We Still Can’t Say Goodbye: A Musicians Tribute to Chet Atkins is due this spring
Few artists have been as influential in multiple music industry roles and reached across genres as smoothly as the charming Chet Atkins, the original Certified Guitar Player (CGP). Atkins is the most recorded solo instrumentalist in music history who traveled far to become “Mr. Guitar.” The journey took the legendary icon from Appalachian poverty to international acclaim, from utter obscurity to three Halls of Fame. He is a 14-time Grammy Award winner, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement recipient, A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee.
For the very first time on one album, some of the world’s best guitar players and artists join together to pay a musicians’ tribute to the innovator, songwriter, producer, record company executive and visionary Chet Atkins, as Nashville and the music industry prepare to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday on June 20th. Featuring 22 players and artists on this 15-track album from the country, rock, bluegrass and acoustic musical realms, We Still Can’t Say Goodbye is due Friday, April 19th on CD and LP via Morningstar Music Productions, distributed by MVD Entertainment.
The set is a hot-picking homage to this legendary, almost instrument-defining legend, performed by the A-list of pickers and voices including Vince Gill, Tommy Emmanuel (CGP), Eric Clapton, Brad Paisley, Jerry Douglas, Ricky Skaggs, James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Charlie McCoy, Michael Cleveland, Bryan Sutton, Ashley Campbell, Brent Mason, Guthrie Trapp, Sierra Hull, and vocalist Bradley Walker.
Gill’s vocal performance on the title track, “I Still Can’t Say Goodbye,” offers the depth of humanity that Atkins conjured across his career. Gill also teams with Clapton, who plays three different guitars, and gospel/bluegrass vocalist Bradley Walker for a miraculous “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad),” which allows the guitars to be as subtly potent as the voices. Sierra Hull matches her playing prowess with a shimmering vocal on “All I Ever Need Is You.”
The Guitar Country signature, “Freight Train,” is delivered by an all-star collaboration of the Chester Bees. To hear Jackson, Clapton, Trapp, Sutton, and Campbell run one into another, followed by Mason, Emmanuel, Skaggs, Hull, Gill, Knowles, Paisley, Pearson, Atkins protégé Isaac Moore, and upstart Thor Jensen is to understand how deep Chet’s legacy reaches.
The CD features a 20-page commemorative booklet with The Journey of Mr. Guitar by Robert K Oermann, liner notes by award-winning journalist Holly Gleason, rare photos, and extensive session notes by Grammy-winning producer Carl Jackson. The set also features an exclusive DVD about the making of the album produced by Opry Entertainment.
The project was produced by country and bluegrass musician and songwriter and three-time Grammy-winning producer and guitarist Carl Jackson of the Louvin Brothers and was recorded at Station West in Nashville, TN with Luke Wooten engineering and mixing. Eric Clapton’s guitars were recorded by Simon Climie.
The album’s first single “Mr. Guitar” will be released Friday, March 15th and is performed by Grammy Award-winning guitarist and artist Tommy Emmanuel CGP and Grammy-winning bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland.
- Tommy Emmanuel C.G.P. & Michael Cleveland – Mr. Guitar
- Brent Mason – Lover Come Back To Me
- Ashley Campbell & Thor Jensen – Alley Cat
- Vince Gill & Bradley Walker featuring Eric Clapton – So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)
- Ricky Skaggs with Charlie McCoy – Yakety Axe
- Jerry Douglas & Bryan Sutton – Sleepwalk
- Carl Jackson – In His Hands
- Gareth Pearson – Mr. Sandman
- Brad Paisley – Windy And Warm
- James Taylor & Alison Krauss – How’s The World Treating You
- Guthrie Trapp – Caravan
- Sierra Hull – All I Ever Need Is You
- John Knowles C.G.P. with Catherine Marx – The Entertainer
- Vince Gill – I Still Can’t Say Goodbye
- The Chester Bees (Campbell, Clapton, Emmanuel, Gill, Hull, Jackson, Jensen, Knowles, Mason, Moore, Paisley, Pearson, Skaggs, Sutton and Trapp) – Freight Train
