Chet Atkins was born 98 years ago today.
Atkins was a guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound. It expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans.
Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul and Maybelle Carter, brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally.
Atkins produced records for The Browns, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings and many others.
Born in Luttrell, Tennessee near Clinch Mountain, Atkins’ parents divorced when he was six. After the divorce, he was raised by his mother. He was the youngest of three boys and a girl. He started out on the ukulele, later moving on to the fiddle. At age nine, he traded his brother, Lowell, an old pistol and some chores for a guitar.
He said 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 Fortson, Georgia to live with his father because of a critical 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.
While living in Fortson, he attended the historic Mountain Hill School. He would return in the 1990s to play a series of charity concerts to save the school from demolition.
A very young Chet, when a guitar-playing friend or relative would come to visit, would put his ear so close to the instrument that it became difficult for that person to play. He 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.
Atkins’ first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used. 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.
Later in life, he lightheartedly gave himself (along with John Knowles, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed and Marcel Dadi) the honorary degree CGP, standing for "Certified Guitar Player."
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. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Whereas Travis's right hand used 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.
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, where Merle Travis had formerly worked. 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. He got the job. 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.
While working with a Western band in Denver, Atkins came to the attention of RCA Victor. When Steve Sholes, A&R director of country music at RCA, signed him, his style was suddenly in vogue.
While he hadn't yet had a hit record on RCA Victor, 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 Victor artists. Atkins's first hit single was "Mr. Sandman," followed by "Silver Bell," which he did as a duet with Hank Snow.
When Sholes took over pop production in 1957 — a result of his success with Elvis Presley — he put Atkins in charge of RCA Victor's Nashville division. With country music record sales declining 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 Atkins said was a label created by the media attached to a style of recording done during that period to keep country (and their jobs) viable. By the late 1970s, RCA decided to remove Atkins from his producing duties and replace him with younger men. He also felt stifled because the record company would not let him branch into jazz.
In the mid-1970s, he collaborated with one of his influences, Les Paul. Chester & Lester and Guitar Monsters were recorded. Chester & Lester was one of the best-selling recordings of Atkins's career.
Atkins is notable for his broad influence. 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 music of Eric Johnson, an invited guest on Atkins's recording sessions. When Atkins attempted to copy Johnson’s "Cliffs of Dover," it led to the creation of a unique arrangement of "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)."
Atkins continued performing in the 1990s, but his health declined after being diagnosed with cancer in 1996. He died on June 30, 2001, at his home in Nashville at age 77.