Pair get Grammy surprises.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

Nokie Edwards and Mason Williams would seem to have little in common.

Edwards, after all, is a rock 'n' roll guy, guitarist for one of the most popular guitar bands of all times.

And Williams is Oregon's musician laureate. His music is more esoteric. Jazz, classical, Latin and folk all find a home in Williams' repertoire.

Yet both were raised in Oklahoma and now call Lane County home. Both participated in this summer's Chet Atkins Appreciation Society festival in Nashville. Both are big names in the world of instrumental music: Williams wrote and recorded one of the most popular guitar songs of all times, "Classical Gas," while Edwards, with the Ventures, recorded "Walk, Don't Run" and "Hawaii 5-0."

Oh, and did we mention that the Ventures once recorded "Classical Gas"?

OK. So these friends have a lot in common. Now add one more similar trait.

They both are nominees for the 47th Grammy Awards, to be held Feb. 13.

Edwards is a first-time nominee. His work on "20th Century Gospel: From Hymns to Blackwood Brothers Tribute to Christian Country," featuring Edwards, the Jordanaires and Art Greenshaw's Light Crust Doughboys, was nominated in the Southern, country or bluegrass gospel album category.

Edwards, who turns 70 next May, said he appreciates the recognition. "I'm very grateful to be nominated.'

Edwards got involved in this project through his previous work with the Light Crust Doughboys. Edwards and the Doughboys have recorded four albums on Doughboys leader Greenshaw's label.

`We did concerts and stuff together before,' Edwards said. `When I was in Texas, they wanted me to record some things with them. So we put together a couple of CDs and this is one that we did just not too long ago.'

Edwards' guitar work appears on six of the album's tracks, including "America the Beautiful."

`It turned out so good,' he said. "It's kind of country flavored. Instead of being slow, it's up-tempoed.'

Edwards was in Japan - where he and the Ventures are immensely popular and where he tours several times a year - when the nominations were announced Dec. 7. His wife, Judy, who runs the Nokie Edwards Fan Club, told him the good news.

`You never know what's going to happen,' he said. `I'm always surprised at anything you receive. ... It was great news.'

Judy Edwards was a bit more exuberant.

`It has been a long time coming,' she wrote in an e-mail. `I cried tears of joy and couldn't turn them off. I was walking on cloud nine.'

Williams, who won two Grammys in 1969 for "Classical Gas" and was nominated again in 1988 for "Country Idyll," is nominated for best pop instrumental album, for his EP "Music for the Epicurean Harkener."

`It's always a crapshoot when you try something like this," Williams said. "I was surprised as I could be. The tendency is to think about who you are and not what you do.

`I have to say that the Grammy is one of those things where what you do counts.'

The EP was released on Williams' Skookum Records. It has its roots in an uncompleted 1993 record that was planned for the Real Music label.

`(The songs) sat in a drawer for a few years, and I'd just work on them now and then for the heck of it,' he said. `A few years ago, I decided what they needed was strings.'

So he went back to Hollywood, to the famed Studio A of the Capitol Records building where Frank Sinatra and Nat `King' Cole recorded, and went to work finishing the tracks.

`Music for the Epicurean Harkener' allowed Williams to work with a lot of old friends. Hal Blaine - who recorded with Phil Spector and Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys and many more - played drums. Williams' friend, lead guitarist Rick Cunha, played the role of producer.

But the EP also has some Eugene connections. Williams' longtime collaborator Art Maddox worked on the arrangements. Local bass player Mark Schneider offered his talents. And Williams recorded all of his guitar parts at Don Ross Productions, where the EP also was mixed.

`It's an old family of friends who have gotten a wonderful surprise together," Williams said. "You have a vision of things, but you count on your friends to expand your vision and make it more than you envisioned."

Williams, who used to write comedy for `The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" back in the '60s - he even won an Emmy for it - said he was intrigued by the EP format.

`You know I'm always making up jokes," he said. "I say it's a good thing I didn't put those other six tunes on there.'

Both men plan to attend the ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb. 13. It's been many years since either one attended a Grammy ceremony, but they have some good memories.

Williams has a photo of himself taken with other winners that night in 1969 - Rod McEuan, Jose Feliciano and Glen Campbell. Edwards, meanwhile, remembers performing at a Grammy night sometime in the '60s with the Ventures.

He doesn't remember what they played - he guesses it was "Walk, Don't Run" - but he remembers the reaction they got.

`I remember that the Les Brown Orchestra was on there, too," Edwards said. "He came to us after our rehearsal and he said he couldn't believe the four of us could put out that big of a sound.'

CAPTION(S):

The Grammy nomination is a first for Nokie Edwards. Mason Williams won two Grammys for "Classical Gas."