TOMMY EMMANUEL is an acoustic guitarist extraordinaire, composer, global touring artist, and Grammy® Award winner. He’s also one of five people ever to be named a C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player) by Chet Atkins, the great innovator, songwriter, producer, record company executive, and visionary.
Today (January 9), TOMMY has unveiled “Gdansk/Tall Fiddler,” two songs combined as one track from his upcoming album LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (C.G.P. Sounds) that’s due out March 21. Listen to the track HERE and watch the live performance video, beautifully filmed by Bondi Rocks Media at the Sydney Opera House in his native Australia, HERE. Pre-order/pre-save the album HERE.
“Here’s an example of two songs that were written almost 20 years apart that fit quite nicely together,” says TOMMY. “One was written in Poland and the other backstage at a bluegrass festival. What a crazy world we all live in!”
The release of “Gdansk/Tall Fiddler” follows the 16-track album’s first offering last year, “The Jolly Swagman.” “I wrote ‘The Jolly Swagman’ for an imaginary character,” says TOMMY, “who makes us all happy by clicking his heels in the air while playing the concertina!!”
EMMANUEL is no stranger to iconic stages from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to London’s Royal Festival Hall and Paris’ L’Olympia. The legendary entertainer has dazzled audiences across the world. But there’s something truly magical about the Sydney Opera House, and the magic of his sold-out performances there has finally been captured on this new EMMANUEL-produced album. It features 16 tracks, four of which are medleys, including his famous “Beatles Medley” (a previous live version of this has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube).
“The moment and power in these hours spent playing music, is perfectly preserved here on this record,” says TOMMY. “I hope you can feel the intensity of our musical and spiritual relationship… a bond built on a life freely given to all.”
He played two spellbinding shows on the Concert Hall stage in May 2023, with the best of both performances represented here. The setlist showcases the most beloved songs of TOMMY’s career—classic compositions like “Tall Fiddler,” “Mombasa,” and “Country Wide,” recent fan favorites like “Fuel” and “Sail On,” his now iconic arrangement of “Classical Gas,” and his thrilling “Beatles Medley.”
“As a 15-year-old boy living in Circular Quay, I spent many a time walking past the Opera House,” he says. “I would daydream about what it must be like in there, what it would be like to perform there. After fifty years in the business, we finally got there!”
“Playing the shows for this recording was a dream come true for me,” TOMMY adds. “I felt so ready! I was surrounded by my team of brilliant people, and I was looking into the faces of so many loving and happy fans in the concert Hall. The momentum and power in these hours spent playing music, is perfectly captured and preserved here on this record. I hope you can feel the intensity of our musical and spiritual relationship…a bond built on a life freely given to all.”
A noted fingerstyle guitarist, EMMANUEL frequently threads three different parts simultaneously into his material, operating as a one-man band who handles the melody, the supporting chords and the bass all at once. You can hear his wizardry captured brilliantly on LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE.
Here’s the album’s track listing:
1.Countrywide
2.Fuel
3.The Jolly Swagman
4.Deep River Blues
-Doc’s Guitar
-Blue Smoke
-Cannonball Rag
5.Song for a Rainy Morning
6.Since We Met
7.Secret Love
8.Drums/Mombasa
9.Gdansk
-Tall Fiddler
10.Smokey Mountain Lullaby
11.Windy & Warm
12.Beatles Medley
-She’s A Women
-Please Please Me
-While My Guitar Gently Weeps
-Day Tripper
-Lady Madonna
13.Classical Gas
14.April Sun in Cuba
15.Sail On
16.American Tune
-Waltzing Matilda
Here are TOMMY’s North American tour dates for 2024-25. The full international list of dates is HERE.
2025
January 9 – Malibu, CA – Smother Theatre @ Lisa Smith Wengler Ctr for the Arts
January 10 – Menlo Park, CA – The Guild Theatre
January 11 – Grass Valley, CA – The Center for The Arts
January 12 – Red Bluff, CA – State Theatre for the Arts
March 25 – Thunder Bay, ON – Thunder Bay Community Auditorium
March 26 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
March 27 – Saskatoon, SK – TCU Place
March 28 – Regina, SK – Conexus Arts Centre
March 30 – Calgary, AB – The Jak Singer Concert Hall
March 31 – Edmonton, AB – Winspear Centre
April 1 – Kelowna, BC – Kelowna Community Theatre
April 2 – Vancouver, BC – The Centre for Performing Arts
April 4 – Victoria, BC – Royal Theatre
April 5 – Campbell River, BC – Tidemark Theatre
July 21 – Halifax, NS – Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
