From Wikipedia:
Chester Burton “Chet” Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001) was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country’s appeal to adult pop music fans as well.
From Allmusic:
Without Chet Atkins, country music may never have crossed over into the pop charts in the ’50s and ’60s. Although he is an exceptionally talented guitarist with hundreds of solo records to his credit, Atkins’ largest influence came as a session musician and a record producer. During the ’50s and ’60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonk.
— Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Industry awards
- 1967 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1968 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1969 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1981 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1982 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1983 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1984 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1985 Instrumentalist of the Year
- 1988 Instrumentalist of the Year
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
- Inducted in 1973
- 1971 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Jerry Reed – Me and Jerry
- 1972 Best Country Instrumental Performance – “Snowbird”
- 1975 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Merle Travis – The Atkins-Travis Traveling Show
- 1976 Best Country Instrumental Performance – “The Entertainer”
- 1977 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Les Paul – Chester and Lester
- 1982 Best Country Instrumental Performance – Country After All These Years
- 1986 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Mark Knopfler – “Cosmic Square Dance”
- 1991 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Mark Knopfler – “So Soft, Your Goodbye”
- 1991 Best Country Vocal Collaboration with Mark Knopfler – “Poor Boy Blues”
- 1993 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Jerry Reed – Sneakin’ Around
- 1993 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award’
- 1994 Best Country Instrumental Performance with Asleep at the Wheel, Eldon Shamblin, Johnny Gimble, Marty Stuart, Reuben “Lucky Oceans” Gosfield & Vince Gill – “Red Wing”
- 1995 Best Country Instrumental Performance – “Young Thing”
- 1997 Best Country Instrumental Performance – “Jam Man”
- Posthumously inducted in 2002
w/ Earl Klugh – “Goodtime Charlie’s Got The Blues”:
Album of the day:
Other June 30:
- Wilco (the album) is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock group Wilco which was released June 30, 2009. Prior to release, Wilco streamed the album on their website. The album was nominated for an Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.
Released June 30, 2009 Recorded January 2009 at Roundhead studios in Auckland, New Zealand
The Wilco Loft, Irving Park,Chicago, IllinoisGenre Alternative Rock Length 42:52 Label Nonesuch Producer Jim Scott, Wilco 
- Florence Glenda Ballard Chapman (June 30, 1943 – February 22, 1976) was an American singer and a founding member of the Motown group The Supremes. From 1963 until 1967, Ballard sang on 16 Top 40 hit Supremes’ singles, ten of which hit number-one on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1967, Motown CEO Berry Gordy decided to remove Ballard from the Supremes. After being dropped from the group, Ballard struggled with a solo career in the late 1960s and spent much of the last five years of her life in relative poverty. In 1976, Ballard died of cardiac arrest at the age of thirty-two. Her death has been called “one of rock’s greatest tragedies”.
-Egil