''The Merle Travis Guitar'' is the second album by Merle Travis and his first instrumental album. It was recorded in 1955 and released on January 1, 1956 by Capitol Records. Together with another Capitol release of the previous year, '' Back Home'', it introduced the style of guitar playing that came to be known as

Travis picking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plectr ...

to a wide public of finger-style guitarists and folk music enthusiasts. The album contains a selection of traditional guitar pickers' tunes from Travis' native

Muhlenberg County Muhlenberg County () is a county in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,928. Its county seat is Greenville. History Muhlenberg County was formed in 1798 from the areas known as Logan and Christian c ...

, Kentucky, and includes old standards, blues and rags.

Track listing

Personnel

*Merle Travis - electric guitar

References

1956 albums Merle Travis albums Capitol Records albums {{1950s-country-album-stub