Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar. The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar. Originally coined by the Dopyera brothers when they formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company, in time it came, in common language, to mean any resonator guitar, or specifically one with a single inverted resonator. This particular design was introduced by the Dopyeras' new company, in competition to the already patented tricone and biscuit designs owned and produced by the National String Instrument Corporation.

The Dobro brand later also appeared on other instruments, notably electric lap-steel guitars and solid-body electric guitars and on other resonator instruments such as Safari resonator mandolins.

When Gibson acquired the trademark in 1994, the company announced that it would defend its right to Dobro's exclusive use.

History

The name originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. "Dobro" is both a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and a word meaning "goodness" in their native Slovak, and also in Slovenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, Croatian, Russian and Polish. An early company motto was "Dobro means good in any language."

The Dobro was the third resonator guitar design by John Dopyera, the inventor of the resonator guitar, but the second to enter production. Unlike his earlier tricone design, the Dobro had a single resonator cone and it was inverted, with its concave surface facing up. The Dobro company described this as a bowl shaped resonator.

The Dobro was louder than the tricone and cheaper to produce. Cost of manufacture had, in Dopyera's opinion, priced the resonator guitar beyond the reach of many players, and his failure to convince his fellow directors at the National String Instrument Corporation to produce a single-cone version was part of his motivation for leaving.

Since National had applied for a patent on the single cone (US patent #1,808,756), Dopyera had to develop an alternative design, which he did by inverting the cone so that rather than having the strings rest on the apex of the cone as the National method did, they rested on a cast aluminum spider that had eight legs sitting on the perimeter of the downward-pointing cone (US patent #1,896,484).

In the following years both Dobro and National built a wide variety of metal- and wood-bodied single-cone guitars, while National also continued with the tricone for a time. Both companies sourced many components from National director Adolph Rickenbacher, and John Dopyera continued to be a major shareholder in National. By 1934 the Dopyera brothers had gained control of both National and Dobro and they merged the companies to form the National-Dobro Corporation. From the outset, wooden bodies had been sourced from existing guitar manufacturers, particularly the plywood student guitar bodies made by the Regal Musical Instrument Company. Dobro had granted Regal a license to manufacture resonator instruments, and by 1937, it was the only manufacturer, and the license was officially made exclusive. Regal-manufactured resonator instruments continued to be sold under many names, including Regal, Dobro, Old Kraftsman, and Ward. However all production of resonator guitars ceased following the US entry into the Second World War in 1941.

Emil Dopyera (also known as Ed Dopera) manufactured Dobros from 1959 under the brand name Dopera's Original before selling the company and name to Semie Moseley, who merged it with his Mosrite guitar company and manufactured Dobros for a time. Meanwhile, in 1967, Rudy and Emil Dopyera formed the Original Musical Instrument Company (OMI) to manufacture resonator guitars, which were at first branded Hound Dog. However, in 1970, they again acquired the Dobro name, Mosrite having gone into temporary liquidation.

OMI, together with the Dobro name, was acquired by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1993. They renamed the company Original Acoustic Instruments and moved production to Nashville. Gibson now uses the name Dobro only for models with the inverted-cone design used originally by the Dobro Manufacturing Company. Gibson also manufactures biscuit-style single-resonator guitars, but it sells them under names such as Hound Dog and Epiphone.

Wider usage of the name

The name dobro is generically associated with the single-inverted-cone resonator design, as opposed to the tricone and biscuit designs, which are both similarly associated with the National brand.

Gibson now restricts the use of the name Dobro to its own product line, but care should be taken in interpreting documents written before 1993 or from outside the US. In these cases, the terms "dobro" and "dobroist" may not necessarily refer to a Gibson Dobro. For example, consider the references to the use of a dobro guitar on songs like "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Valium Waltz" by the Old 97's, or "When Papa Played the Dobro" by Johnny Cash on the ''Ride This Train'' album. Mark Knofler of Dire Straits is famous for his guitar of this style, featured on the cover of the album Brothers in Arms.

Modern instruments

, many different makers including Gibson were manufacturing resonator guitars to the original inverted-cone design. Gibson also manufactures biscuit-style resonator guitars, but reserves the Dobro name for its inverted-cone models. These "Biscut" guitars, are often used for blues and are played vertically instead of horizontally like a "Spider" Bridge.

