Tommy Emmanuel kept audience members on the edges of their seats Thursday night—literally. With multiple standing ovations, fans were up and down out of their seats throughout the night as the crowd’s enthusiasm soared.
Richard Hood, director of alumni relations and development and Emmanuel’s personal friend, introduced him as “the greatest guitar player on the planet.”
For many, Emmanuel lived up to his expectations with his charismatic performance and extremely complex techniques, which junior guitar major John Farmer described as “mind-blowingly awesome.”
Emmanuel played for a sold out crowd in Brown Auditorium, and according to Hood, several people even traveled to ULM from out of state to see the performance. His songs ranged from rocking ballads to Beatles covers to a musical interpretation of the struggle of the Native American people in his own arrangement called “The Trails.”
Although Emmanuel is considered a guitar player, he did much more than simply play the guitar. He strummed and drummed and played with only one hand, and at one point he performed an entire song by slapping, scratching, and knocking on the wooden surface of his guitar.
Not to mention that this guitar was brand new since he recently retired his usual one. “In Moscow I was doing a drum solo on my guitar and the wood started flying, so, you know.. I had to retire it,” Emmanuel said with a laugh.
After showing off his skills in a Beatles’ montage, Emmanuel gave some personal advice to guitar players in the audience on how to learn and perform complicated arrangements.
“Eventually, when you’ve learned the skills and you’ve practiced it enough, you’ll stop thinking about what your hands are doing and you’ll start to hear the music,” Emmanuel said. “Then, you have to focus everything you have on what the music feels like so that everyone who hears it feels good too.”
“Guitar majors were invited to come to his sound check earlier today, and he gave us advice on the importance of having your own personal sound guy,” said Stew McCulloch, a senior guitar major. McCulloch said he thought Emmanuel did a great job of engaging the audience.
This performance marked the fourth time Tommy Emmanuel has visited ULM. Emmanuel said, “I want to thank you for the invite back to Monroe. I have so many friends here and so many memories.”
Hood said he feels honored to be friends with Emmanuel and he said he was so pleased to see a sold-out crowd since Emmanuel included ULM as one of his 300 yearly concerts.
