Welcome to a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. A breath of fresh air.
Beautiful day. Oh, I bet any day that you’re going away. It’s a beautiful day.
Hello, my music-loving friends. Thanks so much for tuning in. You know how I always ask you to let me know who you’d like to hear interviewed? Well, this week, our special guest comes courtesy of a request from Dave in Avalon, which is in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Dave tells me he’s admired guitar guru Tommy Emmanuel ever since he first started trying to play like him some 40 or so years ago. Quite unsurprising really, because Tommy has fans all over the world and is considered one of the greatest acoustic guitar players ever. Tommy Emmanuel is a humble showman, renowned for his complex finger style technique, energetic stage performances, and the use of percussive effects on the guitar.
His technique involves using all his fingers and thumbs to simultaneously play the bass lines, chords, melodies, and harmonies. He’s a true virtuoso and holds the title of CGP, Certified Guitar Player, awarded to him by his childhood guitar hero, Chet Atkins. On the eve of his latest tour back to his native Australia, Tommy Emmanuel joins us today to tell us about his life, his influences, and how he developed that incredible playing style.
Hey, Sandy. Hello, Tommy Emmanuel. Can I take you back so that people who are listening who may not have heard of Tommy Emmanuel, actually most people would have heard of you, you’ve made such a huge name for yourself.
Can we tell them a little bit about your story? Well, I do it a lot because I’m still traveling around the world. I know that you started playing guitar at the tender age of four. That’s correct.
My mom and dad gave me a little guitar for my fourth birthday. My mom showed me how to play chords and how a song is constructed, how it works. She played lap steel guitar? She played, yeah, she also played rhythm guitar and sang.
My mother was so full of music and she loved to dance, she loved to sing, and she was trying to work out how to play the lap steel guitar, play traditional Hawaiian music. Basically, I started with my mom as the rhythm player. That’s why it all started is because she needed a rhythm player.
She showed me how to play rhythm and then my brother Phil, who was older than me, wanted to be the lead player. Then suddenly we were like Hank and Bruce from the Shadows. We learned all those surfy kind of songs and then my sister, she wanted to play lap steel like mom and our eldest brother Chris got a drum kit and started playing and so we became a band.
And she took you on the road? Yeah. Well, first of all, we started playing in churches and hospitals and playing for free and then we’d play in the street and my dad would take the hat around and then eventually we won an appearance on a TV show and on that TV show there happened to be an American television guy who was out consulting and helping Australia basically with their television because it was so new and he saw us play and he saw the reaction of the crowd and he knew we were playing live and he came straight up to my dad and he said, my God, these kids have got talent. You’ve got to get them on the road.
People have to see them and his kind of enthusiasm about us really, I think, affected our dad and when we got home, it wasn’t long before we sold the house and we bought better equipment and better guitars and away we went. We just hit the road and we started playing shows everywhere we could. Yeah, we were constantly broke.
You know, we never had a big crowd, but we played our best and it was exciting. You know, we would meet up with people like Buddy Williams or Slim Dusty, Rick and Phil, those kind of people who played country music and did variety shows. They would give us a spot in the show, anything to get in front of an audience.
So there was no schooling for any of you? Oh yeah, we were doing correspondence. Ah, OK. While you were on the road? While we were on the road, we were doing our school through the mail and it turned out that the child welfare department eventually forced us off the road and forced us into a house and school and a normal life for a while.
And so we ended up in parks in New South Wales. It was a little scary going to a new school. I had a lot of trouble at school because I wasn’t the guy who always wanted to be in a fight to prove how tough he was, like most country kids, you know.
I was more interested in seeing if I could talk with the girls. And of course the girls liked me and the guys didn’t like that. So I was bullied and picked on a lot at school.
And thank God for my guardian angel, my brother Phil, who nothing he liked better than a good scrap, you know. And he protected you? He saved me many times and put kids’ heads in the toilet. You know, he was my guardian angel at school.
Tell me, when did your fascination with Chet Atkins begin? After Dad died in 1966, I wrote a fan letter to Chet Atkins and on the envelope I wrote, Chet Atkins, Nashville, America, and sent it. And he got it. What? Yeah, he got it.
And about three months later, I was in school. I came home and my mum met me at the door and said, put your bag down and go into your room. There’s something on your bed.
And there was this big brown envelope with American stamps with eagles on them. And I was so excited I opened it. And it was a beautiful letter with a gold RCA Victor Records logo at the top and from the desk of Chet Atkins and then it was typed and then his signature on the bottom.
And he wrote back to me and it was really, really wonderful. And he sent me this black and white photo with him, with his guitar and everything. Because I told him I was a big fan and that I had a couple of his records and I was trying to work out what he was doing.
Do you still have that photo? I wish I did. It got destroyed in a storm and a flood that happened. Do you get people writing to you these days? All the time.
And I try to answer every question that people send to me. What was your fascination with Chet? What was that about? Well, his playing, for a start off, you’ve got to remember the time. In the old days, there was nobody who had made records that sounded that good.
His records sounded great. His playing was amazing. He was so in tune and his ideas were just so different and fresh.
