On Wednesday, December 7, 2022, Tommy Emmanuel played at the historic Elsinore theater in Salem, Oregon. Mike Dawes, an English virtuoso guitar player that was currently touring in support of Emmanuel was the opening act. He took the stage at 8:00 PM and played a 45 minute set that included Van Halen’s “Jump” which drew enthusiastic applause from the audience. Dawes responded by telling the crowd how much he loved the enthusiasm of American audiences before he dove into the beautifully melodic 1975 ballad “Be My Mistake.” He joked about their tour in Alaska last January with a Hawaiian bus driver. Tommy Emmanuel came on stage to play the 2011 Gotye composition “Somebody I Used to Know” with Dawes. He introduced the last song of his forty-five minute set as a Michael Hedges version of a Jimi Hendrix cover of a Bob Dylan song prior to performing “All Along the Watchtower.”
After a 30 minute intermission, Tommy Emmanuel took the stage at 9:15 PM and warmed up by playing three quick numbers before he introduced “The House of the Rising Son” followed by the Doc Watson inspired “Deep River Blues,” one of two songs that Tommy sang on. After jamming on a couple of songs with amazing speed and dexterity Emmanuel explained that one time a fan asked him if he improvised and he answered, no I just make stuff up. He introduced “A Song For a Rainy Morning” which appeared on 2020’s The Best Of Tommysongs. The melodically haunting composition was inspired by a dream that Emmanuel had about his older deceased brother Phil visiting him.
Before Tommy performed a beautifully melodic composition called “The Digger’s Waltz” which appeared on The Mystery in 2006 he explained how the song came to be written. It was another dream inspired song about an old WWI soldier who in Tommy’s dream was dancing the waltz with his wife. He explained that in Australia the word digger was a slang term that referred to a soldier or a term of endearment for a really good friend who was a true mate. “Gdansk” was a new song that will be appearing on Emmanuel’s next solo album. He explained that it was written while he was on tour in Poland last year about the port city where all the ships come in. He sat down in a chair as he began playing “The Mystery” which is the ethereally sounding transcendent title song from the 2006 album.
Tommy stood and began playing percussion on his guitar as he alternated from tapping and rapping on his guitar to attacking the strings and then back again. He included the microphone as he created a symphony of sound until someone named Pete came out and handed him a drum brush. Using the brush he increased his intensity and speed as he went from the microphone to the guitar and back again while the stage lights began flashing in time to his percussive rhythm. “Today is Mine” was originally written by Jerry Reed and appeared on his 1968 album, Alabama Wild Man. It was one of two songs that Emmanuel sang and he did so A cappella without accompanying himself with the guitar. He concluded the song with the admonition “remember, life is not a rehearsal.”
“Let me take you back a few years,” Emmanuel began and continued explaining that he started playing the guitar at the age of five in 1959. “My mother taught me to play guitar and my older brother Phil played lead guitar and had me play rhythm but I thought that the bass guitar was playing rhythm.” At the time the “Shadows,” Cliff Richard’s backing group were one of the most popular groups at the time and he learned to play rhythm by listening to them. “I started playing professionally at the age of seven on TV but then I heard Chet Atkins and that changed everything.” In 1980 he met Chet Atkins and wanted to tell him about how he affected him but Atkins told him first that his life was changed when he first heard Merle Travis from Cincinnati and knew that his life would be that of a musician at the age of 10. That was the introduction to “Windy and Warm” by Chet Atkins.
“Now I’m going to introduce the whole band to you” he said as he began performing parts for the bass, drummer and rhythm on his guitar and began playing “Blue Moon” commenting that “this is how I save money on a band.” After a thunderous conclusion he dove right into the Beatles “Day Tripper” and was amazing as he flawlessly played all the parts at one time. Mason Williams 1968 instrumental hit “Classical Gas” followed and concluded with an explosive percussive performance. Tommy thanked the promoter and then all the people that were attending and invited Mike Dawes to join him back on stage. Tommy explained that he and Dawes had recorded an EP together as they began playing Sting’s “Fields of Gold.” “Nirvana’s” “Smells Like Teen Spirit” followed as the duo jammed on the tune while jumping and frantically playing with intense animation until the song concluded to a thunderous conclusion and standing ovation.
Tommy wished everyone a Happy Christmas and began telling the audience that he was going to play a Christmas Carol that he wrote for his 2011 album All I Want For Christmas. He explained that he constructed it by analyzing the musical structure of many existing Christmas Carols and then followed the pattern to write “One Christmas Night.” After he finished the song he sat down and played “Jingle Bells” and told the audience good night. The house lights came on after he left the stage having flawlessly and exuberantly performed for nearly two hours.
