Subject: RE: OBIT: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... (1924-June 2001) From: Desert Dancer Date: 13 Jul 11 - 11:31 AM A sweet video of Chet and Dolly -- with something different from Chet. This seemed the best thread for it... ~ Becky in Long Beach |
Subject: RE: OBIT: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... (1924-June 2001) From: Richie Date: 02 Sep 09 - 03:00 PM I did a show with Chet in 1992 in Winston-Salem NC. When I went to pick up one of the other performers Chet was there in the hotel lobby ready to go. He asked me if he could ride with us so I said sure. My trunk was packed with all my equipment and after moving everything around- there wasn't room for Chet's guitar! Chet had to wait for another ride and I was embarassed beyond words. Richie |
Subject: RE: OBIT: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... (1924-June 2001) From: bankley Date: 02 Sep 09 - 09:00 AM Thanks Joe.... a good way for a picker to start the day |
Subject: RE: OBIT: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... (June 2001) From: Joe Offer Date: 02 Sep 09 - 01:21 AM In another thread, sommebody posted a link to this document, an article written by Janis Ian: http://janisian.com/article-chet_atkins.html. It's no longer available on the Janis Ian Website, so I thought I'd post it here:
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Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Peter T. Date: 06 Jul 01 - 02:22 PM He was hit by a heron. yours, Peter T. |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Ebbie Date: 06 Jul 01 - 02:14 PM sorry |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Jul 01 - 09:54 PM like i said in the other thread, nashville is really something else when one of it's heroes passes. I was living there for Marty Robbins and can only surmise what atkin's funeral was like. Spaw |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Ebbie Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:40 PM Right! That struck me too, Kim. Waylon was my musical hero for years and I still don't want him to die! Does anyone know what his problem is? Seems like I read about a car wreck- no, that was George Jones... :( Ebbie |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Ebbie Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:38 PM Right! That struck me too, Kim. Waylon was my musical hero for years and I still don't want him to die! Does anyone know what his problem is? Seems like I read about a car wreck- no, that was George Jones... :( Ebbie |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Ebbie Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:34 PM Right! That one struck me too, Kim. Waylon was my musical hero for years- and I still :( Ebbie |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Kim C Date: 05 Jul 01 - 01:01 PM Very nice article. The visitation and funeral were both open to the public. Does anyone know why Waylon's in a wheelchair? |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Peter T. Date: 04 Jul 01 - 04:32 PM There is an official website that might interest some: www.misterguitar.com yours, Peter T. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: beachcomber Date: 04 Jul 01 - 03:41 PM Mountain, you ol' dog you, You're brilliant. Your blue clicky worked like a charm and I've "ear" marked that great site you pointed out. Isn't it an excellent ref for country songs/singers, quite a complement to our own DT I think. Many thanks hope I can return favour sometime. Beach PS Bernard and you, you'll be the death of me with all this technology. |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Mark Clark Date: 04 Jul 01 - 01:59 PM Thanks, Brian, for including that article here. - Mark |
Subject: RE: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Brian Hoskin Date: 04 Jul 01 - 10:07 AM Here's the text: July 4, 2001 Guitars Gently Weep as Nashville Pays Tribute to Chet Atkins By DAVID FIRESTONE ASHVILLE, July 3 — Chet Atkins was as lean and spare and intense as Nashville is boisterous, a reticent musical craftsman who shaped and defined a city of showmen. At his funeral today, a worshipful country music industry tried to define its debt to him, finally giving up on superlatives and expressing itself as he did in the gentle picking of a Gretsch electric guitar. As his friends Marty Stuart and Vince Gill played some of Mr. Atkins's hits, much of country music's royalty sat motionless on the hard wooden pews of the Ryman Auditorium, the old gospel tabernacle where Mr. Atkins played so often with the Grand Ole Opry. There was a strong sense among them that Mr. Atkins, who died of cancer on Saturday at 77, was the best musician of their music's