Tommy Emmanuel: the best guitarist ever

Subject: Tommy Emmanuell
From: GUEST,Ritchie
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 06:56 AM

I've tried to search the threads for any previous but can't find anything !

I've just seen the best guitarist ever, absolutely amazing and what a nice guy as well.

If you get a chance to see him ...go...I think he's on in somerset this week and then on to Australia. Look up his web site it's very well produced.(sorry I'm no good at the blue clicky things.)

I saw him at 'the Buddle' on saturday and was so impressed I took 4 people to see him on monday at 'the Ropery'and they were all in complete awe and admiration for his performance.

Tommy Emmanuell..!! watch this space.

regards Ritchie

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Gary T
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 09:27 AM

I had never heard of him before seeing him at this year's Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. My jaw dropped. He is an amazing talent. The word got around quickly and after his first set he packed the stands and then some. Some of what he does is probably more impressive if you're seeing him, as even then it's hard to believe that all you hear is coming from one person with one guitar.

He struck me as he did you, a pleasant fellow not too full of himself. It was a joy to see and hear him.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Gary T
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 10:24 AM

And here's the blue clicky.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 09:06 PM

Hi,

We talked about Tommy in one of the Sydney 2000 Olympics-related threads. He played at the Closing (?) Ceremony, I think.

I guess we kind of take his genius for granted over here in Oz, but we remember it when other people see him perform for the first time.

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: GUEST,Ritchie(not really a guest)
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 07:14 AM

Hi Helen,

You're right about that feeling about seeing him for the first time.You sit and think 'yes,that's good' and then he plays some jazz, then some blues, then Lennon & McCartney and you become lost for words and everyone in the room is looking at each other and shakin' their heads and then suddenly he starts to bang on his guitar and at the end of that number everyone in the room stands up, whistles, claps, shouts, stamps their feet and still manage to stand open jawed in amazement.At the end you just want to tell everybody. It seems that 'our' investment in setting up Oz is starting to pay dividends.Thank you Helen, now send us some of your weather.

love and best wishes Ritchie

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 07:38 PM

'Investment'? Hmmm!

Let me see.

List of supplies:

Convicts: a few hundred shiploads Soldiers, brutal: a few hundred shiploads Politicians: too many A monarch - delete this item, superfluous

LOL - I think I had better stop now.

Maybe it's really like the rats in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was the Aboriginal/Koori people who set England up as a social experiment and then sailed around the other side of the world to watch the outcomes from a distance. Experiment got a little out of hand, though. (grin)

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 07:38 PM

'Investment'? Hmmm!

Let me see.

List of supplies:

Convicts: a few hundred shiploads Soldiers, brutal: a few hundred shiploads Politicians: too many A monarch - delete this item, superfluous

LOL - I think I had better stop now.

Maybe it's really like the rats in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was the Aboriginal/Koori people who set England up as a social experiment and then sailed around the other side of the world to watch the outcomes from a distance. Experiment got a little out of hand, though. (grin)

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 07:38 PM

'Investment'? Hmmm!

Let me see.

List of supplies:

Convicts: a few hundred shiploads Soldiers, brutal: a few hundred shiploads Politicians: too many A monarch - delete this item, superfluous

LOL - I think I had better stop now.

Maybe it's really like the rats in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was the Aboriginal/Koori people who set England up as a social experiment and then sailed around the other side of the world to watch the outcomes from a distance. Experiment got a little out of hand, though. (grin)

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 07:38 PM

'Investment'? Hmmm!

Let me see.

List of supplies:

Convicts: a few hundred shiploads Soldiers, brutal: a few hundred shiploads Politicians: too many A monarch - delete this item, superfluous

LOL - I think I had better stop now.

Maybe it's really like the rats in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was the Aboriginal/Koori people who set England up as a social experiment and then sailed around the other side of the world to watch the outcomes from a distance. Experiment got a little out of hand, though. (grin)

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Snuffy
Date: 09 Dec 00 - 11:43 AM

Weren't they mice?

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 10 Dec 00 - 08:03 PM

You could be right Snuffy. Haven't re-read it in quite a while.

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 10 Dec 00 - 08:09 PM

Finally, I can look up the Forum Search and get answers rather than error messages.

The first thread was started about Tommy Emmanuel, and the other three mention him in the listed messages and elsewhere in the thread as well.

Helen

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25554

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26032#310737

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25553#301113

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=23223#256252

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: GUEST,Peg
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 11:27 AM

I had an uncle named Tommy Emmanuel...

(hey I am no longer a member! what happened to my cookie?)

