Chet Atkins was one of the most innovative and influential personalities in country music in the post-war decades, both as a highly skilled and distinctive finger-picking guitarist, and as a record producer and session musician, helping to shape the "Nashville" sound which helped broaden the popularity of country music in the late '50s. This great-value 59-track 2-CD collection focuses on his work as a recording artist, covering a period over more than a decade and a half during which he progressed from being a journeyman country musician to one of the most respected and imitated guitarists in all of popular music, not just country, with major rock artists later citing him as a key influence. Deriving his style from influences as diverse as Merle Travis and Django Reinhardt, he developed a finger-style technique which set him apart from his peers and gave his music and recordings an increasingly distinctive flavour. This anthology comprises selected A and B sides from the singles he released during the period covered by this collection, so that it provides a fascinating musical journey through the years when his stature within the business inexorably grew, and his work as a performer became overshadowed by his studio work with other artists, and his A&R role at RCA. It naturally offers plenty of examples of his unique skill as a guitarist but also shows the many sides of his talents as singer, bandleader and songwriter, and includes all the country chart entries he had during this time with "Mr. Sandman", "Silver Bell", "Jean's Song", "Boo Boo Stick Beat, "One Mint Julep" and "Jingle Bell Rock".
4 Bug Dance - Chet Atkins & His Colorado Mountain Boys
5 I've Been Working on the Guitar - Chet Atkins & His Colorado Mountain Boys
6 I Know When I'm Blue - Chet Atkins & His Colorado Mountain Boys
7 Dizzy Strings
8 I'm Pickin' the Blues - Chet Atkins & His Colorado Mountain Boys
9 Barnyard Shuffle - Chet Atkins & His Colorado Mountain Boys
10 Nashville Jump - Chet Atkins & His Colorado Mountain Boys
11 Galloping Guitar - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
12 Barber Shop Rag - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
13 Telling My Troubles to My Old Guitar - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
14 Centipede Boogie - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
15 One More Chance - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
16 Main Street Boogie
17 Boogie Man Boogie
18 I Was Bitten By the Same Bug Twice
19 The Birth of the Blues - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
20 Indian Love Call
21 You're Always Brand New - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
22 Mountain Melody - Chet Atkins & His Guitar Pickers
23 The Jitterbug Waltz
24 Crazy Rhythm
25 Hybrid Corn
26 Sweet Bunch of Daisies - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
27 Good-Bye Blues - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
28 Rainbow - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
- Disc 2 -
1 Spanish Fandango - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
2 Chinatown, My Chinatown - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
3 Hangover Blues - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
4 Lover Come Back to Me - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
5 Third Man Theme - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
6 Midnight - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
7 Rustic Dance - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
8 Fig Leaf Rag
9 High Rockin' Swing
10 Country Gentleman - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
11 City Slicker - Chet Atkins & His Galloping Guitar
12 Wildwood Flower
13 Downhill Drag
14 Kentucky Derby
15 San Antonio Rose
16 Mr. Sandman
17 Silver Bell - Hank Snow & Chet Atkins
18 The Poor People of Paris - Jean's Song
19 Trambone
20 Tricky - the Rhythm Rockers with Chet Atkins
21 Hidden Charms
22 Boo Boo Stick Beat
23 Django's Castle
24 Teensville
25 One Mint Julep
26 Slinkey
27 Theme from "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs"
28 The Slop
29 Warm and Windy
30 Jingle Bell Rock
31 Melissa
Chet Atkins was one of the most innovative and influential personalities in country music in the post-war decades, both as a highly skilled and distinctive finger-picking guitarist, and as a record producer and session musician, helping to shape the "Nashville" sound which helped broaden the popularity of country music in the late '50s. This great-value 59-track 2-CD collection focuses on his work as a recording artist, covering a period over more than a decade and a half during which he progressed from being a journeyman country musician to one of the most respected and imitated guitarists in all of popular music, not just country, with major rock artists later citing him as a key influence. Deriving his style from influences as diverse as Merle Travis and Django Reinhardt, he developed a finger-style technique which set him apart from his peers and gave his music and recordings an increasingly distinctive flavour. This anthology comprises selected A and B sides from the singles he released during the period covered by this collection, so that it provides a fascinating musical journey through the years when his stature within the business inexorably grew, and his work as a performer became overshadowed by his studio work with other artists, and his A&R role at RCA. It naturally offers plenty of examples of his unique skill as a guitarist but also shows the many sides of his talents as singer, bandleader and songwriter, and includes all the country chart entries he had during this time with "Mr. Sandman", "Silver Bell", "Jean's Song", "Boo Boo Stick Beat, "One Mint Julep" and "Jingle Bell Rock".