founding generation, and took with him something elemental that is now lost in the marketplace. "We will never see the like of his talent in one man," said a barely composed Eddy Arnold, the country singer whose hits in the 1950's and 60's were produced by Mr. Atkins. "When you talked about who was the greatest guitar player, Chet's name was never mentioned, because you just took him and put him up there, and then you argued about the rest of them." But even beyond his six-string virtuosity, Mr. Atkins presided over the city for decades as its most prominent recording executive, a principal creator of the smooth and palatable "Nashville Sound" that took the music from its bluegrass origins to worldwide commercial success and erected a pillar of the state's economy. If the strings and controlled arrangements he and other producers added to the music stole some of its spontaneity and edge over the years, Mr. Atkins always said he did what was necessary to keep from being drowned out by rock 'n' roll. Some results of his rescue efforts were evident in the long caravan of limousines that pulled up to the side door of the Ryman this morning and discharged celebrities that he first signed to recording contracts, or produced, or coached through ramshackle lives to stardom. "He changed my life," said Charley Pride, the industry's only black superstar, discovered by Mr. Atkins. "Everything that ever happened to me started with him." Dolly Parton, whom he signed to RCA, was not there, but Ray Stevens was, and Steve Wariner and T. G. Sheppard. But it was the older stars, Mr. Atkins's own fragile generation, who showed up in the greatest numbers, struggling through infirmities to pay their tributes. Kitty Wells and her husband, Johnny Wright, walked slowly into the hall, Mr. Wright using a cane. Jumpin' Bill Carlisle, 92, whose Knoxville radio show gave Mr. Atkins early exposure in the 1940's, arrived in a wheelchair, a difficult sight for those who remembered him bounding across the stage of the Ryman during two of the three decades it housed the Opry. Waylon Jennings, country music's legendary rowdy, squirmed into his wheelchair from the back of the day's longest stretch limousine. "He was a genius," said Mr. Jennings, whom Mr. Atkins signed and produced. "We used to argue and we'd get madder than hell. Then we'd go inside and make some great records." Mr. Atkins's orange Gretsch guitar sat on the front of the stage in a spotlight during the service, next to one of his signature white hats. His friend Paul Yandell played a similar guitar on "Mr. Sandman," an instrumental hit for Mr. Atkins in 1955, and Connie Smith sang the gospel hymn "Farther Along," backed by an instrumental group that included Mr. Stuart on mandolin. Later, perhaps in a tribute to Mr. Atkins's sweetened production style, Mr. Stuart and several other musicians played the old Skeeter Davis song "The End of the World," accompanied by a string quartet. Garrison Keillor, who became a friend of Mr. Atkins's after many years of sharing the stage on Mr. Keillor's public radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," gave a eulogy laced with quotations from their personal correspondence, revealing a joking side to the guitarist not always on display in the studio. "I had a screamer in the audience," Mr. Atkins wrote Mr. Keillor a few years ago. "I saw her later and she wasn't all that bad, about 35. A fellow could run some weight off her and maybe fall in love." Mr. Keillor told some of the Atkins stories that have entered into local lore: How Mr. Atkins grew up poor and asthmatic in eastern Tennessee, replacing a broken string on his Sears Silvertone guitar with a wire from the screen door; how he developed his trademark picking style listening to Merle Travis on a crystal radio set; how he enchanted listeners at his first Opry performance in 1946 with an acoustic version of "Maggie," prompting Minnie Pearl to kiss him and say: "You're a wonderful musician. You're just what we've been needing around here." Mr. Keillor reminded his audience of about 1,800 that Mr. Atkins knew and played with Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, and said Dolly Parton recently kept him laughing for hours as she flirted outrageously with him on his deathbed. And he called Mr. Atkins the "guitar player of the 20th century," perhaps the greatest influence on other guitar players any musician has had. "You might be shy and homely and puny and from the sticks and feel looked down upon," Mr. Keillor said, "but if you could play the guitar like that, you would be aristocracy and you would never have to point it out. Anybody with sense would know, and the others don't matter that much anyway."
