In 1937 he became a member of the Drifting Pioneers, who performed on WLW Cincinnati. In 1943 he recorded for the local King label, recording a solo as Bob McCarthy and a duet with Grandpa Jones as the Shepherd Brothers. He and Jones did many radio shows together and many years later, re-created that atmosphere for an album. Travis, Jones and the Delmore Brothers also worked as a gospel quartet, the Browns Ferry Four. After war service in the marines, he settled in California and worked with artists such as Tex Ritter. Travis' arrangement of Muskrat for Ritter was later developed into a hit single for the The Everly Brothers.

He played with several bands, becoming one of the first to appreciate that a guitar could be a lead instrument, and he had success as a solo artist for the newly-formed Capitol Records with Cincinnati Lou, No Vacancy, Divorce Me C.O.D., Missouri and a US country number 1, So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed. He co-wrote Capitol's first million-seller, Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette with Tex Williams, who recorded it. Burl Ives and Josh White were spearheading a craze for folk music, so Capitol producer, Lee Gillette, asked Travis for a 78 rpm album set of Kentucky folk songs. 'I don't know any' said Travis. 'Then write some' was the reply. His eight-song FOLK SONGS OF OUR HILLS, included Nine Pound Hammer (a rewritten folk song), Dark As A Dungeon and Sixteen Tons with spoken introductions about the coal-mining locale. Although Travis maintained that Sixteen Tons was a 'fun song', it dealt with the exploitation of miners in the company store. It won a gold record for Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955 and was parodied by Spike Jones as Sixteen Tacos and by Max Bygraves as Seventeen Tons.

Travis himself was also enjoying a country hit with a revival of Wildwood Flower with Hank Thompson, and he won acclaim for his portrayal of a young GI in the 1954 film FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, in which he sang Re-enlistment Blues. Travis's WALKIN' THE STRINGS is a highly-regarded album of acoustic guitar solos. His style influenced Doc Watson, who called his son after him, and Chet Atkins, who did the same with his daughter.

In 1948 he devised a solid-body electric guitar, which was built for him by Paul Bigsby and developed by Leo Fender. 'I got the idea from a steel guitar' he said, 'I wanted the same sustainability of notes, and I came up with a solid-body electric guitar with the keys all on one side.' Travis had an entertaining stage act in which he would mimic animals on his guitars. He was a good cartoonist and he worked as a scriptwriter on Johnny Cash's television shows. He took part in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's tribute to country music, WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?, and was one of the Texas Playboys in the Clint Eastwood film, HONKYTONK MAN.

Travis was elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1977. Says Tennessee Ernie Ford, "Merle Travis was one of the most talented men I ever met. He could write songs that would knock your hat off". Travis died in October 1983. A posthumous album of blues songs played on 12-string guitar, ROUGH, ROWDY AND BLUE, included a tune from his mentor, Mose Rager, Merry Christmas, Pretty Baby. His friend and fellow guitarist, Joe Maphis, wrote a tribute Me And Ol Merle', which concluded,"We liked good whiskey and we loved the pretty girls, And we loved them guitars-Me and Ol' Merle."