Andy Meets His Master!

Lovely night out in Cairns with Baby Jane and her friend Andy, who is feeling pretty low. "What's up?" Baby Jane asks over drinks, so Andy tells us the story:

It's all the fault of that bloody Tommy Emmanuel!

Should tell you upfront that Andy is Andy Mack, the Cairns local who is often considered absolutely the best guitarist in this entire NQ region, with a legion of fans.

So there he is, several nights earlier, doing his gig at Johno's Blues Bar, when a fellow comes up to him during his break and says "Hi. I have to tell you you're pretty damn good. I'm Tommy Emmanuel, by the way. Mind if I join you for a set?"

Naturally Andy knows who Tommy Emmanuel is - duh! - and is completely chuffed that Australia's absolute and undoubted guitar legend wants to jam with him so he gives Tommy his spare guitar and off they go.

It's Andy's gig and Andy's audience, so Tommy, legendarily humble, takes a lowly position on stage and so it starts.

So there's Tommy, unrehearsed and on an unfamiliar guitar, playing something he's never come across before, and it slowly dawns on Andy that ... well, Tommy isn't just holding his own, he's right there and so Andy throws in his best licks and, slow dawning horror, Tommy can top him ... so he throws in all sorts of complicated moves that he's invented himself ... and Tommy, without missing a beat, picks them up and improves on them!

And so, over the course of a single five minute song, Andy realises he's been humbled and that being the very best in NQ isn't in the big league afterall and that, with Tommy, he's more than met his master and he now can't shake the feeling of sad, sad, sad.

But just to make it worse, lots of folks had been telling him that someone had caught the performance on their camera phone and had posted it onto youtube ... but that he couldn't bring himself to view his humiliation so hadn't seen it.

Andy is a total darling ... but let's not let that get in the way of seeing it for ourselves.  Youtube hunt coming up.  Fingers crossed:



Yayyy!!! Got it!  So let's watch together.

That's Andy in the spotlight, and OMG!!! Tommy has chosen to place himself in the shadows. Definitely the humble folks ascribe to him, yes?

The guy with the feather in his hat?  That's Johno!  Obviously he's seen the opportunity to grab that advertising board and add a name. Tommy Emmanuel playing in his bar?  Definitely a bigger feather in his cap! No wonder he wants everyone to know.

OK!  Seen it through!  Mmmm! Obviously I don't know enough about guitar-playing but I can't see this as a five-minutes-long humbling.  Yes, I can see that Tommy is definitely holding his own, and I can see Andy starting out giving the performance to the audience and then ... well, giving Tommy more and more attention until finally it's really only him and Tommy up there ...  but are we really watching Andy get his come-uppance?

Mmmm, maybe you'd have to be Keith Richards and Eric Clapton to tell!  What do you think?