(By Catherine Seybold, Contributing Writer/ Jayne Drooger, Photographer)

If you heard the sweet, energetic, eclectic and diverse sounds of a guitar in downtown St. Petersburg Friday night, you must have been among the lucky ones to have been at Jannus Live renowned Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel entertained, mesmerized and enchanted his audience with his versatile guitar playing for over 2 hours. This one-man-one-guitar show ended leaving the audience both wanting more and realizing that they were in the presence of a musical genius. Tommy’s style and techniques were inspired my musician Chet Atkins. After 50 plus years of playing guitar, he is still perfecting his techniques and exploring new ways to make his music memorable and his style unique. His guitar sang familiar songs such as Deep River Blues, some Beatle’s favorites like My Guitar Gently Weeps and Day Tripper, Nine-pound Hammer, and much of his original work. For more information about Tommy and to see his tour schedule visit tommyemmanuel.com