He is the greatest guitar palyer of all the times...great player and great persone...i known him in a live concert...one of the beautiful days of my life
I am absolutely amazed by Tommy's playing. This is a beautiful rendition of both tunes! There in no player that is "best" at playing these songs period. Tommy, Chet, Jerry, Doyle, Richard are all top shelf fingerstyle masters. I wouldn't get tired of hearing all of them playing this medley in a row for hours. Each guitarist has a slightly different approach and throws in their own personal little touches. Different tempos, more or less staccato, dynamics, chord voicings. To me, as a full time guitarist of 40 years, these guitarists are all a buffet of pure pleasure! 🎸🎶👏🏼
I'm smiling again watching this. We saw Tommy about 2 weeks ago (first time). Also shedding a few tears, because it will probably be quite a while before we see him again in concert. Thanks for the great videos.
One of the greatest fingerstyle guitar players in the world!.....And he loves doing it it shows in his face and body language DL Pruitt Great Guitar Music Channel!
Im sure Jerry Reed would have been honored to have his friend Tommy play his music to the masses like in this video. Two guitar legends the both of them. Stupendous !!
@kanakaken im not gonna pretend like i know who most of those other guys are but that last point is very true. its much more enjoyable watching someone play whos really enjoying themselves. thats why it gets boring watching people like eric johnson and the like playing. good music but theres no feel to it. by the way its nice to be able to have an actual conversation with somebody on youtube. as opposed to having someone ramming their opinions down your throat. cheers.
he goes so fast but still retains the magic of the melody...he's ridiculously awesome...can play circles around 99.999 % of everybody...the only guys who can stand up to him in his realm is doyle dykes, chet, and lenny breau....that I've ever heard anyway...
@lart1990 I don't mind bluegrass in small doses but I can listen to TE almost all day. I like Ry Cooder, Tony Rice, Bob Brozman & may others but I keep coming back to TE. Even the great Chet Atkins said that he believed TE was the best finger picker in the world, god, what a gentleman he was. Some people may be technically better (I've yet to see them) than TE but when others play, it looks an effort. When TE plays he really is enjoying the moment & that joy is transmitted for all to see.
+rachele fogu Doyle's version is a little more interesting, but 6 of 1, half dozen of another with the two guys. Glad they're both playing so we can look back and forth.
Somehow Tommy seems to get a less tinny sound from his instrument than Doyle, a lot more mellow. Doyle with a Taylor is better than Doyle with a Guild, but I suspect that Tommy with a Yamaha would still get that more mellow sound.
Many of us can climb into a rental car, spend a couple of minutes identifying where stuff is, and drive off. Tommy could grab any six-string and make it sound like a Taylor/Larrivée, and play it with such enjoyment and expertise.
TE's influences are broad based and Chet himself had broader based tastes than many give him credit for. After all Chet was mentoring Nashville's finest talents for a couple of decades. Tommy says that he counts Django, Lenny Breau and George Benson as influences - along with stronger ones like Chet and Les Paul. Louis Armstrong is cited as saying that there's only two types of music- good & bad. Tommys excellence lies at least in part in always finding the good and making it better.
@iankyoko i dont think its about memory. he just know the guitar so well, he knows how every thing sound and he put the music togther in his head and of course his technic is so out of this world and his fingers are so flexible, he's just the perfect guitar player and a true musical gunies. and ofcurse he practice it for about 45 years every day countless hours.
I must admit 'till I looked on YT I'd not heard Eric Johnson. Cliffs of Dover must have one of the longest ever intros, I almost turned it off because I couldn't figure where it was going, it had no theme. It just sounded like a bunch of appegio scale excercises stuck together. Not until the band kicked in, could I hear something that seemed to make sense.I also ckecked out your 'Wallaby vs Bouncer',almost cacked myself laughing.Check out the 3 I mentioned, you might like them. Go léir is fearr
Perhaps they are afraid that he will snap the neck of that guitar right off. Maybe they are guitar activists trying to save the guitars of the world from horrible abuse.
@kanakaken as long as your opinionated and not self righteous its grand. especially when it comes to music.i will check those guys out for sure. i see youre interested in irish music. staying on the point of guitarists. check out paul bradys arthur mcbride. hes a treasure.
@lart1990 I listened to Arthur McBride & I like it but then what's not to like, it's Irish. You're not from County Tyrone yourself are you? My interest in Irish music stems from when I used to play in a Scottish/Irish band in my youth. We used to play all kinds of music, mainly because our gigs were so varied, the band leader, Johny McCleod would take on anything. Every Sunday night we'd play at an Irish National Association dance & sometimes that followed a Robby Burns night. Go léir is fearr.
