Merle Travis – Walkin’ the Strings Folk Songs of the Hills
Grant Alden
Posted On September 1, 1996
Kentucky-bred Merle Travis may, in the end, have been more influential as a songwriter (“Sixteen Tons”) and a guitar stylist (Chet Atkins) than as a recording artist in his own right. Which isn’t to ignore hits such as “Divorce Me C.O.D.” or, uh, “So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed”, it’s just that Travis was more a player’s player as the years wound on.
He also straddled several worlds, succeeding in both country and folk. Walkin’ the Strings dates from late 1940s acoustic sessions, during which Travis was called upon to produce incidental music (what radio now calls “bumpers,” probably) to specific time limits. This collection was originally issued in 1960, after “Sixteen Tons” had been a hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Folk Songs of the Hills, now including the unreleased “This World Is Not My Home” as well as the additional tracks that extended Folk Songs into the LP-length Back Home a decade later, was originally meant to capitalize on the post-WWII folk boom. Except, of course, that Travis wrote some faux folk songs (like “Sixteen Tons”) to go with classics such as “John Henry” and “Barbara Allen”. Each song begins with a line or two from the chorus, then pauses for a few words of explanation which were at the time meant for children, but today go some distance toward recreating the coal miner’s world about which Travis wrote so eloquently.
His voice is warm and pleasant throughout, his solo guitar work impeccable. Anybody who can count Chet Atkins and Doc Watson among his acolytes should need no further recommendation.
