{"id":6115,"date":"2026-06-12T19:50:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=6115"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:49:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:49:59","slug":"nine-pound-hammer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nine Pound Hammer\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FaKCxixDdz0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I have no idea where I learned this &#8212; definitely not from Merle Travis&#8217;s recording, which I only heard much later. My guess is that I just heard it around, which is something a lot of people don&#8217;t seem to understand about the folk revival and folk music in general.<\/p>\n<p>I came along late enough that I got most of my repertoire off records, especially because by my time very few kids my age were into this kind of music. But there was still lots of it around. There were guys playing banjos and guitars and even the occasional autoharp on the street in Harvard Square, and local coffeehouses, and when I became a wandering busker at age 18, I often wound up staying with other musicians, or hanging out with them in all sorts of places, and picked up a bunch of songs that way.<\/p>\n<p>That included some current busker standards like &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/the-boxer\/\">The Boxer<\/a>,&#8221; which I think I learned before I even knew it was by Paul Simon, and certainly before I was aware of hearing his version &#8212; but also lots of folk\/blues\/bluegrass songs, things we all kind of knew by osmosis, like this one. I actually hadn&#8217;t thought about this one in a while, but <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6141 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2027\/06\/Jiri-Miza.jpg?resize=186%2C178&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"186\" height=\"178\" \/>last fall I did a tour of the Czech Republic and one of the gigs was with <span class=\"x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h\" dir=\"auto\">Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea<\/span>, a local singer-guitarist who sings a bunch of those songs with Czech lyrics, including this one and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/deep-river-blues\/\">Deep River Blues<\/a>.&#8221; So we did some of them together, trading verses and languages, and\u00a0 I was reminded of how much fun this is to play.<\/p>\n<p>It was one of the songs Travis wrote when records by &#8220;folk singers&#8221; like Josh White, Burl Ives, Richard Dyer-Bennett, and Susan Reed began selling in the 1940s. An A&amp;R guy at Capitol records asked him to do a folk song album, and he responded that Ives and other people had already recorded all the folk songs &#8212; he was known for fancy guitar picking and upbeat hillbilly jazz like &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/smoke-smoke-smoke\/\">Smoke, Smoke Smoke (That Cigarette)<\/a>&#8221; and presumably thought he&#8217;d gotten past that kind of thing.\u00a0 But the A&amp;R guy said, <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6117\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Travis-Songs-from-the-Hills-e1780771015746.jpg?resize=275%2C236&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"236\" \/>&#8220;So, write some new ones,&#8221; and a gig was a gig, and he did. The results included this one, &#8220;Dark as a Dungeon,&#8221; &#8220;I Am a Pilgrim,&#8221;\u00a0 and, most famously, &#8220;Sixteen Tons,&#8221; which was inspired by a couple of Josh White songs and became a huge hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford.<\/p>\n<p>I eventually heard Travis&#8217;s version of this, but only sing a couple of his verses &#8212; he sang four, including one that was pretty generic and a final one about making his tombstone from &#8220;number nine coal,&#8221; a phrase that also turns up in &#8220;Sixteen Tons.&#8221; I just got curious and looked it up; apparently it refers to a particular seam of coal in Kentucky, where he grew up in a mining family.<\/p>\n<p>My other verses are maybe from Mississippi John Hurt or Lead Belly? I&#8217;m not sure, but they&#8217;re from the general pool of mining and railroad songs, reaching back to work songs men sang to keep their hammers falling in unison. The guitar breaks are just what I ended up playing because I ended up doing this in E; if I did it in another key, I&#8217;d play something else, but this felt comfortable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have no idea where I learned this &#8212; definitely not from Merle Travis&#8217;s recording, which I only heard much later. My guess is that I just heard it around, which is something a lot of people don&#8217;t seem to understand about the folk revival and folk music in general. I came along late enough &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A folk\/country standard from Merle Travis, with some thoughts about this kind of thing and a tip of the hat to the Czech guitarist Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A folk\/country standard from Merle Travis, with some thoughts about this kind of thing and a tip of the hat to the Czech guitarist Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-12T23:50:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Travis-Songs-from-the-Hills-e1780771015746.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"343\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-12T23:50:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":584,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2027\\\/06\\\/Jiri-Miza.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2027\\\/06\\\/Jiri-Miza.