Tommy Emmanuel

8th December 2004
City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney, Australia
"Hi Tommy... would you ever come to Singapore to perform? I'm sure there're lots of your fans over there..."

"Oh Singapore. Yes... I was there a couple of years ago... Hong Kong right?"

23 October 2006
Victoria Theatre, Singapore
"It's great to be performing here in hot Singapore..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1997
NTU Hall 4 Block 27, Cedric's room
"Hey Choco... check out this CD... "Finger-pickers Rule the World" by Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel..."

That was my introduction to Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel... I was playing more classical guitar music and knew more about classical guitar than acoustic...

I first met Cedric in 1990, during a Singapore Classical Guitar Society (SCGS... not the other SCGS we all are so familiar with) camp for JC guitar club members... He was from NJC... was my room-mate then... he's a very talented guitar player already back then... I was only starting out...

Then we went NS, and I met him again in the School of Medical Medicine... He became my buddy in the platoon... He took the lower deck, while I slept above... Well, no more guitar playing in camp then... but NS and combat medic training added to our "something in common" list... no six-string instrument to play with... but we had a ball of a time poking each other's veins for blood infusion practice... yah, sounds a bit gory and sadistic... but who else is there to practice on but each other...

After the course, we were posted to different units... He went to 2 SIR, while I went to 20 SA... incidentally, both units were in Amoy Quee Camp... had another 2 years of contact as both our medical centres often work together to smoke through the army auditors when they come to do stock-taking... But I'm straying off from my story...

Then after NS, we both went to NTU... and we got into the same Hall... though not room-mates, we often come together at night for jamming sessions... well, being poor uni-undergrads, the instrument of choice were our battered classical guitars from our JC guitar club days... and beat our guitars we did... hell of a good time...

And we did that for 3 years in Hall 4...

And he was the one who introduced acoustic guitar music to me... and a few years after graduation, it was Cedric who introduced acoustic guitars to me as well... I was at his house in Bishan after watching a guitar concert... his wife, Dawn, who's my guitar club president back in AJC, played some drums while I played his acoustic guitar... and I was hooked on acoustics...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming back to Tommy Emmanuel... there aren't many of his recordings in the 90s available in Singapore... but he's one of those acoustic guitarists who were influenced by the legendary Chet Atkins, the father of finger-picking... it's a genre which fuses jazz, country, blues, contemporary, and bluegrass all together...

TE's scaling on the fingerboard is ridiculously fast... hearing it on recording is one thing... watching him play it ridiculously fast live is out of this world...

I first saw him perform in a live setting on a DVD I bought online... I was blown away by what he did with his guitar... his Australian-made Maton guitar was so beated that the layer of finishing on the soundboard was already worn off... he played his guitar like the harp, snare drums, bass, electric guitar, piano, percussion... if you think you could only pluck or strum on the strings, he'll take your breath away with the amazing sounds that he could produce from his guitar... and it's just a normal guitar...

I was so inspired by his playing at one stage that I bought my grossly priced Taylor 714 grand auditorium guitar... but there's no way I could play like him...

I bought his CDs online from Amazon as I couldn't find it in the stores here... and it was sheer coincidence that I managed to find out that he was performing in Sydney exactly at the time I was planning to visit Sydney in December 2004...

And oh boy... I was like a little kid all over again... excited and mesmorised were understatements... seeing him playing live is well worth the air ticket to Sydney...

Couldn't pass the chance to get his autograph and speak with him then... and I didn't quite believe that he would consider coming over to S'pore to perform...

But he did last night...

Seeing him live for the 2nd time, the tunes were still familiar, but just like any great artistes, he never plays his tunes the same way every time... and that's the way I like it... breaking free from the form... freedom to improvise... and lots of surprises at every turn of the tune... could be a new synchopation, an additional slippery scale, some enchanting hammer-ons and pulling offs, new harmonics melody etc...

And I feel happy for the younsters in the audience last night... Reminded me of myself when I was still in JC... when my friends and I would catch those visiting guitarists brought in by Mr Alex Abishigenaden (yes, he's HER father)... Mr A, as we would call him, was my guitar club's conductor... he's another inspirational figure who sparked off my passion in guitars... but shall leave that to another entry...

Back to the young audience, I'm happy and excited for them because they finally get to see a master at work on stage... I could hear the audience gasp and cheer in amazement with every trickery and masterful exhibition of how a guitar could be played... And I'm very very sure that many will walk away inspired to play just like him...

I've grown out of such feelings of wanting to play like him... I'll never be anywhere near his standard... but I've grown to enjoy and devour such eloquence and immerse myself completely in such lovely music...

It's always a joy to hear great guitarists play live on stage... I get the same kind of blessed feeling at Tommy Emmanuel, John Williams, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and Martin Tayler's concerts... All of them are masters of their craft... They are talented... and they enjoy what they are doing...

TE said during the concert that it is very important that the guitarist, the guitar and the heart have to come together as one in order to play it well... He didn't have to fret over performing on stage because he was just being himself...

How true... In everything we do in life, how congruent and consistent it would be, if we could be doing something that is most natural from deep within our souls... And that's where greatness comes from...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amidst all the work related stress lately, TE's concert gave me the much needed breather and perspective... for over 2 hours, my mind was released of everything else...

He promised that he'll come again next year... And till then, here's a sample of his greatness... In case you are wondering where's his band, he plays solo...