Teen Scene! - Chet Atkins

 

Teen Scene

Teen Scene!
Chet Akins
Pickwick by Arrangement with RCA Records
Previously released as LSP-2719
Pickwick ACL-7005

1975 

From the back cover: I don't guess you've ever had the opportunity to interview Chet Atkins. I have – and somehow managed to accomplish the assignment. It was no easy feat. He is not known in Nashville music circles for being a braggart or the most talkative of sorts. As a matter of fact all during the interview I kept thinking how Chet reminded me of the great Gary Cooper. Coop was tall, slim, and rather imposing. Ditto Atkins. And Coop was famous for his "Yeps" and "Nopes." Ditto Atkins. It probably just all goes to show you that when you accomplish a lot of things in your career and life, you really don't have to go around telling everybody about them. If they've been good deeds and merits, people will know without you telling them. That must be Chet Atkins' way of thinking, because after spending one hour with him talking about his many-sided career as one of the prime forces behind the popularity of country music around the world, you know the accomplishments certainly outweigh the simplified answers of "Yep, I did that," "Everybody made a lot of that, but it really wasn't much," and "I guess they elected me into the Country Music Hall of Fame because they felt sorry for me-thought I was dying of cancer and wouldn't be around till next voting."

Chet Atkins is a man of sparse words and mean accomplishments. He is a believer in the motto that action speaks louder than words. His life and career in the music business has been nothing but action – and that's action with a capital A.

The gifted guitarist has recorded over 60 albums for RCA during his 27-year association with the label. Many of them are Gold Records – all of them are classics in one way or another and major best-sellers. He has garnered Best Instrumentalist, Grammy, and CMA Awards galore; been elected into the prestigious Hall of Fame, and even "played the White House and lived to tell about it."

He has gone from the dire poverty of life on a 50-acre Clinch Mountains (Tennessee) farm with 15 brothers and sisters to Nashville's suburb of million- aires, Belle Meade. Through it all, he has changed little from that "little kid in the hand-me-down clothes with the inferiority complex!"

The performer and successful record producer attributes his longevity as an entertainer and his knack of creating hits for other artists as "just pure luck." When asked to explain some of the innovations he brought to country music and the influences he has had on setting trends, Chet says humbly – and sincerely, "I really can't pick on a guitar very well, you know. I may have changed a trend or two by playing with my fingers. Up till then everybody had a pocketful of picks. I just decided it was necessary for me to use 'em. I said 'What's wrong with my fingers?'"

And that's a fact!

Actually Chet also developed the technique of using the thumb and three fingers to play the guitar – influenced by his mentor and country great Merle Travis' thumb and one finger method. Atkins modeled his style after the guitarists in the Western Kentucky coal fields and that of classic guitar virtuosos, such as Andres Segovia.

Over the years Chet Atkins has adapted to the music styles as they have come and gone – and even invented a few himself. He can play the most country of Texas hillbilly swing and then turn right around and do memorable renditions of Bach. "The only bad thing," he says, "is that when I play Bach, it comes out country. But I don't plan to change!"

This most outstanding collection of Chet Atkins instrumentals shows his ability to handle just about any kind of tune that comes his way. There's the Broadway touch with "Bye, Bye, Birdie" – the reminisces to and the nostalgia of yesteryear in "Back Home Again in Indiana"-the hard-driving rock-a-billy of "I Got A Woman" – the warmth and simplicity of "I Love How You Love Me" – and there are the Atkins stable of hits and personal favorites, such as "Alley Cat," "Walk Right In," and "Teen Scene!"

They call Chet Atkins "Mr. Guitar." In music circles they speak of him in revered tones. They say he is the man most responsible for promoting "The Nashville Sound!" Let's face it, folks, Chet Atkins is a legend.

Then, why is he such a disappointment to interview-no hate stories about some artist stealing one of his songs, no grudges, no patting himself on the back for the wonderful job done. Then I thought that perhaps that was why Chet Atkins was so interesting. For all the things he is and has become and stands for, he is just like our ole neighbor next door. With one exception, of course: Chet Atkins is the singularly, most outstanding instrumentalist in all the world of country music and a stunning exponent of what the country sound is all about. – ELLIS NASSOUR, Music City News, Nashville

I Got A Woman
Sweetie Baby
Teen Scene
Back Home Again In Indiana

Rumpus
Walk Right In
I Love How You Love Me

Alley Cat
Bye Bye Birdie