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Tommy Emmanuel – Guitar Boogie – Amazing Grace
Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist, who is well known for his intricate finger-style guitar work, as well as making heavy use of percussive elements on the guitar.
Tommy calls this the “St. Louis version of Guitar Boogie.”
As an extra bonus, he’s also thrown in his own version of “Amazing Grace”.
Recently, Tommy has released a new album (The Colonel & The Governor), and it’s currently available in Australia, with global release dates to be announced very soon. The album is a joint venture with Tommy and Martin Taylor. The idea behind the album was to showcase songs that Tommy and Martin both enjoy and that allow them to both express their personal styles – or “Fly their own kites” as Tommy put it.
Tommy and Martin will also be starting a tour to support the album in March, 2013. Starting March 2nd, in Belfast, the tour will span the whole of March, and will end in Edinburgh.
“Guitar Boogie” was originally recorded by Arthur Smith in 1948. The song was a gigantic hit – eventually hitting around 3 million in sales. Arthur was born in 1921, around Clinton, South Carolina, and he played banjo, guitar, and fiddle.
In addition to being a talented multi-instrumentalist, one of the most amazing things about Smith is his prolific songwriting career. He’s got around 500 copyrights on songs that have been taken to the studio by the likes of Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Willie Nelson, and many more.
Arthur and his son Clay Smith have worked together on 12 major film scores as well.
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An interesting note about Arthur Smith: It came to light, during legal proceedings, that he also wrote “Dueling Banjos,” the iconic song from the film, “Deliverance.” Eric Weissberg arranged and performed it for the soundtrack, but failed to credit Smith (who later sued, and received royalties and credit).
Watching Tommy reminds me why I play guitar. No other instrument…
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