Something else to thank Chet Atkins for?

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

From www.tipworld.com

ANITA KERR, THE VOICE OF THE NASHVILLE SOUND

Producers Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley are generally credited with being the architects of the Nashville Sound, the smooth, pop-oriented brand of country that ruled the airwaves in the late '50s and early '60s. To give the music a more uptown sound, they replaced fiddles with string sections, used jazzy guitar chords instead of twangy tones, and ditched steel guitars altogether. To sweeten the sound even more, they used polished backup singers, the most popular of which was the Anita Kerr Singers. During the heyday of the Nashville Sound era from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s, Anita Kerr and her three partners,Dottie Dillard, Louis Dean Nunley, and Gil Wright, sang on hundreds of
records, including releases by Jim Reeves, Willie Nelson, Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, Roy Orbison, Dottie West, and Lorne Greene. It's been estimated that the Anita Kerr Singers performed on at least 25 percent of the Nashville recordings made between 1955 and 1963. As well as singing backup vocals, Kerr wrote arrangements and produced a few records, including the Skeeter Davis hit "End of the World." In 1964 she left Nashville to work with Rod McKuen on his albums The Sea, The Earth, and The Sky. She now lives in Switzerland, where she operates a recording studio.

[This message was edited by Jim Cohen on 21 September 2000 at 10:50 AM.]

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

And I used to like Chet!

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I've known about that for a long time. However, I didn't throw out all my Chet albums. Chet always seemed to take care of the pickers so even tho he is credited with the "pop" sound when he was at RCA I still consider him at THE guitar picker, on a parallel with Buddy Emmons.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Peter Dollard · Posted 22 Sep 2000 11:11 am

Chet may be "the" guitar player but Grady Martin was "the" studio guitar player:El Paso, Don't Worry About Me, just to begin. Pete.

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Well, I don't like this.
Were most steelers back then playing mostly 'twang'?
Were Buddy, Curly, Doug, Herbie etc. just starting to stretch out and play that great jazzy/swing stuff? Or were they already doing it at this time, full blast?
IOW's...did Mr Chet have a choice? Could he have gone with this 'avant garde' crew, or was it all just 'twang'?

Franklin · Posted 23 Sep 2000 4:15 pm

Chip,
Walter Haynes, Emmon's, Day, Howard White, Drake, Helms, & Byrd were some of their choices. All of these players were around during a portion or all of that period.

If you take the time to do a historical search from Nashville's conception till now you will find that the steel actually came and went during certain periods of traditional country music like when Elvis hit. And it almost did the same during the urban cowboy period. Thank God, we have been in the most productive period of steel use on session dates in Nashville's history. We've been going strong for over 20 years now. Ofcourse the steel has had to change musical directions alot from the early days to stay in demand but the guys in town are keeping it working. There are also more steelers doing sessions exclusively than ever before in Nashville's history so again the steel has been in a boom period for quite awhile.
Paul

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Hiya Paul,
You're point[s] are well taken; but I think you missed my point.
What I meant to say was:
Were all the key players back then ALL
playing 'twang'? If some were playing more jazzy stuff, and this is the conundrum, then why weren't they kept around
to "modernize" the sound? Maybe the powers-to-be figured, even tho Buddy could cut the jazz/modern-uptown-stuff.....it was still a darn pedal steel guitar; with all that implies.... you know..........stigmata.
Anyway, I have several of your wonderful instruction tapes, that were actually paid for, and not downloaded from Napster or
Betty Crocker.
Thanks for hangin' in with us. You are one of the greatest.

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Chip
Williams U-12 8X5

Larry Lenhart · From: Ponca City, Oklahoma

Doesnt matter to me, Chet Atkins is still my guitar hero above ANY steel guitarist. The man is very ill in Nashville. I can see no point in saying anything negative about the best musician and person to ever record in Nashville and who has been the most influential electric guitarist of all time.

Marty Pollard · Posted 26 Sep 2000 7:49 pm

Ditto. One of my supreme heroes.

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disclaimer: Just my opinion!
Music page

Franklin · Posted 27 Sep 2000 4:11 am

Chip,
I didn't miss your point. I would get flamed from those already holding grudges towards me if I were to say this one was and that one wasn't. I refuse to go there.
The answer is in your record collection. Look up the period and listen to the styles played.

Chet and Owen were only concerned about competing with New York and other music centers for record buisiness accounts. Their goal was to turn Nashville in to a full circle recording center to keep musicians working, not a country only town. Look at it today to see their vision in full bloom.

Ditto,s to Larry,

I used to be shocked by the lack of respect here. The lowest blow was to slam him for not playing today as if that was his choice. He has cancer and the treatment has stripped him of all musical skills. His history of musical accolades will outlive this disrespect. This topic is a sad
example of respectful musicianship.

Paul

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

I didn't know he was so ill, and didn't mean to be disrespectful in the original posting. I apologize for any unintended insult. b0b, please close the thread.

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