Chet Atkins biography

Profile

Born June 20, 1924, in Luttrell, TN, Chet Akins played the guitar as a child and as a teen performed professionally as a fiddler. By the late 1940s he had become a sought-after session guitarist. From his first solo album through more than 100 recordings in his own name and hundreds more as a backing musician, his picking style changed little, but his material and collaborators varied widely.