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Gary T
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 12:34 PM

Peg, I'll bet those mice Snuffy mentioned ate it.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Gary T
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 09:53 AM

I just found out that Tommy is signed up to be at Winfield in September, 2001. Wherever you live, it's worth the trip.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Metchosin
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 02:45 PM

Well I obviously found this fellow a bit late.......Holy sh*t!!! Phenominal player! Spent a good portion of my late nights around Christmas on Youtube and particularly enjoyed the video with Jake Shimabukuro and also his harmonics lesson.....yeah right....LOL

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: GUEST,Murray MacLeod
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 03:02 PM

The only other fingerstyle guitar player around at the moment who has the same jaw-dropping impact as Tommy Emmanuel is Doyle Dykes. He has quite a few YouTube videos uploaded and is well worth checking out.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 03:03 PM

I saw Tommy Emmanuel in Perth Australia, and it was great.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 03:04 PM

and he comes over here to Scotland to play at the guitar festival in Ayrshire

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Helen
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 03:32 PM

Tommy has a brother Phil Emmanuel who is also a wiz on guitar, but his style and his music preferences are different, so neither is a clone of the other and both are well worth watching in their own right. Phil also performed at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Hubby & I had the pleasure of seeing him perform at our local licensed Club, which Hubby is involved in, and the auditorium was packed with people, loving every minute of his performance.

The two of them are national treasures.

Helen

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: van lingle
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 09:12 AM

T.E is really phenomenal and very musical. Another hot player you'll find on youtube is Scotty Anderson. His arrangement of A Taste of Honey is amazing.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 01:34 PM

Greencard Carol Young says Tommy Emmanuel is the Australian equivalent of Elvis. At Winfield this year I watched an Australian woman as she realized that the bloke standing in the aisle next to her was Tommy Emmanuel. Elvis wouldn't have gotten a bigger reaction. He was cool about the whole thing - posed for pictures, signed everything in sight, and chatted with her for quite a while.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: shepherdlass
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 01:14 PM

He's amazing isn't he? Especially live ... "Initiation" is overpowering - he fills the hall with a wall of sound, all from one guitar.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 10:47 PM

YouTube - Tommy Emmanuel - Angelina

YouTube - Tommy Emmanuel - Classical Gas

YouTube - Tommy Emmanuel - Improvisation (RARE)

YouTube - Tommy Emmanuel - The Hunt

This man is the most awesome guitar player I've ever heard.


A

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 11:25 PM

Hmmm. Never seen him and I can't do YouTube, but Maw in Law saw him the first couple years at Winfield and was as impressed as anybody. Then, some time later (few years, can't remember when for sure) said he had 'changed' and she'd never go see him again.

Not exactly sure what the 'change' was. Maybe the fame head swell thing? I don't know, but will ask Mom when I can.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 11:57 PM

I believe Tommy is scheduled at WVA again this year. My sister keeps telling me to look him up - as he's supposedly been friendly with her kid (who claims he's almost as good as Tommy¹, at least), but I haven't been able to get close enough even to wave.

With the amount of campground pickin' there, people do like it if the "stars" drop in and play a bit with the rabble. Tommy has been described as "not very sociable" due to failure to make the rounds very visibly; but when you're popular enough that everybody wants a piece of ya' - you likely have to be a bit fussy about where you pass out your pieces or leave them layin' 'round.

¹ I can't say how good the kid (nephew - probably about Tommy's age?) really is since it's been about 30 years since I've heard him play, and I've only barely heard him brag a couple of times since then.

John

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 12:25 AM

The Guitar League books him into Syracuse, NY every spring. I am forced to attend every year being a league member. He does workshops and lessons as well as the show.

My one com[plaint is he is overwhelmingly loud. But I have very nice ear plugs and the show is very manageable. "Initiation" is amazing. But so then is everything I have heard him play. Look for the "Sheldon Hall Concert" DVD. Mombasa and Mona Lisa are my faves.

Don

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Muttley
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 05:07 AM

Helen wrote: Maybe it's really like the rats in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy .....


Sorry Helen - Snuffy is correct - they were, in fact mice - Benji Mouse and I can't remember the other one ?Jimmy or something; someone 'borrowed' my set and hasn't returned it - and with my short term memory loss I can't recall who it was ... bugger it!


And Ritchie wrote: It seems that 'our' investment in setting up Oz is starting to pay dividends.

Again; sorry Ritchie; but Tommy Emmanuel is actually Koorie by birth - Aboriginal. So as Helen says: Maybe he WAS back over there checking on your progress!!! Still any nation that can produce both Liverpool AND Celtic FC's can't be all bad (unless you take Arsenal, Everton and Rangers into consideration)

Muttley

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: bankley
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:52 PM

he got a lot from Chet Atkins as a mentor and personal friend... I think Dolf Lungren once said, "Tommy is the best two guitarists that I've ever heard"....

