The Essential

Performer: Chet Atkins
Producer: Mark Knopfler; Chet Atkins; Lenny Breau; Archie Bleyer; Anita Kerr; Jim Bullet; Chester B. Atkins; Stephen H. Sholes; Bob Ferguson; Charles Grean; Bob Irwin (Compilation)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Additional personnel: Jerry Reed, Lenny Breau, Les Paul, Mark Knopfler, Merle Travis. THE ESSENTIAL CHET ATKINS is a solid two-disc overview of one of country music's true pioneers. Chet Atkins, as an artist, session guitarist, and producer, is one of the key figures in country music, the man most responsible for the development of the pop-oriented "countrypolitan" sound in the 1960s. This 40-track anthology covers all of Atkins's career and includes such canonical Atkins favorites as "Guitar Blues (Pickin' the Blues)" and "Country Gentleman," which provided the guitarist with his nickname. The set also includes comparative rarities such as a collaboration with Mother Maybelle Carter on the old folk standard "Root Hog Or Die" and the late-1950s stab at rock & roll, "Teen Scene." This is an ideal starting point for novices. Chet Atkins is more esteemed as a session musician and producer than as a solo artist, and critics have rightly noted that much of his immense catalog as a solo artist is unimpressive. It might thus be assumed that it would be difficult to pick a two-CD, 40-track career-spanning retrospective that would both represent much of his finest solo output and appeal to the general listener, not just the country music scholar. Happily, this set manages the difficult feat of doing exactly that, owing to intelligent selection of a wide cross-section of tracks, going all the way back to a 1946 single by Chester Atkins & the All-Star Hillbillies and all the way up to a 1995 recording (though most of the set predates 1970). Atkins' virtuosity as a guitarist has never been in question, but here it's allied with good material and taste, showing him as a fine blender of hillbilly, boogie, and jazz styles in a variety of contexts. It's mostly instrumental, of course, but wisely his talents as a sideman are showcased here and there too on vocal sides by the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers, and Don Gibson. Even the pop standards are good when chosen this judiciously, and there are some surprisingly bold moves into more electric and rock-influenced territory on cuts like "Slinkey" (with its innovative tremolo), "Boo Boo Stick Beat," the Shadows cover "Man of Mystery," and "Teen Scene" (which he co-wrote with Jerry Reed). It might not be the ultimate Atkins compilation, given the sheer quantity of material the guitarist recorded. But it's a good -- and, more crucially, very listenable -- starting point for surveying his work as a solo artist. ~ Richie Unterberger

Dirty Linen (p.76) - "THE ESSENTIAL CHET ATKINS showcases his considerable skills on the guitar....The dynamic duo of Chet Atkins and Les Paul is a formidable six-string powerhouse if ever there was one."

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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