Chet Atkins

Sunday, 09 December 2012

Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins - Instrumental Medley

Jerry Reed And Chet Atkins Jerrys Breakdown

This 1975 clip features guitar great Chet Atkins performing Scott Joplin's

Chet Atkins - 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright

**Chet Atkins** And Friends - Live *2004* [DVDRip.X264-AC3**

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Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati (pronounced /sɪnsɨˈnæti/) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. Settled in 1788, the city is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits was 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's third-largest city. According to the 2011 Census Bureau estimate, the Cincinnati metropolitan area had a population of 2,138,038, the 27th most populous Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the United States, and the most populous in Ohio. Residents of Cincinnati are called Cincinnatians.
In the early 19th century, Cincinnati was the first American boomtown in the heart of the country to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city. It developed initially without as much recent European immigration or influence as took place in eastern cities. However, by the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably and the city became surpassed in population and prominence by another inland city, Chicago.

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Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795. It joins with the Auburn, Alabama metropolitan area to form the Columbus, Georgia-Auburn, Alabama Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 450,467. It is the third largest city and fourth largest metropolitan area in the state, and also the 123rd largest city in the United States.
Columbus lies 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. Fort Benning, a major employer, is located south of the city in Chattahoochee County. The city is home to museums and other tourism sites. The area is served by the Columbus Airport. The current mayor is Teresa Tomlinson, who was elected in November 2010. The city was ranked number 4 on the 100 Best U.S. Cities to live by Best Life Magazine.

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Denver, Colorado
Denver ( /ˈdɛnvər/) (Arapaho: Niinéniiniicíihéhe' ) is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Colorado. As Denver County, it is the second most populous county in Colorado after El Paso County, which surpassed Denver County as of the 2010 Census. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (1.6 km) or 5,280 feet (1,609.344 m) above sea level, which is defined by the elevation of the spot of a benchmark on the steps of the State Capital building. The elevation of the entire city ranges from 5,130 to 5,680 feet. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich passes through Union Station and is the temporal reference for the Mountain Time Zone.

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Fortson, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795. It joins with the Auburn, Alabama metropolitan area to form the Columbus, Georgia-Auburn, Alabama Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 450,467. It is the third largest city and fourth largest metropolitan area in the state, and also the 123rd largest city in the United States.
Columbus lies 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. Fort Benning, a major employer, is located south of the city in Chattahoochee County. The city is home to museums and other tourism sites. The area is served by the Columbus Airport. The current mayor is Teresa Tomlinson, who was elected in November 2010. The city was ranked number 4 on the 100 Best U.S. Cities to live by Best Life Magazine.

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Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia (ⁱ/ˈdʒɔrdʒⁱə/) is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 21, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 24th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South.Atlanta is the state's capital and its most populous city.
Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina; on the west by Alabama; and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mountain range in the Appalachian Mountains system. The central piedmont extends from the foothills to the fall line, where the rivers cascade down in elevation to the continental coastal plain of the southern part of the state. The highest point in Georgia is Brasstown Bald, 4,784 feet (1,458 m); the lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean.

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Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings November 28, 1925, as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of legends and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and comedic performances and skits. Considered an American icon, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and Internet listeners. The Opry, today part of the American landscape, is "the show that made country music famous" and has been called the "home of American music" and "country’s most famous stage."
In the 1930s, the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours; and WSM-AM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's "country music capital".

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Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. As of 2010, the city had a population of 178,874 residents, making it the state's third largest city. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2000 had a population of 655,400. The KMSA is in turn the central component of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area, which in 2000 had a population of 1,029,155.
First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century, though the arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. During the Civil War, the city was bitterly divided over the secession issue, and was occupied alternately by both Confederate and Union armies. Following the war, Knoxville grew rapidly as a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. The city's economy stagnated after the 1920s as the manufacturing sector collapsed, the Downtown area declined, and city leaders became entrenched in highly-partisan political fights. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had some success.

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LaGrange, Georgia
LaGrange is a city in Troup County, Georgia, United States. It is named after the country estate near Paris of the Marquis de La Fayette, who visited the area in 1825. The population was 24,998 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the LaGrange, Georgia Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, Georgia-Alabama (part) Combined Statistical Area.
LaGrange has been the county seat of Troup County since December 16, 1828 and is home to LaGrange College, the oldest private college in the state. Its proximity to West Point Lake, a few miles to the west, makes it a tourist destination for bass fishermen.
The settlement of LaGrange began in the early 19th century soon after the territory was ceded by the Creek Indians and the subsequent establishment of Troup County, Georgia. The City was incorporated in December 1828. During the American Civil War, LaGrange was defended by a volunteer women's auxiliary group known as the Nancy Harts. After the Confederate defeat in nearby West Point, Georgia, the Federal troops, led by Colonel Oscar LaGrange, marched north to LaGrange, with Confederate prisoners near the front of the column. The Nancy Harts formed and negotiated a surrender.

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Luttrell, Tennessee
Luttrell is a city in Union County, Tennessee, United States, with a population of 915 as of the 2000 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Luttrell was originally known as Cedar Ford, and was renamed Luttrell in 1890. In the 19th century Cedar Ford was the site of a lime kiln and a marble quarry, supporting a population of 808 as of the 1870 Census. In 1887 the Powell Valley Railroad (now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway) was built through the community, making it a shipping center for the surrounding area. Luttrell became an incorporated municipality in 1925.
Luttrell is located at 36°12′11″N 83°44′45″W / 36.20306°N 83.74583°W / 36.20306; -83.74583 (36.203097, -83.745867).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 3.9 square miles (10 km²), all of it land.
As of the census of 2000, there were 915 people, 352 households, and 273 families residing in Luttrell. The population density was 232.7 people per square mile (89.9/km²). There were 382 housing units at an average density of 97.1 per square mile (37.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.80% White, 0.33% African American, 0.44% Native American, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.77% of the population.

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Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home to a large number of colleges and universities. It is most notably known as a center of the music industry, earning it the nickname "Music City".
Nashville has a consolidated city–county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. As of the 2010 census the population of the city of Nashville, not including the semi-independent municipalities, stood at 601,222. The population of Davidson County as a whole, including all municipalities, was 626,681. Nashville is the second largest city in Tennessee, after Memphis, and the fourth largest city in the Southeastern United States. The 2010 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,589,934, making it the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the state. The 2010 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 1,670,890.

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RCA Studio B
RCA Studio B is a noted recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Situated at 1611 Roy Acuff Place and originally known simply as RCA Studios, it became famous in the 1960s for being a part of what many refer to as the Nashville Sound. A sophisticated style characterized by background vocals and strings, the Nashville Sound both revived the popularity of country music and helped establish Nashville, Tennessee as an international recording center.
Built by Dan Maddox in 1956, it was constructed at the request of Chet Atkins and Steve Sholes to facilitate the needs of RCA Victor Records and other record labels. According to Chet Atkins, the plans for the studio were drawn up on a napkin by Bill Miltenburg, RCA's chief engineer and recording manager.
Construction took four months, and the studio was opened at the cost of $37,515. The recording studio is a single-story building with offices occupying the front but the area of the studio and control room has a second story that contains an echo chamber. The studio itself measures 42.5' by 27' by 13'. In 1960 and 1961 an addition was built to provide office space and rooms for tape mastering and a lacquer mastering lab. A larger studio was built on 17th avenue in 1964 that became known as Studio A; the existing studio was referred to as Studio B from that point on.

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Richmond, Virginia
Richmond ( /ˈrɪtʃmənd/) is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond area. The population within the city limits was 204,214 in 2010, with an estimated population of 1,258,251 for the Richmond Metropolitan Area — making it the third largest in Virginia.
Geographically, Richmond is located at the fall line of the James River, 108 miles (174 km) south of Washington DC, 71 miles (114 km) east of Charlottesville, and 54 miles (87 km) west of Williamsburg. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is located at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, and encircled by Interstate 295 and Virginia State Route 288.
The site of Richmond, at the fall line of the James River, had been an important village of the Powhatan Confederacy, and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown in 1609, and in 1610–1611. The present city of Richmond was founded in 1737. It became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church, and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America. The city entered the 20th century with one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems, as well as a national hub of African-American commerce and culture, the Jackson Ward neighborhood.

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Tennessee
Tennessee (ⁱ/tɛnɨˈsiː/) (Cherokee: ᏔᎾᏏ) is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144.Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902.
The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.

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White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical style. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage.
In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. The third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.

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Archie Campbell
Archie Campbell (November 7, 1914 – August 29, 1987) was an American writer and star of Hee Haw, a popular long-running country-flavored network television variety show. He was also a recording artist with several hits on the RCA label in the 1960s.
Campbell studied art at Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, North Carolina, after which he began a radio career at WNOX in Knoxville. After a year alongside Roy Acuff on their Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round, he relocated to WDOD in Chattanooga, where he stayed until joining the United States Navy in 1941. At the end of World War II, Campbell returned to WNOX. He left that station for rival WROL where he helped start Knoxville's first country music television show (on WROL-TV), Country Playhouse, that premiered in 1952 and ran until 1958.
At the close of that show, he moved to Nashville to replace Rod Brasfield on the nationally-syndicated Prince Albert segment of the Grand Ole Opry. Shortly after, he signed a contract with RCA Victor and one of his early singles, "Trouble in the Amen Corner" reached the 1960 country music Top 25. After an unsuccessful stint with the Starday label, Campbell returned to RCA in 1966 and had three Top 30 singles: "The Men in My Little Girl's Life" (1966), "The Dark End of the Street" (1968), and "Tell It Like It Is" (1968). He was named "Comedian of the Year" in 1969 by the Country Music Association.

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Bill Carlisle
William Toliver Carlisle (December 19, 1908–March 17, 2003) was an American country music singer, songwriter, comedian and guitarist popular in the late 1940s and 1950s but who influenced the genre for more than 50 years. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Bill Carlisle was born in Wakefield, Kentucky southeast of Louisville. He performed in the 1920s with his older brother, Cliff Carlisle, on radio stations WLAP-AM in Lexington, Kentucky and WNOX-AM in Knoxville, Tennessee. His first solo single and hit was the 1933 recording of "Rattlesnake Daddy," released on ARC Records. That year he formed the Carlisle Brothers with Cliff, and in 1938 they signed with Decca Records and continued performing on Kentucky country radio programs. He created an alter ego for the WNOX's Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round and Tennessee Barn Dance shows called Hot Shot Elmer, a bumbling buffoon in costume who would "interrupt" Carlisle's own performances. His leaps on stage won him the moniker "Jumpin' Bill."

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Bobby Bare
Robert Joseph "Bobby" Bare (born April 7, 1935, Ironton, OH) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is the father of Bobby Bare, Jr., also a musician.
Bare had many failed attempts to sell his songs in the 1950s.^{[citation needed]} He finally signed with Capitol Records and recorded a few rock and roll songs without much chart success.^{[citation needed]} Just before he was drafted into the Army, he wrote a song called "The All American Boy" and did a demo for his friend, Bill Parsons, to learn and record. Instead of using the version Bill Parsons did later, the record company, Fraternity Records, decided to use the original demo recorded by Bobby Bare. The record reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but they made an error: the singles' labels all credited the artist as being "Bill Parsons." The same track, with the same billing error, peaked at #22 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1959.

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Boots Randolph
Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927 – July 3, 2007) was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax" (Benny Hill's signature tune). Randolph was a major part of the "Nashville Sound" for most of his professional career.
Randolph was born in Paducah, Kentucky and raised in Cadiz, Kentucky, attending high school in Evansville, Indiana.
At the end of World War II, Boots Randolph played saxophone, trombone, and vibraphone in the United States Army Band. After his service in the Army, he played with Dink Welch's Kopy Kats in Decatur, Illinois from 1948-1954. He briefly resided in Louisville, Kentucky before returning to Decatur to start his own group. He left Decatur in 1957.
During his more than forty year career, Randolph performed in hundreds of venues alongside many artists in pop, rock, jazz, and country music. He played on many recording sessions with Elvis Presley and also performed on soundtracks for a number of Presley's motion pictures.
Mr. Randolph recorded for Monument Records in Nashville and played on Roy Orbison's 1963 hit, "Mean Woman Blues." He was also featured on "Little Queenie" by REO Speedwagon, "Java" by Al Hirt, "Turn On Your Lovelight" by Jerry Lee Lewis, and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee. Early in his career, he often billed himself as Randy Randolph.

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Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with his Swing revival band, The Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York. Beginning in January 1979, he fronted the popular rockabilly band, the Stray Cats.
After performing locally from New York to Philadelphia under various band names with no real success, singer and lead guitarist Setzer, drummer Slim Jim Phantom (born James McDonnell) and bassist Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker) decided in June 1980 to go to London, England where they believed people would better appreciate their sound and style.
To obtain the money for their plane tickets, Setzer, Rocker and Phantom went to Sam Ash Music on 48th Street to sell their instruments and gear to the store, for enough money for three one-way plane tickets. Upon their arrival, they decided to call themselves the "Stray Cats", a name suggested by Rocker because of their status as 'strays'. After performing for only a few months they drew the attention of the British record producer Dave Edmunds, and released a series of successful singles in the UK, which countered the already-entrenched punk scene in London.

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Charley Pride
Charley Frank Pride (born March 18, 1938) is an American country music singer. His smooth baritone voice was featured on thirty-nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. His chart success and recordings since the late 1980s have been sporadic, but Pride continued touring successfully.
Pride is one of the few Black country musicians to have had considerable success in the largely Caucasian country music industry and the only one to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. In 2010, Pride became a special investor and minority owner of the Texas Rangers baseball club.
Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi, one of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. His father intended to name him Charl Frank Pride, but owing to a clerical error on his birth certificate, his legal name is Charley Frank Pride. In his early teens, Pride began playing guitar.
Though he also loved music, one of Pride's life-long dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. He pitched well, and, in 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. During that season, an injury caused him to lose the "mustard" on his fastball, and he was sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Later that season, while in the Negro leagues with the Louisville Clippers, he and another player (Jesse Mitchell), were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus. "Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle," Pride mused in his 1994 autobiography.^{[dead link]}

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Chester G. Atkins
Chester Greenough Atkins is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He was a Democrat from Massachusetts.
Atkins was born in Geneva, Switzerland on April 14, 1948 and graduated from Concord-Carlisle High School of Concord, Massachusetts in 1966 and Antioch College in 1970. Atkins was exposed to progressive politics on Antioch's highly politicized campus in the late 60's and early 70's. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1970 to 1971 (the youngest ever elected in Massachusetts) and the Massachusetts Senate from 1972 to 1984. He was Chairman of the (state) Senate Ways and Means Committee, and he also served as chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee from 1977 to 1990.
When James Shannon decided to run for the Senate seat vacated by the ailing Paul Tsongas, Atkins ran and was elected as a Democrat to the 99th Congress in 1984. He served there for four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1985–January 3, 1993). In his 1990 reelection bid, Atkins won by a surprisingly thin margin for the heavily Democratic 5th district, and as a result, in 1992, Democrats backed Democratic challenger Martin T. Meehan, fearing the seat could fall to the Republicans. His last campaign was riddled with accusations of check-bouncing and mis-managing his own finances. His wife Cory later ran successfully for his old state house seat. Atkins and his wife have been separated for several years.

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Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), 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 The Browns, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings and many 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.

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Connie Smith
Connie Smith (born Constance June Meador; August 14, 1941) is an American country music artist. Active since 1964, Smith is widely considered to be one of the genre's best female vocalists. She has earned eleven Grammy award nominations, twenty top ten Billboard country singles, and thirty one charting albums, three of which have hit number one. In 2012 Smith became the twelfth solo female vocalist and nineteenth woman to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Despite her success, Smith is often considered of the most underrated vocalists in country music history due to the decision not to pursue super stardom with the non-country general media market like such contemporaries as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette . Artists such as Parton,George Jones, and Chely Wright have cited Smith as either one of the best vocalists in the music industry or their favorite female artist.

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David Halberstam
David Halberstam (April 10, 1934 – April 23, 2007) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.
Halberstam was raised in Yonkers, New York and, earlier, had lived in Winsted, Connecticut (where he was a classmate of Ralph Nader). In 1955, he graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts, and he served as managing editor of The Harvard Crimson.
Halberstam's journalism career began at the Daily Times Leader, the smallest daily newspaper in Mississippi. He covered the beginnings of the American Civil Rights Movement for The Tennessean in Nashville.
Halberstam arrived in Vietnam in the middle of 1962, to be a full-time Vietnam specialist for The New York Times. Halberstam, like many other US journalists covering Vietnam, relied heavily for information on Pham Xuan An, who was later revealed to be a secret North Vietnamese agent. In 1963, Halberstam received a George Polk Award for his reporting at The New York Times, including his eyewitness account of the self-immolation of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Ðức. During the Buddhist crisis, he and Neil Sheehan debunked the claim by the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem that the Army of the Republic of Vietnam regular forces had perpetrated the Xa Loi Pagoda raids, which the American authorities initially believed, and that instead, the Special Forces loyal to Diem's brother Ngo Dinh Nhu had done so to frame the army generals. He was also involved in a scuffle with Nhu's secret police after they punched fellow journalist Peter Arnett while the pressmen were covering a Buddhist protest. Halberstram left Vietnam in 1964. At the age of 30, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his war reporting. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film on the Vietnam War entitled In the Year of the Pig.

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Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt (French pronunciation: [dʒɑ̃ɡo ʁenɑʁt]; 23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953) was a pioneering virtuoso Belgian jazz guitarist and composer.
Often regarded as the first important European jazz musician who made major contributions to the development of the idiom, he is also revered by guitarists worldwide as among the foremost exponents of the instrument. Reinhardt invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages".
Jean "Django" Reinhardt was born 23 January 1910 in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, into a family of Manouche gypsies. Reinhardt's nickname "Django" is Romani for "I awake." Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani (Gypsy) encampments close to Paris, playing banjo, guitar and violin from an early age. His family made cane furniture for a living, but included several keen amateur musicians.

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Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. As a songwriter, she has composed over 3,000 songs, the best known of which include "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper for Parton, as well an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", "9 to 5" and "My Tennessee Mountain Home". As an actress, she starred in the movies 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk, Unlikely Angel and Joyful Noise. She is one of the most successful female country artists of all time; with an estimated 100 million in album sales, Dolly Parton is also one of the best selling artists of all time. She is known as "The Queen of Country Music".
She was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children of Avie Lee Parton (née Owens; October 5, 1923 – December 5, 2003) and Robert Lee Parton (March 22, 1921 – November 12, 2000), a tobacco farmer. Her siblings are: Willadeene Parton (born March 24, 1940), David Wilburn Parton (born March 30, 1942), Coy Denver "Denver" Parton (born August 16, 1943), Bobby Lee Parton (born February 18, 1948), Stella Mae Parton (born May 4, 1949), Cassie Nan Parton (February 12, 1951), Randel Huston "Randy" Parton (born December 15, 1953), Larry Gerald Parton (born and died July 6, 1955), Floyd and Frieda Estelle Parton (born June 1, 1957), and Rachel Ann Parton (born August 31, 1959). Her family was, as she has described them, "dirt poor". She outlined her family's lack of money in a number of her early songs, notably "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)". They lived in a rustic, dilapidated one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, a hamlet just north of the Greenbrier Valley, in the Locust Ridge area of the Great Smoky Mountains in Sevier County, a predominantly Pentecostal area.

