Guitar picker admires Chet Atkins

(Story and photo by Beth Hoad)

'In the early 1950s I was obsessed with playing guitar. I kept hearing the name Chet Atkins and every now and then I would hear his music on the radio. By 1953, with his name and music becoming more common, I was off to Nashville. I didn't meet him personally until several years later but his music has certainly made a lasting impression.'

So begins an article written by Richard 'Dick' Roland of Walworth, for the April 2007 issue of Mister Guitar, published by the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society.

Chet Atkins was an influential country, classical, folk and jazz guitarist, record producer and guitar design consultant. When the president of CAAS discovered Roland was friends with Odell Martin, songwriter and guitar player who played with many of Nashville's major country artists, he asked him to relate some of his memories of both Martin and Atkins in an article for the magazine.

Roland, 71, was born and raised in Walworth and graduated from Wayne Central School; he retired after working 25 years at Xerox.

Like Atkins, he is a self-taught guitar picker who plays by ear. He said his high school music teacher advised him to learn to read music, but he never did so. Dick married Cathy Ebert of Palmyra, and they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June. The couple has four children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

'I just didn't figure I needed to learn to read music, when all I had to do was listen and I could play. I've been the leader of several bands over the years, and none of them had a problem with the fact that I couldn't read music.'

Dick and Cathy recently returned from the 23rd Annual CAAS Presents convention at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, where they were among more than 1000 Chet Atkins fans and guitar players gathered for four days of meeting and greeting, round-the-clock jam sessions and concerts.

'I loved the convention. We'll have to go back next year,' said Cathy, adding that the term 'Southern hospitality' is not just a phrase, but an actuality. 'They couldn't do enough for us,' she added.

Roland, who is also interested in Wayne County history, owns a small collection of guitars, which includes his pride and joy, a Martin signed by Atkins. His story about obtaining that signature is also told in his article as follows.

'Another time when Chet came to the Finger Lakes area of NYS, I thought I would like to have Chet autograph my old Martin D-28. After the concert, I asked my wife to go backstage where Chet was doing autographs to see if he would wait for me to go to the parking lot 9, (a half mile in the pouring rain) to retrieve my guitar. When I returned with my Martin, Chet was casually leaning against his dressing table talking with my wife. I didn't think too much about it then, but I do now days. Here was the greatest CGP waiting for little old me. Chet signed the guitar, picked it up, looked it over front, back and inside, repeated the serial number and then played it. We told each other a couple of golf jokes and cracked up.'

Recently Vern Young, a local country music legend in his own right, was involved in taping a music appreciation show with Marion's Raymond Braselton - the show will be aired on cable Channel 12. Roland was on hand for Young's taping and will himself be the subject of a program that will be aired later in the fall.

The other photo was taken in 1977, when Atkins was touring in New York. He gave a concert in Newark. Shown are Dick Roland, Chet Atkins, Dave Garrison (formerly of Marion) and Bill Owen, Newark's Mister Piano.

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