As well as recreating the traditional sounds and look, resonator guitars have also become the foundation for even further developments in the world of guitars. Many Dobro-style guitars are now hybrid electric guitars, and some manufacturers are adding strings to create 7- and 8-string resonator-style guitars.

References

External links

Current replicas with sound-sample

Dobro page at the Gibson Web site.

Fender resonator guitar home page parallel to the Gibson home page above

1936 Dobro electric lap steel guitar.

1997 Dobro solid body electric guitar.

Harlow Dobro http://www.harlowresonatorguitars.com/Harlow/Home.html

Reso-Nation

Chanticleer (UK) - current maker of resophonic instruments

Category:Resophonic instruments Category:Acoustic guitars Category:Companies established in 1928 Category:Guitar manufacturing companies

ca:Dobro cs:Dobro (nástroj) da:Dobro de:Dobro es:Dobro fr:Dobro nl:Dobro ja:ドブロ・ギター no:Dobro pt:Dobro ru:Добро (музыкальный инструмент) sk:Dobro (hudobný nástroj) fi:Dobro sv:Dobro

Arlen Roth (born 1952) is an American guitarist. His first solo album won the Montreaux Critics' Award for Best Instrumental Album of the Year in 1978. He was Guitar Player magazine's top columnist from 1982 to 1992. He has performed with artists such as Bob Dylan, Danny Gatton, John Entwistle, John Prine, Rick Wakeman, Paul Simon (as well as Simon and Garfunkel), Steve Morse, Albert Lee and Phoebe Snow. Roth is a Telecaster enthusiast, and has written the book ''Masters of the Telecaster'', which details the techniques and licks of many famous Telecaster guitar players. As a solo artist Roth performs frequently with his younger daughter, Lexie Roth.

Personal Life

Roth lost both his wife, Deborah, and oldest daughter, Gillian MacKenzie Roth (b.1983) in an auto accident in 1998.

Trivia

Roth coached Ralph Macchio in the performance of most of his guitar parts for the 1986 movie ''Crossroads''.

Roth was a guest on WFAN on the morning of March 10, 2010. Hosts Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton alternated naming songs which Roth had to play, including Jimi Hendrix's version of the Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock.

Hot Lick Videos

In 1983 Roth decided that there were enough VCRs in the world to warrant doing instructional videos now! He sarted the Hot Licks Video label. While teaching Ralph Macchio the parts for ''Crossroads'', he began recording his first videos. Six of these features Roth as instructor, and one by trusted friend, bassplayer John Entwistle! The detailed close-ups of the fretting and strumming and other guitar playing techniques that he had helped develop for and had been so prominent in the Crossroads film became the trademark for these instruction videos. Before long the video roster started to grow enormously, and it was not uncommon to see double-page Hot Licks ads in GP magazine. Aside from Guitar- and Bass guitar instructional video's the Hot Licks catalogue came to include Drum, Banjo, Mandoline and Harmonica instructional videos. Roth considered it a joy to document artists such as Eric Johnson, Joe Pass, Emily Remler, Tuck Andress, Mick Taylor, Buddy Guy, Danny Gatton, James Burton, Joe Morello, Stuart Hamm, Vinnie Moore, Brian Setzer, Tal Farlow, Charlie Byrd, Mundell Lowe, Larry Coryell, Cornell Dupree, Junior Wells, Jay Geils, Ronnie Earl, Duke Robillard, Warren Haynes, Allen Woody, David Grissom, Scotty Anderson, Lee Roy Parnell, Brent Mason, and many more, in addition to continuing to do more of his own titles. Roth has stated that "many of these artists were heroes of his, and it was such an honor to work with them". In 2006 it was announced that The Music Sales Group has acquired the entire Hot Licks video catalog and is implementing an ambitious program of transferring and expanding all existing material onto DVD. The result will be a new lease of life for the instructional series they will also recruit new artists for future releases, ensuring that the brand will continue to develop and attract top star names.

Aside from his Hot Lick instructional videos, Roth currently hosts a series of daily video lessons at Gibson.com.