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Don Gibson
Donald Eugene "Don" Gibson (April 3, 1928 – November 17, 2003) was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s.
Don Gibson was born in Shelby, North Carolina, into a poor working-class family, and he dropped out of school in the second grade.
His first band was called Sons of the Soil, with whom he made his first recording in 1948.
In 1957, he journeyed to Nashville to record "Oh Lonesome Me" and "I Can't Stop Loving You" for RCA. The afternoon session resulted in a double-sided hit on both the country and pop charts.
"Oh Lonesome Me" set the pattern for a long series of other RCA hits. "Blue Blue Day", recorded prior to "Oh, Lonesome Me" was a number 1 hit in 1958. Later singles included "Look Who's Blue" (1958), "Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" (1959), "Sea of Heartbreak" (1961); "Lonesome No. 1", "I Can Mend Your Broken Heart" (1962), and "Woman (Sensuous Woman)", a number one country hit in 1972.

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Dottie West
Dottie West (October 11, 1932 – September 4, 1991) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists. Dottie West's career started in the early 1960s, with her Top 10 hit, "Here Comes My Baby Back Again," which won her the first Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965. In the 1960s, West was one of the few female country singers working in what was then a male-dominated industry, influencing other female country singers like Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette. Throughout the 1960s, West had country hits within the Top 10 and 20.
In the early 1970s, West wrote a popular commercial for the Coca-Cola company, titled "Country Sunshine", which she nearly brought to the top of the charts in 1973. In the late-70s, she teamed up with country-pop superstar, Kenny Rogers for a series of duets, which brought her career in directions it had never gone before, earning Platinum selling albums and No. 1 records for the very first time. Her duet recordings with Rogers, like "Every Time Two Fools Collide," "All I Ever Need Is You," and "What Are We Doin' In Love," eventually became country-music standards. In the mid-1970s, her image and music underwent a major metamorphosis, bringing her to the very peak of her popularity as a solo act, and reaching No. 1 for the very first time on her own in 1980 with "A Lesson in Leavin'".^{[citation needed]}

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Doyle Dykes
Doyle Dykes (born May 23, 1954) is an American country acoustic guitarist from Jacksonville, Florida. He is influenced by a wide variety of musical styles and musicians such as Chet Atkins, the Allman Brothers, to the Beatles and U2. Cited along with guitarists such as Tommy Emmanuel as one of the best finger-style guitarists in the world, he is also known for his capability of playing proficiently with a wide range of different guitar tunings. Some of his best-known works and interpretations are "Wabash Canonball", "Country Fried Pickin", "Tricky Pickin", "Chet Stuff", "Be Still", "Amazing Grace" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Dykes is a devout Baptist and has served as a minister in a small church in Florida; the influence of Christianity is present in much of his work. He is a major endorser of Taylor Guitars and Rivera Sedona amplifiers, with his own signature models of each.

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Earl Klugh
Earl Klugh (pronounced "Clue") (born September 16, 1953, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American smooth jazz/crossover jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and composer. In 2006 Modern Guitar magazine wrote that Klugh "is considered by many to be one of the finest acoustic guitar players today."
At the age of 13, Klugh was captivated by the guitar playing of Chet Atkins when Atkins made an appearance on the Perry Como Show. Klugh was a performing guest on several of Atkins' albums. Atkins, reciprocating as well, joined Earl on his Magic In Your Eyes album. Klugh also appeared with Atkins on several television programs, including Hee Haw and a 1994 TV special entitled "Read my Licks". Klugh was also influenced by Bob James, Ray Parker Jr, Wes Montgomery and Laurindo Almeida. His sound is a blend of these jazz, pop and rhythm and blues influences, forming a potpourri of sweet contemporary music original to only him.
Klugh's first recording, at age 15, was on Yusef Lateef's Suite 16. He played on George Benson's White Rabbit album and two years later, in 1973, joined his touring band.

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Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008), known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry (beginning 1943) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (beginning 1966), Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Television's 2003 list of "The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music." He co-wrote the country and pop standard "You Don't Know Me".
Arnold was born on May 15, 1918 on a farm near Henderson, Tennessee. His father, a sharecropper, played the fiddle, while his mother played guitar. As a boy Arnold helped on the farm, which later gained him his nickname—the Tennessee Plowboy. Arnold attended Pinson High School in Pinson, Tennessee, where he played guitar for school functions and events. He quit before graduation to help with the farm work, but continued performing, often arriving on a mule with his guitar hung on his back. Arnold also worked part time as an assistant at a mortuary.

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Eldon Shamblin
Eldon Shamblin (April 24, 1916 - August 5, 1998) was an American guitarist and arranger, particularly important to the development of Western swing music as one of the first electric guitarists in a popular dance band.
Born in Clinton, Oklahoma, Shamblin learned guitar at a young age and learned to read music at his sister's piano. He became interested in Jazz when he heard Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti. In time he purchased transcriptions of Eddie's solos and learned them when he became interested in arranging, a skill he later proved to be in demand for as the Big Band era swept the nation. As a teenager he migrated from Weatherford, OK to Oklahoma City where he played some of the roughest dives and nightclubs and landed a daily 15 minute radio show where he sang and accompanied himself on his guitar. Eventually he wound up playing in hotel bands there in OK City with jazz musicians playing selections that were soon to become classics. His local fame spread and he soon was known as the other great guitarist in Oklahoma, the first being a young Charlie Christian who was playing in venues down in the Deep Deuce area of 2nd St and also with groups that had programs on some of the same radio stations as Eldon. Charlie played in a lot of the nightclubs on the 'other' side of town where few 'white' people ventured. Likewise Blacks seldom were seen in the 'white' section. In the Deep Deuce area the color lines were often completely forgotten as in mixed races Jam sessions at Salathiel's Barn where Charlie was known to have played with steel guitarist Noel Boggs and pianist Clarence Cagle, both of whom figured into the Western Swing music of Bob Wills and other bands of the genre. Ironically, some of these artists played in clubs which were across the alley from one another, often well within earshot of the back door. Music being a bond between races it's said that Eldon & Charlie possibly heard one another either on the air or across the alleys.

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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

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Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil; born Isaac Donald "Don" Everly on February 1, 1937 and Phillip "Phil" Everly on January 19, 1939, are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing. The group was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
Don and Phil Everly are both guitarists and use vocal harmony mostly based on parallel thirds. With this, each line can often stand on its own as a melody line. This is in contrast to classic harmony lines which, while working well alongside the melody, are not as melodic by themselves.
For most of their recordings, Don sings the lower harmony part, while Phil takes the higher. One exception is on "Devoted To You". Although Don is still low and Phil is high, they switch lead and harmony back and forth. Don almost always sings any lines that are sung solo (for example, the verses of "Bye Bye Love".) Among the exceptions to this rule is the Everlys' 1965 single "It's All Over", where Phil sings the song's solo lines.

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Felton Jarvis
Felton Jarvis, (born November 16, 1934 – died January 3, 1981), produced most of Elvis Presley's recordings from 1966-1977. He also released several singles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Jarvis also produced John Hartford's first six albums.Tommy Roe, Michael Nesmith, Fats Domino, Jimmy Dean, Fess Parker, Charley Pride, Carl Perkins, Skeeter Davis, Willie Nelson, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Maria Dallas.

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Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion (also known as Garrison Keillor's Radio Show on United Kingdom's BBC Radio 4 Extra, as well as on RTÉ in Ireland, Australia's ABC, and Radio New Zealand National in New Zealand).
Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota, the son of Grace Ruth (née Denham) and John Philip Keillor, who was a carpenter and postal worker. The family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, an Irish fundamentalist Christian denomination Keillor has since left. He is six feet, three inches (1.9 m) tall and has Scots ancestry. Keillor is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. In 2006 he told Christianity Today that he was attending the Episcopal church in Saint Paul, after previously attending a Lutheran church in New York. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in English in 1966. While there, he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station known today as Radio K.

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Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980. This total includes the number 1 hits "I'm Moving On", "The Golden Rocket", "I Don't Hurt Anymore", "Let Me Go, Lover!", "I've Been Everywhere", and "Hello Love" as well as other top ten hits. He is a member of both the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and the Music Hall of Fame.
Snow was born in Brooklyn, Queens County, Nova Scotia, Canada. He ran away from home to escape a brutal stepfather when he was 12 years old and joined a fishing boat as a cabin boy. When he was 14, he ordered his first guitar from an Eaton's department store catalogue for $5.95, and played his first show in a church basement in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia at age 16. He then sang in local clubs in and around Halifax. He married Minnie Blanche Aalders in 1935 and had one son, Rev. Jimmy Rodgers Snow.
A successful appearance on Halifax radio station CHNS led to Snow's audition with RCA Victor in Montreal, Quebec. In 1936, he signed with the label, staying for more than 45 years. A weekly CBC radio show brought him national recognition and, using the name, Hank, The Yodeling Ranger, and he began touring Canada until the late 1940s when American country music stations began playing his records.

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Homer & Jethro
Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. Haynes (1920–1971) and Kenneth C. Burns (1920–1989), popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs. Known as the Thinking Man's Hillbillies, they received a Grammy in 1959 and are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Haynes and Burns met in 1936 during a WNOX-AM audition in Knoxville, Tennessee when they were both 16 years old. Known as Junior and Dude (pronounced "dood'-ee"), the pair was rechristened Homer (Haynes) and Jethro (Burns) when WNOX Program Director Lowell Blanchard forgot their nicknames during a 1936 broadcast. In 1939 they became regulars on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio program in Dayton, Ohio.
They were drafted into the US Army during World War II but served separately; they reunited in Knoxville in 1945, and in 1947 they performed on WLW-AM's Midwestern Hayride in Cincinnati. They sang exaggerated hillbilly-styled versions of pop standards as their comedic hook, with Haynes on guitar and Burns on mandolin. They originally recorded for King Records, where they also worked as session musicians backing other artists until a dispute over song credits with label owner Syd Nathan led Nathan to release them from the label. The duo and other stars were fired by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, Missouri and performed on KWTO-AM with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson.

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Homer and Jethro
Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. Haynes (1920–1971) and Kenneth C. Burns (1920–1989), popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs. Known as the Thinking Man's Hillbillies, they received a Grammy in 1959 and are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Haynes and Burns met in 1936 during a WNOX-AM audition in Knoxville, Tennessee when they were both 16 years old. Known as Junior and Dude (pronounced "dood'-ee"), the pair was rechristened Homer (Haynes) and Jethro (Burns) when WNOX Program Director Lowell Blanchard forgot their nicknames during a 1936 broadcast. In 1939 they became regulars on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio program in Dayton, Ohio.
They were drafted into the US Army during World War II but served separately; they reunited in Knoxville in 1945, and in 1947 they performed on WLW-AM's Midwestern Hayride in Cincinnati. They sang exaggerated hillbilly-styled versions of pop standards as their comedic hook, with Haynes on guitar and Burns on mandolin. They originally recorded for King Records, where they also worked as session musicians backing other artists until a dispute over song credits with label owner Syd Nathan led Nathan to release them from the label. The duo and other stars were fired by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, Missouri and performed on KWTO-AM with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson.

wn.com/Homer_and_Jethro
James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson (James Price Johnson, also known as Jimmy Johnson; February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of the stride style of jazz piano, he along with Jelly Roll Morton, were arguably the two most important pianists who bridged the ragtime and jazz eras, and the two most important catalysts in the evolution of ragtime piano into jazz. As such, he was a model for Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum and his more famous pupil, Fats Waller. Johnson composed many hit tunes including the theme song of the Roaring Twenties, "Charleston" and "If I Could be With You One Hour Tonight" and remained the acknowledged king of New York jazz pianists until he was dethroned c. 1933 by the recently arrived Art Tatum, who is widely acknowledged by jazz critics as the most technically proficient jazz pianist of all time. Johnson's artistry, his significance in the subsequent development of jazz piano, and his large contribution to American musical theatre, are often overlooked, and as such, he has been referred to by Reed College musicologist David Schiff, as " The Invisible Pianist ".

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Jethro Burns
Kenneth C. Burns (March 10, 1920 – February 4, 1989) was an American country musician, comedian, and mandolin player. He was better known by his stage name Jethro from his years with Henry D. Haynes as part of the comedic musical duo Homer and Jethro beginning in 1936.
Burns was born Conasauga, Tennessee on March 10, 1920. His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee when he was three. In 1936, he auditioned for a talent contest at Knoxville radio station WNOX where he met Henry Haynes, also 16. The two formed a duo and WNOX program director Lowell Blanchard gave them the stage names Homer and Jethro after forgetting their names on the air.
Burns was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II and reunited with Haynes, who had served in the Pacific, in Knoxville in 1945. By 1947, the duo moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and were working at WLW on the station's Midwestern Hayride. They signed with King Records, where they worked as a house band and recorded singles on their own, and two years later signed with RCA Records. The pair were fired along with other stars by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, Missouri and performed on KWTO with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson.

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Jim Reeves
James Travis "Jim" Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). Known as Gentleman Jim, his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died at age 40 in the crash of a private airplane. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.
Reeves was born in Galloway, Texas, a small rural community near Carthage. Winning an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas, he enrolled to study speech and drama, but quit after only six weeks to work in the shipyards in Houston. Soon he resumed baseball, playing in the semi-professional leagues before contracting with the St. Louis Cardinals "farm" team during 1944 as a right-handed pitcher. He played for the minor leagues for three years before severing his sciatic nerve while pitching, which ended his athletic career.^{[citation needed]}

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John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo, and fiddle from song to song. He also invented his own shuffle tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood while he played and sang.
John Harford (he would change his name to Hartford later in life at the behest of Chet Atkins) was born on December 30, 1937 in New York City to parents Dr. Carl and Mary Harford. He spent his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri. There he was exposed to the influence that would shape much of his career and music—the Mississippi River. From the time he got his first job on the river, at age 16, Hartford was on, around, or singing about the river.

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Johnny Gimble
John Paul Gimble (born May 30, 1926), better known as Johnny Gimble, is an American country musician associated with Western swing. He is an award-winning fiddle player and considered one of the most impressive fiddlers in the genre's history.
Gimble was born in Bascom, Texas, (east of Tyler). He began playing in a band with his brothers at age 12, and continued playing with two of them, George and Jerry, as the Rose City Swingsters. The trio played local radio gigs, but soon after Gimble moved to Louisiana and began performing with Jimmie Davis. Late in the 1940s, he joined Bob Wills's band, the Texas Playboys. With Wills, he played both fiddle and electric mandolin, and distinguished himself by using a five-string fiddle (most fiddles have four strings). He broke off to form his own group in 1951, performing as the house band at Wills's club, but rejoined in 1953 and continued to play with Wills until the early 1960s.
Gimble left the music business briefly, working in a barbershop and a hospital, until 1969 when he and Wills began recording together again. From this time on he enjoyed steady work as a session musician, including with Merle Haggard on his Bob Wills tribute album and Chet Atkins on Superpickers in 1973. The following year he took a cue from a song he wrote and performed on the Atkins' Superpickers album, Fiddlin' Around and recorded the first of ten solo albums, Fiddlin' Around. Since the late 1970s, he has won five Best Instrumentalist awards from the Country Music Awards and eight Best Fiddle Player awards from the Academy of Country Music. From 1979 to 1981, Gimble toured with Willie Nelson worldwide. In 1983, Gimble assembled a Texas swing group featuring Ray Price on vocals, and charted a country radio hit with "One Fiddle, Two Fiddle," featured in the Clint Eastwood movie Honkytonk Man. Gimble was also nominated for a Grammy award for his performance on the 1993 Mark O'Connor album Heroes.

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June Carter
Valerie June Carter Cash (June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian, and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She was ranked #31 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002.
June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia to Maybelle Addington Carter and Ezra Carter. She was born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the age of ten, beginning in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters" with her daughters, Helen, Anita, and June. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell)—Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively— known as "The Virginia Boys," joined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for "Red Star Flour", "Martha White," and "Thalhimers Department Store", just to name a few. For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent—comedy. A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural born clown, if there ever was one." She attended John Marshall High School during this period.

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Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)—known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound),delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.
His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.

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Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler went on to record and produce six solo albums, including Golden Heart (1996), Sailing to Philadelphia (2000), and Get Lucky (2009). He has composed and produced film scores for eight films, including Local Hero (1983), Cal (1984), and The Princess Bride (1987). In addition to his work with Dire Straits and as a solo artist and composer, Knopfler has recorded and performed with many prominent musical artists, including Phil Lynott, Chet Atkins, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Jools Holland, Sonny Landreth, and Van Morrison. He has produced albums for Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman.
Knopfler is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era, and was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date. A four-time Grammy Award winner, Knopfler is the recipient of the Edison Award and the Steiger Award, and holds three honorary doctorate degrees in music from universities in the United Kingdom.

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Marty Stuart
John Marty Stuart (born September 30, 1958) is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music. In the early 1990s, he had a successful string of Country hits.
Born as John Martin Stuart in Philadelphia, Mississippi on September 30, 1958, Marty Stuart has become known as one of country music's most eclectic artists, because he performs and records several widely diverse types of country music. He is of French, English, Choctaw, and Colombian descent. That is one of his reasons for his success in the 1990s, just when Traditionalism was making a comeback in country music.
From an early age, he was obsessed with country music. He was so obsessed, in fact, that he taught himself how to play the guitar and mandolin. At the age of 12, Stuart started performing with the bluegrass group The Sullivans. He later met Lester Flatt bandmember Roland White. White invited Stuart to play with him and the Nashville Grass at the Labor Day gig in Delaware in 1972. After this, White asked him to join the band permanently and Stuart accepted. This made White responsible for the rest of Stuart's education. Marty stayed with Lester Flatt until Flatt broke up the band in 1978 due to his failing health.