And I remember when I was a kid, the name Chet Atkins was on everyone’s lips. I’m talking about musicians. Everybody is like, have you heard this guy Chet Atkins? And you’d hear, oh yeah, it’s a recording trick.
You can’t do all that. It’s them Americans. It’s a recording trick.
And I’m like, I can hear that he’s playing everything at once. The bass part, the rhythm part, the melody. He’s playing it all at once.
And people just couldn’t believe that. I think I was like seven when I first heard him on the radio and I knew straight away that he was playing everything at once. And everybody tried to talk me out of that.
Everybody said, no, he can’t do that. It’s a recording trick. But I just kept at it until I worked it out.
I just wasn’t going to stop on it. And when I heard him, I had one of those moments where I said, I don’t know what that is, but that is what I have to do. I knew it.
That’s what I have to do, whatever that is. And when I first met Chet in 1980, I came here to Nashville. And after we’d played a while and everything, we went and had some lunch.
And he told me the same story. He said he was living on a farm in Columbus, his father and his stepmother. And his father gave him a little radio to build and he built it and he got in.
He picked up the radio from Cincinnati, Ohio because they were the most powerful station. And he heard Merle Travis on the radio. And he said, I just knew that’s what I wanted to do.
I want to do that. That’s what I have to do. And he almost told me the same.
Amazing. Amazing. Music So you say you worked out what it was that he was doing.
Can you explain that to us? Well, when you play, your thumb is playing what the left hand on the piano would play. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then the fingers play the do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.
The fingers are playing the melodies. And so it’s like stride piano, but it’s on the guitar. And it allows you to do parts that are, you know, normally other people would play for you.
You can play them yourself. So you don’t need other instruments. You can play all the sounds yourself.
Wow, that’s amazing. And of course that was really radical then as well as now. Well, for the average person, yes.
The guy who came before Chet Atkins was a man named Merle Travis who wrote Sixteen Tons, Dark as a Dungeon, all those songs about coal mining. Uh-huh. And he played the guitar in that style.
And he actually copied the father of the Everly Brothers. His name was Ike Everly. And when you hear Merle Travis, you hear Ike Everly because Travis really sounded so much like him.
And it was this self-contained… It’s a bit honky-tonk, a bit blues, a bit country, a bit swing. It’s got a bit of everything in it. It’s a beautiful sound and a great style.
I took it all my life in Australia. Some people say a man is made out of mud but a poor man’s made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood and skin and bones.
With a mind that’s weak and a back that’s strong you load sixteen tons. And what do you get? You get another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don’t you call me cause I can’t go.
I owe my soul to the company store. I was born one morning when the sun didn’t shine. I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine.
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal and the straw boss said well bless my soul he loaded sixteen tons. And what do you get? You get another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don’t you call me cause I can’t go.
I owe my soul to the company store. There are a lot of people out there who I taught who wanted to know about that style and they’ve done very well. And it has a special name? It’s called finger picking.
No, but it’s not just finger picking it’s more specific than that. People call it Travis picking and I was named after Merle Travis. I just call it finger picking that’s what it is.
So you were never taught you just developed this style all yourself? Yeah, but it’s only one of my styles. I play a lot of different styles. When I was playing rock and roll in bands and I was with Doug Parkinson and then John Farnham and Dragon and all that kind of stuff I was a rock and roll player.
I played rock and roll music, pop music I played jazz I played swing music I played a bit of everything. My style is a lot more diverse than most of the guys who specialize in it cause that’s what they do but it’s a little bit of what I do. I have a lot of different styles.
So you just had this natural ability for the guitar since you were a wee child? Well I just found music that interested me along the way and when I heard people like Django Reinhardt when I first heard it I was way too young to understand what it was. It’s gypsy swing music and brilliant brilliant stuff and I wanted to work it out and when I heard people who could play that way then I totally understood it. Oh okay you play the melody like this and this is how you play the rhythm to it and all that kind of stuff so I worked everything out by ear as I always do.
I don’t read music I’m actually Sandy I’m actually the Indiana Jones of the guitar world I’m making this up as I go along Making it up or not there’s no denying Tommy Emmanuel is pure musical genius
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Tommy is a four-time winner of Australia’s Best Guitarist Award and has helped bring the art of rock guitar down under to a higher awareness by bringing a sense of jazz improvisation into a mix that also includes blues, country, rock, classical and Spanish music.
He’s highly accomplished in every genre and has played with some of the best. You mentioned people like Doug Parkinson and the band Dragon. So, of course, Doug was one of Australia’s foremost singers who unfortunately passed away a few years ago, and Dragon was a band that came out of New Zealand that was also hugely successful here in Australia in the 70s.
Oh, they were great. I loved all their songs and that’s why I joined the band. I had just produced Sharon O’Neill’s single, Power, and she had a tour coming up with Dragon.
And on Sharon’s record, I played drums, percussion, bass and guitar. He precared amongst the pigeons A dealer and a king To tie the rocks on his head Don’t pick up the phone Don’t go out alone It’s one in a million Sharon played keyboards and her and I did the vocals and we got a couple of ladies in to sing as well. So we got a top ten record with that single that I produced for CBS and then we got the tour with Dragon.
