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Back in August 2015 I spent a Saturday with Tommy. We filmed interviews the morning at the factory with custom shop master luthier Andy Allen, then later at his sound-check in Hamer Hall, Melbourne Australia. Andy had built him number of new custom shop guitars, and Tommy wanted to try them out; each and every one. It was a surreal feeling being on stage; me with a camera and Tommy with (seemingly endless) guitars to play, and a completely empty theatre.
Today was May 26th, the anniversary of Maton founder Bill May's birthday, and just 5 days before Tommy's own 70th. It was a DeJa'Vu moment as the menu de jour included video interviews with new Maton Masterbuilt models, a fireside chat (no fire) with Masterbuilt luthier Corey Parker, a lunchtime gig for the Maton factory team with his new Masterbuilt TE Jumbo, then onto Hamer Hall where we filmed an interview with Tommy talking about life and music and not actually playing. But of course, the not-playing didn't last long ...
The top of the tree.
Under the bright lights of Brisbane’s Concert Hall on May 18, 2025, a sold-out crowd fell into hushed awe as Tommy Emmanuel strode onstage and his own light seemed brighter still. With a clutch of Maton guitars nearby and the silence of anticipation heavy in the air, the 69-year-old Australian virtuoso launched into a solo performance that reviewers would later call "jaw-dropping" and utterly definitive of his status as the standout living acoustic guitarist. The two-set show wove bluesy grooves, bluegrass flourishes and a rousing, percussive finale of "Waltzing Matilda," leaving no doubt that on this May evening, Tommy Emmanuel was at the top of his game. As one critic observed, no one will doubt his status after hearing him, and Emmanuel – beaming broadly as he traded licks with the audience – seemed to embody why the University of Newcastle had just awarded him an honorary doctorate, lauding his extraordinary contributions and the incredible fingerstyle technique that would define his career, and spawn tens of thousands in his footsteps.
Such an arrival on the scene feels inevitable in hindsight, but Emmanuel’s path began humbly in the small country town of Muswellbrook, NSW. Born William Thomas Emmanuel in 1955 into a musical family, he was handed his first guitar at age four. By six he was already traveling the country and performing professionally with his brother Phil in the family band – busking and playing country tunes as most children learn their times tables. As Maton Guitars’ artist biography notes, Tommy’s unusual talent and life are common lore in Australia: by age six the boy prodigy was on the road, and he never wanted to do anything else besides entertain people. Through childhood he toured and played lap steel and guitar, steeping himself in country and country-blues styles; especially the Travis-picking of Chet Atkins. When Emmanuel’s father died suddenly in 1966, the young Tommy barely slowed down – he simply carried on with gigs and sessions to help support the family, quickly outpacing adult players in skill.
"by the time I was 6, I was already sleep-deprived… being forced to be educated, because all I was interested in was playing music."
In his teens, Emmanuel moved to Sydney, sleeping on floors between gigs but burning up the club scene. By the 1970s he was one of Australia’s most in-demand studio guitarists. He played on hit singles by Air Supply and Men at Work (including classics like "Lost in Love" and "Every Woman in the World"), dozens of TV jingles and countless radio sessions. Though his fingers laid down familiar pop backbeats by day, by night he flexed his solo chops, jamming fluidly through jazz standards, country instrumentals, and anything else he could absorb by ear. In this era Emmanuel turned heads whenever he sat in with big-name bands – soon the most in-demand session guitarist in town – but with one eye always on making a name for himself as a soloist. By the late ’70s he was touring nationally with stars like rock singer Doug Parkinson and later the New Zealand based Dragon, but on the side he busked and honed the fingerstyle that would soon draw global attention.
The real breakthrough to international recognition came in 1990 when, then in his mid-30s, Emmanuel opened for Eric Clapton’s Australian Journeyman tour. Playing to a few hundred one night, he caught Clapton’s ear – Clapton, quietly watching from the wings, eventually invited Emmanuel backstage and famously quipped to the younger guitarist, "Been doing this a while, have you?" Clapton’s dry compliment – and the endorsement implied by touring with him – lifted Emmanuel’s profile enormously. "He was so nice to me… so professional", Tommy remembered of Clapton. After that tour, Emmanuel went from selling 500-seat theatres to 1,000-seat halls almost overnight. Yet he remained characteristically humble, crediting Clapton’s example more than any technique lesson.
