A Tribute to Chet Atkins

you you hi I'm Steve Warner and this is historic RCA studio B in Nashville Tennessee you know if these walls could talk man the incredible music that this place created this building was built in 1956 at the request of Steve Sholes and the great Chet Atkins but today we're here to celebrate a wonderful relationship the 60th anniversary of Chet Atkins and Gretsch guitars you know there's a handful of artists out there you know Fred Astaire dances that way Chet plays the guitar that way where you do all your work and then you step beyond the work you've done into an area of grace and elegance and and check absolutely had that he could get up and play and just move an audience with just the guitar and that's a gift I think it goes beyond the players his technical abilities he had that it it came it finally somehow he got out through here what he had in here and not everybody can do that is the gift of it it was just seemed so unattainable you know and still to this day does to a certain degree you know certainly at a young age that was like why yes sounded like three guys playing the guitar you know just like wow this is incredible he had no one to listen to he had no one to listen to and I think eventually I've read that he heard Merle Travis and Cincinnati maybe playing but basically he was the creator he was the creator of his sound came up from way back in the Hills I mean he told me when he first started working you know he didn't have electricity in all those places and he said we called it the kerosene circuit because they played by kerosene lamps it was Chet and Jerry Reed and a bunch of other placement chip was certainly the the biggest influence I mean he's just a huge body of work so much to learn from his song book was humongous I mean he knew every song as far as I know known to man and I don't mean just country songs pop standards his breadth of knowledge was unbelievable he had a smooth touch this one the first thing I noticed about his tone guitar and his style that he just flowed like honey this friend of mine that kind of got me started on guitar over in Benson North Carolina where I was raised he was teaching me what he knew and he was like a local guitar hero in our little town you know and he told me one day I was 13 he said you need to get up in the morning at 6 o'clock and tune in to WSM so there's a guitar player on there and he said he works with the Carter sisters and mother Maybelle they have a 15 minute radio show he said he's the best I've ever heard and so at 13 I got him the next morning and and teamed into WSM and and you just barely could tuna man a lot of static but I could still hear good enough to know that he probably was the greatest first time I heard him was on a record that my father had when we were kids it was in our record collection it was a um record called finger picking good no I wasn't Tucson at the time when I first heard jet I was 14 I was just stunned and amazed of what I heard I played a record on the radio and I heard it later on about - bought his first album and just played it over and over and over again you know I remember you know having a paper route and going to the record store and there was that record finger style guitar that had the orange Gretsch just about this much of it you know with Chet's hand on it and I read the liner notes and I bought the record just on that cool guitar and the liner notes I went home and found that our record player wouldn't play LPS wouldn't pay 33s so I went to the neighbor's house and played it until the neighbors sent me home you know cuz I could play over an hour and then I emptied the rest of my piggy bank and went and bought a record player to go with my record because they I was just so stunned by what I earned the first time I heard it was literally a guitar plugged into an I am no reverb no nothing because a problem was 1952 and it was the prettiest sound I thought I'd ever heard come out of a guitar I don't know an age but I know it was very very young because I remember certain albums and I can still see the covers you know I'd sit and just play those records and couldn't get enough you know I remember also thinking this is impossible and immediately think of the muscle it couldn't be impossible because he's doing it it just must be really hard that's all and well that was a huge moment for me because it meant I wasn't afraid to try and they didn't bother me that I couldn't do it yet because I knew it wasn't impossible I just knew it was really hard and it was really hard believe me as a kid you're sitting there dreaming man if I could ever meet him one day about I never get to play with him what a dream you know and so funny how it turns out I think he played from the heart like he played the rectum the heart and he it was a gift I think it was a gift that came from God and I think that I think that's good enough answer I heard the song yakety acts and tried to learn it on guitar at a young age and just didn't quite get it right you know I always wondered how to get that sound and how to get that plucky sound and I realized many years later after I started playing with him and he got that one pitch to me I've said it before I thought you that his bass string rhythm was the key to the kingdom so far as his feel it was always in the pocket always in the pocket it's just like if you had a bass player because Chet is playing like a bass player would play that and like a rhythm guitar player would do this and then he condenses that down to this and sometimes a couple and then that base was again the lower base is settled it would be Norton he hit the lowest base he could I always notice about I just picked up on that his thumb was totally different than Merle Travis a chess was real precise you know and it would match up with