And it was during that tour that I got to know the guys really well and loved their songs, loved everything about it. And at the end of that tour, Robert Taylor, the guitar player, came to me and said, Hey, I’m going to go off and do something else for a while. Why don’t you join the band? And I said, well, you will have to talk to Mark Hunter about it.
And so I was coming out of a club up in Kings Cross late at night. I was coming to get a taxi and go home. And there they were sitting in the Wiener World restaurant.
It’s three o’clock in the morning and they got a big full meal there and a bottle of French wine. And they’re talking away at three in the morning. And I tapped on the window and said, hey.
And Mark goes, come in, come in. So I go in the restaurant and sit with them. And Mark said, we want you to join the band.
I think you’d have a great time and all that. So I was still in a duo with my brother Phil and we were due to finish on a Saturday night. And then Dragon, my time with Dragon started on the Sunday.
And so there was no time for rehearsal. So they sent me a live tape of their show and I had to learn the whole thing and then show up and play the show. It was pretty terrifying.
The music itself wouldn’t have been as challenging as the finger picking that you’d been doing previous to that. No, but it has its own level of challenge, you know. But all good songs, every one of them.
And did you have a good time with them? Oh, I had the best time. It was amazing. So you went on from there to work with John Farnham, who I think a lot of people listening will know the name.
I worked with John way back in the 70s as his musical director, doing clubs, doing the big club rooms where we would use the band that worked in the club and I would turn up with all the charts and run the songs and then John would show up and we would do the show. I’d collect all the charts and we’d go to the next one. And so I was his man Friday in those days, you know, and I would rehearse the band.
And then eventually Glenn Wheatley took over his career and Graham Goble… From Little River Band? Graham Goble had all these great songs that he’d written and so we made the album Uncovered and then we put a real good serious band together and we toured that for a while. When I was younger So much younger than today I never needed anybody’s help in any way But now these days are gone I’m not so self-assured Now I find I’ve changed my mind I’ve opened up the doors Help me if you can I’m feeling down And I do appreciate you Being round Help me get my feet back on the ground Won’t you please, please Help me Didn’t really take off and then after that John joined Little River Band and I joined Dragon and away we all went our separate ways. The rest is history.
Yeah, absolutely. So once you’d come out of that band you decided that you better go solo. Why did you make that decision? Well, actually what I was doing was when I was still in Dragon we would have like a month off every now and again and I would book myself in a place like The Basement in Sydney and play three or four nights, you know and I started building a following doing my solo thing and it really worked well and so I ended up making an album called Up From Down Under which came out the week I started the John Denver tour I was the opening act for John Denver for the whole tour and it was a brilliant tour and the record company put the album out kind of begrudgingly because they didn’t believe there was any market for instrumental music and I said just put it out and I will make a market for it and so they put it out and that first week was the John Denver tour so I came out to 15 to 25,000 people a night as a new artist to the Australian public really and most of them I mean only musicians really knew who I was so the public discovered me they bought the album and my first solo album debuted in the top ten and was charting because of that tour.
By the end of that tour all my shows where I was booking were all selling out and I could see that that had the desired effect and I was on the midday show and Hey Hey It’s Saturday and all that stuff was on those TV shows and then in 1990 I was opening for Eric Clapton all over Australia and that took me to such another level so quickly and that’s not easy without a hit record I’ve got this far without a hit of any kind without something in a movie or any of that kind of stuff I’ve just kept going like this just kept at it. And all instrumental Tommy Emmanuel why instrumental? I mean there have been very few people who had major successes with instrumental music before you was it because you didn’t have any confidence in your own voice? Oh no I do sing in my show but I’m not really a singer you know I’ve worked with some of the greatest singers that I love John and Doug Parkinson and people like that I’m not really technically a good singer but I can tell a story and I can sing a song that I believe in I tend to sing message songs you know songs that have a good message and that always affects people it touches them in a way that they’re listening to the message rather than the tone of my voice or whatever you know. When I was young My dad would say Come on son let’s go out and play Sometimes it seems like yesterday Then I’d climb up The closet shelf When I was all by myself I’d grab his hand And fix the brim Pretending I was him No matter How hard I tried No matter How many tears I cried No matter How many years roll by I still can’t say Goodbye You’ve been astonishing to find the success that you have without actually putting voice to it very many times You went from being a popular sideman and incredible songwriter to really mastering both the electric and acoustic guitars so much so that you got praise from well not only Chet Atkins who came and told you how good you were and actually awarded you letters at the end of your name didn’t they? Yeah CGP What does that mean? Yeah it says CGP presented to Tom Emanuel in recognition of his contributions to the art of fingerpicking