Here's something I posted on my Facebook page that I thought was worth sharing over here:
Mr Sandman solo guitar
MR. SANDMAN for solo guitar, some context:
In 1955, Chet Atkins had a bonafide hit with his version of “Mr. Sandman.” I got to thinking about what that means while putting together my article on country guitar, which included this song (it ran on Soundfly last week). These days, there are more solo guitar players around than you can shake a stick at, but none of them are scoring any hits. It’s underground music. In 1955, however, this was a pretty novel idea and it resonated with a mainstream audience. Obviously, the relationship that we, as a culture, have with music, particularly instrumental, is way different today than it was in 1955. I’m not ready to get too deeply into that here, but I’ve just been thinking about it and “Mr. Sandman” got stuck in my head as I kept playing it for students and talking about this.
Also, it should be noted that, in thinking all about this, I realized that there has been a hit instrumental song in the last 4 years: “Harlem Shake.” Sure, that’s a very different song, but I was glad to realize that instrumental hits are still possible in this day and age.
More context: I worked at a guitar store for 9 years and for about half the time I spent there, a Chet Atkins compilation was playing. I had a hard time paying attention to Chet’s playing for a while since it just made me think about standing around and waiting for students to show up, but I’ve gotten past that now. Maybe this is meant to throw a bit of appreciation to Chet after taking his playing for granted.
The arrangement in this video goes through the tune twice. The first time is basically Chet’s first chorus arrangement and the second pass, after the key change, is mine.
#sologuitar #instrumentalmusic #chetatkins #countryguitar #countrymusic #1955 #telecaster #crestonguitar #mrsandman
Posted by Nick Millevoi on Tuesday, February 28, 2017