References

External Links

Arlen Roths official website

Hot Licks DVD Catalogue

Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Fingerstyle guitarists Category:American country guitarists Category:American blues guitarists Category:American jazz guitarists Category:American rock guitarists

background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
instrument	Dobro
name	Jerry Douglas
landscape	Yes
born	May 28, 1956Warren, Ohio
genres	Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Jazz |
labels	E1 Music, Rounder, MCA, Sugar Hill, Koch
years active	1970s–present
website	Official website }}

Jerry Douglas (born Gerald Calvin Douglas, May 28, 1956 in Warren, Ohio) is an American record producer and resonator guitar player. Called "Dobro's matchless contemporary master," by ''The New York Times'', and lauded as "my favorite musician" by John Fogerty, Douglas is one of the world’s most renowned Dobro players.

Career

In addition to his twelve solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1600 albums. As a sideman, he has recorded with artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Phish, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, and Johnny Mathis, as well as performing on the landmark O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. He has been part of such notable groups as The Whites, J. D. Crowe and the New South, the Country Gentlemen, and Strength in Numbers.

As a producer, he has overseen albums by Alison Krauss, the Del McCoury Band, Maura O'Connell, Jesse Winchester and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Along with Aly Bain, he serves as Music Director of the popular BBC Television series, "Transatlantic Sessions".

Since 1998, Douglas has been a key member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, touring extensively and playing on a series of platinum-selling albums. When not on the road with Alison Krauss and Union Station, Douglas tours with his band in support of his extensive body of work.

Awards

Douglas has received twelve Grammy Awards and has won the Country Music Association's 'Musician of the Year' award three times, in 2002, 2005 and 2007.

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Douglas a National Heritage Fellowship.

Douglas was named Artist in Residence for the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Douglas was honored at the 36th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado for his twenty-fifth consecutive year playing in and at the festival.

Discography

Solo recordings

Year	Album	Chart Positions			Label
		! width="60"	! width="60"	! width="60"
1979	''Fluxology''
1982	''Fluxedo''
1986	''Under the Wire''
	''Changing Channels''
''Everything Is Gonna Work Out Fine''				Rounder
1989	''Plant Early''				MCA
1992
1998	''Restless on the Farm''
2002
2005					Koch
2007	''Best of the Sugar Hill Years''				Sugar Hill
2008					Koch
2009	''Jerry Christmas''				E1

Other recordings

''Remembrances and Forecasts'' 1974 as The Country Gentlemen

''J.D. Crowe & The New South'' 1975 as J. D. Crowe & the New South

''Holiday In Japan'' 1975 as J. D. Crowe & the New South

''New South Live'' 1975 as J. D. Crowe & the New South

''Boone Creek'' 1977 as Boone Creek

''One Way Track'' 1977 as Boone Creek

''That Down Home Feeling'' 1977 as Buck White & Down Home Folks

''Buck and Family Live'' 1979 as Buck White & Down Home Folks

''More Pretty Girls Than One'' 1979 as Buck White & Down Home Folks

''Bluegrass Album Vol.3: California Connection'' 1983 as Bluegrass Album Band

''Snakes Alive'' 1984 as Dreadful Snakes

''Bluegrass Album Vol.4'' 1985 as Bluegrass Album Band

''Bluegrass Album Vol.5: Sweet Sunny South 1989 as Bluegrass Album Band

''The Telluride Sessions'' 1989 ''as Strength in Numbers''

''Will the Circle be Unbroken Vol. 2'' 1990 with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

''Skip, Hop & Wobble'' 1993 as Barenberg, Douglas & Meyer

''The Great Dobro Sessions'' 1994 as Jerry Douglas and various artists

''Far From Enough'' 1994 with Viktor Krauss

''Bluegrass Album Vol.6: Bluegrass Instrumentals'' 1996 as Bluegrass Album Band

''Bourbon & Rosewater'' 1996 as Bhatt, Douglas & Meyer

''Yonder'' 1996 with Peter Rowan

''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' 2000 with Alison Krauss, The Whites, as Soggy Bottom Boys

''Deja Vu (All Over Again)'' 2004 with John Fogerty

''Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane'' 2009 with Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes

With Alison Krauss or Alison Krauss and Union Station

''Forget About It'' 1999

''New Favorite'' 2001

''Live'' 2002

''Lonely Runs Both Ways'' 2004

''A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection'' 2007

Awards

Grammy awards

1983 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Fireball" - with The New South

