Why is it called "Travis Picking" and not "Mississippi John Hurt Picking?"

[cc132]

Seems odd to me that it would be named after Merle Travis, considering that there were quite a few musicians recording with this playing style years before him.

Mississippi John Hurt, Gary Davis, and Bind Blake all come to mind as people who played alternating-bass on the lower strings with the melody on the higher strings--and who did it while Merle Travis was a baby.

[gitnoob]

I seem to recall seeing a short documentary on Mississippi John Hurt in which he referred to it as something like "that old-time picking style." So I assume it's been around longer than he has.

[bernerdawg]

Originally Posted by cc132

Seems odd to me that it would be named after Merle Travis, considering that there were quite a few musicians recording with this playing style years before him.

Mississippi John Hurt, Gary Davis, and Bind Blake all come to mind as people who played alternating-bass on the lower strings with the melody on the higher strings--and who did it while Merle Travis was a baby.

As someone who's been learning "That'll Never Happen No More" and "West Coast Blues," I have wondered the same thing. I had always assumed that Travis picking meant a kind of Townes Van Zandt-style picking, or any syncopated pattern used for rhythm accompaniment in country tunes.

I don't know if the term "Travis picking" is universally meant to describe ragtime style picking, but I would never use it that way. I always describe ragtime blues as simply "ragtime blues" or I reference the name of the person who's song I'm playing.

[Christian Reno]

I doubt anyone knows who was the very first person to play this style. Styles develop over time and the person who is usually credited with the style is the first person who had wide spread commercial success with it, not necessarily the first person to have used it or developed it.

[bluesbassdad]

In one of his tutorial videos Stephan Grossman quotes Rev. Gary Davis as calling it [disdainfully] "old time pickin'".

To my ear MJH's style sounds like so-called "Piedmont blues". The Piedmont area was literally a world apart from Mississippi in those days. Maybe the style arose in independently in more than one locale and time.

[grampa]

Fewer words and easier to say.

[deltoid]

Travis Picking refers to an alternating bass style of picking. Usually the bass notes are slightly mufflled to produce a sort of precussive, thumping sound as well as a steady "boom-chicka-boom" base line, and generally requires the use of a thumbpick.

[docwatsonfan]

perhaps Merle took it to another level?
it is amazing what he does........

Doc Watson was impressed, even named his son Merle after the man!

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by cc132

Seems odd to me that it would be named after Merle Travis, considering that there were quite a few musicians recording with this playing style years before him.

Mississippi John Hurt, Gary Davis, and Bind Blake all come to mind as people who played alternating-bass on the lower strings with the melody on the higher strings--and who did it while Merle Travis was a baby.

My opinion is that it came down to economics. By virtue of the fact that he had so much public exposure and sold more records, Merle Travis brought finger-style guitar to the (white) masses To hear Hurt, Davis, Blake; etc., a white person would have to go see them play in person or be hip enough to be buying "race" records when such things were being produced. How often do you think that happened back then?

[dgrolem]

And don't forget that Chet Atkins named his daughter Merle as well. It is an evolution in style. Merle credited Mose Rager and the Everly Bros.' father Ike as being his mentors.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by dgrolem

And don't forget that Chet Atkins named his daughter Merle as well. It is an evolution in style. Merle credited Mose Rager and the Everly Bros.' father Ike as being his mentors.

I think it is an evolutionary thing. I suppose if Merle Travis had never made much of a name for himself we'd be calling at the Atkins Pick (like the Atkins Diet, which maybe should have been named for Travis).

- Glenn

[cc132]

Originally Posted by RRuskin

My opinion is that it came down to economics. By virtue of the fact that he had so much public exposure and sold more records, Merle Travis brought finger-style guitar to the (white) masses To hear Hurt, Davis, Blake; etc., a white person would have to go see them play in person or be hip enough to be buying "race" records when such things were being produced. How often do you think that happened back then?

This was kind of my initial suspicion.

I hope I'm not violating the "no politics" rule by saying this, but it's a shame how far reaching racism is.

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by cc132

This was kind of my initial suspicion.

I hope I'm not violating the "no politics" rule by saying this, but it's a shame how far reaching racism is.

Yes, I think you're right there. And when blues hit the big time in the 60s, it looks like it was the white players who reaped most of the rewards.

[oldwood]

i've been digging around in the back of my pea sized brain.... if i recall correctly, the statement above about alternating bass played by the thumb had indeed been around for a long time before Merle.... i think the name Travis Picking actually refers to the alternating pattern used on the D, G, B and E strings... i could be completely wrong on this one, but i think that Merle actually played very little melody line with his fingers, but rather an alternating string arpeggio... Chet Atkins pretty much took it to the next level with his take on Travis picking.....

but alternating thumb has definitely been around a lot longer than anybody we can name...

be well,

jim

[tpbiii]

These are all variations of country ragtime, which was very widespread in the last quarter of the 19th century. I think the roots of the music are clearly in the African American tradition, but it had mostly died out before recording era came along. Almost everyone in the black community played in that style, and Scott Joplin tried to make it a classical (scripted) form. It was "old time" because by the time people like Gary Davis played it, it was being supplanted in the African American community by blues and later jazz.

Merle Travis' influences are well documented. For the white musicians, the well spring seems to have been a black hillbilly musician named Arnold Shultz -- a neighbor of Bill Monroe. Shultz was never recorded, but he played a lot with Bill Monroe when both were young. Monroe credits him as the source of the blues influence in bluegrass.

Shultz also had a big influence on Kentucky musicians Kennedy Jones, Mose Rager, Ike Everly (the father of Don and Phil Everly a/k/a the Everly Brothers), and eventually Merle Travis. You can read the story here.

Maybelle Carter also played in that style (among many) -- e.g. "Solid Gone". She apparently learned it from Leslie Riddle, a one legged black musician that traveled widely with A. P. Carter on his "song catching" trips. Riddle could remember lyrics very well -- he was sort of like A. P.'s human recorder. A. P. would later write down the songs and "fix them up."

Racial prejudice was endemic in the lowland south, but the highland south was entirely different. The black populations were much smaller, and the white residents were largely Scots Irish, which had very different traditions the the "Cavalier" hegemonic culture of the lowland south. Racial prejudice was not really much of an issue in the mountains. If you are interested in these cultural issues, here is an article I wrote for Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine in 1999.

Best,

-Tom