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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, tomorrow I’m going to go see the world’s greatest guitar player perform live, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’m pleased to bring you another installment of the Friday Forum.
Am I really going to go see the world’s greatest guitar player? Yes. You may recall from episode 296 that aired back in June, that I mentioned I had purchased front row tickets to go see a Tommy Emmanuel concert. Tomorrow is that day. In case you aren’t familiar with him, let me give you a taste. This is a song called, “The Bug” which is from his album It’s Never Too Late that released in September of this year. However, this specific recording is not a studio recording. It’s from a recording in front of a live audience.
Amazing huh? I can’t wait to see him tomorrow, but today I’m switching up the fun fact section and sharing a short fun fact story about Tommy.
Tommy was born in New South Wales, Australia and started playing at the age of four. The first song he learned was Arthur Smith’s “Guitar Boogie.”
As a young boy, Tommy practiced an average of 16 hours a day. He developed skills to play jazz, rock and roll, bluegrass, country, and even classical. Tommy once said, “ I have roots in all sorts of different styles of music, and I’m able to draw on all of that. At the end of the day, the thing that pulls it all together is my sense of melody.”
Here’s the really cool part.
Tommy was deeply inspired by the great guitarist, Chet Atkins. He said, “I heard a track of [Chet’s] on the radio and did a total backflip. That lovely fingerpicking led to my picking up the guitar. When I was in my mid-teens, I sent Chet a fan letter and he wrote me back—I’ve still got his letter. In the early ’80s, I went to Nashville for the sole purpose of meeting him.” As it turned out, Tommy did meet Chet and they developed a deep, father and son type of relationship. They even performed together many times. Later on in his career, Emmanuel and Atkins turned out to be a successful pair that often performed together. John Anderson from Newsday stated, “Emmanuel professes a lifelong passion for Atkins’ playing, and he obviously has studied it, because it’s hard to tell where the teacher stops and the student starts. They play seamlessly, with a great deal of humor.”
One last tid bit.
If you look on the fretboard of many of Tommy’s guitars, you’ll see the initials C.G.P. C.G.P. stands for Certified Guitar Player. This is a designation that Chet Atkins assigned to guitar players who excelled far beyond the normal line of playing.
Chet felt that universities gave out degrees for four years of work, but where was the award for a lifetime of contributing to the guitar world. Tommy mentions that a group went to the governors of all the states in the U.S. and got this designation made official.
Chet handed this title out only to four guitar players in his lifetime. After his death, his daughter (on behalf of his estate) conferred it on one last recipient – Paul Yandell, Chet’s longtime band leader and co-guitarist. Besides, Yandell, the other C.G.P. recipients are: John Knowles, Jerry Reed, Steve Wariner, and Tommy Emmanuel.
I can’t wait to see him in person tomorrow!
Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! I’m Darrell Darnell, and in today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share Friday Forum contributions from Susan and Dani. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
Join our SILY Facebook group and let’s get to know one-another!
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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