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(Feb '08) I was interviewed last night by The InDepthYOU Show on BlogTalk Radio. It's a fairly wide-ranging interview, and you're likely to find out more about me than you every wanted to know. But, if you think you can stand it, you can listen to the interview right here.
(Aug '05) Friends, I’m happy to report that I’ve once again had the privilege of spending time in the studio with Tom Boyer. The result of our labor, Motionography, is now out and available!
It’s an enjoyable challenge to assemble a group of original instrumental pieces that convey a cohesive theme. The unifying concept this time is motion.
Motionography is about:
- movement: flight, swimming, dancing
- places: the moon, oceans, stars; and
- communication: the non-verbal, solo guitar type of communication.
- It’s the sound of one guitar playing, fingers dancing, sounds splashing, sonic canvas, air art, here–gone, wooden heart made flesh, steel strings spring to life.
- It’s the sound of one guitar laughing, of joy bouncing, strengthening, calling, inviting to the dance
- It’s the sound of one guitar moving, across the star field accompanied by dancers, singers, swimmers, writing rhythm, resonating life.
- It’s the sound of movement, motion, motion, ocean, graphemic, graphology, graphic, traffic.
(Aug '05) The Journey Video - Several years ago I met a fellow named Don Patterson who was producing an independent film. As a side project, he offered to do a video of “The Journey”. We happened into a warm, sunny day in early November and paid a quick visit to the chicken coop (rhymes with chicken poop) in the corner of a barn built mid-1800’s on the property of my friends the McClelland’s. No babes, no bling...Don had fun with some special effects...but aside from that it’s just a guy and his guitar in a hundred and fifty year old barn. A few months later he and I went to Findlay, Ohio to videotape guys on horses charging at one another with lances – but that’s a story for another day. Check out Haunt (the sci-fi horror film that Don was working on).
Tommy Emmanuel at the 2005 Ohio State Fair- Ohio is a funny place. At this year’s State Fair Tommy “the best guitarist in the world” Emmanuel, played four free shows plus a live “Prairie Home Companion” show over a three day period. What a treat!
Here in a tent large enough to hold a couple hundred people, at no additional cost, once you’ve paid the very reasonable general admission, located across from “Susan’s Wicked T-Shirts,” sandwiched between a cotton candy stand and a guy who will guess your weight, birthday or some other bit of nonsensical trivia (in the words of Melvin Johnson (Steve Martin in The Jerk), “ahhh, it’s a profit deal!), alternately sharing the stage with a hypnotist – was one of my very favorite guitarist/entertainers in the world: Tommy Emmanuel!
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| Talking with Tommy Emmanuel between his performances at the Ohio State Fair. Right before the hypnotist took the stage. |
Tommy could hold his own with any group of musicians at any concert hall anywhere, and yet there he was, apparently happy as the proverbial pig in mud (visit the Livestock Building to check out the accuracy of this colorful expression), picking his guitar and spreading musical sunshine in a venue more closely resembling the Livestock building than the resplendent Ohio Theater!
I could rattle on about Tommy and the show, but how about one highlight instead? Tommy has written a piece of music called “Initiation”, dedicated to the aboriginal people of his homeland, Australia. It’s a sonic representation of a boy’s initiation into manhood, a kind of aboriginal bar-mitzvah.
During this piece Tommy loads the guitar with reverb and echo as he pulls other-worldy moans, shrieks and groans from the very depths of his instrument. At times he beats the guitar like a drum, using his hands, a pick or a brush to create a sound like the heartbeat of the earth.
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| Tommy in the midst of “Initiation” (before the helicopter arrived). |
As this wonderfully dramatic wall of sound is building, a helicopter suddenly appears, hovers and floats a few hundred feet away. But… you can’t hear the helicopter. Tommy’s guitar is worked up to such a passion that the sound is filling every particle of sonic space. What you see is Tommy on stage, and not far overhead, a beautiful black helicopter floating and dancing like some kind of prehistoric bird come to the party. A few seconds pass the bird soars skyward, the music quiets and I’m sitting there thinking, “whoa!!!”
You can’t buy an experience like that, but on a good day you might stumble upon it… at the State Fair. ‘Cause, like I said, Ohio is a funny place. |
