Tommy Emmanuel AM (b. 1955), guitarist, was taught to play by his mother and is said to have been a working musician by the age of six. He and his brother, Phil, toured the country with their parents, playing in one town after another until the boys were compelled by law to attend school. Having settled in Parkes when he was eleven, Tommy played in various Sydney bands through the 1970s, made his first album in 1979 and joined the re-formed Dragon for much of the 1980s. In 1987 he released his second album, Up from Down Under; he has since released more than twenty albums, and has won international renown as a fingerpicking star. In 1997, when the pair made a recording together, legendary guitarist Chet Atkins called Emmanuel ‘one of the greatest guitar players I’ve ever seen’. Tommy and Phil Emmanuel played together at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Although he experienced a heart health scare and exhaustion in 2007, in 2008 and 2010 he was Guitar Player magazine’s readers’ choice for the best acoustic guitarist and continues to tour and record.
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