43 Years Ago Today, Country Music Lost the Pioneering Guitarist Who Helped Define Its Sound and Wrote Hits for Tennessee Ernie Ford and Ernest Tubb

On this day (October 20) in 1983, Merle Travis died of a heart attack in his Tahlequah, Oklahoma, home. He was 65 years old. He is widely remembered for the “Travis picking” fingerpicking style that he developed. Countless guitarist across decades of country music have added the syncopated style to their arsenals. Travis was also a songwriter whose songs became hits for him and for a long list of other artists. Notably, he wrote Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons.”

Travis grew up in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, an area with a rich musical history and tradition. Guitarists in the area had developed a syncopated fingerpicking style that allowed them to play bass notes with their thumbs while picking melodies on the instrument’s higher strings. Travis followed coal-mining pickers like Ike Everly and Mose Rager to learn their unique styles. Before long, he developed his version of the technique. Years later, it would become one of the most popular styles in country music.

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 According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Travis moved to Indiana in 1936. There, he played in local bands. Eventually, Clayton McMichen added him to the lineup of his band, the Georgia Wildcats. Then, Travis joined the Drifting Pioneers, a gospel group that performed on the Cincinnati-based WLW’s Boone County Jamboree. After the group disbanded, Travis remained at the radio station and worked with the likes of the Delmore Brothers and Grandpa Jones.

Merle Travis’ Recording Career

Merle Travis moved to California in 1944. There, he performed on multiple radio shows and worked as a session musician. Two years after arriving on the West Coast, he signed with Capitol Records. He released his debut single, “Cincinnati Lou,” backed with “No Vacancy” later that year. The songs peaked at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. His next single, “Divorce Me C.O.D.,” went to No. 1. He notched another No. 1 in 1947 with “So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed.”

Travis’ first two years of recording were his most successful. He released a dozen singles between 1946 and 1948. Eleven of those songs landed within the top 10. The other entry, “Crazy Boogie,” stalled at No. 11.

Travis’ Songwriting

Merle Travis’ career slowed near the end of the 1940s, according to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Then, in 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded “Sixteen Tons,” and it went to No. 1 on the country and pop charts. This reignited interest in Travis’ catalog. Below is a list of a few of his songs that became hits for other artists.

• “Divorce Me C.O.D.”–Johnny Bond (No. 5)
• “Sixteen Tons”–Tennessee Ernie Ford (No. 1)
• “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)”–Tex Williams (No. 1)
• “So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed”–Ernest Tubb (No. 5)

“Anybody can write a song, but it takes a great artist to deliver it to the multitudes and make them love it,” Travis said. “We can all purchase peroxide, but there’s only one Marilyn Monroe.”

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