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Tommy Emmanuel • Hawaii Theatre Center • 1.3.20
Jan
3
8:00 PM20:00

Tommy Emmanuel • Hawaii Theatre Center • 1.3.20

Tommy Emmanuel, CGP

Friday, January 3, 2019 at 8:00 PM at Hawaii Theatre Center

Tommy Emmanuel Music Without Borders

Tommy Emmanuel has achieved enough musical milestones to satisfy several lifetimes. Or at least they would if he was the kind of artist who was ever satisfied. At the age of six, he was touring regional Australia with his family band. By 30, he was a rock n’ roll lead guitarist burning up stadiums in Europe. At 44, he became one of five people ever named a Certified Guitar Player by his idol, music icon Chet Atkins. Today, he plays hundreds of sold-out shows every year from Nashville to Sydney to London. All the while, Tommy has hungered for what’s next.

When you’re widely acknowledged as the international master of the solo acoustic guitar, what’s next is an album of collaborations with some of the finest singers, songwriters and, yes, guitarists alive today. “For me, music has always been about collaboration–the push and pull you get from another human being’s energy,” explains Tommy. “Even when I play solo, it feels like I’m playing to the emotions I’m getting from the crowd. To feel the love or the joy or the hope coming through these other pickers and singers was electric–I played in ways I never would on my own.” 

Accomplice One is a testament to Tommy’s musical diversity, the range of expression that stretches from authentic country-blues to face-melting rock shredding, by way of tender and devastating pure song playing. The songs are a mix of new takes on indelible classics and brand new originals from Tommy and his collaborators. The artists who stepped forward to join Tommy in the studio are an impressive list of some of today’s most respected performers, from across the musical spectrum–a lineup including Jason Isbell, Mark Knopfler, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Amanda Shires, Ricky Skaggs, J.D. Simo, David Grisman, Bryan Sutton, Suzy Bogguss and many more. This is an album for all types of Tommy Emmanuel fan–from longtime guitar aficionados who’ve followed his career for decades, to lovers of great songs and melodies who flock to Tommy’s shows for the emotional authenticity driving every performance. Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Isbell conjures up the sweaty atmosphere of his Muscle Shoals roots on opener “Deep River Blues,” a classic fingerpicked blues which has been a longtime staple of Tommy’s live shows. Country and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs lends his mandolin and unmistakable voice to “Song and Dance Man,” a chronicle of a life lived for the next show. Tommy’s subtlety and tastefulness blends with Amanda Shires’ gorgeous vocal and fiddle playing to transform Madonna’s “Borderline” and Rodney Crowell’s “Looking Forward to the Past” could’ve topped the country charts in another era, with Tommy’s propulsive rhythm supporting Crowell’s sly lyrics while his tasty lead playing weave in and out. For those hankering for virtuosic hot picking, the rave-up “Wheelin’ and Dealin’” sees him trading licks with J.D. Simo and Charlie Cushman, while a jaw-dropping rendition of “Purple Haze” with Dobro master Jerry Douglas captures all the fire and energy of the Hendrix original as the two modern masters push each other to new heights with each raunchy slide and bend. On “You Don’t Want to Get You One of Those,” a sly vocal and acoustic duet with Dire Straits’ legend Mark Knopfler, there was a third, invisible presence in the studio– the late Chet Atkins. “Mark and I both learned so much from Chet–he was a hero and a mentor to each of us, and we’ve tried to bring his spirit forward into the future in our own playing,” says Tommy. “This song that Mark wrote captured Chet’s sense of humor so well and I had the time of my life in the studio with him conjuring the master as we laid it down.” While this was the first time he and Knopfler had collaborated, the album also featured some of Tommy’s longtime fellow road warriors, who have covered the miles in buses and planes around the world on tour over many years. “Djangology” is a gypsy jazz treat cut live in Havana, Cuba with Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo and “Rachel’s Lullaby” reunites Tommy with Hawaiian ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro. The song, written for Tommy’s youngest daughter, shows him continuing to find inspiration from an evergreen source–his love of his family.

