by: Rick Landers
Tommy Emmanuel – Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart
Australian guitar aficianado, Tommy Emmanuel, must be one of the hardest working and most likable musicians on the planet.
His touring schedule of over 300 concerts a year, strikes awe in many of his fellow musicians and his infectious personality brightens up even the most dismal of days.
We’ve seen Tommy play at Carnegie Hall (2005) and more recently at The Birchmere, Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009 where the road dawg brightened up the evening with his storytelling, anecdotes and playfulness.
He puts on a terrific show and instantly connects with his audiences. His comedic sense of timing, wry smile and “Hey, mates, let’s have some fun!” attitude breathe life into any room.
But, it’s Tommy’s formidable guitar prowess that grabs our attention, especially when he charges his playing with back slaps and knocks rhythms into his beat up TE-1 Maton acoustic, that recoils with bright Beatle maniacal pops or the haunting cosmic mysteries of the Australian Outback.
We hesitate to say Emmanuel’s the “best acoustic player on the planet”, although in our heart of hearts, it seems self-evident. The guy’s fingerstyle is monsterous and stunning. Even the great late Chet Atkins gave him a nod in 1999 when he tagged him as a “Certified Guitar Player”, one of three guitarists who Atkins knighted with that honor, that also includes Jerry Reed and John Knowles.
“I think he’s probably the greatest finger-picker in the
world today.” Chet Atkins
Tommy’s been recognized with some of the highest music honors, including his induction into the National Thumbpicker’s Hall of Fame, the only non-American to be so honored, two Grammy nominations, and in 2009 named Guitar Player magazine’s Guitar Legend award.
His most recent recordings include The Mystery CD with the Grammy nominated “Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag” and a splendid DVD, Center Stage, with sparkling gems like “The Finger Lakes”, a spunky Beatles medley, and a track that’s become one of his signature tunes, “Mombasa”.
Guitar International met Tommy Emmanuel backstage at The Birchmere where he delighted us with a couple of stories and showed us a 1934 Gibson Kalamazoo that he treasures, even letting me try a little “all thumbs” fingerpicking with it.
*****
Rick Landers: I was talking to Martin Taylor a short while ago and I was pretty impressed with his tour schedule. And he said, “Look at Tommy Emmanuel’s tour schedule!”
Tommy Emmanuel: Did he?
Rick: And I said, “The guy must be caffeineated.” He goes, “No, no.” He says, “He just loves playing guitar.”
The last time we talked you had a pretty pounding schedule as well and I asked about that and you said, “Well I’ve got a couple kids.” One I think was to a school in England?
Tommy: Yeah.
Rick: And so, you know, you’re making money so you can pay for some pretty expensive schooling in England.
Tommy: That’s right. Well, I mean, I’ve got to pay the mortgages down.
Rick: You have a place in Nashville and one in Australia or…?
Tommy: No, one in England and two in Nashville.
Rick: Good prices in Nashville for houses.
Tommy: Unbelievable! Yeah, it’s the most fought over place on the planet I can find.
Rick: It’s a good location?
Tommy Emmanuel – Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart
Tommy: Yeah. You don’t think I’d move there for the music; of course, there’s a lot of great music there. It’s a big part of my heart because it was Chet who brought me there in the first place.
He said, “This is the place for you.” And I said, “Oh I couldn’t leave Australia.”
Of course, once I came there and started playing there, getting to know everybody, it just seemed like a natural course. I’m still an Australian, but I have U.S. permanent residency and I own two residences in Nashville.
My children live in England. My oldest daughter will be 21 next year. I’m taking her to Australia with me in June [2009] for the tour. She’ll meet up with all her old school friends and all that stuff. She’s finished with college.
We put her through college and she left pretty early because she didn’t want to pursue what they wanted her to do. She wants to be working with animals and stuff like that. She’s a writer, as well. She writes like murder mystery stories and scripts. She’s fascinated by all that.
Rick: Wow.
Tommy: Yeah, she’s very unusual, you know.
Rick: So, what was she studying in England?