July 10 1999 That one’s not going to get destroyed in any flood Yeah Amazing So had you stayed in touch with Chet Atkins all those years? Absolutely We recorded an album together which was my first Grammy nomination The day Fingerpickers took over the world in 97 That’s it Yeah Exactly I was close to Chet right to the end In fact I saw him about I think 3 or 4 days before he passed away I had just started a tour in England with Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings and Chet’s doctor rang me and said you should come over now you should come to Nashville now So thankfully there was a short break of like 3 days in the tour and I got over here from England I went out to Chet’s house and I stayed with him that day He was in the last stages of his life and because he had cancer 5 times and you know it’s a miracle he lived as long as he did but I had a beautiful day with him and then I said goodbye and he knew it was goodbye and I knew it was goodbye and I went I flew back to England and then the first show back was in Wales at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff and my phone rang about 5 minutes to 8 I was due on stage at 8 and it was the doctor and he said Chet just passed away and so I had to tell the 2 guitar players my dear friends Albert Lee and Martin Taylor I had to tell them that Chet had just passed and then I walked on stage to play my set and I dedicated the show to him and then I drove all the way back to where my wife and 2 little ones were staying and you know I’ll just never forget that trip because I played Finger Pickers Took Over The World in my car with the roof open all the way there The change was quite subtle and the mood low key The sky was overcast you could hardly see And the creatures all boogie to a different frequency You see the day The Finger Pickers Took Over The World Yeah Yeah it happened one day Way back in the sticks He picked up his guitar But he had no pick So with just a thumb and 2 fingers He made up some licks And Finger Pickers Took Over The World So that’s how it happened That wonderful day With just a thumb and 2 fingers He started to play Without even knowing He was showing the way And Finger Pickers Took Over The World Yes they did I’ll play a little harmony So stop, look and listen It’ll happen you’ll see You’ll want to join in and play Finger Picking People once laughed at this nonconformity But Finger Pickers Took Over The World So all the people were finally set free They all hung out and he directed fretfully And the air began to vibrate with sweet tonality The day Finger Pickers Took Over The World So that’s how it happened That wonderful day With just a thumb and 2 fingers Chet started to play Without even knowing He was showing the way And Finger Pickers Took Over The World Like this Atkins had received numerous awards throughout his career including 14 Grammy Awards and 9 Country Music Association Awards In 1993 he was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2002 2, Cech was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Este es un soplo de aire fresco con Sandy Kaye. Es un hermoso día. Tommy ha ganado cuatro veces el premio al Mejor Guitarrista de Australia y ha ayudado a que el arte de la guitarra rock llegue a un mayor conocimiento en Australia al incorporar un sentido de improvisación de jazz a una mezcla que también incluye blues, country, rock, música clásica y española.
Es un gran talento en todos los géneros y ha tocado con algunos de los mejores. Mencionaste a gente como Doug Parkinson y la banda Dragon. Entonces, por supuesto, Doug fue uno de los cantantes más importantes de Australia que lamentablemente falleció hace unos años, y Dragon fue una banda que surgió de Nueva Zelanda y que también tuvo un gran éxito aquí en Australia en los años 70.
Oh, fueron geniales. Me encantaron todas sus canciones y por eso me uní a la banda. Acababa de producir el sencillo de Sharon O’Neill, Power, y ella tenía una gira próxima con Dragon.
Y en el disco de Sharon, toqué la batería, la percusión, el bajo y la guitarra. Se preocupó entre las palomas Un comerciante y un rey Para atar las piedras en su cabeza No contestes el teléfono No salgas solo Es uno en un millón Sharon tocó los teclados y ella y yo hicimos las voces y conseguimos que un par de mujeres cantaran también. Así que conseguimos un disco entre los diez primeros con ese sencillo que produje para CBS y luego hicimos la gira con Dragon.
Y fue durante esa gira que conocí realmente bien a los chicos y me encantaron sus canciones, me encantó todo al respecto. Y al final de esa gira, Robert Taylor, el guitarrista, vino a mí y me dijo: Oye, me voy a ir y hacer otra cosa por un tiempo. ¿Por qué no te unes a la banda? Y le dije: “Bueno, tendrás que hablar con Mark Hunter sobre ello”.
Y entonces yo estaba saliendo de un club en Kings Cross tarde en la noche. Iba a tomar un taxi para volver a casa. Y allí estaban sentados en el restaurante Wiener World.
Son las tres de la mañana y allí les sirvieron una comida abundante y una botella de vino francés. Y están hablando a las tres de la mañana. Y toqué la ventana y dije: hola.
Y Mark dice: “Pasen, pasen”. Así que entro al restaurante y me siento con ellos. Y Mark dijo: queremos que te unas a la banda.
Creo que lo pasarías genial y todo eso. Así que todavía estaba en dúo con mi hermano Phil y debíamos terminar un sábado por la noche. Y luego Dragón, mi tiempo con Dragón comenzó el domingo.
Y entonces no hubo tiempo para ensayar. Entonces me enviaron una cinta en vivo de su show y tuve que aprenderme todo y luego aparecer y tocar el show. Fue bastante aterrador.
La música en sí no habría sido tan desafiante como tocar con los dedos lo que habías estado haciendo antes de eso. No, pero tiene su propio nivel de desafío, ¿sabes? Pero todas son buenas canciones, cada una de ellas.
¿Y os lo pasasteis bien con ellos? Oh, me lo pasé genial. Fue increíble. Así que desde allí pasaste a trabajar con John Farnham, cuyo nombre creo que mucha gente que te escucha conocerá.
