Keep Pickin'!

This article was originally published in 1997.

Chet Atkins and Les Paul: Chester and Lester
RCA AHL 1-1167 (originally released as APL 1-1167) (LP)

Ever listen to a record or see a band and get the feeling that, although you objectively know you're hearing the music with your very ears, the music is so amazing that, somehow, you're brain can barely interpret the evidence of its senses and you still can't believe that what you're experiencing is actually happening in real life?

That is the feeling I get every time I hear Chester and Lester, a recording of flabbergasting musical and sonic brilliance. You see, the level of musical virtuosity Chet Atkins, Les Paul and their sidemen exhibit on this dazzling recording is almost literally incomprehensible—made all the more so by the fact that the album is an impromptu, off-the-cuff session involving little or no rehearsal.

I hope the A & R person who originally came up with the concept for this album—putting two of the most legendary guitarists of all time together to breeze and blaze through an album of standards—was suitably rewarded with riches beyond compare for his or her service to music and humanity.

If any two musicians can be said to need no introduction, it's these two men. Chet Atkins, finger picker extraordinaire. Clean, cool, virtuosic, melodic playing personified. Nashville A & R man whose long-time career started out in the Fifties in RCA Nashville, who discovered and nurtured a string of remarkable artists and released some of the most unbelievable-sounding LPs ever recorded under the RCA "Living Stereo" appellation. (Can you say, "Chet Atkins in Hollywood?") Les Paul, pioneer of electric guitar design. Inventor of multi-track recording. Guitarist's guitarist who tore the pop music world apart with his groundbreaking sound-on-sound recordings and string of smash hits with Mary Ford in the late Forties and Fifties. (Does "How High the Moon" ring a bell?) Both men are towering figures in the guitar world; not surprisingly, both have their names on signature guitar models.

On Chester and Lester, they kill. Either man alone possesses enough scary, hair-raising, frightening guitar virtuosity to carry the listener to breathtaking heights. Chet Atkins plays with a clear, robust, full-bodied midrange tone, panned toward the left channel, while Les Paul occupies the right side of the soundfield, playing with his trademark "ultra-fi" clean sound, coaxing a pristine midrange and extended high frequencies from his low-impedance Les Paul pickups. Both players employ varying degrees of echo and reverb, and Atkins occasionally clicks in a phase shifter for a swirling, dreamy sound.

What is truly remarkable about Chester and Lester, however, is the way Atkins' and Paul's playing complement one another's, with dizzying melodic lines soaring over sophisticated chordal accompaniments, and melodies and counterpoint twisting, turning and weaving in and out of one another with incredible improvisational facility. It's truly amazing the way Atkins and Paul mesh together—especially considering that a lot of the album had to be "one-take" stuff. (Two songs, "Caravan" and "Lover Come Back to Me," are enhanced by overdubbing; all the rest are strictly live-in-the-studio.) In fact, many of the tracks begin and end with their in-studio banter as they ask each other if they know the song they're about to play, and decide on the spot what key to play it in! You got it—arrangements that sound like they were meticulously worked out are in fact spontaneous playing! The rest of the band, consisting of Nashville studio cats the like of Larrie Londin on drums and Paul Yandell on rhythm guitar, also play sensationally, providing impeccable support for the ballads and unstoppable rhythmic propulsion on the uptempo cuts.

And the sound. Oh, g-d, the sound. Let's just say I ain't never lending this LP to nobody, because they'll never give it back! You all will just have to go out and find your own copies (please, not before I buy up another five or ten myself). It's one of the all-time greats; I'm talking one of the most well-recorded albums ever. It was done at none other than RCA's "Nashville Sound" studios (album date 1976) by Bill Vandevort, Mike Shockley and none other than Ray Butts, inventor of the legendary Echo Sonic amplifier used by Scotty Moore on the early Elvis recordings (I'll wager a month's pay Chet was using an Echo Sonic amp here too). Permit me to pile on the superlatives. The tonal balance is warm, rich and simply gorgeous, but not overly ripe or bloated. The electric bass is solid and punchy. The highs are sweet and extended—man, do the highs on Les Paul's guitar ring out with crystalline clarity, and the cymbal work is airy and utterly floating. Transparency and detail resolution are without fault, and the instrumental presence of the two men's guitars is, simply, right there. This is one of those recordings that reveal you're in the presence of greatness within two seconds of the first note. If your tastes are anything like mine, after the time you hear the first few minutes of Chester and Lester you'll either be a) crying; b) laughing out loud uncontrollably; c) shaking your head in disbelief; d) holding your head in your hands in disbelief; or—like me—all of the above.

Also recommended—the sequel, Guitar Monsters—Chet Atkins and Les Paul [RCA APL1-2786]. Musically, equally brilliant and sonically, a notch down—which means that the sound is merely incredible instead of awe inspiring. The sequel is a little bit bass-shy but still, remarkably clean, detailed and lively. Don't know what either of these sound like on CD, or even if they're available on CD (OK Wayne and Jon, I'll check it out if you guys insist on making me work)—to tell you the truth, with these LPs in my possession, I never felt the need to check it out.

In 1991, one of the great thrills of my life was meeting Les Paul and having him sign one of my guitars. The inscription said, "To Frank—Keep Pickin'—Les Paul. Believe me, I intend to! Maybe someday, I'll get to be half as good as Chet Atkins and Les Paul are on these two albums.