I spent the evening tonight with Jamie Sweet in southern Ohio. I met Jamie five years ago, when I was doing research for my Merle Travis book. His uncle was Jack Rodgers, who was Merle Travis’s best friend. Jamie also knew Merle and gave a few really good quotes for the book.
When I visited with Jack back in 2018, I looked through a million photographs, but I couldn’t find one photograph that Jack told me he had: a photo of Merle Travis in drag, writing the song “Kentucky Means Paradise” in a hotel room in 1947.
Tonight, I came back to Jamie‘s place and looked through a ton more photos. I didn’t find the Merle Travis photo I was looking for, but I did find a lot of really amazing photos from the 1920s through the 1940s, most of which were taken by Jamie‘s grandfather, Walter Sweet, who was a professional photographer in Ohio and Los Angeles.
I really like Walter’s style. He had a real stylistic element to his photos that I find jarring and seductive and excellent for their time period.
Even though I didn’t find any Travis photos, I thought some of you might enjoy seeing these frozen images in time. I like them a lot. The cowboy singer is Jack Rogers. He was 96 years old when I interviewed him in 2018, and he passed away a couple years ago.
Thanks again for letting me come to visit and dig through old photos, Jamie! Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Nashville!
