Merle Travis "Folk Songs Of The Hills" (Capitol Records, 1947) (78s)
It's a sign of the national profile and high status Merle Travis held in the postwar music business that one of the early albums put out by Capitol Records was from his, a collection of rural, traditionally-oriented folk material. Originally released as a booklet edition of 78s, this eight-song set was expanded and reissued on LP a decade later, under the title Back Home. (Ultimately, the LP version made it into the digital era with a CD re-release that restored the original name, Folk Songs Of The Hills.)

Merle Travis "The Merle Travis Guitar" (Capitol Records, 1956) (LP)
Early on, some decision was made to pitch Merle Travis as a "classy" country artist, and in particular as a guitar stylist, rather than a hillbilly elder. And while its true his finger-picking technique was highly influential in the growth of modern country music, and while he was an immaculately precise, smooth-toned virtuoso, you could also argue that he held a little too tightly to his own stylistic limitations, and that focussing on his abilities as an instrumentalist did a real disservice to his legacy as a country showman. Keep in mind this was in an era before reissue records were common, and if you weren't following Travis on his live broadcasts, or hadn't been an original fan from the 1940s, if you only relied on the albums the albums the industry made available, you'd have little opportunity to know about the robust, rollicking country novelty hits that made him a household name more than a decade earlier. There's certainly nothing "wrong" about the instrumental albums and folk-concept records that (re)defined his career in the 'Fifties, but these elegant melodies are no substitute for jaunty gems such as "Sweet Temptation," "Divorce Me C.O.D." and "I Like My Chicken Fryin' Size."

Merle Travis "Back Home" (Capitol Records, 1957) (LP)
This was the LP-era re-release of Travis's 1947 debut album, Folk Songs Of The Hills, with all eight original tracks as well as four additional songs culled from his copious radio transcription disc performances.

Merle Travis "Walkin' The Strings" (Capitol Records, 1960) (LP)
The Travis guitar magic is on full display in this bouncy all-instrumental set... Although it's a little on the slick side, this is a longtime favorite of fans of fancy pickin'. Apparently, although it came out at the dawn of the 'Sixties, this was actually a set put together years earlier, with music recorded back in the late '40s and early '50s.

Merle Travis "Travis!" (Capitol Records, 1962) (LP)
(Produced by Ken Nelson)
Nearly twenty years after Travis signed with the label, Capitol finally relented and released an album's worth of his classic hillbilly material, a dozen famous songs penned by either Travis himself, or by his main postwar collaborator, West Coast twangster Cliffie Stone. Admittedly, these tracks are re-recordings of old hits such as "Fat Gal," "Divorce Me C.O.D.," "Three Times Seven," "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed," "No Vacancy" and "Sweet Temptation," and the reissue of the original versions (other than on 45rpm singles) would still be years away. But even re-recorded versions were nice to have around, after years of pretending these raunchy songs didn't exist. A nice record, though only a sliver of the man's legacy.

Merle Travis "Songs Of The Coal Mines" (Capitol Records, 1963) (LP)
(Produced by Ken Nelson)
Again, a nice record, but not as much fun as his rollicking early work. The traditionally-themed but classy, pop-friendly persona adopted by Travis in the 1950s coincided nicely with the 'Fifties/'Sixties folk revival, which gave him the space to appear as an avatar of folkie authenticity. Indeed, this was so much the case that this album focussed on more niche themes and little-known songs such as "Miner's Strawberries," "Paw Walked Behind Us With A Carbide Lamp" and "Here's To The Operator, Boys," but omitted Travis's coal-themed smash hit, "Sixteen Tons," perhaps because it was too well-known and mainstream. To the label's credit, though, this album doesn't shy away from the darker, more contentious side of the mining industry, detailing accidents and labor strife in songs such as "Pay Day Come Too Slow," "The Browder Explosion" and "Bloody Brethitt County." The songs are all credited to Merle Travis, and show both his range and his enduring vitality as a songwriter, even though some twangier, more honkytonk material would have been nice as well.

