Stringin' Along With Chet Atkins

 

St. Louis Blues

Stringin' Along With Chet Atkins

RCA Victor LPM-1236

1961

From the back cover: And string along is all you have to do. You don't have to sit up straight and listen as though your life depends on it. Chet Atkins doesn't play music that way. The tall, lean Tennessean has a real fee and was way with a guitar, a relaxed point of musical view that's made him The World's Most Popular Guitar.

The man you're stringin' along with is a perfectionist, bu the way. Behind that free and fancy fingering lies more than a quarter century of tireless work.

Chet first started piling the notes on when he was a farm boy in the scrubby mountains of eastern Tennessee. His father was an itinerant music teacher and the young guitarist-of-the-futre began by learning the ukulele and violin. When he was thirteen, Chet switched to guitar and a few years later he left farm live behind for a job on the musical staff of WNOX, Knoxville. The years that followed were lean ones, although Chet, looking back, will deny this. "Everything," he says, "that has ever happened to me, I consider a good break... even if I got fired. I think everything happens for the best."

The Atkins optimism paid off handsomely in 1950 when Chet achieved star status on Grand Ole Opry.

Since then his career has moved in every-widening circles. Thoday his recordings encompass vitally every style of music the guitar is here to – Soanish guitar, jazz, folk music and that sweeping category known simply as "pops".

When asked recently which of his hundreds of recordings was hi personal favorite, Chet's answer was soft, but emphatic. "I don't like any of them," said Mr. Guitar, "more do I like to hear them. I always notice some little thing I think I could have done better." Chet stands alone in that opinion, for in the nearly fifteen years he has been with RCA Victor, his records – both singles and albums – have sold in the millions.

In this collection, Chet once more displays the virtuosity that is his trademark. He adds a new twist to such blue-chip jazz classics as 12th Street Rag and St. Louis Blues, up-dates an old operetta favorite (Indian Love Call), and wins new fans for country music with a rollicking hoedown called Black Mountain Ray.

Come on now, and string along. We'll bet it's one of the pleasantest trips you've ever taken.

Oh By Jingo! (Oh By Gee, You're The Only Girl For Me)

Indian Love Call

Memphis Blues

12th Street Rag

Gallopin' Guitar

St. Louis Blues

Main Street Breakdown

Hello Ma Baby

Alice Blue Gown

Blue Gypsy

Black Mountain Rag

The 3rd Man Theme