Looking for Chet's reponse

[DWolfram]

I'm looking for Chet's response to a critic's column that lambasted his singing at a concert one time.

Essentially Chet wrote he was not actually singing. That it was his bass player who was a ventriloquist. He continues to say he(Chet) really has a great voice, covering 4-5 octaves with perfect pitch. Or something like that. I thought I read it somewhere but forget.

David

[Norm]

share it if you find it

[bill_h]

I remember reading about it in one of the Mr Guitars. I would estimate that it was in the year 2002 when I read it. Seems like I was living in downtown Nashville when I read about it, but I could be off by a year or two. I joined just before the 2002 Convention so it couldn't have been before then. In Dec 2002 I moved. If it wasn't in a 2002 issue it should be in 03 or 04.

If I remember correctly Chet got someone who was a professional writer of sorts to write the rebuttal for him in response to a critic whose review was published in a San Antonio newspaper. Wonder if that was from the same show where Chet and Paul were treated rudely?

Hope this helps.

[Norm]

In the middle 1980’s we played three days with the San Antonio Symphony. The symphony always did the first half, then there was a thirty minute intermission during which Chet’s band set up for the show. As our part of the show started Chet turned to Tony Migliore, who was our conductor at the time, and said ‘The orchestra is out of tune.’(meaning they weren’t with us.) That’s one thing Chet couldn’t stand…being out of tune.
Now, in an orchestra, the oboe player has a strobe and everybody tunes with that person. Tony stopped the show and told the orchestra they were out of tune and please tune up.
Well, that did it! They all got an attitude! They really turned against us. You could have cut it with a knife! This got Chet a little upset, so it was rough. I just wanted to get up and leave, but we did the show. They never did get in good tune. We had two more shows to do in towns close by but we never were comfort-able with them. When we got home, Chet wrote the newspaper there and told them how he had been treated by the symphony. He let them have it! That was the worst time we had in all the years I was with Chet, I think…
__Paul Yandell cgp

[EddieP]

I remember reading a letter from Chet to the editor in the Courier Journal in Lousiville, KY back in the 80's where he talked about the bass player singing. I was at work and it was not my paper so I didn't get to save it, and I was not sure if it was real or not at the time. I think they had played Lousiville, and Chet had even bought a fiddle on that trip. But, I actually did read that when it was in that newspaper so they may have it in their files.

[DWolfram]

FOUND IT!!!!! "The joke was on the critic"

Well Bill, on reading your blog I grabbed a handful of Mister Guitars from my files and the first one I opened, on the inside page, was the article I was thinking about. So that's Mister Guitar #54, June 2002. Glad you memory is better than mine. The article was rather long other wise I woud have scanned it in.

And Wow! It was great sifting thru the memories of the old Mister Guitars.

And Norm, I do remember Paul mentioning on more than one occasion that symphony people were "snubbish toward us....looked down their noses at us". I quess the San Antonio incident triggered that.

David

[Norm]

Yeah, Paul went on to say he didn't like Symphony folks for that reason.

[bill_h]

So was it the San Antonio or Louisville newspaper?

Some of the classical musicians have it in their heads that what they do is the be all end all of music. Some of them obviously won't admit to themselves that it's possible for a self taught musician from the hills of Eastern Tennessee to have a better ear for pitches than they do!

I'm still bitter from the way I was used when I was a classical guitar major in what now seems like a different life. I try to avoid the conservatory types like the plague at the CASS conventions. I don't miss the negative attitudes and convention head one bit and I don't want to be around such at a gathering that's meant to be in honor of Chet.

Of course there are some good guys like John McClellan who have gone the academic route and still kept things in perspective. ( I personally think Chet Atkins In Three Dimensions is one of the greatest projects ever!!)