Tommy Emmanuel

Completely self-taught, the multi-instrumentalist (Tommy Emmanuel also plays banjo and mandolin, as well as drums and percussion) has been one of the hardest working musicians in Australia, with a long history of touring, performing, writing and recording dating back to the early Sixties, when he began playing guitar at the age of four. By six, he was already a pro, touring the continent with his family's band. "I've always wanted to do what I'm doing now, and from a very early age, I never did anything else," Emmanuel says. "My brothers, sisters and I took to it with such an amazing speed and showed potential at such an early age that is was mind-boggling to people that these kids could actually play hits from the radio. We played all the Shadows and Ventures tunes, straight off the record."

From the mid-Seventies through the mid-Eighties, he was a self-professed "Mr. Busy" in the studio, playing on literally thousands of records (working with everyone from Roberta Flack to Air Supply), TV commercials and shows and film soundtracks, while also working at various times as a songwriter, producer and teacher. Over the years, he has also toured and/or recorded with Eric Clapton (opening for him during his 1991 Australian tour), Farnham, The Bushwackers, the Southern Star Band, Goldrush and John Denver. Also in '91, he sold out the Sydney Opera House with special guest, trumpeter James Morrison. Emmanuel's first recording was a 1979 experiment in country and swing music called From Out of Nowhere, but he had more success in 1986 as a member of the pop band Dragon, whose albums were produced by Todd Rundgren.

The Eighties saw Emmanuel emerge as Australia's greatest modern guitar player, with most major solo records containing his influence to some degree. Just prior to launching his instrumental music career in 1988, he signed to American MCA (now known as Universal Music Publishing) as a songwriter and wound up playing on demos for just about everyone on the label. His songs appeared on recordings by, among others, Sheena Easton, Olivia Newton-John and Al Jarreau. Among Emmanuel's solo albums, 1991's Determination won the ARIA award for Adult Contemporary recording of the year while also earning him a nomination as best male artist. Since The Journey (which featured Joe Walsh, Abe Laboriel and Dave Koz) put him on the map in the U.S. (courtesy of Sony/550 Music), he has kept the momentum going with The Journey Continues, Back on Terra Firma (a duet recording with guitarist brother Phil) and Classical Gas, recorded live with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.

His 1997 album Can't Get Enough (titled Midnight Drive in the U.S.), which broke him through to a global smooth jazz audience, featured three of his longtime guitar heroes, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford and Chet Atkins. Atkins and Emmanuel subsequently received a Grammy nomination for their 1997 album The Day Fingerpickers Took Over The World, and Atkins appeared a year later on Emmanuel's all-star album Collaboration. "I think he's probably the greatest finger-picker in the world today," the legend said a few months prior to his death in 2001 about Emmanuel. "He's inventive, fearless and has a flawless sense of rhythm. You can't watch Tommy perform and not feel happy."