Chester Burton Atkins
(June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), better known as Chet Atkins
, was an influential American guitarist and record producer who created, along with Owen Bradley, the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.
His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally. Atkins produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Connie Smith, Waylon Jennings and others.
Among many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
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CHET ATKINS TICKETS
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Biography
Childhood and early life
Chet Atkins was born on
June 20,
1924, in
Luttrell, Tennessee, near the Clinch Mountains, and grew up with his mother, two brothers and a sister—he was the youngest. His parents divorced when he was six. He started out on the
ukulele, later moving on to the fiddle, but traded his brother Lowell an old pistol and some chores for a guitar when he was nine.
[1] He stated in his 1974 autobiography, "We were so poor and everybody around us was so poor that it was the forties before anyone even knew there had been a depression." Forced to relocate to
Georgia to live with his father due to a near-fatal
asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession. Because of his illness, he was forced to sleep in a straight-back chair in order to breathe comfortably. On those nights, he would play his guitar until he fell asleep holding it, a habit which lasted his whole life.
[2]
Stories have been told about the very young Chet who, when a friend or relative would come to visit, and if that person played a guitar, would crowd in and put his ear so very close to the instrument that it became difficult for that person to play.
This was an early demonstration of his affinity for the instrument that would later become his life, and that he would take around the world, playing packed concert halls from Nashville to the Boston Pops.
Atkins became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school.
He would use the restroom in the school to practice, because it gave better acoustics.
[3] [4] His first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used.
[5] He later purchased a semi-acoustic electric guitar and amp, but he had to travel many miles to find an electrical outlet since his home had no electricity.
[6]
Atkins did not have a strong style of his own until 1939 when (while still living in Georgia) he heard
Merle Travis picking over
WLW radio.
[7] This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Whereas Travis's right hand utilized his index finger for the melody and thumb for bass notes, Atkins expanded his right hand style to include picking with his first three fingers, with the thumb on bass. The result was a clarity and complexity that became his unmistakable sound.
Later in life he lightheartedly gave himself (along with John Knowles,
Tommy Emmanuel,
Steve Wariner and
Jerry Reed) the honorary degree CGP, standing for "Certified Guitar Player".
His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the
Les Paul Trio in New York.
Chet Atkins was a
Ham Radio General class licensee. Formerly using the call-sign, WA4CZD, he obtained the vanity call sign W4CGP in 1998 to reflect the C.G.P. name. He was an
ARRL member.
[8]
Early musical career
After dropping out of high school in 1942, Atkins landed a job at
WNOX-AM radio in
Knoxville. There he played fiddle and guitar with singer
Bill Carlisle and comic
Archie Campbell as well as becoming a member of the station's "Dixieland Swingsters," a small swing instrumental combo. After three years, he moved to
WLW-AM in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where Merle Travis had formerly worked.
After six months he moved to Raleigh and worked with Johnnie and Jack before heading for
Richmond, Virginia, where he performed with Sunshine Sue Workman. Atkins's shy personality worked against him, as did the fact that his sophisticated style led many to doubt he was truly "country." He was fired often but was soon able to land another job at another radio station due to his unique playing ability.
Traveling to Chicago, Atkins auditioned for
Red Foley, who was leaving his star position on
WLS-AM's
National Barn Dance
to join the
Grand Ole Opry.
[9] Atkins made his first appearance at the Opry in 1946 as a member of Foley's band. He also recorded a single for Nashville-based Bullet Records that year. That single, "Guitar Blues," was fairly progressive, including as it did, a clarinet solo by Nashville dance band musician Dutch McMillan with
Owen Bradley on piano. He had a solo spot on the Opry; but when that was cut, Atkins moved on to
KWTO-AM in
Springfield, Missouri. Despite the support of executive
"Si" Siman, however, he was soon was fired for not sounding "country enough."