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Mel Bay
Mel Bay (February 25, 1913 – May 14, 1997) was a musician best known for his series of music education books. His Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords remains a bestseller.
Melbourne E. Bay was born on February 25, 1913 in the little Ozark Mountain town of Bunker, Missouri. He bought a Sears Roebuck guitar at the age of 13 and several months later played his first “gig.” Bunker didn't have a guitar teacher so Bay watched the few guitarists he knew and copied their fingering on the fret board, teaching himself chords. Once he felt he knew the rudiments of the guitar, he started experimenting with other instruments, including tenor banjo, mandolin, Hawaiian guitar and ukulele.
Bay played in front of an audience every chance he got, including a stint with a snake oil salesman in and around his hometown. The man hired Bay to play the banjo while sitting in the salesman's car. Once a crowd gathered to listen, Bay would stop playing, and the salesman would pitch his cure-all.
Bay knew that to make it as a professional musician he'd have to be in a large city. So he moved to St. Louis in the early 1930s to find his audience. He played with numerous local and traveling bands. In addition, he landed staff guitar jobs on several radio stations. Mel fronted his own trio (piano, bass, guitar) and played steadily for 25 years.

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Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and Western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon". However, it is his masterful guitar playing and his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky for which he is best known today. "Travis picking", a syncopated style of finger picking, is named after him. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
Travis was born and raised in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky which would inspire many of Travis' own original songs. (This is the same coal mining county mentioned in the John Prine song "Paradise") He became interested in the guitar early in life and originally played one made by his brother. Travis reportedly saved his money to buy a guitar that he had window-shopped for some time.

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Norma Jean (singer)
Norma Jean Beasler (b. January 30, 1938), better known as Norma Jean, is an American country music singer who was a member of The Porter Wagoner Show from 1961–1967. She had 13 country singles in Billboard's Country Top 40 between 1963 and 1968, recorded twenty albums for RCA Records between 1964 and 1973, received two Grammy nominations, and was a Grand Ole Opry member for a number of years.
Norma Jean Beasler was born January 30, 1938 in Wellston, Oklahoma, and grew up admiring country singer Kitty Wells, who she considers her biggest influence. She got her start performing on radio stations in the Oklahoma City area; and by age 12, she had her own radio show on KLPR-AM. She toured Oklahoma with various bands, starting with Merl Lindsay and His Oklahoma Night Riders at age 16, followed by the Bill Gray Band at 18. Norma was the Bill Gray Band's full-time vocalist, and made guest appearances with major country stars. Early on, she befriended soon-to-be country star Wanda Jackson.
In 1955, she got a regular spot on the ABC-TV show Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri, where she stayed for two years and first received national exposure. Host Red Foley suggested calling her simply Norma Jean, and she made it official in 1958; she also became known on the program as Pretty Miss Norma Jean. She met Porter Wagoner on the show, and in 1959, signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. A string of unsuccessful singles followed, and she moved to Nashville, Tennessee where Wagoner invited her to audition for his syndicated weekly TV program, The Porter Wagoner Show. She became a regular on the show in 1961 and stayed for six years.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Norma_Jean_(singer)
Owen Bradley
Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American record producer who, along with Chet Atkins and Bob Ferguson, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 1960s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.
A native of Westmoreland, Tennessee, Bradley learned piano at an early age, and began playing in local nightclubs and roadhouses when he was a teenager. At 20, he got a job at WSM-AM radio, where he worked as an arranger and musician. In 1942, he became the station's musical director, and was also the leader of a sought-after dance band that played well-heeled society parties all over the city. That same year he co-wrote Roy Acuff’s hit “Night Train to Memphis". He kept the band up until 1964, although in the intervening decades, his work as a producer would far overshadow his own performing career.^{[citation needed]}.
In 1947, Bradley took a position as a music arranger and songwriter at Decca Records. He worked for Paul Cohen on recordings by some of the biggest talents of the day, including Ernest Tubb, Burl Ives, Red Foley and Kitty Wells. Learning from Cohen, he eventually began to produce records on his own. When his mentor left the label in 1958, Bradley became vice president of Decca's Nashville division, and began pioneering what would become the "Nashville sound."

wn.com/Owen_Bradley
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. Como was seen weekly on television from 1949 to 1963, then continued hosting the Kraft Music Hall variety program on a monthly basis until 1967. His television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. Also a popular recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como's behest. His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time. Como's appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Composer Ervin Drake said of him, "... [o]ccasionally someone like Perry comes along and won't 'go with the flow' and still prevails in spite of all the bankrupt others who surround him and importune him to yield to their values. Only occasionally."

wn.com/Perry_Como
Porter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007) was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. In 1967, he introduced a then little known Dolly Parton on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954–1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Wagoner was born in West Plains, Missouri, the son of Bertha May (née Bridges) and Charles E. Wagoner, a farmer. His first band, The Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains, Missouri where Wagoner cut meat. In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri. This led to a contract with RCA Victor.
With lagging sales, Wagoner and his trio played schoolhouses for the gate proceeds; but in 1953, his song "Trademark" became a hit for Carl Smith, followed by a few hits of his own on RCA. Starting in 1955, he was a featured performer on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri. He often appeared on the show as part of the Porter Wagoner Trio with Don Warden and Speedy Haworth. Warden, on steel guitar, became Wagoner's long-time business manager. In 1957, Wagoner and Warden moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining the Grand Ole Opry.

wn.com/Porter_Wagoner
Roger C. Field
Roger C. Field (born 31 July 1945) is an inventor with over 100 patents, an award winning industrial designer and a guitarist. He is best known as the inventor of the Foldaxe folding electric guitar. He has also been written about in Playboy magazine in ten countries and in Penthouse magazine four times in Europe. He is in four different Who's Who books in Europe including one for the European Union.
Field was born in London, England. His father was the owner and managing director of Siegmund Robinow & Son Ltd, a company in London and Hamburg which at that time manufactured exclusive garments. After attending Stagenhoe Park near Hitchin from 1953-1958 he attended The King's School, Canterbury from 1958–1960, then Aiglon College in Switzerland from 1960-1963. Field attended the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California early in 1965 to major in Industrial design and graduated with a Bachelor's degree. Field also completed courses in Film & Television at San Francisco State University. In 1969, he filmed the California College of the Arts at the request of Harry X. Ford, the president of the college in 16mm (titled To Be An Artist), which included poet Michael McClure, an English professor at CCAC at the time. The film, which was financed by the college, was later shown on television.

wn.com/Roger_C._Field
Skeeter Davis
Mary Frances Penick (December 30, 1931 – September 19, 2004), better known as Skeeter Davis, was an American country music singer best known for crossover pop music songs of the early 1960s. She started out as part of The Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Records. In the late '50s, she became a solo star. Her best-known hit was the pop classic "The End of the World" in 1963.
One of the first women to achieve major stardom in the country music field as a solo vocalist, she was an acknowledged influence on Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton and was hailed as an "extraordinary country/pop singer" by The New York Times music critic Robert Palmer.
Davis was the first of seven children born to William and Punzie Penick, in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Because her grandfather thought that she had a lot of energy for a young child, he nicknamed Mary Frances "Skeeter" (slang for mosquito). In 1947, the Penick family moved to Erlanger, Kentucky, where Skeeter met Betty Jack Davis and Wanda Rose Rader at Dixie Heights High School, becoming instant friends. They sang together through much of high school, and at Decoursey Baptist Church, where Wanda's father was the pastor. They formed a group known as the Davis Sisters (although they were unrelated), and started singing on Detroit radio station WJR's program Barnyard Frolics. Wanda was unable to travel, so Skeeter & B.J. began to make a name as a duet. Eventually, the duo were signed by RCA Records in 1951 (earlier demo recordings were eventually released on Fortune Records after the act's RCA success which has led to some confusion that the Davis Sisters were on the Fortune label before RCA).

wn.com/Skeeter_Davis
Stephen H. Sholes
Stephen H. Sholes (February 12, 1911 – April 22, 1968) was a prominent recording executive with RCA Victor.
He was born Stephen Henry Sholes, in Washington, D.C.. His family moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his father worked in the RCA Victor plant. Sholes started work at RCA Victor as a messenger boy in 1929. He worked part time for the firm while a student at Rutgers University.
Scholes worked for a time in RCA's radio division, but his experience playing saxophone and clarinet in dance bands led him to the record division. During World War II, he worked in the Army's V-disc operation, which made records for radio broadcast and for personal use by army personnel.
In 1945, he became head of the country division in Nashville, Tennessee and was responsible for recruiting such talent as Chet Atkins for RCA Victor. When he left Nashville, Atkins took over as head of the country music division. He also recruited Eddy Arnold, The Browns, Hank Locklin, Homer and Jethro, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, and Pee Wee King. In 1955, he signed Elvis Presley for RCA.

wn.com/Stephen_H._Sholes
Steve Wariner
Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner (born December 25, 1954) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records. He has also charted more than fifty singles on the Billboard country singles charts, including ten Number One hits: "All Roads Lead to You", "Some Fools Never Learn", "You Can Dream of Me", "Life's Highway", "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", "Lynda", "Where Did I Go Wrong", and "I Got Dreams", and "What If I Said", a duet with Anita Cochran from her album Back to You. Three of his studio albums have been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States.
In addition to writing or co-writing most of his own songs, Wariner holds several writing credits for other artists, including Number One hits for Clint Black and Garth Brooks, as well as singles for Bryan White and Keith Urban. Other artists with whom he has worked include Nicolette Larson, Glen Campbell, Mark O'Connor, Asleep at the Wheel and Brad Paisley. Wariner has also won four Grammy Awards: one for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and three for Best Country Instrumental, the most recent in 2010 for "Producer's Medley" from the album Steve Wariner, c.g.p., My Tribute to Chet Atkins. Steve Wariner was one of only four guitar players in the world to be given the "Certified Guitar Player" (CGP) award by Chet Atkins (five including Atkins himself).

wn.com/Steve_Wariner
Suzy Bogguss
Susan Kay "Suzy" Bogguss (born December 30, 1956) is an American country music singer. In the 1980s and 90s she released one platinum and three gold albums and charted six top ten singles, winning the Academy of Country Music's award for Top New Female Vocalist and the Country Music Association's Horizon Award.
After taking a brief recording hiatus in the mid-1990s to start a family with her husband, songwriter Doug Crider, Bogguss returned to the country music industry, but did not match her previous commercial success. Although she last appeared on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart in 2001, Bogguss continues to record and perform around the country.
Bogguss was born in Aledo, Illinois. At the age of 5, she began singing in the Angel Choir of the College Avenue Presbyterian Church in her hometown. With the encouragement of her parents, she took lessons in piano and drums, and as a teenager picked up the guitar as well. She starred in several musicals at Aledo High School, where she was crowned homecoming queen during her senior year. After graduating in 1975, she enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan University, but later transferred to Illinois State University, graduating in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in metalsmithing.

wn.com/Suzy_Bogguss
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a vocalist and musician have placed him in high demand as a guest vocalist, and a duet partner. Gill has recorded more than twenty studio albums, charted over forty singles on the U.S. Billboard charts as Hot Country Songs, and has sold more than 22 million albums. He has been honored by the Country Music Association with 18 CMA Awards, including two Entertainer of the Year awards and five Male Vocalist Awards. Gill has also earned 27 Grammy Awards, more than any other male Country music artist. In 2007, Gill was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill was born in Norman, Oklahoma. His father, J. Stanley Gill, was a lawyer and administrative law judge who played in a country music band part time and encouraged Gill to pursue a music career. At the encouragement of his father, Gill learned to play several instruments, including the banjo and guitar, before he started high school at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School. He first played with a teenage band called Bluegrass Revues in the late 1970s. The other members were: Billy Perry on the banjo, Bobby Clark on the triangle and Mike Perry on the bass.

wn.com/Vince_Gill
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings (pronounced /welən dʒɛnɪŋz/; June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing guitar at eight and began performing at twelve on KVOW radio. He formed a band, The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI and KLLL. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings' first recording session, of "Jolie Blon" and "When Sin Stops (Love Begins)". Holly hired him to play bass. During the Winter Dance Party Tour, in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a plane to arrive to the next venue. Jennings gave up his seat in the plane to J. P. Richardson, who was suffering from a cold. The flight that carried Holly, Richardson and Ritchie Valens crashed, on the day later known as The Day the Music Died. Following the accident, Jennings worked as a D.J in Coolidge, Arizona and Phoenix. He formed a rockabilly club band, The Waylors. He recorded for independent label Trend Records, A&M Records before succeeding with RCA Victor after achieving creative control of his records.

wn.com/Waylon_Jennings
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (pronounced /wɪli nɛlsən /; born April 30, 1933) is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed at the end of the 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

wn.com/Willie_Nelson

Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins plays Don Mcleans wonderful song Vincent....

published: 24 Aug 2006

author: 123yasss

Chet Atkins - Mr. Sandman (TV 1954)

in concert...

published: 04 Apr 2006

author: renig427

Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins - Instrumental Medley

Mark Knopfler and Chet Atkins play "I'll see you in my dreams" and Imagine live at Secret ...

published: 01 Jun 2008

author: DogSwede1

Jerry Reed And Chet Atkins Jerrys Breakdown

JR and CA doing Jerry's Breakdown on Pop Goes the Country 1975...

published: 11 Aug 2006

author: alyagotado

Chet Atkins - Mr.Bojangles

Chet Atkins playing Mr.Bojangles Enjoy!...

published: 12 Nov 2007

author: BeautifulGuitarMusic

"The Entertainer" played by Chet Atkins

This 1975 clip features guitar great Chet Atkins performing Scott Joplin's "The Entertaine...

published: 15 Nov 2007

author: GtrWorkShp

Chet Atkins - 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright"

Chet and Terry from Soundstage....

published: 15 Jun 2008

author: muzikman74

**Chet Atkins** And Friends - Live *2004* [DVDRip.X264-AC3**

**Chet Atkins **And Friends - Live *2004* [DVDRip.X264-AC3 Mark Knopfler Michael McDonald,...

published: 26 Nov 2011

author: faldeczka

Chet Atkins & Don McLean - Vincent

A beautiful song and the guitar of Chet Atkins, it gets no better than this !...

published: 23 Nov 2006

author: ChuckAkins

Chet Atkins & Leo Kottke "Sleepwalk"

1988...

published: 29 Jul 2008

author: HuntinBoots

CHET ATKINS - "THE CGP SESSION" (INTRODUCTIONS)

YMC Records (C) (P), Courtesy of SUGO MUSIC GROUP - "The CGP Sessions" performed by Chet A...

published: 22 Oct 2012

author: YMCRecordsVideo

Chet Atkins "Mrs. Robinson"

Chet pickin' the Simon & Garfunkel hit!...

published: 28 Jul 2008

author: HuntinBoots

Chet Atkins & The Blue Boys (The Peanut Vendor & Tiger Rag) Oslo 1964 April 15th

Another short Clip from the Oslo Concert in 1964 notice in between the two numbers Chet At...

published: 28 Dec 2011

author: Bobinthe1950UK

Chet Atkins Dark eyes

A nice short clip of Mr. Atkins...

published: 19 Sep 2006

author: boekenkas

**Chet Atkins** And Friends - Live *2004* [DVDRip.X264-AC3**

**Chet Atkins **And Friends - Live *2004* [DVDRip.X264-AC3 Mark Knopfler Michael McDonald,...

published: 26 Nov 2011

author: faldeczka

Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins doing his thing live on The Johnny Cash Show. Plus a poem by Cash as a bonus. ...

published: 16 Nov 2008

author: shitilike

Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins - Instrumental Medley

Mark Knopfler and Chet Atkins play "I'll see you in my dreams" and Imagine live at Secret ...

published: 01 Jun 2008

author: DogSwede1

Chet Atkins - Yakety Axe Live 1991

Part 1/4 From Nashville Now 1991. Chet Atkins performing one of his signature tunes....

published: 10 Dec 2011

author: rarestuff87

Grand Ole Opry - Live - (Part 5) : Chet Atkins

Grand Ole Opry April 28 1956 Chet Atkins Part 5 This tune is AKA "Jeans Song"...

published: 19 Oct 2009

author: MisterStereo

Chet Atkins "Mrs. Robinson"

Chet pickin' the Simon & Garfunkel hit!...

published: 28 Jul 2008

author: HuntinBoots

Chet Atkins - Rainbow (live performance)

From the Merle Watson Festival, 1992...

published: 29 May 2011

author: Inviz

The Poor People of Paris - Chet Atkins (Live)

The classic French song adapted here by Chet on Finguerpicking style... Great !!!...

published: 21 Aug 2011

author: ERICAJUNDELYON

Chet Atkins - Medley (Live The Johnny Cash TV Show 1970)

Live The Johnny Cash TV Show 1970...

published: 29 Apr 2010

author: CowboySrki

Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler - I'll See You In My Dreams - Walk Of Life

Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler - I'll See You In My Dreams - Walk Of Life Live 1987...

published: 25 Feb 2012

author: ItsWaldo

LAGQ Live!: Blue Echo (Chet Atkins)

Arranged by William Kanengiser. From their latest DVD, "LAGQ Live!" www.lagq.com...

published: 18 Mar 2007

author: kanengiser

Chet Atkins - Waiting for Susie B. (Live 1996)

Chet Atkins performing a track from his Album "Almost Alone" live at Charlie Rose Show in ...

published: 11 Dec 2011

author: rarestuff87

Chet Atkins - I Still Can't Say Goodbye (Live)

This moving live performance is from the DVD: "Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player" (As s...

published: 21 Nov 2011

author: Andrew Nedelchev

Tommy Emmanuel's Tribute to Chet Atkins "Chet's Ramble" - LIVE in SLC UT 2007

There was MORE to this video about how he WROTE the song... but I thought (due to YouTube ...

published: 05 Apr 2010

author: dejablueguitar

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photo: AP / Khalil Hamra

A Syrian gunman shoots in the air during the funeral of 29 year-old Free Syrian Army fighter, Husain Al-Ali, who was killed during clashes in Aleppo, in the town of Marea on the outskirts of Aleppo city, Syria, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012.

Syrian fighters join forces against al-Assad

Al Jazeera

09 Dec 2012

Syria's rebel leaders have agreed to come under a united command in a bid to integrate diverse fighting groups and streamline the route for arms essential to their struggle against President Bashar al-Assad. The new body, expected to be announced officially on Sunday, hopes to form the basis of a united rebel front ... "It also aims to get the situation under control once the regime falls." ... 378 Source .. Agencies. Share ... News ... Egypt....(size: 18.6Kb)

photo: AP / Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman's office

In this photo released by Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman's office, software company founder John McAfee is pictured in an immigration detention center in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012.

McAfee hospitalized after being denied asylum

The Salt Lake Tribune

07 Dec 2012

By SONIA PEREZ-DIAZ. The Associated Press. First Published Dec 06 2012 09.10 am • Updated 1 minute ago ... ....(size: 0.8Kb)

photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

File - Iranian worshippers listen to a sermon during Friday prayers as an Iranian flag flutters at Tehran University, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, July 6, 2012.

Can Saudi Arabia and Iran Reestablish the Medina Pact?

