The Nashville A-Team, and the "Nashville Sound"
“The Nashville A-Team was a nickname given to a group of session musicians in Nashville, Tennessee, who earned wide acclaim in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. They backed dozens of popular singers, including Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Bob Dylan and others. The Nashville A-Team’s members typically had backgrounds in country music but were highly versatile. Examples of their jazz inclinations can be found in the Nashville All-Stars album with Chet Atkins titled After the Riot at Newport, the Hank Garland LP entitled Velvet Guitar, Tupper Saussy’s Said I to Shostakovitch, the groundbreaking LP Gary Burton And Friends Near, Friends Far, and Chester and Lester by Les Paul and Chet Atkins. In 2007, The Nashville A-Team were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, TN.” — wikipedia
“The Nashville sound was pioneered by staff at Decca Records, RCA Records and Columbia Records in Nashville, Tennessee, including manager Steve Sholes, record producers Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and Bob Ferguson, and recording engineer Bill Porter. They invented the form by replacing elements of the popular honky tonk style (fiddles, steel guitar, nasal lead vocals) with ‘smooth’ elements from 1950s pop music (string sections, background vocals, crooning lead vocals), and using “slick” production, and pop music structures. The producers relied on a small group of studio musicians known as the Nashville A-Team, whose quick adaptability and creative input made them vital to the hit-making process. The Anita Kerr Quartet was the main vocal backing group in the early 1960s. In 1960, Time magazine reported that Nashville had ‘nosed out Hollywood as the nation’s second biggest (after New York) record-producing center.’
“Country historian Rich Kienzle says that ‘Gone’, a Ferlin Husky hit recorded in November 1956, ‘may well have pointed the way to the Nashville sound.’ Writer Colin Escott proclaims Jim Reeves’ ‘Four Walls’, recorded February 1957, to be the ‘first Nashville sound record’, and Chet Atkins, the RCA-based producer and guitarist most often credited with being the sound’s primary artistic brainchild, pointed to his production of Don Gibson’s ‘Oh Lonesome Me’ late that same year” — wikipedia
Ferlin Husky – Gone
Jim Reeves – Four Walls
Don Gibson – Oh Lonesome Me
It’s interesting to compare the description of The Nashville Sound in that wikipedia entry (slick production, pop elements) with the “new country” music of the 1990s. Except for a touch of steel guitar, it sounds a whole lot like the pop music of the day.
Skeeter Davis – The End Of The World
Southern Rock (a past topic), Outlaw Country, and the ‘Back to Basics’ country-western music of the 1980’s were all responses to the too-smooth, too-slick Nashville Sound. I’d have to agree, actually: if you’re going to play country, you might as well get down and play country.
That said… there were several upshots of the Nashville Sound: First, it made money. ‘Nashville’ bridged a couple of decades when country was under assault from rock and roll — rock was also a homegrown southern product, with crossover — and then the British imports, and the new national TV networks based out of New York and L.A. gaining over local radio. Without the mainstream appeal of the Nashville sound, would there have been a country music establishment for the 1970s artists to rebel against? Or would country be just another footnote in the Smithsonian Folkways project?
Ray Charles – Take These Chains From My Heart
[Ray was recording in New York, but both of his “Country and Western Albums” are obviously influenced by The Nashville Sound]
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Let’s get back to the A-Team:
“Building on the rustic style he experimented with on John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline displayed a complete immersion into country music. Along with the more basic lyrical themes, simple songwriting structures, and charming domestic feel, it introduced audiences to a radically new singing voice from Dylan—a soft, affected country croon.” — wikipedia
Nashville Skyline was recorded in Nashville, using session players — including Charlie Daniels on guitar. OK, so this is more of an excuse to post some Dylan, but I’ll take it.
“After the Riot at Newport is an album by The Nashville All-Stars, which was recorded live after the cancellation of their appearance at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival. This group of Nashville session players played a mixture of pop and jazz standards. The all-star lineup featured guitar legends Hank Garland and Chet Atkins, saxophonist Boots Randolph, pianist/violinist Brenton Banks, pianist Floyd Cramer, bassist Bob Moore, drummer Buddy Harman, and vibes prodigy Gary Burton, who was only 17 years old at the time.
“Even though the players were playing country music day-in and day-out in Nashville sessions, they had a deep love of jazz and played often at the Carousel Club on Printer’s Alley in Nashville. When their much-anticipated festival performance was canceled due to an unruly crowd, the group documented their performance anyway, recording on the back porch of a mansion RCA had rented during the festival.” —wikipedia
“Chester & Lester is a collaborative album by guitarists Chet Atkins and Les Paul released in 1976. It was recorded in the mid-1970s when Chet was in his fifties and Les in his sixties. Chet coaxed Les out of his decade-long retirement for this recording. The liner notes state there is very little overdubbing and the majority of the album was live in the studio.” — wikipedia
Chet Atkins & Les Paul recorded a follow-up to Chester & Lester in 1978, aptly titled Guitar Monsters
