Yahoo Finance Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel is back and playing better than ever. Hear for yourself.
It takes more than a pandemic to stop Tommy Emmanuel.
When much of the performing arts world shut down in the face of COVID-19, the Australian-born guitarist went right on working. It’s just that instead of showcasing his blend of fingerstyle guitar tradition and innovation to audiences around the globe, he doubled down on recording projects and zeroed in on a performance trio that brings him back to Kentucky this weekend.
“First of all, I had to get used to the fact that there was no hurry for me to get in my car, drive to the airport and fly somewhere to play a show,” Emmanuel said.
“That’s because there were no shows. But I got myself into a routine of getting to bed at a reasonable hour, getting up early, eating good food, exercising a lot, reading and doing things that I wouldn’t normally get a chance to, especially on the road. It’s been a blessing for me, actually. I think I’m in better shape physically and spiritually. I’m playing better, too.”
A guitarist celebrated for his performance vigor, technical invention and artistic lineage (he was a one-time protégé of Chet Atkins), Emmanuel set to work on a variety of instructional videos through the TrueFire online educational series, the completion of several recording projects that included a version of John Lennon’s immortal “Imagine” and the nurturing of an all-star trio with dobro great Rob Ickes and guitarist/vocalist Trey Hensley.
Emmanuel has been performing on and off with Ickes and Hensley for over five years, but it was during the pandemic that the three took to the studio and cut a four-song EP project released in May as “Accomplice Series, Volume 1.”
“They were booked on a show with me all those years ago in California (specifically, a May 2016 concert at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco) and we just hit it off straightaway. We realized we grew up listening to the same music and we knew a lot of the same songs. We just had a lot in common, so when we played together onstage, there was a real sense of freedom. It was a beautiful feeling.
“Since then, we have wound up booked at the same festivals. We end up jamming all the time. They would get up in my show and I would jump up in their show. It’s just been a really wonderful collaboration. So we got in the studio for a day and ended up recording those four songs and away it went from there.”
The EP boasts the grassy Chet Atkins/Doc Watson string summit “Flatt Did It,” a giddy take on the roots-savvy staple “Copper Kettle” and a reprise of the title tune to Emmanuel’s 2015 album “It’s Never Too Late” performed as a gorgeously lyrical duet with Ickes. But what fully unlocks the recording’s cheery but combustible energy is an update of the 1965 Buck Owens and the Buckeroos instrumental “Raz-Ma-Taz Polka” that serves as a warp speed guitar square off between Emmanuel and Hensley.
“I remember hearing that when I was little,” Emmanuel said. “We learned all of Buck’s instrumentals because he was a good writer. Don Rich, the guitar player who was with Buck Owens, was the guy who played most of those things on Buck’s old records.”
“Accomplice Series, Volume 1” follows the release of two January recordings. A three-song EP centered around Emmanuel’s “Imagine” cover was issued on Jan. 15. Lennon released the original version of the composition 50 years ago this fall. As it has since become an international peace anthem, Emmanuel felt his version might offer some comfort during the height of the pandemic’s winter surge.
“I actually recorded that last year when everybody was in a very negative state. I just wanted to bring people a little peace, so I went in the studio and recorded the song and shot a video while doing that. A lot of people really related to it, saying, ‘That’s what we needed. We needed to hear that.’ So it’s just a way of being able to serve, really.”
A week prior to the “Imagine” EP saw the release of “Greenfields: The Gibbs Brothers Songbook,” an album where veteran pop celebrity Barry Gibb revisited songs he recorded through the decades with siblings Robin and Maurice Gibb as The Bee Gees. Emmanuel adds guitar to an update of the 1977 “Saturday Night Fever” hit “How Deep is Your Love.”
“That’s one of my favorite songs and Barry is a dear friend,” Emmanuel said. “He came to Nashville to make the album and asked me to come and play on that track, so it was a great honor for me. It was a joy.
“In 2018, I lost a brother and a sister a month apart. When my brother died, the very first person to call me was Barry Gibb. He knew exactly what I was going through (Maurice Gibbs died in 2003, Robin Gibb died in 2012.) What a guy.”
If there is a constant in all of these projects – a thread that has run through all of Emmanuel’s music as well as the many varied performances he has given in Kentucky over the past 25 years – it is an unwavering sense of joy. It illuminates his love of the guitar heroes that came before him, the progressive spirit that fuels his own playing and the ways he interacts with collaborators and audiences.
“I’ve never been a person who has felt he was too depressed to play music. I’ve never ever been like that. There is depression in my family. My little brother and my little sister both suffer from it, but we get them through it. I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve had a lot of knocks in my life, but I always get up and get going. I look at things like, ‘While I’m here, I’m going to damn well do the best I can.’ That’s where I come from.
“When people say to me, ‘When are you going to retire?’ I’m like, ‘From what?’ I love this life. I love doing what I do and I’m very grateful that I’m healthy still at my age (66). I will continue to do this until my body says, ‘No more.’ Up until then, I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. I don’t know any other way.”
Tommy Emmanuel performances
▪ 7:30 p.m. June 25 at the Cardome Renaissance Center, 800 Cincinnati Ave. in Georgetown at part of the Concerts at Cardome series, with Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley. The performance is free, but reservations are sold out. troubashow.com/cardome.
▪ 8 p.m. June 26 at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 311 W. 2nd St. in Owensboro, with Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley. $42.50. bluegrasshall.org.
▪ 7:30 pm July 8 at the Grand Theatre, 308 St. Clair St. in Frankfort with Joe Robinson. The performance is sold out. grandtheatre.thundertix.com.
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