by William Ruhlmann
Chet Atkins turns in a classy effort here as one of the four acoustic guitars in the First Nashville Guitar Quartet, his partners being Liona Boyd, John Knowles, and John Pell. The idea for the tuxedo-clad, cowboy-boot-wearing group is to ape the style of a string quartet, just using acoustic guitars, and they succeed on a range of material including the Anne Murray hit &You Needed Me,& John Philip Sousa's &Washington Post March,& the Walt Disney favorite &Someday My Prince Will Come,& and &Londonderry Air.& Guitars may not be about to replace violins, violas, and cellos in the chamber music category, but this group proves that they can assume a respectable place in country-pop music, anyway.