Recently I met a guy that was able to turn my attention to guitar players that mainly play acoustic. Thanks to YouTube I got to witness some performances that rocked my world. Yeah I have seen and heard numerous great guitarists, but they all mainly play electric. And now it appears there is a whole new world out there with musicians that can do things on a guitar I did not know were possible.
One of the examples is Tommy Emmanuel. His playing is of a technical level that is almost out of this world, like on opener Cantina Senese. And still, a song like title track the Mystery is so beautiful it almost hurts. Some in this genre are a one man band. Playing rhythm, bass, chords and melody on just a single guitar, using only their ten fingers and their 2 hands. Great to hear, yet phenomenal to watch. Emmanuel plays mainly a sort of fingerpicking style on this album. There is also a chilling vocal track, The Wall, where he even sings, besides Elizabeth Watkins. On the digipack it says he took care of all instrumentation, so it could be that one man band phenomenon is at play here as well.
Well, I am heading into much more adventure now, and hope to encourage you to do the same. Guys like Tommy Emmanuel, Andy McKee or Jimmy Wahlsteen (to name but a few) deserve it! Get it? Good!
