Merle Travis
Classic Country
Merle Travis was an American country guitarist, singer, and songwriter, inventor of the syncopated thumb-and-finger guitar style known as Travis picking.
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- Born in 1917 in Rosewood, Kentucky.
- Wrote the coal-country standards “Sixteen Tons,” “Dark as a Dungeon,” and “Nine Pound Hammer.”
- Was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
- Won a Grammy Award with Chet Atkins. He died in 1983.