Stephen Bennett

Tommy Emmanuel

Guitarists Extraordinaire

As a child who was raised almost exclusively on classical music, it never ceases to amaze me how I can be drawn in by contemporary musicians if they're good enough. Stephen Bennett and Tommy Emmanuel are a classic example. I have given them a page together because I love their joint concerts, and Stephen Bennett gets top billing because a)he lives in my home state, and therefore b)I see him more than I see Tommy Emmanuel.

I find it hard to describe how great they are, but you only have to hear them to realize the enormous talent they must have. Tommy, who I think could make a guitar do anything he wanted it to, and Stephen, who is an expert on three different varieties of guitar, not least of which is the beautiful and unusual harp guitar.

I first heard Stephen late 2001 at a concert given at our local community college. Mom had already heard him in concert there and encouraged me to come with her to a second one. I was skeptical because I had never been terribly interested in guitar music before, certainly not contemporary. At the time a cappella was the only kind of contemporary music I liked; it is still my first love. But Stephen just blew me away with his performance. This was around Christmas time so he played his own arrangement of the Trepak Dance and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. I remember thinking, how does he do that with only ten fingers?! And he played everything else, from covers to his own original works with the same skill and seeming ease. From that show I was hooked and, together with Mom, am busily working at getting all of his recordings.

Tommy I have never heard without Stephen sharing the stage with him. The first time was in Richmond, Va at the Byrd Theatre. They opened the concert together, then Stephen played alone till intermission, Tommy opened the second half, and they closed together. It was great! They work so well together, both with their music and their banter. Tommy by himself is very good, though there is a little more electronic enhancement to his music than I really care for. But he does do some overwhelming music. His piece entitled Initiation, inspired by tribal rights of the Australian Aboriginals (did I mention that Tommy is Australian?), will simply knock your socks off. In fact at one show I saw it literally blew out the sound system! :~)

I am feverishly working on concert reports for the (too) few concerts I have seen so far, but in the meantime here is the review Mom wrote of Stephen's latest concert at our college for the newsletter and local papers:

Stephen Bennett at Rappahannock Community College, Glenns Campus, January 2003

The pictures of Stephen Bennett belong to him and are used with permission. Thank you!

The pictures of Tommy Emmanuel are taken from his webpage and used with permission, credit Sara Corwin. Thank you!

More to come...

Return to the Music Hall