2008 Woodie Awards
Guitar legend strums, kicks off huge world music festival
By: David Wangberg
Issue date: 9/24/08 Section: Entertainment
|
See video of the World Music Festival at the bottom of this page
--
Legendary guitarist Tommy Emmanuel got the 15th annual Chico World Music Festival off to a fantastic start.
Every seat in Laxson Auditorium was taken Friday night, as Emmanuel brought his acoustic guitar and storming riffs to the stage. People from all over California gathered to watch him play, including Santa Clara resident Paul Keller.
"He's unbelievable," he said before the show. "I've never seen a person play an acoustic guitar with such power."
Keller even had tickets for Emmanuel's show the following day in Visalia.
Opening the show was Anthony Snape. Before starting, he announced that this was his first time playing in California.
Performing only with his acoustic guitar and vocal chords, Snape kicked off his set with songs containing edgy pop rock riffs and inspiring lyrics. After each song, he told short stories about his career and how he got to where he was. He kept the audience interested with some of his onstage antics, such as holding a vocal note for a long time and then checking his watch to see how much time had passed.
After Snape performed his last song, everyone in the crowd applauded and several even gave a standing ovation. Many people, such as senior Cody Buchholz, had never heard of Snape until Friday night.
"He's really enjoyable to listen to," he said. "The three things I would say that I liked about him were his voice, his lyrics and his body language."
After a brief intermission, Emmanuel took over. Wasting no time, he went directly into tearing up the stage with fast-paced, heavy-hitting notes. He opened with five songs in a row. After the fifth song, he finally leaned into the microphone and said, "The boy's back in town."
"The Finger Lakes" by Tommy Emmanuel
Audio courtesy of Tommy Emmanuel's Web site
Emmanuel didn't only use the strings on the guitar for his songs. He used just about every part on the instrument. There were times when he was banging on the wood base of the guitar repeatedly after plucking a few strings. One song had his right hand scratching the front base of the guitar while his left hand plucked the strings on the fret board.
His next set switched to blues. He began by talking in a bluesy tone about which guitar pick he wanted to use. After picking one, he brought out Bob Littell on the harmonica to play along. Littell and Emmanuel played a few songs together before taking a break to talk about the late Jerry Reed. A cover of "Georgia on My Mind" followed and was dedicated in his memory.
After a few other songs, Emmanuel went crazy with his guitar again. An introduction for one song included him beating on the front and back portion of the guitar like a bongo drum. Another had him using a brush for tapping his guitar and smacking the microphone. He even covered famous Beatles' songs such as "Here Comes the Sun" and "When I'm Sixty-Four," while the audience sang the lyrics.
After his final song, audience members gave a standing ovation. As soon as people started to leave, Emmanuel came back for one more song. Jokingly, he sang the first line of "Folsom Prison Blues" before letting his hands take over and play a different song. One final rip of his guitar sent him off and got him another standing ovation.
As people were leaving, they talked about how amazing the show was. Some people had never heard of Emmanuel before, such as resident Eric Miller, who was dragged to the show by a friend.
"It was phenomenal," Miller said. "It blew me out of my chair."
Chico World Music Festival is put on by Chico Performances. Each year brings out different genres of music from around the world as well as activities for kids and adults. Chico native Don Huffman has been to every one.
"It's a Chico tradition," he said. "What I like most about it is that it has world-class performers."
David Wangberg can be reached at
dwangberg@theorion.com
Related links
Norton Buffalo Web site
Jerry Reed biography
Video by Juan Aguilar
Be the first to comment on this story