category: instrumental country / rockabilly / jazz

[excerpt from the CD liner notes]::
During his years as RCA Victor recording artist, record producer and executive, Chet Atkins assembled several instrumental recording groups built around his fellow musicians. These yielded LP's by the Superpickers in 1973 and by The Atkins String Company and The First Nashville Guitar Quartet in 1979. But Chet created his first studio recording unit in 1952 with the Country All Stars. Built around a nucleus of Chet, Homer & Jethro (who backed Chet on many of his early RCA Victor recordings), it included a number of other musicians, depending on who was available. Other standouts on various All Stars sessions were non-pedal steel virtuoso Jerry Byrd, fiddler Dale Potter and jazz guitar virtuoso George Barnes.

Despite the group's name, older pop and jazz, not country material, dominated their recorded repertoire. It revealed much about their listening habits and preferences beyond country. The records received only minimal promotion from RCA Victor, giving them a limited audience. Even the eight-song 10-inch String Dustin' LP had little impact.

As the quotes indicate, these sessions were little more than a footnote to their distinguished careers. Yet their musical quality reflects that side of Nashville's early recording scene, when versatile musicians could let their hair down playing old jazz favorites. The music was flawless, the rehearsal minimal and the results still hold up. -- Rich Kienzle, country music historian, 1993

CD Track Listing

  1. Stomping At The Savoy (Sampson / Goodman / Webb) (2:48)
  2. Tennesee Rag (Chet Atkins) (2:26)
  3. Do Something (w/Homer Haynes: vocals) (Green / Stept) (2:37)
  4. My Little Girl (Van Tilzer / Lewis / Dillon) (2:21)
  5. It Goes Like This (That Funny Melody) (w/Jethro Burns: vocals) (Caesar / Friend) (2:25)
  6. Midnight Train (Atkins / Burns) (2:42)
  7. What's The Reason (I'm Not Pleasin' You) (w/Homer Haynes: vocals) (Pee / Grier / Tomlin / Hatch) (2:20)
  8. Marie (Berlin) (2:38)
  9. Fiddle Patch (Potter) (2:20)
10. Fiddle Sticks (Potter) (2:06)
11. In A Little Spanish Town (Lewis / Young / Wayne) (2:47)
12. Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie / Casey / Pinkard) (3:01)
13. The Lady In Red (Dixon / Wrubel) (2:03)
14. When It's Darkness On The Delta (Levinson / Symes / Neiberg) (2:46)
15. Indiana March (master) (composer unknown) (2:38)
16. The Vacation Train (Smith / Korsen) (2:14)
17. Indiana March (take 1) (composer unknown) (2:34)
18. Song Of The Wanderer (Where Shall I Go) (Moret) (2:15)
19. Royal Garden Blues (master) (Williams / Williams) (2:22)
20. I'll See You In My Dreams (Jones / Kahn) (2:44)
21. Royal Garden Blues (take 1) (Williams / Williams) (2:16)

Chet Atkins - guitar on every track except #16, where Jethro Burns plays lead guitar
George Barnes: guitar solo - tracks 18, 19, 20, 21

Total timing: 52:35

Label/No: Bear Family Records BCD-15728 (German import)

Release date: (c)1952-53, 1993 reissue