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Jorma Kaukonen, Jake Shimabukuro, and
Music Row rocker J.D. Simo, for an
inspired take on Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’
on) The Dock of the Bay.” And he was sur-
prised at how easy the project was to
assemble. “I’ve lived in Tennessee for 15
years now,” the 62-year-old explains.
song that Ricky’s on, “Song and Dance
Man,” is an Australian composition by a
guy named Mike McLellan, and I’ve
always loved that song and thought that it
sounded a little old-timey, which I knew
would be perfect for Ricky. So I had him
come in, I sang it to him, and he just took
it over – he owned it within five minutes.
Then we did a second track where Ricky
plays guitar with me that’s a tribute to
Chet Atkins – that’s on the next album.
And Jason Isbell and I spent a great day
working on “Deep River Blues,” and
another song that isn’t on this album. And
then away we went. I got in touch with
Mark Knopfler, who said he could give me
an hour and a half in the studio, just to see
what we could come up with. But when I
got there, he had this song all written and
02•2018
“And I had some people that I really
wanted to work with, and I felt that I had
some good songs to take to them, so I
made a start and began ringing them up.”
No muss, no fuss. So many artists agreed,
in fact, that he’ll definitely be releasing an
Accomplice Two volume, possibly an
Accomplice Three.
ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER: How did
your wish list materialize?
TOMMY EMMANUEL: Well, Ricky
Skaggs came straight away and said,
“Sure – I’d love to do it.” And he’s one of
my favorite people to work with. So the
he sang it to me, then we just did it in one
take. Jerry Douglas came to the studio to
do a ballad with me, and I just had to say,
“Why don’t we annoy all these purist
blues people and do “Purple Haze”
instead?” And he said, “That’s a great
idea!” And that was the same thing – one
take, one pass and that was it. So it was
my first excursion into that style of record-
ing and playing.
IE: Todd Rundgren just made a duets
album where most of the guests sent their
performances in by DropBox files.
8 illinoisentertainer.com february 2018
Tommy Emmanuel