I imagine a large percentage of people considering purchasing this album play guitar and perhaps are students (or even masters) of the "fingerstyle" guitar genre that Chet had such a big influence on. This album is a virtual encyclopedia of fingerstyle guitar playing, probably belongs in the collection of anyone who plays it.The things I really like about this album: Chet's selection of songs to arrange for fingerstyle playing not only has tunes that you might expect (standards like "As Time Goes By" and "Embraceable You", roots and country-flavored pieces like "Arkansas Traveler," "Mystery Train," and a medley of cowboy songs), but also some tunes from the distant past ("Bicycle Built for Two" and the ragtime pieces "The Cascades" and "Magnetic Rag") and from distant shores ("Sukiyaki," a Japanese song that the top of the US charts in 1963, and "La Vie en Rose"). It seems like Chet's main criteria for working up an arrangement was finding a melody that caught his ear, and he was open to playing tunes from many genres. His harmonies are chord voicings on some of the more complex tunes like "As Time Goes By" and "I Only Have Eyes for You" are very tasty. Chet's playing is masterful...it sounds like most of these performances were single live takes, with no after-the-fact clean-up to polish them to 100% perfection, and I'm quite pleased to hear them this way.There are things about this album I'm less than crazy about, but these are probably more about my personal preferences than about shortcomings on Chet's part. I'm not crazy about the sound of the solid-body electric classical guitar that Chet uses on many of the tunes. It's okay for the most part, but compared with the acoustic classical guitar he uses for "La Vie en Rose" (a masterful performance in every way), it sounds slightly artificial, particularly the "rubber-band" tone of the bass strings when they are plucked more forcefully. Chet does play a couple of tunes on what sounds like an hollow-body electric as well (perhaps his Gretsch Country Gentleman signature model?), and this is a nice change of pace. The electric guitar tone, like the electric classical guitar tone, doesn't "breathe" as much as I'd like (at times sounding like a guitar plugged directly into the mixing board rather than being recorded by a microphone pointed at an amplifier).Also, Chet played beautifully, but occasionally a little on the safe and bland side. The level of inspiration varies from song to song, and is mostly high, but there are a few arrangements that aren't as great as the others. Luckily, there is a generous helping of material on the two CDs, and I'd rather have more to chose from even if it includes a few pieces that I like less than others.For those who might be weighing this against other possible purchases, I'd suggest taking a look (and listen if possible) to the two solo fingerstyle records by Earl Klugh ,who was deeply influenced by the playing of Chet Atkins (not only in terms of technique; Klugh also shares Chet's fondness for moving across the lines of music genre). There are many others to chose from as well, and I won't attempt to give an exhaustive list.Kudos to the Atkins estate for making this music available. The "just for kicks" vibe of these private home studio sessions is great...Chet playing just for himself, it seems, and us getting to listen in all these years later.