Chet Atkins - The Essential Chet Atkins: The Columbia Years

A fine guitar CD

The selections are as the cover picture depicts. Would be a hit in any concert hall venue. With Nashville roots. December 12, 2007

I Love It!

I bought this CD shortly after having fallen in love with An East Tennessee Christmas and was absolutely delighted by what I heard. If you have a good sound system at home or in your car, put this CD on and sit back and enjoy. A great selection of songs beautifully played in a top-notch recording. I don't know which song is my favorite...but I'm wearing this CD out trying to decide. February 14, 2007

A Master Guitarist in His Maturity

I'm working through my first listen of this recording. I just brought it home from the store and am enjoying a trip far back in my own history. I first picked up the guitar when I was 15 years old and that's about 38 years ago. Before much time passed, I was taking lessons from a man who played "Chet Atkins' Style," a technique of using a thumbpick and fingers that is a variation of the classical style. But the technique was not applied to the classical literature; it was applied to country and popular music.

I was enthralled. I learned a number of arrangements using Atkins' style and still remember a few of them. Not only was Atkins a master guitarist, he was a master arranger as well.

This album showcases Atkins during his mature years. His collaboration with a number of fine musicians pleases me. The songs are well selected and the addition of other musicians is a treat. If you are a fan of Atkins, especially his later material, then you'll like this recording.

Chet Atkins was a master musician and an excellent arranger. He also had a knack for picking compatible musicians to play with. This recording exemplifies both characteristics. June 30, 2006

Later Chet Atkins great material

As the liner notes to this second "Essential" volume indicates, Chet Atkins had wanted to explore jazz and other idioms when with RCA, and the label, despite Chet's stature and the fact that he was the executive producer for the label, flatly refused to allow him to do so. They cited, maybe correctly so, that such excursions would go over the heads of the general country audience.
Chet knew he could vastly broaden his audience rather than limit his exposure, so he split RCA for Columbia and continued to grow and solidify his already legendary status.
"Essentials" - The Columbia Years" is a must have for Atkins fans particulary fond of his jazz work and more modern tunes. It opens with a JS Bach tune "Bourree", that starts out in the baroque style of the original, picks up a beat and swings into bebop territory before coming back to square one, and that's just the opening cut.
Numbers with Tommy Emmanuel, George Benson, Jerry Reed, Mark Knopfler and Suzy Bogguss pepper this CD but every guest takes the obligatory backseat to the unquestioned master. Atkins delivers a tender reading of Lennon's "Imagine" and closes with "So Soft, Your Goodbye", from the Atkins- Knopler CD "Neck and Neck."
All in all, the title of this collection says it all. For an even more straight up jazz CD, check out Chet's "CGP" album. February 7, 2006

The Master at his very best

I am quite surprised I am the first to review this album.
Chet in the last 10 years of his life recorded several albums.
He recorded songs with Mark Knopfler, Jerry Reed and a few others. Chet Atkins has taken the guitar to a new level, and we are lucky enough to hear the master play the guitar as only he can play it.
This CD represents to latter part of his life and his more recent recordings..
Chet has always been considered the greatest guitar player on the planet. Chet can play all genres of music and play with the best of them.
Chet will always be remember as a master guitarist.
Some of the finest recordings of his career are on this CD.
Bouree starts the CD out and shows his classical side. Bouree starts the way Bach recorded it and goes to a country style, and then back to Bach, truely a masterpiece.
Dream is another highlight on the CD, and well worth the listen.
I'll see you in my dreams is another song on this CD that gets my attention time and time again.
He pulls out old songs like Waltzing Matilda and gives them a new life.
The only problem with this CD is the absence of my personal favorite, I Still Cant Say Goodbye.
The first time I heard the song I was in tears.
Chet Atkins was a class act and his songs are classics.
Rest in Peace Chet and thanks for the memories November 30, 2005

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