A young fellow (aged 17) by the name of Darren Hodge is starting to cause a stir in these parts. His style is plainly heavily influenced by Tommy Emmanuel (with whom he has played) and some aspects are more impressive to watch than they are attractive to me musically, but his skills are quite extraordinary for a 17 year old who's been playing about 6 years seriously. He could go far. I had the dubious pleasure of following his set at a local event yesterday afternoon. I had to explain that as I couldn't compete with him for skill, I'd try to beat him with obscurity of material instead :-)
