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I've really gotten into good ol' blazing country, such as the stuff from Chet Atkins or Jerry Reed. I want to learn to play this style as well as I can, but it's tough because it is so far away from the stuff I usually play (rock/metal). For instance, if any of you know the song Jerry's Breakdown, that main head just seems way too much for me to handle. Anyone with experience playing this kind of stuff have advice? Specifically about technique, as that seems to be the thing I'm struggling with most...

I was thinking about that yesterday man ! I don't know anything about how to play properly that kind of stuff, but I'm sure someone here will have some things to say !

how did you learn to play rock/metal? you probably have been listening to it for a while and you're familiar with it.
Along with reading and learning about country stuff and whatnot, you should listen to it more until you're used to the common elements of it and are able to reproduce them, the rest is up to creativity.

You may want to check out Steve Morse since he does rock and chicken picken. I found this vid on youtube but my soundcard is screwed at the moment so I don't know if the audio is any good. Hope so though and hopefully it helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuXPBoTz2Oc

Dang, I completely forgot about Steve Morse.. And I actually have that video here somewhere.
He's like country meets heavy rock, very nice stuff.

Toby is my kind of country

what an artist
he has fun with it too

and he's cool as a catfish

Checkout Martin Tallstrom website for some tips on traditional country playing. There are some tabs in PDF format and a number of videos. http://www.tallstrom.com

See Martin's version of Jerry's Breakdown below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJkE9Cck ... PL&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPTK3dpfn8I

Learn to use your fingers to pick. The idea behind playing Chet's music is that his thumb plays a bass note, then skips up to hit some chord tones while his fingers are playing a melody. It's too much for just a pick and too much to even chicken pick (which refers to the specific technique of holding a pick between your thumb and forefinger while using your middle and ring fingers to play other tones). Also, get that half time shuffle rhythm in your head/body. Learn to feel those two beats per measure and swing the quarter notes. The main technical difficulty, though, will be getting that right hand in shape.