Merle Travis - The Merle Travis Guitar (20 tracks) +Album Reviews

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Merle Travis
The Merle Travis Guitar
Genres: Country, Pop

Track Listings (20) - Disc #1
1. Blue Smoke - Merle Travis, Travis, Merle
2. Black Diamond Blues - Merle Travis, Travis, Merle
3. On a Bicycle Built for Two - Merle Travis, Dacre, H
4. Saturday Night Shuffle - Merle Travis, Travis, Merle
5. Bugle Call Rag - Merle Travis, Meyers
6. Tuck Me Up in My Old 'Tucky Home - Merle Travis, Lewis
7. Walkin' the Strings - Merle Travis, Travis, Merle
8. The Memphis Blues - Merle Travis, Handy, WC
9. The Sheik of Araby - Merle Travis, Smith
10. Blue Bell - Merle Travis, Madden, E
11. The Waltz You Saved for Me - Merle Travis, Flindt
12. Rockabye Rag - Merle Travis, Travis, Merle
13. Sweet Temptation [*] - Merle Travis, Stone
14. No Vacancy [*] - Merle Travis, Stone
15. Done Rovin' [*] - Merle Travis, Horton
16. Nine Pound Hammer [*] - Merle Travis, Travis
17. Sixteen Tons [*] - Merle Travis, Travis
18. Blues, Stay Away from Me [*] - Merle Travis, Delmore
19. Dark as a Dungeon [*] - Merle Travis, Travis
20. I Am a Pilgrim [*] - Merle Travis, Traditiona

CD Details

All Artists: Merle Travis
Title: The Merle Travis Guitar
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Cherry Red
Original Release Date: 1/1/2009
Re-Release Date: 3/3/2009
Album Type: Import, Original recording remastered
Genres: Country, Pop
Styles: Classic Country, Instrumental
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 5013929980228

Synopsis

Product Description

Vintage 1956 Merle Travis album featuring his unique solo guitar style that traverses blues, jazz and country. An inspirational collection that shaped contemporary music from Chet Atkins through to Mark Knopfler and introduced the Fender solid body guitar that Travis had developed. Acclaimed by Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore as a seminal set and prime influence on his guitar playing. Also featuring an additional eight vocal tracks from his late 1940 s canon that originally appeared on 78s including the much-covered hits Sixteen Tons (from Bo Diddley to Tennessee Ernie Ford) and Nine Pound Hammer . Also includes the Johnny Cash and Sparklehorse covered gem 'Dark As A Dungeon'. Remastered with sleevenotes by MOJO s Dave Henderson.

CD Reviews

Buyer Beware --Additional Comments

Frank | 03/17/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I have virtually every recording by Merle and the previous review is correct that this is not an exact duplicate of the original LP "The Merle Travis Guitar, " at least as it was released in the USA. I have the LP which was re-issued in the 1970s . The track listings are correct but it appears that this edition has used alternating acoustic and electric guitar version, utilizing the original tracks for the electric and apparently using acoustic cuts from another Capital release , the name which is eluding me now but is down in my collection. Not a terrible thing but not original. Perhaps the original lp was compiled differently in England where this cd comes from(Prophet label), but I doubt it. It also appears it was transferred from a vinyl lp source as there are areas where surface noise is apparent. However, it is a nice package overall, with the original artwork and also adds some famous bonus tracks from the late 1940s and early 50s with vocal material. I enjoyed hearing the alternate acoustic versions interspersed with the various electric original tracks . It is still worth having if you are looking for a cd version with nice artwork and a good overview of Merle's wonderful guitar work. Another caution is the liner notes are not terribly accurate in referring to Merle playing an electric solid body on this album and implying he developed the first Fender guitar, which is a whole other story. Merle did not play a solid guitar here but rather his famous Gibson Super 400 hollow body electric guitar. The acoustic most is likely his 1940s Martin D-28. He did design the Bigsby solid guitar with Paul Bigsby in 1948 or so and apparently loaned it to Leo Fender who apparently copied some of its design features. He later had Bigsby customize the Martin by putting a Bigsby neck on with what we now recognize as the Fender 6 on a side headstock. Martin has a very expensive version of that guitar available now."

BUYER BEWARE - NOT ORIGINAL ALBUM

PJ | USA | 03/17/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"BEWARE THIS IS NOT THE ORIGINAL LP. SOME OF THE CUTS ARE FROM THE ORIGINAL "MERLE TRAVIS GUITAR" BUT SOME HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH CUTS FROM OTHER EARLY MERLE TRAVIS ALBUMS. I'M NOT SURE IF THIS IS A MISTAKE BUT I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS RELEASE."