Travelin' - Chet Atkins

 

Exodus

Travelin' 

Chet Atkins

Smash Hits Direct From His History-Making International Tour

Produced by Anita Kerr

Recorded in RCA Victor's "Nashville Sound" Studio, Nashville, Tennessee

Recording Engineer: Bill Porter and Tommy Strong

RCA Victor LSP-2678

1963

From the back cover: Jets roar in and out every day of the year at the airport serving Johannesburg, South Africa, a city comparable to our Pittsburgh or Dallas. But this one touching down on the runway now is somehow different. Not just another jet flight – a Chet Flight!

Chet Atkins, Jim Reeves and Floyd Cramer... they stepped out onto the portable stairway wheeled up to the place door, and that's when the furor began. "Thousands of screaming fans!"read the breathless cable sent back to RCA Victor, New York. The excited sender was A. G. J. McGrath, managing director of Teal Record Co., Ltd., Victor distributor throughout South Africa. He's the man on the scene who takes the story from here, and, since your interest of the moment lies in an Atkins album, we particularly note his comments on Chet.

"Over a third of the world's gold is mined here. But that day, and during the concert-playing days with followed, gold was valued a poor second to the guitar this fellow brought along! Sixty thousand came for the concerts.

"For all the admirable talent you Americans possess (and I, in the record-selling business, thank heaven for such talented Americans as your Atkins, Reeves and Cramer), I'm afraid you aren't as yet up to the task of pronouncing the language here called Afrikaans. Chet strived on stage to say the titles of several selections he learned here and played such such finesse. However, Outa On De Long Pod emerged sounding something similar to a stub needled 1925 Victrola trying to track the microgrooves of a 1963 LP... and the people applauded him frantically for his smiling sincerity.

Adds David Davis, who broadcasts daily from Mozambique as South Africa's equivalent of America's most popular disc jockeys: "The warmth of his personality is his passport, the feeling he evidences for his music surmounts all language barries – Mr. Guitar's appeal is universal."

Included herein are the songs he played on a journey which included later stops in Nairobi, Rome and London.

And for a final word from South Africa's Mr. McGrath: "Quite an inestimable fellow, this Atkins."

From Billboard - May 18, 1963: The taste and style of the Chet Atkins guitar have never been more evident than on this fine collection of songs, played in his usual warm and meaningful style. The songs played by him for his fans in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Rome and London, include "Wheels," "Calcutta," "La Dolce Vita," "Exodus," "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" and "Volare," A first-rate album.

Wheels

Calcutta

La Dolce Vita

Exodus

Baubles, Bangles And Beads

Naboonspruit Polka

Muskrat Ramble

Waram Patat

Volare

Mossie Se Moses

Sweetness

The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise