Yes, joy. But to do it with that smile of the ages, that evidence of authentic, unbridled delight, is an irresistible invitation to feel his music as deeply as he does.
And here it is! Although his expression is instrumental, he comes to the guitar much more like a vocalist, positively singing melodies through the strings.
He inhabits the tunes he performs, delivering every nuance and turn of phrase. But music, coming from a genuine and joyful source, can go so much farther. Now with The Best of Tommysongs, he brings us a complete collection of his own songs, all rich with ripe melodicism and rendered with joy in real-time. Born in , one of six kids in Muswellbrook, New South Wales Australia, his first years were fairly uneventful, mostly mastering necessary motor skills between naps.
By age four, he got busy becoming a musician. His father, an engineer who loved music and musicians, brought home an electric guitar one day with the intention of finding out how it worked. Piece by piece, he took it apart to discover its secrets. Driven somewhat by sibling rivalry, they developed contests that were both fun and extremely educational. Though neither brother had any formal musical training, this self-schooling quickly transformed both into seriously sophisticated musicians.
Though they assumed their father would be angry if he found out, which he did, they were wrong. He was surprised and thrilled his sons could play music. Soon their big brother Chris was enlisted to play drums, and with sister Veronica playing lap-steel, a family band was born. They called themselves The Emmanuel Quartet. Luka Bloom. Jim Adkins.
Adam Brand. Shane Howard. John Williamson. Adam Eckersly. Michael Franti. Michael Fix. Dan Brown. Keith Potger AO. Jeff Martin. Fiona Boyes. Nano Stern. Nick Charles.
Adam Rafferty. Adam Stockdale. Joe Zhu. Oscar Dawson. John Parr. Shaun Hopper. Gareth Pearson. It was much more intimate and simple. And people like that stuff. And then I get an idea from there and write the song. And then I got to the guitar and worked out what I was thinking in my head, and then I kind of took it from there. And when I repeat it, I need to play the melody the same, but maybe the chords could be a little different underneath the second time around to keep it interesting and moving.
And there has to be a definite plan: a verse and a chorus and a verse and a chorus kind of thing, so it takes the listener somewhere. I never try… part of your brain and your enthusiasm, and your skills — that part of you wants to be clever. The song has to work just recorded on your iPhone. And then I hire a studio and an engineer. I go in and set up mics and headphones and all that stuff, and I sit and play these tunes, and I do take after take and have a listen, and I try to go for the magic.
Emmanuel: So many of my songs change. People leave me alone a lot. You know what that means. Emmanuel: Because we musicians need repetition to get better, working and playing the same thing over and over.
But nobody else likes it. And pretty much everywhere I travel, I do workshops and master classes from time to time. Tuesday I taught a masterclass to students, and then I played a concert that night. And then I was on the plane and here in Nashville at the Chet Atkins convention the next afternoon.
And I did a workshop yesterday, I did a talk on arranging Chet Atkins tunes. I enjoy it. We take over the whole resort and I have students for three days. And I have three other teachers, and I also have some of the young folk who I know real well, who are good jammers and good teachers themselves. And we play and teach and some of us tag-team, work as two teachers at the same time. And everybody has their own set of skills. Like John Knowles is great at transcribing stuff and getting it done really quickly.
Joe Robinson is great at acoustic and electric and playing rock music, jazz music, and all that kind of stuff. Jim Nichols is a patient and knowledgeable man with a lot of experience who can give you 10 alternatives on how to play these four bars. And I talk about so many different things: How to arrange a song, how to find a good key to play the song in, how to get a sound, how to experiment.
And also one of the things that we teach people is how to practice, and how to get the most benefit out of practice, and things like that. And so you teach yourself how to do exercises that will help you eventually turn the skills into music. And nothing could be further from the truth. I get so bored with stuff like that. I want to play music. Emmanuel: Exactly! Emmanuel: You bet. Are they already, typically, fairly advanced players?
There are parents who come with their kids to gather knowledge and experience. And then there are players who are really into playing all my songs, and they want to hang with me and do some homework and learn how to make their way of playing better.
All that sort of stuff. And there are some people who just come for the experience of just hanging out with other players and jamming a lot.
Emmanuel: Yeah. When I have time, I really enjoy to do that. It starts out with how you can get started the right way, playing fingerstyle.
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