This music comes from my home (Kentucky / Tennessee) and Tommy is the world's best ambassador of this great music... the torch has been passed from the greats like Merle Travis and Chet Atkins to this man... and God bless him for picking up the torch! :-) THANK YOU for posting these great recent videos! :-)
Super rendition of a classic, TOmmy's an awesome showman, as well as one of the greatest alive, just astonishing. Thank God for Doc Watson, or we'd have never heard Tommy do this. He overplays everything for me, but that doesn't stop me for being flat awed by him.
First time that I`ve ever heard Tommy sing. Can`t understand why he hasn`t been recording more vocals on his albums. Actually does he sing on any of his albums? Love it! Thanks for the clip. Tony
you took the words out of my mouth, he played in my home town, Athlone, ireland, a few years ago and he blew people away. Bruce Mathiske is another genius that plays regularly in athlone, i almost like bruce more because his playing is that bit more musical wheres tommys can be extremely technical...
It's official that Tommy constantly flashes his own and everybody else's ass off, and I'm happy for that. Just the sweep picking around 5:20 is worth a standing ovation itself.
Tommy is quite a bit more than just speed and flash. He's a classy dude and one of the hardest working musicians in the biz today. His shows are always amazing.
I sorta learned a trick from this- that scratch/hammeron thing at the end...only I used rosin pitch instead of defacing my guitar. It sounds great and definately turns heads at shows! I wish I could play just 1/2 as good as him! Someday huh? ;P
@Mouldytone Look up "Today is Mine" (a Jerry Reed song) on his album Endless Road. He sings the whole song acapella. The lyrics are very moving. You're right that he doesn't sing that much. His trademark is that he plays the melody on the guitar (instead of singing it) with the rhythm and bass parts at the same time. I've heard him say he's not a singer. He only sings when the lyrics really touch him. Listen to what he says about this deep song ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-71MC4Ai5oQ8.html
No point trying to analyse or compare... Tommy is a showman - fast and flashy.. that's what he does. He's no Doc and Doc is no Tommy. Variety is the spice of life :-)
Maybe the guitar is incognito, too. Fretkiller is awesome. (actually, I don't think they are the same, but it was a great connection that ridiculousness25 made.)
@MassimoAlberto sir i think you should check out a Bireli Lagrene then please get back to me. you'll see best in the world although Tommy here does seem to know what he's doin
ROFL... Fretkillr is amazing... but he is not Tommy Emmanuel... Fretkillr has someone named Dusty Bridges managing his affairs on RU-vid, that much is known... and Tommy has nobody on his staff with that name... his manager is Gina Mendello -- Fret and Tommy have completely different voices, there is no getting by that aussie accent on Tommy's voice and the Cajun/Mississippi voice of Fret... They are my two favorite acoustic musicians, so y'all have great taste! :-)
...and Dizzy Gillespie, Tal Farlow, Lou Donaldson, Max Roach, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Grady Tate and don't forget Earl! (...that's enough heavyweights to cancel out Clay Aiken.)
hah... as for the fretkiller argument... i agree with bigdood. fret is no TE. he is a good player... but his hands are diferent. watch some high quality vids of tommy then some of fret. and just gotta say... Dusty Birdges? that dosnt sound like an alias at all
i like it when tommy stays in the genre. the problem is that he is TOO good and overplays sometimes. when he gets into new agey territory, that's when he loses me.
why make an opera out of a simple song? doc watson will always be the version.guitar gymnastics don't impress. if ya wanna see sheer ability django is the man
Super rendition of a classic, TOmmy's an awesome showman, as well as one of the greatest alive, just astonishing. Thank God for Doc Watson, or we'd have never heard Tommy do this.
