Merle Travis/Sixteen Tons, Rare Performances 1946-1981, Volume 2

Merle Travis (1917-1983) was the fountainhead of a blues/jazz-tinged country guitar fingerstyle since dubbed "Travis picking". Its impact has permeated not only country but folk and 'roots rock' guitar idioms. Travis' seminal role in American guitar styles overshadows the fact that he was also a formidable talent as a songwriter and performer. The many facets of his career are all represented in this second offering of rare footage spanning his West Coast post-war prime to his last days as a rediscovered legend. The renewed interest in his music in the 1970s is evident in six performances from the decade, while an informal duet with his son, Thom Bresh, videotaped towards the end of Travis' life, provides a moving coda to this varied collection of brilliant country guitar playing leavened with Travis' blend of humor, poetry and down-home philosophy in his songs.