Since he and his brother Phil taught themselves to play as toddlers, the guitar has been Tommy’s real first language–and he’s more articulate on his signature Melbourne-made Matonacoustics than most people are with words. His unerring sense of groove marked him as Australia’s youngest rhythm guitarist as The Emmanuel Quartet crisscrossed the country. By the time he made it to the big city in his late teens, Tommy was a rock star, slinging a Fender Telecaster alongside the biggest stars of the day. It was a good life, but deep down Tommy knew there was more to his musical destiny. A shy country kid with little confidence, it took an encouraging meeting turned jam session with his guitar hero Chet Atkins to build his self-belief. By the late 80s he was ready to go it alone, to make instrumental guitar records made for an audience broader than just guitar fans–a move with zero precedence in Australian music. Despite the odds, Tommy released a string of hit albums, racking up awards wins and nominations, and becoming a huge celebrity in his home country, culminating in an incendiary performance with his brother Phil at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Influenced by the Merle Travis/Chet Atkins fingerstyle of guitar picking, Tommy developed a style of solo guitar playing that encompasses the range of a whole band– covering drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar and a vocal melody simultaneously. No loop pedals, no overdubs, just one man and ten fingers. While some artists take ten-piece bands on the road and still fill out the sound with backing tracks, Tommy builds a complete sonic world entirely on his own. For many players, the technical mastery of the technique would overwhelm the emotion of the music, but not for Tommy. His idols are not just the great players, but also the great pop songwriters and singers–Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, The Beatles and their ilk. While thousands of fans have spent years trying to unpack and imitate Tommy’s technique, for him it’s just the delivery system. His approach is always song and emotion first, his music the embodiment of his soulful spirit, sense of hope and his love for entertaining. Which is not to say he dismisses the CGP, the Guitar Player awards, the Grammy nominations, the numerous magazine polls naming him the greatest acoustic guitarist alive. He’s grateful for it all, and the incredible journey that’s led him to the most invigorating period of his career–six decades into it.

For Tommy though, the greatest reward is always the same–to make the next great record, and to see the beaming audience at the next great show. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be in show business. Now I just want to be in the happiness business–I make music, you get happy. That’s a good job.” Tommy isn’t the kind of man who looks to nostalgia–it’s more that he treats his history in the same way he treats the history of music overall: There’s magic threaded in through all the eras that’s worth celebrating and revisiting. Now in his sixties –although on stage he can seem 25–life and music are about improvisation, variety and happiness. 

“MakingAccomplice One has been this great journey through so many of the worlds I’ve inhabited through the years,” concludes Tommy. “Playing with old friends, new friends, heroes, people I’ve been like an older brother to… and musically to jump around from bluegrass to jazz to blues to just pure songs, it’s like going to the world’s greatest buffet and picking out all my favorite meals. People try to categorize what I do, to put me in a genre or put a label on me. I always go back to that old Duke Ellington line, about there being two types of music, good and bad.” Well I try and play the good kind, and on this record I got to play it with the best people.”

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THE MOTH - True Stories Told Live • Hawaii Theatre • 10.19.19
Oct
19
7:30 PM19:30

THE MOTH - True Stories Told Live • Hawaii Theatre • 10.19.19

THE MOTH - True Stories Told Live

Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 7:30 PM at the Hawaii Theatre

The Moth Music Without Borders

The Moth – True Stories Told Live

An evening of storytelling from the producers of the popular Moth Podcast and Radio Hour. The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. Since its founding, The Moth has presented more than fifteen thousand stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The group celebrates the ability of stories to honor both the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection. It seeks to present recognized storytellers among established and emerging writers, performers and artists and to encourage storytelling among communities whose stories often go unheard. The Moth began on a back porch in small-town Georgia, where our founder—poet and best-selling novelist George Dawes Green— would spend sultry summer evenings swapping spellbinding tales with a small circle of friends. There was a hole in the screen, which let in moths that were attracted to the light, and the group started calling themselves “The Moths.” When he moved to New York City, George wanted to recreate the feeling of those nights in his adopted city. The first New York Moth event was held in George’s living room. But word spread fast, and the events soon moved to cafes and clubs throughout the city—and soon to popular venues throughout the country and beyond.

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IMOMSOHARD - Mom's Night Out: Round 2 • Hawaii Theatre • 8.2.19
Aug
2
8:00 PM20:00

IMOMSOHARD - Mom's Night Out: Round 2 • Hawaii Theatre • 8.2.19

IMOMSOHARD - Mom's Night Out: Round 2

Friday, August 2, 2019 at 8:00 PM at the Hawaii Theatre

IMOMSOHARD Music Without Borders

Moms, best friends and funny ladies Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley are the creators of the viral web-series #IMOMSOHARD, where they discuss the good, the bad and the funny about motherhood – with the help of a bottle of red wine!