Trabajé con John allá por los años 70 como su director musical, haciendo clubes, haciendo las grandes salas del club donde usábamos la banda que trabajaba en el club y yo aparecía con todas las listas y reproducía las canciones y luego aparecía John y hacíamos el espectáculo. Recopilaría todos los gráficos y pasaríamos al siguiente. Así que yo era su hombre los viernes en esos días, ya sabes, y volvía a escuchar la banda.
Y finalmente Glenn Wheatley tomó el control de su carrera y Graham Goble… ¿De Little River Band? Graham Goble tenía todas estas grandes canciones que había escrito, así que hicimos el álbum Uncovered y luego juntamos una banda muy buena y seria y estuvimos de gira con ella por un tiempo. Cuando era más joven Mucho más joven que hoy Nunca necesité la ayuda de nadie de ninguna manera Pero ahora estos días se han ido No estoy tan seguro de mí mismo Ahora descubro que he cambiado de opinión He abierto las puertas Ayúdame si puedes, me siento deprimido Y aprecio tu presencia Ayúdame a poner mis pies en el suelo Por favor, por favor ¿Podrías ayudarme? Realmente no despegó y luego de eso John se unió a Little River Band y yo me uní a Dragon y todos seguimos caminos separados. Lo demás es historia.
Sí, absolutamente. Así que una vez que saliste de esa banda, decidiste que sería mejor lanzarte como solista. ¿Por qué tomaste esa decisión? Bueno, en realidad lo que hacía cuando todavía estaba en Dragon era que teníamos como un mes libre de vez en cuando y me reservaba un lugar como The Basement en Sídney y tocaba tres o cuatro noches, ya sabes, y empecé a conseguir seguidores haciendo mi trabajo en solitario y realmente funcionó bien, así que terminé haciendo un álbum llamado Up From Down Under que salió la semana en que comencé la gira de John Denver. Fui el acto de apertura de John Denver durante toda la gira y fue una gira brillante y la compañía discográfica sacó el álbum un poco a regañadientes porque no creían que hubiera ningún mercado para la música instrumental y dije: “Sácalo y haré un mercado para él”. Y así lo sacaron, y esa primera semana fue la gira de John Denver, así que salí a las 15 a.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Chet Atkins had recorded and collaborated widely with artists such as Mark Kopfler and Jerry Reid.
Do I want you? Yes, I do. Do I need you? Well, you know it’s true. Well, I ain’t got nothin’ that you can do.
So I’m sittin’ on my own here with these poor boys here. You’re gonna be fine. Mark Nosler had long mentioned Jet as one of his earliest influences and he was known as one of the 10 most influential guitarists of the 20th century.
Recording that album with him must have been one of the highlights of your career. Absolutely. I learned so much from him.
It was a beautiful experience. The last track on the album is called Smokey Mountain Lullaby, which is one of his songs. And we only played it once.
He woke me up at like 3 in the morning, knocked on my door and he said, I’ve thought of this song and we’ve got to do it now. Because he had a brain tumour and he was losing his motor skills on a daily basis. So he played it for me and I quickly grabbed my guitar and I worked out a second part.
And he liked it and he said, come on, let’s do it. So we just walked down the corridor to his studio in our pyjamas and sat down at the microphones and he pushed play and record and we did it one time. And that’s the recording.
And, you know, when I listen to that recording, it sounds like somebody’s conducting us. The timing between us is so beautiful. But I know for a fact that I never opened my eyes and neither did he when we were playing that because we were both in sheer concentration trying to get it right.
We did on one take and it was a miraculous moment. MUSIC Just to back up a little bit, Tommy, when did you decide to leave Australia and move to Nashville? I didn’t leave Australia to move to Nashville. I left Australia because my ex-wife wanted to move to England because she’s from Denmark.
And so she wanted to go back to Europe, but she didn’t want to live back in Denmark. So we moved to England and I sold up my house in Melbourne and we moved to England and then she got pregnant and we had another daughter. We had our second daughter, Angelina, in 99.
So I left Australia in 98 and moved to England. I was there till the end of 2002 and I went through a divorce and I decided to not stay in England. I decided to move here.
Looking for the right management and stuff like that. I came here to Nashville and I shared a house with a bunch of people and we started real small. We started in small acoustic clubs and guitar festivals and bluegrass festivals and all that kind of stuff and I built it from the ground up here.
Again, right. It was done everywhere. Yeah.
Are the kids at all musical too? All three love music. I have three daughters and they’ve all got songs written for them. Of course, Angelina’s song is called Angelina.
It’s got like 25 million views and 50 million downloads and some unbelievable stuff, you know. Rachel has the song Rachel’s Lullaby and Amanda has many songs written for her. Oh, my lucky girls.
What do you attribute all those views to, all your success to? What is it about? That people just can’t get enough of your music? Well, I think, I hope that my melodies speak to people in some way. I don’t know. The truth is, Sandy, I’m just trying to do the best work I can.
That’s really all. And I’m trying to use what I’ve learned to be my guide as to the quality of what I do. And there’s nothing better than a good song.
That’s why people like, you know, Billy Joel and Elton John and people like that, when they write those amazing songs that they write, it doesn’t matter, or even the Beatles, you know. If we haven’t heard them for a long time, you hear them again and you go, my God, that’s a great song. And it’ll stand the test of time, you know.
