I first heard of Tommy Emmanuel about 5 years ago when I heard ‘Train To Dusseldorf’ from his solo acoustic guitar album ‘Only’, I was instantly hooked and it inspired me to play again after a break of quite a long time. I bought an acoustic guitar, Tommy’s ‘Only’ album and the TAB book and I’ve been trying to get somewhere close to the virtuosic fingerstyle master ever since, you have to be optimistic don’t you?! Since ‘Only’ Tommy has released ‘Endless Road’ and ‘The Mystery’ on Steve Vai’s record label, Favored Nations. Both are essential listening for any guitarist, the technical ability of Tommy is amazing and is something he has been working on since the age of 6 when he was touring Australia with his dad and brother!

Well Tommy has just released a live double CD called ‘Center Stage’ on Favored Nations and Guitar Noize is giving 1 lucky person the chance to win a signed copy with 4 runners up also receiving a copy (unsigned, sorry). All you have to do is head over to the Competition page and enter your email address, it’s that easy.

I have just listened to ‘Center Stage’ and as a Tommy fan I was not disappointed, there are tracks from ‘Only’ such as the fantastic ‘Train To Dusseldorf’ and a percussive version of ‘Mombasa’ that has to be heard to be believed, it honestly sounds like an entire percussion section has joined Tommy onstage rather than him beating, scratching, plucking and brushing his guitar! There are also 4 new tracks ‘Ruby’s Eyes’, ‘Papa George’ (inspired by George Harrison), ‘Lenny Bro’ and ‘The Jolly Swagman’ which is a kind of celtic track like ‘Tall Fiddler’ (which by the way there is a blisteringly fast version on here) and ends with ‘Waltzing Matilda’ a nod back to his motherland Australia. There is also the obligatory Beatles Medley that Tommy is famous for playing in which he manages to combine tracks with ease starting with ‘Here Comes The Sun’ into ‘When I’m 64’ into ‘Daytripper’ into ‘Lady Madonna’.

CD 2 starts with a track by Merle Haggard called ‘Working Man Blues’ featuring Bob Littell on harmonica and Tommy singing, his guitar playing is better than his voice but it mixes up the set nicely. The next track is a great instrumental version of ‘Georgia on my mind’ with Bob Littell wailing the melody on harmonica and Tommy playing a cool bluesy solo, it really is a fantastic arrangement of the classic Ray Charles track. Other highlights include Tommy’s rendition of Amazing Grace, if you have never heard this bluesy version check out this video on YouTube now imagine it with Bob Littell’s harmonica taking turns on verses!

The nice thing about this CD is that it gives you an insight into Tommy’s sense of humour, especially on his ‘Story of a little boy’, he plays with a lot of humour and if you watch his videos you can see the enjoyment written all over his face, I think it takes a rare talent to convey this to an audience. He also plays using a lot of percussive techniques and he takes this to the next level on the track ‘Inittiation’ where he uses a delay effect to create an amazing soundscape which I think sounds very aboriginal to begin with but then moves into a more modern sounding piece , it is very ethereal and inventive. The CD closes with one of my favourite tracks to play, ‘Questions’ from Tommy’s ‘Only’ album, it is a slightly new arrangement compared to the 2000 album version and Tommy plays it with such precision it sounds incredibly simple, although as I found out when I was learning the piece it is far from simple to seperate the melody and harmonies in the way Tommy does so effortlessly.

So if you want to win this great CD all you have to do is go the Competition page here on Guitar Noize.