 #IMOMSOHARD has grown to over 1.5 million follows across platforms and over 120 million video views. One of their most shared episodes, I Swimsuit Season So Hard, where the moms tried on the summer’s hottest/most ridiculous swimwear, garnered over 20 million views and coverage in the world’s top news outlets. They have recently appeared on The Today Show and The Doctors, to name a few, as well as being chosen for People Magazine’s Best of 2017. Part of their plan for complete world mom-ination includes their own half-hour, multi-cam comedy which the moms are developing with CBS.

 After the moms’ first mega-year of touring (you know, just 72 cities) with their live stand-up show: Mom’s Night Out – Summer Break Tour, they will be hitting the road again this year with Mom’s Night Out: Round 2. Their kids are older, the moms are older, but the show is new!!

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Hot Tuna • Hawaii Theatre • 7.5.19
Jul
5
8:00 PM20:00

Hot Tuna • Hawaii Theatre • 7.5.19

Acoustic Hot Tuna

Celebrating 50 Years

Friday, July 5, 2019 at 8:00 PM at the Hawaii Theatre

Hot Tuna Music Without Borders

Back by popular demand
It’s coming around again on the guitar…and on the stage.. !

Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, perform with a well-honed and solid power – always in the groove from their years of experience and mutual inspiration. Started as a side project during Jefferson Airplane days, the constant, the very definition of Hot Tuna, has always been Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. The two boyhood pals have never wavered in one of the most enduring friendships in Rock history.

From their days playing together as teenagers in the Washington, DC area, through years of inventive psychedelic rock in San Francisco (1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees), to their current acoustic and electric blues sound, no one has more consistently led American music for the last 50 years than Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, the founders and continuing core members of Hot Tuna. At the 2016 Grammys, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

“Jorma Kaukonen is a force in American music, equally adept at fingerpicked acoustic folk and blues as he is at wailing on an electric.”  – Acoustic Guitar.

Guitarist and vocalist, Jorma Kaukonen is a highly respected interpreter of roots music, blues, Americana, and popular rock-and-roll.  Jorma’s repertoire goes far beyond psychedelic rock; he is a music legend and one of the finest singer-songwriters in music. Jorma tours the world bringing his unique styling to old blues while writing new songs of weight and dimension.

“Jack Casady is virtually unparalleled–and yet he has one of the most truly unique electric-bass voices in rock…he can melt into a supportive role but when opportunity knocks, he bursts forth with creative lines–both simple and ornate–that are unlike any you’ve heard”  – Premier Guitar

     One of the most unique innovators in the sixty-year history of the bass guitar, Jack Casady made his sweeping melodic mark helping to create the “San Francisco Sound” with legendary rock group Jefferson Airplane. Jack went on to track with Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Warren Zevon, members of the Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker, and Gov’t Mule. Casady, regarded as one of rock’s greatest bassists, is certainly one of its most original.

“Hot Tuna is a Psychedelic-Blues Institution” – Rolling Stone Magazine


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RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles • Hawaii Theatre Center • 6.2.19
Jun
2
8:00 PM20:00

RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles • Hawaii Theatre Center • 6.2.19

RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles

Sunday, June 2, 2019 at 8PM at the Hawaii Theatre Center

Beatles Rain mwb music without borders

In celebration of the anniversary of Abbey Road, RAIN will bring the greatest hits of this epic recording to life, in addition to all your early Beatles favorites. This mind-blowing performance takes you back in time with the legendary foursome delivering a note-for-note theatrical event that is “the next best thing to seeing the Beatles” (Associated Press). Experience the worlds’ most iconic band and come celebrate the best of Abbey Road with RAIN – A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES.

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RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles • Hawaii Theatre Center • 5.31.19
May
31
8:00 PM20:00

RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles • Hawaii Theatre Center • 5.31.19

RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles

Friday, May 31, 2019 at 8PM at the Hawaii Theatre Center

Beatles Rain mwb music without borders

In celebration of the anniversary of Abbey Road, RAIN will bring the greatest hits of this epic recording to life, in addition to all your early Beatles favorites. This mind-blowing performance takes you back in time with the legendary foursome delivering a note-for-note theatrical event that is “the next best thing to seeing the Beatles” (Associated Press). Experience the worlds’ most iconic band and come celebrate the best of Abbey Road with RAIN – A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES.

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