As pieced together from a patchwork of RCA sources from the 1950s and 1960s, this extremely inexpensive two-LP set was a marvelous Chet Atkins sampler, concentrating on his more countrified records with minimal, cooking rhythm backing. Even within the country context, there is a lot of variety here - the Les Paul-like playing on "Hot Mocking Bird," the erudite excursions all over the stylistic lot on "Kicky," covers of the big countrypolitan ballad hits "Make the World Go Away" and "Release Me," the relaxed Latin-flavored "Bandera," pop tunes like "April in Portugal" and "Lonesome Road." You also get Atkins specialties like the surpassingly clever "Yankee Doodle Dixie," a folk-bluegrass treatment of "Goin' Down The Road," a stentorian "Wildwood Flower," and an occasional rapid-fire original ("Prancin' Filly"). Some of the tracks are redone in electronic stereo -- as was RCA's bad habit at the time -- but the effect is almost unnoticeable on a few of them. No cheapo drug store throwaway -- even the liner notes are unusually informative for the time -- this can stand beside the more cosmopolitan, full-priced greatest hits Atkins LPs as a countrified supplement. ~ Richard Ginell, All Music Guide
TRACKS
1. Foggy Mountain Top 2. Wabash Cannonball 3. Yankee Doodle Dixie 4. Hot Mocking Bird 5. Oklahoma Hills 6. Early Times 7. Wildwood Flower 8. San Antonio Rose 9. Make the World Go Away 10. Oh Baby Mine 11. Release Me 12. The Bells of St. Mary's 13. Kicky 14. Prancin' Filly 15. Lonesome Road 16. Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad 17. April in Portugal 18. Bandera
© 2006 All Music Guide, LLC