| This year was the 15th annual convention and was held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville. This was to be a memorable occasion not only for me but also for Tommy. This year he was joined by his brother Phil and two young Australian acoustic guitarists, Brett Wood and Andrew Wrigglesworth. Brett and Andrew are from Melbourne in Victoria and were sponsored by Maton Guitars. | |||||
| "Mr Guitar" himself - Chet Atkins, walked onto the stage to a standing ovation by the audience. The legendary man then proceeded to entertain the audience with jokes and then played for us. Tommy took the stage and the two of them played "Windy & Warm" and "Smokey Mountain Lullaby". |  |
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Another guest to play with Tommy was Arthur Smith - who wrote "Guitar Boogie". "Guitar Boogie" as many people know is the first song that got Tommy playing the guitar. Another legend to appear on the show was Duane Eddie. |
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| Then a very emotional and moving event took place. Chet presented Tommy with an award, not just any award but a C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player). "In Recognition Of His Contributions To The Art Of Fingerpicking." Tommy was visibly stunned by this and most of the friends connected to Tommy had tears of joy running down their faces, myself included. I cannot think of a more deserving person to win this award. Apparently there was only a small handful of people that knew Tommy was getting the award. Will Holman was one of these people. He told me that "it was the most difficult secret to keep". Mark Pritcher, organiser of the event was another of the secret keepers and was heard to say "gosh, these Australians are very emotional people". There was then a intermission before the next half of the evenings entertainment | |||||
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A rare shot of Tommy playing drums on Friday night concert. |
Andrew, Brett & Tommy |
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| Tommy kicked off the second part of the evening with a couple of new songs "Lateral Thinking", "Old Brother Hubbard" - a tribute to Jerry Reed, who's real name is Jerry Hubbard. " Blue Moon", "That's the Spirit". A song he wrote on a train, "Train to Dusseldorf", "Stevie's Blues". Another new song was dedicated to Mark and Carol Pritcher - "Doc Pritcher", he wrote whilst staying at their home. He then played a favourite of mine "Saltwater". Next a rarity, Tommy sang duet with Morning Nichols "Dreams". Then the two young Australian lads, Andrew and Brett came on the stage. Andrew played "Greensleeves" and Brett played "Promise". Brett was then joined by Tommy and they played "Countrywide". Andrew then joined them to play "Waltzing Matilda". Tommy then proceeded to play solo "The Hunt". | |||||
| Next it was brother Phil's turn to join Tommy on stage. Despite they hadn't played together for 5 years they immediately homed in on each others thinking and did the "Irish & Scottish Medley" from Phil's album "Kakadu Sunrise". This is played as fast as each brother can play in an attempt to outplay the other brother. They then went straight into another fast tune - "Town Hall Shuffle" this is off the Emmanuel Brothers first duel album "Terra Firma". If this wasn't impressing the audience enough they then decided that two guitars was one too many and both played the same guitar. Some members of the audience were not sure what their eyes and ears were telling them. They were totally fascinated by TE's and Wiz's version of Mozart's "Rondo Ala Turka" and gave the brothers a standing ovation. |
Not enough guitars to go round? |
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Richard and Sam Smith (The Smith Bros from the UK) then joined Tommy on stage for "Mr Guitar" and "Gerry's Breakdown". The evening was then wound down and after the encore of "Sweet Georgia Brown". The artists and the audience went their separate ways. Maybe already planning to do the same next year. I hope so because I for one didn't want the evening to end and I plan to be back next year. | ||||
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This was my first (and hopefully not my last) Chet Atkins convention and my first American visit and I would like to thank Mark and Carol Pritcher and all the helpers - for their fantastic organization of the event, fan club members (old and new), Will Holman, Vance for finding my camera, and all the other people who's names I have forgotten, for making my visit memorable. Jackie |
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But.... Tommy, Phil, Andrew and Brett didn't stop there, they continued to enjoy themselves: | ||||
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More ..a review of what happened at the NAMM show, |
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