COUNTRY ALL STARS Jazz From The Hills (CD)

Stereotyped by the outside world as three-chord wonders, country musicians are actually some of the most imaginative and technically adroit musicians in all American music. The blend of country instrumentation, jazz improvisation, and pop repertoire was never better illustrated than on the 1954 RCA 10-inch album "String Dustin" featuring Chet Atkins, Homer and Jethro and Jerry Byrd. It's rounded out here with additional titles, including a 1956 session with jazz guitarist George Barnes. Titles include gehören Stompin' At The Savoy, When It's Darkness On The Delta, Royal Garden Blues, Sweet Georgia Brownand Tennessee Rag.

JAZZ FROM THE HILLS
During his years as RCA Victor recording artist, record producer and executive, Chet Atkins assembled several instrumental recording groups built around his fellow studio musicians. These yielded LPs by the Superpickers in 1973 and by the Atkins String Company and the First Nashville Guitar Quintet in 1979.

But Chet created his first studio recording unit in 1952 with the Country All Stars. Built around a nucleus of Chet, Homer and Jethro (who backed Chet on many of his early RCA Victor recordings), it included a number of other musicians, depending on who was available. Other standouts on various All Stars sessions were non-pedal steel virtuoso Jerry Byrd, fiddler Dale Potter and jazz guitar virtuoso George Barnes. Despite the group's name, older pop and jazz, not country material, dominated their recorded repertoire. It revealed much about their listening habits and preferences beyond country.

The records received only minimal promotion from RCA Victor, giving them a limited audience. Even the eight-song 10-inch 'String Dustin" LP had little impact.
The pop orientation began early for Homer and Jethro. Teenaged guitarist Henry Haynes met mandolinist Kenneth Burns at a 1935 audition for a Knoxville, Tennessee, amateur show sponsored by WNOX Radio. When station executive Lowell Blanchard heard them jamming on swing arrangements he disqualified them. Instead, he hired them to front a WNOX swing stringband called the String Dusters. Belgian gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt became their primary musical influence after they heard his recording of Nuages.

Haynes and Burns formed a comedy duo within the band, singing exaggerated hillbilly arrangements of pop tunes. Known as 'Junior' (Haynes) and 'Dude' (Burns), the name changed after Lowell Blanchard accidentally introduced them as `Homer and Jethro'. The pair joined Kentucky's Renfro Valley Barn Dance before World War II. After military service, they moved to WLW in Cincinatti.
Chet Atkins came to WNOX in 1942 as a fiddler, and when Lowell Blanchard gave him a solo guitar spot on the station's 'Midday Merry-Go-Round', he insisted Atkins learn more songs. He delved into the station's radio transcriptions and developed a love of pop and jazz, later playing guitar with another WNOX swing group, the Dixieland Swingsters.

The three met when Chet came to WLW in 1945. He and Jethro roomed together for a time and spent much of their off hours jamming. Both met
and married the WLW singing duo Johnson Sisters. Jethro marrying Laverne, Chet marrying Leona. WLW terminated Chet late in 1945. Homer and Jethro remained at WLW a couple more years. They recorded for King and played on various recording sessions in Cincinatti.

In 1948 they reunited with Chet at WNOX for a time. He used them as sidemen on many of his early RCA Victor sessions (covered on BCD 15 714). He also helped them get an RCA Victor contract after they left King. A & R man Steve Sholes suggested they, start singing straight parodies of country (and pop) tunes. After moving to Nashville in 1950, Chet began working as a studio musician along with performing with Maybelle and the Carter sisters and doing his own recordings. He helped Sholes set up RCA Victor sessions, which led to the All Stars recordings...