Merle Travis

Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs and recordings are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues", "I am a Pilgrim" and "Dark as a Dungeon". However, it is his unique guitar style, still called "Travis picking" by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for which he is best known today. Travis picking is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb while melodies are simultaneously plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.

29 November 1917

Born on the same birth date (29 November 1917): Pierre Gaspard-Huit

Born on the same birth day (29 November): Andrea della Valle • Andrija Artuković • Chadwick Boseman • Emma Morano • Gertrude Jekyll • Gregory Gillespie • Ken Monkou • Lauren Child • Michael Craze • Michael Dempsey

Born in the same month (November 1917): Ann Rutherford • Banarsi Das Gupta • Bobby Locke • Brigadier general • Buffalo Bob Smith • Erich Leo Lehmann • Giuseppe Salvioli • Indira Gandhi • Jacqueline Auriol • Jo Stafford • Jon Cleary • Mick Shann • Park Chung Hee • Pedro Infante • Robert Sterling • Titos Vandis • Vasantdada Patil • Zenna Henderson