Where’s FourWallsdo?: Kentucky Means Paradise

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That’s right, no more “where was I.” We close out the month, as Maxine Nightingale once sang, right back where we started from. (Actually, I was in Indiana for lunch yesterday, so that could have applied then as well.) Technicalities aside, here’s an ode to my home state…complete with a “Linda (and Jim)? NO!!!!!” Kentucky Means Paradise - Merle Travis They call it “Travis-style.” It’s also known as “thumb picking.” The gist of it is playing the top two guitar strings (A and low E) with the thumb as the “bass,” while playing “melody” on the bottom four (high E, B, G, and D). They have clubs and conventions for it. And no, Merle Travis didn’t invent it. Ike Everly, the father of Phil and Don, was a thumb picker. Of course, they were from the same part of western Kentucky (along with Mose Rager), so that style got passed around. You may not recognize Merle Travis’ name, but I guaran-dang-tee you that you know one of the lines he wrote: You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Yeah, that song paid his way for life. Here, though, he sang the praises of his home state. And, waddaya know, that ol’ Kentucky boy could spell Kentucky, too! By the way, this song dates to 1947; so, while Harland Sanders was cooking fried chicken in Corbin by that time, there were no Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. We just love our fried chicken here. Kentucky Means Paradise Written by Merle Travis Recorded by Merle Travis Released as a single, 1948 I wasn’t studyin’ no geography: