Travis Wammack

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

American musician (born 1944)

title: "Travis Wammack" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1946-births", "living-people", "people-from-tippah-county,-mississippi", "american-rock-guitarists", "american-male-guitarists", "american-session-musicians", "musicians-from-memphis,-tennessee", "guitarists-from-tennessee", "20th-century-american-guitarists", "20th-century-american-male-musicians"] description: "American musician (born 1944)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Wammack" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American musician (born 1944) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
name	Travis Wammack
birth_date	1944
birth_place	Walnut, Mississippi, U.S.
genre	Rock and roll
occupation
years_active	1957–present
associated_acts
website	www.traviswammack.com
::

Travis Wammack (born November 1944 in Walnut, Mississippi, United States) is an American rock and roll guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee.

Described as an "instrumental genius" he is known for his "magnificent guitar pyrotechnics", and "wild guitar workouts" featuring early use of fuzztone and distortion. A child prodigy, Wammack's first record was released in 1957 when he was eleven years old, and at seventeen he hit the American charts with "Scratchy", an instrumental which peaked at #80 in 1964, although the initial release of the record was in the summer of 1962. He also charted briefly in 1966 at #128 with an instrumental version of "Louie Louie".

Wammack worked as a session guitarist at Sonic Recording Service and Hi Records in Memphis and at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in the 1960s. He released his first album, Travis Wammack, in 1972 and appeared on the charts with "Whatever Turns You On" (#95; written by George Jackson and Raymond Moore) and "How Can I Tell You" (#68; written by Cat Stevens). In 1975 he released his second album, Not For Sale, which generated two additional hits: "Easy Evil" (#72; written by Alan O'Day), and "(Shu-Doo-Pa-Poo-Poop) Love Being Your Fool" (#38; written by Jerry Williams, Jr. and Charlie Whitehead).

He was Little Richard's band leader from 1984 until 1995. He wrote "Greenwood, Mississippi" which Richard recorded in 1970, featuring Wammack on lead guitar. In 1988, Richard recorded Wammack's "(There's) No Place Like Home", planned as a new single, but shelved. Live versions were included on Giants of Rock and Roll, an Australian DVD of a 1989 concert, and on compilations Live in Europe 1993 and The Quasar of Rock.

Still performing, Travis now works with Muscle Shoals Music Marketing, and has added record producer to his resume. In 1999 Wammack received the Professional Musician Award from the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and in 2005 was inducted into The Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame. In May 2006, Gibson Guitars presented Travis with a new Gibson ES-335 guitar as part of their documentary honoring legendary Gibson ES series players. In 2011, he was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame as a rockabilly "legend".

Wammack performed with Billy Lee Riley and with Sonny Burgess and the Legendary Pacers at Newport, Arkansas's annual Depot Days Festival on September 27, 2008. On August 30, 2009 at the Silver Moon in Newport, Arkansas, he again played with Sonny Burgess and the Legendary Pacers, and with other bands, at the Billy Lee Riley benefit concert. Wammack continues to perform live at the Depot Days Festival and other venues. |url=http://traviswammack.com/bio.html |title=Travis Wammack |publisher=Travis Wammack |year=2014 |accessdate=2017-10-03 |url=http://www.depotdays.org/photo-archive/ |title=Photo Archive |publisher=Depot Days Festival |year=2017 |accessdate=2017-10-03 |url=http://www.depotdays.org/schedule/ |title=Depot Days Festival Schedule of Events |publisher=Depot Days Festival |year=2017 |accessdate=2017-10-03

Discography

Albums

Travis Wammack (Fame Records, 1972)
Not For Sale (Capricorn, 1975)
A Man...and a Guitar (Phonorama, 1982)
Follow Me (Phonorama, 1982)
Still Rockin (Snakeman Records, 1998)
Snake, Rattle & Roll in Muscle Shoals (Snakeman Records, 2000)
Rock-N-Roll Party (Travis Wammack, 2002)
Scratchy (Travis Wammack, 2006)
The Psychedelic Years - Live (Travis Wammack, 2006)
Memphis + Muscle Shoals = Travis Wammack (Travis Wammack, 2008)
Almost Home (Travis Wammack, 2008)
Country In My Soul (Muscle Shoals, 2009)
Shotgun Woman (Monaco, 2010)
Rock-N-Roll Days (Travis Wammack, 2010)
Rock-N-Roll Days Vol. II (Travis Wammack, 2011)
Blues, Soul & Rock-N-Roll (Travis Wammack, ?)

Compilations

That Scratchy Guitar from Memphis (Bear Family Records, 1987)
Scr-Scr-Scratchy! (Zu Zazz Records, 2000)

References

Whitburn, Joel. (1994). "Top Pop Singles 1955-1993". Record Research, Inc..
Wake, Matt. (July 3, 2018). "Meet the unsung Muscle Shoals guitarist who's also a snake hunter".
Koda, Cub. "Travis Wammack Biography".
"Travis Wammack Biography".
Smith, Michael B.. (May 2001). ""Scratchy" Was Just The Beginning - Travis Wammack is Still Rocking".
(1997). "[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music". [[Virgin Books]].
Whitburn, Joel. (1992). "Bubbling Under The Hot 100 1959-1985". Record Research, Inc..
Woodward, WL. (7 July 2020). "Travis Wammack – Memphis Royalty".
(17 November 2013). "Travis Wammack biography".
"The Staple Singers/The Staples: Unlock Your Mind - Track Listing - (Shu-Doo-Pa-Poo-Poop) Love Being Your Fool".
"Song: Easy Evil".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::