Celtic Connections
Tommy Emmanuel and Chico Cesar, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Rob Adams
FOUR STARS
Tommy Emmanuel loves his job. For the greater part of two hours the Australian guitar wiz stood on stage revelling in his own ability. That's not meant as a dig. The audience had paid - and in impressive numbers - to see and hear a showman, and Emmanuel didn't disappoint.
His appeal is clear. There's something invigorating about being on the receiving end of Emmanuel's swashbuckling style: the finger-picking patterns that could drive a steam engine with their rhythmical vigour; the outrageous, quicksilver single string runs that career off round several bends down a country road. And all the while Emmanuel is coming over like our mate rather than a guitar god.
There are times when he becomes over generous - bringing on fellow Aussie, singer Anthony Snape, for a cameo including an ambitious stab at Jeff Buckley's Grace felt a mite gratuitous - but his wide-ranging interests and tributes produced much that was spectacular and actually quite moving. Blood Brothers, for Paco de Lucia, was as heartfelt as it was virtuosic. His singing of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt had sincerity as well as a beautifully simple arrangement. Chet Atkins' To Be or Not to Be sang with unembellished musicality and Emmanuel's Beatles' medley, Roll on Buddy, complete with left-hand bass and right-hand drumming, and his capo-despatching Deep River Blues were downright, don't-try-this-at-home fabulous.
Brazilian Chico Cesar was a like-minded opening act, engaging the audience with vocal calls and responses from the wishful thinking (for us) school of phrasing, singing with soul-bearing sincerity, playing neat guitar, and leading a band that operated with quiet industry but felt capable of devastating insurrection. Maybe next time.
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