When you listen to and watch skilled guitarists play, the look on their faces seems to be a cross between bliss and agony as they work their magic. Half-closed eyes, lips pull taut against their teeth, faces screwed up into a mixed mask of Comedy and Drama, almost as it it's a requirement for the technically proficient guitarist.
Unless you're watching Tommy Emmanuel; he grins, mugs and laughs as he plays, the passion and love of the music seeming to flow from him as much as it does from his guitar. Tommy Emmanuel is one with his guitar, one self-contained guitarist whose voice roars from the wood and steel. He is the consummate acoustic guitarist and to many, the best in the world.
He is a household name in his native Australia as well as among guitarists and serious music fans. He has established himself well in the United States and Europe as well with his finger-picking style and his blazing speed up and down the fret board. But even more than that, his personable, down to earth style coupled with his love of his craft have kept Tommy at the top of most music critics' lists of influential contemporary guitarists.
One of five children, Tommy was born on May 31st, 1955 in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia. He began to play the guitar at the age of four when his mother showed him a few chords. "She played a little bit of lap steel guitar and sang a little, so she got me started by buying me a cheap guitar and showing me a few things on it, and it kept me inspired for a long time." In an interview with Guitarist magazine, Emmanuel said that he first heard Chet Atkins when he was seven years old and that was a turning point for him. "I realized he was playing everything at once, and that it was a self-contained style. So I set about trying to work it out." He went on to say that he worked out several of Atkins songs using a plectrum and that it wasn't until 1965 when someone handed him a copy of Chet Atkins Greatest Hits that he saw Chet on the cover with a thumb pick. "So I took a look at it and said 'That's it!' That helped me to get better at playing that style, by utilizing the thumb properly."
He and his siblings formed their first band in 1960, calling themselves variously The Emmanuel Quartet, The Midget Safaris and The Trailblazers with Tommy playing rhythm guitar, his brother Phil on lead, Chris on drums and his sister Virginia on Hawaiian steel guitar. The band played in towns all across Australia which, considering the size of the country is quite an undertaking. "When you go into the outback, you allow three of four days in between towns and carry extra fuel and water with you and things like that. When I was a kid we had to go across what we call the Nullarbor Plain – which is between Southern and Western Australia – which was a seven day and night journey across a treacherous part of the country. Many flat tires, broken axles and broken springs, but you just had to fix the vehicles by the side of the road and keep going."
The band was the families' sole means for support while the children were growing up. When asked if he remembered this time as being a hardship, Emmanuel said "I've spent all my life from the age of four playing music and entertaining people. I've never wanted to do anything else. Music brings people together."
After his father died, the Emmanuel family was approached by Australian country star Buddy Williams who took them on the road with him. This lasted for a brief time before Australian Child Welfare stopped it and forced the children off the road and into regular school. Tommy left school in his early teens and headed to Sydney to seek out his career as a professional guitarist. It didn't take him long before he was playing clubs all over the city and was soon in demand as a session player due to his ability to play in almost any style as well as his easy-going nature which allowed him to fit into almost any situation. Despite never having learned to read music, the lack of that particular skill did not slow him down at all. "I've never put a piece of paper in front of me and gone 'Now I'm gonna play this song.' I've never done that. I've heard the song and gone 'That's how it goes. Alright. Boom. Now I'm going to play it.', you know what I mean?"
Emmanuel played on recordings with Air Supply, Men at Work and several other popular Australian acts of the 70's and early 80's. Tommy also found himself making a nice living writing and recording literally thousands of commercial jingles.
By 1985, Tommy joined up with Australia's premier rock band of the time, Dragon and was with them when they recorded their platinum selling Dreams of Ordinary Men.
But it was meeting Chet Atkins on a trip to the United States in 1980 (a trip Emmanuel made expressly for that purpose) that seemed to have been a magical moment in his career. Emmanuel had been a fan of Atkins from the time he was a child and first learning the guitar and the influence of Atkins on his playing can still be heard today. Tommy tells the story of writing to Atkins when he was 11 years, after his father had died, and being amazed when Atkins wrote back encouraging him on his playing and inviting him to meet when he made it to the United States. During that trip, Atkins took Emmanuel under his wing and allowed Tommy to share some stage time with him on gigs in Nashville and introduced him to many of the best guitarists in the country. From that moment on and up until his death, Chet Atkins was his mentor. Even now, Tommy speaks with deep respect and admiration for the 'genius from Tennessee'.
His first release in the US, Up From Down Under, put out by EMI in 1988, debuted in the top ten although Emmanuel chides record company executives about its success. " EMI put out the album and it coincided with a tour with John Denver, who was a very big star in those days, and it was a perfect platform for me as a new artist. So, the people who came to the show loved my set. They went crazy, threw babies in the air, and the next day they went out and bought my album, my album Up From Down Under, which the record company had said "There'll be no market for that." The album debuted in the top 10, you know, and I had to go get their brown corduroys for them, you know."
Once Tommy began to release records in the United States and Europe, his career caught fire beyond the shores of Australia. He has been voted the Best Acoustic Guitar Player many times, has graced covers of several guitar magazines so many times it's difficult to count. His versatility as a guitarist has taken him around the world several times, allowing him to play in front of everyone from the Masai people in remote Kenya, to International Jazz Festivals and performing and recording with the Sydney Philharmonic as well as The Grand Ole Opry'. He has 18 solo albums to his credit, has appeared on several other albums by other artists and has recorded an album with his brother Phillip, another equally amazing guitarist from the Emmanuel clan.
But of all of his accomplishments, Emmanuel seems to cherish the recording The Day The Tumbpickers Took Over The World, a duet project with his late mentor and friend, Chet Atkins, the most if for no other reason of how it was a dream come true for a onetime 11 year old prodigy and fan from Australia.
And yet, despite his successes and the near constant acknowledgment of his abilities, Tommy Emmanuel has never lost or altered his love for the music. The infectious joy that flows from him the moment he picks up his Maton guitar and steps into the spotlight draws you in. But when he begins to play, you'll know that you're hearing something astounding. You're hearing something that will stay with you for a long, long time.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