the base or the left hand of the piano Merle Travis as Chet said he was a stride piano player so he had the one in the five you know Merle Travis II as he said he was more of a honky-tonk player so bump bump bump bump which is which is correct both of them they're both correct I can't do just the index like he did I had to cheat and they'd hit all these crazy and they have these little ditties that we do and then when mer would play this let me play one the chair would say see the difference so that was a difference that Burrell was also a little bit more in-your-face player and chimp was just a little bit more structured like a ban would have played there all good I love Merle Travis and I love Chet but there was only like Lenny Breau said there was only one Chet you know yeah so on his Country Gentlemen he had that zero fret here that means the action is very even at this end and so now the action that he had up here was higher than most people would play an electric guitar and I think part of that is from growing up on an acoustic instrument so he's really playing the string a lot of times people are playing the pickups they're kind of thinking how low how easy could I make this and he's really at work it's a blue-collar gig for him you know he wants to what the hard hat you know so he's up here working hard for the broto when to hang on when to let go of this note when to move like that and he's really loving the string and same thing down here to be able to dig in and get a nice tone and vibrato that you want all those things happen much better if you've got the strings up just a little bit I don't know that I've ever seen another electric guitar player with their strings up as much as that one of the main things about being a finger picker is it's a solo style and it doesn't require a band so you're really your own band was particularly with that sound you know you've got the whole left hand of the stride piano ragtime piano and you can play the melody on the top so really it's just you I think there's only three instruments really that are designed to play solo polyphonic one the guitar the piano and maybe the harp because they're the only things that we can play several notes at once well I heard Chet say before he said well I was always a sucker for a melody and and he said I was always just square enough even as a producer which one may talk about later he says always always just quite a square enough to kind understand and listen to what most people would like to hear and he really articulated that through that his playing the guitar of course um it was very complex to a guitar player but it was still simple enough that everybody seemed to like it one thing I noticed about Chet is he always put the melody out front you know you know yeah all these old lips and things like that but you never you know question what the melody was and and he even did that one he would play something slow you know and that and I learned a lot of that from chip because I would play like if I played some or if it was like a like this you all the other guys are playing backup so they're like the piano player he's louder and she'll always have movement he always have movement his base was going somewhere his core structure they were it was going somewhere and so I just picked a lot of a lot of that up because he didn't just do the bunch up thing you know which we all loved but uh but he did some some other things like when he would play you know you know he played very sort of almost neoclassical but still goes back to the piano he played a lot like a piano player would have played that Scotty Morgan did the same thing I remember one time at a awards thing we were all there together and chip Caray around and said Scotty I come you were playing that was a thumb pick and Scotty says well because we couldn't afford any more musicians so I had to play the bass and in the middle and a melody also so certainly you want to go grab a Gretsch guitar for you know you would want to do that that's a good starting place but it goes back to unfortunately it's it's in your hands you know he just had and what amazed me about Chet - I think and I think a lot of it speaks to this anybody that was around shed a lot would know what I'm saying here you could go to his office any time and walk in other than lunchtime maybe but he certainly loved his lunch time but you could go in his office any time and he would be practicing I mean all the time he called me one night when I was living in Brooklyn this was like right around the time app right after maybe we did the sneaking around record I'd given him my demo tape the songs that I wrote and he called me one time on the blue he said hey Pat I was up till 4 o'clock in the morning trying to learn that lick you played on on that demo tape and I was that was like wow really that's really funny you know I was I was like huh you know I don't have to practice the day I'm going on the road and do my little songs and I've got this and then you go up to his office and go here's he's check and he's and one day I walked in the office and he said Steve I got to show you let me show you this thing it was very innovative little riff that he was doing the way he was catching this little roll and he goes check this out this and I loved it that he here he was starting to be an elderly man and was still so excited about it a lick I'm thinking man that's how that always inspired me to go home and get my guitar out in practice because there he was and still pumped up oh you got to hear this you know I just think that's cool you know I hear he could be out golfing and he's practicing the guitar at age 65 or whatever he was at that time he always had something new to show me you know and share with me I loved it that he wanted to share it too you know sir