Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
Over the years the word “revolutionary” has been bandied about from time to time to describe some of the great musical pioneers who have helped shape the musical landscape. Rarely, however, has the word been more fitting than when describing Chet Atkins.
Born Chester Burton Atkins on this day in 1924 in Luttrell, TN, Atkins was the youngest of four children, all who lived with their mother after their parents divorced when Chet was just six. Music was always an outlet for the Atkins family, and in particular, Chet, whose natural ability was evident very early in life. Before the age of nine he’d become quite proficient on the ukulele and fiddle before ultimately landing his first guitar, which his older brother, Lowell, traded to him for an old pistol and some chores.
At the time, of course, the nation was in the throes of the Great Depression. Atkins said in his 1974 autobiography, Chet Atkins: Country Gentleman: “We were so poor and everybody around us was so poor that it was the forties before anyone even knew there had been a depression.” To compound the Atkins’ difficulties, Chet suffered from severe asthma, which forced him to relocate to Fortson, Georgia to live with his father. So severe was his affliction that he had to sleep in a straight-back chair to help keep his lungs open. This debilitating condition, ironically, helped him as a guitarist because he learned to fall asleep, sitting upright in his chair, holding his guitar, which he played for hours on end.
By the time Atkins was in high school he was an accomplished guitarist. It was around this time that his style began to really evolve, thanks in no small part to the great Merle Travis, whom Atkins listened to on the radio. Travis was a master picker, and this greatly influenced young Chet, who worked on, and perfected, his own four-finger (thumb and three fingers) picking style.
By 1942 music had taken over Atkins life so much that he decided to drop out of high school to pursue his music career full-time. He landed a gig at radio station WNOX-AM out of Knoxville, TN, playing guitar and fiddle alongside future Grand Ole Opry legends Bill Carlisle and comic Archie Campbell. After a few years Atkins moved up to WLW-AM in Cincinnati, which at one time had employed his musical hero, Travis. Ironically, Atkins unique ability on the guitar intimidated some, who openly questioned whether his sophisticated style of playing could even be classified as country.
Atkins’ first really big break came when he successfully auditioned for the great Red Foley’s band. Foley was moving his popular act from the WLS-AM National Barn Dance in Chicago down to the Grand Old Opry, which gave Atkins his first taste of the Opry stage in 1946. Eventually, RCA Victor took an interest in Atkins and signed him. A year later in 1947 he made his first recordings for RCA, the label that would remain his professional home – as a recording artist, producer and executive – for the next half century.
Over the next two years, and despite not having a bona-fide hit single (his first real hit wouldn’t come until 1954 with “Mr. Sandman”), Atkins’ stature within the label grew quickly because of his undeniable talent and ear for music. He was given more responsibilities as a session producer in Nashville, and in 1957 he was put in charge of RCA’s entire Nashville division.
Recognizing that country music was on the decline, Atkins made the bold decision to eliminate some of country music’s classic instruments – namely the fiddle and steel guitar. This decision ushered in a smoother, more orchestrated and lush sound, which became known as the Nashville Sound. Gone was the twang of yore, replaced by the smooth and polished stylings of buttoned-down country crooners like Jim Reeves, Don Gibson and Jim Ed Brown.
Even already-established superstars of traditional country, guys like Eddy “The Tennessee Plowboy” Arnold and Ray “The Cherokee Cowboy” Price got into the act, trading their overalls for tuxedos and embarking on new “second” careers in country music. And the country buying public just gobbled it up in the late ’50s and for much of the ’60s. All the while, Atkins was behind the scenes, producing some of the biggest names in the business, while also lending his guitar virtuosity to countless award-winning tracks. He truly had the Midas touch.
Atkins eventually scaled back his executive duties in the early ’70s, but he kept on playing and recording. One of the biggest albums of his career was his collaboration with the great Les Paul. Their 1976 Chester & Lester album took home the Grammy that year for Best Country Instrumental.
Atkins was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, as well as posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. He had succumbed to cancer the previous year in his Nashville home.
Regarding his undeniably immense musical legacy, the notoriously humble Atkins once opined: “Years from now, after I’m gone, someone will listen to what I’ve done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they’ll hear my guitars speaking for me.”
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