Merle Travis was a significant personality and influential country music stylist as a singer, songwriter, and notably as a guitarist, to the extent that he had an instrumental technique named after him, called “Travis picking”, which many musicians who came after him sought to emulate, not least among them Chet Atkins. His music was rooted in his home state of Kentucky, with the lives of its inhabitants, most notably the mining community, providing him with a rich source of material for his songs - hits like “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark As The Dungeon” reflected those origins, providing hits for other artists as well as himself. He recorded a few sessions for different labels before he began recording for Capitol in 1946, and was with the company until the end of the 1960s.. This excellent-value 84-track 3-CD set comprises a significant proportion of his A and B sides for Capitol during the initial decade or so of his time with the label, which represents the core of his career as a chart artist, during which time he had all but one of his country chart entries, and all of his Top 20 hits. The recordings cover the ganut of country styles, showcasing his talents as singer, writer and guitarist, and the set naturally includes his No. 1s “Divorce Me C.O.D.” and “So Round, So Firm, So Fully-Packed” , plus his other Top 5 hits “Cincinnati Lou”, “No Vacancy”, “Fat Gal”, “Missouri”, “Steel Guitar Rag”, “Three Times Seven” and “Merle’s Boogie Woogie”. It’s a substantial showcase for one of modern country music’s true pioneers.