Chester Burton Atkins born 20 June 1924 - Died 30 June 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee, United States (1942–1996) . was an American guitarist and record producer. Together with Owen Bradley, Atkins created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country music's appeal to include adult pop music fans as well. His virtuoso picking style - inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul - brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene. Atkins produced records for Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Connie Smith, and Waylon Jennings. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.