TOMMY EMMANUEL
PHOTO CREDIT SIMONE CECCHETTI whose constant spark of energy and motion is intoxicating and invigorating even when he isn’ t playing guitar. We weren’ t able to chat over the table in his home this time, but Emmanuel’ s enthusiasm for the guitar and music still shines brightly.
Let’ s start with your earliest influences … How did hearing Chet Atkins as a child change your view of music and the guitar? When I first heard Chet Atkins, it was a style and sound that I’ d never heard to that point. I’ d heard an English band called The Shadows and some Australian instrumental bands— you’ ve got to remember we only had the radio. But Chet’ s sound was a better sound, tone-wise. It was more interesting than anybody else in those days. It was so in tune, it had a swing, and it was just full of brilliance. People were just so stunned and amazed, and everybody thought it was a recording trick— he couldn’ t possibly be doing all that at once. It lit a fire in me!
So that’ s what drove you to collect his albums and learn his style— and then later, to write him a letter... Yeah. You’ ve gotta remember, I’ m out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Australia. There’ s no Chet Atkins records in the record stores.
So, I was very fortunate that in my 10th year, a guy moved up from Sydney into the town where we were living. He brought with him two Chet Atkins records for me— The Best of Chet Atkins and Reminiscing with Chet Atkins and Hank Snow. I wore those two records out pretty quickly. And of course, I noticed that some of the tracks had a very sophisticated electric guitar sound with orchestra and everything. And then there were other tracks where he had Homer and Jethro playing on them. It was kind of eclectic and different. I realized years later that he was trying to sound a little bit like Django because he was very influenced by Django. Jethro Burns, Chet’ s brother-in-law, brought back Django records from the Second World War when he was in the military. He bought them overseas and brought them back for Chet. And that’ s what lit a fire in him.
That sense of passing the torch— it seems like such an important part of this tradition. Who do you see carrying fingerstyle forward for the next generation? Chet said to me 40 years ago,“ You catch the ear of the young people. I can’ t do that anymore— it’ s over to you. You’ ve gotta grab the ear of the young generation so this style can carry on.” In my last 30 years of play-
COLLECTIBLE GUITAR | 67