yeah I there's not a day goes by where I don't play a chat tune or think about Chet or some what he would have done in certain situation or some licky would have played I mean there's so much to my playing and the way I think about my career and recording and the sound that he creates I mean it's it's it's there it's it doesn't go away there was something about his touch and his tone and the way he played that just it's like an invitation you know it did not feel like I was listening to her record I know it was a records I had to conclude the needle a lot and and I've heard other people say that same thing that Chet was not just playing guitar so that lots of people could hear the music he was calling a lot of us and saying learn what you can come to town and we'll get together I mean just the way it felt opinion so I know there was some future date that I would meet even a year into it I would say which turned out to be 20 years later but you know so I think that's what caused me to play like I do is listening to Chet and keeping the the melody line a little bit louder and when you're doing them you know there's always moving on the base and everything but these guys they're they're muted so you can who would ever thought to do that it's just one one note here that's late and he uses open string and I'm sure that's how brian setzer get so he got all those ideas that he he would have planned that sort of thing - we all did we all learn from Chet with Chet I think it was just the combination of Merle Travis Segovia George Barnes Django Reinhardt and Les Paul and the guys who were listening to that was what made his style it was that whole he didn't stick to the traditions of what those guys were doing he melded it all together and that's kind of where where it went you know it was just it's such a perfect style Django RINO and Merle Travis and Jerry Reed and John Dean Loudermilk and Loudermilk brought ten-inch to town that chat really like yeah I think he was very open-minded about about guitar styles and music in general he liked all kinds of music I think yeah I mean I don't know if he was into Jimi Hendrix but yeah he probably was we never talked about that but he was into a lot of rock players you know and he got Guitar Player magazine it read it every month he was into a lot of different rock players absolutely and blues guys oh I mean he loved Larry Carlton and and here clapped and then George Harrison and you know he of course he was a huge Beatles fan and if you listen to the history of the records that he's made he has dabbled in many many different styles I mean he did classical style stuff and you know rock you know jazz stuff with Lenny Breau you know it's stuff with Les Paul and and you know he really you know I mean I like I think you know you would define him as country guitar but but certainly he he was adventurous it's seemed like that he never quit learning and creating stuff you know and I think he would learn he would learn from anyone maybe even I hope somewhere down the line he noticed something I did I hope he did and then he picked up on it cuz I sure stole a lot from he I'll never pay by you know if you think about Chet Atkins I mean he is country guitar right that guy was country guitar but he was so eclectic in his musical taste and he was always listening for four different things that you know perked his ears up he always wanted to know how I was getting a certain sound or you know he was always looking to other people to find Wow heard this thing and thought it was really cool you know you know it took me a while to realize how much you know his Gretch is very off would have an extra hole and things like that and he worked on my guitar a little bit to it I would watch him and I realized it's not his guitar until it's had a knife and a screwdriver and some sandpaper a little bit of scotch tape on and you know to to make it be that last little bit that it needs to be I think that's from growing up in the country where you just fix things all the time you know and from him that's nothing I guess I really learned from him is how to not be afraid of my guitar I love it that I've go with him sometimes at lunch early on and he had a he would say we leave lunch and he would say I'm going to drop by Elektra that was a lock big electronic store or Randolph rice he all you loved electronics so I'm going to drop by and pick up some tubes I need a couple 6l 6s or whatever he needed his basement studio was kind of his mancave very experimental yeah he was definitely experimental as a matter of fact he was showing me one time when I was down there he had a piece of something a piece of plastic that he was sticking between he was sticking things and his strings you know and he said oh yeah I was trying this you know to see if I get a different sound he owned some patents the guitars in particular to do with tale pieces that's all and maybe the electronics everything expected on the tail end of the guitar so but he was always thinking and working trying to be better and he would he knew about he liked John people he was always asking me about pedals how to get it you know sound with the pedal and you know I'm trying to show him how to get a good distortion tone because he was messing around with that you know and you know when he did that song called Jam man you know he got a jam man looper when it first came out and as mere fact is that a insurance company commercial that's on television that uses that song called Jam man no you said something or about copper kettle we should play that I think we played that on the Opry we did play that before dealer yeah I think we play their blinds but I play that some nights and when I play shows I'll do a little segment talk about chat a little but I'll play some medleys and sometimes I'll play