Legendary guitarist ‘Eric Johnson’ announces July UK tour

Posted on Mar 5, 2012

Eric Johnson, the celebrated American electric guitarist, hailed by Joe Bonamassa as “one of the greatest guitar players of all time,” will embark on his first UK tour at the Holmfirth Picturedrome on Friday 5th July. The 5-date mini tour will showcase material from his current album “Up Close”, as well as from his rich back catalogue.

Planet Rock will start at ticket pre-sale on Wednesday 7th March, followed by a ticket pre-sale from Ents24 on Thursday 8th March.

Tickets go on sale to the general public via the 24 hour box office: 0844 478 0898, www.thegigcartel.com.

Johnson is also a respected acoustic, lap steel, resonator and an accomplished pianist and vocalist. He’s best known for his diverse array of music genres evidenced by many different styles incorporated in his studio and live performances, including rock, blues, jazz, fusion, folk, New Age and country music.

Guitar Player magazine called Johnson “one of the most respected guitarists on the planet”. His critically acclaimed, platinum-selling 1990 recording Ah Via Musicom produced the single Cliffs of Dover, for which he won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Cliffs of Dover also appeared in Guitar Hero 3 – Legends of Rock.

In 1996 he joined forces with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for the original and legendary G3 tour that garnered a worldwide audience with the platinum selling CD and DVD release.

Johnson is best known for playing stock Fender Stratocasters and Gibson ES-335 electric guitars through a triple amp setup that consists of vintage Fender and Marshall amplifiers.

He plays vintage Stratocasters but also his ‘Fender Signature Stratocaster’ model, which is one of the best selling instruments in the Fender catalogue. He also designed a Signature acoustic guitar that was released by Martin guitars.

Eric Johnson’s stature as one of the premier guitar players in contemporary music is his artistic trump card, backed by a Grammy Award and five nominations, platinum album, Top 10 hits like Cliffs of Dover, praise from critics and the esteem of his peers. The full range of his talents marks him as a gifted songwriter, dynamic live performer, singer, pianist, and song interpreter.

His myriad and distinctive musical gifts are vividly evident on Johnson’s current studio album, Up Close, released on his own Vortexan Music label. The 15-track disc finds the noted master craftsman cutting loose, roaming through variations on the rock, blues, pop, country and jazz genres,  pushing the dynamic range of his artistry, and mixing it up with such friends and peers as guitarists Jimmie Vaughan and Sonny Landreth, plus guest vocalists Steve Miller, Johnny Lang and Malford Milligan.

“I decided to let go a bit and allow things to happen and just go with the flow,” explains Johnson about his approach to the album. “That’s a direction that works better for any artist, and especially for me. I like my work to have a high proficiency, but I also want to go for the energy and magic of the performances.”

(more…)

Possibly the greatest finger picker in the world – Tommy Emmanuel

Posted on Jun 2, 2011

World renowned Australian acoustic guitarist Tommy Emmanuel will embark on a 10-date nationwide UK tour from Thursday December 1st at Hull City Hall. Tickets are now on sale from the 24 hour box office: 0871 230 1101 or can be booked online from www.seetickets.com or www.tommyemmanuel.com

The December UK tour dates include Hull City Hall (Dec 1), Harrogate International Centre (Dec 2), Buxton Opera House (Dec 3), Liverpool Royal Philharmonic (Dec 4), Birmingham Town Hall (Dec 5), Brighton Hove Centre (Dec 6), Cambridge Corn Exchange (Dec 7), Cardiff St David’s Hall (Dec 13), London Union Chapel (Dec 15), Salisbury City Hall (Dec 16).

Best known for his complex finger-picking style, Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist who performs energetic concerts, and is highly regarded for the use of percussive effects on the guitar. In 2008 and 2010, Guitar Player Magazine’s readers’ poll named him "Best Acoustic Guitarist.”

Throughout his career he has played with many notable artists including Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin, Air Supply, John Denver, Les Paul and Doc Watson.

Tommy and his brother Phil performed live in Sydney at the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in 2000. The event was televised worldwide with an estimated 2.85 billion viewers.

Tommy has said that even at a young age he was fascinated by Atkins’ musical style of playing bass with the thumb and melody parts with the first two or three fingers at the same time. This technique became the basis of Tommy’s guitar style.

While Tommy has never had formal music training, his playing ability has won him fans from all over the world. He is known to play percussion parts on the body of his guitar. As a solo performer he never plays to a set list and uses a minimum of effects. He usually completes recordings in one take.

Emmanuel frequently uses his left thumb to fret bass notes on the 5th and 6th strings as well as playing chords such as Am and E with just two fingers. He uses a thumb pick mostly, a flat pick or just fingers.

His main guitar is a small-bodied custom Maton EBG808 that is fitted with a pickup and an internal condenser microphone, to which he has given the nickname "Mouse" due to its quieter volume unplugged but massive sound when plugged into an amp. Two of his three main stage guitars, notably his signature TE1 Maton dreadnought, are battered and worn from his excessive playing and percussive techniques on them. He once stated that all three of his stage guitars have been broken and repaired numerous times over the years.

As a young man in Australia, Tommy wrote to his hero Chet Atkins in Nashville. Eventually Atkins replied with words of encouragement and a longstanding invitation to drop by to visit.

In 1997, Emmanuel and Atkins recorded as a duo and released the album “The Day Finger Pickers Took over the World,” which was also to be Atkins’ last recorded album before he died in 2001. In 1998, a year after the album was released it won Best Country Instrumental Album at the Nashville Music Awards.

In July 1999, at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciate Society Convention, Chet presented Tommy with a Certified Guitar Player award, an honour Atkins has bestowed on other guitarists. This award gains its fame from being bestowed by Atkins himself, a widely recognized leader in guitar music. The award states: "In Recognition of his Contributions to the Art of Fingerpicking." Tommy performs at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society in July each year in Nashville.

“Tommy is about the only guitarist I’ve heard,” said Chet Atkins, “who can come close to what Lenny Breau did with harmonics, and he’s got a style all his own. I think he’s probably the greatest finger-picker in the world today. He’s inventive, fearless and has a flawless sense of rhythm. He’s a great showman, too.”

Emmanuel’s duet with Chet Atkins, “Smokey Mountain Lullaby,” was nominated for the 1998 Grammy award for Country Instrumental Performance. In 2006, Emmanuel received his second Grammy award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance for “Gameshow Rag.”