There are more shows announced with the Dobro guru Jerry Douglas. Jerry and I both are going to perform solo, but we’re also going to tear down the house together! We’re performing in Italy throughout November, but we also have US shows throughout December. We just added shows in Boulder, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland, Beverly Hills, and Dallas. You do not want to miss this show!
I’ve been hanging with the great Dobro master Jerry Douglas. Back in April, we performed together at the Grand Ole Opry and at Merelfest. This video of my song “Halfway Home” is from our Merlfest performance. Playing and hanging with Jerry has been a magical experience, and I so proud and excited that we’re going to be doing some more shows together. Jerry is going to perform solo, I’m going to perform solo, but we’re also going to tear down the house together! We’re performing throughout Italy in November, but we also have US shows on-sale now in Salina, Salt Lake City, Boise, Spokane, Grants Pass, Bend, Redding, San Luis Obispo, Las Vegas, and Tucson. There will be more shows announced soon in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Texas. These shows are going to be a blast, and you do not want to miss it!
I wanted to thank all you good people who have written and posted about my brother, Phil. I’ve cried, laughed, told stories, and had a million things to do since he passed away. I feel he wants us to stay happy and look after each other, so let’s get to work! Phil taught me so much right from the start.
He showed me how to recognize song keys, chords, harmonies, how to get a sound that worked, how to stay out of the way on stage, and when to step forward when I had something to say (musically or otherwise). We spent so many years traveling, playing shows, setting up, packing up, and sleeping in cheap motels and pubs. It was all because we loved to entertain people and have fun.
We shared everything. He taught me about kindness, giving, listening, how to love people as they are. He wants us to find our happiness, and to hold onto it tightly. He showed us how to find humor in everything, and to pass it on to others. He was eternally kind and loving, and he showed his commitment to the music and the audience every time he walked on the stage.
I love Phil, and I miss him! If you’re feeling generous, Phil was very passionate about nature and the environment. He and I support the WWF-Australia, which stands for the World Wildlife Fund. If you want to make a donation in his name, my family would appreciate it and so would mother nature! Just click here https://donate.wwf.org.au/donate.
I am thrilled to announce that today my friends at TrueFire have released a new course of mine focusing on my last solo record, It’s Never Too Late. I’ll show you how to play songs such as “Only Elliot”, “It’s Never Too Late”, “Hope Street”, “Blood Brother”, “Traveling Clothes”, and “Old Photographs”. This course not only has a personal step by step lesson plan from me, but it also has tab for the songs as well. If you want to learn to take your guitar playing to the next level, check out all my courses on Truefire and the other amazing players giving lessons like Andy McKee, Frank Vignola, Steve Vai, and many more. Check it out at TrueFire.com.
We also decided to do a limited time summer sale on my web-store where almost all my album are on-sale including the CD and vinyl of It’s Never Too Late. There are also other items on sale such as pick tins, posters, and shirts. Check it out here. This sale will only be running for two weeks.
I hope you enjoy the video Pat Bergeson and I did for “Saturday Night Shuffle”. This song appears on my new album, Accomplice One. On the album, it’s not only a duet with Pat Bergeson but also with my old friend Jorma Kaukonen. I’ve always wanted to record with Jorma, but I had to find the right track. I didn’t want to just do another blues track. I wanted to give Jorma the opportunity to play on something different. This song is a Merle Travis classic, and I approached it like a jug band. The solos are in the key of B. Jorma laughed that he’d never played in B before. Pat Bergeson added some cool harmonica and really made this track a lot of fun!!
One of my favorite things to do when I’m home in Nashville is to go and jam with Jack Pearson. His knowledge, experience, and versatility are unmatched. His loving attitude and big heart is an inspiration to be around. I was thrilled that Jack agreed to be on my album, Accomplice One. The song, which we recorded in one take, is testimony to Jack’s greatness. I simply said to him, “Let’s play a blues in Bb.” He started strumming the chords, then I joined in with some melody lines. We then weaved our way through the whole song as if having a conversation and nothing was planned or rehearsed. This is music in its pure state. It’s two guys playing from their heart and from their mind. When we listened back to it, Jack said, “We sound like two kids in a playground.” So, I called it “Tittle Tattle”. We just have a blast playing together, and I think it shows in this video. I’m also honored that Jack will be joining me for my guitar camp in Memphis.
Big news thrill-seekers! This week we added tab and notation for all of the video song lessons written by me on Certified Gems, Certified Gems 2, and Little By Little. These 3 courses feature many of my most popular songs. We’re also working on a course teaching songs from, It’s Never Too Late, which should be available shortly.
Just getting into fingerstyle? Check out Fingerstyle Milestones and Fingerstyle Breakthroughs — both courses are ideal for guitar players who are ready to explore the polyphonic wonders of fingerstyle guitar!
All of the courses are produced with my friends at TrueFire. You’ll have lots of handy tools for looping and slowing down the video, tab, and notation. Plus, I walk you through all of the lessons step-by-step, note-by-note!
You can learn more about all of my courses on my website by clicking here or on TrueFire
TrueFire is running a promo of 25% off Tommy’s courses through March 14th. The code is: TOMMYTAB
We just announced our schedule for my Australia Guitar Retreat. My good friend Stuie French has been added to that list of instructors. Andy Allen, who builds my guitars for Maton, is coming in for a workshop. We now have Richard Smith, Stuie French, Simon Hosford, and Michael Fix for the Australia Guitar Retreat. Click this link for the entire Australia schedule: http://tommyemmanuelguitarretreat.com/schedule
In addition, we just updated my Scotland Guitar Camp Schedule which now has Richard Smith, John Knowles CGP, Frank Vignola, Vinny Raniolo, and a very cool surprise special guest. We have less than 20 spots open for my Scotland Camp in May and for my Memphis Camp in July. If you want to come, you better register soon. For more information or to register, click the links below. I hope to see you there.
