> >Atkins has said more than once that the development of the
> >Nashville Sound had an economic motivation, but I don't know
> >that he's ever counterposed it to valid artistic statements.
>
> Jon, I swear I'm not making this up, but I read somewhere (and it
> wasn't Carlin's book) an interview with Chet in which he
> expressed what sounded to me like some honest-to-God regret for
> his role (as a producer/arranger) in influencing the stylistic
> direction country music had taken (i.e. away from it's "rural"
> roots). Now I bet you want me to find this article, right? <g>
No need, I don't think; see below.
> >Terry, you really might want to think about picking up a copy
> >of Joli Jensen's book, _The Nashville Sound: Authenticity,
> >Commercialization, and Country Music." Lots of direct quotes
> >on the subject therein.
>
> >From whom? Sounds like I need to find this book, too.
It's a good book, though not without its flaws, sharing some subjects with
Pete Peterson's _Creating Country Music_. Published by Vanderbilt U
Press/Country Music Foundation just last year.
Anyhow, I believe this is the quote you're thinking of; Jensen footnotes it
to Patrick Carr's _The Illustrated History of Country Music_, but that was
published in 1995 and she mentions, as you'll see, that the quote comes from
almost twenty years earlier:
"In 1976, Chet Atkins made an ambivalent apology for his role in redefining
the sound of country music:
I hate to see country going uptown beause it's the wrong uptown. We're
about to lose our identity and get all mixed up with other music. We were
always a little half-assed anyway, but a music dies when it becomes a
parody
of itself, which has happened to some extent with rock.
Of course, I had a lot to do with changing country, and I do apologize.
We
did it to broaden the appeal, and to keep making records different, to
surprise
the public."
Which, she goes on to point out, is a complex statement: "He expresses
regret for his part in fostering these developments but then justifies his
role in both commercial (broadening appeal) and creative (making records
different) terms, in relation to a public that he sought to please."
Is that the quote you were recalling, Jim?
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