If the Clapton tour was his rock-guitar big break, another mentor was the quiet architect of Nashville country: Chet Atkins. Emmanuel had idolised Atkins since childhood, even writing to him in 1966, and it was a 1980 trip to Nashville that cemented their relationship. Emmanuel recalls Atkins handing him a guitar to see what I could do, then spending hours teaching the young Aussie about tone, touch and taste. Atkins so admired Emmanuel’s fearless style that he recorded a duets album with him in 1997 (The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World, which earned a Grammy nomination). In 1999 Chet Atkins formally honored Emmanuel with the title Certified Guitar Player (C.G.P.), an accolade bestowed on only a handful of fingerpicking masters. Emmanuel proudly used the CGP letters after his name on album covers, and Maton inlaid them at the 12th fret of his eponymous custom Maton guitars. This crown linked the boy from Muswellbrook with the legacy of legends: Emmanuel is an heir to the late great Chet Atkins’s throne, often considered the best finger-style guitarist in the world.
Emmanuel’s instrument of choice has always been, fittingly, a Maton guitar – Australia’s own marque based in his native country. Onstage in Brisbane and on press tours, he brandishes Maton dreadnoughts and signatures like trophies of national pride. In 2025 he still performed exclusively on Matons, rotating several of his beloved Matons through one show. Given his status, he could obviously play a Gibson, Larivee or Martin, but he is only seen with Maton. Maton has released a number of Tommy’s signature models, all complete with the CGP inlay. To Emmanuel, this partnership is natural: he credits Maton guitars with capturing the bright, percussive sound he loves, and he is happy to be an ambassador. In fact, his strong Aussie accent and humor – "I love being an Australian," he often jokes onstage – mesh well with the patriotism of holding high a homegrown brand.
What makes a Tommy Emmanuel performance so spellbinding is his unique playing style. He describes his method simply as finger style, akin to how a pianist uses all ten fingers on the piano keys. In practice, one Emmanuel on guitar can sound like a whole band: he often plays a walking bass line with his thumb while his fingers pluck melody and chord fills, and taps or slaps percussively on the wood for drum-kit accents. One writer quipped that Emmanuel can generate sounds from the guitar akin to what one might expect from a full band. Indeed, he never plays to a setlist and uses a minimum of effects onstage, preferring the raw sound of wood and steel.
By training himself entirely by ear (he never learned to read music), Emmanuel developed an uncanny musicality and rhythmic sense. Even compared to other masters of fingerstyle, he stands out. Chet Atkins was his guru, and early Chet-style country picking – bass with thumb, melody with fingers – remains at the heart of Tommy’s technique. But Emmanuel adds slices of jazz, blues, folk and flamenco to that foundation. He learned from everyone he admired – Jeff Beck, Larry Carlton, George Benson, and even the 1960s surf-instrumental band The Shadows for their memorable melodies – and all those influences flow through his playing. And when he plays live, he often reminds his audience that space is as powerful as note density. In a 2019 interview he explained: "You don’t have to fill up every millisecond with sound and noises… I’ll play the melody like I am singing it a cappella and let them fill in the chords with their minds." In other words, part of Emmanuel’s magic is leaving a little "space between the notes," as he puts it, so listeners can feel the music as much as hear it.
While Emmanuel is in a category of one, he has often collaborated with guitar greats who share his language. Besides Atkins and Clapton, he recorded on his Accomplice One (2018) project with Mark Knopfler (fellow fingerpicker), Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas (bluegrass masters), and jazz mandolin legend David Grisman. Of his Knopfler collaboration on the song "You Don’t Want to Get You One of Those," Emmanuel wrote that working with Mark – one of the best artists out there – was a joy, as Knopfler directed him to play in front of the mic like a live performance, "raw" and unpolished. Emmanuel also cut an album with British jazz guitarist Frank Vignola and covers with English banjo ace Bela Fleck, showing his range. But he remains a duo man at heart: besides Knopfler he recorded a whole album (Heart Songs, 2019) with John Knowles and earlier an intimate live date with the late Australian country star Slim Dusty. Each partnership has been mutual admiration: few on this list of greatest players have as much left to teach as Tommy does.
