by Greg Adams

Chet Atkins, the country boy whose catholic tastes deserve some of the credit (or blame) for pushing country music toward the pop mainstream in the '60s, serves up exclusively pop and jazz material on his 1961 album Chet Atkins' Workshop. "Whispering" and "Lullaby of Birdland" are two of the jazz standards, while instrumental renditions of the Debbie Reynolds hit "Tammy" and Doris Day's "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, WIll Be)" are pure pop. Atkins' relaxed fingerpicking works the material into a smooth consistency that sometimes belies the complexity of his technique, but the album is an engaging listen and an effortless-sounding intersection of diverse styles. Atkins was an album artist, and Chet Atkins' Workshop, though failing to produce a charting single, made the Top Ten and became his best-selling LP.