Tommy: Psychology, History, Drama and Art. She tried her hand at all that stuff. I saw her acting in a play once, in a musical, and she sang and everything. I was so thrilled. I thought, yYou know, I wondered if it’s gonna be any good, that kinda thing, because parents built their kids up in their own mind a bit too much sometimes.
I just thought, “I’ll just see what is up,” and I can honestly say I was so thrilled. She was such a natural. And most of the other people who have worked, experienced in the theater, quite honestly, and this is just not from a dad’s point of view but from an outsider’s. She was much better. You know what I mean? Because there were no inhibitions. That’s how we brought her up and that’s the way she is. There was no inhibition when she got that gig. She just tore into the role, you know. And she never sang in a play before.
Rick: That’s gutsy doing that.
Tommy: It is…it is. She really took it by the throat. And I’m really proud of her. She felt…she was exhausted after the experience because they tried to drag everyone else along. Nobody cared about punctuality, nobody really cared about learning the script properly and she was like so focused; like I am, like a soldier. Let’s do it… you know.
That’s another thing when you’re trying to explain to young people they say, “How on earth do you do it? How do you play with such passion every night, blah, blah, blah…?” It’s like, well it’s real, you know.
I’m trying to have a great time and you know…you try to explain the things that are important like, I know I’ve got this show tonight so that’s what’s been… it’s been on my mind since I woke up. I’m looking forward to here, but at the same time we work backwards. We said, “Okay, what can I do to get Tommy at his best when he walks on stage? Let’s work backwards. I need to get some rest. I need to eat something good. I need to make sure that I feel good. I look right. My clothes are right. I’m prepared. I’ve done some practice. I’ve got new strings. It’s like…I’m like a soldier.
Rick: You’ve optimized everything.
Tommy: Yeah. So when I walk on stage I’m ready to peak. And then it’s basically, then I don’t wanna work to a set list and work to it, you know. Now it’s like, “What do I wanna do when I get out there?”
Rick: That gives you probably a peak performance doing that, because you’re doing what you love that day, that night, that moment.
Tommy: Yeah, yeah.
Rick: Do you think you’re more of a road dog or are you more of a nomad in nature?
Tommy: I’m a road dog.
Rick: Because you travel a lot, even since you were a little kid.
Tommy: I’m an old road dog but I’ve learned a lot about, “Just take it easy and just get through this day. Don’t worry about tomorrow, just get through this day.”
I learned that. And that has helped me. That principle of “One day at a time” has helped me more than a lot of things.
Rick: It would probably help most of us, if we did that.
Tommy: Mmm…The other thing is, is that I gave up the idea that I’m in charge; that I’m the boss of everything, because I’ve had to push and motivate people and get the right people around me and get them to work and blah, blah, blah. You know it nearly kills you. By the time you get to the stage you’re a wreck.
Rick: It’ll drain you.
Tommy: Yeah. So I just slowly gather the right people and then I say to myself, “I’m not in charge of anything. All I have to show up and do the best job I can.” That’s it.
Rick: And everybody else needs to do the same thing, for themselves.
Tommy: Yeah, but what happens on stage is magic. And it had nothing to do with me. I’m just a vessel. That set me free. I don’t have to try and impress you with what I do, because I don’t need the glory. I don’t need no stinking glory! I’m just here to do my best. That sets me free.
Rick: Yeah, and do what you love.
Tommy: That’s it. Then it just flows even better.
Rick: I saw a couple of videos and I was kind of surprised because you were playing Telecaster and I’d never seen you playing electric before.
Tommy: Oh yeah…
Rick: So do you mix up your…do you sort of keep these segregated, the electric versus the acoustic or do you do straight acoustic stuff?
Tommy: I haven’t played electric guitar much at all. In the last, let me see…the last tour I did where I played electric guitar would have been 1997.
Rick: Yeah, your older videos. But, I was just really pleased with the music you were producing with the Teles.
Tommy: Oh, absolutely! I mean I don’t really go in for a lot of the kind of fusion stuff that a lot of guys are in. You know, you can be the greatest player on the planet, but if you play too much it goes over people’s heads. It doesn’t matter to them. You’re not gonna play to four people who really dig it. I don’t wanna do that. I like to play the music that everyone is gonna drag in everyone.
