Tommy Emmanuel

In 2019, he was listed by MusicRadar as the best acoustic guitarist in the world.

Tommy Emmanuel studied at Parkes High School. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are country music, rock music, contemporary folk music and blues. Places of work recorded in the authority are Nashville. Distinctions recorded are Member of the Order of Australia.

• Name — Tommy Emmanuel • Honorific Suffix — AM • Birth Name — William Thomas Emmanuel • Born — 31 May 1955 • Birthplace — Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia • Genre — Jazz, pop, rock, country • Occupation — Musician • Instrument — Guitar, vocals • Years Active — 1962–present • Label — Sony, Columbia, Favored Nations • Associated Acts — Southern Star Band, John Farnham, Dragon, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Martin Taylor, Hank Marvin, Gabriella Quevedo • Website — tommyemmanuel.com

One of six children, Emmanuel was born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia, in 1955. He received his first guitar in 1959, at age four, and was taught by his mother to accompany her lap steel guitar playing. In 1961, at the age of six, he heard Chet Atkins playing on the radio. He vividly remembers that moment and said it greatly inspired him as a musician. By the age of six, he was a working professional musician. Recognizing the musical talents of Emmanuel and his older brother, Phil, their father created a family band, sold their 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, playing rhythm guitar, and rarely going to school. After their father died in 1966, Australian country musician Buddy Williams approached the family and asked permission to take the Emmanuel brothers on the road with his touring show travelling around Australia. Tommy Emmanuel would go on to record a number of Buddy Williams albums in the early 1970s. The family settled in Parkes, New South Wales after the New South Wales Department of Education insisted that the Emmanuel children had to go to school regularly. In his teen years, Tommy Emmanuel moved to Sydney, and was noticed nationally when he won a string of talent contests. By the late 1970s, he was playing drums with his brother Phil in the group Goldrush as well as doing session work on numerous 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 1986–1988 and 1995, he joined the lineup of the leading New Zealand/Australian 1970s rock group Dragon that had reformed in 1982, touring widely with them, including a 1987 tour with Tina Turner; he left the group to embark on a solo career. In 1994, Australian music veteran John Farnham invited him to play the guitar next to Stuart Fraser from Noiseworks for the Concert for Rwanda. Emmanuel had previously been a member of Farnham's band during the early 1980s and featured on the album Uncovered and rejoined after the 1994 concert. In 1997, Emmanuel relocated from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee, following an invitation from his mentor and collaborator Chet Atkins. He continues to permanently reside in Nashville as a dual Australian and United States citizen. In July 1999, Chet Atkins commented that Emmanuel was a "fearless" fingerpicking guitar player and awarded Tommy and four others (John Knowles, Jerry Reed, Marcel Dadi and Steve Wariner) the "Certified Guitar Player" title. Emmanuel and his brother Phil performed live in Sydney at the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in 2000. The event was televised worldwide with an estimated 2.85 billion viewers. In December 2007, he was diagnosed with heart problems and was forced to take a break from his hectic touring schedule due to exhaustion but returned to full-time touring in early 2008. In June 2010, Emmanuel was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). At the 2011 'TommyFest', Tommy took the chance to talk to the audience about his strong Christian faith. "The Lord is my shepherd, so I lack nothing—it's true!" he told the gathered crowds. In 2012, Governor Steve Beshear awarded Emmanuel the state of Kentucky's honorific title of Kentucky Colonel. In 2009 he worked with fellow local artists Ray Burgess, Marty Rhone, John St Peeters and John "Swanee" Swan to release a single, "Legends of the Southern Land". During a July 2019 concert he mentioned recently receiving American citizenship. In 2025, Emmanuel was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Newcastle for his contributions to music on a global scale.

