“Damn, Tommy, I had to smoke a cigarette after that last song.”

So said Jorma Kaukonen as he stood on stage alongside Tommy Emmanuel July 13 at Ohio’s Southern Theatre. 

The headliner had just played “Mombassa,” a track that finds the soloist becoming a band as he employs a drum brush and his hands on his mic and guitar and becomes a temporary drum machine. And just before that – 60 minutes into his 90-minute set – Emmanuel had tipped his phantom cap to Doc Watson with a scorching segue of “Doc’s Guitar” -> “Black Mountain Rag.”

Now, it was time for the performers and listeners to catch their collective breath. And so, trading solos and singing in harmony, Kaukonen and Emmanuel reprised their recording of “Another Man Done a Full Go Round” from the latter’s Accomplice Two LP before offering a deliciously grimy rendition of “Trouble in Mind.”

Calling it a “real treat” to play in Columbus with his buddy, “one of the finest human beings I’ve ever met,” Kaukonen had come up from Fur Peace Ranch for a one-night-only opening slot on Emmanuel’s tour. 

Taking the unadorned stage at 8 sharp, the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna co-founder was seated with picks on his right fingers while he turned in a scaled-back, 55-minute iteration of his headlining show, delivering such numbers as “Hesitation Blues,” “Let Us Get Together Right Down Here” and “Good Shepherd” to the appreciative fans who filled some two-thirds of the Southern’s 1,000 seats. 

At 82, Kaukonen remains a deft picker and has become a grizzled blues singer, though he briefly turned jazzy on “Where Have all My Old Friends Gone,” a recent and welcome addition to the repertoire that ponders the inevitable and the unknowable. 

The anthesis of Kaukonen’s low-key, Delta persona, Emmanuel, 68, bounded on stage at 9:20 p.m. and took flight as his one guitar filled the hall with a barrage of sound. Seated, he rocketed through two instrumentals as he bounced his legs and swung his under red-and-white lights that flashed on his black pants and white cowboy shirt. 

The palpable energy solicited spontaneous outbursts from the crowd. And even Emmanuel – who simultaneously played lead, rhythm and bass parts on his six-string acoustic guitar – was not immune. 

Soon he was on his feet, singing “Nine Pound Hammer,” and scratching a rough surface attached his axe’s body, thus adding percussion to the mix with his right hand while playing the melody on the guitar’s neck with his left. 

Turning to look for his nonexistent backing group, Emmanuel deadpanned. “Don’t need no stinkin’ band,” as the audience gasped through giggles. 

And he didn’t. 

For Emmanuel was the band as he waxed contemplative when paying homage to Chet Atkins on their “Smoky Mountain Lullaby” – the last track the man who christened Emmanuel a Certified Guitar Player ever recorded – and turned celebratory on his famed and wordless “Beatles Medley.” Though the night was nearly over at this point, Emmanuel’s blurry fingers flew across his instrument as fast as time passes when Tommy Emmanuel is on stage. 

Of course, he earned a standing ovation for the pyrotechnic display.