And Composer (CD) CD 1
01 Kentucky Waltz (Feat Jimmy Wakely) Merle Travis
02 Texas Tornado Merle Travis
03 Follow Through Merle Travis
04 Bye Bye Blues Merle Travis
05 Hominy Grits Merle Travis
06 Song Of The Steamboat (Feat The Three Rays) Merle Travis
07 Gambler's Guitar Merle Travis
08 John Henry Merle Travis
09 I'll See You In My Dreams Merle Travis
10 Guitar Rag Merle Travis
11 Interview & Sixteen Tons Merle Travis
12 Nobody Merle Travis
Merle Travis Since Merle Travis became a professional musician in 1936, he'd spent a good... more
"Merle Travis"

Merle Travis

Since Merle Travis became a professional musician in 1936, he'd spent a good bit of his time on the air. 'Town Hall Party'was just one more gig.

Travis, born in 1917 in Muhlenberg County, in Kentucky’s coalmining country, grew up in the small town of Ebenezer. He played banjo first, but soon learned that region's trademark guitar fingerpicking style, which used a thumbpick to pick bass accompaniment while simultaneously playing lead and rhythm on the guitar's treble strings with the index finger. Travis's teachers were local miners and guitar masters Ike Everly (Don and Phil's dad) and Mose Rager. The style was adaptable to nearly any type of music: traditional favorites, blues, country or pop.

Determined that the guitar would help him avoid a life of mining, he turned professional in 1936 in Indiana, and briefly joined fiddler Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats in 1937. As a member of the Drifting Pioneers, he joined Cincinnati's WLW in 1939.  When the station began their weekly 'Boone County Jamboree' barn dance broadcast, Travis, now performing solo, was part of it. He worked with the Delmore Brothers, Grandpa Jones, Hank Penny, and Joe Maphis at WLW, all of whom became close friends. A young Chet Atkins heard Travis on a WLW broadcast. Duly inspired, Atkins created his own picking style.

California became Travis's home in March, 1944. Radio and recording session work took up much of his time at first. Stardom came in 1946 after he signed with Capitol and launched a string of hits beginning with Cincinnati Lou, Divorce Me C.O.D, followed by So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed, a vocal version of Steel Guitar Rag, Three Times Seven, Fat Gal and Merle's Boogie Woogie.

His composition Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette), a 1947 hit for Tex Williams, gave Capitol its first million-seller. Few noted Merle's newly-issued acoustic 78 rpm album 'Folk Songs Of The Hills,' which mixed traditional songs with folk-flavored Travis originals, including his impressionistic coal mining tune Sixteen Tons. He was also a regular on Cliffie Stone's KXLA 'Dinner Bell Round-Up'radio show.

In 1949 Travis briefly worked at the 'WRVA Old Dominion Barn Dance' in Richmond Virginia with Joe Maphis and his future wife/performing partner Rose Lee Schetrompf. After returning to L.A., at some point in 1950-51 Travis joined Foreman Phillips's 'B-K Ranch,' a local live TV program that ran six hours daily in TV's pre-network days.  He convinced Philips to bring Joe and Rosie in from Richmond. Soon the three of them were working Hollywood area clubs together.

After 'Town Hall Party' began in 1952, Travis was a frequent guest. The Maphises joined the show's cast and Joe eventually became the show's bandleader. Playing a guitar-picking soldier in the classic 1953 movie set in World War II, 'From Here To Eternity,' Travis's performance of Re-Enlistment Blues became a unifying thread through the entire film which starred Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra and Deborah Kerr.

Stardom and fame aggravated Travis's deep-seated personal demons. Gentle and modest when sober, renowned for his cartooning and watch repair skills, he also battled stage fright, anxiety and depression. His drinking binges sometimes turned violent. "Every time Merle was about to make a breakthrough to mass acceptance, a near-tragedy occurred,"  Hank Penny remembered. "He was bent on self-destruction," said friend Wesley Tuttle. "He couldn't stand success."

He underscored that point in January, 1956. As Tennessee Ernie Ford's multi-million selling version of Sixteen Tons brought Travis widespread media attention, he got drunk and shot a clock off the wall at his home, sending third wife Bettie and her stepson fleeing to the street. The LAPD surrounded the house until Joe Maphis and his teenage guitar protégé, Town Hall's Larry Collins, arrived, entered and talked the now-calm Travis into coming out. Later that year, Travis's friends and family erected a granite monument in Ebenezer honoring both Travis and Sixteen Tons. He later wound up in California's Camarillo State Hospital for pill abuse. Hunting buddy Johnny Cash, himself a master pill-popper, visited regularly.

