Travis Edmonson, a singer-songwriter who as part of the duo Bud & Travis influenced other folk musicians and helped expand the audience for Spanish- language songs, has died. He was 76.
Edmonson, who had Parkinson's disease and other illnesses, died Saturday at a hospital in Mesa, Ariz., said Mike Bartlett, a family spokesman.
Between 1958 and 1965, Edmonson and Bud Dashiell made an “impressive" contribution to the folk music revival through about 10 albums that showcased their “trademark harmonies and electrifying guitar work," according to the All Music Internet database.
They played the Hollywood Bowl in 1963 with Peter, Paul & Mary, the legendary folk group that toured with the duo and recorded the Edmonson composition “If I Were Free."
Bud & Travis “helped to launch the folk renaissance with some of the most beautiful music we ever heard," Peter Yarrow of Peter Paul & Mary told The Times in an e-mail. “Travis had a mellifluous voice" and the two groups “learned much from each other," Yarrow said.
Folk music historian Mary Katherine Aldin called Bud & Travis “virtuosos" who influenced the folk scene with their early arrival, expansive repertoire and embrace of Spanish- language folk songs. They recorded “La Bamba” and “Malaguena Salerosa," which reportedly sold a million copies in the 1950s.
“For many white folk audiences at the time, it was the only time they heard people sing in Spanish," said Aldin, a Los Angeles-area producer who reissues roots music.
The pair met when Edmonson's older brother brought his Army buddy, Dashiell, home in the late 1940s. They became a team known for their witty repartee after Edmonson, a tenor, left the Gateway singers, a folk group.
