Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist from Muswellbrook, Australia, born in 1955. He is known for acoustic guitar playing and fingerpicking, and his work sits across folk, instrumental and jazz. He performs as a solo guitarist and is associated with Dragon, Australian Olympians, Julian Lee Orchestra and The Chester Bees.

Career and style

Emmanuel is widely identified with fingerpicking guitar, a style he uses in solo acoustic performance. He is described as a virtuoso guitarist, and his playing is noted for its technical precision and solo focus.

Collaborations and notable recordings

Across his career, Emmanuel works with a number of major figures including Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and John Denver. Among his better-known tracks are The Journey, which reaches the Top 30 in Australia in 1993, Cross The Nullarbor, and his version of Mason Williams’s Classical Gas.