Merle Travis

A honky tonk pioneer and pickin' virtuoso on guitar, Merle Travis remains a major influence on Chet Atkins and Doc Watson. His fast, complex and harmonic style, derived from country-blues, jazz, boogie and Kentucky folklore, makes him a master of the genre. While developing a bass line with the thumb, he brushes rhythmic chords, the index finger playing the melody on the high strings, giving the illusion of two guitars. Author of two immortal classics, "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke", in 1947, and "Sixteen Tons", popularized by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, he appeared on the silver screen in Fred Zinnemann's Tant qu'il y aura des hommes, in 1953, and in Clint Eastwood's Honky Tonk Man, in 1982.