At 73, with hundreds of albums and countless sessions to his credit,
Chet Atkins
still had another great recording in him -- this splendid duo session with the young Australian guitarist/composer
Tommy Emmanuel
. Here,
Atkins
leaves all of the smooth jazz experiments from the previous decade and a half behind him, choosing superior material for their acoustic guitars, with the rhythm section laying down swinging country-pie tracks underneath.
Emmanuel
's fingerpicking style isn't quite as tied to the rhythm as
'; it's a little sharper in attack, fleeter in technique and a bit flashier in temperament, yet remarkably well-matched to that of the east Tennessee master, almost an alter ego. Indeed
' tune
"Tip Toe Through the Bluegrass"
plays the two styles off each other quite revealingly.
turns out to be a top-notch tunesmith in his own right, too. His
"Dixie McGuire,"
a disarmingly affectionate mid-tempo tune that won't let you go, inspires a performance that is one of the high points of
'
Columbia
period -- or for that matter, equal to anything from his long
RCA
period, too, in sheer emotional effect. The title track, which
adapted from a lyric that dealt with bass players (as opposed to fingerpickers), finds the two reciting and singing a mock-horror flick tale -- and
"Ode to Mel Bay"
good-naturedly mocks beginning string players everywhere. As a tribute to the visitor from Down Under, there is also a slyly countrified
"Waltzing Matilda."
This would be
' last album of new material released during the 20th century -- leaving it, glory be, on a very high note. ~ Richard S. Ginell