Travis, Merle

Travis, Merle (Robert)

(born Nov. 29, 1917, Rosewood, Ky., U.S.—died Oct. 20, 1983, Tahlequah, Okla.) U.S. country music singer and songwriter. Travis learned banjo as a youth, later applying banjo technique to the guitar. He worked on radio in Cincinnati in the 1930s. Moving to California in 1944, he quickly rose to prominence on the strength of his guitar style and for writing and recording honky-tonk classics such as “Divorce Me C.O.D.” and “No Vacancy” and the coal-mining protest songs “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark as a Dungeon.”