RCA Victor signs Atkins
While working with a western band in
Denver, Colorado, Atkins came to the attention of
RCA Victor. Siman had been encouraging
Steve Sholes to sign Atkins, as his style (with the success of
Merle Travis as a hit recording artist) was suddenly in vogue. Sholes, A&R director of country music at RCA, tracked Atkins down to Denver.
He made his first RCA recordings in Chicago in 1947. They did not sell. He did some studio work for RCA that year but had relocated to Knoxville again where he worked with
Homer and Jethro on WNOX's new Saturday night radio show the Tennessee Barn Dance and the popular Midday Merry Go Round. Still, it was a hard way to make a living for a family man for by then he had a wife and daughter. He even contemplated tuning pianos as a sideline.
In 1949 he left WNOX to join
Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters back on KWTO. This incarnation of the old
Carter Family featured Maybelle Carter and daughters June, Helen and Anita. Their work soon attracted attention from the
Opry
. The group relocated to
Nashville in mid-1950. Atkins began working on recording sessions, performing on
WSM-AM and the
Opry
.
While he hadn't yet had a hit record on RCA his stature was growing. He began assisting Sholes as a Session Leader when the New York-based producer needed help organizing Nashville sessions for RCA artists. Atkins's first hit single was "
Mr. Sandman," followed by "Silver Bell," which he did as a duet with
Hank Snow. His albums also became more popular, and he was featured on ABC-TV's
The Eddy Arnold Show
during the summer of 1956.
In addition to recording, Atkins became a design consultant for
Gretsch, who manufactured a popular Chet Atkins line of electric guitars from 1955-1980. Atkins also became manager of RCA's Nashville studio, eventually inspiring and seeing the completion of the legendary
RCA Studio B. This studio was the first studio built specifically for the purpose of recording on the now famous
Music Row.
Performer and producer
When Sholes took over pop production in 1957 — a result of his success with
Elvis Presley — he put Atkins in charge of RCA's Nashville division. With country music record sales in tatters as rock and roll took over, Atkins and
Bob Ferguson took their cue from
Owen Bradley and eliminated fiddles and steel guitar as a means of making country singers appeal to pop fans. This became known as 'The
Nashville Sound' which Chet said was a label created by the media attached to a style of recording done during that period in an effort to keep country (and their jobs) viable.
Atkins used the
Jordanaires and a rhythm section on hits like
Jim Reeves' "
Four Walls" and "
He'll Have to Go"
[10] and
Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Blue Blue Day."
[11] The once rare phenomenon of having a country hit "
cross over" to pop success became more common. He and Bradley had essentially put the producer in the driver's seat, guiding an artist's choice of material and the musical background.
Atkins made his own records, which usually visited pop standards and
jazz, in a sophisticated home studio, often recording the rhythm tracks at RCA but adding his solo parts at home, refining it all until the result satisfied him.
Guitarists of all styles came to admire various Atkins albums for their unique musical ideas and in some cases experimental electronic ideas. In this period he became known internationally as
Mister Guitar
(also the name of
one of Atkins's albums).
His trademark "Atkins Style" of playing, which was and is very difficult for a guitarist to master, uses the thumb and first two — sometimes three — fingers of the right hand. He developed this style from listening to Merle Travis occasionally on a primitive radio. He was sure no one could play that articulately with just the thumb and index finger (which actually was exactly how Travis played) and he assumed it required the thumb and two fingers — and that was the style he pioneered and mastered.
He enjoyed jamming with fellow studio musicians which led to them being asked to perform at the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. Although that performance was canceled due to rioting, a live recording of the group (
After the Riot at Newport
) was released. Atkins performed by invitation at the
White House for presidents Kennedy through George H. W. Bush. Atkins was a member of the
Million Dollar Band
during the 1980s. He is also well known for his song "Yankee Doodle Dixie," in which he played
Yankee Doodle
at the same time as
Dixie
on the same guitar.