And so I wrote my own songs, I put the whole thing together and I wrote in a way that was still melodic. I mean I played melodies and songs, and as I still do. This works for me now because this was kinda what I was leading to anyway. The more I did it in my shows were basically electric with a few acoustic pieces in.
And then as I would take that off the road and give everyone a break, I’d go out and do some solo things. Then that became just as popular as the other until it overtook it. Then most people said, “We prefer to hear you just on your own.” I said, “Okay.”
I listened to what people say and I decided that was a good idea and started writing songs…even some of my earlier stuff that I wrote with a band of mine. I played a…[plays an acoustic tune on the guitar]. I wrote that song as a piece for with the band and now I play it. It’s one of the favorite pieces that people love to hear. People walk down the aisle to that song.
Rick: What’s the name of that song?
Tommy: It’s called “Since We Met”. [ Tommy plays on his guitar and sings] “So much has happened since we met. Da da da da da da da da.”
Rick: Pretty.
Tommy: And the bridge. [Tommy continues playing]
Rick: Sweet, sweet.
Tommy: Yeah.
Rick: I like your quieter stuff. You did a song about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I just love that song. It’s a beautiful song.
Tommy: I’ll play it tonight.
Rick: Oh, will you? Oh that’s great. That’s terrific. Besides Maton guitars, what other guitars are you playing?
Tommy Emmanuel – Lewis and Clark
Rick: Yeah, yeah, pretty.
Tommy: It’s in mint condition from 1934.
Rick: Haven’t torn the top finish off it yet. [All laughing]
Rick: Mombasa is kind of an S&M signature song for you where you’re spanking the butt of the guitar and I think the guitar likes it. Does the guitar like it?
Tommy: Oh yeah…[makes tapping sound on the guitar]. See it’s got different sounds. Well this guitar has been broken so many times. If you have a close look here you’ll see there’s a crack from there to there, there’s a crack from there to there and there’s a crack from here to there. This here, it was dropped like that, laying on the ground by a guy in Helsinki. It was an accident. The guy felt so bad, I thought he was gonna slash his wrists. But I said, “Don’t worry. It’s just a piece of wood. We can fix it.”
Rick: It’s a tool.
Tommy: Yes, that’s right. And I [plays guitar], I love this little guitar. It’s got a voice. Got a certain voice, you know?
Rick: Yeah, it’s pretty.
Tommy: Yeah. But this here cracked right around here and this was split in six places and that had lifted out, so you could put your fingers in it. And this was right before I was due to do a TV show in Helsinki.
So I held it together and put some tape around it, went and did the show and then by the time I finished the show 45 minutes later, they had got this really good luthier and he was all set up, like a surgeon, ready to go in the green room.
Rick: Oh really? They’ve got a shop there?
Tommy: At the TV station and I just gave it to him and he repaired it like that, and it was a quick repair. He said, “It’s just temporary. It will hold but it’s just temporary. Get someone else to take the glue back and just redo it properly.” And I did when I got to Nashville. I go to a guy named Joe Glazer, who’s the best guy.
Rick: You can’t get any better than that.
Tommy: Yeah, Joe Glazer. So he fixed it all up and sanded it back a bit and he said, “Do you want me to re-finish this?” I said, “No just leave it.” So it’s sort of sanded back there, but here, here’s where it’s all rough.
Rick: Were you slappin’ it around?
Tommy: I have to go [plays guitar]
Rick: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tommy: So, that’s what I use that for and…[makes tapping noise]
Rick: You’re using the whole harmonics of the whole acoustic box.
Tommy: Yeah. [drumming rhythmically on guitar]. This sound up there…and then you’ve got [drumming and sliding sounds] So you’ve got three, boom, boom, boom.
Rick: They [fingers] don’t look all that calloused.
Tommy Emmanuel – Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart
Tommy: Yeah…you can’t tell what I do by looking at my hands except for the fact that I got these big blisters here.
And my thumbs, if you look at my thumbs they’re two completely different thumbs. This one here is like totally that.
This one here is straight like a finger because I go…[demonstrates while playing guitar] all the time. This is where, this straight line here.
