Travis Wammack
b. 1946, Walnut, Mississippi, USA. Travis Wammack was one of the great unheralded rock ‘n’ roll session guitarists of the '60s and '70s, and also charted with a number of singles under his own name. He started playing guitar during his childhood, after his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Influenced by country music and blues, his professional career began when he was in his teens, opening for rockabilly artists such as Warren Smith and Carl Perkins. Wammack had already made his first record by then, having recorded some of his own songs at the age of 12 for the small Fernwood label, with top Memphis musicians backing him. One single, Rock And Roll Blues, saw some local action but did not chart nationally. In 1961 Wammack began playing on sessions for guitarist Roland Janes, who had worked with Jerry Lee Lewis on the latter's Sun Records classics. Wammack recorded another of his own compositions, the guitar instrumental Scratchy, which was not released, on the ARA label, until 1964, when it attained minor chart success. Unable to have a follow-up chart record, Wammack continued to work for Janes until 1966, when he moved to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and began playing on sessions there at Rick Hall's Fame Studios. His guitar can be heard on recordings recorded there by Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and the Osmonds, whose hit One Bad Apple features Wammack's guitar. During 1972-73, Wammack finally reached the charts again under his own name, with two minor Fame Records singles. He switched to Capricorn Records in 1975 and scored his biggest hit, (Shu-Doo-Pa-Poo-Poop) Love Being Your Fool, which reached number 38. There was one final chart single later that year, Easy Evil, also on Capricorn. Since then, Wammack has performed with the Allman Brothers Band, Percy Sledge, Tony Joe White and Little Richard, among others.