Lazy River (Merle Travis Cover) on a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins

“(Up A) Lazy River“ is a popular tune and song by Hoagy Carmichael and Sidney Arodin, published in 1930. (See Wikipedia). It has been recorded by many artists like Les Paul, Chet Atkins and many others. I like Merle Travis’ version best. He recorded the tune several times. One of the first versions was on August 19, 1955 with the Whippoorwills (Roy Lanham guitar, Arthur Douglas Dalton mandolin, Gene Mombeck Rhythm guitar and “Dusty“ Rhodes steel guitar. Please watch the video my channel ( Other versions were on the LP “Strictly Guitar“ in 1968 and on the LP “Merle Travis Story“ from 1979 on CMH. All recordings had different accompanying musicians and different tempos. The chords that Merle uses are brilliant. Very often these are 6th, 9th and 13th and they remind me of the block chords used by steel guitar players. As always my friend Walter and I had a lot of fun recording and filming the song. I used the following gear: Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Fender Jaguar 60th anniversary Höfner Jazzica Custom Archtop ( handbuilt in Germany by Thomas Stuhlein) Fender Precision Bass Breedlove Mandolin. Drum programming by myself with Realdrums from BIAB Channel Trailer: “Cannonball Rag“ (Merle Travis) played by myself on a Martin 76 HD-28. You can see this guitar in the “Front Porch Picking“ video. This video is also in my channel. ( Effects and Amp: Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb J. Rockett Archer Universal Audio Max Surfybear Compact SG Shure SM81 Torpedo Wall of Sound Audio Interface by Focusrite DAW Presonus Studion One Have fun Dirk