Cool ...Sands .. Kirk is a master .. The first one I saw was Lenny's 7 string and Struttin was I believe played on TE's nylon .. such a master TE & Kirk
I'm now completely obsessed with learning this song , and i have the same problem as Tommy of not having the ability to read music, so this is gonna be interesting
@metamorphosis67 I would agree that TE isn't heavy in Jazz; however, he does play some stuff that's on the edge and he has done a little jazz based on Django Reinheart's work. He has also played with Masa Sumide (maybe that's more funk than jazz.) He just has an incredible range of abilities in pretty much any genre, including rock (on electric). I wish he wold play more classical. Though I've never seen him use a classical guitar, he plays some classical on steel that's amazing.
I've been a guitar afficionado since first hearing Chet Atkins (not long after Tommy heard Windy and Warm on the radio). There are and have been some fabulous guitar players. I just can't find one to compary to Tommy.
@metamorphosis67 I agree. His earlier albums don't do it for me like his solo albums do. But the real treat is watching him perform. I did try comparing Lenny and Roy Clark and Doyle Dyches. Hard to pick. But none of them really make me feel like Tommy. I gotta say, sometimes I actually have to wipe away a tear after listening to some of his songs.
@synesthesia67 I kinda figured the double at the 2nd fret on D and A (I think you mean that one!) should not be played with your thumb but (both) with your middlefinger with a little bar (or a fast change if you're a bit more used to the tune.) I hope you find this useful.
@kanakaken no limerick city. thats pretty cool. any of your stuff online? Is it really bad that i had to look up the translation of "go léir is fearr"? hahaha.
Yeah Tommy masters his own arrangements ... Truly a master entertainer & of the guitars ... Cant make out what the make of this guitar ... large finger spacing and a big low end as well hmmmmmmmm Dave Alberta
@lart1990 I have nothing recorded, I used to have some practice tapes but they are long gone. I never considered myself good enough for real recordings & even less now for it is so long since I played professionally. I have a lot of Irish friends, few can speak Gaelic & those that do have trouble keeping up a conversation in it, so no, it's not bad.
@metamorphosis67 Tommy composed a song specially for Breau, its called "lenny bro". and he played a couple of times with joscho stephens and thats gypsy jazz :D. i think he can play it just as easy XD
Wonder what that guitar on the stand behind TE's head is thinking? Either 'Me next Tommy please!' or (more likely) 'Christ! .... Don't let him see me!!!!!'
@MarijnvdZaag he plays very similar to chet/tommy, I think he tends to use the same fingers but doesnt play bass with the thumb and then, say, string 4 assigned to index finger, string 5 middle finger etc..I think he might use thumb for bass notes only, but i also think he just plays every note on every string with every finger.
@mwmii790 I don't think TE's got too much of a Jazz influence. His main influence seems to be the Chet Atkins country fingerstyle which he's taken to its apotheosis. Jazz soloing when done well always adds another level of depth to the music. On the right tunes, TE creates the same level of depth just by sheer technique & sensitivity but i miss the added fruits of Jazz improv. Breau was a Jazz player raised on country who played a lot of other stuff also. TE seems to play everything but Jazz
Tommy and Doyle together....What a pair! So awesome! not this video by the way...I say that for those who don't know ...the song he played is a Doyle Dykes tune....or at least I think Doyle wrote it...I know he plays the living day lights out of it.
TE learned Struttin by listening to JR's original cassette recording. Said it took him a couple of months to work it out. Doyle is an awesome player but arranged neither of these tunes. Atkins and Reed!
He told the story of learning this tune after he would get done playing some dive in Asia every night for a month. Listening to Chets recording on cassette over and over till he figured it out. If the stories are true, Jerry prolly had a small window to record it before he forgot he even wrote it.
@lart1990 I replied to your last YT post, unfortunately I didn't hit 'Reply'. I had a look at your profil & was surprised how similar our tastes are. I try not to ram my opinions down people's throats, after all, it is only MY opinion, & not necessarily a good one. But fair warning to all, I can be opinionated when it's wanting.
Sorry I thought you were from the part of Ireland that's not british. Perhaps I should have said 'English' then. Sometimes it's a bit hard to seperate politics from the people so that when English is mentioned, particularly in this context, it means the political side, not so much the people. Our leader was pushed into bed with polies who held the balance of power, now they have done a complete reversal on election promises, just to stay in power, happens everywhere.
