Word: travises
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It is currently the No. 1 hit on almost every list. It has been called deeply American by some and dangerously radical by others. Where did it come from? Along with its creator, Songwriter Merle Travis, it came out of Kentucky, still a stronghold of American folk song.
One miner's son who left, took along his guitar and kept his feeling for the old music, was Merle Travis of Beech Creek (pop. 788), across the state from Viper.
He remembered the long, workless summers when his father, deafened by years near the roaring "shaker" screens, would get him to listen for the whistle that was the call back to the mines. If it blew, there would be work-and singing in the Travis house that night.
When Travis decided to record some coal miners' songs in 1947, there were hardly any to be found, so he wrote some-including Sixteen Tons. It was recorded for Capitol recently by deep-voiced Tennessee Ernie Ford, and leaped to the top of the nation's bestseller lists...
"I wrote the song for purely professional reasons," says Songwriter Travis.