ISSUE #28 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #28 MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN What made this project special? How do you preserve the integrity of TOOLS OF THE TRADE It was a good combination of styles. Martin a song while still being adventurous? and I are different types of players, but it just You have to walk that line. You don’t want seemed to gel. The funny thing is we’re both to be self-indulgent. You want to be true While recording his new album, Tommy used to being solo players, but whenever to the melody, but also be interesting—to Emmanuel played a 1930 Martin 0-17 we’ve played together it’s always been so be as entertaining as possible. The first mahogany guitar to better capture an much fun. I especially enjoyed playing rhythm, track, “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” is old-school jazz sound. “I wanted it somewhere because I so rarely get to do that anymore. a Paul Williams song that the Carpenters between Charlie Christian and Django recorded. Everybody from our generation Reinhardt,” he says. “I just put a mic on Describe the recording process. knows that song, but the way we changed it—Schoeps—and played acoustically. I also We were ready to go by the time we got the chorus gives it more power and made used a Godin 5th Avenue jazz guitar—an to the Nashville studio. We put the album it more interesting for us as players. F-hole—on a couple of tracks.” together in a couple of days, recording it as We’re still playing what the composer For live performance, Emmanuel relies if we were playing live. We had two separate intended, we’re just trying to make it more on his EBG808 and TE1 Maton guitars. His rooms with glass between us, so that we interesting for ourselves. onstage setup includes no effects. “I used could see and signal each other, but we to use an Alesis Midiverb II,” he says, “but were wearing headphones and were totally Who influenced your stage show? now my soundman does all the effects at isolated. We definitely wanted that isolation I observed lots of great singers, musicians the front. I go through an AER Pocket Tools so that if there was anything we needed to and comedians, learning from them—and Colourizer, which is like a pre-amp. It gives do with our individual sounds we could do stealing ideas from those I was impressed me a big fat signal straight into the PA. that without affecting the other. with. It all helps you to be better onstage. The Then I come out of the Colourizer and go only real way to engage the audience and into an AER Compact 60 amplifier. That’s Was it all single takes? make an impact is to go out and give your all. another set of frequencies, and it goes There was no redoing. Everything was into the PA as well. So I have those two spontaneous. Once you get comfortable What was it like turning pro as a child? signals—direct and amped.” with the arrangements and know I had a typical boy’s life growing up in Emmanuel sets his pickups and mics everything is working, you can then dig Australia. I played games with my friends, at maximum volume. “I drive it flat out,” into your bag of creativity and bring those but when it was time to do a show, that A llen things out. The whole album is filled with was just as much fun. I had both—a normal C boy’s life but at the same time I was in larke show business. I never got caught up in ‘I have a pop-rock the mentality of wanting to be perceived as a star. I was just enjoying trying to play song mentality the best I could. when I’m writing What was it about fingerstyle playing TOMMY EMMANUEL that reeled you in? Teaming up to unleash twice the fingerpicking power on his latest set for the guitar.’ It was a sound that drove me crazy—a style I loved from the get-go. I knew I wanted to By Russell Hall improvisation. Once we decided who do it, I just had to work it out. I didn’t think was going to take the melody and what of anything else. Of course when I heard IF ANYONE CAN BE SAID TO OCCUPY THE THRONE LEFT by an emphasis on touring. Some things never change—in recent years the key changes were, we played as if George Benson and Django Reinhardt and behind by the great Chet Atkins, it’s Tommy Emmanuel. Regarded the guitar sensation has performed more than 300 shows annually. we were onstage. others, I wanted to play their music as well. by many as the finest acoustic fingerpicker in the world, the two-time Emmanuel’s latest project finds him teamed with fellow But that music didn’t fall into my hands in Grammy nominee has spent five decades dazzling audiences with his fingerpicking great Martin Taylor. Their acoustic duet album, What was the biggest challenge? the same way Chet Atkins and Merle Travis six-string virtuosity. And the 58-year-old Emmanuel places just as high The Colonel and the Governor, consists mostly of jazz and pop Deciding on the right material. We wanted and Jerry Reed’s music did. a premium on songcraft and entertainment as he does on technique. classics performed in a deft blend of breathtaking fingerwork. “Martin strong songs where the melody was good, Allen Clarke “I’ve always been a song person,” he explains. “Growing up flew in and did four dates with me. In the afternoons we would go to but also where we could find a way of What’s your songwriting process? I listened to Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Don the venue early to practice and work up the songs. We pretty much making the chords underneath interesting. I follow my instincts. If I get an idea, I’ll start McLean—figuring out how to construct songs, why a song touches had them nailed by the time we went into the studio,” says Emmanuel. We spent time creating arrangements that working it until a melody comes. I approach you, why a song is a hit. I was also fascinated by performers who High points include a breezy rendition of Roger Nichols and would create space for each other. On some it like I’m writing a verse, a chorus, a verse, had charisma, whose shows were polished and full of entertainment.” Paul Williams’ “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” a swinging version of the tunes, we would start playing the a chorus with a solo and a key change. I he explains. “Feedback is never an issue The self-taught Emmanuel was a bona fide pro by age 6, traveling of Benny Goodman’s “Jersey Bounce,” and an eloquent rendering of melody together, and when the song went have a pop-rock song mentality when I’m because I cover the sound hole. When you’re with his family’s band throughout his native Australia. His first trip to Don McLean’s “Wonderful Baby.” Emmanuel spoke with us about to the bridge, I would go into the groove and writing for the guitar. Sometimes if I’m really playing to 2,000 people, no one hears what America came in 1980, when he traveled to Nashville to meet Atkins, his the new album, his evolution as a player, and why he performs Martin would take the melody. There were inspired, I’ll start writing and won’t stop until comes out the sound hole anyway. People longtime hero. His career blossomed under Atkins’ tutelage, abetted without a set list. also tunes, like “Wonderful Baby,” where the song’s finished. only hear what comes out of the PA. I still I just played the melody as a solo piece, love playing through a mic—just playing and then did a key change in the middle, Has not reading music ever been a acoustically—but it’s not practical in the real ‘The only real way to engage the audience and make from F to B-flat, and then Martin came in hindrance in your career? world when you’re in a different hall with a and took a solo. That was a whole different Not so far, although I would love to different PA every night. I want a big sound, an impact is to go out and give your all.’ structure as well. be able to sight-read like some of the and I want it now.” 46 47 M mag 28.indd 46 7/3/13 4:22 PM M mag 28.indd 47 7/2/13 6:12 PM ISSUE #28 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #28 MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN Sharifulin Valery/ITAR-TASS/Landov Onstage in Moscow, Russia, 2008 ‘You don’t want to be self-indulgent. Tommy Emmanuel, Martin Taylor You want to be true to the melody HIS MASTER'S VOICE but also be interesting.’ Tommy Emmanuel was just 7 when he first heard Chet Atkins’ music. “As a kid I always great players I admire. Think of people like of the gate with something that’s exactly looked forward to his next album,” he says, Tommy Tedesco and Barney Kessel. Imagine right for that moment, the show will take “because there would be so much to learn, so going into the studio and sitting there with off like a firecracker.