Merle Travis & Joe Maphis "Merle Travis And Joe Maphis" (Capitol Records, 1964) (LP)
(Produced by Ken Nelson)

Merle Travis "The Best Of Merle Travis" (Capitol Records, 1967) (LP)

Merle Travis "Our Man From Kentucky" (Hilltop Records, 1967) (LP)
These are doubtless archival recordings, released on the budget-line Hilltop imprint, which specialized in recycling older material for artists with a contemporary fan base. Although the fake-stereo mastering (on Hilltop in particular) was often a bit suspect, sometimes these albums were real gems, making prime old material available to an audience that had been starved for hillbilly oldies by a record industry that was practically obsessed with papering over country music's rougher edges... the stuff that made country music fun to begin with! Anyway, this would probably be more appropriately considered a "best of" set, but perhaps it's worth keeping in context alongside Merle Travis's "real" albums, since that's how most country fans of the era -- the ones who didn't still own 78 players -- would have found out about this music.

Merle Travis "Strictly Guitar" (Capitol Records, 1968) (LP)
(Produced by Kelso Herston)

Merle Travis & Johnny Bond "Great Songs Of The Delmore Brothers" (Capitol Records, 1969) (LP)
As noted below, Merle Travis fell prey to the great country music purge of the early 1970s, where a bunch of low-selling old-timers were let go and dropped off the major-label rosters. He went out with a bang, though, paying homage to the great hillbilly boogie pioneers, The Delmore Brothers and to the group-vocals sound of the Delmore-associated Brown's Ferry Four. His collaborator on this resolutely back-to-basics set was fellow old-timer Johnny Bond, whose career also spanned back to the cowboy-songs era of the early 1940s, and whose own musical lineage stretched back to the same decades as the Alton and Rabon Delmore. I'm sure this disc didn't do much to improve Travis's record sales, but it's a swell bit of historical posterity, and ended his Capitol years on a high note.

Merle Travis & Ray Campi "Merle's Boogie Woogie + 3" (Rollin' Rock Records, 1974) (EP)
A titanic figure in the modernization of postwar country music and the evolution of hillbilly boogie -- and by extension, white rock'n'roll -- Merle Travis was one of the many country old-timers purged from the ledgers by the major-label beancounters during the early 1970s. Capitol unceremoniously dropped him after decades of keeping him in a safely compartmentalized, genteel, folkie-guitarist box. Like many of the 1950s-era rock pioneers who were his contemporaries and acolytes, Travis found a brief haven with the rockabilly-revivalist Rollin' Rock record label, recording this pleasantly unruly four-song EP with one of Rollin' Rock's leading lights, latter-day twangster Ray Campi. It's a shame these two didn't make an entire album together!

Merle Travis & Chet Atkins "The Atkins-Travis Traveling Show" (RCA Victor, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed)
It was nice to see Travis pop up on the major-label radar, at least one last time. This was basically a jam session with his olden-days contemporary Chet Atkins, who was greatly influenced by "the Travis style" in his youth, and took the clean, precise finger-picking technique to loftier heights, including experimentations with electric guitar and rock-and pop-friendly multi-tracking that helped transform Nashville itself. That said, as classy as their collaboration sounds, this disc was also yet another super-controlled instrumental artiste showcase, and one less opportunity to hear Travis do something a little more rugged and rural. (Then again, reviewing his catalog en toto, maybe that just wasn't a pathway that held much interest for Mr. Travis. Oh, well.) Co-producer Jerry Reed also chimes in, accompanying the elders on rhythm guitar.