Then my hand looks like that when I’m playing. And that nail is always down because I… [demonstrates while playing guitar].
I play with a pick and then I use a bit of that nail. But I don’t use nails when I’m playing melody. I use… [demonstrates while playing guitar].
Rick: Without any fingers, yeah.
Tommy: I use this and so…But I haven’t played today much at all. I played for about 10 minutes, because I was just giving my hands a rest. At the end of the night last night I had pretty soft fingers.
Rick: Did you?
Tommy: Yeah. Well, I’ve been really tearing into it lately. [Both laughing]
Rick: Well I’ll tell you, I saw you in 2005. You were in Carnegie Hall with Les Paul, and you got a standing ovation and he got a standing ovation. He got one when he came out. You got one at the end of playing “Mombassa”. I was like, “Oh, man!” How was that? Are you friends with Les?
[ED note: Guitar legend, Les Paul, died after the interview in 2009]
Tommy: We’ve been friends for a long time and just admire him and love him like a son, you know. He’s been such a daddy to me.
Rick: Has he?
Tommy: Oh yeah! He’s such a wonderful guy. He really is. And every time I go to New York I play B.B. Kings or the New York Town Hall or somewhere or whatever and I always go to the Iridium on Monday and play the shows with him, just hanging out with him, you know.
Rick: Yeah, he’s nice and he’s funny. He’s got this little ribald humor.
Tommy: Oh, absolutely.
Rick: We’ve met him a couple of times; nice man.
Tommy: Yeah.
Rick: We caught your Locomotivation video. What other songs have you picked up lately, that you’re incorporating into your set list?
Tommy: Oh, I’ve written a lot of new songs that are on the new album. There’s a new album coming called Little by Little.
Rick: Okay, good. When will that be out?
Tommy: We’re not quite sure yet because I’m holding off because I’m still working with PBS with the Center Stage album, because they’re using that as their pledge drive.
Rick: Oh good. PBS. That’s great.
Tommy Emmanuel – Photo credit:Michael G. Stewart
Tommy: Yeah. The other night in Philadelphia, it was the biggest market for the pledge drive. They ran it three times. And we had the theater full.
Sixteen hundred, had it full, so pretty good for a cigar box player. [Rick laughing] And let’s see…I just recorded an album with Frank Vignola and Gary Mazzaroppi
Rick: Is it jazz oriented?
Tommy: Yeah. I played a little Gibson. Like in the D’Jango kind of style. But we also do stuff like [plays a tune on the guitar]
Rick: Kinda like St. James Infirmary. or Nat King Cole.
[Tommy returns later with his 1934 Gibson Kalamazoo acoustic]
Tommy: It has somewhere between a resonator and a Django type guitar.
Right? So it has all that high meat like the Django [plays the guitar]. Right? But then when you play it softly…[plays the guitar]
Rick: Yeah. It’s soft yeah…yeah. Beautiful.
Tommy: It sings. And it’s just all original. Only thing I’ve changed is the fret.
Rick: Mahogany?
Tommy: Everything… Yeah. Everything is all original. It’s the best one I’ve ever seen.
Rick: Where did you get it?
Tommy: A] guy here gave it to me four days before he died. He had cancer real bad. And he really wanted me to have it. He was like, “This is destiny. You’ve gotta have this guitar.”
Rick: Sweet.
Tommy: I’ve done nothing but enjoy every moment with this guitar.
Rick: Yeah it’s got a good sound to it.
Tommy: You hear it out there?
Rick: Yeah. Do you have a pickup or just…?
Tommy: No, just a mic. I’m gonna experiment with those pickups John Jorgenson uses. The round ones that go on the outside? Anyway, let’s get back to where we were. We don’t have a lot of time.
Rick: We were talking about the new songs that you’ve been working on your set list. Any cover songs or are they all your own?
Tommy: No, not really, except for the swing tunes. But now on the new album there are several covers and unusual things like for instance, our new album has 19 tracks. And there’s a duet with[Doyle Dykes. We do this song… [plays the tune on the guitar and sings]. Carole King. We did that with all the key changes and it’s just beautiful. Doyle does a beautiful job on it.
Rick: Who else is on the album?