WorldNews.com

07 Dec 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. The in- and out-fighting between present-day Saudi Arabia and Iran is a mirror image of what occurred to Prophet Muhammad's Islamic Movement right after his death ... Still, and due to prosperity and wealth, an influx of trade goods, religious toleration, an emphasis on learning, and increased food supplies, Islam was becoming a vast empire ... Recent U.S ... Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)....(size: 7.5Kb)

photo: AP / Maya Alleruzzo

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is seen during a photo opportunity in his office at the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt

Egypt: President Morsi cancels decree that sparked protests

IBN Live

09 Dec 2012

Cairo. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has cancelled a decree that gave him sweeping powers and sparked huge protests, but did not delay a referendum on a constitution as his opponents had demanded ... Video Photo Gallery ....(size: 1.2Kb)

photo: AP / Hassan Ammar

Egyptian protesters gather outside the presidential palace after they broke through a barbed wire barricade that was keeping them from getting closer to the presidential palace, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 7, 2012.

Egypt's opposition to shun Morsi talks

Al Jazeera

08 Dec 2012

Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian president, is expected to press ahead with talks on ways to end Egypt's worst crisis since he took office even though the country's main opposition leaders have vowed to boycott negotiations. The capital Cairo and other cities have been rocked by violent protests since November 22, when Morsi issued a decree awarding himself sweeping powers that put him above the law ... 575 Source .. Al Jazeera and agencies ... ....(size: 19.5Kb)

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The Legacy of Musical Giants

The Examiner

09 Dec 2012

Rating for Record album by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Time Out (1959). 5. Here’s why this album should be in your collection! ... The tune has received memorable cover treatment by the likes of Chet Atkins, Grover Washington, Jr.; Al Jarreau, George Benson, Willie Mitchell, Eric XL Singleton, and a collaboration featuring Tito Puente and George Shearing ... ....(size: 1.8Kb)

Lord of the Strings features phenomenal guitar players Saturday (City of Mission Viejo)

noodls

04 Dec 2012

News Release. December 3, 2012. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Lord of the Strings features phenomenal guitar players Saturday. Central. New York. acoustic guitar standout Loren ... Mark ... Civic Center ... Nashville at the Chet. Atkins Appreciation ... The music is influenced by bluegrass, jazz and country, and their style of guitar playing is largely built upon the thumb-picking techniques pioneered by guitar greats Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed....(size: 3.6Kb)

Jazz man

The Roanoke Times

02 Dec 2012

Stephanie-Klein Davis . The Roanoke Times. Eddie Wiggins Tribute Show. When. 7.30 p.m. Tuesday Where. Dumas Center Auditorium, 108 Henry St. N.W., Roanoke How much. $10 at the door Info. Eddie Wiggins. Jazz musician ... 91 Wife ... Wiggins, who was the local musicians' union president for 17 years, became a contractor, putting together bands and orchestras to back up the likes of Engelbert Humperdinck, Liberace, Chet Atkins, Doc Severinson and others....(size: 10.0Kb)

>D’Angelico Guitars Shakes Up Music World By Resurrecting Iconic Models

Seattle Post

29 Nov 2012

Legendary guitar brand to be supported by “Reborn” campaign in 2013. New York, NY (PRWEB) November 29, 2012. D’Angelico Guitars announces a major expansion of its best-selling line of authorized reissues of iconic D’Angelico Guitar models during 2013 ... From his workshop on New York’s Lower East Side, D’Angelico painstakingly created exquisite guitars that were embraced by leading artists (Chet Atkins, Johnny Mercer, many more) ... 24 - Jan....(size: 4.4Kb)

Jason Truby solo album is an acoustic driven vocal album

The Examiner

26 Nov 2012

8. The album features a special appearance from long-time friend, Phil Keaggy ... Truby's songwriting has been featured on the best-selling soundtracks for the films Matrix Reloaded and The Passion of the Christ and in 2004 he was featured on the cover of Finger Style Magazine next to music legend Chet Atkins ... ....(size: 1.7Kb)

Editorial: Giving thanks for the best of living in East Tennessee

Knox News

22 Nov 2012

Today is Thanksgiving, the one holiday of the year that is devoted to nothing beyond gathering together and giving thanks for the blessings of life. We in East Tennessee have much to be thankful for and all cannot be recorded here, but let us count a few of our blessings. ... The men and women who have fought and bled and died and triumphed to secure the rights of all Americans ... Howard H. Baker Jr ... Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins and Dolly Parton ... ....(size: 2.9Kb)

Bobby Bare returns to RCA Studio B for new album

CNBC

21 Nov 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - When Bobby Bare returned to RCA Studio B 50 years after he began his career there, he was afflicted with an off-kilter case of deja vu ... "I saw Chet Atkins there everywhere I turned," Bare said ... Well, the piano is turned around now. That's not right ... ... Reminds me of Chet because Chet would get the great musicians together and they knew what he wanted. They played it the way Chet wanted it done and it was always great ... Â ... ....(size: 15.9Kb)

>Bobby Bare returns to RCA Studio B for new album

Seattle Post

20 Nov 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When Bobby Bare returned to RCA Studio B 50 years after he began his career there, he was afflicted with an off-kilter case of deja vu ... "I saw Chet Atkins there everywhere I turned," Bare said ... ... Reminds me of Chet because Chet would get the great musicians together and they knew what he wanted. They played it the way Chet wanted it done and it was always great ... ___ ... ....(size: 1.8Kb)

Back to the future: Bobby Bare returns to RCA Studio B for new album, 'Darker ...

Star Tribune

20 Nov 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - When Bobby Bare returned to RCA Studio B 50 years after he began his career there, he was afflicted with an off-kilter case of deja vu ... "I saw Chet Atkins there everywhere I turned," Bare said ... That's not right ... ... Reminds me of Chet because Chet would get the great musicians together and they knew what he wanted. They played it the way Chet wanted it done and it was always great ... ___ ... ....(size: 2.1Kb)

Back to the future: Bobby Bare returns to RCA Studio B for new album, ‘Darker Than Light’

The Washington Post

20 Nov 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When Bobby Bare returned to RCA Studio B 50 years after he began his career there, he was afflicted with an off-kilter case of deja vu ... Loading... Comments Weigh In Corrections? ... “I saw Chet Atkins there everywhere I turned,” Bare said ... Reminds me of Chet because Chet would get the great musicians together and they knew what he wanted. They played it the way Chet wanted it done and it was always great ... ....(size: 2.7Kb)

Country Music Hall of Fame unveils 'Dottie West: Country Sunshine' exhibit

The Examiner

10 Nov 2012

Related topics. MuseumsDottie Westcountry music news 2012Country Music Hall of FameNashville exhibits. Advertisement ... 9, that is dedicated to much-adored country singer Dottie West ... Dottie West ... And not long thereafter, in the mid-1960s, RCA’s Chet Atkins signed her to a record deal and produced her self-penned “Here Comes My Baby.” The song launched her career and earned her a Grammy for "Best Country & Western Performance, Female ."....(size: 12.2Kb)

On N.J. barrier islands, grim scenes for the resilient

Philadelphia Daily News

01 Nov 2012

Two days after Sandy sent the ocean surging across Long Beach Island, those who stayed behind looked out over the wreckage in shock. Sylvia Sorino, a waitress at a hotel, went back to the ground-floor apartment she shared with her boyfriend and wept. "Look at this place. All this stuff is wrecked ... "It's gone," said Chet Atkins, who owns the land where the collapsing pile of sun-bleached cedar and pine planks stood defiantly for decades....(size: 4.7Kb)

Bob Dylan to perform at BOK on Friday with Mark Knopfler

Tulsa World

01 Nov 2012

Bob Dylan's latest album, "Tempest," was released Sept. 10 and is his 35th studio record ... But don't expect a whole lot of brand-new music ... He's also released a string of solo albums and worked with legendary musicians including Eric Clapton, Dylan (including albums "Slow Train Coming," "Down in the Groove" and "Infidels"), Chet Atkins, Steely Dan, Van Morrison and others, and he has produced albums for Tina Turner and Randy Newman ... When....(size: 5.8Kb)

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This article is about the musician. For the former US congressman, see Chester G. Atkins.

Chet Atkins
Cover of Atkins' autobiography Cover of Atkins' autobiography
Background information
Birth name	Chester Burton Atkins
Also known as	Mr. Guitar The Country Gentleman
Born	(1924-06-20)June 20, 1924 Luttrell, Tennessee, US
Died	June 30, 2001(2001-06-30) (aged 77) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Country, classical, folk, western swing
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Guitar, violin
Years active	1942–2001
Labels	RCA, Columbia
Website	www.misterguitar.com
Notable instruments
Country Gentleman Tennessean 6120 Gibson Chet Atkins SST

Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), 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 The Browns, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings and many 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.

1 Biography
2 Legacy
3 Discography
4 Industry awards
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links

Biography [link]

Childhood and early life [link]

Chet Atkins was born on June 20, 1924, in Luttrell, Tennessee, near Clinch Mountain. His parents divorced when he was six, after which he was raised by his mother. He was the youngest of three boys and a girl. 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.^[1] 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 critical 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.^[2] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[2]

Atkins became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school.^[1] He would use the restroom in the school to practice, because it gave better acoustics.^[3]^[4] His first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used.^[5] 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.^[6]

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".^[5] In 2011 Daughter Merle Atkins Russell bestowed the CGP degree upon long time sideman Paul Yandell. She then declared no more CGP's would be allowed by the Atkins estate.^{[citation needed]}

His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the Les Paul Trio in New York.^[2]

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.^[2]^[7] 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.^[8]

Early musical career [link]

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.^[2] Atkins and Jethro Burns of Homer and Jethro married twin sisters, Leona and Lois Johnson who sang as Laverne and Fern Johnson: the Johnson Sisters. Leona Atkins outlived Atkins by eight years, dying in 2009 at the age of 85.^[9]

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.^[10] 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 soon was fired for not sounding "country enough."^[2]

Signing with RCA Victor [link]

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.^[2]

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).

Atkins's Gretsch Country Gentleman, model G6122-1962

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.^[5]

Performer and producer [link]

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"^[11] and Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Blue Blue Day".^[12] 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.^[5] 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.

File:RCA Studio B - Chet Atkins, Bill Porter.jpg

Atkins listening as Bill Porter adjusts a mix in RCA's Nashville studio

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.^[13] In later years, when Bradley asked how he achieved his sound, Atkins told him "it was Porter."^[14] 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."^[14] 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."^[14]

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" and "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."^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[5]

Later career [link]

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.^[5]

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.^[10]

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.^[5]

He returned to his country roots for albums he recorded with Mark Knopfler and Jerry Reed.^[5] 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, and also placed himself on the list.^[17]

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.^[5]

Legacy [link]

Atkins received numerous awards, including 14 Grammy Awards and nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards.^[10] 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.^[18]

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.^[19]

Atkins was buried at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens in Nashville.^[20]

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

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.

A stretch of Interstate 185 in southwest Georgia (between LaGrange and Columbus) is named "Chet Atkins Parkway".^[21] 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.^[16] 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.^[22] Similarly he was an extremely big influence on Doyle Dykes. Atkins also inspired Drexl Jonez and Tommy Emmanuel.^[23]

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.

Chet's song Jam Man is currently used in commercials for Esurance.

In 1967 a tribute song called "Chet's Tune" was produced for his birthday, with contributions by a long list of RCA/Victor artists including Eddy Arnold, Connie Smith, Jerry Reed, Willie Nelson, Hank Snow, and others. The song was written by Nashville songwriter Cy Coben, a friend of Atkins. The single reached #38 on the country charts.^[24]^[25]

Discography [link]

Further information: Chet Atkins discography

Industry awards [link]

Country Music Association

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 [link]

^ ^a ^b "Country Music Television biography.". Cmt.com. http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/atkins_chet/bio.jhtml. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Atkins, Chet and Neely, Bill. (1974). "Country Gentleman". Chicago. Harry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-9051-0.
^ Atkins, Chet and Neely, Bill. (1974). "Country Gentleman". Chicago. Harry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-9051-0. Pg 52.
^ Chet Atkins' Workshop, RCA Victor LSP-2232 liner notes. 1961. David Halberstam
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Atkins, Chet and Cochran, Russ. (2003). "Me and My Guitars". Milwaukee. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-05565-8.
^ Atkins, Chet and Neely, Bill. (1974). "Country Gentleman". Chicago. Harry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-9051-0. Pg 61-62.
^ *Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
^ ARRLWeb: 'Mister Guitar,' Chet Atkins, W4CGP, SK^{[dead link]}
^ "Chet Atkins' widow dies". Country Standard Time. October 22, 2009. http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=3389. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Chet Atkins dies" Rolling Stone. Accessed on March 28, 2008.
^ Allmusic entry for Welcome to My World, Jim Reeves 1996 box-set from Bear Family Records
^ Allmusic biography entry for Don Gibson
^ Ballou, Glen (1998). Handbook for Sound Engineers. Focal Press. p. 1154.
^ ^a ^b ^c McClellan, John; Bratic, Deyan (2004). Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions. 2. Mel Bay Publications. pp. 149–152. ISBN 0-7866-5877-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=mmCUExOXx0MC.
^ Nine-O-One Interview, Nine-O-One Network Magazine,December 1987, p.10-11
^ ^a ^b "Chet Atkins", Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Accessed on March 28, 2008.
^ Official Web Site of Chet Atkins. Accessed on March 31, 2008.
^ "Biography – Chet Atkins". Rolling Stone. Accessed on May 10, 2008.
^ "Obituary", CNN, July 2, 2001 Accessed June 21, 2008
^ Chet Atkins at Find A Grave. Accessed November 24, 2010
^ "Chet Atkins Parkway bill resolution.". Archived from the original on January 28, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20050128185210/http://www.ganet.org/services/leg/ShowBillPre.cgi?year=1997&filename=1997/HR245.passed. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
^ "Performing Arts Center, Buffalo State University". Buffalostate.edu. http://www.buffalostate.edu/pac/season/klugh.asp. Retrieved 2012-02-27.
^ Tommy Emmanuel official website biography. Retrieved September, 2009.
^ Billboard, June 3, 1967, p. 41
^ Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions: 50 Years of Legendary Guitar, Volume 1, John McClellan and Deyan Bratic, Mel Bay Publications, Pacific, MO, p. 47-9

References [link]

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

External links [link]

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 at the Internet Movie Database
Chet Atkins Interview – Vintage Guitar magazine, June 1996(This reference no longer exists at this link – May 2011)
Chet Atkins on the Pop Chronicles

v t e Chet Atkins

Studio albums	Chet Atkins' Gallopin' Guitar Stringin' Along With Chet Atkins A Session with Chet Atkins Stringin' Along with Chet Atkins (LP version) Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions Finger Style Guitar Chet Atkins at Home Hi-Fi in Focus Chet Atkins in Hollywood Hum & Strum Along with Chet Atkins Mister Guitar Teensville The Other Chet Atkins Chet Atkins' Workshop Christmas with Chet Atkins The Most Popular Guitar Chet Atkins Plays Back Home Hymns Caribbean Guitar Down Home Our Man in Nashville Teen Scene Travelin' Guitar Country Progressive Pickin' My Favorite Guitars More of That Guitar Country Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles From Nashville with Love Music from Nashville, My Home Town It's a Guitar World Chet Picks the Best Class Guitar Hometown Guitar Solid Gold 68 Solo Flights Lover's Guitar Solid Gold 69 Yestergroovin' Solid Gold 70 Pickin' My Way For the Good Times Picks on the Hits Alone The Night Atlanta Burned Chet Atkins Goes to the Movies Teen Scene Me and My Guitar Country After All These Years East Tennessee Christmas Work It out with Chet Atkins C.G.P. Stay Tuned Street Dreams Sails Chet Atkins, C.G.P. Read My Licks Almost Alone Solo Sessions Chet Atkins and His Guitar

Collaborations	Reminiscing The Pops Goes Country C. B. Atkins & C. E. Snow by Special Request Chet Atkins Picks on the Pops Me & Jerry Chet Floyd & Boots Me & Chet American Salute Superpickers The Atkins – Travis Traveling Show Chet Atkins Picks on Jerry Reed Chester & Lester Chet Floyd & Danny Guitar Monsters First Nashville Guitar Quartet Reflections Standard Brands Neck and Neck Sneakin' Around The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat Simpatico The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World

Live albums	After the Riot at Newport In Concert And Then Came Chet The Best of Chet on the Road — Live

With The Country All-Stars	String Dustin' Jazz from the Hills

With The Nashville String Band	The Nashville String Band Down Home Strung Up Identified! The Bandit World's Greatest Melodies

Selected compilations	The Best of Chet Atkins The Best of Chet Atkins, Vol. 2 The Best of Chet Atkins & Friends Galloping Guitar: The Early Years Guitar Legend: The RCA Years Chet Picks on the Grammys The Essential Chet Atkins: The Columbia Years The Essential Chet Atkins Eclectic Guitar The Early Years 1946–1957

Persondata
Name	Atkins, Chet
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 20, 1924
Place of birth	Luttrell, Tennessee, US
Date of death	June 30, 2001
Place of death	Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

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Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler, July 2006
Background information
Birth name	Mark Freuder Knopfler
Born	(1949-08-12) 12 August 1949 (age 62) Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Origin	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Genres	Rock Roots rock Celtic rock Country rock Blues-rock
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter, Record producer, Film score composer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, resonator guitar
Years active	1965–present
Labels	Vertigo, Mercury, Warner
Associated acts	Dire Straits The Notting Hillbillies Chet Atkins Emmylou Harris Bob Dylan Eric Clapton Sonny Landreth
Website	MarkKnopfler.com
Notable instruments
Mark Knopfler Stratocaster Fender Telecaster Gibson Les Paul Pensa Custom MKII Steinberger GL-2

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler went on to record and produce six solo albums, including Golden Heart (1996), Sailing to Philadelphia (2000), and Get Lucky (2009). He has composed and produced film scores for eight films, including Local Hero (1983), Cal (1984), and The Princess Bride (1987).^[1] In addition to his work with Dire Straits and as a solo artist and composer, Knopfler has recorded and performed with many prominent musical artists, including Phil Lynott, Chet Atkins, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Jools Holland, Sonny Landreth, and Van Morrison. He has produced albums for Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman.

