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The influence of Merle Travis may not be widely known, but it is certainly widely felt across the whole of popular music. A pioneer of what came to be known as “Travis picking”, the technique can be heard in songs by a diverse range of artists, including Fleetwood Mac, John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel, even Taylor Swift. He was a highly successful singer-songwriter from the mid 1940s onwards, gaining more fans after Tennessee Ernie Ford covered the Travis-penned “Sixteen Tons” in 1955. He would go on to become an elder statesman figure at the peak of the folk revival in the mid 1960s, largely due to his influential concept album, “Folk Songs Of The Hills”, released in 1947. This collection shines a spotlight on his early career, the most successful and productive period for this pioneer of picking. It includes 16 of his finest singles, self-penned and arranged from traditional tunes including “No Vacancy”, “Cininatti Lou”, “Divorce Me C.O.D.”, “Nine Pound Hammer”, “Steel Guitar Rag”, “Merle's Boogie Woogie” and “What A Shame”.
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