Before his mentor Sholes died in 1968, Atkins had become vice president of RCA's country division. He had brought
Waylon Jennings,
Willie Nelson,
Connie Smith,
Bobby Bare,
Dolly Parton,
Jerry Reed and
John Hartford to the label in the 1960s and inspired and helped countless others.
[12] He took a considerable risk during the mid-1960s, when the
Civil Rights Movement sparked violence throughout the South by signing country music's first African-American singer
Charley Pride, who sang rawer country than the smoother music Atkins had pioneered. But Atkins's hunch paid off. Ironically, some of Pride's biggest fans were from the most conservative country fans, many of whom didn't care for the pop stylings Atkins had added.
Atkins's own biggest hit single came in 1965, with "Yakety Axe," an adaptation of his friend saxophonist
Boots Randolph's "
Yakety Sax". He rarely performed in those days, and eventually had to hire other RCA producers like
Bob Ferguson and
Felton Jarvis to alleviate his workload.
Atkins retires from producing
In the 1970s, Atkins became increasingly stressed by his executive duties. He produced fewer records but could still turn out hits such as
Perry Como's pop hit "
And I Love You So". He recorded extensively with close friend and fellow picker
Jerry Reed, who'd become a hit artist in his own right. A 1973 bout of
colon cancer, however, led Atkins to redefine his role at RCA, to allow others to handle administration while he went back to his first love, the guitar, often recording with
Reed or even
Homer & Jethro's Jethro Burns (Atkins's brother-in-law) after Homer died in 1971.
By the end of the 1970s, Atkins's time had passed as a producer. New executives at RCA had different ideas. He first retired from his position in the company, and then began to feel stifled as an artist because RCA would not let him branch out into
jazz. At the same time he grew dissatisfied with the direction Gretsch (no longer family-owned) was going and withdrew his authorization for them to use his name and began designing guitars with
Gibson. He left RCA in 1982 and signed with
Columbia Records, for whom he produced a debut album in 1983.
While he was with Columbia, he showed his creativity and taste in jazz guitar, and in various other contexts. Jazz had always been a strong love of his, and often in his career he was criticized by "pure" country musicians for his jazz influences. He also said on many occasions that he did not like being called a "country guitarist", insisting that he was a guitarist, period. Although he played 'by ear' and was a masterful improviser he was able to read music and even performed some classical guitar pieces. When
Roger C. Field, a friend, suggested to him in 1991 that he record and perform with a female singer he did so with
Suzy Bogguss.
He did return to his country roots for albums he recorded with
Mark Knopfler and
Jerry Reed.
Knopfler had long mentioned Atkins as one of his earliest influences, and the opportunity to perform with him was something of a surprise and treat to both guitarists of differing genres. He also collaborated with Australian guitar legend
Tommy Emmanuel. On being asked to name the ten most influential guitarists of the 20th century, he named
Django Reinhardt to the first position on the list, and placed himself at fifth position.
[13]
In later years he even went back to radio, appearing on
Garrison Keillor's
Prairie Home Companion
radio program, on
PBS, even picking up a fiddle from time to time.
Legacy
Atkins received numerous awards, including 14 Grammy Awards and nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards.
In 1993 he was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Billboard
magazine awarded him their Century Award, their "highest honor for distinguished creative achievement", in December 1997.
[14]
Atkins expanded the universe for guitarists — and lovers of guitar music — in a way no one did before. His love for numerous styles of music can be traced from his early recording of stride-pianist
James P. Johnson's "Johnson Rag," all the way to the rock stylings of
Eric Johnson, an invited guest on Atkins' recording sessions who, when Chet attempted to copy his influential rocker "
Cliffs of Dover," led to Atkins's creation of a unique arrangement of "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)."
Chet's recordings of "Malaguena" inspired a new generation of
Flamenco guitarists; the countless classical guitar selections peppering almost all his albums were, for many American artists working in the field today, the first classical guitar they ever heard. He could certainly play as jazzy or bluesy as he wanted, even recording
smooth jazz guitar still played on American airwaves today.
