Customer Reviews

Walkin the Strings

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The recordings on this album date from the mid to late 1940s. Travis laid them down for Capitol Records Electrical Transcriptions series. In other words they were produced for radio station fill-ins and program intros/outros. Producer Lee Gillette caught Merle at the very peak of his guitar playing form in these cuts. Five years on the West Coast had polished Merle's highly individual 'thumb-style' of playing, but he was still at this time reaching back to the tunes he had learned in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, such as 'Everly Rag' (after Ike Everly, one of Merle's guitar mentors and father of Don and Phil) and 'My Old Kentucky Home'. The title cut was always one of Merle's show-stoppers, and he had learned the rudiments of that, too, in Kentucky, from Mose Rager, who in turn had learned a similar chord progression from the grandfather of Kentucky finger-style guitar, Kennedy Jones. So there's a lot of guitar history on this album. It was originally released commercially in 1960 - after, ironically, the album which most established Merle Travis's guitar playing among guitarists: 1956's 'The Merle Travis Guitar'. On the latter album Merle played electric guitar throughout. On 'Walkin' the Strings' he's playing his Martin D28 acoustic, which gives the whole package a strong sense of the material's folk roots. There's a smattering of vocals, too, but not too many to offset the fact that this is above all a guitar album - and a classic one at that. Travis never played better!

Nick Jones nic@nicjon.force9.co.uk

I had this album on 33 1/3 record when I was a young man, back in the fifties, and was inspired by Mr Travis, as were thousands of others. I had the extreme pleasure o meeting Mr Travis in May of 1983 at the Ozark Folk Festival. I had just recently retired from the music business but I couldn't resist meeting the great man himself. His music, especially this album, has always reflected a kind, common man type of person. I can tell you for a fact that that is exactly the impression Iwas left with. Mr Travis was just as common an everyday working man as you or I. The music world owes him much and misses him terribly.

"Walkin' the Strings" as well as "Folks Songs of the Hills" are two of the greatest acoustic guitar albums ever made. Each of these albums captures Merle Travis at the top of his considerable singing, songwriting and guitar playing abilities. Anyone who loves folk music and/or the acoustic guitar should have both of these CDs in their collection.

Travis at the height of his guitar prowess,the guitar instrumentals are all superb. MAGIC CD!!!!