Top Artists – Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins – Caribbean Guitar

More of the Music of Chet Atkins

  • You’ll find stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades on both sides of this famous TAS Super Disc RCA Living Stereo LP – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Plays fairly quiet too – about as quiet as these RCA pressings from the early 60s ever will (noted condition issues below notwithstanding)
  • If you have ever heard one of our luscious Living Stereo Chet Atkins records, you know what to expect – off the charts Tubey Magic unlike anything made in the last fifty years, or more!
  • Engineer Bill Porter just doesn’t know how not to make an amazing sounding Living Stereo recording – everything the guy touches is gold
  • If you’re a fan of the smooth guitar stylings of Mr. Atkins, this is a classic from 1962 that belongs in your collection.

This is one of Chet Atkins’ best albums. Sonically, it’s right up there with The Other Chet Atkins and the Hollywood album. It seems like Bill Porter just doesn’t know how not to make an amazing sounding Living Stereo recording. He knocked this out of the park.

I suppose we owe a debt of gratitude to Harry Pearson for pointing out to us with his TAS List what a great record this is, although I’m pretty sure anybody playing this album can tell after a minute or two that it’s in that very special class of great recordings.

This album is a little more lively than some of his other recordings, which can be criticized for being a little too laid back. For example, try side 2, cut 2 where Chet actually jams.

The last track on side 2 where Chet is joined by a trumpet player is my favorite on the album. That guitar-trumpet combination is pretty magical on that song. And you’ve got to love the kind of sound Bill Porter get from a trumpet. That’s the kind of sound we audiophiles drool over. I do anyway.

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Chet Atkins – Hometown Guitar

More of the Music of Chet Atkins

  • Hometown Guitar makes its Hot Stamper debut with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades throughout this original RCA pressing
  • Both of these sides are sweet and rich with plenty of Tubey Magic, wonderfully breathy vocals, deep punchy bass, and a super extended top end
  • Full-bodied and warm, exactly the way you want your vintage analog to sound – the guitar is surprisingly real here

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Chicago – Chicago VII

More of the Music of Chicago

  • A vintage copy of Chicago VII with very good Hot Stamper grades on all FOUR sides
  • It’s richer, fuller and with more presence than the average copy, and that’s especially true for whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently being foisted on an unsuspecting record buying public
  • This is true of even our lowest-priced, lowest-graded copies – they are guaranteed to sound much better than any pressing you can find on the market today, as well as any pressing you may already own
  • “Happy Man,” “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long” and “Wishing You Were Here” (with Beach Boys backing vox) are the big hits here
  • “It was Peter Cetera who made the biggest strides on Chicago VII, composing his two most impressive songs thus far, Happy Man and “Wishing You Were Here” (#11), a lush ballad (signs of the future) that features three of The Beach Boys on backing vocals and which became a big hit in late 1974.”

Finding great sounding Chicago records is not easy. (Most copies of the second album are so bad sounding they defy understanding. I’ve heard Edison cylinders with more fidelity.) But some of their records are very well recorded, this being one of them, and even though the shootouts for double albums are twice as hard, for Chicago we do them, and for only one reason: we love this music. (Well, parts of it anyway. Chicago and consistency have one thing in common: they both start with the letter C.)

How can you write a better song than “”(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long”? That track, with its huge buildup of strings and wall to wall brass, just kills. It’ll send shivers up your spine at the live music levels we were trying to play it at. It actually has some real dynamics built into the mix, which is not something pop songs are supposed to have.

“Wishing You Were Here” (with Beach Boys vocals no less) is another one we love, along with “Happy Man.” These are some great Chicago songs, and the production is first-rate all the way.

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Chet Atkins and Les Paul – Chester & Lester

More of the Music of Chet Atkins

  • Chester & Lester makes its Hot Stamper debut with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this vintage RCA pressing
  • Huge, rich, present, with an abundance of energy and great depth and room around the guitars — it’s all here
  • The notes for this copy rave about the sound — apparently, this live in the studio recording from 1975 has the sound that RCA and Chet Atkins were famous for back in the 50s and 60s. Who knew?
  • Chester & Lester won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 1976
  • Les Paul’s recordings from back in the day can be off the charts Tubey Magical, but the music is rarely compelling, so we don’t do shootouts for his records anymore, but you can be sure this wonderful sounding title will be a regular on the site from now on
  • 4 stars: “After eight years away from the microphones, Les Paul joined forces with country music’s Chet Atkins in a marvelously relaxed, tasty session of cross-cultural jamming. You won’t have any problem telling Chester and Lester apart on these tracks; Les’ bright, almost metallic sound and twirling, yet now more economical flurries are a world away from Chet’s mellow fingerpicking, lightly tarted with echo. Yet the two styles play brilliantly off each other….”

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Bill Porter’s Tubey Magical Caribbean Guitar

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Chet Atkins Available Now

This album is a little more lively than some of Chet’s other recordings, which can be criticized for being a little too laid back. For example, try side 2, cut 2, where Chet actually jams.

The last track on side 2 where Chet is joined by a trumpet player is my favorite on the album. That guitar-trumpet combination is pretty magical on that song. And you’ve got to love the kind of sound Bill Porter gets for a trumpet. That’s the kind of sound we audiophiles drool over. I do anyway.

