Chet Atkins   Chet Atkins Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images
With more than 35 million copies of his 75-plus original
releases sold, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Chet
Atkins was one of the most successful guitarists in history; as
a country music producer, he was largely responsible for the
pop-oriented "Nashville Sound" of the '60s.  Raised in poverty,
Atkins received musical training from his evangelical-singer
father and an older half brother. He took up the guitar at age
nine, and counted among his influences Les Paul, Django
Reinhardt, and Merle Travis (Atkins' finger-picking style is a
modification of Travis' technique). Beginning professionally in
his teens playing fiddle for Archie Campbell, by the late '40s
he had switched exclusively to guitar, performed at the Grand
Ole Opry, and recorded as a sessionman and a solo artist. In the
late '50s he became vice president in charge of RCA's Nashville
operations and as such was involved as both a player and
producer in the development of Eddy Ar