Chet Atkins playing "Man of Mystery"

[donna plasky]

Hi. I am so glad you enjoyed these videos. I am absolutely mesmerized by players like Chet Atkins. I watched some more clips. Now I understand what JimN meant a few weeks back, when he said that Hank (or maybe Norrie P.) was playing something Floyd Cramer style. I didn't know who that was until now -- he is the piano player in these Chet clips. The first video is very clear; the second is a little faded but I can hear the common sound between what they're playing and the Shads' "Kinda Cool" and "True True Lovin." Enjoy -- and thank you again for telling me you liked that I posted this material.

Kind regards,
Donna

[Iain Purdon]

Nice to hear Floyd Cramer with his big hit On The Rebound again. 1961 so you can see he was the influence. It was Floyd's tinkling piano on Elvis's Heartbreak Hotel too, amongst many others.

[dave robinson]

I have been a Chet Atkins fan for almost fifty years, although I could never get to grips with his wonderful style of playing, I'm a plectrum man and I'm happy just to admire his skill with the fingers. Pianist Floyd Cramer too was a big influence on the early rock & roll stuff coming out of RCA studio 'B", where I visited back in 2007 and could only stand in awe at he artistes that adorn the walls there, the likes of Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash and of course Elvis, just to name the household names with hundreds of gold and platinum discs between them, all recorded under the guidance of Chet, who was the studio boss & engineer, as well as one of the session guitarists there.

I have no difficulty in working out and copying Hank's style, but Chet Atkins may as well be on another planet, hence my remarks earlier in this thread. I do have my own little style of picking with the fingers which I used along with my pick, but sometimes it may as well be a different instrument altogether, you just have to listen to Mark Knopfler, Albert Lee, Lenny Brau and Tommy Emmanuel to name a few and it becomes clear that there is a lot more complexity in the style, which I love to listen to and it makes me smile when I hear some of those licks of Chet's being used by everyone else. Not forgetting of course that it was the fingerpicking style of Merle Travis that originally inspired Chet Atkins, who took it to another level, as did Tommy Emmanuel with Chet's style. On the recording side Chet was inspired by the fabulous Les Paul, yet another legendary guitarist, albeit with a different style of playing. I'm just thankful that I can listen to these guys over and over again on my hi-fi or via itunes on my computer or ipod - thank the lord for technology.

[ecca]

I've got a 5 or 6 set of Chet Atkins CDs.
He just blows you awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Oh sorry, I nearly sneezed then.

[roninnes]

When we lived in Canada we were lucky enough to watch live from the Ryman Theatre every Saturday night "The Grand Old Opry". Some of the musicians playing famous and not so famous were incredible. And of course the one and only Chet appeared several times and it was true magic. There was a guy called Buck Owens and his sidekick Roy Clark who did a show called Hee Haw and they too had many fabulous players on.
The album by Chet and Mark K is superb.
Happy memories
Ron

[donna plasky]

One last video and then I promise no more...here is Vince Gil (famous in his own right) sitting with Chet Atkins...and Chet tells him he wishes he could play Vince's way, with a plectrum. Vince is very flattered.

Thanks for mutually sharing these videos with me. It was a lot of fun.

Kind regards,
Donna

[roninnes]

Donna,
Have you come across the album by Chet and Suzie Boguss called Sympatico.
It is brilliant and as my dearly beloved is a huge country music fan I must say thank you for the Chet and Vince Gill video. We lived in Toronto but visited Nashville.
Ron