Chet Atkins And Hank Snow C. B. Atkins And C. E. Snow by Special Request (1970 2021)

He was known as ‘Mr Guitar’. One of the greatest and most influential musicians in country music, Chet Atkins was Cashbox magazine’s Instrumentalist of the Year from 1953 to 1971. Additionally, he was an RCA Nashville producer from the late ’50s through to the mid-70’s, masterminding sessions for Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Don Gibson, Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, Waylon Jennings, Jim Reeves and countless others.

Composer and guitarist Van Stiefel's Spirits is his unique take on the studio-instrumental albums of layered guitar by legends like Les Paul, Chet Atkins, and Glen Campbell, filtered through his own introspective and personally spiritual approach to the instrument. Those albums were often a series of vignettes, each tune suggesting a particular location, mood, or flavor. This album turns that form into something akin to journal entries that hint at secrets, idiosyncrasies, and personal rituals.

The Nashville String Band made six records between 1969 and 1972, featuring Chet Atkins and the musical comedy team of Homer & Jethro with a group of Nashville session musicians. The ten instrumentals range from the very familiar "Colonel Bogey March" (easily recognized by fans of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai) to "Rocky Top," "Red Wing" (a favorite of musical comedy great Spike Jones in the 1940s), and the tearjerker country ballad "Green, Green Grass of Home." Although the session is a tad overproduced with a stingy length of just 24 minutes, and it doesn't sufficiently focus on the solo capabilities of each man, this long out of print RCA LP still has great appeal. One reason is the priceless album jacket, with the three players as gun-wielding masked bandits on the front cover, and smiling unmasked with their instruments in place of guns on the back.

UNCOVERED: 15 tracks as re-cut by The Rolling Stones, starring Solomon Burke, Larry Williams, Muddy Waters, Nat King Cole, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and more! THE ROLLING STONES: Mick, Keith and the crew join with MOJO to celebrate 50 years of on-stage rock’n’roll triumph: Keith Richards prepares for the stage, Mick Taylor looks back on those wild’n’crazy highs‘n’lows, while Billy Gibbons, Slash, Chrissie Hynde and more remember their live Stones highlights, from 1963 to today.