• Illustration — Emmanuel's fingerstyle technique was featured at a June 2006 performance at City Stages in Birmingham, Alabama Emmanuel had said that even at a young age he was fascinated by Chet Atkins's musical style (sometimes referred to as Travis picking) of playing bass lines, chords, melodies, and harmonies simultaneously using the thumb and fingers of the right hand, achieving a dynamic range of sound from the instrument. Although Emmanuel's playing incorporates a multitude of musical influences and styles, including jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk and rock, this type of country finger-style playing is at the core of his technique. While Emmanuel has never had formal music training and cannot read or transcribe music, his natural musical ability, intrinsic sense of rhythm, and charisma gained him fans from all over the world. As a solo performer, he never plays to a setlist and uses a minimum of effects onstage. He usually completes studio recordings in one take. • Illustration — Emmanuel uses a snare-drum brush to emulate the sound of a percussion kit In his solo shows, he mainly plays guitars made by Maton, an Australian guitar manufacturer. He usually travels with two custom Maton EBG808 TE models and one TE1 model, both of which are Tommy Emmanuel artist signature models. He has played Maton guitars for most of his career and is somewhat of an ambassador for the company due to his long-standing association with the brand. Emmanuel is known for the battered and worn-down appearances of his guitars; a result of his dynamic, energetic playing and percussive techniques. One of his signature performances, for example, involves striking the whole body of the guitar in various places with his hands or a drummer's snare-drum brush to emulate the sound of a percussion kit. Emmanuel usually keeps one Maton EBG808 in standard guitar tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), while he tunes his second Maton EBG808 to D-G-D-G-B-E (G6 tuning) and his TE1 to Csharp-Fsharp-B-E-Gsharp-Csharp. He generally uses 0.12 gauge (light) strings on one EBG808 and 0.13 gauge (medium) strings on the second Maton EBG808 and on the TE1. This allows him to quickly change tuning by swapping between guitars during a show if needed, rather than spending time onstage re-tuning one guitar. Emmanuel often curls his left thumb around the neck of the guitar onto the fretboard to play some notes, rather than using only his fingers to play — contrary to how classical guitarists play, but not unusual for jazz and country guitarists. He frequently plays common three-finger chord shapes with just two fingers. He commonly uses a thumbpick, a flat pick (plectrum), his fingers, or a combination of these in his playing, a style known as hybrid picking. Amongst his trademark rapid virtuoso licks and cascading harmonic progressions, he often uses a technique that imitated an electric guitar's tremolo system on acoustic guitar — by pressing the palm of his right hand against the sound board of the guitar near the neck joint, while maintaining forward pressure with his left hand on the top of the headstock. The guitar neck slightly bends away from the body and consequently affects the pitch of the strings to achieve the desired sound.

*

The APRA Awards (Australia) are annual awards to recognise composing and songwriting skills, sales, and airplay performance by its members annually. • Year — Category — Nominated work — Result • |1992 — Jazz Composition of the Year — |"Stevie's Blues"

The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards, commonly known as ARIA Music Awards, are held to recognise excellence and innovation and achievement across all genres of Australian music. Award nominees and winners, excluding for sales and public voted categories, are selected by the ARIA Academy comprising "judges from all sectors of the music industry–retail, radio and tv, journalists and critics, television presenters, concert promoters, agents, ARIA member record companies and past ARIA winners". The inaugural ARIA Awards took place in 1987. • Year — Category — Nominated work — Result • |1989 — Best Cover Art — |"Up from Down Under" • |1991 — Best Adult Contemporary Album — Dare to Be Different • 1992 — Best Adult Contemporary Album — Determination • Best Male Artist • |1994 — Best Adult Contemporary Album — The Journey • |1995 — Best Adult Contemporary Album — Terra Firma • |1996 — Best Adult Contemporary Album — Classical Gas • |1997 — Best Adult Contemporary Album — Can't Get Enough • |2013 — Best Jazz Album — The Colonel & The Governor

The Country Music Awards of Australia (CMAA) (also known as the Golden Guitar Awards) is an annual awards night held in January during the Tamworth Country Music Festival, celebrating recording excellence in the Australian country music industry. They have been held annually since 1973. • Year — Category — Nominated work — Result • |2005 — Instrumental of the Year — "Tall Fiddler" • |2007 — Instrumental of the Year — "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag" • |2019 — Instrumental of the Year — "Wheelin' and Dealin'" • |2021 — Bluegrass Recording of the Year — "Finger Picking Good" (Kristy Cox feat Tommy Emmanuel)

The Grammy Awards is an annual award presentation by The Recording Academy to recognise achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. • Year — Category — Nominated work — Result • |1998 — Best Country Instrumental Performance — "Smokey Mountain Lullaby" • |2006 — Best Country Instrumental Performance — "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag" • |2024 — Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella — "Folsom Prison Blues"

The National Guitar Museum nominated Emmanuel for its annual “Lifetime Achievement” Award in 2023.