Music from Nashville, My Hometown/Chet Atkins

 (3 customer reviews)

This Collectables album pairs two RCA Camden albums by Chet Atkins, "Music from Nashville, My Home Town" from 1966 and "Chet" from 1967.
Camden was RCA's budget label for many years, and most of the albums that appeared on the label were either by no-names or random (but often good) collections of material from the RCA Victor masters. It is surprising, then, to find out that Chet recorded two entirely new albums for Camden during this period (about half of 1969's Relaxin With Chet was new as well). Another interesting factor is that both the ubiquitous string section and the Anita Kerr Singers-- both prominent forces on most 60s Chet albums-- are AWOL, making these albums nicely streamlined. First up is "Music from Nashville, My Home Town", which is closest to his RCA Victor albums of the period. Here Chet occasionally uses his...Read more

My dad had the LP Music from Nashville, My Home Town, and played it frequently when we kids were at home playing or just relaxing, so I have happy memories connected with this album, and was glad to find it on CD. That said, on closer listening, this album is even better than I remembered. As usual, Chet plays songs that would be a stretch for many of the best guitarists, and plays them so capably, so casually, you forget how good he is. Despite his formidable skill, he never lets his virtuosity get in the way of the music.

This is the second Chet Atkins album that I have, and I will not be getting another one. He's undeniably a skilled guitar player and a giant behind the mixing board, but this album is just....DULL. With few exceptions, this is an excruciatingly boring collection of songs to listen to. I was hoping for something more along the lines of Speedy West, but this is just poky and uninteresting from start to finish. The melodies are all mildly sunny, mildly sweet, mildly nostalgic, mildly....mild. It's like having to spend all day Saturday at your grandparents' house listening to their stale easy-listening C&W fare when you'd rather be outside having fun.