Editing Chet Atkins (section)

===Performer and producer===
When Sholes took over pop production in 1957—a result of his success with [[Elvis Presley]]—he put Atkins in charge of RCA Victor's Nashville division. With country music record sales declining as rock and roll became more popular, Atkins took his cue from [[Owen Bradley]] and eliminated fiddles and steel guitar from many recordings, though not all, as a means of making country singers appeal to pop fans, many of whom disliked the "twang" elements of country. This became known as the [[Nashville Sound]], which Atkins said was a label created by the media for a style of recording during that period intended to keep country (and their jobs) viable.

Atkins used the [[Jordanaires]] and a rhythm section on hits such as [[Jim Reeves]]'s "[[Four Walls (Jim Reeves song)|Four Walls]]" and "[[He'll Have to Go]]"<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r245817|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic entry for ''Welcome to My World'', Jim Reeves 1996 box set, Bear Family Records]</ref> and [[Don Gibson]]'s "[[Oh Lonesome Me]]" and "Blue Blue Day".<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p1624|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic biography of Don Gibson]</ref> The once-rare phenomenon of having a country hit [[Crossover (music)|cross over]] to pop success became more common. He and Bradley had essentially put the producer in the driver's seat, guiding an artist's choice of material and the musical background. Other Nashville producers quickly copied this successful formula, which resulted in certain country hits "crossing over" to find success in the pop field.

Atkins made his own records, which usually visited pop standards and [[jazz]], in a sophisticated home studio, often recording the rhythm tracks at RCA and adding his solo parts at home, refining the tracks until the results satisfied him.<ref name="mamg" /> Guitarists of all styles came to admire various Atkins albums for their unique musical ideas and in some cases experimental electronic ideas. In this period, he became known internationally as "Mister Guitar", inspiring an album, ''[[Mister Guitar]]'', engineered by both Bob Ferris and [[Bill Porter (sound engineer)|Bill Porter]], Ferris's replacement.

[[File:RCA Studio B - Chet Atkins, Bill Porter.jpg|thumb|upright|Atkins listening as [[Bill Porter (sound engineer)|Bill Porter]] adjusts a mix in RCA's Nashville studio]]
At the end of March 1959, Porter took over as chief engineer at what was at the time RCA Victor's only Nashville studio, in the space that would become known as [[RCA Studio B|Studio B]] after the opening of a second studio in 1965. (At the time, RCA's sole Nashville studio had no letter designation.) Porter soon helped Atkins get a better reverberation sound from the studio's German effects device, an [[EMT 140]] [[Reverberation#Plate reverberators|plate reverb]]. With his [[golden ear]], Porter found the studio's acoustics to be problematic, and he devised a set of acoustic baffles to hang from the ceiling, then selected positions for microphones based on resonant [[room modes]]. The sound of the recordings improved significantly, and the studio achieved a string of successes. The Nashville sound became more [[Dynamic range|dynamic]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ballou|first=Glen|title=Handbook for Sound Engineers|year=1998|publisher=Focal Press|page=1154}}</ref> In later years, when Bradley asked how he achieved his sound, Atkins told him "it was Porter."<ref name=McClellan2004>{{cite book |last1=McClellan |first1=John |last2=Bratic |first2=Deyan |title=Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mmCUExOXx0MC |volume=2 |year=2004 |publisher=Mel Bay Publications |isbn=978-0-7866-5877-0 |pages=149–152}}</ref> Porter described Atkins as respectful of musicians when recording—if someone was out of tune, he would not single that person out by name. Instead, he would say something like, "we got a little tuning problem&nbsp;... Everybody check and see what's going on."<ref name=McClellan2004/> If that did not work, Atkins would instruct Porter to turn the offending player down in the mix. When Porter left RCA in late-1964, Atkins said, "the sound was never the same, never as great."<ref name=McClellan2004/>

Atkins's trademark "Atkins style" of playing uses the thumb and first two or sometimes three fingers of the right hand. He developed this style from listening to Merle Travis,<ref name=pc10>{{Gilliland |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19758/m1/ |title=Show 10 – Tennessee Firebird: American Country Music Before and After Elvis. [Part 2] }}</ref> occasionally on a primitive radio. He was sure no one could play that articulately with just the thumb and index finger (which was exactly how Travis played), and he assumed it required the thumb and two fingers—and that was the style he pioneered and mastered.

He enjoyed jamming with fellow studio musicians, and they were asked to perform at the [[Newport Jazz Festival]] in 1960. That performance was cancelled because of rioting, but a live recording of the group (''[[After the Riot in Newport|After the Riot at Newport]]'') was released. Atkins performed by invitation at the [[White House]] for every U.S. president from [[John F. Kennedy]] through to [[George H. W. Bush]]. Atkins was a member of the [[Million Dollar Band (country music group)|Million Dollar Band]] during the 1980s. He is also well known for his song "Yankee Doodle Dixie", in which he played "[[Yankee Doodle]]" and "[[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]" simultaneously, on the same guitar.

Before his mentor Sholes died in 1968, Atkins had become vice president of RCA's country division. In 1987, he told [[Nine-O-One Network Magazine|''Nine-O-One Network'' magazine]] that he was "ashamed" of his promotion: "I wanted to be known as a guitarist and I know, too, that they give you titles like that in lieu of money. So beware when they want to make you vice president."<ref>Nine-O-One Interview, Nine-O-One Network Magazine, December 1987, p.10-11</ref> He had brought [[Waylon Jennings]], [[Willie Nelson]], [[Connie Smith]], [[Bobby Bare]], [[Dolly Parton]], [[Jerry Reed]], and [[John Hartford]] to the label in the 1960s and inspired and helped countless others.<ref name="RockHall">[http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/chet-atkins "Chet Atkins"], Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Accessed on March 28, 2008.</ref> He took a considerable risk during the mid-1960s, when the [[civil rights movement]] sparked violence throughout the South, by signing country music's first African-American singer, [[Charley Pride]], who sang rawer country than the smoother music Atkins had pioneered.

Atkins's biggest hit single came in 1965, with "Yakety Axe", an adaptation of "[[Yakety Sax]]", by his friend, the saxophonist [[Boots Randolph]]. He rarely performed in those days and eventually hired other RCA producers, such as [[Bob Ferguson (music)|Bob Ferguson]] and [[Felton Jarvis]], to lessen his workload.<ref name="mamg" />