I just came across this Merle Travis YouTube tonight. This vid has great camera angles to show how he did his thumb and index finger style of picking. And he does a nice duet with Ronnie Prophet on "Shiek Of Araby" at the end. Merle
Merle Travis
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Oct 27, 2008 10:07 p.m. gresco:
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Oct 28, 2008 1:25 a.m. Gigatron:
Yesterday the mailman delivered a DVD of "Merle Travis: rare performances 1946-1981"
I recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an allergy to cowboy costumes.
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Oct 28, 2008 3:05 a.m. gagsy:
Can't beat Merle
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Oct 28, 2008 7:18 a.m. Richard Hudson:
Ah, the thumb of Merle Travis. There'll never be another like him. Those of us who are eat up with this style of playing owe a huge debt to Merle Travis. He didn't invent the style; but he was the first one that was good enough to make the rest of the world sit up and take notice; not the least of which was a poor sickly young man from East Tennessee named Chester Burton Atkins. Merle's recordings of the 50's and 60's are some of the very best sounding thumbstyle guitar you will ever hear. All due respect; but I've never heard a better sounding guitar/amp/player combination than Merle's Super 400 with the P90's, the Standel 25L15; and of course Merle's incomparable thumb.
Made my day.
Thanks,
Richard
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Oct 28, 2008 7:50 a.m. Walter Broes:
Thanks for posting, I've been on a big Merle kick all week, watching DVD's, and finally sitting down to learn "I'll see you in my dreams".
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Oct 28, 2008 8:11 a.m. Bear:
What a great clip... THANKS!
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Oct 28, 2008 9:37 a.m. gresco:
Walter, I'm with you on "I'll See You In My Dreams." Watching Chet & Mark Knopfler play it inspired me a couple of years ago. I never could get a good grasp on it, so I put it on the back burner. Watching Merle kinda brings it together for me. Now I see where Chet got some of the licks he uses in that song.
If you really want to get frustrated, check out Scotty Anderson's version of it.....over the top. I thought I had it saved, but now I can't find it. If I dig it up, I'll post it.
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Oct 28, 2008 9:50 a.m. Richard Hudson:
Here is Merle Travis as a younger man. The tone is still not the best in the world but it does show his skills very well.
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Oct 28, 2008 10:17 a.m. gresco:
Richard, That's a good vid of Merle in his heyday. When you view it, the side bar opens up other later vids of him doing the same song. Interesting to see the subtle changes and evolution of the song. There's also a great tutorial vid of Cannon Ball by his son Tom Bresh, for everyone to check out. Kinda clears up how Merle did it.
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Oct 28, 2008 10:25 a.m. Ric12string:
Is there any place in particular to download a tablature for I'll See You In My Dreams?
EDIT: BTW, at the risk of momentarily derailing this thread, check out Duane Eddy's version of Cannonball Rag. The man can play!
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Oct 28, 2008 10:47 a.m. gresco:
I downloaded it a year ago from the Ultimate Guitar website (UG.) It was the Chet & Mark Knopfler version. It loaded it into my Guitar Pro program, which plays it while the cursor follows the notes. Neat set up. Lately I'm finding that it's harder to download from them...some copyrights issues I believe. Here's the link I last used Ultimate Guitar
Give it a try. If you can't make it work, PM me and I'll forward the tabs to you.
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Oct 28, 2008 11:23 a.m. Walter Broes:
Richard said: Here is Merle Travis as a younger man. The tone is still not the best in the world but it does show his skills very well.
Richard! How can you not like the tone he's getting there?!?! I think it sounds great! -
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Oct 28, 2008 11:31 a.m. Robert:
Gigatron said: Yesterday the mailman delivered a DVD of "Merle Travis: rare performances 1946-1981"
I recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an allergy to cowboy costumes.
An excellent DVD. My favorites are the Martin/Bigsby vids, just him, the guitar and that thumb. Perfect rhythm. But the videos with his band and later career are also well worth the price.
Speaking of the cowboy costumes, there's one that sticks out, I forget which song. Anyway, he's wearing the most laugh-out-loud funny boots I've ever seen.
It's just a matter of time before I buy the 2nd DVD.
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Oct 28, 2008 11:58 a.m. Richard Hudson:
Walter said: Richard! How can you not like the tone he's getting there?!?! I think it sounds great!
I knew I said the wrong thing as soon as I wrote that.
What I meant was he gets a "better" tone in his early recordings. You're right, Walter, there really is nothing wrong with the tone there; but it is just better in early recordings. My opinion of course. Anyway, I'll take Merle Travis anyway it comes. He was a great one.
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Oct 28, 2008 12:41 p.m. Jet-Head:
For what it's worth, my fingerstyle influences go straight back to Merle.
I cut my original fingerpicking chops playing Paul Simon songs which were mostly a simplified (yet refined) Travis style. From there to Kottke style and from there to a Celtic period where I swiped all I could from Pierre Bensusan.
In my opinion, all of these (for me) go straight back to Merle.
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Oct 28, 2008 12:51 p.m. Walter Broes:
I was mostly kidding Richard, but you know that!
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Oct 28, 2008 12:57 p.m. CnW:
As a youngster back in the '70's, I heard a little instrumental snippet the local country station used to play to bring 'er up to the hour. Sounded "gretschy" to me. I figured it had to be Chet because he was the only one I knew who played that way. I bought every used Chet album I could find (maybe about a dozen over time...) and would drop the needle on every track looking for that cool little melody and that specific tone.
Finally found it years later---track #1 on an album called "The Merle Travis Guitar!" Sounded every bit as good as I remembered.
Of course, my Chet collecting was hardly in vain. All those cool album covers alone would have been worth it, but we all know about the great stuff inside.
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Oct 28, 2008 1:01 p.m. yettoblaster:
I learned Travis picking off Tom Rush's early albums. To see how far Tommy Emmanuel has taken it, as well as guys like Peppino D'agostino, is amazing.
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Oct 28, 2008 4:23 p.m. JC:
I never get tired of watching Merle,class stuff
