A Salute to Travis Edmonson of Bud & Travis
Keeping His Legacy alive!
visit the up-to-date version of this website at www.travisedmonson.com
To Catch A Dream
A unique offer only available to visitors of travisedmonson.com!
In appreciation of your support we have had the LP
"Travis On His Own"
including "The Web"
re-mastered onto CD, and featuring such important songs as "The Time of Man,""I'm A Drifter," "The Web," "One For The Money" "Ellen,""The Things I've Saved," and more, never included on any other recording . (Click the cover image to hear sound samples.)
It's yours as part of a package which includes souvenir booklet individually signed by Travis Edmonson, and every penny of the proceeds go directly to him. What a wonderful opportunity to say thank you to Travis Edmonson personally for all the years of beautiful music.
Contact the webmaster for more info about this special edition and other CDs from The Travis Edmonson collection.
Born on September 23, 1932 in Long Beach, California, Travis Jerome Edmonson's first sojourn as a Californian was short-lived, and from infancy to leaving college, he lived in southern Arizona, not merely a state of residence for him, but a virtual state of mind which affected much in his life, his career and his thinking.
He grew up in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, where his home environment was the springboard which developed an intellectual curiosity that flickers clear across the spectrum of his work.
The erudite forum that was the dining table of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy would certainly have met a rival in the Edmonson home, which everyone remembered as a white light of scholarly inquiry.
Discussion of public, philosophical and cultural issues was inevitably part of the fare. His father was the first social wwelfare officer in southern Arizona and his mother a dedicated teacher renowned for her wisdom. There were three older brothers, all academically minded from their youth. Monroe became a distinguished professor of anthropology at Tulane University. Earlloyd followed his father into social work, and Collin was considered to be one of the finest educators of his time in classics, holding achair at the University of Washington and being Secretary of the American School in Athens.
But they were musical too, each playing an instrument. Collin was a particular role model here (possibly for a later two-man act?), performing on the guitar and singing Mexican music with a friend.
Indeed, those melodies which wafted across the border were as much a part of family life as the cerebral discussion. But just a part. For the balladeer to be, however, music was everything.
He'd made his public debut at the age of seven at the local St. Andrew's Episcopal church where the family sang in the choir. His other youthful gigs were quite something else though. A favorite pastime was to cross the border and join with the mariachis at a variety of “colorful” venues in Nogales, Sonora, including the cave restaurant “La Caverna.”
Starting out on simple instruments which the mariachis used, it was inevitable that he would gravitate to the guitar. His cousin Bud helped him with the basics, and with that alone, he was able to be in constant demand as a musician throughout secondary school.
It was also in his early teens that Travis Edmonson began developing some of his other creative inclinations - writing poetry, drawing and painting, artistic activities which he has pursued throughout his life.
His parents sent him to Tucson for secondary education, in order to get the best possible schooling. All the while his enthrallment with music was escalating, and he became proficient on a number of other instruments, the guitar becoming a constant companion.
It was during this period that he collected so many of the beautiful Mexican songs which became staples of his career repertoire - discovered traveling around Mexico, from recordings, and from those whom he performed with . These were not casual, but stirring experiences for the young musician, and the intensity of initial encounters with such melodies as “Malagueña Salerosa,” “Caminante Del Mayab” “Rayito De Luna,” “Sin Ti” and “La Vaquilla Colorada” audibly reverberated on and on in his moving performances of them as an adult.
The latter song was part of another thread woven throughout Travis Edmonson's life - the passion for ranching and horses, which began with joyful childhood visits to his uncles ranch in the Arizona outback.
At 16 he was introduced - for the very first time - to traditional American folk music. Burl Ives, Josh White, and Katy Lee were the initial artists of the genre he became familiar with, and this just added more fuel to the flames already burning. He definitely wanted to hear more.
However, when he attended the University of Arizona, it was not music, but anthropology that he chose as his major. Its kinship with his hobby of archaeology, as well as a deep and abiding interest in local culture, made the subject almost as natural a choice.
There were, nevertheless, many musical highlights to the college years, and one of these seems only to be enhanced in the re-telling.
Roger Smith, a friend from Nogales High, was Travis Edmonson's singing partner in those days, before becoming a Hollywood heartthrob and starring in the hit TV series “77 Sunset Strip.” One might say that they were both famous and unknown, and thus their act became legend.
What a gig it was! A long-running one at that. The two made it a regular practice to slip into the shadows outside the women's dormitories and sororities late in the evening, and serenade the ladies with Latin songs.
The picture is so evocative and ultra romantic, it is sure that not one of the girls (all of whom would now be in their seventies) must think of those nights still without a little flutter.
All wasn't clear sailing though. House mothers would often call the police to disperse the intruders, but the usual outcome was that the local gendarme would just stay and listen to the music too. Certainly one would have to have a soul totally stripped of poetry to regard these delightful minstrels and their moonlight concerts as a nuisance.
But Travis Edmonson pursued his interest in anthropology as well, dwelling with both the Apache and the Yaqui Indians, and becoming fluent in their customs and languages. Music represented his ambassadorial credentials to these Native American communities, and through his commitment, songs and compelling personality, he had the unique distinction of being accepted as a member of the latter tribe in addition to working on a dictionary of their language.
Such scholarly projects had been the domain of his academic brothers . But Colin, in turn, showed that he was capable of unearthing treasures from his singing sibling's sphere.
He brought home an Army buddy who filled the house with a brand of folk music, miles away from the Mexican-influenced songs the Edmonsons had been playing, and in the parlance of a half century later, they were simply blown away by it.
The young army officer was a New Yorker cum Virginian named Oliver Dashiel, whom one should not be surprised to learn, will surface again later in this story.
Travis Edmonson was becoming more and more determined to sing and play the guitar professionally, and he and Roger Smith put together an act which they took on stage with great success. It had been a tough decision to make, going public with their music, and revealing the identities of the elusive and romantic swains whose voices stole hearts from the shadows.
Playing a repertoire of Mexican music, they not only won the University of Arizona talent contest, but also went on to triumph on Horace Height and Ted Mack competitions, the top national talent searches of the day.
It was also in his sophomore year that he took up serious study of the guitar under Luis Ramirez, a former pupil of Segovia. This represented Travis Edmonson's first formal instruction on the instrument, and provided the foundation for a career which took him to the highest levels in show business.
While his gift for `the family business' has been cited countless times, in the end, a decision was made not to take up teaching as a profession, and to let his unique voice carve the path for his life's journey.
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