So I’ve always used my instincts when it comes to stuff like that. And I’m always trying to learn how to be better at what I’m doing. I never stop doing that.
Such was the case with Tommy’s recording of the song Classical Gas. The tune first came out in 1969 when Mason Williams released it. It won several Grammy Awards that year.
Dave Edmunds also released a version of it some years later, explaining that it was a hugely difficult song to play, even for a seasoned guitarist. On Mason’s version, Edmonds said, it’s going from 5-4 to 3-4 to 4-4. It’s all over the place.
And it’s done with a thumb pick and fingers. Perfect for Tommy Emanuel, who released the album Classical Gas with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996. That album peaked at number six on the charts, went gold and won him an ARIA Award.
In 2010, one of my favourite songs from your album Little by Little was the Carole King rendition of Tapestry. What a song. I love Carole King.
In fact, when people these days are asking me about my songwriting, I always say, look, go out and buy Carole King’s Tapestry album, because every song is incredible. I feel the earth move. You make me feel like a natural woman.
Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore? I mean, every song is unbelievable. You can listen to it today. I know it was a long time ago, because the year of my 16th birthday, I was playing in the Sunnybank Hotel in Brisbane, six days a week.
And I bought American Pie. I bought Tapestry. And I bought The Silver Tongued Devil by Kristofferson.
Those three albums were my lighthouses as a musician. That’s all I wanted to listen to. My everlasting vision of the ever-changing you A wondrous woven magic In bits of blue and gold A tapestry to feel and see Impossible to hold Once amid the soft silver sadness in the sky There came a man of fortune A drifter passing by He wore a torn and tattered cloth Around his leathered hide And a coat of many colours Yellow, green on either side Did they also influence what then would come out of you? Is there a separation between what you would listen to and what then you would play? Or does that meld together? Well, I think I use them as an example of what great work is and how can I get to that? I mean, there’s so many great songwriters out there.
And I remember all through the 70s, whatever Neil Diamond was doing was on the radio and popular as hell. But wow, his songwriting! But the songs that I loved to sing with were songs like Shiloh when I was young I used to call your name And it taught me how to sing Ba-ba, bo-ba, boom-ba His melodies were very vocal, elastic almost. Young child with dreams Dreaming each dream on your own When children play Seems like you end up alone Papa says he’d long to be with you If he had no time So you turn to the only friend you can find There in your mind Shiloh when I was young I used to call your name When no one else would come Shiloh you always came And we’d play I got a lot of work with a three-piece band being the lead singer and the guitar player.
And we would do the Hot August Night album in order. And we would start with I got a song being on my mind Ba-ba-ba-da, you know, all that stuff. So you were singing it too? Oh yeah, absolutely.
When you ping a lot, your voice changes. My voice, if I sing a lot and push it, it gets kind of gravelly and then that’s that Neil Diamond sound. Right.
So you certainly conquered the only instrumental phase and have moved into a singing and playing phase. How many solo albums have you got right now? I don’t know, I’ve lost count. But you do have a new one out.
My latest album is live at the Sydney Opera House and I just finished recording a new solo album with a guy named Vance Powell who does Chris Stapleton’s records here. He’s a brilliant studio engineer and everything and I cover the next album, that’s done. And tomorrow I fly to Arizona to be with George Benson for three days to work on our album.
We’re going to do an album together. Oh, that sounds sensational. You’re a busy, busy man, aren’t you? And loving every minute of it.
Absolutely. And then we see you here in Australia again. You’re playing all over the country and I believe performing in Adelaide on your 70th birthday, which is going to be pretty spectacular.
Yeah, the 31st I’ll be at Her Majesty’s. So you never get tired of playing, you never get tired of flying, you never get tired of singing, you never get tired of performing. You’re still in love with it all as much as what you were when you were a kid.
I get tired of flying, but I basically look at life in this way. When people complain about, oh, I’d love to go to Australia but the flight’s too long. Or, you know, I’d love to go here but it’s too far, blah, blah, blah.
I always tell them, look, if you look at it this way, you get on a plane, no one’s going to bother you, and you can watch a movie and have a meal, have a sleep, and you’ll be there. How’s that? Exactly. People are not looking for the silver lining.
In anything in life, that’s right. That’s right. And that’s all I’m looking for.
Love your attitude. Love your work, Tommy Emmanuel, and I have loved having a chat with you. Thanks.
It’s been terrific. Thank you so very much. We’ll see you here in Australia through May, and a very happy 70th birthday to you.
Long may good health and good music continue for you. Thanks. Thank you so much.
All the best, Tommy. Thanks. Bye.
Because it’s a beautiful day You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Beautiful day I bet you’re going away It’s a beautiful day
Este es un soplo de aire fresco con Sandy Kaye. Es un hermoso día. Jet Atkins había grabado y colaborado ampliamente con artistas como Mark Nosler y Jerry Reid.
¿Te deseo? Sí. ¿Te necesito? Bueno, sabes que es verdad. Bueno, no tengo nada que puedas hacer.
