Back Home is a compilation LP consisting of Merle Travis's album, Folk Songs of the Hills (1947), with four previously unreleased tracks. This album marked a new turn in Travis's career, bringing his Kentucky-style fingerpicking and down-home vocal style to the attention of a broad public of country and folk music enthusiasts at the onset of the American folk music revival. Together with another Capitol release the following year, The Merle Travis Guitar, it introduced the style of guitar playing that came to be known, in simplified form, as Travis picking. The album includes traditional country songs such as "John Henry", "Muskrat", "Lost John (from Bowling Green)", "Barbara Allen", and Travis's signature gospel song, "I Am a Pilgrim". Also included are the original compositions "Dark as a Dungeon" and "Sixteen Tons". All songs are introduced by a spoken narrative.
This was Travis's first LP featuring entirely acoustic guitar rather than electric. The cover shows a grist mill powered by a water wheel, a main source of energy "back home" before the arrival of electricity.
In his autobiography[2]Johnny Cash says about this album: "If I had to answer that old but still interesting question, 'What music would you want with you if you were stranded on a desert island?', I'd say the Freewheelin' would have to be on the list. So would Merle Travis's Down Home, which has "Sixteen Tons" and all those other great songs on it and was the first country concept album (Ride This Train was the second)."
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His fingerpicking and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. Blind from a young age, he performed publicly both in a dance band and solo, as well as for over 15 years with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm.
The Music of Kentucky is heavily centered on Appalachian folk music and its descendants, especially in eastern Kentucky. Bluegrass music is of particular regional importance; Bill Monroe, "the father of bluegrass music", was born in the Ohio County community of Rosine, and he named his band, the Blue Grass Boys, after the bluegrass state, i.e., Kentucky. Travis picking, the influential guitar style, is named after Merle Travis, born and raised in Muhlenberg County. Kentucky is home to the Country Music Highway, which extends from Portsmouth, Ohio, to the Virginia border in Pike County.
John Marty Stuart is an American country and bluegrass music singer, songwriter, and musician. Active since 1968, Stuart initially toured with Lester Flatt, and then in Johnny Cash's road band before beginning work as a solo artist in the early 1980s. His greatest commercial success came in the first half of the 1990s on MCA Records Nashville. Stuart has recorded over 20 studio albums, and has charted over 30 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His highest chart entry is "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'", a duet with Travis Tritt. Stuart has also won five Grammy Awards out of 16 nominations. He is known for his combination of rockabilly, country rock, and bluegrass music influences, his frequent collaborations and cover songs, and his distinctive stage dress. Stuart is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is the first live album by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records on May 6, 1968. After his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash's material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around after several years of limited commercial success. Backed by June Carter, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in California on January 13, 1968. The initial release of the album consists of 15 songs from the first show and two from the second.
Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs and recordings are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues", "I am a Pilgrim" and "Dark as a Dungeon". However, it is his unique guitar style, still called "Travis picking" by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for which he is best known today. Travis picking is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb while melodies are simultaneously plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
American Recordings is the 81st album by American country singer Johnny Cash. It was released on April 26, 1994 by American Recordings, after it had changed its name from Def American.
"Sixteen Tons" is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis first recorded the song at the Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, California, on August 8, 1946. Cliffie Stone played bass on the recording. It was first released in July 1947 by Capitol on Travis's album Folk Songs of the Hills. The song became a gold record.
"Ring of Fire" is a song made popular by Johnny Cash when it appeared on his 1963 album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. Written by Cash's eventual second wife, June Carter Cash, and Merle Kilgore, it was originally recorded as "(Love's) Ring of Fire" by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her 1963 album Folk Songs Old and New.
"Remember the Alamo" is a song written by Texan folk singer and songwriter Jane Bowers. Bowers details the last days of 180 soldiers during the Battle of the Alamo and names several famous figures who fought at the Alamo, including Mexican general Santa Anna and Texans: Jim Bowie, William Barrett Travis and Davy Crockett. It champions the Texans' efforts against Mexico to establish an independent republic.
It Don't Get Any Better Than This is an album by American country music singer George Jones released on April 7, 1998, on the MCA Nashville label.
"Dark as a Dungeon" is a song written by singer-songwriter Merle Travis. It is a lament about the danger and drudgery of being a coal miner in a shaft mine. It has become a rallying song among miners seeking improved working conditions.
Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West is a concept double album and the 22nd overall album released by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1965. Covering twenty individual songs, the album, as its title suggests, contains various ballads and other songs on topics related to the history of the American Old West. This includes Carl Perkins' "The Ballad of Boot Hill", "Streets of Laredo", and the sole single from the album, "Mr. Garfield", describing the shock of the population after the assassination of President James Garfield. One of the songs, "25 Minutes to Go", would later be performed at Folsom Prison and appear on Cash's famous At Folsom Prison recording in 1968, while the melody of "Streets of Laredo" would be recycled for the song "The Walls of a Prison" featured on Cash's album From Sea to Shining Sea.
The Johnny Cash Show is the 35th overall album and third live album by American country singer Johnny Cash, recorded at the Grand Ole Opry House and released on Columbia Records in 1970 as a tie-in with Cash's then-current TV series of the same title. Though one of Cash's lesser-known live records, it spawned the highly successful single "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", which helped kickstart the career of singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. The song and album reached #1 on the Country charts. It was also his final chart entry in Australia, going no higher than #35. The album was certified Gold on February 16, 1995, by the RIAA.
Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town is the 73rd album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1987, and his first for Mercury Records. It was re-released in 2003, paired with Boom Chicka Boom on a single CD. "Sixteen Tons" was previously a hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford, "The Big Light" is an Elvis Costello song from his album King of America, released the previous year and "Let Him Roll" is from Guy Clark's debut, Old No. 1. The album reached #36 on the country charts, while the only released single, "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town", peaked at #43.
Waylon is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released in 1970 on RCA Victor.
Then and Now is a 1973 studio album by American country music artists, and father-and-son team, Doc Watson and Merle Watson. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1974.
Doc Watson at Gerde's Folk City is the title of live recordings by American folk music and country blues artist Doc Watson, released in 2001. The recordings are of Watson's first solo public performances, recorded in 1962 and 1963 at Gerde's Folk City. The tracks were never released prior to 2001.
Folk Songs of the Hills is a 1947 album by American singer Merle Travis. It is a collection of traditional songs from his home of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, including original compositions evoking working life on the railroads and in the coal mines. Each song, accompanied by Travis on his own acoustic guitar, is introduced by a short narrative. Because of these characteristics, the album can be considered an early example of the concept album in popular music, along with Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads and Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours. First issued as a 78 rpm box set album in 1947, this collection has remained in print in LP and CD reissues up to the present, with additional tracks from the same period added in later editions.
Jimmy Wakely Presents: Merle Travis the Guitar Player is an LP album by Merle Travis and Jimmy Wakely from 1976 on the Shasta label. The songs were recorded for Jimmy Wakely's CBS Radio Shows in the 50s with the exception of track 4, "Bye Bye Blues", which was recorded in 1976. The style of the music is more western than honky-tonk.
Acoustic Traveller is the 1996 album from John McEuen. John is notable for being a longtime member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for which he was a multi-instrument and composer/arranger. He played on many of their charting albums and singles. He also records as a solo artist, and has appeared as a guest musician on many albums by many artists.
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