CMT Blog: Chet Atkins

Some of my earliest memories of really connecting with music come from a Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle Vol. 1: The 20 Greatest Hits CD that my mother owned, and usually it started with a guitar lick. The riffs that John Fogerty wrote with Creedence were so iconic and natural that I never gave any thought to his skill with his instrument. But according to this interview in The Tennessean, even after all of his success he felt guilty about his guitar playing and how he never reached the level of his inspiration, Chet Atkins. Disproving the old-dogs-can't-learn-new-tricks theory, he spent almost two decades practicing and now feels like he can jam with Buddy Miller -- who contributed to Fogerty's The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again album -- without having to apologize first. That's pretty amazing, if you ask me, and shows what determination can do. Needless to say, I am pumped to see what he's got this Sunday at the Ryman. Maybe it will be something like this trailer from his concert DVD, Comin' Down the Road.

If you know anything about Dolly Parton, you've heard a Dolly-ism. Like, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap" or when a fan shouts that he loves her, her reply is always, "I thought I told you to stay in the truck." Take for instance yesterday afternoon's (Nov. 9) private screening of a new CD/DVD combo, Live From London, or as she jokes, her "Double D, Double Disc set." As I anxiously waited in a Nashville studio with other reporters, I could see the anticipation rising in each person's face as she walked to the podium. And in her regular fashion, she quickly turned the press conference into an intimate gathering of friends. And you guessed it, with more Dolly-isms. Here are a few favorites from last night's event. Because if you're anything like me, you just can't get enough of her words of wisdom:

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Famed songwriter Jerry Chesnut shared a fascinating story over the weekend about writing George Jones' enduring hit, "A Good Year for the Roses." During an interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 26), Chesnut said he had eliminated the landscaping budget on a new property and decided to do the work himself. But the roses he bought didn't grow. When he called the garden shop, he was told that the soil was too damp from all the rain -- specifically, "It's just not a good year for the roses." Chesnut thought to himself, "Now, what if it was a good year for the roses but everything else was falling to pieces?" Ta-da! A country classic was born.

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Here's a nifty, low-budget video from Jer Coons, a young singer-songwriter from Vermont. I like the tune and I have a feeling that Taylor Swift's legion of fans will embrace it, too. Coons says his favorite country artists are Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Chet Atkins and Nickel Creek -- which makes for a fun mix. He's about to launch a tour behind his brand new album, Speak, with many of the shows open to all ages. With a smile like that, I have a feeling he'll be especially popular with the college coeds.

Patty Loveless is making sure that songwriter Harlan Howard is not forgotten. She graciously serenaded an industry crowd with "Blame It on Your Heart" at the ACM Honors last night (Sept. 22) in Nashville, where Howard was posthumously honored with the ACM's Poet's Award. Although he died in 2002, he's still considered country music's most legendary songwriter. In addition to "Blame It on Your Heart," his credits include "Heartaches by the Number," "I Fall to Pieces," "Pick Me Up on Your Way Down," "Tiger by the Tail" and "Why Not Me?" as well as "Busted," which Loveless includes on her new album, Mountain Soul II.

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Steve Wariner has a new album coming that salutes his mentor and friend Chet Atkins, and he shared some of it during a Saturday afternoon (Aug. 29) performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Wariner led his set with "Leaving Luttrell," followed by "Sails," with its beautiful melody brought to life by Wariner's tender touch. Along with the exceptional picking, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Wariner and fellow c.g.p. (certified guitar picker) John Knowles swap stories about Atkins' wry sense of humor, his humble nature and his desire to keep learning. It made me wish I had met him. Fortunately his legacy is evident in My Tribute to Chet Atkins (due Nov. 10), which balances Atkins' songs with Wariner's new compositions.

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When Jerry Reed died this week, country music lost one of its most colorful characters. Yeah, he wrote some memorable songs, made some great records and developed a guitar style that was truly his own, but his image as a redneck good ol' boy from Georgia permeated his music and ultimately led to his success as an actor. Through the years, other country music artists have been in feature films, but how many of those movies have been as successful as his work with Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit or with Adam Sandler in The Waterboy?

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I've been in Nashville for just about a year now. I guess that puts me somewhere between assimilated local, and wide eyed visitor. I'm still finding new and interesting things almost every week, but I've also had time to key in on a few of my favorite Nashville attractions. With vacation season just around the corner, why not share some of these "can't miss" spots.

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Merlefest is probably the world's largest Americana and roots music festival. I was at the very first Merle Watson Memorial Festival (as it was called in those days) 21 years ago. The first concert featured jams with Chet Atkins, Doc, Earl Scruggs, Mac Wiseman, Jim Shumate, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Grandpa Jones, Marty Stuart, Newgrass Revival, John Hartford, Mark O'Connor and others inside the Walker Center and outside on a flatbed truck stage. I remember sitting on hay bales outside watching the whole thing go down. A few years later, I was playing Merlefest as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station. One particular year was memorable because the mainstage show consisted of us and Ronnie Milsap, who just murdered the crowd with a solo guitar version of "Knoxville Girl."

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At this point in the digital age, why isn't every album ever released by a major label available either on CD or as a download? And why does it so often take a foreign record label to re-release classic music that's sitting in a corporate vault?

I just got back from the Ernest Tubb Record Shop after learning that two of Chet Atkins' RCA albums from the mid ‘70s -- The Night Atlanta Burned and The First Nashville Guitar Quartet -- were finally released on CD. Not by RCA, of course, but by Raven Records, an Australian company that packaged them together on one disc. I gladly plunked down $24, but honestly, for the past decade, I would have paid twice that amount -- but that CD simply didn't exist and the download still doesn't.

Atkins recorded both albums with acoustic ensembles -- The Night Atlanta Burned with guitarist Paul Yandell, mandolinist Johnny Gimble and violinist Lisa Silver and The First Nashville Guitar Quartet with guitarists Liona Boyd, John Knowles and John Pell. Great stuff. While interviewing Chet Atkins in the mid ‘90s -- when he was recording for Columbia -- I asked if he thought The Night Atlanta Burned would ever be released on CD. He said, "All of that belongs to RCA. I'd love to see it released, but I don't have any control over what they do."

Raven made me very happy through the years with some of the titles they've been the first to release on CD, including an expanded version of Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb's Reunion. Raven was also the first to offer CD versions of Michael Murphey's Geronimo's Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir, two excellent albums he made for A&M in the ‘70s.

If projected sales figures prohibit releasing CD versions of certain albums, how much does it cost to make a download available? No doubt, there are financial and legal factors at play in some situations, but it sure looks like the major labels are still sitting on a lot of music because they either don't know what they've got -- or don't care enough about it to make it available to the public.