Guitar Legend: The RCA Years

Performer: Chet Atkins
Artist: Jerry Reed; Hank Snow; Floyd Cramer; Boots Randolph
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Chet Atkins (vocals, guitar, bass); "Sister" Billie Rose Atkins (vocals); Jimmy Atkins, Hank Snow, Jerry Reed, Mark Casstevens (guitar); Jerry Byrd (steel guitar); Dale Potter (fiddle); Charlie McCoy (harmonica, vibraphone); Joe Biviana (accordion); Boots Randolph (saxophone); Marvin Hughes (piano, organ, celeste); "Papa" John Gordy, Floyd Cramer, Hargus Robbins (piano); Kossie Gardner (organ); Charles R. Green, Holly Swanson, Johnny Johnson (bass); Buddy Harman, Larrie Londin (drums). Producers: Stephen H. Sholes, Charles R. Grean, Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson. Compilation producers: Rob Santos, Rich Kienzle. Recorded between 1947 and 1978. Includes liner notes by Rich Kienzle. Digitally remastered by Elliott Federman (SAJE Sound, New York, New York). It's safe to say that Chet Atkins invented what we know as the country guitar style. But this brilliantly programmed retrospective shows that Atkins was equally fluent in scores of other styles. There's not a dud to be found on GUITAR LEGEND: THE RCA YEARS. Each of these tracks, recorded between 1947 and 1978, is a delight. And Atkins makes it all look so easy. GUITAR LEGEND� is nothing but highlights, though Atkins' stunning solo-guitar transcription of Dave Brubeck's signature piano tune "Take Five" stands out. So does "Centipede Boogie," featuring an up-the-neck solo that scores of rockabilly guitarists (and later George Harrison) were quick to appropriate. And the lightly swinging, tongue-in-cheek instrumental "Satan's Doll" suggests something a diabolical Duke Ellington might have composed.

Among fingerstyle country guitar players, perhaps only Merle Travis can rival Chet Atkins, whose distinctive sound defined an entire generation of Nashville country. Atkins has played an equally important role as a record producer. As RCA's chief Nashville producer in the '50s and '60s, Atkins oversaw sessions for Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Jim Reeves, Don Gibson, and countless others. He was one of the chief architects of the polished country style that came to be known as the "Nashville sound," but his own productions were more tasteful and appealing than those for which the genre is frequently lambasted. Atkins remained active into the '90s, but succumbed to cancer in 2001.

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