Still a Capitol artist when he made these 1958-59 THP appearances, he hadn't recorded for them since 1955, although he played on old pal Hank Thompson's Capitol recordings and toured with Thompson. These 25 THP performances mix hits, Muhlenberg fingerpicking favorites, and tunes he recorded for Capitol, as well as his protégé Chet Atkins's Main Street Breakdown.

Merle Travis Guitar Rags And A Too Fast Past (5-CD)
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.com/travis-merle-guitar-rags-and-a-too-fast-past-5-cd.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records

Review 0
Read, write and discuss reviews... more
Customer evaluation for "The Guitar Player, Singer And Composer (CD)"
Write an evaluation
Evaluations will be activated after verification.

The fields marked with * are required.

Weitere Artikel von Merle Travis
Folksongs Of The Hills: Back Home - Songs Of The Coalminers (CD)
Merle Travis: Folksongs Of The Hills: Back Home - Songs Of... Art-Nr.: BCD15636

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$18.05 * $11.26 *
Guitar Rags And A Too Fast Past (5-CD Deluxe Box Set)
Merle Travis: Guitar Rags And A Too Fast Past (5-CD Deluxe... Art-Nr.: BCD15637

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$282.87 *
Sixteen Tons - The Kentucky Legend (CD)
Merle Travis: Sixteen Tons - The Kentucky Legend (CD) Art-Nr.: CDCRR219

Item has to be restocked

$16.92 *
At Town Hall Party 1958 & 1959 - HQ Vinyl
Merle Travis: At Town Hall Party 1958 & 1959 - HQ Vinyl Art-Nr.: SLP5209

Item has to be restocked

$30.50 *
Call Of The Country - Merle Travis (Japan Vinyl-LP)
Merle Travis: Call Of The Country - Merle Travis (Japan... Art-Nr.: LPECS50059

Item has to be restocked

$28.24 *
The Jim Reeves Radio Show: Monday Feb.24,1958 (CD)
Jim Reeves: The Jim Reeves Radio Show: Monday Feb.24,1958 (CD) Art-Nr.: ACD25002

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

P for 200 points $18.05
The Jim Reeves Radio Show: February 25-28,1958 (CD)
Jim Reeves: The Jim Reeves Radio Show: February 25-28,1958... Art-Nr.: ACD25005

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$11.26 $18.05
Outlaws Of The Old West (CD)
Dickson Hall: Outlaws Of The Old West (CD) Art-Nr.: ACD25006

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$11.26 $18.05
Greetings From Oklahoma (CD)
Various - Greetings From: Greetings From Oklahoma (CD) Art-Nr.: ACD25013

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$9.00 $18.05
Five Minutes To Live - Movie - Spielfilm (DVD)
Johnny Cash: Five Minutes To Live - Movie - Spielfilm (DVD) Art-Nr.: AVD30001

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

P for 200 points $22.58
Everything's Gonna' Be Alright (CD)
Johnny Lee: Everything's Gonna' Be Alright (CD) Art-Nr.: CDBFD253

only 2x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$20.31
American Soul (CD)
Aaron Watson: American Soul (CD) Art-Nr.: CDBIG81060

only 1x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$19.18
The Lost Masters (CD)
The Sons Of The Pioneers: The Lost Masters (CD) Art-Nr.: CDCRR216

Item has to be restocked

$18.05
Classic Red Steagall - Western Swing & Honky Tonk (2-CD)
Red Steagall: Classic Red Steagall - Western Swing & Honky... Art-Nr.: CDBP90980

Item has to be restocked

$22.58
Next In Line (CD)
Ned LeDoux: Next In Line (CD) Art-Nr.: CDPDR39160

only 1x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$16.92
NEW
Live At Buddy Guy's Legend CD)
Willie Buck: Live At Buddy Guy's Legend CD) Art-Nr.: CDDE882

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$20.31
Hint!
Now Playing (CD)
The Western Swing Authority: Now Playing (CD) Art-Nr.: CDCURV70

Item has to be restocked

$20.31
Hint!
Smokin' Country Swing - The Lost Tracks (CD)
Tex Williams: Smokin' Country Swing - The Lost Tracks (CD) Art-Nr.: CDCRR221

only 2x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$18.05
Tracklist
Travis, Merle - The Guitar Player, Singer And Composer (CD) CD 1
01 Kentucky Waltz (Feat Jimmy Wakely)
02 Texas Tornado
03 Follow Through
04 Bye Bye Blues
05 Hominy Grits
06 Song Of The Steamboat (Feat The Three Rays)
07 Gambler's Guitar
08 John Henry
09 I'll See You In My Dreams
10 Guitar Rag
11 Interview & Sixteen Tons
12 Nobody