I flew all the way from the US to Beijing, China. When I got to my hotel room, I got my guitar out to practice and it sounded magical to me. It wasn’t long before I started writing this song. I had taken time to watch some videos of Chinese musicians as a way of trying to get inspired and get some fresh ideas in my head. Once I had this song written, I had no title for it. I recorded it on my iPhone and sent it to my family. Rachel, my daughter, heard it and commented “it sounds like the wide ocean.” An amazing thing to say for a 4-year-old. I was so moved by her words that it became the title.
The joy I was feeling at
the time I was composing this song is all in the song. I was in Kenya visiting
the children that I sponsor through World Vision,
and the flood of emotions I was feeling came out in this song. I’ve played it a
lot in the last 20 years, but I never tire of performing it. It fills my soul
and always makes me smile.
When I got the shocking news that my closest brother (Phil “The Wiz” Emmanuel) had passed away, I went into support mode for the rest of my family. We all talked for hours until I had to sleep. When I woke up, I got a different view of my irreplaceable partner. I started to see that I watched him struggle a lot in the last 10 years of his life, not just with his health but in his musical life as well. Somehow, I felt a sense of relief that he didn’t have to struggle anymore. I felt compelled to write this song. I loosely based it on the theme to Crocodile Dundee, the movie in which the main character could have easily been modeled after my brother. On Phil’s gravestone are the words “sail on beautiful soul.” Wiz rest easy and no smoking in heaven.
Sail On is played on a TE Personal Custom Maton
The Best of Tommysongs will be available on May 8th!! Stream on Spotify, Apple Music. You can also purchase a physical copy on my website, by clicking here!!
This video is part of the program for KPBS called “Tommy Emmanuel & Friends – Live from the Balboa Theatre.” It was filmed live at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego, CA in 2011. The is also our album/DVD of the month!!
CD – $6.00
DVD = $6.00 **The DVD has bonus tracks that are not on the CD
As the title says, it’s another song written on a train! Traveling around Germany on trains is one of my favorite things to do. It’s exhilarating speeding across the country 300km per hour in a smooth quiet train, and the journey I made this day gave me enough time to finish this song. When I changed trains at Hamm, I couldn’t wait to play it for someone. I found an elderly Indian lady sitting alone on the platform. I sat beside her and played my new song for her. She looked at me puzzled, then smiled and nodded her approval. I put my guitar away and got on my next connecting train to Dusseldorf.
Written on his regular guitar, but switched to the baritone guitar to give it “the drama” it needed. He had just read a synopsis of a film idea about the timber industry back in the early 1800’s. Enjoy another new song from the upcoming album, The Best Of Tommysongs.
COVID 19 UPDATE – Here’s an update on the performances Tommy Emmanuel was forced to reschedule due to the Coronavirus, with a few festival cancellations. If you already purchased a ticket or meet & greet for a show, it will be honored for the new rescheduled show date and you do not need to do anything (except in Mississauga – see below). This information has been updated in most places. However, if you go to the venue and you see they haven’t updated the information, please do not fret. The venue staffs are overloaded with show postponements so they might be behind in posting this information. Thank you all for your patience through this very difficult time. We’re all in this together! We will survive, and we will come together and celebrate life through music really soon!
3/25 – Duluth, MN – Moved to Jan. 15, 2021*
3/27 – Mississauga, ON (Toronto) – Moved to Dec. 15, 2020* (wait for info from venue)
3/28 – Calgary, AB – Moved to Dec. 9, 2020*
3/30 – Edmonton, AB – Moved to Dec. 10, 2020*
4/1 – Victoria, BC – Moved to Dec. 13, 2020*
4/2 – Vancouver, BC – Moved to Dec. 7, 2020*
4/15 – Midwest City, OK (Oklahoma City) – Moved to Aug. 22, 2020*
4/16 – Kansas City, MO – Moved to Aug. 21, 2020*
4/17 – Lincoln, NE – Moved to Aug. 19, 2021*
4/18 – Madison, WI – Moved to Aug. 16, 2020*
4/19 – Des Moines, IA – Moved to Aug. 18, 2020 *
4/20 – Elmhurst, IL – Moved to Sept. 27, 2020
4/22 – Kalamazoo, MI – Moved to Jan. 13, 2021
4/23 – Columbus, OH – Moved. To Aug. 14, 2020*
4/24 – Frankfort, KY – Moved to Aug. 15, 2020*
4/25 – Wilkesboro, NC – Merlefest – Cancelled
4/27 – Virginia Beach, VA – Moved to Sept. 21, 2020**
4/29 – Glenside, PA – Moved to Sept. 25, 2020**
4/30 – Tarrytown, NY – Moved to Sept. 24, 2020**
5/1 – Boston, MA – Moved to Feb. 12, 2021#
5/2 – Albany, NY – Moved to Sept. 23, 2020**
5/16 – Canberra, ACT – Postponed to 2021 (Date TBD)
5/17 – Gold Coast, QLD – Blues On Broadbeach – Postponed to 2021 (Date TBD)
5/3 – Cleveland, OH – Moved to Aug. 13, 2020*
5/27 – Sherbrooke, QC – Moved to Dec. 16, 2020^
5/28 – Ottawa, ON – Moved to Dec. 17, 2020^
*Support is Joe Robinson
^Support is Gareth Pearson
**Support is Andy McKee
#Support is Jerry Douglas
For fans in Mississauga, this venue decided to refund all ticket purchases for this show. If you want to come to the rescheduled show, you must re-purchase your ticket. They are holding all the seat locations for the tickets already purchased. This tickets will not be available for sale until sometime in mid April and expect the venue to email you about this. If you bought a meet & greet, you do NOT need to repurchase your meet & greet for this show.
I wrote this for my first daughter Amanda when she was little. I would pick her up from school, and instead of going straight home, we would drive up and down the beach road. She would play DJ with the CD player in our car. This precious time together we called our “drive time.” I couldn’t have written this song if I hadn’t spent a lifetime listening to Stevie Wonder.
For the first time ever you can also stream this song on Spotify!!
Pre-Orders are now available for The Best of Tommysongs. This double album is available as a CD, Vinyl, and as a Special Edition Book. The book contains rare photos from throughout Tommy’s life and family photos from his own personal collection. It also has exclusive liner notes written by Paul Zollo, a download card, the CDs, and the vinyl records all in one package. All the Special-Edition Books will also be numbered and signed by Tommy, and the records inside the book will be a customized colored vinyl. The CD and standard vinyl pre-orders will ship no later than May 8, and the Special Edition Books will ship no later than June 12. As all singles are released, all the pre-orders will get instant downloads for each single such as “Fuel”.
There are also some “Pre-Order Bundle Packs” that have some deep discounts such as the “Players Pack Bundle” which has guitar tab USB drive, the CGP notebook, Tommy’s signature picks, his guitar strap, and much more. There’s the “Apparel Bundle Pack” with hoodies, shirts, hats, socks, shirts, and more. There is also the “Limited-Edition Pin Pack” which contains a lanyard and 10 enamel pins. 7 of these pins highlight songs that appear on Tommysongs such as “Fuel”, “Angelina”, “It’s Never Too Late”, “Lewis & Clark”, “The Mystery”, “Endless Road”, and “(The Man With The) Green Thumb”.
