category: instrumental country / blues / folk / jazz

Album review:
"These 20 instrumentals are plucked from Merle Travis' association with CMH in the late 1970s and early 1980s and present the master fingerpicker in a variety of settings and styles. Travis moves from hard-driving country rags to jazz to pop to Mexican to cowboy with a consistent reverence for the integrity of the melodies and hardly a flubbed note at any speed. Travis is joined on many of the cuts by Joe Maphis, whose flat-picking style contrasts nicely with Travis' sound. Though into his 60s, Travis hardly shows any loss of dexterity, command, or flair." -- Marc Greilsamer

CD Track Listing

  1. White Heat (trad. arr. M.Christian) (1:19)
  2. High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me) * (Tiomkin / Washington) (2:55)
  3. Lonesome Road Blues * (trad. arr. M.Christian) (2:48)
  4. Bye Bye Blues (Bennett / Gray / Lown) (2:00)
  5. Cannonball Rag * (M.Travis) (1:37)
  6. La Marcha De Los Mexicanos (trad. arr. M.Christian) (1:39)
  7. After You've Gone ((Layton / Creamer) (2:16)
  8. Love Letters In The Sand (Coots / N.&C.Kenny) (2:11)
  9. Mack The Knife (Weill / Brecht) (2:53)
10. I'll See You In My Dreams (Jones / Kahn) (2:19)
11. Back In The Saddle Again * (Autry / Whitley) (2:02)
12. Liza (All The Clouds'll Roll Away) (G.&I. Gershwin / Kahn) (1:37)
13. Swanee (Caesar / Gershwin) (2:16)
14. El Rancho Grande * (S.Ramos) (1:57)
15. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise (Lockhart / Seitz) (1:22)
16. I Saw The Light * (H.Williams) (2:21)
17. Dance Of The Goldenrod (M.Travis) (1:49)
18. If I Had You (Campbell / Connelly / Shapiro) (3:02)
19. On The Jericho Road (trad. arr. M.Christian) (2:20)
20. Guitar Rag * (M.Travis) (2:13)

* w/Joe Maphis: guitar duet

Total timing: 43:06

Label/No: CMH Records 8009

Release date: (c)1979, 1995 reissue