throw some different chat songs but I usually copper kettles when I love to play yeah you guys want play yeah yeah so how's it go you want to go I was in I was in charge tonight this is funny but not long ago is it this great big church and I thought I'll play a chat tune I started playing copper kettle on my way listen is a lot of still twin you you some like that it always astounds me that it's really a three-pronged kind of a career and that he was everyone knows he was a great guitar player you know great a master guitarist mr. guitar but just as a record label he had signings to all the people that he signed the great artist you know who's who I saw roster wants of like two or three pages of just who names that he produced and are either producer brought to the label and it's astounding you know Dolly Parton - wailing - Willie - you know on and on and on and on and Elvis and but and then and then that says a record label head and now take the third part of it is he was a record producer that produced hits on these people you know so and it astounds me that what he achieved in the years he did it I mean and not on a small level either on a high high level all three you know so yeah it's it I think that gets overlooked sometimes how how much he did you know I don't know how he did it all in this short time you know and really amazing career well chip had such an eye for talent and an ear for talent you know he could spot that in people and he could see things that I think no one else could have seen and he could hear it in a song he could listen to a song and tell you if it was going to be hit or not that goes beyond being a guitar player and Chet the producer he was he changed the course of music and the way we hear Don Gibson hits and all those things that it everybody else wanted to just sort of throw it out the door but not yet next thing you know you I can't stop loving you came along and all that was all chant is amazing of course the Everly Brothers Orbison to me so much history in this room I can't actually believe I'm sitting here but I'll take it was I'm Denver I think when Steve Sholes discovered him and brought him back here to record his first album and Steve is by that time running the Hollywood office of RCA in Chapman been promoted to he was in charge of RCA here in Nashville he didn't even want to be a producer Steve told me and he said he he just one play he said I started happening two sessions and Steve's that I started noticing the stuff that the sessions that the producers were bringing in platform he said well that's an interesting idea who thought that Oh Chet Chet thought of that and he that happened several times and fun he said my goodness that's amazing so these are good ideas you know I mean just amazing ideas they're great our great idea for a song whatever he stood Shetty says you should produce no I don't do that I just want to be a guitar player let's gonna play my guitar no I'll produce I think he said to John Knowles you know I owe my success to my skills with a guitar and a razor blade you know meaning he was an expert at cutting tape and splicing well today we don't need to do that today we've got Pro Tools and Cubase and all those things and we there's no tape splicing anymore but back in the day that was a highly skilled job and those guys were rolling the tape backwards and forwards to find that exact note and marking the X and that was Chet their names doing a lot of the engineering he also had a real respect for the musicians because he would choose them to be the ones that ought be on that record that was part of knowing how the record all sound and I remember one time a run-through and Chet's back there listening and he's gonna look like he's playing with an amplifier or something but they're running through the tune and they run and that gets on the top back and he says to the piano player he said uh I said in that bridge there I think it goes to an a-flat on that one spot right there so he listened that whole thing you know not even not even staring at it and picked out the piano and gave the guy you know so he flat out new music and of course in that moment he's not only getting the result he wants now everybody in the studio all the musicians know Chet is really listening that's something when I was around him I felt like I was in the room with Abe Lincoln or something you didn't you weren't there to mess around he didn't ever demand anything of anybody except by his presence the few times I worked with him I did notice that about him that he was in total control of what was going on with no he wasn't power-hungry it would look wouldn't look hey look at me I'm the producer you do what I say he gave you all the freedom in the world you know one one thing that really appreciated and kudos to Fred Gretsch know for bringing all these backs oh you kiddin oh no maybe under the the legacy of Chet Atkins with Gretch again once again and not that it's just a brand but it's just part of our lives it's the sound it's the assembly I made the hits absolutely yeah yeah it's just a beautiful thing it's a wonderful thing for every guitar player I think we're so blessed to see Chet Ryan together especially the the Chet models specifically I mean they took it wasn't just a model of country gentleman or 6120 they've you know this this is one of those they also got the specific Chet models that were taken from his actual guitars the original 6120 the CGP and the the country gentlemen that were all the measurements were taken so that they're replicas of chats actual guitars and they sound great oh they just sound wait wait Sam right right now how about a little bit of salty dog blues or something yeah you yeah great I'll chat every lick I heard someone in an interview one time civil cheddar I heard you you created the