#Chet atkins yakety axe live stream series#

He was a member of the American Radio Relay League. Formerly using the call sign WA4CZD, he obtained the vanity call sign W4CGP in 1998 to include the CGP designation. Whereas Travis's right hand used 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.Ĭhet Atkins was a ham radio general class licensee. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Ītkins 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. His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the Les Paul Trio in New York. She then declared no more CGPs would be allowed by the Atkins estate. In 2011, his daughter Merle Atkins Russell bestowed the CGP degree on his longtime sideman Paul Yandell. Later in life, he lightheartedly gave himself (along with John Knowles, Marcel Dadi, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Wariner, and Jerry Reed ) the honorary degree CGP ('Certified Guitar Player'). He later purchased a semiacoustic electric guitar and amp, but he had to travel many miles to find an electrical outlet, since his home had no electricity. His first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used. He used the restroom in the school to practice, because it gave better acoustics. Ītkins became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school. Stories have been told about the very young Chet, who, when a friend or relative would come to visit and play guitar, would crowd in and put his ear so close to the instrument that it became difficult for the visitor to play.

#Chet atkins yakety axe live stream series#

He returned in the 1990s to play a series of charity concerts to save the school from demolition. While living in Fortson, he attended the historic Mountain Hill School. On those nights, he played his guitar until he fell asleep holding it, a habit which lasted his whole life. Because of his illness, he was forced to sleep in a straight-back chair to breathe comfortably. He stated in his 1974 autobiography, 'We were so poor and everybody around us was so poor that it was the forties before anyone even knew there had been a depression.' Forced to relocate to Fortson, Georgia, outside of Columbus, to live with his father because of a critical asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession. He started out on the ukulele, later moving on to the fiddle, but traded his brother Lowell an old pistol and some chores for a guitar when he was nine. He was the youngest of three boys and a girl. His parents divorced when he was six, after which he was raised by his mother.

He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.Ītkins was born on June 20, 1924, in Luttrell, Tennessee, near Clinch Mountain. He also received nine Country Music Association awards for Instrumentalist of the Year. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings, and many others.Īmong many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. He also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele.Ītkins' signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Country, jazz, rock and roll, folk, rockabillyĬhester Burton 'Chet' Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001) was an American musician, occasional vocalist, songwriter, and record producer, who along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, among others, created the country music style that came to be known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country music's appeal to adult pop music fans.