Having recently read the biography of Merle Travis, the BRC craftsman was reminded of his own finger-picking guitar stylings from years ago while living on the East Coast. In his younger days, he played Travis style for decades before relocating ultimately to Missouri and becoming immersed in the Bluegrass genre of the Heartland. Although finger-picking the six-stringer is popular in East Coast coffee houses, the standard back-up to the five-string banjo in the Midwest is a flat-picked rhythm guitar.
Since reading the Travis biography, the BRC banjoist has slowly but surely rekindled his very rusty and long dormant finger-picking guitar skills. After warming-up his aging digital joints on the banjo at a recent jam session, the BRC craftsman borrowed a mandolinist`s guitar to play the Merle Travis classic tune “Nine Pound Hammer.” At the end of the song, the mandolinist (above center left) exclaimed that this surprise performance made her guitar “sparkle.”
From the BRC: Hope you have a sparkly Fourth of July.
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