Knopfler is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era, and was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.^[2] Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date.^[3]^[4] A four-time Grammy Award winner, Knopfler is the recipient of the Edison Award and the Steiger Award, and holds three honorary doctorate degrees in music from universities in the United Kingdom.^[5]^[6]

Early life (1949–1976)[link]

Mark Freuder Knopfler was born on 12 August 1949 in Glasgow, Scotland, to an English mother and Hungarian Jewish father—an architect whose anti-fascist sympathies forced him to flee from his native Hungary.^[7] The family settled in Knopfler's mother's home town of Blyth, Northumberland in North East England when he was 7 years old. He and his younger brother David attended Gosforth Grammar School. Inspired by his uncle Kingsley's harmonica and boogie-woogie piano playing, he wanted to buy an expensive Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster just like Hank Marvin's, but had to settle for a £50 twin-pick-up Höfner Super Solid.^[8] During the 1960s, he formed and joined schoolboy bands and listened to singers like Elvis Presley and guitarists Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, B.B King, Django Reinhardt, Hank Marvin, and James Burton. At 16, he made a local TV appearance as part of a harmony duo, with his classmate Sue Hercombe.^[8]

In 1968, after studying journalism for a year at Harlow Technical College,^[8]^[9] Knopfler was hired as a junior reporter in Leeds for the Yorkshire Evening Post.^[10] Two years later, he decided to further his studies, and went on to graduate with a degree in English at the University of Leeds.^[11] In April 1970, while living in Leeds, Knopfler recorded a demo disk of an original song he'd written, "Summer's Coming My Way". The recording included Mark Knopfler (guitar and vocals), Steve Phillips (second guitar), Dave Johnson (bass), and Paul Granger (percussion). Johnson, Granger, and vocalist Mick Dewhirst played with Mark in the band Silverheels.

Upon graduation in 1973, Knopfler moved to London and joined a High Wycombe-based band called Brewers Droop, appearing on the album The Booze Brothers. One night while spending some time with friends, the only guitar available was an old acoustic with a badly warped neck that had been strung with extra-light strings to make it playable. Even so, he found it impossible to play unless he finger-picked it. He said in a later interview, "That was where I found my 'voice' on guitar." After a brief stint with Brewers Droop, Knopfler took a job as a lecturer at Loughton College in Essex—a position he held for three years. Throughout this time, he continued performing with local pub bands, including the Café Racers.^[12] He also formed a duo with long-time associate bluesman Steve Phillips called The Duolian String Pickers.

By the mid-1970s, Knopfler devoted much of his musical energies to his group, the Café Racers. His brother David moved to London, where he shared a flat with John Illsley—a guitarist who changed over to bass guitar. In April 1977, Mark gave up his flat in Buckhurst Hill and moved in with David and John. The three began playing music together, and soon Mark invited John to join the Café Racers.^[13]

Dire Straits (1977–1995)[link]

Main article: Dire Straits

Dire Straits' first demos were done in three sessions during 1977, with Pick Withers as drummer, David Knopfler as rhythm guitarist and John Illsley on bass guitar. On 27 July 1977 they recorded the now famous demo tapes of five songs: "Wild West End", "Sultans of Swing", "Down To The Waterline", "Sacred Loving" (a David Knopfler song) and "Water of Love". In what was probably October they recorded "Southbound Again", "In The Gallery" and "Six Blade Knife" for BBC Radio London and, finally, on 9 November demo tapes were made of "Setting Me Up", "Eastbound Train" and "Real Girl". Many of these songs reflected Mark's experiences in Newcastle, Leeds and London, and were to be featured on their first album, the self-titled Dire Straits which was released in the following year: "Down To The Waterline" recalled images of life in Newcastle; "In The Gallery" is a tribute to a Leeds sculptor/artist named Harry Phillips, (father of Steve Phillips); and "Lions", "Wild West End" and "Eastbound Train" were all drawn from Mark's early days in the capital.

Mark Knopfler with Dire Straits, 1979

Initially on its release, Dire Straits received little fanfare in the UK, but when "Sultans of Swing" was released as a single it became a chart hit in The Netherlands and album sales took off across Europe and then in the United States and Canada, and finally the UK. The group's second album, Communiqué, produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, followed in 1979, reaching number one in France while the first album was still at number three.

There were frequent personnel changes within Dire Straits after the release of their third album Making Movies, with Mark Knopfler increasingly becoming the driving force behind the group. Released in 1980, Making Movies marked a move towards more complex arrangements and production which continued for the remainder of the group's career. The album included many of Mark Knopfler's most personal compositions, most notably "Romeo and Juliet" and "Tunnel of Love". Love over Gold followed in 1982 and included the UK #2 hit "Private Investigations", "Telegraph Road", "Industrial Disease" and "It Never Rains" as well as the title track to that album.

With Love Over Gold still in the albums charts, the band released a four-song EP titled ExtendedancEPlay in early 1983. Featuring the hit single "Twisting By the Pool", this was the first output by the band that featured new drummer Terry Williams, (formerly of Rockpile), who had replaced Pick Withers in November 1982. A world tour followed later in 1983, and in March 1984 the double album Alchemy Live was released. Alchemy Live documented the recordings of two live shows in Hammersmith Odeon in London in July 1983, and reached number three in the UK Albums Chart.

During 1983 and 1984 Knopfler was involved with other projects as well, including writing and producing the music score to the film Local Hero which was a large success,^[14] and it was followed in 1984 by his scores for the films Cal and Comfort and Joy. Also during this time Knopfler produced Bob Dylan's Infidels album, as well as Aztec Camera and Willy DeVille; he also wrote Private Dancer for Tina Turner's comeback album of the same name.

Mark Knopfler with Dire Straits, Dublin, 1981

Dire Straits' biggest studio album by far was their fifth, Brothers in Arms, recorded at Air Studios Montserrat and released in May 1985. It became an international blockbuster which has now sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and is the fourth best selling album in UK chart history.^[15]^[16] Brothers In Arms spawned several chart singles including the US # 1 hit "Money for Nothing", which was the first video ever to be played on MTV in Britain. It was also the first compact disc to sell a million copies and is largely credited for launching the CD format as it was also one of the first DDD^[17] CDs ever released. Other successful singles were "So Far Away", "Walk of Life", and the album's title track. The band's 1985–86 world tour of over 230^[8] shows was immensely successful.

After the Brothers in Arms tour Dire Straits ceased to work together for some time, Knopfler concentrating mainly on film soundtracks. Knopfler joined the charity ensemble Ferry Aid on "Let It Be" in the wake of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster. The song reached #1 on the UK singles chart in March 1987. Knopfler wrote the music score for the film The Princess Bride which was released at the end of 1987.

Mark Knopfler also took part in a comedy skit (featured on the French and Saunders Show) titled "The Easy Guitar Book Sketch" with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow British musicians David Gilmour, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and Gary Moore. Phil Taylor explained in an interview that Knopfler used Gilmour's guitar rig and managed to sound like himself when performing in the skit.^[18]

Dire Straits regrouped for the 11 June 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act, and were accompanied by Elton John and Eric Clapton,^[19] who by this time had developed a strong friendship with Knopfler. Shortly after this, drummer Terry Williams left the band. In September 1988 Mark Knopfler announced the official dissolution of Dire Straits, saying that he "needed a rest",^[20] and in October 1988, a "best of" album, Money for Nothing, was released and reached number one in the United Kingdom.^[21]

In 1989 Knopfler formed The Notting Hillbillies,^[8] a band at the other end of the commercial spectrum. It leaned heavily towards American roots music - folk, blues and country music. The band members included keyboardist Guy Fletcher, with Brendan Croker and Steve Phillips. For both the album and the tour Paul Franklin was added to the line-up on pedal steel. The Notting Hillbillies sole studio album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time was released in 1990, and Knopfler then toured with the Notting Hillbillies for the remainder of that year. He further emphasized his country music influences with his 1990s collaboration with Chet Atkins, Neck and Neck, which resulted in three Grammy awards. The Hillbillies toured the UK in early 1990 with a limited number of shows, it was strictly low key, packing out smaller venues, such as Newcastle University.

In 1990 Knopfler, John Illsley, and Alan Clark performed as Dire Straits at the Knebworth gig, joined by Eric Clapton, Ray Cooper, and guitarist Phil Palmer (who was at that time part of Eric Clapton's touring band), and in January the following year, Knopfler, John Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to reform Dire Straits. Knopfler, Illsley, Alan Clark, and Guy Fletcher set about recording what turned out to be their final studio album accompanied by several part-time sidemen, including Phil Palmer, Paul Franklin, percussionist Danny Cummings and Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro.

The follow-up to Brothers In Arms was finally released in September 1991. On Every Street was nowhere near as popular as its predecessor, and met with a mixed critical reaction, with some reviewers regarding the album as an underwhelming comeback after a six year break. Nonetheless, the album sold well and reached #1 in the UK. A gruelling world tour to accompany the album followed, which lasted until the end of 1992. This was to be Dire Straits' final world tour; it was not as well received as the previous Brothers In Arms tour, and by this time Mark Knopfler had had enough of such massive operations. This drove the band into the ground, and ultimately led to the group's final dissolution in 1995.^[22]

Following the tour, Knopfler took some time off from the music business. In 1993, he received an honorary music doctorate from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.^[23] Two more Dire Straits albums were released, both live albums. On the Night, released in May 1993, documented Dire Straits' final world tour. In 1995, following the release of Live at the BBC, Mark Knopfler quietly dissolved Dire Straits and launched his career as a solo artist.

Since the break-up of Dire Straits, Knopfler has shown no interest in reforming the group. However, keyboardist Guy Fletcher has been associated with almost every piece of Knopfler's solo material to date, while Danny Cummings has also contributed frequently, including Knopfler's last three solo album releases All the Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris), Kill to Get Crimson and Get Lucky. In October 2008 Knopfler declined a suggestion by John Illsley that the band should reform. Illsley said that a reunion would be "entirely up to Mark", however he also suggested that Knopfler was enjoying his continued success as a solo artist, saying that "He's doing incredibly well as a solo artist, so hats off to him. He's having a perfectly good time doing what he's doing".^[24] Knopfler meanwhile is quoted as saying "Oh, I don't know whether to start getting all that stuff back together again", and that the global fame that came his way in the 1980s "just got too big".^[24]

Solo career (1996–present)[link]

Mark Knopfler in Bilbao, 2001

Mark Knopfler's first solo album, Golden Heart, featuring the UK single "Darling Pretty", was released in March 1996. During the recording sessions for the album the main line-up of Knopfler's backing band, also known as "The 96ers," was formed, featuring Knopfler's old bandmate Guy Fletcher on keyboards, and has lasted much longer than any Dire Straits line-up.

Also in 1996, Mark Knopfler recorded guitar for Ted Christopher's Dunblane massacre tribute cover of Knocking on Heaven's Door

In 1997 Knopfler recorded the soundtrack for the movie Wag the Dog. During that same year Rolling Stone magazine listed "Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll", which included "Sultans of Swing", Dire Straits' first hit. 2000 saw the release of Knopfler's next solo album, Sailing to Philadelphia. This has been his most successful to date, possibly helped by the number of collaborators to the album like Van Morrison.

In 2002 Mark Knopfler gave four charity concerts with former Dire Straits members John Illsley, Chris White, Danny Cummings and Guy Fletcher, playing old material from the Dire Straits years. The concerts also featured The Notting Hillbillies with Brendan Croker and Steve Phillips. At these four concerts (three of the four were at the Shepherd's Bush, the fourth at Beaulieu on the south coast) they were joined by Jimmy Nail, who provided backing vocals for Knopfler's 2002 composition "Why Aye Man".

Also in 2002 Knopfler released his third solo album, The Ragpicker's Dream. However, in March 2003 he was involved in a motorbike crash in Grosvenor Road, Belgravia and suffered a broken collarbone, broken shoulder blade and seven broken ribs.^[25] The planned Ragpicker's Dream tour was subsequently cancelled, but Knopfler recovered and was able to return to the stage in 2004 for his fourth album, Shangri-La.

Shangri-La was recorded at the Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California in 2004, where The Band made recordings years before for their documentary/movie, The Last Waltz. In the promo for "Shangri-La" on his official website he said that his current line-up of Glenn Worf (bass), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), Chad Cromwell (drums), Richard Bennett (guitar) and Matt Rollings (piano) "play Dire Straits songs better than Dire Straits did." The "Shangri-La" tour took Knopfler to countries such as India and the United Arab Emirates for the first time. In India, his concerts at Mumbai and Bangalore were very well received, with over 20,000 fans gathering at each concert to listen to a legend many thought would never visit their country.

Mark Knopfler in Hamburg, 2006

In November 2005 a compilation, The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations was released, consisting of material from most of Dire Straits' studio albums and Knopfler's solo and soundtrack material. The album was made available in two editions, as a single CD (with a grey cover) and as a double CD (with the cover in blue), and was well-received. The only previously unreleased track on the album is "All the Roadrunning", a duet with country music singer Emmylou Harris, which was followed in 2006 by an album of duets of the same name.

Released in April 2006, All the Roadrunning reached #1 in Denmark and Switzerland, #2 in Norway and Sweden, #3 in Germany, Holland and Italy, #8 in Austria and UK, #9 in Spain, #17 in the United States (Billboard Top 200 Chart), #25 in Ireland and #41 in Australia. All the Roadrunning was nominated for "Best Folk Rock/Americana Album" at the 49th Grammy Awards (11 February 2007) but lost out to Bob Dylan's nomination for Modern Times.

Joined by Emmylou Harris, Knopfler supported All the Roadrunning with a limited – 15 gigs in Europe, 1 in Canada and 8 in the USA – but highly successful tour of Europe and N America. Selections from the duo's 28 June performance at the Gibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, California, were released as a DVD entitled Real Live Roadrunning on 14 November 2006. In addition to several of the compositions that Harris and Knopfler recorded together in the studio, Real Live Roadrunning features solo hits from both members of the duo, as well as three tracks from Knopfler's days with Dire Straits.

A charity event in 2007 went wrong. A Fender Stratocaster guitar signed by Knopfler, Clapton, Brian May, and Jimmy Page was to be auctioned for £20,000 to raise the money for a children's hospice, was lost when being shipped. It "vanished after being posted from London to Leicestershire, England". Parcelforce, the company responsible, agreed to pay US$30,000 for its loss.^[26]

Knopfler released his fifth solo studio-album Kill to Get Crimson on 14 September 2007 in Germany, 17 September in the UK and 18 September in the United States. During the autumn of 2007 he played a series of intimate 'showcases' in various European cities to promote the album. A tour of Europe and North America followed in 2008. Many older songs from the early solo days, such as Cannibals (from Golden Heart), were brought back to life. Cannibals opened up shows throughout Europe. Cannibals was received extremely well particularly in Ireland as it was released by an Irish Country Artist David Maguire in 2007. The new version of Cannibals that David Maguire and his Band released was the 7th most requested song on Irish radio that year.

Continuing a pattern of high productivity through his solo career, Knopfler began work on his next studio album, entitled Get Lucky, in September 2008 with long-time band mate Guy Fletcher, who again compiled a pictorial diary of the making of the album on his website.^[27] The album was released on September 14 the following year and Knopfler subsequently undertook an extensive tour across Europe and America. The album met with moderate success on the charts (much of it in Europe) reaching #1 only in Norway but peaking in the Top 5 in most major European countries (Germany, Italy, Holland). The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard European Album chart and at #5 on the Billboard Rock Album chart.^[28]

Knopfler's solo live performances can be characterized as relaxed—almost workmanlike. He uses very little stage production, other than some lighting effects to enhance the music's dynamics. He has been known to sip tea on stage during live performances. Richard Bennett, who has been playing with him on tour since 1996, has also joined in drinking tea with him on stage. On 31 July 2005, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, BC, the tea was replaced with whisky as a "last show of tour" sort of joke.^[29]

In February 2009, Knopfler gave an intimate solo concert at the Garrick Club in London. Knopfler had recently become a member of the exclusive gentlemen's club for men of letters.^[30]

In 2010, Knopfler appeared on the newest Thomas Dolby release, the EP Amerikana. Knopfler performed on the track "17 Hills".^[31]

In February 2011, Knopfler began work on his next solo album, once again working with Guy Fletcher. A release date is scheduled to be announced on Monday 28 May 2012.^[32] In July 2011, it was announced that Knopfler would take time out from recording this album in order to take part in a European tour with Bob Dylan during October and November.^[33]

In 2012, Knopfler covered a Bob Dylan song, "Restless Farewell", for an Amnesty International 50th Anniversary celebration record.^[34]

A new Mark Knopfler album, Privateering, is scheduled to be released on 3 September 2012. This will be Knopfler's first double album solo release and will contain 20 new songs.

Country music [link]

Mark Knopfler in Chicago with Emmylou Harris, 2006

In addition to his work in Dire Straits and solo, Mark Knopfler has made several contributions to country music. In 1988 he formed country-focused band The Notting Hillbillies,^[8] with Guy Fletcher, Brendan Croker and Steve Phillips. The Notting Hillbillies sole studio album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time was released in 1990 and featured the minor hit single "Your Own Sweet Way". Knopfler further emphasised his country music influences with his collaboration with Chet Atkins, Neck and Neck, which was also released in 1990. "Poor Boy Blues", taken from that collaboration, peaked at #92.

Knopfler's other contributions include writing and playing guitar on John Anderson's 1992 single "When It Comes to You" (from his album Seminole Wind). In 1993 Mary Chapin Carpenter also released a cover of the Dire Straits song "The Bug". Randy Travis released another of Knopfler's songs, "Are We In Trouble Now", in 1996. In that same year, Knopfler's solo single "Darling Pretty" reached a peak of #87.

Knopfler collaborated with George Jones on the 1994 "The Bradley Barn Sessions" album performing guitar duties on the classic J.P. Richardson composition White Lightnin'.

Knopfler is featured on Kris Kristofferson's album "The Austin Sessions", (on the track "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends") released in 1999 by Atlantic Records.

In 2006 Knopfler and Emmylou Harris made a country album together titled All the Roadrunning. Knopfler also charted two singles on the Canadian country music singles chart.

Again in 2006, Knopfler contributed the song "Whoop De Doo" to Jimmy Buffett's "Gulf and Western" style album "Take the Weather with You".

Personal life [link]

Mark Knopfler has been married three times. His first marriage was to Kathy White, his long-time girlfriend from school days. They separated before Knopfler moved to London to join Brewers Droop in 1973.^[8] In November 1983, Knopfler married his second wife, Lourdes Salomone. Their marriage produced twin sons, Benji and Joseph (born 1987), both of whom are musically talented and aspiring musicians, according to Knopfler.^[19] His marriage to Salomone ended in 1993.^[22] On Valentine's Day 1997, Knopfler married his third and current wife, British actress and writer Kitty Aldridge on the Caribbean island of Barbados. They had been dating for three years.^[35] Their marriage so far has produced two daughters, Isabella (born 1998) and Katya Ruby Rose (born 2003). The family currently lives in Chelsea.^[8]

Musical style and equipment [link]

Musical style [link]

Mark Knopfler in Amsterdam with a Schecter Stratocaster, 1981

Mark Knopfler is left-handed, but plays right-handed, and fingerpicks (using a personal variant of the clawhammer style) instead of using a plectrum (i.e., "pick"). Fingerpicking is usually associated with the acoustic guitar, but Knopfler usually (though not always) plays an electric guitar. He revealed during a French interview that he uses a pick for his rhythm work during recording sessions. He surprised the interviewer by pulling a pick out of his pocket and saying that he usually carries one. He has long favoured Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster style guitars. Fender carries a Mark Knopfler Artist Series Stratocaster.^[36] During the 1980s he came to appreciate the tone of the Gibson Les Paul and his original 1958 has been used regularly in the studio and on stage.

