New Chet Board Post

[william wallace]

Hello Everyone...My name is Bill Wallace from Mississauga, Ontario Canada.
I am an avid Chet fan as are all of you. For the past few years I have followed the Chet board, but never posted due to only having a work related computer.
Now retired and owning my own PC, I look forward to posting with all of you.

I truly appreciate the knowledge and talent so many of you share and always have enjoyed your thoughts and comments.
In a future post, I would like to share my story of how I met Paul Yandell and Odell Martin.

Thank you
Bill

[Roger Pratt]

Welcome Bill.

[Bob key]

Hi Bill and welcome,I for one would like to hear about Paul and Odell

Bob

[gmoseley]

Hello Bill and welcome to the Chetboard! Tell us about meeting Paul and O'Dell,,,I can only guess but I'll bet if you met them together, in the same band, it had to be back when they both worked the road and TV shows with Kitty Wells - - Paul on guitar and O'Dell on bass. We would all love to hear your stories. Glad to have you onboard!

Gayle Moseley

[bill_h]

Welcome to the fold William. Glad to have you posting here and looking forward to hearing about how you met Paul and Odell as I'm sure lots of others are.

[william wallace]

Thank you Roger , Bob and Gayle for the welcome post.
Gayle, you are absolutely correct of how I met Paul and Odell.
The Kitty Wells show came to my home town in Truro Nova Scotia spring of 1964, with Paul on lead and Odell on base., also on that billing was Bill Phillips.
Paul's guitar playing and sound coming off that stage was just incredible and jaw dropping to my cousin and I.Towards the end of the show they featured Odell on guitar, and he played Black Mountain Rag ...amazing job.

WE stuck around after the show and got to talk to Paul and Odell who informed us the show would be in Halifax the next evening ,about 60 miles away. One of the
other chaps standing with us live close to Halifax and invited Paul to have dinner at his house the next day. I was talking to Odell at this time and he invited me to drop by their hotel and we could do some pickin. WOW!!!!!

Next morning I hitch hiked to Halifax with my Gretch Hollow body guitar arriving at 11:30 just in time to see Paul driving away with the other guy for dinner. I called up to Odell's room, he came down to greet me and was a perfect gentleman.
For the next four and half hours Odell played so much guitar and taught me special Chet licks while explain g the method of Chet's style, i.e forming chord structures using open strings. Odell was a very patient man, as I am a slow learner.
Needless to say this was an incredible experience for a young Chet Atkins fan who never saw anyone play that well, take the time to explain and play with such dedication. Odell also gave insight to life on the road, was tough at times,he and Paul had to due all the bus driving after playing the shows and being away from family . Kitty Wells spent some 250 days a year on the road.

Odell Martin was a super nice guy with tremendous talent, sadly I never met him again.
I was fortunate to meet Paul again around 1969/70 in back of the Grand Ole Oprey. Paul was playing a Fender Telecaster with a Gretch pickup close to the fretboard, standard Tele pickup by the bridge. Not sure what artist Paul was backing up??

Sorry this post is so lengthy, but it was nice to reminisce this event again.
Thank you for your interest, take care.
Bill

[EddieP]

I was also glad to hear your story. Most on here knew Paul, but Odell was gone before lots of the picking guys got a chance to know him. Odell was they type of fellow if he ever met you; you was his friend, and he never forgot you. I sure miss Paul and Odell both every day and sure love to hear about their days together. Eddie Pennington