Tommy: John Knowles, the other Certified Guitar Player. John and I do “He Ain’t Heavy. He’s My Brother.”
Rick: Cool song.
Tommy Emmanuel (right) – Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart
Tommy: I used this guitar. I also did ‘Moon River’ with a friend of mine, Rick Price [plays the tune on the guitar and sings]. And I take a solo on that one on a little old Martin that’s like the brother of this guitar. It’s a Martin from 1947 or something like that; little body, all mahogany.
Rick: Has a nice tone, that softer tone, yeah.
Tommy: It’s sweet, yeah. And I do a song that I wrote called “Haba Na Haba” which is a Swahili term meaning “little by little”.
So the album is called Little By Little. And “Little by little, if you stick with your faith your dreams will come true, little by little. Don’t expect everything today and don’t think about tomorrow; just today, you know…little by little. So that’s kind of what the essence of the whole thing’s about.
Rick: Yeah. It’s sort of “in the moment”. “Initiation” is as much an Aboriginal dream walk soundscape as it is a tune. How did that track come about?
Tommy: It was…it evolved into what it is.
Rick: You lived in the Outback for a while when you were a kid.
Tommy: Oh, absolutely.
Rick: Did you get involved in spiritualism of the Aborigines or…?
Tommy: I didn’t know much about it until I was in my teens. And I still don’t know much about it because it’s a mystery to be honest. They don’t share that with many people. You can understand that.
Rick: Sure.
Tommy: When I was young my audience were mostly Aboriginal people. But, I knew nothing about segregation or racism and all that stuff. I knew nothing about it when I was a kid. They were just the same to me as anybody else. We played games together. We were normal kids. We just happened to be black and white. It didn’t make any difference.
I still went and took all my clothes off and jumped in the river and covered myself in clay, played games with spears and all that, the same as they did. Absolutely,, I did.
And so you know when I discovered that there was a lot of racism, it was a shock to me. Then I came over here and I heard about things here. There is still racism here. It’s terrible. But there is racism everywhere, you know, and there is racism against me too. I’ve had black people be racist against me. So it’s just the way human race is.
“Initiation” started out as a simple idea working with a delay. I was just messing with the delay and I started this idea. And I started building it. The more I played, the bigger I got, as in the bigger venues I played, bigger PAs, I certainly went, ‘Man that sounds like wind. I wonder if I can do that. And if I spike the bottom end and I go like that, it sounds like thunder.”
So it started to build in my mind and every night was different. I haven’t played it for a long while. I haven’t been doing it, like the last six months I’ve hardly played it.
Rick: Really? It’s got this atmospheric sound. It sounds great.
Tommy: Mm…I might do it tonight. Maybe I’ll do it earlier in the show and make it something different.
Rick: Yeah…yeah. People would love it, I think.
Tommy: I think so.
Rick: Your next show is in Denmark but I know John Jorgensen is in town and I’m wondering if you and he might get together. Did you know he’s in town?
Tommy: No.
Rick: Oh, okay. He’s playing…he’s doing a seminar today and he’s playing tomorrow.
Tommy: I must have missed him. He’s truly one of the greats. I had him as a guest on my Tommyfest. I did February [2009] in Kentucky. I honestly had one of the best nights of music in my life playing with John.
Rick: Really?
Tommy: Oh man! It’s beautiful.
Rick: Yeah, I’ll be interviewing him tomorrow.
Tommy: Well, please…You’re gonna interview him?
Rick: Yeah.
Tommy: Well, first of all tell, him how much I love him.
Rick: Okay, will do.
Tommy: Yeah, please do that. And he should know that every time I play with him it’s one of the best experiences for me.
Rick: Yeah.
Tommy: I’ve learned so much from him. His writing is inspiring to me.
Tommy Emmanuel and The John Jorgenson Quintet play Avalon
Rick: It’s great when you get that magic going between…
Tommy: Mm…most people wrote into my website and said, “Of all the nights I’ve ever seen you play, that was the greatest.” So we knew it was something special.
Rick: That’s cool. Can you give us a quick day in the life of Tommy Emmanuel while you’re on the road? What’s a typical day like for you?