Merle Travis "Guitar Player" (Shasta Records, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Jimmy Wakely)
A mix of archival and contemporary material, though worth including here with Travis's original albums as it shows how Travis struggled to get a foothold after losing his major-label berth. The bulk of these tracks date back to the mid-1950s when Travis was a guest performer on a nationally-syndicated CBS radio show hosted by cowboy singer Jimmy Wakely . If I had to guess, Wakely released this album as a favor to an old friend who needed some souvenir albums to sell at his gigs, a role that Wakely and his Shasta Records label played for a bunch of his old buddies during the fallow years of the countrypolitan era.

Merle Travis & Joe Maphis "Country Guitar Giants" (CMH Records, 1979) (LP)
Two legendary pickers, with a strong artistic rapport and plenty of talent to burn... Cool stuff from some mega-talented old geezers. (Also check out my Joe Maphis discography...)

Merle Travis "The Merle Travis Story: 24 Greatest Hits" (CMH Records, 1979) (2-LP)
Decades after his '40s/'50s heyday, Merle Travis was still going strong, and throughout the 1970s and '80s, CMH Records captured him in a series of double-LPs which, unlikely as it seems, are now minor classics. Like the numerous post-war era radio transcription discs that later bubbled to the surface, this set captures a slick, confident show-biz professional, a guy going through a well-set repertoire of his postwar classics, but still able to infuse every performance with humor and warmth. The difference is that here Travis has an added aura of maturity -- he always projected the air of a master musician, but recording in his golden years added a philosophical glow to these old chestnuts. Perhaps you've looked at these old CMH albums and thought, "Yeah, sure... but the old guy must have lost his edge by then...!" If so, you'd be very, very surprised at how sharp and vital these recordings actually were. Recommended.

Merle Travis "Light Singin' And Heavy Pickin" (CMH Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Merle Travis & John Wagner)

Merle Travis "Guitar Standards: 24 Great New Performances!" (CMH Records, 1980) (2-LP)
(Produced by Thom Bresh & John Wagner)
This instrumentals album strays from the usual Merle Travis material into an exploration of Tin Pan Alley pop songs and show tunes that would have been popular in his youth and during the early years of his career. We're talking songs like "Tea For Two," "Mack The Knife," "Me And My Shadow," "It's De-Lovely," "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," and the like. The sessions were notably co-produced by Travis's son, Thom Bresh (1948-2022) who would make a few forays into being a solo artist himself... This stripped down but generously-programmed set included backing from Ray Edenton (rhythm guitar), D. J. Fontana (drums), Billy Linneman (bass), Billy Liebert (keyboards) a small but solid combo that provides sympathetic backing to a veteran entertainer paying homage to some of the music that doubtless deeply influenced his own artistic growth.

Merle Travis "Travis Pickin' " (CMH Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Merle Travis & John Wagner)

Merle Travis & Joe Maphis "Country Guitar Thunder: 1977-1981" (CMH Records, 1982) (LP)

Merle Travis & Mac Wiseman "The Clayton McMichen Story" (CMH Records, 1982) (LP)
One of Merle Travis's first professional gig was with fiddler Clayton McMichen, whose hillbilly jazz group, The Georgia Wildcats, was one of the popular, pioneering bands of the 1930s. The still-teenaged Travis came onto McMichen's way back in 1935 and he was part of McMichen's road show before settling down and embedding himself in the sizzling hillbilly scene around Cincinnati, Ohio. Travis pays tribute to his old boss and reveals some of the hidden strains of stylistic cross-pollination of the early, pre-war era. Having bluegrass elder and fellow icon of authenticity Mac Wiseman on board for this deep historical dive sure doesn't hurt things!

Merle Travis & Grandpa Jones "Farm And Home Hour" (CMH Records, 1985) (2-LP)
A summit meeting of sorts, with Merle Travis reunited with his Brown's Ferry Four cohort, Grandpa Jones as well as Jones's wife, folklorist Ramona Jones and various Jones family members, and with super-picker Joe Maphis and his wife, vocalist Rose Lee Maphis. Also on board are a few youngster bluegrass types, notably Mike Auldridge and banjo picker Zen Crook. Grandpa Jones and Ramona's son, Mark, also worked with Maphis's son, Dale, cutting an album as a duo in the late 1970s. Not entirely sure when these tracks were originally recorded, but Merle Travis had passed away a couple of years before its release on LP.

