Tommy Emmanuel

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Tommy Emmanuel

Born	May 31, 1955, Muswellbrook, New South Wales
Genre(s)	acoustic/world
Years active	1962 - present
Official site	Official website

Tommy Emmanuel, CGP (born May 31, 1955) is an Australian guitarist, best known for his fingerpicking style. Throughout his career he has played with many notable artists including: Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and John Denver.

1 Biography
2 Stage performance
3 Trivia
4 Discography
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Tommy was born in the New South Wales town of Muswellbrook. He began to play guitar at the age of 4 years and by the age of 5 was a working professional musician, as much of his childhood was spent touring Australia with his family band, playing rhythm guitar.

In 1966 when his father died, he started to give guitar lessons at the age of 12. He first came to be noticed nationally when he won a string of talent contests in his teen years, and by the late 1970s, he was playing with his brother Phil in the group Goldrush. 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, before leaving to embark on a solo career.

While Tommy has never had formal music training, his natural musicianship and prodigious playing ability has won him fans from all over the world. As well as being a guitar master, he is also a professional percussionist, and has been known to play percussion parts on the body of his guitar.

1994 saw Tommy as 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.

In July 1999, at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention, Chet presented Tommy with the honorary Certified Guitar Player degree, an honour bestowed on only two other guitarists (besides Atkins himself) - "In Recognition Of His Contributions To The Art Of Fingerpicking".

One of his career highlights was his live performance at Sydney when he played on the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in 2000. 1 billion people watched this event, which was shown worldwide.

He tours around the world, frequently playing in small venues. His concerts are extremely popular with his dedicated fans not only because of his amazing musicianship, but also due to his powerful yet laid back stage presence.

Tommy released the DVD "Live At Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, Australia" July 11th, 2006.

Tommy's latest album, "The Mystery," was released August 22, 2006. His song "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag" from this CD won "Instrumental of the Year" at the 35th Country Music Awards held at the Tamworth Country Music Festival on Saturday the 27th January 2007 and also was nominated that year for a Grammy for "Best Country Instrumental Performance".

Recently, Emmanuel has been supported on tour by Hawaiian Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro.

Emmanuel is a committed Christian since beating substance addiction two decades ago. He is engaged to fellow singer/songwriter Lizzie Watkins, with whom he tours.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Stage performance

Tommy is notable for his lightheartedness; he interacts with the audience, telling old jokes, and in a recent concert he allowed a man to propose to his wife to-be on stage.

[edit] Trivia

Along with Tommy, the electric guitarist Ben Murrie spent a lot of his childhood living in Muswellbrook.
Tomme Emmanuel has often been seen to bring along at least 5 different guitars, and sometimes changes guitars in the middle of songs.