Tommy Emmanuel Interview & masterclass

Tommy Emmanuel is one of the busiest musicians on the planet. When he’s not on tour somewhere around the globe, he’s in the studio producing more virtuosic acoustic music. But as far as his recorded output is concerned, Tommy is not one to stand still or allow himself to be pinned down to a single style or format. On the contrary, he’s always up for trying new things and working with different musicians from all sorts of complementary styles. During a recent stopover at our studios to record a series of tuition videos, we took the opportunity to sit down and talk about his attitude to recording, the instruments he uses and the strategies he employs to get the very best out of his instrument every time.

We thought that a good place to start would be his last solo album, Accomplice One, which found the itinerant Aussie partnering up with hand-picked musicians in order to produce an album of duets. As ever, the schedule was frenetic, tracking down fellow instrumentalists whose diaries were brimful with gigs and finding that narrow window of opportunity