Merle Travis "Rough, Rowdy And Blue" (CMH Records, 1986) (LP)
(Produced by Merle Travis & Milton Haerle)
One of several posthumous releases. This dip into older, unruly blues material included covers of naughty novelty numbers such as "Jelly Roll Blues," "Cocaine Blues" and "Take A Whiff On Me," with Travis consciously paying tribute to the black music traditions that he studied in his youth, and helped bring into the white country mainstream over his decades of entertaining. These tracks were recorded in 1983, the same year he passed away, though I'm not entirely sure they were the "last" recordings he ever made.

Merle Travis "In Boston: 1959" (Rounder Records, 2003)
Imagine the rapture of concert organizers and show-goers during the early years of the nascent folk revival to have Merle Travis to draw on, emerging fully formed from three decades of hillbilly showbiz experience, with an endless supply of heart songs, traditional Appalachian folk tunes and fancy pickin' to dazzle the crowds. This is a great live set, with fine sound quality and Merle's endless abundance of good cheer and real country roots. His showmanship is obviously a bit calculated and polished, but he still sounds super-personable and intimate, and the songs are all a delight. A very listenable and enjoyable record... recommended!

---

Merle Travis & Joe Maphis "Country Guitar Thunder: 1977-1981" (CMH Records, 1983)
Not 100% sure, but I think this is a collection of tracks from different CMH albums, released the year Travis passed away...

Merle Travis "The Best Of Merle Travis" (Rhino Records, 1990)
One of the first standard-issue best-ofs from the early CD era... I suppose this has been superseded by numerous other Travis sets (plus it's out of print), but it's still a nice collection of some of Travis's most famous tracks. Good introduction to his work, worth picking up if you see it around.

Merle Travis "Unreleased Radio Transcriptions: 1944-1949" (Country Routes, 1991)
Okay, so let's give credit where credit is due: while the major labels largely neglected Travis's country legacy in favor of his folk music persona, the folks at the UK-based Interstate Music took some of the first (and deepest) dives into the extensive backlog of live performances and radio transcriptions discs recorded back in the popular picker's postwar prime. Cool and calm, guitarist Merle Travis glides out a smooth blues riff, as he eases his way into the comedy song, "That's All..." This playful opening track is a good indicator for the high level of musicianship and breadth of styles that Travis tackled in his postwar heyday. The collection also includes various hick hits of the day, mainly a bunch of hillbilly boogie tunes and the sweet instrumental guitar numbers that Travis was famous for. The tracks on this disc are drawn from radio appearances Travis did while working as one of LA's most popular Hollywood hillbillies, while helping to revamp the sound of postwar country music. The sound quality is very good, and the snippets of dialog and live asides are a great glimpse into what live entertainment was like before TV was king... especially the rare, charming flubs and the constant tripping over each other's lines. They don't let the human factor into show biz like that anymore! Highly recommended.

Merle Travis "Folk Songs Of The Hills: Back Home/Songs Of The Coal Miners" (Capitol/Bear Family Records, 1993)
Ramping up for Bear Family's definitive box set below, this deluxe disc combined Travis' first album, the traditionally-themed 1947 record Folk Songs Of The Hills, which features old-school folk tunes like "Barbara Allen" and "John Henry," and his classic hits "Dark As A Dungeon" and "Sixteen Tons," along with another Appalachian-themed set, his epic 1963 coal mining concept album, Songs Of The Coal Mines, which genuinely reflects the culture and history of his native Kentucky. In some ways, the set is a bit staid, but it oozes authenticity and assurance, and placed Travis well at the forefront of the American folk revival. Definitely worth checking out!

