More of That Guitar Country

The followup album to Guitar Country, More of That Guitar Country spawned a bigger hit than anything on its predecessor -- or anything in Chet Atkins' long career for that matter. That tune was "Yakety Axe" -- a retitled cover of Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax," which itself was inspired by the Coasters' "Yakety Yak" -- a rapid-fire, barnyard-flavored tune that rose to number four on the country singles charts of 1965. As it happens, this was a deceptively flamboyant leadoff track for one of Atkins' least-cluttered, mostly reined-in, and most musical albums of the mid-'60s, searching for good material wherever he can find it, even outside the cloistered world of Nashville. With a subdued intro as a temporary decoy, "Old Joe Clark" gets exactly the kind of fingerpicking, fingerbusting performance fans expect from this guitarist. The Johnny Cash hit "Understand Your Man" gets a neat, genteel, two-beat rendition that reminds one of its close resemblance to Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It