Nashville sound you and I when Bradley and and the way you brought strings and he said yeah and I apologized for that you know and someone asking one time I said can you describe the Nashville sound now and he put his finger in his hand his parking jingle the change so he had such a wit about him and he never would take all that too serious and I don't think he ever took himself as serious as everyone else did he was a very very funny person I mean just hysterically funny person I mean I got you just get me laughing about stuff all-time in a very it was very funny in a very mischievous way he was always trying to like get you one night in Anchorage Alaska we were playing a show and I was playing bass and I was kind of we planned a kind of up-tempo song I was kind of playing my thing over there and Chet throws the solo tour to tony migliori play piano with us and folks tony biglan applause you know he's he's playing his butt off on a solo and Chet kind of walked over to me for only my purpose no one in the whole planet heard this but me Chet bends over and he says has anyone ever told you you're the world's greatest bass player and I'm like oh no who he goes have you ever wondered why and I'm thinking did he just say that I'm the only person on the earth that had the benefit of hearing that it's just for me you know I thought that hilarious you know you know he would do a song where everybody to go around take a course and now Pat's gonna yodel for us you know or something that just always putting you on the spot you know he owned lots of rental property up and down music row here and one day after lunch we went by the hardware store and he bought a box of light bulbs and we went by one of his rental properties to replace light bulbs and this one building was one of the old houses had the high ceiling and he had a ladder there in the closet so he brings the ladder out and he climbs the ladder to put bulbs in the chandelier and I'm down here hold on the ladder and he turns around he says he says now hold on to that ladder he said you know I'm a legend and if you drop me there'd be a lot of explaining to do that's the way he would let himself be a legend was to joke about it you know but he really would but that time he's in the Hall of Fame and you know desk full of Grammys and so forth but changing the light bulbs in the rental property so I think doing chores you know is something he grew up with and it's something he kept with him because it was a way of staying normal staying grounded you know I really Hazelwood thought he was pretty quick and they were in the office one day and Chet says Willie how do you like it here in Nashville well is Lisa I guess is I me may get me a job and stay here I noticed the janitor out there sleeping he says maybe I could take his job you know just says no he says I don't think so he says that old boys college-educated he says you better stick to producing these little stories about Chet Chet was known for being pretty frugal I mean he was a depression child everyone everyone in town knew about that and that's it's a mentality from from you know growing up in the depression they had nothing I had nothing at all so yeah a lot of those stories I remember one time up Lexie's test Steve Warner Chet gave him a white guitar and hey thanks Chet that's great I think Chet said do you have a Grinch hey Steve do you have a Gretsch guitar and Steve said no I don't Chad said but take that white on out there in the corner out there so Steve took it in three or four years later check got to reading about what they were worth you know the old classic the original he said caught up Steven said no that's white Falcons here they're worth quite a bit of money these days they're pretty hot property and you know if things get bad I might have to ask for that back because that was a depression you know he was thinking of Black Monday 1929 you know it amazes me too his sense of who was who and what they had to offer was highly refined and he trusted it took him a while to trust it I'm sure about time I met him if he was interested in something he pursued it he didn't question he called it he said I got to trust my ears is what he said you know which is - his ears were like his instinct in his judgment and all that stuff he would tell stories - about the about people plenty remember him talking to Roger Miller playing for him the first time and how nervous he wasn't he couldn't couldn't play and I thought about that I thought I wasn't I'm nervous the first time I played for him and and I realized later he did everything he could to not be Chet Atkins the legend he tried to be chatting to the guy you know to tone it down but some people just couldn't couldn't be calmed out but for some reason when I first met him I just felt like I was around somebody I'd always known you know just uh just very gracious or a very gracious guy helped a lot of people out especially in this town as well you know he certainly introduced me around town rather than me going meet people he would say I got to take you to this guy when I first came to Nashville he would he took us around several places and introduced us to folks and that means a lot more when somebody like you know it chats introducing you to somebody it means a lot more than you just sticking out your hand and saying hey I'm Richard Smith Ted says hey this is Richard Smith it means a heck of a lot more and he did that for a lot of people I know that he called me in one day says yeah I've kind of followed you through the years I know you you know you do church stuff and things I admire that and and he was walking down the steps and had this guitar in his hand and he says I've been thinking about you been holding this for a long time I want you to have one of my guitars he's just just a very generous