I was a country music station manager and morning disc jockey in Baton Rouge, LA, when Merle came out with "John Henry, Junior." We sponsored a concert with Porter Waggoner and Merle Travis that year. I was backstage with Merle while Porter was on, and asked him if he was going to sing John Henry, Jr. He said he would be glad to if he could remember the words! I knew them by heart, so I wrote them out for him, and he sang it for us.

He was some guitar picker! Did you ever hear him play "Blue Smoke"? It was his own composition. Two of my announcers accompanied him on bass and rhythm guitar (I think it was rhythm guitar....been a long time ago) that night, until it came to that one. He told them to just "lay out, boys, because you'll never keep up on this one." When he played it we understood why.

Good memories of a great musician.