1994 Best Bluegrass Album - "The Great Dobro Sessions"

2001 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" with Earl Scruggs

2001 Album of the Year - "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" - various artists

2001 Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group - "The Lucky One"- Alison Krauss + Union Station

2001 Best Bluegrass Album - "New Favorite" - Alison Krauss + Union Station

2003 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Cluck Old Hen" - Alison Krauss + Union Station

2003 Best Bluegrass Album - "LIVE" - Alison Krauss + Union Station

2004 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Earl's Breakdown" - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Featuring Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Vassar Clements & Jerry Douglas

2006 Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal - "Restless" - Alison Krauss and Union Station

2006 Best Country Instrumental Performance - "Unionhouse Branch" - Alison Krauss and Union Station

2006 Best Country Album - "Lonely Runs Both Ways" - Alison Krauss and Union Station

CMA Awards

2002 Musician of the Year

2005 Musician of the Year

2007 Musician of the Year

IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Awards

1990 Instrumental Performers of the Year — Dobro

1991 Instrumental Performers of the Year — Dobro

1992 Instrumental Album of the Year - ''Slide Rule'', Jerry Douglas

1992 Record Event of the Year - ''Slide Rule''

1992 Instrumental Performers of the Year — Dobro

1993 Instrumental Performers of the Year - Dobro

1994 Instrumental Album of the Year - ''Skip, Hop & Wobble''; Douglas, Barenberg & Meyer

1994 Instrumental Performers of the Year - Dobro

1995 Instrumental Album of the Year - ''The Great Dobro Sessions''; Mike Auldridge, Curtis Burch, Jerry Douglas, Josh Graves, Rob Ickes, Oswald Kirby, Stacy Phillips, Tut Taylor, Sally Van Meter, Gene Wooten

1995 Record Event of the Year - ''The Great Dobro Sessions''

1995 Instrumental Performers of the Year - Dobro

1997 Album of the Year - ''True Life Blues—The Songs of Bill Monroe''; Sam Bush, Vassar Clements, Mike Compton, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Pat Enright, Greg Garing, Richard Greene, David Grier, David Grisman, John Hartford, Bobby Hicks, Kathy Kallick, Laurie Lewis, Mike Marshall, Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Jim Nunally, Scott Nygaard, Mollie O'Brien, Tim O'Brien, Alan O'Bryant, Herb Pedersen, Todd Phillips, John Reischman, Peter Rowan, Craig Smith, Chris Thile, Tony Trischka, Roland White

1997 Record Event of the Year - ''True Life Blues—The Songs of Bill Monroe''

1997 Instrumental Album of the Year - ''Bluegrass Instrumentals, Volume 6''; The Bluegrass Album Band

2001 Instrumental Performers of the Year - Dobro

2002 Instrumental Performers of the Year - Dobro

2003 Album of the Year - ''Alison Krauss + Union Station Live'', Alison Krauss + Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas

2003 Record Event of the Year - ''Will The Circle Be Unbroken Vol. III''; Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Matraca Berg, Sam Bush, June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Vassar Clements, Iris DeMent, Rodney Dillard, Jerry Douglas, Glen Duncan, Vince Gill, Josh Graves, Jamie Hanna, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, Jimmy Martin, Del McCoury, Robbie McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Jonathan McEuen, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Tony Rice, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Doc Watson, Richard Watson, Glenn Worf & Dwight Yoakam

National Endowment for the Arts

2004 National Heritage Fellowship

Country Music Hall of Fame

2008 Artist in Residence

References

Humphrey, Mark. (1998). "Jerry Douglas". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 151.

Notes

External links

Jerry Douglas Official site

Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas Official site

Folk Radio UK review of ''Jerry Christmas''

Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Alison Krauss & Union Station members Category:American country guitarists Category:American bluegrass guitarists Category:American male singers Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners Category:Slide guitarists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Ohio Category:Resonator guitarists Category:People from Warren, Ohio Category:The Country Gentlemen members Category:Weissenborn players

de:Jerry Douglas ja:ジェリー・ダグラス simple:Jerry Douglas fi:Jerry Douglas

Paul Beard (14 October 1904 - 9 June 2002) was an author and was the president of the College of Psychic Studies. Beard was based in London, England for sixteen years.