Guitars [link]

Knopfler has estimated that he now owns "around 70 guitars".^[37] They include:

Pensa Custom MKII, a custom Pensa guitar given to Knopfler by his friend Rudy Pensa in 2005^[38]
Pensa custom-built solid body guitars, models MK-1, MK-2, and MK-80 are named in Knopfler's honour^[39]
Red-painted (Stratocaster style) Melancon Pro Artist^[40]

Hofner V-2 (Mark's first guitar)
Fender Stratocasters, including a 1962 Fiesta Red rosewood neck hard tail, and a 1954 Sunburst hard tail (one of the first ever produced), which Knopfler named "Jurassic Strat"^[41]
Gibson Les Paul Special (used in the 1970s)
National Tricone 1928 model
National Style O Resonator guitar 1937 model ("Romeo and Juliet"), a replica of which is available from National Resophonic Guitars
Fender Telecaster 1952
Schecter Telecaster and Stratocaster models (from 1980 on)
Burns Baldwin 12-string ("Angel of Mercy" and the Get Lucky album)
Ovation Adamas: One black and two blue burst (Mainly used in the 80's)
Ovation Custom Legend
Ovation Classic (Private Investigations video)
Rickenbacker 425 (Used on Portobello Belle, later on The Ragpicker's Dream session)
Fernandes Stratocaster (Used in studio 82-85)
Gibson Chet Atkins (Love Over Gold album)
Erlewine Automatic ("Industrial Disease")
Martin Acoustics, HD-40MK, 000-40S Mark Knopfler, and 00028 ("Brothers in Arms")
Gibson SG (Two Young Lovers, Alchemy tour)
Gibson Les Paul 1958, 1959, and 1984 humbucker pickup models (First one used on Money for Nothing 85)
Purple Suhr R Custom (Not really a brand) (Brothers in Arms album, "Ride Across the River" and "So far Away")
Blonde Suhr "strat" (Live on the 85/86-tour and on the bug 92)
Gretsch Super Chet, 7690 (Golden Heart album)
Gretsch 6121
Steinberger GL2 (Brothers in Arms tour)
Beltona Electro Resonator
Flamed Pensa, 3 models (late 1980s)
Gibson J-45 (On Every Street album)
Gibson Super 400 CES (On Every Street album and tour)
Gibson L-5 CES
Gibson ES-175
Gibson J200 (Used by Jack Sonni in 85/86-tour)
Gibson ES-5
Godin L.R. Baggs (Used by Knopfler and Phil Palmer on the On Every Street tour)
Red Pensa Suhr Prototype (On Every Street tour)
Pensa-Suhr, black (Golden Heart album and tour)
Ramírez Spanish Guitar (Replacement for Gibson Chet Atkins in the early 90's)
Taylor acoustic guitars (not much information) Used live in the early 90's
Gibson ES-335
Danelectro Silvertone
Gibson Southerner
Gibson Advanced Jumbo
Fender Jazzmaster
Eko 700
Teisco Spectrum, 2 models
Danelectro 59 DC
Fender Duo Sonic 11 (Kill to Get Crimson album)
Gibson ES-330
N.S. Phillips Nobby 12 (Get Lucky album)
N.S. Phillips 14 Fret
Monteleone Isabella
Don Grosh Electrajet
Gibson Dove

Effects [link]

Throughout his career Knopfler has used a wide selection of effect pedals in the studio and during live performances.^[42] Here is a list of some of them:

Amplifiers [link]

Knopfler has often used many different combinations of amplifiers and cabinets to create his desired sounds.^[43]

On the "Get Lucky" tour in 2010, Knopfler used a pair of custom built Reinhardt guitar amp heads with matching cabinets,^[44]^[45] and a Tone King combo in between that is used on some songs.^[46]

Honours and awards [link]

1983 BRIT Award for Best British Group (with Dire Straits)
1986 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal with Dire Straits (for "Money for Nothing")
1986 Grammy Award nomination for Song of the Year (for "Money for Nothing")
1986 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance with Chet Atkins (for "Cosmic Square Dance")
1986 Juno Award for International Album of the Year (for Brothers in Arms with Dire Straits)
1986 BRIT Award for Best British Group (with Dire Straits)
1987 BRIT Award for Best British Album (for Brothers in Arms with Dire Straits)
1991 Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration with Chet Atkins (for "Poor Boy Blues")
1991 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance with Chet Atkins (for "So Soft, Your Goodbye")
1992 Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance with Chet Atkins (for "Neck and Neck")
1993 Honorary Doctor of Music from Newcastle University^[47]
1995 Honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Leeds
1999 OBE^[48]
2001 Masiakasaurus knopfleri (a species of dinosaur) was named after him by scientists who had listened to his music while digging the fossils.^[49]
2003 Edison Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Music Industry, the highest award for musicians in the Netherlands^[50]^[51]
2006 Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album (for Brothers in Arms 20th Anniversary Edition with Dire Straits)
2007 Honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Sunderland^[52]
2007 Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album with Emmylou Harris (for "All the Roadrunning").
2009 Music Producers Guild Award for Best Studio (for Knopfler's British Grove Studios^[53]
2009 PRS for Music Heritage Award (with Dire Straits)
2011 Steiger Award

Knopfler's influence [link]

Played together with Dire Straits' drummer Pick Withers on Bob Dylan's studio album Slow Train Coming, which was recorded in May 1979 and released 20 August; providing Dylan with what Dylan considered his best guitar backing since the days of Mike Bloomfield and Robbie Robertson. Knopfler also played in and co-produced Dylan's 1983 album Infidels.
British author and humorist Douglas Adams said about Knopfler, in his book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: "Mark Knopfler has an extraordinary ability to make a Schecter Custom Stratocaster hoot and sing like angels on a Saturday night, exhausted from being good all week and needing a stiff drink."^[54]
The dinosaur species Masiakasaurus knopfleri was named after Knopfler. The palaeontologists were listening to Dire Straits recordings when they discovered the species.^[55]
On "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of "Money for Nothing", "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", which merges the instrumentals of "Money For Nothing" with the lyrics to the theme song for the American television series The Beverly Hillbillies ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett"), Knopfler played guitar in the song, recreating the guitar riff from the original song. He would only allow Yankovic to parody the song if he was allowed to play on the recording.
Knopfler's song "Going Home" from the soundtrack to Local Hero is played before kick-off at Newcastle United's home matches at St James' Park.^[56]
"Going Home" is also the theme music for John Stanley on Sydney radio station 2UE.
According to director Rob Reiner, Knopfler agreed to write the music for Reiner's The Princess Bride on one condition: Reiner had to put the hat that he wore in This Is Spinal Tap in Princess Bride, "somewhere in evidence", as homage to the rock mockumentary. The hat makes its appearance in Princess Bride in the Grandson's (Fred Savage) bedroom.^[57]
Indian cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar is a fan of Mark Knopfler. They once had a joint interview on cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle's show Harsha Online.^[58]
The 2008 stage production Celtic Thunder has covers of multiple Mark Knopfler songs. "Brothers in Arms", written by Mark Knopfler and performed originally by Dire Straits, is performed by Ryan Kelly. As well, the song "Irish Boy" (from Cal) and "Going Home" (from Local Hero) are performed together as an instrumental, entitled "Cal/Local Hero".

Discography [link]

Dire Straits albums [link]

Main article: Dire Straits discography

Dire Straits (1978)
Communiqué (1979)
Making Movies (1980)
Love over Gold (1982)
Alchemy (1984, live)
Brothers in Arms (1985)
Money for Nothing (1988, compilation)
On Every Street (1991)
On the Night (1993, live)
Live at the BBC (1995, live)
Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits (1998, compilation)
The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations (2005, compilation)

Solo albums [link]

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions												Certifications (sales thresholds)
Year	Album details	UK ^[59]	AUS ^[60]	AUT ^[61]	CAN	FIN ^[62]	FRA ^[63]	NLD ^[64]	NOR ^[65]	NZ ^[66]	SWE ^[67]	SWI ^[68]	US ^[69]	Certifications (sales thresholds)
1996	Golden Heart	9	28	8	11	7	38	3	2	16	4	3	105	UK: Gold^[70] CAN: Gold^[71] NOR: Gold^[72]
2000	Sailing to Philadelphia	4	16	2	19	3	7	2	1	11	2	1	60	UK: Gold^[70] CAN: Gold^[71] FIN: Gold^[73] FRA: Platinum^[74] GER: Platinum^[75] NOR: 3× Platinum^[72] US: Gold^[76]
2002	The Ragpicker's Dream	7	47	9	18	7	4	2	1	8	5	5	38	UK: Silver^[70] FRA: Gold^[74] NOR: Platinum^[72]
2004	Shangri-La	11	-	14	-	10	5	4	1	-	3	7	66	UK: Silver^[70] GER: Gold^[75]
2007	Kill to Get Crimson	9	41	10	-	15	9	4	2	-	4	3	26
2009	Get Lucky	9	43	10	16	17	10	3	1	5	6	5	17	GER: Gold^[75] NOR: Platinum^[72]

The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations (2005, compilation)
The Trawlerman's Song EP (2005, EP)
One Take Radio Sessions (2005, EP live)

Collaborative albums [link]

Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time (with The Notting Hillbillies, 1990)
Neck and Neck (with Chet Atkins, 1990)
All the Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris, 2006)
Real Live Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris, 2006)

Produced albums [link]

Infidels (1983) by Bob Dylan. Although Mark disowned the reworked version of the album as released,^[77] his production is still noticeable. Left off the album, but later released on The Bootleg Series, is the critically acclaimed "Blind Willie McTell", featuring only Dylan, singing and playing piano, accompanied by Mark Knopfler on acoustic guitar.
Knife (1984) by Aztec Camera. This Scottish indie/new wave band was mostly a vehicle for the work of Roddy Frame, much as Dire Straits only ever recorded Mark Knopfler compositions.
Miracle (1987) by Willy DeVille. The album was dedicated to Mark and his wife "for their support which was nothing short of a Miracle in a time of Dire Straits." The album ends with the ballad "Storybook Love", the theme from The Princess Bride movie.
Land of Dreams (1988) by Randy Newman. The album includes the single "It's Money that Matters", which unabashedly revisits the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing".
The Sailor's Revenge (2012) by Bap Kennedy. The album includes Mark on guitar on the songs "Shimnavale", "Lonely No More", "The Right Stuff", "Please Return to Jesus", "The Sailor's Revenge", "Working Man", and "Celtic Sea". Mark also sings backing vocals on "Celtic Sea".

Additional albums [link]

The following additional albums contain guitar performances or guest appearances by Mark Knopfler.^[78]

The Booze Brothers by Brewers Droop (1973)
Slow Train Coming by Bob Dylan (1979)
Sandy McLelland & the Backline by Sandy McLelland (1979)
Gaucho by Steely Dan (1980)
Solo in Soho by Phil Lynott (1980)
The Philip Lynott Album by Phil Lynott (1982)
Beautiful Vision by Van Morrison (1982)
Release by David Knopfler (1983)
Phil Everly by Phil Everly (1983)
Love Over and Over by Kate and Anna McGarrigle (1983)
Climate of Hunter by Scott Walker (1984)
Never Told a Soul by John Illsley (1984)
The Rock Connection by Cliff Richard (1984)
Boys and Girls by Bryan Ferry (1985)
Stay Tuned by Chet Atkins (1985)
Break Every Rule by Tina Turner (1986)
The Color of Money (1986)
...Nothing Like the Sun by Sting (1987)
Primitive Dance by Paul Brady (1987)
Sails by Chet Atkins (1987)
Soldier of Fortune by Thin Lizzy (1987)
C.G.P. by Chet Atkins (1988)
Down in the Groove by Bob Dylan (1988)
Glass by John Illsley (1988)
Shouting Stage by Joan Armatrading (1988)
Foreign Affair by Tina Turner (1989)
River of Time by The Judds (1989)
Brendan Croker & the Five O'Clock Shadows by Brendan Croker (1989)
Hell to Pay by Jeff Healey (1990)
Knebworth: The Album (1990)
Damn Right, I've Got the Blues by Buddy Guy (1991)
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, 1961–1991 by Bob Dylan (1991)
Honky Tonk Demos (1991)
Seminole Wind by John Anderson (1992)
Country Rockers (1992)
Dulcimer Sessions by David Schnaufer (1992)
Ain't I a Woman by Rory Block (1992)
Cookin' with the Blues (1992)
Citizen Steely Dan by Steely Dan (1993)
Heartbeat by Hank Marvin (1993)
Southwestern Cookin (1994)
Flyer by Nanci Griffith (1994)
Bradley Barn Sessions by George Jones (1994)
Read My Licks by Chet Atkins (1994)
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 by Weird Al Yankovic (1994)
Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander (1994)
Long Black Veil by The Chieftains (1995)
Confessin' the Blues (1995)
The Way I Should by Iris DeMent (1996)
Paradise by John Anderson (1996)
Twang!: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & the Shadows (1996)
Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) (1996)
Pickin' the Hits by Chet Atkins (1997)
Nothin' but the Taillights by Clint Black (1997)
Blues Legends (1997)
Closing In on the Fire by Waylon Jennings (1998)

Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman (1998)
Man to Woman: Men of Note Sing for a Cause (1998)
Celtic Christmas, Vol. 4 (1998)
Tribute to Tradition (1998)
Austin Sessions by Kris Kristofferson (1999)
Another World by Gerry Rafferty (2000)
Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972–1980 (2000)
Prince's Trust 10th Anniversary Birthday Party (2000)
Guitar Heroes (2001)
Singles Collection by Hank Marvin (2001)
Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute (2001)
Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records (2001)
Buried Treasures, Vol. 3 by Lindisfarne (2001)
Human by Rod Stewart (2001)
Small World Big Band by Jools Holland (2001)
Seminole Wind by John Anderson (1992)
Chet Picks on the Grammys by Chet Atkins (2002)
Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues by Jools Holland (2002)
RCA Country Legends by John Anderson (2002)
Vagabonds, Kings, Warriors, Angels by Thin Lizzy (2002)
Parallel Tracks by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (2003)
Double Shot Rocks by Alan Merrill (2003)
Deja Vu (All Over Again) by John Fogerty (2004)
Is It Rolling Bob? A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan (2004)
Very Best of Celtic Christmas (2004)
Guitar Ballads by Hank Marvin (2004)
B. B. King & Friends: 80 by B.B. King (2005, guest appearance)
Is It Rolling Bob? Dub Versions (2005)
Just for a Thrill by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings (2005)
36 Classic Guitar Favourites by Hank Marvin (2005)
Sea Fever by William Topley (2005)
Prairie Home Companion Duets (2006)
East to West by Paul Burch (2006)
Take the Weather with You by Jimmy Buffett (2006)
Uncovered by Tony Joe White (2006)
Timeless (2007)
After Midnight Live by Eric Clapton (2007)
Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems by Emmylou Harris (2007)
Earth to the Dandy Warhols by The Dandy Warhols (2008, dobro)
Burning Your Playhouse Down by George Jones (2008)
From the Reach by Sonny Landreth (2008, guest appearance)
Legacy, Vol. 1 by Jeff Healey (2009, guest appearance)
Life Goes On by Gerry Rafferty (2009)
Greatest and Latest: Just a Thrill and Live by Bill Wyman (2009)
The Secret Policeman's Balls (2009)
Live At Knebworth (2010)
Streets of Heaven by John Illsley (2010)
Just Across the River by Jimmy Webb (2010, guest appearance)
Mercury by Pieta Brown (2011)
Gathering by Diane Schuur (2011)
Freak Flag by Greg Brown (2011)
Back Pages by America (2011)
A Map of the Floating City by Thomas Dolby (2011, guest appearance)
Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan (2012, guest appearance)
Impressions by Chris Botti (2012, guest appearance)

Guest singles [link]

1991 "Voices That Care" Various US #11 US AC #6

Music videos [link]

Year	Video	Director
1991	"Voices That Care"(Various)	David S. Jackson

References [link]

