Chet Atkins

Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins, American country-and-western guitarist and record company executive was born June 20, 1924 in Luttrell, Tennessee. His talent may come from his sign as a water rat and a very sensitive Cancer. His first guitar was given to him by his brother in a trade for a rusty pistol. Credited with developing the Nashville Sound, Atkins played the guitar as a child and performed professionally as a fiddler when he was a teenager. In the late 1940s Atkins was a sought-after session guitarist. He is credited with more than 100 recordings in his own name and many more as a back-up musician. His picking style on the guitar stayed the same cool sound as he accompanied and worked with June Carter Cash, Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley, and Dolly Parton. Atkins collaborated with singer Jerry Reed and is featured in the distinctive melodies found in Reed's recordings.

Atkins won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, fourteen Grammy Awards, Instrumentalist of the Year award, and nine Country Music Association awards. Atkins was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.

Atkins suffered from a critical asthma condition that forced him to sleep in a straight back chair to breathe. On the nights that his asthma was particularly bad, Atkins would play his guitar until he fell asleep. This habit lasted until his death from brain cancer on June 30, 2001.

Chet Atkins is known as a country western guitarist, but his real love was jazz. He recorded Malaguena, a piece written in 1928 by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuonaas, and his rendition of this movement inspired a new generation of Flamenco guitarists.

In the mid-1940s Chet met Leona Johnson while she was performing with her sister at the Boone County Jamboree in Cincinnati. They married in 1946 and had one child Merle. Leona devoted her life to promoting and living Chet's music.