The organization was devoted to finding in spiritualism evidence of life after death. During his tenure as a member and president Beard wrote an article that was published in Spiritual Frontiers in 1970 on "How to Guard Against Possession." During this research he experimented extensively with using an ouija board.

Beard has written a trilogy of books analyzing the evidence for and against the survival of the human soul after death. He made a lifetime study of psychical research. He was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research.

Books

Beard, Paul (1966). ''Survival of Death''. Hodder & Stoughton, London. ISBN 0-946259-25-9.

Beard, Paul (1980). ''Living On. A study of altering consciousness after death''. George Allen & Unwin, London. ISBN 0-04-133009-9. re-print by Pilgrim Books, 1987; ISBN 0-946259-24-0.

Beard, Paul (1986). ''Hidden Man''. Pilgrim Books; ISBN 0-946259-16-X.

References

#College of Psychic Studies - History

External links

Obituary from London newspaper The Independent

Category:1904 births Category:2002 deaths Category:English non-fiction writers Category:English spiritual writers

name	Chet Atkins
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Chester Burton Atkins
alias	Mr. GuitarThe Country Gentleman
born	June 20, 1924Luttrell, Tennessee, US
died	June 30, 2001Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
instrument	Guitar, Violin
genre	Country, classical, folk, jazz
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer
years active	1942–2001
label	RCA, Columbia
website	Official Website
notable instruments	Country GentlemanTennessean6120Gibson Chet Atkins SST }}

Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), better known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.

Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally. Atkins produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Connie Smith, Waylon Jennings and others.

Among many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Biography

Childhood and early life

Chet Atkins was born on June 20, 1924, in Luttrell, Tennessee, near Clinch Mountain, and grew up with his mother, two brothers and a sister—he was the youngest. His parents divorced when he was six. He started out on the ukulele, later moving on to the fiddle, but traded his brother Lowell an old pistol and some chores for a guitar when he was nine. He stated in his 1974 autobiography, "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." Forced to relocate to Fortson, Georgia to live with his father because of a near-fatal asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession. Because of his illness, he was forced to sleep in a straight-back chair in order to breathe comfortably. On those nights, he would play his guitar until he fell asleep holding it, a habit which lasted his whole life. While living in Fortson, he attended historic Mountain Hill School. He would return in the 1990s to play a series of charity concerts to save the school from demolition.

Stories have been told about the very young Chet who, when a friend or relative would come to visit, and if that person played a guitar, would crowd in and put his ear so very close to the instrument that it became difficult for that person to play.

Atkins became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school. He would use the restroom in the school to practice, because it gave better acoustics. His first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used. He later purchased a semi-acoustic electric guitar and amp, but he had to travel many miles to find an electrical outlet since his home had no electricity.

Later in life he lightheartedly gave himself (along with John Knowles, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Wariner and Jerry Reed) the honorary degree CGP, standing for "Certified Guitar Player". His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the Les Paul Trio in New York.

Atkins did not have a strong style of his own until 1939 when (while still living in Georgia) he heard Merle Travis picking over WLW radio. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Whereas Travis's right hand used his index finger for the melody and thumb for bass notes, Atkins expanded his right hand style to include picking with his first three fingers, with the thumb on bass.

Chet Atkins was a Ham Radio General class licensee. Formerly using the call-sign, WA4CZD, he obtained the vanity call sign W4CGP in 1998 to reflect the C.G.P. name. He was an ARRL member.

Early musical career

After dropping out of high school in 1942, Atkins landed a job at WNOX-AM radio in Knoxville. There he played fiddle and guitar with singer Bill Carlisle and comic Archie Campbell as well as becoming a member of the station's Dixieland Swingsters, a small swing instrumental combo. After three years, he moved to WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Merle Travis had formerly worked.

After six months he moved to Raleigh and worked with Johnnie and Jack before heading for Richmond, Virginia, where he performed with Sunshine Sue Workman. Atkins's shy personality worked against him, as did the fact that his sophisticated style led many to doubt he was truly "country." He was fired often but was soon able to land another job at another radio station due to his unique playing ability.