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-12T23:50:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"A folk\\\/country standard from Merle Travis, with some thoughts about this kind of thing and a tip of the hat to the Czech guitarist Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2027\\\/06\\\/Jiri-Miza.jpg?fit=186%2C178&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2027\\\/06\\\/Jiri-Miza.jpg?fit=186%2C178&ssl=1\",\"width\":186,\"height\":178},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nine-pound-hammer\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"A folk\/country standard from Merle Travis, with some thoughts about this kind of thing and a tip of the hat to the Czech guitarist Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"A folk\/country standard from Merle Travis, with some thoughts about this kind of thing and a tip of the hat to the Czech guitarist Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2026-06-12T23:50:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":343,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Travis-Songs-from-the-Hills-e1780771015746.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)","datePublished":"2026-06-12T23:50:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/"},"wordCount":584,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2027\/06\/Jiri-Miza.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/","name":"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2027\/06\/Jiri-Miza.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-12T23:50:56+00:00","description":"A folk\/country standard from Merle Travis, with some thoughts about this kind of thing and a tip of the hat to the Czech guitarist Ji\u0159\u00ed M\u00ed\u017ea.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2027\/06\/Jiri-Miza.jpg?fit=186%2C178&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2027\/06\/Jiri-Miza.jpg?fit=186%2C178&ssl=1","width":186,"height":178},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nine-pound-hammer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nine-Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5946,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/mama-tried\/","url_meta":{"origin":6115,"position":0},"title":"Mama Tried (Merle Haggard)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As noted in the posts for \"Swinging Doors\" and \"I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am,\" I'm a big Merle Haggard fan, and this has always been one of my favorites. It's one of his most autobiographical songs -- pretty much straight-up life story except that he\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Killers-Three-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2779,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/lovesick-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":6115,"position":1},"title":"Lovesick Blues (Hank Williams\/Emmett Miller)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Like virtually everybody, I first heard this as a Hank Willams song, though I'm not sure when or how. As I've mentioned, my Cambridge folk scene upbringing initially made me resistant to mainstream Nashville country music, Williams included, but by\u00a0 the early 1980s I was gradually coming to my senses\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HankWilliams1952-286x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3173,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/swinging-doors\/","url_meta":{"origin":6115,"position":2},"title":"Swinging Doors (Merle Haggard\/a honky-tonk gig)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My first trip through the South was in the fall of 1985. I started hitchhiking from Chapel Hill, planning to hug the coast till I reached Mexico. That afternoon I saw my first roadkill armadillo while walking the last five miles into Southport, North Carolina. On the edge of town\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/me-and-merle.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6043,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/smoke-smoke-smoke\/","url_meta":{"origin":6115,"position":3},"title":"Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette (Tex Williams, Merle Travis&#8230;and Mark Ross)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I learned this one from Mark Ross in Missoula, Montana. It was the first time I hitchhiked across country on the northern route, and I'd spent a couple of days in Spokane with Utah Phillips, and he suggested I stop off in Missoula and meet Mark. So I did, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mark_ross_0.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5211,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cigarettes-and-coffee\/","url_meta":{"origin":6115,"position":4},"title":"Cigarettes and Coffee Blues (Lefty Frizzell)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I have Bill Morrissey to thank for turning me into a Merle Haggard nut, and making me realize how close country\u00a0 music -- especially the strain popularized as \"honky tonk\" -- is to blues. Of course, to a large extent it came out of blues; Jimmie Rodgers was primarily a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Leftys-Greatest-Hits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1579,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/lonesome-7-7203\/","url_meta":{"origin":6115,"position":5},"title":"Lonesome 7-7203 (resisting and singing country)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing up where I grew up, when I grew up, I had no understanding or appreciation for country and western music. That may seem strange to a lot of younger music fans, who think of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard as \"Americana,\" along with the Carter Family, and bluegrass, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"18 king-size country hits","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/18-king-size-country-hits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6115"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6143,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115\/revisions\/6143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}