{"id":1459,"date":"2010-09-12T17:13:23","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T00:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2010-09-12T17:14:02","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T00:14:02","slug":"steve-wariner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/09\/steve-wariner\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Wariner"},"content":{"rendered":"

STEVE WARINER<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Paying tribute to friend and mentor Chet Atkins<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If anyone is qualified to pay tribute to late guitar giant Chet Atkins, it\u2019s country singer, songwriter and guitarist Steve Wariner. Atkins took Wariner under his wing in the late 1970s, welcoming him into his touring band as bass player, and signing the young artist to RCA Records in his capacity as an executive and producer. Wariner\u2019s new album, My Tribute to Chet Atkins<\/em>, finds him spotlighting his mentor\u2019s illustrious career through a set of mostly new original songs in Atkins\u2019 style. We spoke with Wariner about the lessons he learned\u2014and continues to learn\u2014from his longtime friend and collaborator.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

How did you first become aware of Chet Atkins\u2019 music?<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

My first memories of Chet were through my father, who had a lot of his records. I was intrigued with Chet\u2019s style. At an early age I\u2019d sit and listen to those records over and over. I knew them inside and out. Then as I fell in love with the guitar I respected his music even more.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

How long had you been thinking of making an album like this? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Chet died in June 2001, and I\u2019ve been trying to figure out a way to do a project honoring him ever since. I wanted to come up with something different than just doing some of his songs half as well as he did. It\u2019s hard to do. How do you honor a guy like that? This was the way for me to do it.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

How did you prepare?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you, I\u2019ve never done a project where I spent so much time researching and listening to music. I thought I\u2019d heard a lot of Chet music in my life, but I went and found a whole lot of outtakes, things I\u2019d never heard before. I listened to things I hadn\u2019t heard since I was a kid. I learned all kinds of guitar licks doing this record. I\u2019m still cussing Chet: \u201cDamn you, Chet! You\u2019re still getting me! How\u2019d you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Which guitars did you play on <\/strong>the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been lucky over the years that Chet gave me some guitars, and I used a lot of them on the album. That was a cool connection. The main one I played was a Gibson Country Gentleman that Chet played on many of his records. It\u2019s just got that fat tone. When my hands went down the neck the first few times after I had it, I\u2019m sure the guitar was screaming, \u201cOh, no, who\u2019s this? That\u2019s not Chet!\u201d (laughs<\/em>) I also played a \u201958 Gretsch 6120. It wasn\u2019t Chet\u2019s, but it\u2019s a beautiful guitar. I\u2019ve got three 6120s, but that\u2019s the best one I have. I even went so far as to use the kind of ribbon mics he used in the studio, the old [RCA] 77s. Just trying to do it fairly close to how he might have done it, staying real pure and true.<\/p>\n

Can you offer a thumbnail <\/strong>description of how to play in the <\/strong>Chet Atkins style?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just think of your thumb as playing the bass guitar part. Then you think of your index finger and second finger as playing the melody\u00a0and\/or the chords. Then you put those together and do them both simultaneously. The tricky part is to keep the bass going, and to get the right positioning. I\u2019ve watched guys who don\u2019t have a grasp for it\u2014they kinda do it, but not really. The guys who are great at it go to another position to grab a chord that keeps that melody line going. That\u2019s the beauty. You\u2019d watch Chet play, and he\u2019d be all over the neck. He\u2019d play this position because that\u2019s where you could grab that note, but the bass never quit. His bass was so precise. His thumb was like a machine\u2014it was just awesome. He had such big, strong hands that he could really reach for chords. Something about his hands, that\u2019s where it is. It didn\u2019t matter what kind of guitar he\u2019d pick up. It\u2019s the guitar player; it\u2019s not the guitar.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u2013Chris Neal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jan\/Feb 2010 Issue of <\/span>M Music & Musicians<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEVE WARINER Paying tribute to friend and mentor Chet Atkins If anyone is qualified to pay tribute to late guitar giant Chet Atkins, it\u2019s country singer, songwriter and guitarist Steve Wariner. Atkins took Wariner under his wing in the late 1970s, welcoming him into his touring band as bass player, and signing the young artist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[967,963,968,966,965,32,964,739],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}