FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tina Wright (615) 416-2084
[email protected] Media website: www.countrymusichalloffame.org/media-professionals Username: cmhofmedia Password: 4mediaonly “Years from now, after I‟m gone, someone will listen to what I‟ve done and know I was here…they‟ll hear my guitars speaking for me.” – Chet Atkins COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME ® AND MUSEUM TO HONOR ‘MISTER GUITAR’ CHET ATKINS WITH BIOGRAPHICAL EXHIBIT Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player, Made Possible through the Generous Support of the Gretsch Company, to Open in August 2011 NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 10, 2011 – Sideman. Studio musician. Performer. Recording Artist. Producer. Record Executive. In an industry known for multi-talented individuals, perhaps no one has achieved such a vast and varied resume as the inimitable Chet Atkins. The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will pay tribute to this versatile and visionary artist with the cameo exhibition Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player, which opens in the Museum‟s East Gallery on August 11, 2011, and runs through June 2012. The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Gretsch Company. Additional support will be provided by Great American Country Television Network. “Chet Atkins was country music‟s ultimate Renaissance man, one of the greatest instrumentalists in American music history and a true musical savant,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “His signature guitar licks shaped recordings by scores of legendary artists, including the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley and Kitty Wells, and his playing influenced future rock gods Duane Eddy, George Harrison, Mark Knopfler and many more. As a producer, Chet was an architect of the „Nashville Sound‟; he was also a brilliant record executive who signed and propelled a generation of country artists – including Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton and Charley Pride – to fame.