Guitarists known mostly as Country Music guys don't get much love. Especially if they were also all around entertainers. I'm not sure that was the case with today's artist, but he was an amazing guitar player.
A lot of Chet Atkins' music is drawn from various genres. Jazz, Dixieland (he recorded a version of St. Louis Blues), and Spanish. He is known mostly as a Country Music player (at least in my opinion) because he doesn't use effects or distortion of any kind. The sound is what the guitar produces. Well, some of it does sound like there is a bit of delay or reverb, and some of it sounds like there is a preamp in the effects chain, but it is not over-driving anything. It is a very clean sound, which is what Country Music players of the 1950s, 60s and 70s were going for.
"Ochi Chornya" is a traditional Russian romance song. Chet Atkins made it his own. Aside from this version, he also performed it live on at least one television show. (That performance is on YT if you're interested.)
This song is "Ochi Chornya" (Dark Eyes) by Chet Atkins. I'm fairly certain that this recording was made in 1955 for the album Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions, but I do know it was included in the 2007 compilation album Eclectic Guitar.
I have this memory of seeing Chet on one of the late night shows, Letterman probably, and he's asked who he thinks is the best guitarist, and the host is nonplussed by his response - Mark Knopfler... or maybe it was the other way around... but it definitely increased my appreciation of BOTH.
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GOOD stuff
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