I hope you enjoy this video of “Deep River Blues.” It was a great honor for me to have Jason Isbell agree to sing this track. His voice and his feel are so right for this song. I knew we’d chosen the right song when he started singing the first verse. Working with him gave me chills! Jason and I are both big Doc Watson fans, and I think it was a cool way to honor him. This was the actual first song that we recorded for my new album, Accomplice One, and it’s the first song on the record. It really set the bar high for the rest of the sessions. This video was really fun to make. I always love getting my hands dirty! Enjoy the video and subscribe to my Youtube channel.
On Monday, MerleFest announced the addition of Tommy Emmanuel and Jerry Douglas to the event’s 2018 lineup. This will be their first ever public performance! They will be performing on Saturday, April 28th on the Watson Stage.
In honor of this occasion we want to share a video of Tommy & Jerry performing Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”. The song appears on Tommy’s new album Accomplice One
My new duets album, Accomplice One, is OUT. I am so thrilled to share this record with you. It took me 2 years to record it, and I am very proud of it. There are so many great moments on this record that I truly cherish.
This video is one of my favorite songs from Accomplice One, that I recorded with one of the best artists out there – Mark Knopfler. When I approached Mark about playing on my album, he told me he would love to but it has to be one of his songs and none of that fast stuff. I immediately concurred, as I love all his compositions. We sat down with our acoustic guitars, and he sang me the song, “You Don’t Want To Get You One of Those”. It’s brilliantly written, and honestly and humbly performed. We recorded it like a performance, playing and singing in the same room. We purposely left it raw and didn’t try to polish it up. It was a great experience for me to be directed by such an accomplished artist as Mark.
Here is the track list for Accomplice One. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had recording it.
Deep River Blues with Jason Isbell
Song and Dance Man with Ricky Skaggs
Saturday Night Shuffle with Jorma Kaukonen & Pat Bergeson
Wheelin’ & Dealin’ with J.D. Simo and Charlie Cushman
C-Jam Blues with David Grisman & Bryan Sutton
(Sittin’ On) Dock of the Bay with J.D. Simo
Borderline with Amanda Shires
You Don’t Want To Get You One of Those with Mark Knopfler
Keepin’ It Reel with Clive Carroll
Looking Forward To The Past with Rodney Crowell
Purple Haze with Jerry Douglas
Rachel’s Lullaby with Jake Shimabukuro
Djangology with Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo
Watson Blues with David Grisman and Bryan Sutton
Tittle Tattle with Jack Pearson
The Duke’s Message with Suzy Bogguss (lyrics written by Anthony Snape)
This video is one of my favorite songs from Accomplice One, that I recorded with one of the best artists out there – Mark Knopfler. When I approached Mark about playing on my album, he told me he would love to but it has to be one of his songs and none of that fast stuff. I immediately concurred, as I love all his compositions. We sat down with our acoustic guitars, and he sang me the song, “You Don’t Want To Get You One of Those”. It’s brilliantly written, and honestly and humbly performed. We recorded it like a performance, playing and singing in the same room. We purposely left it raw and didn’t try to polish it up. It was a great experience for me to be directed by such an accomplished artist as Mark.
I am excited to announce that Frank Vignola will be joining us at my first-ever Guitar Camp in Scotland on May 11-15, 2018. Richard Smith and my fellow CGP, John Knowles, will also be instructors in Scotland. In the US, I have a camp in Memphis, Tennessee on July 23-28 with instructors Pat Bergeson, Jack Pearson, Mike Seal, and special guest instructors Jerry Douglas and Steve Cropper. Last but not least, I am going back to Australia to host a Guitar Retreat outside of Melbourne on August 15-19 with instructors Richard Smith, Simon Hosford, and Michael Fix. I so much love teaching students my ways of practicing, writing, and performing. One of my greatest joys is sharing my guitar knowledge with students, seeing them digest it, and then watching them grow as a player.
This video is of the Django Reinhardt song, “Djangology.” Django is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. In the fall of 2016, I did a guitar camp in Havana, Cuba with Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo. We worked up an arrangement of this song. We took our guitar students to Abdala Studio to witness the recording as part of their education. You wouldn’t know it, but there were over 80 people sitting quietly in the room as we recorded this track live. That studio is where so many great Cuban recordings where made including the Buena Vista Social Club. This video is our love song to Cuba and the amazing experiences we had there. “Djangology” is on my new duets album, Accomplice One, out on Friday, January 19. You can pre-order CDs and vinyl of Accomplice One from my web-store. You can also pre-order this record digitally and get instant downloads of “(Sittin’ On) Dock of the Bay” with JD Simo, “Borderline” with Amanda Shires, “Looking Forward to the Past” with Rodney Crowell, and now “Djangology” with Frank and Vinny. Pre-Order this record here http://smarturl.it/accompliceall
Merry Christmas everyone! This song is something that Pat Bergeson and Annie Sellick brought to my attention. I love it, and I enjoyed playing it so much on the road. I think you can tell by watching us onstage together. I hope you enjoy it and Happy Holidays to all of you…LOVE TE, CGP
There are only a few shows left on this year’s Classic & Christmas Tour. We’ll be in Texas for the rest of the tour. I hope to see you in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas this coming week. Plus there is a new video of Pat Bergeson, John Knowles, and I playing “Jingle Bells” on last year’s Christmas Tour. Check it out here and Happy Holidays…Love TE, CGP.