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When I Wrote this Years Ago I Was Being Far Too Charitable

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Chet Atkins Available Now

It’s been quite a while since I played the Classic pressing, but I remember it as nothing special. Like a lot of the records put out by this label, it’s tonally fine but low-rez and lacking space, warmth and, above all, Tubey Magic.

When I wrote that years ago I was being far too charitable.

A remastered pressing of a Chet Atkins recording from 1959 that lacks Tubey Magic is one that is failing fundamentally to understand why it has any reason to exist.

The premise of the modern Heavy Vinyl pressing, as its legions of defenders constantly remind us, is to allow the listener to hear the music as it was meant to be heard — with two added bonuses: better vinyl, and affordable, non-collector prices.

(The dirty little secret of the mid-fi collector market is that affordability, not sound quality, is at the heart of it. The knock on our records is that they are expensive, but how is that relevant to the sound quality of the pressings we offer? A better sounding pressing is a better sound pressing, regardless of its price.)

These newly remastered pressings are meant to offer the music lover the opportunity to hear the true sound of the master tape. This elusive holy grail they will stop at nothing to acquire can be summed up in three words: Master Tape Sound. Or so they think.

(The fact that vanishingly few audiophiles have ever heard a master tape or would know oen if they heard one is an inconvenient truth that must not be allowed to interfere with their righteous desire to own whatever pressing purports to offer it.)

But I digress. Back to Chet Atkins in 1959. Let me sum up my position this way, with a nod to the Brits:

A Living Stereo recording that lacks Tubey Magic is one that has completely lost the plot.

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We Were Wrong about the Reissues of Christmas with Chet Atkins

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Chet Atkins Available Now

In 2006 we wrote our review for an orange label RCA reissue of the album.

Recently we did a shootout for the album and only one side of one of the later orange label pressings earned a Super Hot (2+) grade.

Our system was noticeably darker and clearly far less revealing than the one we have now, and those two qualities did most of the heavy lifting needed to compensate for the shortcomings of the reissue reviewed below.

What I couldn’t hear on my system back in those days (and even as late as 2006) no doubt explains most of these kinds of errors. That’s why we are constantly harping on the idea that audiophiles would do well to get good sound before they spend a fortune on vinyl.

Higher quality playback is what makes it possible to recognize and acquire better sounding records.

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Chet Atkins – Chet Atkins in Hollywood (1961)

More of the Music of Chet Atkins

  • Both sides of this vintage RCA pressing were giving us the big and bold Living Stereo sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • What we are offering here is the superior sounding re-recording from 1961, produced by Dick Peirce
  • Chet took the orchestra tapes back to his home studio in 1961 and re-recorded his parts over them, and we think he managed to do a much better job the second time around
  • This TAS list recording will have you asking why so few Living Stereo pressings actually do what this one does. The more critical listeners among you will recognize that this is a very special copy indeed. Everyone else will just enjoy the hell out of it.
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings, but once you hear just how superb sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 1/2 stars: “If the cover of At Home evokes the 1950s, the music on In Hollywood IS the 1950s: a warm, cozy, sophisticated album of mood music in the best sense.”

You can feel the cool air of the studio the minute the needle hits the groove on this one!

I suppose we owe a debt of gratitude to Harry Pearson for pointing out to us with his TAS List what a great record this is, although I’m pretty sure anybody playing this album would have no trouble telling after a minute or two that this copy is very special indeed.

Sorry, Harry

The pressing that Harry seems to have preferred — it’s the one recommended on his list, along with the Classic Records repress — is the inferior-sounding original recording, the one with the cover showing a guitar superimposed over the cityscape.

Leave it to us, the guys who actually play lots of records and listen to them critically, to recognize how much better the 1961 version is compared to the original from 1959. (For those of you who prefer the arrangements on the original, we offer those from time to time as well.)

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Chet Atkins – Workshop

More of the Music of Chet Atkins

  • Here is an outstanding copy (one of only a handful to hit the site in years) with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER from start to finish
  • Demo Disc quality sound – that is, if what you’re demonstrating is Living Stereo magic at its best
  • Both of these sides boast more of that rich, sweet Bill Porter Tubey Magic that we can’t get enough of here at Better Records
  • 4 stars: “Atkins’ relaxed fingerpicking works the material into a smooth consistency that sometimes belies the complexity of his technique, but the album is an engaging listen and an effortless-sounding intersection of diverse styles.”

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Chet Atkins – The Other Chet Atkins

More Chet Atkins

More Living Stereo Recordings

  • Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambience, dead-on correct tonality — it’s all here on this wonderful TAS list recording
  • Need a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? This record is overflowing with it
  • It seems as though Bill Porter just doesn’t know how not to make an amazing sounding Living Stereo recording. Everything the guy touches is GOLD!
  • If you’re a fan of Chet Atkin’s albums from the Golden Age of the 50s and 60s, this vintage Living Stereo pressing from 1960 surely belongs in your collection

Acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this album. The harmonic coherency, the richness, the body, and simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum.

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