^ The Biography Channel "Mark Knopfler Biography". http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/211:563/1/Mark_Knopfler.htm The Biography Channel. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
^ Rolling Stone Magazine "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/5945/32609/32777 Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
^ John Illsley Website "About John Illsley". http://www.johnillsley.com John Illsley Website. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ BBC "Dire Straits given plaque honour". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8394556.stm BBC. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
^ University of Sunderland "Sunderland honours Sultan of Swing". http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/newsevents/news/news/index.php?nid=445 University of Sunderland. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
^ Mark Knopfler Official Website "Third Honorary Degree". http://www.markknopfler.com/blogs/news/archive/2007/07/09/121.aspx Mark Knopfler Official Website. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
^ Irwin, Colin. Dire Straits. Orion, 1994. ISBN 1-85797-584-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Kilburn, Terry. Mark Knopfler News "Mark Knopfler Authorized Biography". http://www.mark-knopfler-news.co.uk/biogs/mark.html Mark Knopfler News. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
^ The Journalism Centre Retrieved on 2 April 2007
^ Chaos on the Sheepscar Interchange Retrieved on 2 April 2007.
^ Who's been here Retrieved on 2 April 2007
^ "Dire Straits Biography". Musician Guide. Net Industries. 2009. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000435/Dire-Straits.html. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
^ Kilburn, Terry. Sing365.com "Mark Knopfler Biography". http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/mark-knopfler-biography/a890958919ee74784825688c00135994 Sing365.com. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
^ Local Hero (Original Soundtrack) - Mark Knopfler AllMusic Retrieved 30 December 2010
^ Mark Knopfler hurt in crash BBC News (18 March 2003) Retrieved 30 December 2010
^ Queen head all-time sales chart BBC News Retrieved 17 January 2011
^ Digitally Recorded, Digitally re/mixed and Digitally Mastered (psg)
^ "David Gilmour – DVD Draw" – The Phil Taylor Interview
^ ^a ^b http://www.mark-knopfler-news.co.uk/biogs/mark.html
^ Dire Straits Biography on Enotes.com
^ International who's who in popular music p.282. Routledge, 2002
^ ^a ^b "Dire Straits lyrics, music, biography, records, band, album, videos, CD, and the discography including Dire Straits famous works". Musicianguide.com. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000435/Dire-Straits.html. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ "Dire Straits Biography". Musicianguide.com. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000435/Dire-Straits.html. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
^ ^a ^b Youngs, Ian (7 October 2008). "Entertainment | Knopfler declines Straits reunion". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7656310.stm. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ Davies, H. "Rock star hurt in motorcycle crash", The Telegraph, 19 March 2003
^ PR Inside.com (accessed 6 March 2008), Legend's guitar lost in post
^ "2007gfrdhome". Guyfletcher.co.uk. 30 March 2009. http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/diary/Get_Lucky_Studio_Diary_2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
^ "The Official Community of Mark Knopfler". Markknopfler.com. 27 May 2009. http://www.markknopfler.com/news/news_items.aspx?PostID=14611. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ Guy Fletcher Website "2005 Shangri-La Tour Diary". http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/diary/2005_Shangri-La_Tour_Diary Guy Fletcher Website. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
^ Deedes, Henry. The Independent "Knopfler serenades Garrick chums". http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pandora/pandora-cable-is-plugged-in-for-stage-show-1624888.html The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
^ Thomas Dolby Website "Thomas Dolby Prepares to Release First New Studio Album in 20 Years". http://www.thomasdolby.com/press/motfcpress.html Thomas Dolby Website. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
^ Guy Fletcher Website "MK Studio Diary 2011". http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/diary/MK_Studio_diary_2011 Guy Fletcher Website. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ Mark Knopfler Official Website "Mark to tour with Bob Dylan". http://www.markknopfler.com/news/news_items.aspx?PostID=35490 Mark Knopfler Official Website. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
^ Terry Kilburn (20 January 2012). "Amnesty International's Chimes of Freedom - Update". http://www.markknopfler.com/news/news_items.aspx?PostID=37355. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
^ Wright, M. (1997) The Mirror, London, England. Available from: MARK TIES THE KNOT-FLER AGAIN; TV Kitty is wife No 3 in paradise wedding.(Features) Retrieved on 15 May 2007.
^ Mark Knopfler Stratocaster, Fender Corp., http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0117800815, retrieved 20 February 2011
^ Goodman, D. (2000) With Dire Straits no more, he sails solo, Reuters. Available from: MK INTERVIEW 2000 Retrieved on 14 May 2007.
^ "Knopfler: "Old News"". Mark-knopfler-news.co.uk. http://www.mark-knopfler-news.co.uk/moreold.html. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ PENSA CUSTOM GUITARS: History Retrieved 14 May 2007.
^ "Welcome to Melancon Guitars!". Melanconguitars.com. http://www.melanconguitars.com/index.shtml. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
^ Mark Knopfler's Interview – Track by Track Guide Golden Heart – Mark Knopfler Retrieved 12 May 2007.
^ Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler Guitar Page – Effects. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
^ Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler Guitar Page – Amplifiers. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
^ Reinhardt Amplifiers - Sultan. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^ Reinhardt Amplifiers - Talyn. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^ Tone King quote. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^ Knopfler opens students' studios Retrieved on 3 April 2007.
^ (1999) BBC News | NEW YEARS HONOURS | OBE civil (K – Z) Retrieved on 14 May 2007.
^ Perlman, David (3 April 2003). "Scientists find cannibal dinosaur / Meat-eater's bones show telltale bite marks". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/03/MN306871.DTL&type=science.
^ "2003 Edison Awards". Vantiel.net. http://www.vantiel.net/. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ "Mark Knopfler – What it is [Edison Music Awards −03]". YouTube. 28 May 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3D_dPPU3b4. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
^ Sunderland honours leaders in their fields, Sunderland University
^ News, markknopfler.com. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
^ Adams, D. (1984) So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, London. ISBN 0-330-28700-1
^ (2001) Palaeontologists in dire straits name dinosaur for the Sultan of Swing
^ Whetstone, D. (2006) City welcomes local hero. Available from: guyfletcher.co.uk – projects – news
^ Commentary Excerpt: Rob Reiner on MGM's new Princess Bride: SE Retrieved 12 May 2007.
^ Commentary Excerpt: Sultan's Speak, Sachin Tendulkar interview on Star Sports. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
^ "Chart Stats - Mark Knopfler". theofficialcharts.com. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/artist/_/mark%20knopfler/. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
^ "Discography Mark Knpfler". Australian-Charts.com. http://australian-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discographie Mark Knopfler". AustrianCharts.at. http://austriancharts.at/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discographie Mark Knopfler". finnishcharts.com. http://finnishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discographie Mark Knofler". lescharts.com. http://lescharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discografie Mark Knofler". DutchCharts.nl. http://dutchcharts.nl/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discography Mark Knofler". norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discography Mark Knofler". Charts.ord.nz. http://charts.org.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discography Mark Knopfler". SwedishCharts.com. http://swedishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Discography Mark Knopfler". SwissCharts.com. http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Mark+Knopfler&titel=Get+Lucky&cat=a. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ "Chart Stats - Mark Knopfler". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-knopfler-p94636/charts-awards/billboard-albums/chart_name-asc. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Certified Awards Search". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved on 2012-01-26. Note: User needs to enter "Mark Knopfler" in the "Search" field, "Artist" in the "Search by" field and click the "Go" button. Select "More info" next to the relevant entry to see full certification history.
^ ^a ^b "Certified Awards Search". Music Canada. Retrieved on 2012-01-26. Note: User needs to enter "Mark Knopfler" in the "Search" field, "Artist" in the "Search by" field and click the "Go" button. Select "More info" next to the relevant entry to see full certification history.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Certified Awards Search". Retrieved on 2012-01-26. Note: User needs to enter "Mark Knopfler" in the "Search" field, "Artist" in the "Search by" field and click the "Go" button. Select "More info" next to the relevant entry to see full certification history.
^ "[1]". Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved on 2012-01-26
^ ^a ^b "Certified Awards Search".FRA . Retrieved on 2012-01-27.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank ('Sailing to Philadelphia')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=Sailing+to+Philadelphia&strInterpret=&strTtArt=alle&strAwards=checked.
^ "Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH. Retrieved 26 January 2012. Note: User must define 'Artist' search parameter as "Mark Knopfler".
^ Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Clinton Heylin, Summit Books (1991) ISBN 0-671-73894
^ Allmusic "Mark Knopfler Credits". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-knopfler-p94636/credits Allmusic. Retrieved 16 October 2011.

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mark Knopfler

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mark Knopfler

v t e Mark Knopfler

Band personnel	Richard Bennett Jim Cox Phil Cunningham Guy Fletcher Paul Franklin John McCusker Michael McGoldrick Ian Thomas Glenn Worf

Former members	Chad Cromwell Danny Cummings Tim O'Brien Matt Rollings

Studio albums	Golden Heart Sailing to Philadelphia The Ragpicker's Dream Shangri-La Kill to Get Crimson Get Lucky Privateering (3 Sept 2012)

Singles and EPs	"Darling Pretty" "Cannibals" "Rüdiger" "What It Is" "Sailing to Philadelphia" "Silvertown Blues" "Why Aye Man" "Boom, Like That" The Trawlerman's Song EP One Take Radio Sessions "True Love Will Never Fade" "Punish the Monkey" "Border Reiver" "Remembrance Day"

Soundtracks	Local Hero Cal Comfort and Joy The Princess Bride Last Exit to Brooklyn Screenplaying Metroland Wag the Dog A Shot at Glory

Collaborations	Neck and Neck (with Chet Atkins) All the Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris) Real Live Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris)

Videography	A Night in London Real Live Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris)

Related articles	Dire Straits The Notting Hillbillies The Booze Brothers British Grove Studios

v t e Dire Straits

Mark Knopfler John Illsley Alan Clark Guy Fletcher David Knopfler Pick Withers Hal Lindes Terry Williams Jack Sonni

Studio albums	Dire Straits Communiqué Making Movies Love over Gold Brothers in Arms On Every Street

Live albums	Alchemy On the Night Live at the BBC

Compilations	Money for Nothing Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations

EPs	ExtendedancEPlay Encores

Singles	"Sultans of Swing" "Water of Love" "Lady Writer" "Romeo and Juliet" "Skateaway" "Tunnel of Love" "Private Investigations" "Industrial Disease" "Twisting by the Pool" "Love Over Gold" (live) "So Far Away" "Money for Nothing" "Brothers in Arms" "Walk of Life" "Your Latest Trick" "Calling Elvis" "Heavy Fuel" "On Every Street" "The Bug"

Tours	Dire Straits Tour Communiqué Tour

Related articles	Discography Band members Michael Brecker The Notting Hillbillies Chris White Birmingham at Barbarella

Book:Dire Straits Category:Dire Straits Portal:Rock music

Persondata
Name	Knopfler, Mark
Alternative names
Short description	English guitarist
Date of birth	12 August 1949
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Date of death
Place of death

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Don McLean
Don McLean performing at Westport in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Donald McLean
Born	(1945-10-02) October 2, 1945 (age 66)
Genres	Folk, folk rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar banjo, piano
Years active	1969–present
Labels	United Artists EMI America
Website	www.don-mclean.com

Donald "Don" McLean (born October 2, 1945, New Rochelle, New York) is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".

1 Musical roots
2 Recording career
3 Concerts
4 Later work and honors
5 Discography
6 References
7 External links

Musical roots [link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Both McLean's grandfather and father were also named Donald McLean. The Buccis, the family of McLean's mother, Elizabeth, came from Abruzzo in central Italy. They left Italy and settled in Port Chester, New York, at the end of the 19th century. He has other extended family in Los Angeles and Boston.^[1]

As a teenager, McLean became interested in folk music, particularly the Weavers' 1955 recording At Carnegie Hall. Childhood asthma meant that McLean missed long periods of school, particularly music lessons, and although he slipped back in his studies, his love of music was allowed to flourish. He often performed shows for family and friends. By age 16 he had bought his first guitar (a Harmony acoustic archtop with a sunburst finish) and begun making contacts in the music business, becoming friends with folk singer Erik Darling, a latter-day member of the Weavers.^[1] McLean recorded his first studio sessions (with singer Lisa Kindred) while still in prep school.

McLean graduated from Iona Preparatory School in 1963, and briefly attended Villanova University, dropping out after four months. While at Villanova he became friends with singer/songwriter Jim Croce.

After leaving Villanova, McLean became associated with famed folk music agent Harold Leventhal, and for the next six years performed at venues and events including the Bitter End and the Gaslight Cafe in New York, the Newport Folk Festival, the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., and the Troubadour in Los Angeles.^[1] Concurrently, McLean attended night school at Iona College and received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1968. He turned down a scholarship to Columbia University Graduate School in favor of becoming resident singer at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York.

In 1968, with the help of a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, McLean began reaching a wider public, with visits to towns up and down the Hudson River.^[1] He learned the art of performing from his friend and mentor Pete Seeger. McLean accompanied Seeger on his Clearwater boat trip up the Hudson River in 1969 to raise awareness about environmental pollution in the river. During this time McLean wrote songs that would appear on his first album, Tapestry. McLean co-edited the book Songs and Sketches of the First Clearwater Crew with sketches by Thomas B. Allen for which Pete Seeger wrote the foreword. Seeger and McLean sang "Shenandoah" on the 1974 Clearwater album.

Recording career [link]

Early breakthrough [link]

McLean recorded his first album, Tapestry, in 1969 in Berkeley, California during the student riots. After being rejected by 34 labels, the album was released by Mediarts and attracted good reviews but little notice outside the folk community.

McLean's major break came when Mediarts was taken over by United Artists Records thus securing for his second album, American Pie, the promotion of a major label. The album spawned two No. 1 hits in the title song and "Vincent". American Pie's success made McLean an international star and renewed interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release.

American Pie [link]

Main article: American Pie (song)

McLean's magnum opus, "American Pie", is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash on 3 February 1959. The song popularized the expression "The Day the Music Died" in reference to this event. WCFL DJ Bob Dearborn unraveled the lyrics and first published his interpretation on 7 January 1972, eight days before the song reached #1 nationally (see "Further reading" under American Pie). Numerous other interpretations, which together largely converged on Dearborn's interpretation, quickly followed. McLean declined to say anything definitive about the lyrics until 1978. Since then McLean has stated that the lyrics are also somewhat autobiographical and present an abstract story of his life from the mid-1950s until the time he wrote the song in the late 1960s.^[2]

The song was recorded on 26 May 1971 and a month later received its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of The Fillmore East, a famous New York concert hall. "American Pie" reached number one on the U.S. Billboard magazine charts for four weeks in 1972, and remains McLean's most successful single release. The single also topped the Billboard Easy Listening survey. With a running time of 8:36, it is also the longest song to reach No. 1. Some stations played only part one of the original split-sided single release.

In 2001 "American Pie" was voted No. 5 in a poll of the 365 Songs of the Century compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The top five were: "Over the Rainbow" written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (performed by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz), "White Christmas" written by Irving Berlin (best-known performance by Bing Crosby), "This Land Is Your Land" written and performed by Woody Guthrie, "Respect" written by Otis Redding (best-known performance by Aretha Franklin), and "American Pie".

Subsequent recordings [link]

Personnel from the American Pie album sessions were retained for his third album Don McLean, including producer, Ed Freeman, Rob Rothstein on bass and Warren Bernhardt on piano. The song "The Pride Parade" provides an insight into McLean’s immediate reaction to stardom. McLean told Melody Maker magazine in 1973 that Tapestry was an album by someone previously concerned with external situations. American Pie combines externals with internals and the resultant success of that album makes the third one (Don McLean) entirely introspective."

Other songs written by McLean for the album included “Dreidel” (number 21 on the Billboard chart) and “If We Try” (number 58), which was subsequently recorded by Olivia Newton-John.^[3] “On the Amazon” from the 1920s musical Mr Cinders was an unusual choice but became an audience favorite in concerts and featured in “Till Tomorrow”, a documentary film about McLean produced by Bob Elfstrom. The film shows McLean in concert at Columbia University as he was interrupted by a bomb scare. He left the stage while the audience stood up and checked under their seats for anything that resembled a bomb. After the all-clear, McLean re-appeared and sang “On the Amazon” from exactly where he had left off. Don Heckman reported the bomb scare in his review for the New York Times entitled “Don McLean Survives Two Obstacles.”^[4]

The fourth album, Playin' Favorites was a top-40 hit in the UK in 1973 and included the Irish folk classic, "Mountains of Mourne" and Buddy Holly’s "Everyday", a live rendition of which returned McLean to the UK Singles Chart. McLean said, "The last album (Don McLean) was a study in depression whereas the new one (Playin' Favorites) is almost the quintessence of optimism, with a feeling of "Wow, I just woke up from a bad dream."

The 1974 album Homeless Brother, produced by Joel Dorn, was McLean’s final studio collaboration with United Artists. The album featured fine New York session musicians, including Ralph McDonald on percussion, Hugh McKracken on guitar and a guest appearance by Yusef Lateef on flute. The Persuasions sang the background vocals on “Crying in the Chapel” and Cissy Houston provided a backing vocal on “La La Love You”.

The album’s title song was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s book, The Lonesome Traveller in which Kerouac tells the story of America’s “homeless brothers,” or hobos. The song features background vocals by Pete Seeger.

The song “The Legend of Andrew McCrew” was based on an article published in the New York Times.^[1] concerning a black Dallas hobo named Anderson McCrew who was killed when he leapt from a moving train. No one claimed him, so a carnival took his body, mummified it, and toured all over the South with him, calling him the “The Famous Mummy Man.” McLean’s song inspired radio station WGN in Chicago to tell the story and give the song airplay in order to raise money for a headstone for Anderson McCrew’s grave. Their campaign was successful and McCrew’s body was exhumed and buried in the Lincoln Cemetery in Dallas.^[5] The tombstone had an inscription with words from the fourth verse of McLean’s song:

What a way to live a life, and what a way to die
Left to live a living death with no one left to cry
A petrified amazement, a wonder beyond worth
A man who found more life in death than life gave him at birth

Joel Dorn later collaborated on the Don McLean career retrospective Rearview Mirror released in 2005 on Dorn’s own label Hyena Records. In 2006, Dorn reflected on working with McLean:^[1]

Of the more than 200 studio albums I’ve produced in the past forty plus years, there is a handful; maybe fifteen or so that I can actually listen to from top to bottom. Homeless Brother is one of them. It accomplished everything I set out to do. And it did so because it was a true collaboration. Don brought so much to the project that all I really had to do was capture what he did, and complement it properly when necessary.

Also from the Homeless Brother album, "Wonderful Baby" was a number 1 on the AOR chart in 1975^[6] and was later recorded by Fred Astaire. The song had been inspired by Joel Dorn’s son^[1] and reflected McLean’s interest in 1930s music.

1977 saw a brief liaison with Arista Records that yielded the Prime Time album and, in October 1978, the single "It Doesn’t Matter Anymore". This was a track from the Chain Lightning album that should have been the second of four with Arista.^[1] McLean had started recording in Nashville, with Elvis Presley’s backing singers, The Jordanaires, and many of Elvis’s musicians. However the Arista deal broke down following artistic disagreements between McLean and the Arista chief, Clive Davis. Consequently McLean was left without a record contract in the USA, but through continuing deals the Chain Lightning album was released by EMI in Europe and by Festival Records in Australia. In April 1980, the track "Crying” from the album began picking up airplay on Dutch radio stations and McLean was called to Europe to appear on several important musical variety shows to plug the song and support its release as a single by EMI. The song achieved number 1 status in Holland first, followed by the UK and then Australia.

Don’s number 1 successes in Europe and Australia led to a new deal in the USA with Millennium Records. They issued the Chain Lightning album two and a half years after it had been recorded in Nashville, and two years after its release in Europe. It charted on February 14th, 1981 and reached number 28 while "Crying" climbed to number 5 on the pop singles chart.

The early 1980s saw further chart successes in the US with "Since I Don't Have You", a new recording of "Castles in the Air" and "It's Just the Sun".

In 1987, the release of the country-based Love Tracks album gave rise to the hit singles "Love in My Heart" (a top-10 in Australia), "Can't Blame the Wreck on the Train" (US country No. 49), and "Eventually". The latter two songs were written by Houston native Terri Sharp.

In 1991, EMI reissued the "American Pie" single in the United Kingdom and McLean performed on Top of the Pops.

In 1992, previously unreleased songs became available on Favorites and Rarities while Don McLean Classics featured new studio recordings of "Vincent" and "American Pie".

Don McLean has continued to record new material including River of Love in 1995 on Curb Records and, more recently, the albums You've Got to Share, Don McLean Sings Marty Robbins and The Western Album on his own Don McLean Music label.