While he did more performing in the 1990s his health grew frail as the cancer returned and worsened. He died on June 30, 2001 at his home in Nashville.
[15]
Atkins was quoted many times throughout his career, and of his own legacy he once said:
“
| Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me.
| ”
|
A stretch of
Interstate 185 in southwest
Georgia (between
LaGrange and
Columbus) is named "Chet Atkins Parkway".
[16]
In 2002, Atkins was posthumously inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
His award was presented by
Marty Stuart and
Brian Setzer and accepted by Atkins' grandson, Jonathan Russell. The following year, Atkins ranked #28 in
CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music
.
At the age of 13, jazz guitarist
Earl Klugh was captivated watching Atkins' guitar playing on
The Perry Como Show.
[17] Atkins also inspired
Tommy Emmanuel.
Clint Black's album "
Nothin' but the Taillights" includes the song "Ode to Chet," which includes the lines "'Cause I can win her over like Romeo did Juliet, if I can only show her I can almost pick that legato lick like
Chet
" and "It'll take more than
Mel Bay 1, 2, & 3 if I'm ever gonna play like
CGP
." Atkins plays guitar on the track. At the end of the song Black and Atkins have a brief conversation.
Discography
Industry Awards
Country Music Association
- 1967 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1968 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1969 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1981 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1982 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1983 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1984 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1985 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1988 Instrumentalist of the Year
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Grammy Awards
- 1971 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Jerry Reed - Me and Jerry
- 1972 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Snowbird"
- 1975 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Merle Travis - The Atkins-Travis Traveling Show
- 1976 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "The Entertainer"
- 1977 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Les Paul - Chester and Lester
- 1982 Best Country Instrumental Performance - Country After All These Years
- 1986 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Mark Knopfler - "Cosmic Square Dance"
- 1991 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Mark Knopfler - "So Soft, Your Goodbye"
- 1991 Best Country Vocal Collaboration with Mark Knopfler - "Poor Boy Blues"
- 1993 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Jerry Reed - Sneakin' Around
- 1993 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award'
- 1994 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Asleep at the Wheel, Eldon Shamblin, Johnny Gimble, Marty Stuart, Reuben "Lucky Oceans" Gosfield & Vince Gill - "Red Wings"
- 1995 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Young Thing"
- 1997 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Jam Man"
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Posthumously inducted in 2002
References
- Country Music Television biography. Accessed on March 28, 2008.
- Atkins, Chet and Neely, Bill. (1974). "Country Gentleman". Chicago. Harry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-9051-0.
- Atkins, Chet and Neely, Bill. (1974). "Country Gentleman". Chicago. Harry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-9051-0. Pg 52.
- Chet Atkins' Workshop, RCA Victor LSP-2232 liner notes. 1961. David Halberstam
- Atkins, Chet and Cochran, Russ. (2003). "Me and My Guitars". Milwaukee. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-05565-8.
- Atkins, Chet and Neely, Bill. (1974). "Country Gentleman". Chicago. Harry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-9051-0. Pg 61-62.
- *Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
- ARRLWeb: 'Mister Guitar,' Chet Atkins, W4CGP, SK
- Rolling Stone Magazine. Accessed on March 28, 2008.
- Allmusic entry for ''Welcome to My World'', Jim Reeves 1996 box-set from Bear Family Records
- Allmusic biography entry for Don Gibson
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Accessed on March 28, 2008.
- Official Web Site of Chet Atkins. Accessed on March 31, 2008.
- Rolling Stone Chet Atkins biography. Accessed on May 10, 2008.
- CNN Obituary, July 2, 2001. Accessed June 21, 2008
- Chet Atkins Parkway bill resolution. Accessed June 5, 2008.
- Performing Arts Center, Buffalo State University