Search - Chet Atkins :: Essential Chet Atkins (Bril)

Best Chet album I've heard

P. Wagner | Minneapolis, MN United States | 01/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my favorite Chet Atkins album. I never really heard him until just a couple of years ago when I picked up a CD at a local library when I was feeling a bit glum and wanted to find something perhaps a bit surprising. I was teaching a class of college freshmen and was disappointed with how devoid of any sense of recent (or any other!) cultural history they all were--even the "A" students. (It was a design/drawing class so that struck me as a bad sign!)



I'm 52 years old and had only heard of him in the context of Ray Stevens' "Gitarzan" when I was in Junior High school! ("He's playin' Chet's guitar course, C.O.D./He makes A, and B, and he's workin' on C/and me and the chimpanzee agree/that one day soon he'll be a celebrity!") I thought maybe hearing it would carry me back to a time before my own and help me figure out how to interest my students in artists from before their own generation (musical or otherwise).



Well, that RCA Years album knocked my socks off. It saved my sanity for the rest of the year. It gave me clues on how to try to relate better to my students and try to get them to relate better to me. A lot of the songs are horribly corny to me--like something you would have heard your Grandma watching on "Lawrence Welk." But the way he plays them, even the corniest ones are amazing and can grow on you for awhile.



What I love most are the true traditional old hillbilly songs, at least that's what I think they are. "Black Mountain Rag" and others that show off Atkins' amazing gifts. Then, I love the jazzier entries. He mixes these up with ones that were a little too of-the-moment pop stuff, not as great but again I can stand them when HE plays them.



The spirit with which he interprets and delivers just never fails to leave me awestruck, entertained, full of the sheer joy he shares. If I could know that I was ever able to do 1/100th as much to entertain people with my cartoons and caricatures as he entertains me with his playing, I would die SO-O-O happy.



I have listened to all of these so many times I can't believe I'm not sick of them yet (well, except the corniest ones that I associate with certain childhood memories). I find myself playing these when on the exercise bike, and what would otherwise be a drudgery (I hate indoor exercise, especially sitting on an uncomfortable seat in one spot!) has become a pleasure.



Some here have complained about the vocals on some of these. I say they are used sparingly enough and on few enough of the pieces that they really provide just the right addition to the set. Most are really quite fine, perfect for Atkins' works. But of course it is the purer guitar pieces that soar. I am so glad I finally discovered him, and thanks to Ray Stevens and his silly song, of all things!



I'm listening to it right now... GET THIS ALBUM!"

Country Gentleman

Jim Newsom | Norfolk, VA | 08/13/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I asked Vince Gill recently what had first attracted him to the guitar, he told me, "I wanted to be Chet Atkins as a little boy. Just listening to those records, I couldn't even fathom how he did all that."



He is not alone. The list of Chet Atkins-wannabes includes George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, Brian Setzer, Duane Eddy, Earl Klugh and thousands of others, known and unknown, who have come under the spell of his amazing guitaristics. Not flashy in the conventional sense, not loud and boisterous like so many rockers who followed him, Atkins was the consummate musician, a master of subtlety and nuance, lightning fast and harmonically rich. He was the ultimate guitarist's guitarist.



He was also a record business executive whose imprint was felt not just in Nashville, where he ran RCA Records for nearly thirty years, but throughout the industry for his production touches and genre-blending recordings. He and Decca's Owen Bradley literally saved country music from impending death after the arrival of rock-n-roll in the late `50s with their "Nashville Sound," smoothing out the music's hillbilly rawness and adding a touch of sophistication that attracted a new, larger audience.



Atkins died in 2001 at the age of 77, but his recorded legacy lives on. A new compilation, The Essential Chet Atkins, is a 40-song overview that gives just enough of a sampling to send you looking for more. His remarkable virtuosity is on display from the first track, "Guitar Blues (Pickin' the Blues)," a 1946 recording attributed to Chet Atkins and the All-Star Hillbillies that puts a country-blues sheen on a jazz setting, complete with a bit of Benny Goodman-like clarinet.



Atkins' theme song, "Country Gentleman," has a goofy charm in its melodic simplicity, while on his 1954 version of "Mr. Sandman," he literally plays guitar like ringin' a bell. "Get On with It" is a textbook lesson in his thumb-and-three-finger picking style; "Yakkety Axe" transfers Boots Randolph's classic "Yakkety Sax" to guitar. He plays "Take Five" alone, a difficult feat done with impeccable musicality.



In addition to instrumental recordings done under Atkins' own name, this set includes a tiny taste of his sideman work--Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, with whom Atkins first came to Nashville, on the hilariously cornball "Root, Hog or Die;" an early Everly Brothers rockabilly side, "Should We Tell Him;" Eddy Arnold celebrating Dallas over Chet's trademark licks on "Big D;" Don Gibson's country standard, "Oh Lonesome Me."



There are also tracks from several latter day collaborations, including a decidedly Dire Straitsian duet with Knopfler, a slinky slice of funk with Jerry Reed and a balladic "It Had to be You" with jazz great Les Paul.



copyright © 2007 Port Folio Weekly/Jim Newsom. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Originally published in Port Folio Weekly - August 14, 2007



"

Great overview of Atkins' career

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 08/01/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Guitar legend Chet Atkins had a dual legacy as one of the most accomplished guitar pickers in American popular music, and as the A&R director for RCA Nashville during the pivotal years when the pop-oriented "Nashville Sound" took root. The far-ranging 2-CD set shows Atkins at his best and in a variety of settings. There's the usual easy-listening treasure trove, as well as some twangy tunes from Chet's early years before he became the power behind the throne. There are also a few well-chosen examples of how the ever-busy Mr. Atkins was an amazing session musician, backing folks such as Don Gibson and the Everly Brothers on some of their biggest hits. Most of these recordings are from Atkins' RCA glory years, although the recent merger between Sony and BMG also makes it possible to add a few duet tracks from some later albums that came out on Columbia. All in all, this is a great introduction to his career, as well as a fun trip down memory lane for longtime fans. Recommended! (DJ Joe Sixpack)"