Así que estoy sentado solo aquí con estos pobres muchachos. Estarás bien. Mark Nosler había mencionado durante mucho tiempo a Jet como una de sus primeras influencias y era conocido como uno de los 10 guitarristas más influyentes del siglo XX.
Grabar ese álbum con él debe haber sido uno de los momentos más destacados de tu carrera. Absolutamente. Aprendí mucho de él.
Fue una hermosa experiencia. La última pista del álbum se llama Smokey Mountain Lullaby, que es una de sus canciones. Y sólo lo jugamos una vez.
Me despertó como a las 3 de la mañana, tocó a mi puerta y me dijo: He pensado en esta canción y tenemos que cantarla ahora. Porque tenía un tumor cerebral y cada día perdía la capacidad motora. Entonces él lo tocó para mí y rápidamente agarré mi guitarra y trabajé una segunda parte.
Y le gustó y dijo: vamos, hagámoslo. Así que caminamos por el pasillo hasta su estudio en pijama y nos sentamos frente a los micrófonos y él presionó play y grabar y lo hicimos una vez. Y esa es la grabación.
Y, sabes, cuando escucho esa grabación, suena como si alguien nos estuviera dirigiendo. El momento entre nosotros es tan hermoso. Pero sé con certeza que nunca abrí los ojos ni él tampoco cuando estábamos tocando eso porque los dos estábamos completamente concentrados tratando de hacerlo bien.
Hicimos una toma y fue un momento milagroso. MÚSICA Para retroceder un poco, Tommy, ¿cuándo decidiste dejar Australia y mudarte a Nashville? No dejé Australia para mudarme a Nashville. Dejé Australia porque mi ex esposa quería mudarse a Inglaterra porque ella es de Dinamarca.
Así que ella quería regresar a Europa, pero no quería vivir en Dinamarca. Así que nos mudamos a Inglaterra y vendí mi casa en Melbourne y nos mudamos a Inglaterra y luego ella quedó embarazada y tuvimos otra hija. Tuvimos nuestra segunda hija, Angelina, en el 99.
Así que dejé Australia en el 98 y me mudé a Inglaterra. Estuve allí hasta finales de 2002 y me divorcié y decidí no quedarme en Inglaterra. Decidí mudarme aquí.
Buscando la gestión adecuada y cosas así. Vine aquí a Nashville y compartí una casa con un montón de gente y comenzamos muy pequeños. Empezamos en pequeños clubes acústicos y festivales de guitarra y festivales de bluegrass y todo ese tipo de cosas y lo construí desde cero aquí.
De nuevo, cierto. Se hizo en todas partes. Sí.
¿Los niños también son musicales? Los tres aman la música. Tengo tres hijas y todas tienen canciones escritas para ellas. Por supuesto, la canción de Angelina se llama Angelina.
Tiene alrededor de 25 millones de visitas y 50 millones de descargas y algunas cosas increíbles, ¿sabes? Rachel tiene la canción Rachel’s Lullaby y Amanda tiene muchas canciones escritas para ella. Oh, mis chicas afortunadas.
¿A qué atribuyes todas esas vistas, todo tu éxito? ¿De qué se trata? ¿Que la gente nunca se cansa de escuchar tu música? Bueno, creo que espero que mis melodías hablen a la gente de alguna manera. No sé. La verdad, Sandy, es que sólo estoy intentando hacer el mejor trabajo que puedo.
Eso es realmente todo. Y estoy tratando de utilizar lo que he aprendido como guía en cuanto a la calidad de lo que hago. Y no hay nada mejor que una buena canción.
Es por eso que a gente como, ya sabes, Billy Joel y Elton John y gente así, cuando escriben esas increíbles canciones que escriben, no importa, o incluso los Beatles, ya sabes. Si no los hemos escuchado durante mucho tiempo, los escuchas de nuevo y dices: Dios mío, es una gran canción. Y resistirá la prueba del tiempo, ¿sabes?
Así que siempre he usado mis instintos cuando se trata de cosas así. Y siempre estoy tratando de aprender cómo ser mejor en lo que hago. Nunca dejo de hacer eso.
Tal fue el caso de la grabación de Tommy de la canción Classical Gas. La melodía salió por primera vez en 1969 cuando Mason Williams la lanzó. Ganó varios premios Grammy ese año.
Dave Edmonds también lanzó una versión algunos años después, explicando que era una canción enormemente difícil de tocar, incluso para un guitarrista experimentado. Según la versión de Mason, Edmonds dijo que pasará de 5-4 a 3-4 a 4-4. Esta por todas partes
Y esto se hace con una púa de pulgar y dedos. Perfecto para Tommy Emanuel, quien lanzó el álbum Classical Gas con la Orquesta Filarmónica Australiana en 1996. Ese álbum alcanzó la posición número seis en las listas, fue disco de oro y le valió un premio ARIA.
En 2010, una de mis canciones favoritas de tu álbum Little by Little fue la interpretación de Tapestry de Carole King. ¡Qué canción! Me encanta Carole King.
De hecho, cuando hoy en día la gente me pregunta sobre mis composiciones, siempre digo: mira, sal y compra el álbum Tapestry de Carole King, porque cada canción es increíble. Siento que la tierra se mueve. Me haces sentir como una mujer natural mujer.
