The Chetboard

Chet would have been 87 today. We will never see another.

Yes Richard, I've been thinking about it all week, along with the significance of 10 days from today. I've wondered what Chet would look and play like today at 87? I have a friend who watched Segovia in concert at 92. I agree that Chet was an extreme rarity. I don't know of anyone else who was so masterful, smooth, humble, and so widely influential.

Way back, before many of today's 'super-pickers' were even born, I remember sitting in front of the radio. That night, as I remember, Guy Van Duser was the guest on a fairly new and different show, "A Prairie Home Companion".
Guy played one song, and then another, and finally closed with a story & song.
The story was that he - like most of us - had been mesmerized by Chet's playing, and had spent hours and hours dragging his thumb on the record player to slow it down enough to try and figure out the different licks that Chet was playing.
One song, he said, absolutely drove him crazy -- "Caravan".
As he described it, Chet had this crazy 'burbling' effect on the lower strings - Kind of like an echo in the desert. After several months of trying, Guy finally figured out how to get that effect by double stroking his thumb on the lower strings. .... It was sometime later, he said, that he found out Chet had actually used an Echoplex to get that effect.
I can so totally relate to that!

My first introduction to Chet was riding in the car. I was on my somewhere, and "Whispering" came on the radio. From that moment I was totally hooked.

Chet inspired me to really dig into this crazy instrument, and he made me a much better player.
He still is, and for my money will always be ~The Master~

Today, I wish you a happy birthday Chet!
I can't wait to hear what you've been working on!

Remembering Chet today.

Happy Birthday Mister Guitar!

Miss you Chet!