Hank's 1959 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gent (Serial #35157)

[alturnertive_music]

Here's a photo of myself and Chet in 1984 with my 1959 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman which I believe to be previously owned by Hank Marvin from The Shadows.

I’ve been playing the guitar for over fifty five years of many different styles, but my favorite style has to be Country Fingerpickin’, as played by Chet Atkins.

You can see me playing a few of my favourite Chet Atkins arrangements (“Arkansas Traveler”, “Villia, Villa”, “Say Si Si”, “Estrallita, Let It Be Me”) and view my free Chet lessons here too. I hope you enjoy them:

http://www.alturnertivemusic.com

[Roger_Pratt]

Doug Turner plays some really great Chet tunes on Youtube. I have been watching for years. Thanks Doug for coming on the CB and posting some really great things for us!https://youtu.be/ok568RHqAuw

[Pickin Palmer]

That photo has got to be a keepsake, Doug. Nice going. How did you happen to meet Chet? Where was the pic taken?

Palmer

[alturnertive_music]

Hi Palmer,

Thank you so much for your message.

From memory, this was the first time I met Chet (there were a couple of other times).

Chet came over to London in the early 1980s to give a concert at Her Majesty's Theatre with Paul Yandell. He happened to also give a private concert in Doug Smith's house (Father of the Richard Smith Trio) in Croydon, London. I remember Chet's wife mentioning that he never gave private concerts. The house was packed with members from the Chet Atkins Guitar Society of Great Britian. The Society asked me to kick the evening off and at one point, Chet grabbed a guitar and joined me (hence the mention in Jim Beam's letter on the homepage of my webpage - http://www.alturnertivemusic.com).

It was an absolutely fantastic evening, truly enjoyable and unique, with others from the society getting a chance to play with Chet too. The evening was filmed too, but to my knowledge was never released.

Doug

[Ray Bohlken]

Doug I ran across your videos a while back and watched them many times. This was a really interesting post and thank you for sharing it. Great photo of you and Chet, too. Take care.
Ray

[Pickin Palmer]

Great story, Doug. Thanks for sharing it. You were lucky to have been in that situation.

So, you . knew Richard when he was a youngster. Awesome.. So, do you think he spent a lot of time practicing, or do you think his talent was more divine intervention?

Palmer

[emjaybee94]

Hi Doug,

I remember that evening at Doug Smith's well and even have a picture of me playing guitar with Chet and Richard, although I'm not sure I knew what I was doing with those two maestros. You should also mention that Chet never did seminars, but he did a 2 hour one for us the next day in Twickenham. I took a small Sony tape recorder with me that day and recorded most of the proceedings which I then typed out on a very early computer. Al Baggatta had it on his website for a number of years, but I don't think it's available now. Wonderful memories. Somewhere I think I have a cassette of you playing after Chet had left the building.

Regards
Mike

[AlBaggetta]

Hi, Mike. I use to have a full site dedicated to the seminar you sent information and pictures on, but it became rather expensive to keep it up and running. I've recently set up a smaller site on Wix.com. One section is dedicated to the seminar with pictures, the recording of Chet playing "Green Dolphin Street" at the seminar, and Mike Joyce's transcription of the song. Mike did a wonderful job and has captured Chet's version nicely. Here's the link to the website if anyone is interested: http://abaggetta6.wixsite.com/chetatkins
I also still have the recording of the complete seminar (with Chet talking and playing) which I digitized and cleaned up a bit from your tape recording. I anyone want's a copy, just send me an email at abaggetta@yahoo.com and I'll send it along. Thanks for capturing a great piece of Atkins history.
Al B.

[emjaybee94]

Hi Al,
Nice to hear from you. It was my pleasure to give that to you and so glad to see it still online. I think that day was historic for all who attended. Listening to Green Dolphin Street still gives me a buzz .... amazed that Chet never recorded that piece.

Regards
Mike

[Roger_Pratt]

Goshamighty! Thanks Al and Mike for that wonderful memory of Chet. I had never seen that before and can't tell you how much I appreciate you allowing me to see it.