Offstage, Emmanuel is as charming and down-to-earth as his playing is astonishing. He peppers concerts with self-deprecating humor and is known for adoring fans – often inviting beginners onstage to try their hand after shows. He speaks candidly about life lessons. In talks to students he advises: "Show up and do your best… find what it is you’re meant to do in your life and then run and do it. Don’t wait for anybody. … Life is not a rehearsal – this is the real gig." And he lives by those words, touring tirelessly even now as he approaches 70. He also emphasizes humility and inspiration: "When inspiration comes to you, act on it immediately and don’t put it off," and "we all emulate someone… that’s how music gets handed on from generation to generation." For Emmanuel, the guitar is a lifelong student and a personal philosophy – each note a gift to the moment. In the recent series of short videos we made, while talking about composing he said, "I'm composing before I start decomposing" and it was then that I realised, he's not slowing down any time soon.
Comparing Geniuses
It’s interesting to contrast Emmanuel with his famed contemporaries. Mark Knopfler, for example, is another fingerstyle legend who similarly shuns a pick, yet Knopfler’s tone comes through his Stratocaster honk (an out-of-phase tone, balancing the 3-way switch between the middle and bridge pickups) with a whisper and a growl, whereas Emmanuel’s voice is purely acoustic and intimate. Jeff Beck, by contrast, is known for wilder electric improvisations and whammy-bar flourishes; Emmanuel rarely uses pedals or distortion. John Mayer, a generation younger, weaves blues-influenced fingerpicking into radio-friendly pop/rock, but he also fronts a band and sings; Tommy’s concerts are not all instrumental spectacles, sustained by technique and charm alone. And then there’s Chet Atkins – Emmanuel’s friend and the very model for his craft. Like Atkins, Tommy is all about economy and melody. He can play country, jazz, or a Mozart Rondo (as he famously did onstage with Phil in New York) with the same confidence, but always with the affable demeanor of a man who never forgot his humble roots. In the end, each of these guitar heroes has his own voice – and Emmanuel’s was forged by southern-hemisphere sunshine and decades of joyous practice, earning him plaudits like “best acoustic guitarist in the world” from fans and polls alike.
In all my life I have never come across a nicer, more generous, personable, humble, and outrageously talented human being.
Peter Lamont 2025.
Discography
- Studio Albums (27): From Out of Nowhere (1979), Up From Down Under (1987), Dare to Be Different (1990), Determination (1991), The Journey (1993), Terra Firma (with Phil Emmanuel, 1995), Classical Gas (with the Australian Philharmonic, 1995), Can’t Get Enough (1996), The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World (with Chet Atkins, 1997), Collaboration (1998), Only (2000), Endless Road (2004), The Mystery (2006), Just Between Frets (with Frank Vignola, 2009), Little by Little (2010), All I Want for Christmas (2011), The Colonel & the Governor (with Martin Taylor, 2013), It’s Never Too Late (2015), Christmas Memories (2016), Pickin’ (with David Grisman, 2017), Accomplice One (2018), Heart Songs (with John Knowles, 2019), Accomplice Two (2023), and others.
- Live Albums (6): Live One (2005), Center Stage (2008), Live in Pensacola, Florida (2013), Live at the Ryman (2017), Live! Christmas Time (2020), Live at the Sydney Opera House (2025).
- Compilation Albums (4): Initiation (1995), The Very Best of Tommy Emmanuel (2001), The Essential Tommy Emmanuel (2010), The Best of Tommysongs (2020).
- EPs: Accomplice Series, Vol. 1 (with Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, 2021), Accomplice Series, Vol. 2 (with Richard Smith, 2021), Accomplice Series, Vol. 3 (with Mike Dawes, 2022).
Filmography and Video
- Documentaries / Concert Films: Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road (2019, feature documentary about his life), Live at the Sydney Opera House (concert film, 2025).
- Concert DVDs: Center Stage (2008, filmed in California), Music Gone Public (PBS special compilation), All Sessions (2012, ABC footage), plus various live concert videos.
- Video Appearances: Grand Ole Opry (TV guest), Songwriters Hall of Fame tributes, instructional guitar clinic videos, and countless online performances.
