"I
can't really set one aside and say I love it more because
each one has a different story behind it."
For
Cormier, who plays the Savoy Theatre, Saturday night, the
story has been more like a fairy tale, particularly in recent
months.
A
child prodigy who won his first guitar championship when
he was just nine years old, Cormier released an album of
bluegrass guitar instrumentals, Out of the Blue, at age
16 before setting out across the U.S. as a sideman for famed
bluegrass-gospel group the Sullivan Family and other artists
on the festival circuit.
His
ability to play anything with strings drew the attention
of a who's who of country and bluegrass performers, and
for the next decade Cormier was playing, touring and recording
with greats like Waylon Jennings, Marty Stuart, Earl Scruggs,
Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt and Kitty Wells,
even appearing on the televised reopening of the Ryman Auditorium
in 1994.
In
between, the giant-sized sonic marvel captured dozens of
banjo, guitar and fiddle championships and attended college
at Northeast Mississippi Junior College, where he majored
in music education and added dobro and piano to his ever-growing
repertoire. >> more
