A Master And His Music

I have several CHet Atkins albums, as I am a guitarist with eclectic tastes and love his style. If I were to own only one Chet Atkins album this would probably be the one. It showcases his wide range of style and virtusity from black mountain rag to the charming ballad duet with Dolly Parton to yakety axe. Its fun, it moves along, there are a wide variety of selections and it is well engineered. In a day when fewer people know about Chet this a a great way to understand how this man came to influence an entire music industry and style, was able to do so by his instrumnetal virtuosity, yet appealed to everyman. Buy it youll love it.

As a thumbpicker of guitar, I really enjoy this album. The amazing guitar speed and clarity shown in "Main Street Breakdown" and "Cascade" are great examples. This album collects a nice balance of sweet sounding music and guitar playing across a range of years from which they were recorded.

How is it that a nearly perfect album can be released by a nearly perfect guitar virtuoso like Chet Atkins and nobody mentions that it's released in the High Definition Compact Disc (HDCD) format?

Zowie! Wait till you hear it on a player with the HDCD capability. My lord, it is brilliant and smooth all at the same time. Plus, you'd swear Dolly is right in the room with you when she sings her bit.

There are so many releases in this format, but you have to check the backs of your CDs and look for the small HDCD wrapped in a rectangle outline. There seem to be many more country artists than other genres released in HDCD.

You simply have to google/yahoo/msn search for CD players equipped with it, and they're not that expensive. My suggestion is that you shouldn't wait, as they may go the way of typical electronics that get replaced by new technology sooner or later. But you'll be so glad you get one to capture this somewhat unknown feature on some...Read more