Traveling to Chicago, Atkins auditioned for Red Foley, who was leaving his star position on WLS-AM's ''National Barn Dance'' to join the Grand Ole Opry. Atkins made his first appearance at the Opry in 1946 as a member of Foley's band. He also recorded a single for Nashville-based Bullet Records that year. That single, "Guitar Blues", was fairly progressive, including as it did, a clarinet solo by Nashville dance band musician Dutch McMillan with Owen Bradley on piano. He had a solo spot on the Opry; but when that was cut, Atkins moved on to KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri. Despite the support of executive Si Siman, however, he was soon was fired for not sounding "country enough."

Signing with RCA Victor

While working with a Western band in Denver, Colorado, Atkins came to the attention of RCA Victor. Siman had been encouraging Steve Sholes to sign Atkins, as his style (with the success of Merle Travis as a hit recording artist) was suddenly in vogue. Sholes, A&R; director of country music at RCA, tracked Atkins down to Denver.

He made his first RCA recordings in Chicago in 1947. They did not sell. He did some studio work for RCA that year but had relocated to Knoxville again where he worked with Homer and Jethro on WNOX's new Saturday night radio show ''The Tennessee Barn Dance'' and the popular ''Midday Merry Go Round''.

In 1949 he left WNOX to join Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters back on KWTO. This incarnation of the old Carter Family featured Maybelle Carter and daughters June, Helen and Anita. Their work soon attracted attention from the Grand Ole Opry. The group relocated to Nashville in mid-1950. Atkins began working on recording sessions, performing on WSM-AM and the Opry.

While he hadn't yet had a hit record on RCA his stature was growing. He began assisting Sholes as a Session Leader when the New York–based producer needed help organizing Nashville sessions for RCA artists. Atkins's first hit single was "Mr. Sandman", followed by "Silver Bell", which he did as a duet with Hank Snow. His albums also became more popular, and he was featured on ABC-TV's ''The Eddy Arnold Show'' during the summer of 1956; as well as on ''Country Music Jubilee'' in 1957 and 58 (by then renamed ''Jubilee USA'').

In addition to recording, Atkins became a design consultant for Gretsch, who manufactured a popular Chet Atkins line of electric guitars from 1955–1980. Atkins also became manager of RCA's Nashville studio, eventually inspiring and seeing the completion of the legendary RCA Studio B, the first studio built specifically for the purpose of recording on the now-famous Music Row.

Performer and producer

When Sholes took over pop production in 1957—a result of his success with Elvis Presley—he put Atkins in charge of RCA's Nashville division. With country music record sales declining as rock and roll took over, Atkins and Bob Ferguson took their cue from Owen Bradley and eliminated fiddles and steel guitar as a means of making country singers appeal to pop fans. This became known as the Nashville sound which Atkins said was a label created by the media attached to a style of recording done during that period to keep country (and their jobs) viable.

Atkins used the Jordanaires and a rhythm section on hits like Jim Reeves' "Four Walls" and "He'll Have to Go" and Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Blue Blue Day". The once rare phenomenon of having a country hit cross over to pop success became more common. He and Bradley had essentially put the producer in the driver's seat, guiding an artist's choice of material and the musical background.

Atkins made his own records, which usually visited pop standards and jazz, in a sophisticated home studio, often recording the rhythm tracks at RCA but adding his solo parts at home, refining the tracks until the results satisfied him. Guitarists of all styles came to admire various Atkins albums for their unique musical ideas and in some cases experimental electronic ideas. In this period he became known internationally as "Mister Guitar", inspiring an album named ''Mister Guitar'', engineered by both Bob Ferris and Bill Porter, his replacement.

At the end of March 1959, Porter took over as chief engineer at RCA's Nashville studio, in the space now known as "Studio B". (At the time there was only one studio at RCA, with no letter designation.) Porter soon helped Atkins get a better reverberation sound from the studio's German effects device, an EMT plate reverb. With his golden ear, Porter found the studio's acoustics to be problematic, and he devised a set of acoustic baffles to hang from the ceiling, then selected positions for microphones based on resonant room modes. The sound of the recordings improved significantly, and the studio achieved a string of successes. The Nashville sound became more dynamic. In later years, when Bradley asked how he achieved his sound, Atkins told him "it was Porter." Porter described Atkins as respectful of musicians when recording—if someone was out of tune he would not single that person out by name. Instead, he would say something like, "we got a little tuning problem ... Everybody check and see what's going on." If that didn't work, Atkins would instruct Porter to turn the offending player down in the mix. When Porter left RCA in late 1964, Atkins said, "the sound was never the same, never as great."

