"Dadi's knowledge of and affection for Travis shine through in this video. The presentation and the accompanying tab booklet are excellent... This tape serves as both an educational tool and a documentary on the work of Merle Travis." – Sing Out!

Merle Travis's playing combined blues, jazz, ragtime and country music into a unique style that defined "Country Fingerstyle Guitar." In this exciting DVD lesson, Marcel Dadi teaches seven of Merle's greatest instrumentals: Fuller's Blues, Cane Break Blues, Blue Bells, Saturday Night Shuffle, Memphis Blues, Cannon Ball Rag and Walkin' The Strings. All the tunes are transcribed in a PDF tab/music booklet. As well, five rare performances from 1951 of Merle Travis playing Nine Pound Hammer, Lost John, John Henry, Mus'rat and Too Much Sugar For A Dime are included in the DVD.

95 minutes • Level 3/4 • Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Review: Fingerpicking Great by a Fingerpicking Great!! I just got this DVD and it is amazing! If you are a fingerpicker or a fan of country jazz fingerstyle guitar you will love this. There are not only footage of Merle playing 'Lost John', 'John Henry', Nine Pound Hammer' (my favorite),'Muskrat' and a very entertaining duet on 'Too Much Sugar For A Dime'(the combo is hot: guitar, standup bass, fiddle and trumpet and Merle soloing flawlessly). It is evident that this project is a labor of love and that guitarist Marcel Dadi has spent lots of time perfecting the Travis Style of picking. He displays a detailed knowledge of Travis' style: the two-finger approach with the use of thumb in chording as opposed to bar chords. Marcel is a great teacher too! He explains the songs and plays them at regular speed then slow with split screen. He teaches songs such as Memphis Blues, Walking The Strings and of course 'Cannonball Rag' (this alone is worth the price of the DVD!). I learned this song note for note from this DVD as well as gained a new respect for Marcel Dadi as a guitarist and teacher and deepened my fascination and respect for Merle Travis! Buy this DVD! You will fall in love with the music of Merle Travis, and your feet won't stop tapping! – Philip D. Parshall/Amazon Customer Review

Review: Incredibile value and invaluable! I knew this would be a great Merle Travis tutorial given that it was done by the legendary Marcel Dadi. Marcel was a great picker - too soon gone and much missed. I was afraid I would have trouble with his accent, but he spoke very clear English. This video did not disappoint in quality. The surprise though is in the value! I thought I was getting 7 tunes, 3 of which I already learned from Thom Bresh's Homespun video. However, not only does Marcel give a slightly different version of each (Travis never played the same way twice, so this is in true Travis tradition) but, in true Marcel tradition, he includes a tab of every tune on the video! That means, not only do you get the rare footage of Travis playing 5 tunes (one with the great Eddie Kirk on rhythm, and you can learn a lot just by studying his great rhythm chord break - like Eldon Shamblin used to use to punctuate all those great Bob Wills tunes) but you get the full tab - so, you really get 12 full tunes! That makes this lesson the best value ever. – Oldsouth/Amazon Customer Review