Tommy Emmanuel CGP

Some facts about Tommy Emmanuel!

Biography

Tommy was born in the Upper Hunter in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia. He received his 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 greatly inspired him.

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, 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 (NSW - where the giant Telescope that recorded the first transmission of images of Neil Armstrong's moon walk and speech was transmitted to NASA via this telescope first!!!.) 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 doing session work on countless albums and jingles. He gained further prominence in the late 1970s as the lead guitarist in The Southern Star Band, the backing group for vocalist Doug Parkinson. 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, John Denver and Les Paul.
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. Steve Vai has cited Emmanuel as one of the musical artists that anybody with a love of the guitar should see.
Late in 2007 he was diagnosed with heart issues and was forced to take a break from his hectic touring schedule due to exhaustion, but returned to full-time touring in early 2008.

Musical Style

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 uses a thumb pick mostly, 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.


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 other guitarists.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 album "The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World", which was also to be Atkins' last recorded album before he died.
Discography

1979 From Out Of Nowhere
1987 Up From Down Under
1990 Dare to Be Different
1992 Determination
1993 The Journey
1993 The Journey Continues
1994 Back On Azubazi
1995 Initiation
1995 Terra Firma (with Phil Emmanuel)
1995 Classical Gas
1996 Can't Get Enough
1997 Midnight Drive (US release of Can't Get Enough)
1997 The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World (With Chet Atkins)
1998 Collaboration
2000 Only
2001 Greatest Hits
2004 Endless Road
2005 Live One
2006 Happy Hour (with Jim Nichols)
2006 The Mystery
2008 Center Stage
Tommy released the DVD "Live At Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, Australia" on 11 July 2006 and also the "Center Stage" accompanying DVD in late 2008.
[edit]Awards

"Smokey Mountain Lullaby", a duet with Chet Atkins, was nominated for the 1998 Grammy award for Country Instrumental Performance but did not win. His song "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag" won "Instrumental of the Year" at the 35th Tamworth Country Music Festival on Saturday, 27 January 2007,[7] and also was nominated that year for a Grammy for "Best Country Instrumental Performance". [8]
In the May 2008 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, Tommy Emmanuel was named as "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in their readers poll.
Wikipedia was the source for the above facts

Whew!

The other night I had the opportunity to photograph this legend in a private interview soon for television, and was then invited to the concert the following night. What an experience. This man is a solo performer who really holds an audience in the pure talent and stage presence that oozes from every pore. His guitar is an extension of his arm and part of his body. He is every bit as good a person as he is a guitarist. I placed the facts as they are above because they state them much better than I could, but I was truly amazed at what this man can do with his guitars. He creates sounds and percussion on a guitar case that seem impossible. It truly is a "I can see it but I don't believe it" situation.

Having been to Muswellbrook many times in my life, I wonder in amazement if he had any idea where he would go as a child. He said in the interview that he "sometimes looks and thinks quietly to his well used guitar and says where will we go next?" He has played to audiences in Russia, Eastern Europe, the US, Africa, Asia and of course Australia and New Zealand. He is a man for all seasons, as is the music he creates.

He now lives in Nashville, Tenn. USA and last year completed a record 340 performances in one year!!! Unbelievable but true. He is one of the most hard working and generous artists I have met. Before every concert if there are children who want to play for him, he will listen and give them a critique. If people want to meet him and they come before the concert they can have that chance, he will sign pictures, CD's and guitars and is so giving.

He is one of the rarest and most accomplished guitarists in the world, who hailed from a small town here in OZ, and is truly a deserving title holder of the often worn used word of Legend. I have included some pictures and some live shots and some You Tube clips. In the middle of his concert he thanked and praised You Tube. He once played in Eastern Europe and was amazed when his agent had sold out one show when he had never played there, whilst on stage he asked the audience, "How did you know about me?" to which they almost universally shouted, "You Tube". So he is grateful to them and would be pleased me linking some clips I am sure. They are of Tommy playing some percussion on his guitar and Haba na Haba which gives me tingles as I write this and listen at the same time. Haba Na Haba Lala Salaama- Little by little - your sweet dreams come true....and thus it is. Then there is Guitar Boogie. There a few clips and not all of you will watch them all, but I recommend the percussion one and Haba Na Haba for sure! In the pictures below you will also see shots of Tommy with the great Australian trumpeter James Morrison, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting, more on him on another occasion.

Meeting Tommy, hearing and seeing closely what he does was such an inspiration to me, such as I have never had previously, to pick up a guitar and learn to create a new method of expression. Thus today is the day I get an acoustic guitar! I cannot afford a Maton...yet! But will undoubtedly own one soon. Perhaps so that I can sit on the balcony overlooking a small lake or river at Sunrise and sing Haba Na Haba!

Take care and enjoy friends. I hope you walk away with a feeling of appreciation of this talented individual. I will nominate him for Australian of the year.






























POSTSCRIPT -

I have not been able to stop listening to this song for a couple of days. I cannot really describe the pure joy and love I feel for the tune, the message and feeling that Haba Na Haba gives me. As though it is a subtle reminder that little by little (Craig) all your (my) sweet dreams will come. They are certainly manifesting themselves and it would appear the universe is rotating in a harmonious direction for me. I am so very grateful.

I will also place a link to his website here.