[One of Tommy’s crew asks him for his dinner order]
Tommy: Okay…see this is like a typical day.
Rick: I’ll put it in the interview. [Laughs]
Tommy: Why don’t you ask Gina?
Gina: What?
Tommy: He just asked me, what is typical day in the life of me? [Laughter]
Gina: I didn’t know if you felt like a catfish or chili or what.
Tommy: Catfish will do just great. Yeah, with some coleslaw. Do they do
coleslaw? Perfect. Thank you babe!
Rick: You’re easy.
Tommy: Yeah, today is a little busy. We’re a bit crammed because we couldn’t get in here ’til later. And then they announced a 7:30 show. Normally, instead of talking with you I would be changing my strings.
Rick: You wanna change while we talk?
Tommy: No. It’s okay. Here’s a normal day: Let’s say…it depends where we are. Let’s take a day like where I leave from…say I’m playing in Chicago. I would be up early. I would have been packed the night before. Have all my equip…what I would do the day before I leave to go on tours, I would change strings on everything, I would polish all my guitars.
Rick: Really?
Tommy: Yep. I would check every cable. I would plug everything in and leave it running for hours. I’d check every cable. I leave nothing to chance. Continuity’s alright. Then I would go and get on the plane and try to sleep a little bit on the plane, rest my mind.
Rick: Where do you put your guitars?
Tommy Emmanuel – Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart
Tommy: Most of them get checked in with the baggage. This one here, never. I always carry this one on my back. The other ones, they get broken.
Rick: Yeah, there’s enough room for that up in the rack.
Tommy: Yeah. So then we get to where we’re going. Sometimes I’ll go to a radio station and do a radio interview or TV, whatever. Then get to the hotel and practice awhile, then perhaps iron my clothes or something, get a little nap and answer a few emails, shower, shave, get to the venue by 5:00, get set up, do the sound check.
If it’s an 8:00 show then at 6:00 we’d be eating. Right on time, 6:00 is dinner every 8:00 show. 7:00 is meet and greet. I meet the public. I meet people, fans, people who want me to sign their guitars, wanna get a photo, got a poster or whatever.
Rick: Before the show?
Tommy: Before. I used to do it after.
Rick: You’d be there till 2:00 in the morning.
Tommy: It’s just getting to where there are too many people now, which is a nice problem to have. So I do it an hour before show time and people who have written in and get on the list, they’re the ones who’d come to the meet and greet. It takes on an average of 20 minutes to half an hour.
Then I get through it as quick as I can and meet everybody and hear what they’ve got to say. Some people ask for advice. Some people wanna play for me. So I say, “Okay let’s go, you play something,” and I honestly listen to them and it depends on what they wanna know and all that kind of stuff.
Then I start to get ready and put on my makeup, do my hair, get my clothes ready and usually my opening act goes on at 8:00. Then I change my strings on my little Maton. Yeah, I change the strings right before the show.
Rick: Really? Even though you changed them the night before…?
Tommy: Yeah, I change them every time. It’s sort of pristine. Then I go on about a quarter to nine. I play 2 hours and 10 minutes, something like that. I never work to a set list. I just get on out there and get going.
Rick: You’ve got enough songs now that you just sort of…
Tommy: Oh sure. I like to start with “Locomotivation”. It’s such an up song immediately and it has this groove, you know. [plays the guitar] Like the train’s leaving the station [plays the guitar]. It gets everybody in the mood straight away.
Rick: Yeah, pumped. Any young guitarists out there that you find remarkable as artists and performers?
Tommy: John Mayer.
Rick: Yeah?
Tommy: I love John Mayer: his writing, his singing, his playing, everything about him. He’s a truly unique young artist. I admire him greatly.
Rick: He’s moved up really quickly, it seems.
Tommy: He’s incredible. Let’s see…there are a lot of young players out there that are coming up. There’s a guy named Joe Robinson from Australia who won Australia’s Got Talent. He’s doing really well.
Rick: I watched a video of him today on YouTube.
Tommy: He’s a good boy.
Rick: He did a song of yours, “Cannonball”…?
Tommy: “Cannonball Rag”
Rick: Yeah, yeah.
