I drove down to Etown, KY, from Peoria today, and attended the Tommyfest show.
What a wonderful night!
Frank Vignola and Vinnie Raniollo opened the show as a guitar duo. Frank is simply one of the best guitar players in the world. Everything he plays has great tone and great taste....even when he plays a million notes. Vinnie mostly lays down rock solid rhythm, though often joins in with harmony parts, as well as taking a great solo here and there. They played Stardust, Tico Tico, Paper Moon, the opening number from Swan Lake (with choreographed dance moves), Beethoven's 5th, and many more. The crowd ate them up, and provided several standing ovations.
After a 20 minute intermission, Tommy came on and thrilled the crowd with a bunch of tunes, including Guitar Boogie, Halfway Home, 9 pound hammer, Close To You, I Still Can't Say Goodbye,and others. He then brought out John Knowles, with whom he performed great renditions of San Antonio Stroll, A Little Help From My Friends, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, and He Ain't Heavy ( He's my brother), which tommy dedicated to Paul Yandell.
Tommy played a few more solo songs before bringing out Frank, and then Vinnie. They played Main Street Breakdown, Here There and Everywhere, Avalon, How High The Moon, and then closed with a Brahms tune. Tommy said that Frank was one of his favorite players in any style, and you could tell that he LOVED being pushed by someone of Frank's caliber.
Overall, it was guitar heaven. I couldn't have asked for more.
Tomorrow morning, I am going to a Tommy workshop. Hopefully John will be there. If anybody has any questions for Tommy ( and John if he is there), let me know, and I will ask them and post back here.