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Muttley
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 02:58 AM

One has to be impressed by ANYone who can wind out a recognisable tune on the strings of a Maton guitar by picking and hammering at/on the strings BETWEEN the tuning pegs and the nut !!!!!!!!!!

Muttley

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Brendy
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 09:34 PM

... A Maton 'Tommy Emmanuel', no less.
David Byrne plays one as well.

It's on my wish list.
I wish...
... I was as precise as him...

B.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 02:46 AM

A little off topic, but at 20 Aug 07 - 11:57 PM I mentioned the "unknown picker," my nephew – Zach - who's bragged about playing right up there with Tommy. The last time I heard the "kid" (now about 47? y.o.) play was around 1965, and I'd vouch for him showing some talent then, although he was only about 5 back then.

My son found out the name of a group Zach's been playing with recently:

Blue Horizon appears to be the name of a group with which he's playing now. As with many groups, the site appears to be a little out of date; but at least it confirms that he's still playing.

The Hot Club of Boulder featured the band at their "Swingfest3":

"Blue Horizon played two terrific sets. There were lots of guitar
players at the festival. We all tipped our hats to a master. Zach is a
guitar player's guitar player!"

Longmont Jazz Association: 2007 has the comment (a little down the page):

"Blue Horizon, a Longmont band, features Zach Bergen on lead guitar. Zach's chops are second to none; he has performed with Australian guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel. Peter Levine is the second guitarist and lead vocalist. Bassist Frank Tonge sings harmony. Blue Horizon's virtuoso mandolinist, Dan Ault, will not be available for the festival, so the legendary Charlie Provenza will be sitting in."

So anyone in the Boulder/Longmont CO area might give a listen and let me know if he's really as good as he says. (??) If he might be, I'll try harder to holler at Tommy if he's at WVA next year.

John

Subject: Tommy Emmanuel, incredible guitarist
From: Genie
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 04:21 PM

"Best two guitarists I've ever heard!"- Yeah, that about sums it up!

I saw Tommy Emmanuel on a PBS special recently (or was it Austin City Limits?) and couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing.

Tommy Emmanuel: Mombasa & percussion solo

Can't help wondering how often he has to replace his guitar or at least have it refinished. On the PBS special, he started out with a nice finish on the front of the guitar and nearly all of it had been rubbed or scratched off by the end of the show, as he uses the front surface of the guitar as though it were a washboard and drum combination. LOL

Tommy Emmanuel: Pegao


Some other examples of his versatility:
Tommy Emmanuel: Beatles Medley

Tommy Emmanuel: Lewis & Clark

Tmmy Emmanuel: Nine-Pound Hammer

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: C-flat
Date: 06 Jul 10 - 10:39 AM

I saw him by accident, having heard that gypsy-jazz-player Joscho Stephan was appearing on the same billing.
Never heard of Tommy Emmanuel til then, and I couldn't believe my ears and eyes when he shared the stage with some fine guitarists of differing genres and dazzled everyone with his virtuosity in all and any style!!!
I'd have to say that, for me, he's the most complete all-round guitar player I've ever come across.
Almost a freak of nature!
As already stated here, he comes across as a nice guy too, taking time to talk with people afterwards, photos taken and autographs signed with a smile and a friendly word.
What I'd give to be that good......

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 06 Jul 10 - 12:16 PM

He is unquestionably one of the greatest of all time, and of course the inevitable is now happening, young kids half his age or less are starting to emulate him.

Check out this young prodigy and imagine what he will be like when he is Tommy Emmanuel's age.

scary ....

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel
From: DonMeixner
Date: 06 Jul 10 - 02:14 PM

Tommy plays Maton Guitars and they are given to him. He has a signature model. Youtube Tommy Emmanuel and Lauren Barrigar. Lauren is a friend a fellow member of the Guitar League.

Don

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel: the best guitarist ever
From: C-flat
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 03:56 AM

Quite right Murray,
The bar just keeps getting raised.

Bloody depressing for a 52 year-old trying to keep up !!!

That said, I'm busy passing on what few tricks & licks I've got to my 13 year-old daughter and she's playing really well. Kids just "get it" straight off, so her starting point is way past mine.

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel: the best guitarist ever
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 08:36 PM

how often does he replace his guitars??? need it for an assignment! HELP?!?

Subject: RE: Tommy Emmanuel: the best guitarist ever
From: GUEST,Molleman whopscdoodaday
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 08:39 PM

hey guest ummn not really sure but i think its alot. i know that doesn't really help soz bebs