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Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel:
Born: 1955 - New South Wales, Australia
Instruments: Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Drums
In Australia, his story has become as well-known as any rock star, he is legendary. He started playing at the age of 4; by 6 he was touring with his family band, and by the age of 10 had played his way across Australia.
The 80’s saw Tommy emerge as Australia’s greatest modern guitar player. His career spans three decades and continues to intersect with some of the finest musicians in the world, time and time again.
A household name in his native Australia, he’s garnered tens of thousands of loyal fans on all five continents. Known as a “musician’s musician,” he’s been described (more than once, and by some of the biggest names in the industry) as the greatest guitar player alive today.
Tommy was born in the Upper Hunter in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia. He received his first guitar in 1959 at the age of 4 - being taught by his mother to accompany her playing lap steel guitar. At the age of 7 he heard Chet Atkins on the radio. He vividly remembers this moment and says it changed his life forever and set him on a course from which he has never strayed.
By the age of 9, in 1964, he was a working professional musician. Recognizing the musical talents of Tommy and his brother Phil, their father created a family band, sold the family home and took his family on the road. With the family living in two station wagons, much of Emmanuel’s childhood was spent touring Australia with his family, playing rhythm guitar, and rarely going to school.
The family found it difficult living on the road; they were poor and were often hungry, never settling in one place. His father would often drive ahead to organize interviews, advertising and finding the local music shop where they'd have an impromptu concert the next day. Eventually the New South Wales Department of Education insisted that the Emmanuel children needed to go to school regularly.
After his father died in 1966, the family settled in Parkes. Tommy eventually moved to Sydney where he came to be noticed nationally when he won a string of talent contests in his teen years. By the late 1970s, he was playing drums with his brother Phil in the group Goldrush as well as doing session work on countless albums and jingles. During the early 1980s, he joined the reformed lineup of leading '70s rock group Dragon, touring widely with them, including a 1987 tour with Tina Turner. He left the group to embark on a solo career.
Throughout his career he has played with many notable artists including Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin, Air Supply, and John Denver. In 1994 he became a member of the John Farnham Band. Australian music veteran John Farnham invited him to play guitar next to Stuart Fraser from Noiseworks for the Concert For Rwanda.
Tommy and his brother Phil performed live in Sydney at the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in 2000. The event was televised worldwide. When performing together the pair will sometimes share and play just one guitar with each having one hand free. In October 2002 he was invited to perform the Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda at a service at the Washington National Cathedral held for the victims of the Bali bombings. Over 80 Australians were killed by the terrorist attack.
Tommy tours the world, playing in both large and small venues. His concerts are extremely popular with his dedicated fans, much due to his powerful and energetic stage presence. He is engaged to fellow singer/songwriter Lizzie Watkins, with whom he tours. The couple have their home in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Late in 2007 he was diagnosed with heart issues and was forced to take a break from his hectic touring schedule due to exhaustion.
Tommy has said that even at a young age he was fascinated by Atkins’ musical style – sometimes referred to as Travis picking – of playing bass with the thumb and melody parts with the first two or three fingers at the same time. This technique became the basis of Tommy's guitar style.
While Tommy has never had formal music training, his playing ability has won him fans from all over the world. He is known to play percussion parts on the body of his guitar. As a solo performer he never plays to a set list and uses a minimum of effects. He usually completes recordings in one take. He frequently uses his left thumb to fret bass notes on the 5th and 6th strings as well as playing chords such as Am and E with just two fingers.
He mostly uses a thumb pick, (in his tuition videos he recommends a firm Dunlop thumb pick as his personal choice) but also uses a flat pick or just fingers. His main guitar is a small-bodied custom Maton EBG808, that is fitted with a pickup and an internal condenser microphone, to which he has given the nickname "Mouse" due to its quieter volume unplugged but massive sound when plugged into an amp.
Two of his three main stage guitars, notably his signature TE1 Maton dreadnought, are battered and worn on the necks and soundboards from his excessive playing and percussive techniques on them. He recently stated at a workshop during his annual festival, Tommyfest UK (2008), that all three of his stage guitars have been broken and repaired numerous times over the years.
Tommy and Chet Atkins
As a young man in Australia, Tommy wrote to his hero Chet Atkins in Nashville. Eventually Atkins replied with words of encouragement and a longstanding invitation to drop by to visit. In July 1999, at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention, Chet presented Tommy with a Certified Guitar Player award, an honor Atkins has bestowed on only two other people in the world (Jerry Reed and John Knowles). This award gains its fame from being bestowed by Atkins himself, a widely recognized leader in guitar music.
The award states: "In Recognition of His Contributions to the Art of Fingerpicking." Tommy performs at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) in June each year in Nashville. In 1997, Emmanuel and Atkins recorded as a duo and released ‘’The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World.’’
“I think he’s probably the greatest finger-picker in the world today,” Atkins said a few months prior to his death in 2001. “He’s inventive, fearless and has a flawless sense of rhythm. You can’t watch Tommy perform and not feel happy.”
Tommy has headlined concerts at the Sydney Opera House, toured with Eric Clapton, won 1992’s ARIA award for the Australian Contemporary Record of the Year, and achieved Platinum and Gold Status on many of his albums.
His albums include;
- Up From Down Under (1988), which won extensive critical acclaim, charted around Australia, reached the Top 10 in Sydney and garnered him his first Gold album
- Dare to be Different (1990)
- Determination (1991)
- The Journey (1993)
- The Journey Continues (1994)
- Terra Firma, with brother Phil (1995)
- Classical Gas, a live recording with the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra (1996)
- Can’t Get Enough (1997)
- The Day Fingerpickers Took Over the World, an album of duets with Chet Atkins (1998)
- Collaboration, duets with a number of high-profile artists (1999)
- Only (2000)
- Chet Lag (2001)
- The Very Best of Tommy Emmanuel (2001).
His latest release, a live double album entitled 'Center Stage' contains 24 tracks of typically stunning Tommy picking. You wonder if he could possibly get any better, you feel sure he would say he could, such is the dedication and modesty of this truly great man.
The percussive elements of Mombasa and Initiation show how versatile he is and bring out some of the drummer in him. This is a very moving album that should be in every guitar lover’s collection.
We wish you a speedy return to full health Tommy so that we can all enjoy and continue to be inspired by your talent and enthusiasm.
Tommy’s website can be found at http://www.tommyemmanuel.com |
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