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information |
Subject: OBIT: Chet Atkins Funeral From: Peter T. Date: 04 Jul 01 - 09:52 AM Nice article today on Chet Atkins funeral in the NYTimes -- tout Nashville came out -- on the Web by now I guess at www.nytimes.com. yours, Peter T. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Mountain Dog Date: 03 Jul 01 - 07:19 PM Dear Beach, Go to the COWPIE C&W lyrics site here, assuming my blue clicky skills have not deserted me and click on the Song Corral icon. Check under "A" for Atkins and you'll find the chords/lyrics for this and several other tunes. Incidentally, Chet recorded the tune on his "Chet Atkins, CGP" album around 1988. ("CGP" is, of course, Country Guitar Player...) All the best! P.S. Just in case my blue clicky mojo has faded, here's the URL for the COWPIE site: http://www.roughstock.com/cowpie/ |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: beachcomber Date: 03 Jul 01 - 04:42 PM Thanks Mountain Dog, That is exactly the song and the emotion that I remember. I was hoping that some kind person would furnish me with athe lyric and maybe even a chord progression? beach |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Jim Krause Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:20 PM Damn the time. All my heroes are kicking the bucket. What am I gonna do? Thank heaven Pete Seeger and Doc Watson are still with us. If either of you finds out about this post, do take care of yourselves, and please, please keep on picking and singing. Jim |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Mountain Dog Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:57 AM Dear Beachcomber, I think the song you're remembering about "Dad" was Chet's "I Still Can't Say Goodbye", a truly moving elegy that he always dedicated to his own father's memory. We saw him play it in concert about seven years ago and it brought an unbidden tear to the eye then...it does even moreso right now. Thank you, Chet, for all you gave us while you were here and for the legacy you leave behind. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Ebbie Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:10 AM Kim, thanks for the leap of the heart and a broad grin. You are so right. Ebbie |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: LR Mole Date: 02 Jul 01 - 04:53 PM As Auden said of Yeats,"...he became his admirers..." Later,Chet. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Walking Eagle Date: 02 Jul 01 - 03:22 PM Farewell to a fine guitarist. I think I'm going to turn off the radio and not read the papers for awhile. Tired of bad news. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Kim C Date: 02 Jul 01 - 11:54 AM Having grown up in Nashville, Chet Atkins was always part of my consciousness. Mister and I went to see the Prairie Home Companion at the Ryman several years ago, which was the first live show there after the big renovation. Of course Chet was on the bill. What a guy. It always seemed to me that Chet was for the artists, even though he had worked for the big business. I heard a radio interview with him one time where he really slammed the Country Music Association. I wish I could remember what he said. At the time it made me gasp! The CMA is a sacred cow, you know. But Chet owned this town and could say whatever he wanted and couldn't nobody touch him. Ebbie, my dad is partyin' down with your brother and Chet and John Hartford :-) |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Pinetop Slim Date: 02 Jul 01 - 10:41 AM Along with everything else, seems he did a lot to nurture young talent -- dulcimer player David Schnaufer and songwriter Cheryl Wheeler come to mind, but I think there were lots of others. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: GUEST,SharonA Date: 02 Jul 01 - 09:57 AM I feel like we're missing the Rapture or something... a lot of people who excelled in their crafts have passed on over these last couple of weeks. For what it's worth, my local folk-song society friends and I jammed on "Your Cheatin' Heart" in Chet Atkins's honor last night. He will indeed be sorely missed, but thankfully his sound will live on. What a treasure we have lost. SharonA |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: GMT Date: 02 Jul 01 - 07:56 AM Thanks McGrath. Maybe we'll be lucky and get a programme on the telly about him. Gary |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 02 Jul 01 - 07:33 AM Did they mention it here in the UK ?
Here is the Guardian obituary.
Everyone has talked about him as a performer. As a record producer responsible for "the Nashville Sound", maybe there's another side to it ("casting out the backwoodsy banjos and fiddles and bringing in brass and string sections and vocal choruses"). A quote in that obituary suggests that he may have been a little inclined to agree with that:
There were no breast-beating recantations but, according to Dawidoff, "he still [had] reservations about how far afield he took country music from the relatively unadorned pre war downhome sound."
