Tommy Emmanuel CGP (born May 31, 1955) is an Australian virtuoso guitarist, best known for his fine art of "fingerpicking", which is akin to the way a pianist plays the piano, using all ten fingers. He is considered by some as the greatest fingerpicker in the world today. Emmanuel is a committed Christian since beating substance abuse two decades ago.
Throughout his career he played with many famous legends like Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and John Denver.
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 6 was a working professional musician, as much of his childhood 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 notice nationally when he won 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 doesn't read music and has never had formal music training, his natural musicianship and prodigious playing ability has won him thousands of 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 prestigious Certified Guitar Player award, an honor bestowed on only two other guitarists, - "In Recognition Of His Contributions To The Art Of Fingerpicking". Sadly, this was Chet's final recording before his death in 2001.
Tommy has a new album coming out soon in July/August 2006 called "The Mystery."
Discography
- 2005 Live One
- 2004 Endless Road
- 2001 Greatest Hits
- 2000 Only
- 1998 Collaboration
- 1997 The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World (With Chet Atkins)
- 1996 Can't Get Enough
- 1995 Classical Gas
- 1995 Initiation
- 1994 Back On Terra Firma
- 1993 The Journey Continues
- 1993 The Journey
- 1992 Determination
- 1990 Dare To Be Different
- 1987 Up From Down Under
- 1979 From Out Of Nowhere