¿Ya nadie se queda en el mismo sitio? Quiero decir que cada canción es increíble. Podrás escucharlo hoy. Sé que fue hace mucho tiempo, porque el año de mi cumpleaños número 16, tocaba en el Sunnybank Hotel en Brisbane, seis días a la semana.
Y compré American Pie. Compré Tapestry. Y compré El diablo de lengua plateada de Kristofferson.
Esos tres álbumes fueron mis faros como músico. Eso es todo lo que quería escuchar. Mi eterna visión de tu siempre cambiante tú Una maravillosa magia tejida En pedazos de azul y oro Un tapiz para sentir y ver Imposible de sostener Una vez en medio de la suave tristeza plateada en el cielo Llegó un hombre de fortuna Un vagabundo que pasaba Vestía una tela rota y andrajosa Alrededor de su piel de cuero Y un abrigo de muchos colores Amarillo, verde a cada lado ¿También influyeron en lo que luego saldría de ti? ¿Existe una separación entre lo que escuchas y lo que luego tocas? ¿O todo se fusiona? Bueno, creo que los uso como ejemplo de lo que es un gran trabajo y ¿cómo puedo llegar a eso? Quiero decir que hay muchos compositores geniales por ahí.
Y recuerdo que durante todos los años 70, todo lo que hacía Neil Diamond sonaba en la radio y era muy popular. ¡Pero vaya, sus composiciones! Pero las canciones que me encantaba cantar eran canciones como Shiloh, cuando era joven solía llamar tu nombre y él me enseñó a cantar Ba-ba, bo-ba, boom-ba. Sus melodías eran muy vocales, casi elásticas. Niño pequeño con sueños Soñando cada sueño por tu cuenta Cuando los niños juegan Parece que terminas solo Papá dice que anhela estar contigo Si no tuviera tiempo Entonces recurres al único amigo que puedes encontrar Allí en tu mente Shiloh, cuando era joven, solía llamar tu nombre Cuando nadie más venía Shiloh, siempre venías Y tocábamos Conseguí mucho trabajo con una banda de tres integrantes siendo el cantante principal y el guitarrista.
Y haríamos el álbum Hot August Night en orden. Y empezaríamos con “Tengo una canción en mente: Ba-ba-ba-da”, ya sabes, todas esas cosas. ¿Entonces tú también lo cantabas? Oh sí, absolutamente.
Cuando haces mucho ping, tu voz cambia. Mi voz, si canto mucho y la esfuerzo, se vuelve como grave y entonces ese es el sonido de Neil Diamond. Bien.
Así que seguramente has conquistado la fase puramente instrumental y has pasado a una fase de canto y de interpretación. ¿Cuantos álbumes en solitario tienes actualmente? No lo sé, he perdido la cuenta. Pero tienes uno nuevo.
Mi último álbum se presenta en vivo en la Ópera de Sídney y acabo de terminar de grabar un nuevo álbum en solitario con un chico llamado Vance Powell que hace los discos de Chris Stapleton aquí. Es un ingeniero de estudio brillante y todo, y yo hago la versión del próximo álbum, eso está hecho. Y mañana vuelo a Arizona para estar con George Benson durante tres días para trabajar en nuestro álbum.
Vamos a hacer un álbum juntos. Oh, eso suena sensacional. Eres un hombre muy ocupado, ¿no? Y amando cada minuto de ello.
Absolutamente. Y luego nos vemos aquí en Australia nuevamente. Estarás tocando por todo el país y creo que actuarás en Adelaida el día de tu 70º cumpleaños, lo cual va a ser bastante espectacular.
Sí, el día 31 estaré en casa de Su Majestad. Así que nunca te cansarás de tocar, nunca te cansarás de volar, nunca te cansarás de cantar, nunca te cansarás de actuar. Sigues enamorado de todo ello tanto como cuando eras niño.
Me canso de volar, pero básicamente veo la vida de esta manera. Cuando la gente se queja de: “Me encantaría ir a Australia pero el vuelo es demasiado largo”. O ya sabes, me encantaría ir aquí pero está demasiado lejos, bla, bla, bla.
Siempre les digo, miren, si lo ven de esta manera, se suben a un avión, nadie los va a molestar, pueden ver una película y comer, dormir y ya estarán allí. ¿Cómo es eso? Exactamente. La gente no busca el lado positivo de las cosas.
En cualquier cosa de la vida, eso es correcto. Así es. Y eso es todo lo que estoy buscando.
Me encanta tu actitud. Me encanta tu trabajo, Tommy Emmanuel, y me ha encantado charlar contigo. Gracias.
Ha sido terrible. Muchas gracias. Nos vemos aquí en Australia durante mayo. ¡Feliz 70 cumpleaños!
Que disfrutes mucho tiempo de buena salud y buena música. Gracias. Muchas gracias.
Todo lo mejor, Tommy. Gracias. Adiós.
Porque es un día hermoso Has estado escuchando A Breath of Fresh Air con Sandy Kaye. Hermoso día, apuesto a que te vas Es un hermoso día