Travis Edmonson was an American folk singer

Folk Singer

Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...

, who performed both as a soloist and in the group Bud and Travis.

Early life

Edmonson was born on September 23, 1932 in Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

, but grew up in Nogales, Arizona

Nogales, Arizona

Nogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 21,017 at the 2010 census. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,833. The city is the county seat of Santa Cruz County....

, just across the border from Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. At the age of 5, he briefly played the role of Curley on the TV show Our Gang

Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...

. Edmonson began his singing career at age seven a member of the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church choir, where he sang with his three older brothers. He attended Tucson High School where he further developed as a singer and learned to play the guitar. After high school, Edmonson attended the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

, where he studied anthropology. Edmonson took a strong interest in Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 tribes, including the Pascua Yaqui Tribe

Pascua Yaqui Tribe

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe is a tribe of Native Americans, acknowledged by the United States government on September 18, 1978.Most U.S. members of the tribe live in southern Arizona. Descended from the ancient Uto-Azteca people of Mexico, the ancestors of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe first settled in the...

, helping to produce a Spanish-Yaqui dictionary. As a result, in 1948, the tribe made him an honorary member. Travis studied other native communities, and even lived on an Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 reservation.

Music career

Edmonson did not graduate from the University of Arizona, but he "became locally famous for serenading college girls" and met first his wife while studying there. In the early 1950s, Edmonson served in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

, before beginning his musical career in San Francisco. After singing solo, he joined a quartet, the Gateway Singers with Louis Gottlieb

Louis Gottlieb

Dr. Louis Gottlieb was bassist and lofty comic spokesman for The Limeliters. He was considered one of the so-called "new comedy" performers such as Mort Sahl, Nichols and May, and Lenny Bruce: a new generation of unabashed intellectuals.Lou's special trademark on stage was a delightful burlesquing...

. In 1958, he left the Gateway Singers to form Bud and Travis along with Bud Dashiell, a friend of his brother. The two recorded eight albums in seven years and became quite popular, appearing at many nightclubs and on television, including a guest appearance on the show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...

. The two played folk music, infused with the influence of Mexican styles that Edmonson enjoyed, particularly mariachi

Mariachi

Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...

. After seven years together, the two split up and Edmonson continued to perform solo.

Edmonson was considered a folk music "pioneer" and influenced groups such as the Kingston Trio. Bob Shane, the only surviving member of the trio, said in an interview that he "idolized him," saying "he had command of the stage better than anyone I've ever seen." Edmonson suffered a stroke in 1982, after which he experienced health problems and performed little until his death on May 9, 2009 in Mesa, Arizona

Mesa, Arizona

According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...

.

For his musical accomplishments, Travis was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Tucson Area Music Awards in 1995.