Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy Emmanuel captured Australia's Best Guitarist Award four times, raising the profile of rock guitar in his native country by weaving jazz improvisation through a blend that also drew on blues, country, rock, classical, and Spanish traditions. Following an extended period as a respected sideman and skilled songwriter, the two-time ARIA Award winner began his solo recording career in 1988 with Up from Down Under. Later projects included the 1993 release The Journey, which earned strong critical notice and reached prominent positions on the Gavin and Radio & Records NAC airplay charts. He has displayed equal command of electric and acoustic guitars while receiving praise from Chet Atkins, who joined him on the 1997 album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World, and from Todd Rundgren, who described him as an innovator on the instrument. Only arrived in 2001, followed by Endless Road in 2002, a set that reached U.S. listeners three years afterward, then Live One in 2005 and, in 2006, both Happy Hour with Jim Nichols and Mystery. Although Emmanuel stepped away briefly from music at the close of 2007 for health reasons, he recorded every night of an October residency at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, California. Those performances became the double-disc live album Center Stage, which appeared to strong reviews in 2008. Little by Little, a double-studio project issued in 2010, featured a measured reading of Carole King's "Tapestry." All I Want for Christmas followed in 2011 and referenced John Fahey's classic holiday recordings at several points, while The Colonel & the Governor in 2013 paired him with English guitarist Martin Taylor. The solo studio album It's Never Too Late came out on Sony in 2015, succeeded the next year by the holiday collection Christmas Memories. Accomplice One, released on Thirty Tigers in late 2017, proved a landmark effort that placed Emmanuel alongside one of the strongest and most varied groups of string players and guest artists in his career, among them Jason Isbell, Mark Knopfler, Rodney Crowell, Ricky Skaggs, David Grisman, Suzy Bogguss, and Jake Shimabukuro. He joined fellow guitarist John Knowles for Heart Songs in 2019. The 2020 retrospective The Best of Tommysongs appeared as a double album that gathered career highlights along with five new songs written for the collection.