"Country Gentleman" is a 1953 instrumental record by country music performer Chet Atkins, and it became something of a signature song for him, even becoming a nickname for him.
While listening to these records, I admit I am doing it with the superior air of someone listening from the future. The songs of the 1950s and early 1960s were lacking in social relevancy, recording techniques were still primitive, and they often catered to a sanitized audience. In contemporary musical history, every song from The Wabash Cannonball up until, oh, A Hard Day's Night is just a prelude to rock n roll becoming rock music and upending American culture. And listening to this song, I can see where I was wrong, and where I was right. The opening blues lick to this country song sounds like something that Hendrix might play. And the following guitar work is fluid, melodic, and in general a virtuoso performance. I didn't really know who Chet Atkins was before tonight, but from a two minute long, acoustical song I can already say that his playing seemed equal to many of the guitar gods of a decade later.
Except this: the song doesn't really go anywhere. The driving beat, the groove, that we expect from rock music isn't there. It is also an instrumental, so no lyrics telling of heartbreak, or rebellion, or nostalgia. It seems like quite good incidental music for a movie scene, but it lacks a sense of urgency that is naturally to someone growing up with rock music. It is an unfair judgement, but despite the high level of quality in this song, part me of can't judge it for what it is---but rather as a precursor to everything that rock music would be.