Note- this blog post is about the Tommy Emmanuel show from February of 2008.
I’ve been hearing “the greatest guitar player in the world” tag applied to Tommy Emmanuel for some time now, so I was looking forward to finally seeing him in person. I’m actually a little late in getting around to Emmanuel and his music. He’s very well known in his native Australia and has a career which spans over 40 years. The Grammy nominated Emmanuel has performed and recorded with everyone from the late, great Chet Atkins to Les Paul, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and the list goes on.
Upon arriving at the Playhouse, I immediately noticed a huge crowd of what appeared to be loyal, hardcore Tommy Emmanuel fans. This is always a good sign. Artists aquire fans like these only through years and years of heavy touring and decades of stellar recordings. Joining me was my friend and fellow guitarist Keith Cowart. Keith appreciates great guitar playing and I was curious to see his response.
Now here’s the hard part – how do I describe the Tommy Emmanuel experience… One thing I know is that you cannot say that Tommy Emmanuel is just a guitar player. That’s like saying Tiger Woods is just a golfer. No, Tommy Emmanuel is more like a force of nature! With no band, just the man and his guitar, Emmanuel comes on stage and seizes control. Exhibiting complete mastery of his instrument, Emmanuel at first plays hard, loud and aggresive, intentionally overplaying, which I’m sure he does just to see the guitar players in the audience shake their heads in amazment. It was clear right from the start that Emmanuel was enjoying himself immensley. After a lifetime of playing his music all over the world it was clear that Saturday night in Atlanta, Tommy Emmanuel was having the time of his life.
Something you notice right from the start is the condition of Emmanuel’s guitars. The finish is gone from huge areas on the top and sides. That’s because Emmanuel, also an accomplished percussionist, at times uses his guitars like a drum, creating an intense listening and visual impression. Tapping, thumping, beating, drumming and scratching on different parts of the guitar body yields a complete drum kit, and the shear volume creates a thunderous effect.
The set list was not all like this however, some of my favorite moments were the softer more melodic songs in which Emmanuel displays huge amounts of creativity and emotion. Some of the standouts for me were his rendition of the old standard “Mona Lisa” which he dedicated to someone in the audience celebrating a birthday. Another was the Beatles’ “Michelle” which Emmanuel played almost exclusively utilizing the guitar’s natural harmonics. Another is a beautiful tune Emmanuel wrote, perhaps one of his best known, called “Angelina” which you can view here on YouTube.
This review would not be complete without a mention of what is perhaps Emmanuel’s tour de force. A song which he has been developing for over 25 years. It’s called “Initiation” and it’s never played the same way twice. Using recording studio techniques like delay and looping live on stage, Emmanuel creates a soudtrack for the aboriginal outback of his homeland. Using an array of percussive techniques on the body and strings of his guitar, Emmanuel conjurs up wind and rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes, flocks of birds in flight and solitary ones calling from somewhere deep in a remote forest, drumbeats of aboriginal natives dancing around a bonfire echo across miles of desolate outback. I’ve seen recording studio techniques like this used on stage by other artists in the past and it struck me then as kind of a gimmick, but in the hands of Emmanuel these same techniques are elevated to an art form, not to mention a complete sensory experience.
So you see, you can’t say that Tommy Emmanuel is just a guitar player. He’s that and more, but what comes across more than anything is his love for music and the audience with which he shares it.
Opening the show, and later joining Emmanuel on stage were The Greencards. This was my second time to see this group and they are excellent musically and vocally. A real treat was that their current guitarist is none other than 17 year old Georgian Jake Stargel.