"We almost do lose our identity sometimes," Atkins admitted. "But somebody'll come along and get us back where we need to be."
And I think that says it all, about music and about a lot of other things, including the Mudcat.
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Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: BlueJay Date: 02 Jul 01 - 04:32 AM When I first started playing guitar, in the early sixties, I took lessons from Gary Atkins, Chet's nephew. A helluva guitarist in his own right. I couldn't even tune the gutair, much less play anything. Gary got me through the fundamentals, and in retrospect he was probably playing a Gibson ES-335, or a similar model. Needless to say I've had a fondness for Chet's music ever since. I wish I could play one tenth as well as either of them. Does anyone know whatever happened to Gary Atkins? Rest in Peace, Chet. Chetfest in Nashville is bound to be an incredible event this year. I don't know the dates, but I think it starts in a week or so from now. If any of you can attend, it would be more than worth your while, I'm sure. I can't go, but at least my daughter, Annie Enke and my son in law, David Enke will be there. They have a new mini-disc recorder. I sure hope they make proper use of it. Good night, Chet. THANKS, BlueJay |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: GMT Date: 02 Jul 01 - 04:16 AM This is not a happy day. I log onto Mudcat to here that Chet is gone. Did they mention it here in the UK ? A new star shines in heaven. So long Chet and thanks. Gary |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Ebbie Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:15 AM One of the images of Chet that have stayed with me is of going by his room and hearing him inside practicing his guitar all alone. It's no wonder at all that he was so good. Ebbie |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: SDShad Date: 02 Jul 01 - 12:17 AM You know, I don't think own a single one of the man's albums, but every time his unassuming smile showed up on the tube and those marvelously skilled fingers started to work their magic, I was mesmerized. He has been on my short, short list of favorite guitarists since I was a teenager. I can't believe we won't be seeing that face and those fingers anew ever again. It just ain't sinking in yet. Just trying to find a way to express my reaction and his influence is choking me up. Seems to me a little of his legacy has been passed along to anyone of the last couple of generations who's ever laid hands on a guitar, hoping to make beautiful sounds....damn, damn, damn. Threes, indeed. Chris Chris |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Big Mick Date: 01 Jul 01 - 07:55 PM Want to hear a wort of guitar artistry? Get the Chieftains CD with the title of "Another Country". Go to the cut called "Tahitian Skies/Chief O'Neill's Favorite Hornpipe". Chet starts out with Tahitian Skies accompanied by the Chieftains on their trad instrumentation with Moloney playing whistles. They then segue into Chief O'Neill's with Moloney on the pipes. Atkins then plays it on the guitar. I have been trying to copy his elegant rendition since I first heard it. Wonderful stuff. Mick |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Lanfranc Date: 01 Jul 01 - 06:49 PM The first guitar instrumental I ever essayed was "Windy and Warm", inspired by the playing of Chet Atkins. Thirty-five years on I still haven't quite got it right! One of my first tastes of Country Music was from the "Country Side of Jim Reeves", produced by Chet Atkins. One of may all-time favourite albumns is "Neck and Neck" - I played it again today to remember him. Another hero gone. I only knew the man by his music, and that only from records, and the humour (and humility) that shone through in that collaboration with Mark Knopfler and in the interviews and articles as quoted above. Like millions more, I'll miss him. We have his legacy in recorded form, but it is sad that there will be no more. Vaya con dios, Chet. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: bobby's girl Date: 01 Jul 01 - 06:28 PM So sad - I loved his album with Mark Knopfler and wanted to know more. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: vindelis Date: 01 Jul 01 - 03:56 PM Just heard the news, my condolences to his family. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: GUEST,Frogmore Date: 01 Jul 01 - 03:56 PM A rare guy. It's impossible for ANYONE to not love the guitar playing of this man. R.I.P. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: beachcomber Date: 01 Jul 01 - 03:48 PM What terribly sad news. Chet Atkins seemed to have been there "forever", did,nt he? What pleasure his playing gave to so many over all those years. For a long time I never knew that he was anything other than a brilliant musician who played on records with just about anyone whose records I happened to buy. One evening some years ago, on some kind of awards show on TV, I heard and saw him sing a very sentimental but lovely song about "Dad". It was around the time my own father died and I'm not ashamed to say , it moved me beyond belief. Does anyone know if a recording of that song exists? I believeI still have the video that I recorded of the show. RIP Chet your legacy will be your world wide memorial. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: marty D Date: 01 Jul 01 - 03:31 PM Great player, STRAGE album covers. For years I thought he was a beautiful woman! R.I.P Chet marty |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: rangeroger Date: 01 Jul 01 - 03:02 PM Thank you, Murray. Igot both last names right. Paddymac, I still have the 45 of Boo Boo Stick Beat,which I played for myself last night. I can stll remember my mother's consternation when I bought.She thought it was a stupid name for a song and saw no redeeming qualities in my purchase. Until she heard it and liked it. rr |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Murray MacLeod Date: 01 Jul 01 - 02:53 PM rangeroger, the lead guitarist in the Shadows was Hank Marvin. Bruce Welch played rhythm. Murray |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Mudlark Date: 01 Jul 01 - 02:34 PM Oh man, it is so hard to lose these people! I've admired this man, not just for his faulous virtuosity but also for his spirit, for as long as I can remember. I remember hearing him on Prairie Home Companion, a perfect foil for Keillor, funny, humble, always willing to play the straight man, but getting most of the laughs. My first "good" guitar was a relatively inexpensive production model but made by the man who made a guitar for Chet Atkins. Tho I rarely play this guitar anymore, being nylon stringed, I will always keep it on that association alone. What a loss....and how lucky we were to have him at all.... |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: grumpy al Date: 01 Jul 01 - 02:12 PM another musical GIANT gone. OH well! dont know what to say really a sad sad day grumps |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: JedMarum Date: 01 Jul 01 - 01:34 PM ... sad to see another music jewell pass, but he left behind such a legacy, such a gift! Thank God for Chet, thanks Chet for your music! |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Rick Fielding Date: 01 Jul 01 - 01:05 PM Chet wasn't the FIRST of the great fingerpickers, but he WAS the one who brought that style to AM. radio (Most of Merle's pop songs were vocals) God Bless him. He was probably responsible for a lot of kids looking much deeper into the music. Rick |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: RangerSteve Date: 01 Jul 01 - 10:14 AM I have nothing to add to the above messages, except to say that I feel pretty much the same as everyone. |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Alice Date: 01 Jul 01 - 09:45 AM I was very sad when I heard this news yesterday. In the 1950's, my older brother bought an electric guitar, and wrote a letter to Chet Atkins, telling him that he wanted to learn how to play like Chet. My brother received a personal letter in reply, encouraging him to keep playing. What a gentleman and sweet musician. Alice Flynn |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: GUEST,Whistleworks Date: 01 Jul 01 - 09:18 AM I was lucky to have lunch with Chet Atkins in 1990. He told me this story: He was practicing his guitar on the upper deck of a cruise ship as this man, a jogger, passed him by every few minutes. After a few passes, the jogger stopped and listened to him finish a tune. The jogger then said "You're pretty good, but you're no Chet Atkins." Absolutely true. So long, Chet. Bob Pegritz |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: Fiolar Date: 01 Jul 01 - 08:47 AM The first verse of "Ode" by Arthur O'Shaughnessy would seem relevant to Chet, methinks. "We are the music-makers, |
Subject: RE: Farewell, Chet Atkins.... From: paddymac Date: 01 Jul 01 - 07:29 AM I've been just sitting and remembering the great joys brought to us in the jungles of southeast asia listening to Chet's records. At the time, his was the unique sound of home that seemed to reach across the differences and speak to the commonalities of all the guys in the outfit. It's hard to pick out a "favorite" tune from his vast legacy of recordings, but a piece called "Bo Bo Stick Beat" keeps popping up in my mind. Thanks to the gods for letting us have him here for awhile. |
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