Atkins's trademark "Atkins Style" of playing uses the thumb and first two—sometimes three—fingers of the right hand. He developed this style from listening to Merle Travis occasionally on a primitive radio. He was sure no one could play that articulately with just the thumb and index finger (which was exactly how Travis played) and he assumed it required the thumb and two fingers—and that was the style he pioneered and mastered.

He enjoyed jamming with fellow studio musicians which led to them being asked to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. Although that performance was canceled due to rioting, a live recording of the group (''After the Riot at Newport'') was released. Atkins performed by invitation at the White House for presidents Kennedy through George H. W. Bush. Atkins was a member of the Million Dollar Band during the 1980s. He is also well known for his song "Yankee Doodle Dixie", in which he played "Yankee Doodle" at the same time as "Dixie" simultaneously on the same guitar.

Before his mentor Sholes died in 1968, Atkins had become vice president of RCA's country division. In 1987 he told Nine-O-One Network Magazine that he was "ashamed" of his promotion: "I wanted to be known as a guitarist and I know, too, that they give you titles like that in lieu of money. So beware when they want to make you vice president." He had brought Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Connie Smith, Bobby Bare, Dolly Parton, Jerry Reed and John Hartford to the label in the 1960s and inspired and helped countless others. He took a considerable risk during the mid-1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement sparked violence throughout the South by signing country music's first African-American singer Charley Pride, who sang rawer country than the smoother music Atkins had pioneered.

Atkins's own biggest hit single came in 1965, with "Yakety Axe", an adaptation of his friend saxophonist Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax". He rarely performed in those days, and eventually had to hire other RCA producers like Bob Ferguson and Felton Jarvis to alleviate his workload.

Atkins retires from producing

In the 1970s, Atkins became increasingly stressed by his executive duties. He produced fewer records but could still turn out hits such as Perry Como's pop hit "And I Love You So". He recorded extensively with close friend and fellow picker Jerry Reed, who'd become a hit artist in his own right. A 1973 diagnosis of colon cancer, however, led Atkins to redefine his role at RCA, to allow others to handle administration while he went back to his first love, the guitar, often recording with Reed or even Homer & Jethro's Jethro Burns (Atkins's brother-in-law) after Homer died in 1971.

By the end of the 1970s, Atkins's time had passed as a producer. New executives at RCA had different ideas. He first retired from his position in the company, and then began to feel stifled as an artist because RCA would not let him branch out into jazz. His mid-1970s collaborations with one of his influences, Les Paul, ''Chester & Lester'' and ''Guitar Monsters'', had already reflected that interest; ''Chester & Lester'' was one of the best-selling recordings of Atkins's career. At the same time he grew dissatisfied with the direction Gretsch (no longer family-owned) was going and withdrew his authorization for them to use his name and began designing guitars with Gibson. He left RCA in 1982 and signed with Columbia Records, for whom he produced a debut album in 1983.

Jazz had always been a strong love of his, and often in his career he was criticized by "pure" country musicians for his jazz influences. He also said on many occasions that he did not like being called a "country guitarist", insisting that he was a guitarist, period. Although he played 'by ear' and was a masterful improviser he was able to read music and even performed some classical guitar pieces. When Roger C. Field, a friend, suggested to him in 1991 that he record and perform with a female singer he did so with Suzy Bogguss.

He returned to his country roots for albums he recorded with Mark Knopfler and Jerry Reed. Knopfler had long mentioned Atkins as one of his earliest influences. Atkins also collaborated with Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel. On being asked to name the ten most influential guitarists of the 20th century, he named Django Reinhardt to the first position on the list, and placed himself at fifth position.

In later years he even went back to radio, appearing on Garrison Keillor's ''Prairie Home Companion'' radio program, on American Public Media radio, even picking up a fiddle from time to time.

Legacy

Atkins received numerous awards, including 14 Grammy Awards and nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards. In 1993 he was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. ''Billboard'' magazine awarded him their Century Award, their "highest honor for distinguished creative achievement", in December 1997.

