Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001) was an influential guitarist and record producer. His virtuoso picking style - inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul - brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene. Atkins produced records for Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Connie Smith, and Waylon Jennings. He created, along with Owen Bradley, the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country music's appeal to include adult pop music fans as well.

Biography

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Chet Atkins was born in Luttrell, Tennessee, and grew up with his mother and two brothers and a sister, he being the youngest. His parents divorced when he was six. He started out on the ukelele, later moving on to the fiddle, but traded his brother Lowell an old pistol and some chores for a guitar when he was nine. Forced to relocate to Georgia to live with his father due to a near-fatal asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession. He became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school. Atkins was self-taught, and later in life gave himself (along with Tommy Emmanuel, Jerry Reed and John Knowles) the honorary degree "CGP", standing for "Certified Guitar Player". His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the Les Paul Trio in New York. Atkins did not have a strong style of his own until 1939 when (while still living in Georgia) he heard Merle Travis picking over WLW radio. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Whereas Travis's right hand utilized 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. The result was a clarity and complexity that became his unmistakable sound.

After dropping out of high school in 1942, he landed a job at WNOX 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 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.

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