They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me.ĭesigned electric guitars for the Gretsch Company, including the one George Harrison played the first two times The Beatles performed on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show, 'The Chet Atkins Country Gentleman'. Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. I realized that what I liked, the public would like, too, 'cause I'm kind of square. He could only help you: he was so good, he could never hurt you. But he was such a good musician that everyone had a terrible amount of respect for him, so nobody stepped on his toes. If they said something smart to him, his face would get real red and he'd say something back. He didn't take any talk from any producer. Hank Garland was very outspoken and he had a lot of ideas. I don't recall the artist now, but I remember then that I thought it was the greatest guitar chorus I'd ever heard, so I checked around and found out it was Hank Garland who played it. I was in Knoxville, and I heard this chorus. He knew I liked it when he sang in that low key, but occasionally he'd kid me a little and pitch it up a little too high. I always tried to keep him down in a low key, because when he did that, he sounded wonderful to me. He was a great baritone, but he wasn't a very good tenor. When I first met and started working with him, he was singing too high. When I was done, one lady told me 'You're good but you're no Chet Atkins.'Įverything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre. Once when I was on a cruise ship I was practicing on deck and drew a little crowd. He told me to throw away the fiddle for good and he'd give me a job playing guitar. One time the radio-station boss heard me playing my guitar in the back seat of his car. I was more interested in my guitar than the fiddle and I'd fool around practicing whenever I could. Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year, Country Music Association Award for Vocal Event of the Year, Yakety Sax, I'll See You in My Dreams, Mister SandmanĬhet Atkins: A Life in Music, A Tribute to Chet Atkins, Webb Pierce & Chet Atkins, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed: In Concert, Chet Atkins: Rare Performances 1955-1975, Hank Williams: In the Hank Williams Tradition, Guitar Odyssey: Wired for Sound Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance, Country Music Association Award for Instrumentalist of the Year, Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, Country Music Association Award for Musician of the Year, Billboard Music Century Award. Ida Sharp, James Arley Atkins, Yakety Sax, I'll See You in My Dreams, Mister Sandman Guitarist, Singer, Record producer, Songwriter, Session musician, Yakety Sax, I'll See You in My Dreams, Mister Sandman

June 30, 2001, Nashville, Tennessee, United States Atkins produced records for The Browns, Hank Snow, 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.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 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. His trademark picking style and musicianship brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul and later Jerry Reed.

Chet Atkins Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Chester Burton 'Chet' Atkins (J– June 30, 2001) was an American guitarist, occasional vocalist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins' signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis.

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