Released a year after
Me & Jerry,
Me & Chet is decidedly more produced than its predecessor -- there are traces of strings and wah-wah guitars, modern rhythms bubbling underneath the surface -- but the pleasures remain the same. It's still a gas to hear
Reed and
Atkins trade off licks, to intertwine their lines so smoothly it'd be hard to tell where one began and one ended, if they weren't separated into their own speakers (
Jerry on the left,
Chet on the right).
Me & Chet doesn't rely on pop hits the way
Me & Jerry does -- "Mystery Train" and "I Saw the Light" are the two big hits here, sitting next to Liszt's "Liebestraum," Cindy Walker's "Flying South," and a fair number of copyrights by
Jerry, along with
Chet's "Nashtown Ville" -- so the focus is almost entirely on the picking, which remains a pure pleasure to hear. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine