Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, actor, and guitarist. Born in Rosewood, Kentucky, his songs' lyrics were often about the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs and recordings are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues", "I Am a Pilgrim", and "Dark as a Dungeon". He is best known today, though, for his unique guitar style, still called Travis picking by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis picking is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb, while melodies are plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
He is considered by some to be one of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century.
Merle Travis was born and raised in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, which inspired many of his original songs; he specifically mentions Ebenezer, Kentucky, in "Dark as a Dungeon" on the 1947 album Folk Songs of the Hills. (This is the same coal-mining county mentioned in John Prine's song "Paradise".) He became interested in the guitar early in life, and first played one made by his brother. Travis reportedly saved his money to buy a guitar for which he had window-shopped for some time.
Merle developed his guitar-playing style out of the native, western Kentucky fingerpicking tradition. Among its early practitioners was Black country blues guitarist Arnold Shultz. Shultz taught his style to several local musicians, including Kennedy Jones, who passed it on to other guitarists, notably Mose Rager, a part-time barber and coal miner, and Ike Everly, the father of the Everly Brothers. Their thumb and index fingerpicking method created a solo style that blended lead lines picked by the finger and rhythmic bass patterns picked or strummed by the thumb. This technique captivated many guitarists in the region and was the main inspiration to young Travis. Travis acknowledged his debt to both Rager and Everly, and appears with Rager on the DVD Legends of Country Guitar (Vestapol, 2002).
At the age of 18, Travis performed "Tiger Rag" on a local radio amateur show in Evansville, Indiana, leading to offers of work with local bands. In 1937, fiddler Clayton McMichen hired Travis to be the guitarist in his Georgia Wildcats. He later joined the Drifting Pioneers, a Chicago-area gospel quartet that moved to WLW radio in Cincinnati, the major country music station north of Nashville. Travis' style amazed everyone at WLW, and he became a popular member of their barn dance radio show, the Boone County Jamboree, when it began in 1938. He performed on various weekday programs, often working with other WLW acts, including Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones, the Delmore Brothers, (in Alton Delmore's book Truth Is Stranger than Publicity on pages 274–275, Alton describes how he taught Merle Travis how to read and write music) Hank Penny and Joe Maphis, all of whom became lifelong friends.
In 1943, Grandpa Jones and he recorded for Cincinnati used-record dealer Syd Nathan, who had founded a new label, King Records. Because WLW barred their staff musicians from recording, Travis and Jones used the pseudonym the Sheppard Brothers. Their recording of "You'll Be Lonesome Too" was the first to be released by King Records, which subsequently became known for its country recordings by the Delmore Brothers and Stanley Brothers, as well as rhythm-and-blues musicians Hank Ballard, Wynonie Harris, and most notably, James Brown.
With the threat of being drafted during World War II, Travis enlisted in the US Marine Corps. His stint as a marine was very brief, and he returned to Cincinnati. When the Drifting Pioneers left radio station WLW, leaving a half-hour hole in the schedule, Merle, Grandpa Jones, and the Delmore Brothers formed a gospel group called the Brown's Ferry Four. Performing a repertoire of traditional White and Black gospel songs, with Merle singing bass, they became one of the most popular country gospel groups of the time, recording nearly four dozen sides for the King label between 1946 and 1952. The Brown's Ferry Four have been called "possibly the best White gospel group ever."
During this period, Travis appeared in several soundies, an early form of music video intended for visual jukeboxes where customers could view and hear the popular performers of the day. His first soundie was "Night Train to Memphis" with the band Jimmy Wakely and his Oklahoma Cowboys and Girls, including Johnny Bond and Wesley Tuttle, along with Colleen Summers (who later married Les Paul and became Mary Ford). His performance of "Why'd I Fall for Abner" with Carolina Cotton was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 PBS documentary Soundies. Several years later, he recorded a set of Snader Telescriptions, short music videos intended for local television stations needing filler programming. His performances included playful duets with his then-wife, Judy Hayden, as well as several songs from his 1947 album Folk Songs from the Hills (see below).
Travis performed in stage shows and landed bit parts and singing roles in several B Westerns. He recorded for small West Coast labels until 1946, when he signed with Hollywood-based Capitol Records. Early hits such as "Cincinnati Lou", "No Vacancy", "Divorce Me C.O.D.", "Sweet Temptation", "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed", and "Three Times Seven", all his own compositions, gave him national prominence, although they did not all showcase the guitar work for which Travis was renowned among his peers. His design for a solid-body electric guitar, built for him by Paul Bigsby with a single row of tuners, is thought to have inspired his longtime pal Leo Fender's design of the famous Broadcaster in 1950. The Travis-Bigsby guitar now resides in the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum in Nashville.
In 1946, Capitol asked him to record an album of folk songs. Travis combined traditional songs and several original compositions recalling his family's days working in the mines. Capitol released the results as the four-disc, 78 rpm box set Folk Songs of the Hills. The album, with Travis accompanied only by his guitar, contains his two most enduring songs, both centered on the lives of coal miners: "Sixteen Tons" and "Dark as a Dungeon".
"Sixteen Tons" became a number-one Billboard country hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, and has been recorded many times over the years. Travis and Molly Bee appeared together as guests on November 24, 1960, on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. The darkly philosophical "Dark as a Dungeon", although never a hit single, became a folk standard during the 1960s folk revival, and has been covered by many artists, including Johnny Cash in his best-selling concert album At Folsom Prison, by Dolly Parton on her 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs album, and by Travis himself, along with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the landmark 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken. In spite of its initial lack of commercial success, Folk Songs of the Hills, with added tracks, has remained in print virtually ever since.
Travis was a popular radio performer throughout the 1940s and '50s. He appeared on many country music television shows, co-hosting a show Merle Travis and Company with his wife, Judy Hayden, around 1953. He was a regular member of the Hollywood Barn Dance broadcast over radio station KNX, Hollywood, and of the Town Hall Party, which was broadcast first as a radio show on KXLA out of Pasadena, California, and later as a TV series from 1953 to 1961. Despite his successes, his personal life became increasingly troubled. A heavy drinker and at times desperately insecure despite a multitude of talents (including prose writing, taxidermy, cartooning, and watch repair), he was involved in a number of violent incidents in California, and he married several times in the course of his life. He suffered from serious stage fright, though amazed fellow performers added that once onstage, he was an effective and even charismatic performer. In spite of his problems, he was respected and admired by his friends and fellow musicians. Longtime Travis fan Doc Watson named his son Merle Watson, and Travis admirer Chet Atkins named his daughter Merle Atkins, in Travis' honor.