What About Chet?

James Cann · Post by **James Cann** » 3 Apr 2005 5:35 pm

I just got through watching Bobbe Seymour's Thumb Picking video (I had seen it before) and it got me thinking.

The picking style (if I'm correct) is very much Atkins, so the curiousity follows: what, if any, involvement did he have with pedal steel? By association if nothing else, he must have had some interest in it.
Yes? No?

All comments welcome.

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 3 Apr 2005 5:49 pm

It has been reported that Chet borrowed a
Fender lap steel from Jerry Byrd at one time but he did not persue the instrument and gave it back.
People like Bobby Garrett, Bobbe Seymore,
Buddy Emmons liked and admired the thumbpickin style so much that they learned it on their steel guitars. Merle Travis may have been more of an influence than Chet?
I beleive Bud Isaacs is a Thumbpicker?
The late Ed Naylor told me once he could do it and yours truly likes to play it also on
various steel guitars.
Roy
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 03 April 2005 at 06:51 PM.]</p></FONT>

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 3 Apr 2005 7:10 pm

Chet was the first I ever heard do it, I was 10 at the time and a big Les Paul fan, then I heard Mr.Travis play "Cannon Ball Rag", I soon forgot who Les Paul was.
I worked on the thumb style for seven years, then I met a guy named Bobby Garrett, quite by chance at a club he was playing in Ardmore OK. I had never heard of Bobby, or visa versa, he asked me if I wanted to sit in a set, I replied, "sure".
The band asked me to play an insturmental, I played " Wildwood Flower". thumb style, (like Chet had recorded),Bobby came running up to the bandstand and said "Wow, I do that stuff too!" I said , "prove it". Which he did when he sat back down to play.
Bobby Garrett and I were the greatest of friends from that day forward.
He was a legend, I miss him greatly.
After I moved to Nashville, Chet Atkins was recording and producing for RCA, he hired me on several sessions. One I remember was an Anita Kerr album. He was wonderful to work for.
I took pleasure in telling Chet how much he had infuenced my musical career, his reply was' "I'd have hired you anyway, and laughed"!
I met Merle Travis soon after, a very funny meeting, but I'll save it for a up coming "newsletter".

Bobbe

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 3 Apr 2005 7:13 pm

I need to include, what Roy Thompson said is correct. Chet never played steel, any style steel. He said "all steel players are crazy to carry all the stuff around".
I think he may have been on to something,
But I'm a gearhead,
bobbe

Buddy Blackmon · Post by **Buddy Blackmon** » 3 Apr 2005 7:56 pm

Russ Hicks does a mean Travis/Atkins fingerpicking style on the C6. As usual with Russ, it is very funky and cool.

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 4 Apr 2005 2:14 am

I once drove Roy Nickols from Bakersfield to Hollywood. He took his wife, Marsha's, Dobro and raised the strings at the nut with something, and practiced slants all the way, both ways. He did a lot of thumb picking on it. We got in trouble with Marsha for messing up her Dobro when we got back. On his tele he always said he could not do it, but then he'd say I think I know the theory, and he would do it flawlessly. I heard Hag tell him that he should do the dobro on their next session, but he refused. He said he liked the way Norm did it.

------------------
Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 4 Apr 2005 4:46 am

I may be getting off the subject a bit. But Chet will always be my hero. I met him when I was 16 and he was such a gentleman and spent a lot of time talking with me. Even took me back stage at the opry.
Chet named his daughter after Merle Travis. I think he spelled her name "Murl". I was told that Chet and Merle both picked up the style from an old black man in Tennessee named "Mose Rager". I assume he lived close to where Chet was born, Luttrell,TN. ....JD

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 4 Apr 2005 4:59 am

Actually Mose Rager was white and he was from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky "where all the thumb pickers came from"

He and Ike Everly were Merle Travis' mentors and thus Chet's too.

Andy Zynda · Post by **Andy Zynda** » 4 Apr 2005 5:27 am

My god Bobbe, meeting and working with both Chet and Merle!
You are a fortunate man for sure!
They're two of my biggest heroes, along with Jerry Reed, and Danny Gatton.
-andy-

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 4 Apr 2005 12:41 pm

The very last show Mr. Travis did before he left us was at Twitty City in Hendersonville TN. I was band leader in the back-up band. The bass player didn't know any of his tunes, so I played bass with him on this show and got to tell him and everyone there what he meant to me through out my learning and playing career. I'm glad I did, the next month Merle died. He is missed by thousands, obviously.

bobbe