Band : Tommy Emmanuel

Album title : Center Stage

Label : Favored Nations Acoustic

Distributor : Rough Trade

Release date : 26/05/2008

Release : Double (live) CD

I'm sure the average Concrete Web reader will agree that generally speaking they couldn't be bothered with the works of an acoustic guitarist...but Tommy Emmanuel is one exceptional son of a gun! The soon-to-be 53 year-old (born on May 31 1955 in Upper Hunter, Musswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia) started to learn guitar at the age of 4 from his mother to accompany her playing lap steel guitar. At the age of 7, he happens to hear Chet Atkins play the song "Windy And Warm" over the car radio, and it became a moment in time which would inspire him to continuously improve his skills as a "fingerpicking" guitarist. In fact, at a certain moment Tommy wrote to his hero in Nashville, and eventually got a reply of encouragement and an open invitation to drop by and visit.

(The following based on a more elaborate article on Wikipedia)By the age of 9 he and his brother Phil had become working professional musicians, their father creating a family band, selling their house to buy two station wagons, and taking the family on the road touring Australia. Those were a couple of really hard years, the family often hungry, never settling in one place, the boys rarely attending school. Still, eventually the New South Wales Department Of Education caught up with the family, insisting that the children had to go to school regularly! When Father Emmanuel died in 1966, the family got settled in Parkes, some 300 kms inland from Sydney.

Tommy would eventually move to that capitol city, and winning several talent contests while still in his teen years, he came to be nationally noticed. By the late '70s he was not only doing session work on countless albums and jingles, but also played drums with his brother in the band Goldrush. From 1985 to 1988, Tommy joined the line-up of the reformed and popular '70s band Dragon. Performing on their 1986 album Dreams Of Ordinary Men (in Europe only released the year after), he also toured widely with the band (including a 1987 tour with Tina Turner). He then left the band to pursue his solo career.

Which had modestly started back in 1979, when his debut solo From Out Of Nowhere was issued through the somewhat smaller imprint Trafalgar. Having joined Dragon of course hightened his profile considerably, and prior to the release of 1987's Up From Down Under, Tommy had signed a deal with Sony. Getting back on the road on his own (and Tommy has since increased his profile by doin' world tours, and playing/ touring with the likes of his hero Chet Atkins, Sir George Martin, Air Supply, John Denver, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Joe Walsh,...)he returned in 1990 with Dare To Be Different, and even though the rest of the world would be in the grip of the whole Grunge thing, Tommy would continue to bring albums on an almost yearly basis [1992's Determination, 1993's The Journey and The Journey Continues (same album with bonus CD), 1994's Back On Azubazi, 1995's Innitiation, Terra Firma (with his brother Phil), and Classical Gas, which apparently was the temporary end of the Sony/ Columbia contract, as 1996's Can't Get Enough (in the US released as Midnight Driver, one year later) was released through Higher Octave. However, for the collaboration with Chet Atkins, released as 1997's The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World, the major label had managed to get the guitarist back under contract, which ended with 1998's Collaboration]. In 1994, Tommy also became a member of the John Farnham Band for a while.

In 2000, Tommy and his brother Phil performed live in Sydney at the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics, and event which was put on television worldwide. Wikipedia mentions that, when playing together on stage, the Emmanuel siblings are known to occasionally share and play just the one guitar, each having one free hand (must be grand to actually séé, don't you think?). Also in 2000, Tommy released Only, his first album for Favored Nations (who would also issue 2004's Endless Road and 2006's The Mystery. However, 2005's double album Live One and 2006's Happy Hour (a collaboration with Jim Nichols) were released through Original Works.

My personal introduction to the wonderful world of Tommy Emmanuel came with the 2006 DVD Live At Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, Australia (also released through Favored Nations, and review posted on 29/05/2006). Originally, our editor-in-chief felt this kind of acoustic music didn't quite belong on our somewhat harder oriented website, and he'd given me the DVD as an extra. But once I'd séén the thing, nothing could stop me from doin' my own little bit in order to promote the works of this truely extraordinary guitarist! Being a rush job, I didn't get much into Tommy history at that time...which is why I've thrown that upon you this time around! Untill now, I haven't heard a studio album by the man yet, and I've been told that usually he records his pieces in one take. Still, the live environment is probably where Tommy shines best anyway. So, what makes this guy so special, you might ask. Tommy himself has always said that his style is based on that of Atkins, which is sometimes referred to a "Travis picking". It's a style which sees the musician playing bass with the thumb and melody parts with the two or three remaining other finers at the same time. On top, Tommy occasionally plays percussion on the body of the guitar, and he's also mastered the techniques of pizzicato and flagellae playing. I can asure you this makes for some truly interesting music on the guitar. He's got three stage guitars, which have been frequently broken and repaired over the years. His main guitar is fitted with a pickup and an internal condenser, but he uses effects only sparingly, and the microphone fitting is mainly to allow him to move about somewhat on stage. In Tommy's set-list (which is usually formed on stage...except for the couple of guest appearances, of course) you'll find both Emmanuel originals and classic songs and instrumentals, perfectly weighed against each other in moods and intensities.

This very live album (recorded at a performance in Chico, California is opened by a couple of Emmanuel originals (hey...gótta promote that studio album, you know!), before he goes on to play a couple of traditionals ( among which "Nine Pound Hammer") and covers (including Billy Joel's "And So It Goes", in instrumental version). In between his own "Ruby's Eyes" and "Mombasa" (which closes the album), he also brings an energized instrumental medley of some The Beatles tunes...all of which is completely instrumental! That this succeeds in keeping the audience happy is certified by a couple of enthoused reactions. Disc two opens with Tommy inviting mouth harmonica player Bob Littell to the stage. Together, they go trough cover versions of "Working Man Blues", "Georgia On My Mind", "House Of The Rising Sun" (the first and latter as the only songs in the whole of the set) and “Amazing Grace”. When Littell leaves the stage, Tommy goes on to tell the audience a story about that little guitar-bewildered boy he'd met the evening before. The 6 ensuing tracks (of which the almost 11-minute "Initiation" comes out the most surprising, as it sees the guitarist playing with guitar pedal effects for a truly spell-binding atmospheric piece) are all Emmanuel originals.

If I'm not mistaken, this double-disc CD will also appear in DVD version...which I personally feel is a bit close to the previous one (only two year ago), but then I truly believe that you'll find nó Tommy Emmanuel fan about to complain about the possibility that keeping up with TE releases might be on the expensive side! I mean, Emmanuel really brings top-notch material...and here's hoping the website might get sent The Man's next studio album too! Although the album deserves a top rating, we are (or rather, I am) not in the habit of giving points to such a "best of" sorts of collection of songs! Which will not prevent me from putting Center Stage high on that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine!

Tony.