It's A Guitar World - Chet Atkins

 

A Taste Of Honey

It's A Guitar World

The International Guitar Of Chet Atkins

Produced by Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson and Felton Davis

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

Recording Engineers: Bil Vandevort and Jim Malloy

RCA Victor LSP-3728

1967

From the back cover: Nobody buys a Chet Atkins album to read the liner notes! But I think everybody who buys a Chet Atkins album deserves read them sooner or later in the hope they will offer a glimpse into the world of this remarkable man. One could write of a recording session so deceptively simple in instrumentation that it is only as an after thought that you realize musical history was wrought; or one could write of the innumerable trips Chet has made abroad – guitar in hand – as ambassador of the Nashville Sound.

However, I think you would be most interested in a few specific references, like these:

For no one – When you first listen you may not notice the lack of supporting instruments! But listen again – this is for everyone who has asked for Chet alone. Here it is, and it's great!

January in Bombay and Ranjana – These are India's attendants at this musical U.N. feast. Harihar Rao, an outstanding musician from India, stopped by Nashville enroll to Bombay. Nothing would do but that he and Chet combine talents – raw on the sitar (see picture) and the hopi, a kind of drum with a pull string on it (like a miniature "Washtub" bass). On the first selection the sitar learned an American folk tune; on the second Chet's guitar learned Hindi. The sympathetic harmonics and quartet-tone scale of the sitar are unusual to the Western ear, but they provide a cosmopolitan setting for Chet's own sensitive finger style.

A Taste Of Honey – while Chet's guitar has learned, of late, to speak in foreign tongues, it has not forgotten the unique traits that make it famous. Jerry Reed would say, "Lay that thumb in, Chet!" And here it is; Chet keeps the bass thumb line going while presenting the melody in broad chords and ingle notes.

A lot of words could be written about each song here, but the real thing s worth a thousand words; and it lies just inside this cover. – Bob Freguson

From Billboard - March 25, 1967: Excellent Easy Listening and Country radio programming material as Chet Atkins shows why he's worth his weight in gold guitar strings. He teams up with sitar player Harihar Rao on a couple of tunes and lays in some of the finest guitar work in the world on "What Now My Love."

What'd I Say

Cast Your Fate To The Wind

Lara's Theme (from "Doctor Zhivago")

A Taste Of Honey

For No One

Picking' Nashville

January In Bombay

Ranjana

Et Maintenant (What Now My Love)

'Na voce, 'na chitarra e'o poco'e luna

Star-Time

Sempre