Customer Reviews

Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a Chet Atkins album. It has to be. Tommy Emmanuel was playing with his mentor, his inspiration for fingerstyling. Enamored with Atkins, Emmanuel could be said to be an evangelist for his favorite guitarist.

Chet Atkins passed in 2001 after leading the way to popularize country, bluegrass, and to some extent, folk music. His guitar work is legendary. Tommy Emmanuel is his heir. Hearing these two on this album together is bittersweet; it is Atkins' last recording.

It is a relaxed, easygoing collection of whimsical songs. Listen to Atkins full catalog to hear all that made him "Mr. Guitar," emulated by everyone from Willie Nelson to Phil Keaggy, and as heard here, Tommy Emmanuel.

"Ode to Mel Bay" pokes fun at the famous guitar teacher Bay, whose how-to booklets were everywhere in the 1940s until now.

"Day Finger Pickers Took over the World" is a nonsense song where Atkins and Emmanuel switch voices and licks.

"Road to Gundaghi/Waltzing Matilda" highlights a medley of two Australian tunes.

"To B or Not to B" is a sharp, melodic piece. Soft jazz fans will connect with this one.

"Borsalino" has great rhythm. It might be my favorite piece on the album.

"Tiptoe Through the Bluegrass" doesn't seem to have any connection with Tiny Tim's ukulele tune. Decent fun.

"News from the Outback" You'll hear a juice harp (that's what the liner notes are calling it), and some jamming fiddle work, complimenting some fast licks.

"Dixie McGuire" is a nice walk through the park. It sounds like it could be a theme to a romantic comedy.

"Saltwater" is a slow, thoughtful and sad instrumental piece. Julian Lennon penned the original with these haunting lyrics:

"For the world I love is dying And now I'm crying
And time is not a friend (no friend of mine)
As friends we're out of time"

"Mr. Guitar" is Emmanuel's tribute to Atkins.

"Smokey Mountain Lullaby," the last song on the album is sweetly quiet, as lullabies are, almost if Atkins was saying goodnight to the world.

I fully recommend "The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World" by Chet Atkins & Tommy Emmanuel. I give it five stars not because it shows the best of either guitarist, but because it is historically significant, and a great listen.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

In the eighties Chet Atkins reinvented himself to fit the new style jazz that was then emerging. In this, his last recording, Chet closed the circle by returning to his fingerstyle roots.

Tommy Emmanuel is a lifelong Chet Atkins fan that is a great fingerstylist in anyone's book. The combination of the two players is satisfying and entertaining. Tommy is probably the closest living guitarist you will find to Chet Atkins style, talent and virtuosity and in this recording I feel that Chet was giving us an introduction to Tommy as his parting gift.

If you want to know more about Tommy I would suggest "The Very Best of Tommy Emmanuel". He is a great showman and a great musician.

May I also recommend "Neck and Neck" with Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler.

I own every CD that Tommy has recorded, barring "greatest hits." This one is so fun -- it kind of brings you back to his touring roots. And because Chet Atkins was one of Tommy's "mentors" listening to this album brings double the pleasure. You can tell they're having fun recording this album and of course the musicianship is so professional, as always. It may not be the "best" of each musician, but it is certainly a wonderful collaboration of two virtuoso guitarists.

I'll have to disagree with some of the views presented here. Sure, this album does not showcase each artists talents fully but than again from the tracks, you can tell that they have successfully blended the 2 styles into one. It's easy to tell that the 2 artists had a great time recording the album and it shows in the tunes and execution of the songs. My personal favourite was Waltzing Matilda...... Definitiely a 5 star rating.

Austrailian Tommy Emmanuel is a superb player and fun performer. Chet is "the" master whose perfection is best heard on his recordings. However the talent of each of these astounding guitarists is not as evident on this CD as fans know it to be. It's a fun album, but not representative of the abilities of either artist. Nevertheless, it is a "must have" for Chet fans as this is the last album he recorded before illness ended his career.

If you're reading this I'm going to assume you already know that Chet Atkins was known as "Mr. Guitar" for a reason. If you didn't know I'll go ahead and spot you the knowledge that Tommy Emmanuel is an Aussie who first heard Chet forty years ago and thought "hold EVERYTHING", then began working his way towards emulating his hero.

The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World, from 1997, was Chet's last recording. It does not showcase the best playing of either gentleman, but it is important nonetheless.

A little technical background: so what IS this "Finger Picking"? Probably the first well-known player in this style was Merle Travis. The technique involves using a thumb-pick (like a banjo player), but no other picks. The other four fingers can be used, but predominantly the index and middle fingers are used. In Travis-style (Atkins and Emmanuel are both superlative disciples) the thumb alternates on the lower strings, playing a base line, while the other fingers are allotted to melody on the higher strings. Chords are worked out and shared between the fingers, but when done with exceptional proficiency, the effect is as if two or more guitars are playing at the same time.

The tunes here vary between beautiful and humorous rather than concentrating on "hot". (Chet was 73 at the time.) The funny cuts include the title track and "Ode to Mel Bay", a tongue-in-cheek homage to the prolific author of millions of guitar instruction books. The hottest cut is Tiptoe Through The Bluegrass, with several jaw-dropping runs and hot licks. Most of the rest of the material falls into the category of "beautiful music", and one of the characteristics of both Chet and Tommy is that aside from their technical virtuosity, they have a wonderful touch and feel for the music. Classical players might call it "dynamics", but I'd say it has more to do with being emotionally in touch with the material they're performing.

"Smokey Mountain Lullaby" ends the record and was nominated for a grammy that year. It is a beautiful, fitting coda to the career of Mr. Guitar. If you have not yet - I urge you to get yourself to a Tommy Emmanuel live performance. In the meantime, we have these recordings.

First the bad news - the title track is terrible. Singing is not the forte of these gentlemen. But picking is. Which brings us neatly to the good news - the playing is excellent. To an ex-inhabitant of Oz, the medley "Waltzing Matilda"/"The road to Gundagai" (the NSW country town unfortunately spelt incorrectly) was especially enjoyable.

Additionally, this is an especially precious CD, because I've been told that it was the last thing Chet Atkins ever recorded. The cancer that was to take his life was well advanced at this stage.

I bought this cd for my father for fathers day. I was raised listening to Chet and Doc Watson and various bluegrass. This is a great album. 100% bonafied finger pickin' heaven.

A collection of beautiful songs by two of the greatest living guitarists. Chet's health may be failing, and this could well be his last album. There are also two funny songs, where Chet and Tommy sing.

It amazes me that music like this can be bought for less than 10 bucks.