Merle Travis "Guitar Rags And A Too Fast Past" (Bear Family Records, 1994)
Alakazam! Here it is: the Merle Travis motherlode... a gigantic, 5-CD box set, packed with ace bunny killer material from his prime years in the wartime and post-WWII era. Includes hits such as "Divorce Me C.O.D.," "Sweet Temptation," "Sioux City Sue" and "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed," along with a slew of instrumental boogies and blues, as well as topical songs such as "When Mussolini Laid His Pistol Down" and "Reenlistment Blues." There's ample opportunity to soak up Travis' genius on the guitar, as well as his jovial persona. There are also a fair number of alternate takes -- the bane of completist collections, but also an interesting glimpse at the creative process. All in all, a real stunner of a retrospective, pure catnip for his fans! The folks at Interstate Music may have beat Bear Family to the punch in terms of mining this historic material, but as always, Bear Family produced the more impressive package, packed with archival photos, extensive discographical information and tracks that were mastered from the original tapes. Pretty spiffy.

Merle Travis "Unissued Radio Shows: 1944-1948" (Country Routes, 1994)
More great archival material curated by the folks at Interstate Music, including live performances from a variety of '40s shows, including the Hollywood Barn Dance and the Grand Ole Opry. It's a gas to get a sense of Merle's rapport with the audience, and to hear one of the last vestiges of the vaudeville tradition as it played out, with all its corny, raunchy humor and bouncy good nature. Fuzzy sound, but fun music.

Merle Travis "Turn Your Radio On: 1944-1965" (Country Routes, 1998)

Merle Travis "Country Hoedown Shows And Films" (Country Routes, 1995)

Merle Travis "Guitar Retrospective" (CMH, 1995)

Merle Travis "Sweet Temptation: The Best Of Merle Travis" (Razor & Tie Records, 2000)
A dandy 20-track collection of one of the post-war country scene's biggest stars... Travis invented a unique guitar picking style (known, oddly enough, as "Travis picking") that influenced the sound of Chet Atkins (and all country lead guitarists that came after him). Travis also perfected a showmanship that brought country's vaudeville tradition into an urbane, cosmopolitan mainstream, singing with a suave easiness that mirrored that of Bing Crosby, in the pop world. Travis had several huge postwar hits -- all of which are on here -- and a witty, warm delivery that can later be heard in the bouncy honkytonk of his friend, Hank Thompson. This is a pretty nice collection -- a notch or two above a similar set put out about a decade earlier by Rhino Records.

Merle Travis "The Very Best" (Varese Sarabande, 2002)
The wellspring of Travis picking performances runs deep, as heard in this fine "new" set of airchecks from cowboy icon Jimmy Wakely's old show. Familiar songs, but in loose, bluesy versions that make this disc worth checking out. Not sure how much, if at all, this overlaps with a vinyl LP put out on Wakely's own label, Shasta Records back in 1976.

Merle Travis "Hot Pickin' " (Proper Records, 2003)
A generously programmed, budget-priced 2-CD set that came out as WWII-era copyright claims came to a close in Europe... I haven't heard this set yet, so I dunno about the sound quality, etc., but if you just want a chance to hear some of Travis' older stuff, this is a pretty affordable option.

The Coonhunters "...Featuring Merle Travis" (BACM, 2005)

Merle Travis "Dapper Dan" (BACM, 2005)

Merle Travis "Live At Town Hall Party: 1958-59" (Sundazed Records, 2005) (LP)

---

Tributes

---

Various Artists "SATURDAY NIGHT SHUFFLE: A CELEBRATION OF MERLE TRAVIS" (Shanachie Records, 1993)
Among others, this includes Merle Travis' son, Thom Bresh. Also on board are pickin' and plunkin' luminaries such as Sam Bush, Vassar Clements, Jerry Douglas, Buddy Emmons and John Hartford.

---

Links

---

Discogs: Merle Travis

Wikipedia: Merle Travis

---

Hick Music Index

---