52 Guitars: Week 40
10/04/2014
Chet Atkins
This is for Robert Gotcher, who asked if I was ever going to feature Chet Atkins. Actually I wasn't planning to. I know Atkins was an extremely good player, but the kind of music he played has never been all that appealing to me. And I have to admit I was prejudiced against him early on, by a classical player who was dismissive of Atkins's forays into that repertoire. That's really beside the point, of course; I doubt that Atkins intended to put himself into competition with Julian Bream et.al.; he probably just wanted to play good music of any kind.
On the basis of what I've been able to find on YouTube, my first reservation still holds. But man, the guy could play. "Stars and Stripes Forever":
I don't know if it would be correct to call "Wildwood Flower" his signature tune, but it's one I used to hear associated with his name. Embedding of the video has been disabled, so I'll just have to link to it: "Wildwood Flower".
Also not embeddable: "Orange Blossom Special". Astonishing clarity and fluidity--and he makes it look so utterly effortless. (Sorry about the harp player's getup etc.--he is really good, though.) I recall a friend, many years ago, saying "If you ever start thinking you're good [on guitar], go to Nashville." Well, notice in the "Orange Blossom" clip that the other guy is doubling Atkins's lead through most of it, except for the really high-speed stuff.
Atkins seems pretty out of place!
I'd say his signature pieces are Mr. Sandman and Yakity Axe.
He seemed to especially excel when he was working with someone else, either as a session musician (many of Elvis's early records), or people like Jerry Reed ("Jerry's Breakdown"), Les Paul (Chester and Lester), John Gimble ("Fiddlin' Around"), Doc Watson (Reflections, esp. "On My Way to Caanan's Land"), or Mark Knopfler (Neck and Neck, esp. "There'll be some Changes Made," which makes fun of Atkins country, good-old-boy reputation). In imitation of Atkins, Knopfler doesn't use a pick.
In his later years Atkins moved in the direction of Jazz, which was always one of his great loves.
You can hear a lot of Atkins in George Harrison's guitar work.
Posted by: Robert Gotcher | 10/05/2014 at 11:02 PM
I passed over several with Knopfler and other guitarists because I try to avoid collaborations for these posts. I'm interested in the Knopfler ones especially, though. He's a great player but I kind of quit following him when Dire Straits stopped emphasizing his guitar.
Atkins is using a thumb pick on at least two of the tracks I posted, but no finger picks.
Posted by: Mac | 10/06/2014 at 09:40 AM
I meant flat pick. He uses a thumb pick and often mutes the base notes.
Posted by: Robert Gotcher | 10/06/2014 at 09:47 AM
I did an experiment with my kids. We listened to several versions of Bach's Bourre for lute (BWF 995), including by Atkins. My kids, not surprisingly, picked Segovia's and Breams as the best. There were some that they liked less than Atkins'.
It seemed to me that Atkins was using an electric guitar on the version on Hi Fi in Focus (1957). I thought I heard a subtle use of the whammy bar on a couple of notes. I'm pretty sure there was no Whammy bar on any of the lutes that Bach was familiar with. Atkins,not suprisingly, placed more emphasis on the bass than the other recordings. He also has a later recording that goes into a kind of jazz version. Weird.
Segovia has a delicacy and articulation that can hardly be matched by anyone. Amazing dynamics and pacing.
John Williams' version is too fast and aggressive. I don't think a Bourre is supposed to be aggressive. It is funny that the Youtube video showed a picture of Bach with an electric guitar. Seems appropriate considering how relatively harsh the version was.
Posted by: Robert Gotcher | 10/07/2014 at 03:13 PM