A new album, Addicted to Black, was released in May 2009 and is available for purchase at his North American concert performances and is available on his website. In addition, McLean is expecting to tour in Europe and Australia in 2010.^[7]

Other songs [link]

McLean's other well-known songs include:

"And I Love You So" was covered by Elvis Presley, Helen Reddy, Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell, Engelbert Humperdinck, Howard Keel and a 1973 hit for Perry Como
"Vincent", a tribute to the 19th century Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh. Although it only reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, it proved to be a huge hit worldwide.^{[citation needed]} It was a #1 hit single in the UK Singles Chart.^[8] This song was covered by NOFX on their album titled 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records, and also appears on the Fat Wreck Chords compilation Survival of the Fattest. "Vincent" was also covered by Josh Groban on his 2001 debut album.^[9]
"Castles in the Air", which McLean recorded twice. His 1981 re-recording was a top-40 hit, reaching #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1981.^[10]
"Wonderful Baby", a tribute to Fred Astaire that Astaire himself recorded. Primarily rejected by pop stations, it reached #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening survey.^[11]
"Superman's Ghost", a tribute to George Reeves, who portrayed Superman on television in the 1950s
"The Grave", a song that McLean had written about the Vietnam War, was covered by George Michael in 2003 in protest against the Iraq War.

The American Pie album features a version of Psalm 137, entitled "Babylon". The song is based on a canon by Philip Hayes^[12] and was arranged by McLean and Lee Hays (of The Weavers).^[13] Boney M had a number one hit in the UK with a similar song in 1978 under the title Rivers of Babylon, which was not based on this one, although using the same text from Psalm 137.

In 1980, McLean had an international number one hit with a cover of the Roy Orbison classic, "Crying". It was only after the record became a success overseas that it was released in the U.S.^{[citation needed]} The single hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981.^[10] Orbison himself once described McLean as "the voice of the century",^{[citation needed]} and a subsequent re-recording of the song saw Orbison incorporate elements of McLean's version.

For the 1982 animated cult-movie The Flight of Dragons produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr., McLean sang the opening theme. Unfortunately, no soundtrack has ever been released.

Another hit song associated with McLean (though never recorded by him) is "Killing Me Softly with His Song", which was written about McLean after Lori Lieberman, also a singer/songwriter, saw him singing his composition "Empty Chairs" in concert.^[14] Afterwards, Lieberman wrote a poem about the experience and shared it with Norman Gimbel, who had long been searching for a way to use a phrase he had copied from a novel badly translated from Spanish to English, "killing me softly with his blues".^[15] Gimbel and Charles Fox reworked the poem and the phrase into the song "Killing Me Softly with His Song",^[16] recorded by Roberta Flack (and later covered by The Fugees).

Concerts [link]

McLean’s subsequent albums did not match the commercial success of American Pie but he became a major concert attraction in the US and overseas. His repertoire included old concert hall numbers and the catalogues of singers such as Buddy Holly, and another McLean influence, Frank Sinatra. The years spent playing gigs in small clubs and coffee houses in the 1960s transformed into well-paced performances. McLean's first concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Albert Hall in London in 1972 were critically acclaimed.

In the 1970s, McLean usually toured solo but from 1981 to 1996 was accompanied by John Platania on guitar. He now tours with his own band of Nashville musicians: Tony Migliore, Jerry Kroon, Ralph Childs and Carl "VIP" Viperman.

In 1997, McLean performed "American Pie" with Garth Brooks at Brooks' free concert in Central Park in New York City. CNN reported that "Brooks was joined on stage by two surprise guest stars, Billy Joel and Don McLean, who brought down the house with an acoustic rendition of 'American Pie'."^{[citation needed]}

Two years later, Brooks repaid the favor by appearing as a special guest (with Nanci Griffith) on McLean's first American TV special, broadcast as the PBS special Starry Starry Night. A month later, McLean wound up the 20th century by performing "American Pie" at the Lincoln Memorial Gala in Washington D.C. Brooks again played "American Pie" during We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.

In 2007 Don McLean signed with the Asgard Agency in London giving them responsibility for booking concert tours outside North America. Since then McLean has performed tours of the UK (2007, 2008 (one appearance), 2010, 2011), Ireland (2007, 2010, 2011), mainland Europe (2008, 2010), Australia and New Zealand (2008, 2011) and South East Asia (2011). On June 26, 2011, Don McLean performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts.

McLean had a series of conflicts with Saturday Night Live writer Andy Breckman, starting when Breckman opened for McLean on tour in 1980.^[17] Breckman and McLean have penned competing renditions of the origins of this feud, both of which are available online.^[18]

Later work and honors [link]

In 1991, Don McLean returned to the UK top 20 with a re-issue of "American Pie".

Iona College conferred an honorary doctorate on McLean in 2001.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2002, "American Pie" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2004, McLean was inaugurated into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Garth Brooks presented the award and said "Don McLean: his work, like the man himself, is very deep and very compassionate. His pop anthem 'American Pie' is a cultural phenomenon".^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, the biography The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs was published. Biographer Alan Howard conducted extensive interviews for this, the only book-length biography of the often reclusive McLean to date.

In 2008, New York City radio station Q104.3 FM WAXQ named Don McLean's "American Pie" number 37 in their 2008 Top 1,043 Songs Of All Time listener-generated countdown.

In February 2012 McLean won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Life Time Achievement award^[19]

In March 2012 the PBS network broadcast a feature length documentary about the life and music of Don McLean called "American Troubadour" produced by 4-time Emmy Award winning film maker Jim Brown.

Discography [link]

Albums [link]

Year	Album	Chart Positions
Year	Album	US	CAN
1970	Tapestry	111	—
1971	American Pie	1	1
1972	Don McLean	23	15
1973	Playin' Favorites	—	—
1974	Homeless Brother	120	—
1976	Solo (LIVE)	—	—
1977	Prime Time	—	—
1978	Chain Lightning^A	28	25
1981	Believers	156	—
1982	Dominion (LIVE)	—	—
1987	Love Tracks	—	—
1989	For the Memories Vols I & II	—	—
1989	And I Love You So (UK Release)	—	—
1990	Headroom	—	—
1991	Christmas	—	—
1995	The River of Love	—	—
1997	Christmas Dreams	—	—
2001	Sings Marty Robbins	—	—
2001	Starry Starry Night (LIVE)	—	—
2003	You've Got to Share: Songs for Children	—	—
2003	The Western Album	—	—
2004	Christmastime!	—	—
2005	Rearview Mirror: An American Musical Journey	—	—
2009	Addicted to Black	—	—

^AChain Lightning also peaked at #3 on the RPM Country Albums chart in Canada.

Compilations [link]

Year	Album
1980	The Very Best of Don McLean
1987	Don McLean's Greatest Hits · Then & Now
1991	The Best of Don McLean
1992	Favorites and Rarities
2003	Legendary Songs of Don McLean
2007	The Legendary Don McLean
2008	American Pie & Other Hits

Singles [link]

Year	Single	Peak chart positions^[20]^[21]							Album
Year	Single	US	US AC	US Country	CAN	CAN AC	CAN Country	UK	Album
1971	"Castles in the Air"	—	40	—	—	—	—	—	Tapestry
1971	"American Pie"	1	1	—	1	1	—	2	American Pie
1972	"Vincent"	12	2	—	3	13	—	1	American Pie
1973	"Dreidel"	21	7	—	16	5	—	—	Don McLean
	"If We Try"	58	12	—	82	22	—	—	Don McLean
	"Everyday"	—	—	—	—	—	—	38	Playin' Favorites
1974	"Fool's Paradise"	107	25	—	—	90	—	—	Playin' Favorites
1975	"Wonderful Baby"	93	1	—	—	—	—	—	Homeless Brother
1980	"Crying"	5	2	6	7	—	1	1	Chain Lightning
1981	"Since I Don't Have You"	23	6	68	45	2	—	—
	"It's Just the Sun"	83	20	—	—	12	—	—
	"Castles in the Air"^A	36	7	—	—	2	—	47	Believers
1987	"He's Got You"	—	—	73	—	—	—	—	Greatest Hits Then & Now
1987	"You Can't Blame the Train"	—	—	49	—	—	—	—	Love Tracks
1988	"Love in My Heart"	—	—	65	—	—	—	—	Love Tracks
1991	"American Pie" (reissue)	—	—	—	—	—	—	12	The Best of Don McLean

Notes

^AThe original version of "Castles in the Air" was included on the Tapestry album. In February 1971, it was released as the first single from the album and reached #40 on the Billboard Easy Listening / Adult Contemporary chart. After the success of the "American Pie" single, "Castles in the Air" was included as the B-side to its follow-up, "Vincent", and received enough radio airplay to reach the Hot 100 chart as a "flip". McLean's 1981 version of the song first appeared on his album Believers, and later replaced the original version on some copies of Tapestry.

Rarities [link]

Year	Title	Additional information
1982	"The Flight of Dragons"	This song was recorded for the film The Flight of Dragons in the early 1980s.
1994	"Vincent" (live version)	Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume III^[22]

References [link]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Howard, Alan (2007). The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs. Lulu Press Inc.. p. 420. ISBN 978-1-4303-0682-5.
^ "Don McLean's American Pie". Don McLean Online - The Official Website. http://www.don-mclean.com/americanpie.asp.
^ The Great Olivia-Newton John, Festival Records, 1999.
^ New York Times, December 12th 1971
^ Ellensburg Daily Record, May 24th 1974
^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 166.
^ Addicted to Black CD DonMcLean.com. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
^ "Vincent" UK Singles Chart info Chartstats.com. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
^ Josh Groban album info JoshGroban.com. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
^ ^a ^b Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 416.
^ Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications), page 166.
^ The Muses Delight: Catches, Glees, Canzonets and Canons by Philip Hayes (London, 1786)
^ American Pie album song credits
^ O'Haire, P. A Killer of a Song, Daily News April 5th 1973. p6
^ Davis, Sheila (1984). The Craft of Lyric Writing. Writers Digest Books. p. 13. ISBN 0-89879-149-9. http://books.google.com/?id=uVePZ1Qwtb0C&pg=PA13&dq=%22Killing+Me+Softly+with+His+Song%22+norman+gimbel#v=onepage&q=%22Killing%20Me%20Softly%20with%20His%20Song%22%20norman%20gimbel&f=false. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
^ Billboard Magazine, June 22, 1974. Page 53.
^ "Annoy Don McLean, Win $200!" Tayt Harlin, New York Magazine, October 31, 2007
^ Don McLean vs. Andy Breckman on the WFMU website
^ "Radio 2 - Events - Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012". BBC. 2012-02-08. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/folk-awards-2012/. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
^ Don McLean US chart info AllMusic.com. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
^ Don McLean UK chart positions Chartstats.com. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
^ "Grammy's Greatest Moments, Volume III: Various Artists". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000002IY3/. Retrieved 2011-11-23.

External links [link]

Persondata
Name	Maclean, Don
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 October 1945
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_McLean

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Leo Kottke
Kottke at the Clearwater Festival, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Leo Kottke
Born	(1945-09-11) September 11, 1945 (age 66) Athens, Georgia
Genres	Folk
Occupations	Guitarist
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1966–present
Labels	Capitol, Private Music, Oblivion Records
Associated acts	Mike Gordon, John Fahey
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Gibson, Taylor, Bozo

Leo Kottke (born 11 September 1945, Athens, Georgia, U.S.) is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies. Kottke has overcome a series of personal obstacles including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his right hand to emerge as a widely-recognized master of his instrument.

Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke also sings sporadically, in an unconventional yet expressive baritone famously self-described as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day".^[1] In concert, Kottke intersperses humorous and often bizarre monologues with vocal and instrumental selections from throughout his career, played solo on his signature 6- and 12-string guitars.

1 Biography
2 Tunings
3 Orchestral works, re-recordings and other collaborations
4 Discography
5 Videography
6 References
7 External links

Biography [link]

Early life and career [link]

Born in Athens, Georgia, Kottke moved with his parents so frequently that he was raised in twelve different states.^[2] As a youth living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Kottke was influenced by folk and delta blues music, notably that of Mississippi John Hurt.^[2] Kottke learned to play trombone and violin before trying the guitar and developing his own unconventional picking style. A mishap with a firecracker permanently damaged the hearing in his left ear,^[2] a condition that would be exacerbated due to exposure to loud noise during firing practice while serving in the United States Navy Reserve, when his other ear also was damaged.^[3]

After being discharged from the Naval Reserve due to his partial loss of hearing, Kottke attended St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota but left before completing his studies, choosing instead to hitchhike around the country, busking for a living, before finally settling in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. He arrived at the Scholar Coffeehouse in the Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis area in the autumn of 1966 and soon was a regular performer. There, he recorded his debut album, 12-String Blues, which was released on the independent Oblivion record label in 1969. He recorded 6- and 12-String Guitar (also known as the "Armadillo album" after the animal pictured on its cover) for John Fahey's Takoma Records later the same year. It remains one of the works most associated with Kottke and has been re-released many times on various record labels.

Fahey's agent Denny Bruce signed Kottke to Capitol Records and in 1971, Capitol released Kottke's first major label record, Mudlark.^[2]

File:Leo Kottke in concert Kansas City 2008 by db.jpg

Leo Kottke in concert Kansas City 2008

Pressured in the early 1970s to be a folk singer-songwriter rather than an instrumentalist, he recorded with vocals and backing musicians on albums during this period. In 1972 he released Greenhouse, and in 1973, the live My Feet Are Smiling and Ice Water. These albums showed Kottke moving toward an eclectic mixture of musical genres, including folk, rock, jazz and bluegrass.

Kottke closed out his contract with Capitol with his seventh album, Chewing Pine, in 1975. By then he had also gained an international cult following thanks to his performances at folk festivals. With his 1976 eponymous release, he moved to Chrysalis Records.

Injury and new playing style [link]

In the early 1980s, Kottke began to suffer from painful tendonitis and related nerve damage caused by his vigorous and aggressive picking style (particularly on the 12-string guitar).^[3]^[4] As a result, he changed his picking style to a classical style, using the flesh of his fingertips and increasingly small amounts of fingernail rather than fingerpicks, and changing the positioning of the right hand to place less stress on the tendons. He also studied more classical and jazz-oriented compositional and playing techniques. He took a long break from recording and performing and simultaneously moved from his relationship with major labels to the smaller Private Music label. Private Music was considered a New Age music label in the Windham Hill style, and Kottke often found his music categorized as such during this period. After 1986's reflective A Shout Toward Noon, he took a brief break from recording before returning with Regards from Chuck Pink in 1988.

Later career [link]

Kottke released an album annually from 1989 to 1991, following My Father's Face with That's What and finally Great Big Boy, which featured a guest appearance from Lyle Lovett. Two years later, Kottke returned with Peculiaroso, which featured production by Rickie Lee Jones. The solo album One Guitar, No Vocals followed in 1999.

In 2002, Kottke and Mike Gordon (the bassist from the band Phish, which was on an extended hiatus) collaborated on Clone, an album featuring instrumental work and vocals from both musicians. A second album from the pair, Sixty Six Steps, followed in 2005. The duo has toured in support of both albums.^[5] In between these two duet albums, Kottke released a solo album, 2004's Try and Stop Me.

Leo Kottke received an honorary Doctorate in Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee on May 18, 2008, where he gave the commencement address.^[6]

Tunings [link]

Kottke's guitars are often tuned unconventionally; early in his career he heavily used open tuning, while in recent years he has used more traditional settings but often tunes his guitars as many as two full steps below standard tuning.

Orchestral works, re-recordings and other collaborations [link]

In 1976, Kottke collaborated with arranger Jack Nitzsche on the release Leo Kottke which featured Kottke backed by a small orchestral section on a number of the tracks.

In the later part of his career Kottke has begun reworking and re-recording tunes he wrote and recorded in the early 1970s.^[3] For example, 1999's One Guitar No Vocals offered a new instrumental version of 1974's "Morning Is The Long Way Home", with the countermelody opened up from behind the vocal line, stripped of its original trippy lyrics.^[7] Kottke has also combined previously-recorded tunes into new compositions, notably the mini-suite "Bigger Situation", also released on One Guitar No Vocals.

In 1990 Kottke and composer Stephen Paulus created Ice Fields, a work for amplified acoustic guitar and orchestra in a concerto format. Ice Fields featured five movements, each based on an existing Kottke composition, with orchestral backing and interlude sections.^[8] It was premiered by Paulus' Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and has been performed occasionally since but has not been released on record, partly due to the high cost of producing a recording with a full orchestra.^[9]

Kottke has also collaborated on his records with his mentor John Fahey, as well as with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Margo Timmins, Mike Gordon, and Rickie Lee Jones. He has recorded tunes by Tom T. Hall, Johnny Cash, Carla Bley, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, Jorma Kaukonen, Kris Kristofferson, Randall Hylton, and many others.

He has toured with other guitarists playing both solo and ensemble pieces; notably he toured as part of the "Guitar Summit" with jazz guitarist Joe Pass, flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, and classical guitarist Pepe Romero. He is also a frequent guest on the radio variety program A Prairie Home Companion.

Discography [link]

Main article: Leo Kottke discography

Videography [link]

Home & Away (1988)
Home & Away Revisited (2006)

References [link]

^ 1994 James Jensen Interview Leo Kottke. Accessed on April 29, 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ankeny, Jason Accessed September 27, 2008 All Music Review
^ ^a ^b ^c Accessed on May 30, 2008 Life in Northern Colorado interview, May 2007
^ James Jensen Interview Mr. Natural. Accessed on April 29, 2008.
^ "Kottke and Gordon: Calypso-Brushed Guitars" (interview and performance) by David Dye, from NPR's World Cafe November 24, 2005
^ OnMilwaukee, Guitarist Kottke receiving UWM honorary degree. Friday, May 30, 2008 Accessed on May 30, 2008.
^ Anil Prasad Interview Getting to Mouth Off. Accessed on April 29, 2008.
^ Stropes, John. "In Search of the Great American Guitar Concerto", Acoustic Guitar Magazine, March 1991
^ Prasad, Anil. "Leo Kottke: Blowing the Saddletank". Innerviews: Music Without Borders. http://www.innerviews.org/inner/kottke.html.

External links [link]

Official Leo Kottke website
Unofficial Leo Kottke web site (fan site)
All Music biography of Leo Kottke, by Jason Ankeny
Latest Leo Kottke Concert Reviews and Photos on Concertology
1999 Leo Kottke interview by Anil Prasad
"Kottke and Gordon: Calypso-Brushed Guitars" by David Dye, from NPR's World Cafe November 24, 2005
The Leo Kottke/Procol Harum connection One of several Kottke mentions at www.procolharum.com
Interview on Minnesota Public Radio November 9, 2007

Persondata
Name	Kottke, Leo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 11, 1945
Place of birth	Athens, Georgia
Date of death
Place of death

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Kottke

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

Atkins, Chet Filmography

Atkins, Chet Filmography

Born: 1924-06-20

Died: 2001-06-30

Make changes yourself !

Make changes yourself !

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