First Time I Heard Chet

[bill_h]

It was my 17th birthday. I had been taking guitar lessons for a year and a half or so. Started out using a flatpick. I was always taken with the way the pastor at church played using a thumbpick. I even managed to pick up the basics of that style from listening and with a little help from the pastor's son who was the same age as me and was a good player too. He told me at some point that his Dad played the Chet Atkins style and some time later told me if I ever wanted to hear some good guitar playing to get a Chet Atkins album. I had heard the name Chet Atkins but wasn't familiar with his music. That was about to change!

I remember mentioning to my Mother that I'd like to find a Chet Atkins album. Before I got around to it she bought me a double LP set called "Country Pickin'" for my birthday ( it was later re-released on CD as "Tennessee Guitar Man." ) I had no idea how my life was about to be impacted when I dropped the needle. The first tune was called "Foggy Mountain Top." I was so flabbergasted I had to pick the needle up and start the tune all over again after the first verse. I had no idea a guitar could sound that way! I don't remember exactly how many times I listened to the LP set that night but it's like I had my own private birthday party just listening to Chet.

I remember how I would think about the music on that album while daydreaming in class or later on while walking the streets of Nuremberg Germany during some of my free time while in the Army. ( I missed my Chet album back in the U.S.)

Years later and I'm still as big a fan of Chet's playing as ever. Lots of hotshot players have come along and can really hot dog it on Alabama Jubilee but as far as I'm concerned Chet owns that tune to this day. No one bosses Alabama Jubilee like Chet could.

As much as I idolize Chet's playing to this day I feel like I'm just now beginning to comprehend how he didn't just think like an artist, he had the ears of a recording engineer to boot! There will never be another Chet Atkins!!

Does anyone else care to weigh in on the first time you heard Chet?