Tommy: That’s a Merle Travis song.
Rick: Yeah, did a good job.
Tommy: He does my version…of everything [Both laughing], which is a great compliment. And he won. He got through to the finals in Australia’s Got Talent with my version of the Beatles medley and two of my other songs. Then when he got to the Grand Finals he did my version of “Classical Gas”.
Rick: Oh ,yeah. That’s great.
Tommy: And he won. It was amazing! I’m so proud of him, you know. He won a $250,000 and a record contract. So, he’s off to a good start.
Rick: Yeah, good for him.
Tommy: I know he’s using his money wisely.
Rick: Yeah, that’s good. A lot of them don’t.
Tommy: Yeah, I know.
Rick: You’re friends with Eddie Pennington?
Tommy: Yeah.
Rick: Okay. Are you doing anything with him? Are you recording with him at all?
Tommy Emmanuel & Frank Vignola – Just Between Frets CD – album cover photo: Michael G. Stewart
Tommy: No, I haven’t, but I only get to see Eddie every time I go to the Chet Atkins Convention. He comes down there and they have the Kentucky thumb pickers room and all that. Eddie always does a spot. Sometimes his son, Alonso, plays.
Rick: He’s a mortician right?
Tommy: Yes.
Rick: Okay. On the Fur Piece Ranch, you’ve done some stuff with Jorma [Kaukonen]. We talked to him a while back. Is that fun? I mean…
Tommy: Oh absolutely. Well, it’s so different from everything else I do. I’m out there in Pomeroy out in the middle of the sticks. And I say…
Rick: No, you’re a Fur Piece away.
Tommy: That’s it. Fur Piece away. I’m staying in a room about as big as half this room. That’s my bed and where I hang up my clothes and that’s it. And I eat, sleep and shit with everybody else. I enjoy it, you know.
The people who join up, they’re always guys and girls that just love the guitar. Most of them…and I always say this, I always say, “Don’t feel bad that…not many of us have aspirations of being a concert player. Most of us just wanna get better at it and have something nice to play, or if you’re working on something, that’s what you wanna do. You don’t all have to be concert players.”
I was very fortunate. I feel that…I knew before I was six years old what I wanted to do. And I’m still doing it. So I consider that very fortunate, you know. But, I try to make sure that they don’t feel less a person, they’re there at a guitar camp and they don’t really wanna be a concert player, you know. It doesn’t matter.
What I say is, “I’m just here to help you in any way I can.” Guitar players in general are a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And the truth is that I can speak for myself. I don’t know about other players, but I know this to be true from most of the good guys that I know. That is, we don’t really care if you’re good, bad or indifferent. If you suck or you’re really…you have no coordination whatever, if we see you love it, that’s all that matters. You know what I mean? We’ll do anything to help you. If you’re really good, we’ll wanna play with you and have fun. It’s not a case of, “Oh, he doesn’t play so well. I don’t wanna play with him.”
Rick: You wanna nurture them along.
Tommy: Yeah. And that’s just where I come from. I try to tell…especially people who turn up and they’re already trembling. They’ve got some preconceived idea that you’re some golden virtuoso. I’m not. I’m just a guy who loves to play the same as you do and the same as you do.
I just happen to be very passionate about this and I make a good living doing it and I’m on a mission to get good at it. I’ll do whatever it takes. And that’s the difference, that’s all.
Rick: Yeah. You mentioned you had a new CD come out. Anything else besides “Little by Little” coming along?
Tommy: Oh, yes. The album with Frank Vignola and Gary [Mazzaroppi] the bass player. It’s a trio album of all swing tunes. We just did it in two afternoons. We set up in the studio, Gary in the middle, Frank in that little booth, me in this little booth, and we just ran through the arrangements quickly, wrote out a little chart for Gary and we did it. We just did it straight down. All the improvisation and the whole thing, just all straight down.
Rick: Was that in Nashville or New York or…?
Tommy: No, we did it in Virginia, down near Yorktown.
[Tommy had to hit the stage, so we ended the interview with the final conversation about his latest CD Between the Frets with Frank and Gary.]
Tommy Emmanuel and Frank Vignola – Limehouse Blues
******
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