guy he didn't have to do that you know just a wonderful guy he had no idea how that would just how that lifted me out because at that time I was really thinking of quitting and not playing out anymore and just settling in and just staying at home and which is not a bad idea really because it's not for everybody it's very difficult to travel all the time but it was a time in my life to where I really needed that and evidently it was a god thing too because and I think it was a very spiritual person I think he was he was he felt led to do that I don't think he would just do that on his own even though like I say he was generous but I don't think he gave guitars away every day and that touched my heart I mean it really did and in some ways changed my life the day I got to town he drove me straight to the Union and he's paid my way into the Nashville Musicians Union he said if you're he said it's a right-to-work state but if you're going to be working with me you got to be in the Union and so I was very very lucky and I mean I tilt to this day you know I just and it was not just chat but also Merle his daughter and Leona I mean they all took me in and just really helped me out you know I was a new guy to town and cheddar introduced me to people and I got to kind of hit the ground running and I've never really stopped working since I've heard a lot of people say oh he had a gift or he was blessed well we all have gifts you know but but he rolled his sleeves up too and he put his work in and his work is always driven was driven by several things in his case I think one of them is his upbringing as a poor person in the country wanting to you know move out of that and that kind of was always there but beyond that I think there was some kind of a vision of like what things sounded like how much he loved music Humber has told me that he said that it's not the Chet even wanted to be remembered as a musician he said I want to be remembered as an intellectual and I think because of the whole thing about being in East Tennessee and there was a serious thing he didn't he didn't like the hillbilly thing he wanted to distance himself from that even though the music that he played was very much that kind of music was mounting music was playing old fiddle terms a lot of that stuff he knew the music was great but still he was it was a businessman as much as he was a musician I think that was important to him we'll take you back every time I heard him play to a child you know to a kid 13 years old hearing that sound for the first time I loved the fact that he was how gentle he was how nice and humble he was you know and just everything you would picture him to be as I always pictured him to be very grounded and you know never I love it that he never forgot where he came from to he was always very you know very humble about his upbringing you know his his roots I mean he knew who he was it was an executive he knew he was he carried himself well it was stately he was a country gentleman but at the same time there was a just a hometown sort of personality about him that he made everybody feel comfortable and if he said anything about you ever I mean it went with you for the rest of your life people sometimes still talk about something Chet said when they introduced me onstage Chet would have never dreamed that would have ever affected me the rest of my life and he carried that kind of weight he was an amazing person that was the thing I remember the most when I first met Chet but just playing some tunes with him listen to his timing listening to his the the execution of the notes that he played it was just okay this is this is what I'm supposed to play like he was not the kind of guy who who would just wanted to stop at life he was always moving forward I mean I remember when he got sick he only got back on the hospital he was like we were playing a a year and a half long stint over there at at Cafe Milano downtown and he had different guests come and play with him and after he got he got out of the hospital he was we were off for a couple months and as soon as he got out he was like man let's go let's start playing again I remember tell me one time he was planning Las Vegas and there was backstage the stage manager we helped him take those three steps up with his guitar and step out into his act and then he would give him a hand and help him walk down at the end of his run the stage manager says to Chad he said I've helped a lot of people up and down these three steps you're the only guy that's the same at the top of the steps as he's at the bottom of the steps now Chad told me that story which is to say he valued that observation a lot to be the same at the top of the three steps is at the bottom I sure miss him now that he's gone we went to his funeral and he had it at the Ryman Auditorium and up the street from the Ryman there's a statue a chip sitting there on a stool playing the guitar and bronze and there's a place if you want to get your picture taken you sit down next to it and play with him anyway he said one rainy night he said wife drove him out there he hadn't seen it and he heard it was there and he wanted to go seeing someone one rainy night he says this he'd been pretty sick I said but he's feeling better so he got out and he got in the car and his wife drove drove him past there he says I looked out at that he says it's the most beautiful thing I ever saw there you you you you you

Channel: Gretsch Guitars

Views: 1,504,796

Rating: 4.8849769 out of 5

Keywords: Gretsch guitars, Gretsch, guitars, Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, RCA Victor Studio, Steve Wariner, Doyle Dykes, Richard Smith, Pat Bergeson, John Knowles, Jimmy Capps

Id: 6jC1xrYF0MM

Length: 52min 4sec (3124 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 08 2014