Atkins is notable for his broad influence. His love for numerous styles of music can be traced from his early recording of stride-pianist James P. Johnson's "Johnson Rag," all the way to the rock stylings of Eric Johnson, an invited guest on Atkins's recording sessions who, when Chet attempted to copy his influential rocker "Cliffs of Dover", led to Atkins's creation of a unique arrangement of "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)."

Chet's recordings of "Malaguena" inspired a new generation of Flamenco guitarists; the classical guitar selections included on almost all his albums were, for many American artists working in the field today, the first classical guitar they ever heard. He recorded smooth jazz guitar still played on American airwaves today.

While he did more performing in the 1990s his health grew frail as he was diagnosed with cancer again in 1996. He died on June 30, 2001 at his home in Nashville.

Atkins was laid to rest at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens in Nashville.

Atkins was quoted many times throughout his career, and of his own legacy he once said:

A stretch of Interstate 185 in southwest Georgia (between LaGrange and Columbus) is named "Chet Atkins Parkway". This stretch of interstate runs through Fortson, GA where Atkins spent much of his childhood.

In 2002, Atkins was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His award was presented by Marty Stuart and Brian Setzer and accepted by Atkins's grandson, Jonathan Russell. The following year, Atkins ranked No.28 in ''CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music''.

At the age of 13, jazz guitarist Earl Klugh was captivated watching Atkins's guitar playing on ''The Perry Como Show.'' Atkins also inspired Drexl Jonez and Tommy Emmanuel.

Clint Black's album "Nothin' but the Taillights" includes the song "Ode to Chet," which includes the lines "'Cause I can win her over like Romeo did Juliet, if I can only show her I can almost pick that legato lick like Chet" and "It'll take more than Mel Bay 1, 2, & 3 if I'm ever gonna play like CGP." Atkins plays guitar on the track. At the end of the song Black and Atkins have a brief conversation.

Discography

Industry Awards

Country Music Association

1967 Instrumentalist of the Year

1968 Instrumentalist of the Year

1969 Instrumentalist of the Year

1981 Instrumentalist of the Year

1982 Instrumentalist of the Year

1983 Instrumentalist of the Year

1984 Instrumentalist of the Year

1985 Instrumentalist of the Year

1988 Instrumentalist of the Year

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Inducted in 1973

Grammy Awards

1971 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Jerry Reed – ''Me and Jerry''

1972 Best Country Instrumental Performance – "Snowbird"

1975 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Merle Travis – ''The Atkins-Travis Traveling Show''

1976 Best Country Instrumental Performance – "The Entertainer"

1977 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Les Paul – ''Chester and Lester''

1982 Best Country Instrumental Performance – ''Country After All These Years''

1986 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Mark Knopfler – "Cosmic Square Dance"

1991 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Mark Knopfler – "So Soft, Your Goodbye"

1991 Best Country Vocal Collaboration with Mark Knopfler – "Poor Boy Blues"

1993 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Jerry Reed – ''Sneakin' Around''

1993 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award'

1994 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Asleep at the Wheel, Eldon Shamblin, Johnny Gimble, Marty Stuart, Reuben "Lucky Oceans" Gosfield & Vince Gill – "Red Wing"

1995 Best Country Instrumental Performance – "Young Thing"

1997 Best Country Instrumental Performance – "Jam Man"

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Posthumously inducted in 2002

Notes

References

Kienzle, Rich. (1998). "Chet Atkins". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–7.

External links

Chet Atkins at the Country Music Hall of Fame

[ Allmusic entry for Chet Atkins]

Chet Atkins Official Web site

Bob Moore's A-Team Musicians Website

Chet Atkins Interview – ''Vintage Guitar'' magazine, June 1996(This reference no longer exists at this link – May 2011)

Chet Atkins on the Pop Chronicles

Category:1924 births Category:2001 deaths Category:People from Luttrell, Tennessee Category:American classical guitarists Category:American country singers Category:American country guitarists Category:American folk guitarists Category:American jazz guitarists Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Fingerstyle guitarists Category:American music industry executives Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:People from Knoxville, Tennessee Category:American record producers Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Cancer deaths in Tennessee Category:Amateur radio people

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