Chet Link

Discussion of history's greatest guitar player.

Chet Link

Postby bill_h » Sun Aug 28, 2011 10:17 pm

Ran across this link while surfing the net. Did Chet really work in Denver or was that one of several errors in the document? I'm sure several errors will jump out when most Chet fans read it.

http://www.nndb.com/people/024/000044889/
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Re: Chet Link

Postby thenorm » Sun Aug 28, 2011 11:17 pm

I believe the article is mostly accurate. There are some errors... he dropped out of high school and his pursuit of "job opportunities' was a nice way of saying that Chet was getting fired all the time in his younger years. He barely made a living until he hooked up with the Carters.

Brother Jim was in Denver for a while and I think it was he that got Chet the job there. In any case, Chet worked all over the country trying to keep a job. Radio just didn't pay much. The good thing about radio is you could get bookings from your radio performances but Chet, being so far ahead of his time musically, just didn't fit in most radio formats and got canned. He was hard to find because he got fired so much. Even when he was on the GOO before the Carters he got fired by The Suits. The Carters took him into their group as a full partner. I heard June say on TV once. "Daddy said Chester was going to be the best guitar player that ever was and we should hire him."

Ez Carter knew what he was talking about and the girls had themselves a guitarist that made a mark.

But you knew all that...

These people keep leaving his o;der sister Niona off the lists. Chet loved her deeply. Lost her to TB but she was still worthy of being listed as a sister. Billie Rose was a half sister in truth.
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Re: Chet Link

Postby Vidar Lund » Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:13 am

And they left out the Me and My Guitars (MAMG) book by Chet and Michael Cochran.
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Re: Chet Link

Postby bill_h » Wed Aug 31, 2011 7:07 pm

Thanks Norm. I wasn't aware that Chet had ever worked in Denver. Can never learn too much about my hero Chet!
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Re: Chet Link

Postby emjaybee94 » Thu Sep 01, 2011 12:26 pm

Chet most certainly worked in Denver. I have a cassette tape of Chet's "Denver Transcriptions". I'm not sure exactly when they were recorded, but some of them must have been around 1947. I got my copy from a guy called Nick Jones (UK), who relates that ....

" These recordings were not, in the first place, made with sophisticated recording equipment; they were cut straight on to acetate discs - hence the odd pop or crackle."

Nick collated them from two sources, the second of which show a much better sound quality. Nick goes on to say,

"It's also interesting to note that he (Chet) often plays unamplified guitar (not surprisingly, since the electric guitar was by no means a fault free instrument in those times). Lastly, I am fairly sure that some of the performances on side 2 of the tape date from later than 1947, even though Chet's story is that Shorty Thompson fired him after he got his recording contract (in August 1947) because he would not let Shorty sing on his records. Thompson was in Nashville in 1950, and I would speculate that he then persuaded Chet- whose career was still in it's infancy - to make a few more transcriptions."

There are some interesting tunes here - many of which Chet recorded later in the RCA studios.

Regards
Mike
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Re: Chet Link

Postby David Elliott » Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:01 pm

Did Chet really work in Denver or was that one of several errors in the document? I'm sure several errors will jump out when most Chet fans read it.


Yes, he sure did, in fact, he and Leona lived just a couple of blocks from me, and I didn't even know it at the time! :(

Chet's brother (Jim Atkins) managed KOA Radio in Denver at that time, so it's understandable how Chet would have migrated to that area.

David
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Re: Chet Link

Postby bill_h » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:26 pm

You mean you lived in the same neighborhood with Chet and didn't even know it?? I feel your pain David!

If you don't ,mind me asking, what part of Denver did Chet live in? I spent some time in Aurora but that was probably about the time Chet was arguing with the New York crowd at RCA so he was long gone from Denver by then.
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