The Nashville String Band made six records between 1969 and 1972, featuring
Chet Atkins and the musical comedy team of
Homer & Jethro with a group of Nashville session musicians. The ten instrumentals range from the very familiar "Colonel Bogey March" (easily recognized by fans of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai) to "Rocky Top," "Red Wing" (a favorite of musical comedy great
Spike Jones in the 1940s), and the tearjerker country ballad "Green, Green Grass of Home." Although the session is a tad overproduced with a stingy length of just 24 minutes, and it doesn't sufficiently focus on the solo capabilities of each man, this long out of print RCA LP still has great appeal. One reason is the priceless album jacket, with the three players as gun-wielding masked bandits on the front cover, and smiling unmasked with their instruments in place of guns on the back. ~ Ken Dryden