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EXPLAINED: Tommy emmanuel - The Real Truth

“I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play”: Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival announces 2026 lineup

Now in its seventh edition, the festival is set to take place in Austin, Texas – and features Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, and John Mayer, while Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage and Pete Townshend are all making their Crossroads debut

Guitar World

“They’ve raised the bar, stretched the boundaries and won the ears and hearts of the young generation”: Tommy Emmanuel names the emerging players who are flying the flag for a new era of Americana and bluegrass

Asked for his guitarist of the year, the Aussie maestro replied with the names of four players who are lifting us all out of our "comfort zones"

Guitar World

“Words fail me in describing his impact on music”: Steve Cropper, 1941-2025 – the guitar world pays tribute

The influential soul guitar legend has passed away at the age of 84, with Joe Bonamassa, Tyler Bryant, Dave Mason, Mick Fleetwood and more sharing tributes

Guitar World

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“He said, ‘You think I’m old. Don’t you ever hold back onstage again”: Tommy Emmanuel on the time Les Paul baited him into bringing his A-game to a jam

The Aussie acoustic guitar maestro found out the hard way that Les Paul had a wicked sense of humor

Guitar World

“Every time you put the capo on wrong, you pull the guitar out of tune”: Do you put your capo on ‘incorrectly’? Tommy Emmanuel says this is the correct way to do it - and it could save your tuning

Do it the wrong way and your tuning will suffer, Emmanuel warns

Guitar World

“There’s so much tasty guitar playing that’s also pretty achievable for a lot of people as well. I think it should be in everyone’s repertoire”: Mike Dawes on the one John Mayer hit that every guitarist should learn

Dawes recalls his John Mayer cover of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room that went mega viral – and what he'd tell Mayer if he had the chance to meet him

Guitar World

“I hate guitar jams because they usually get competitive. You have to breathe, be true to yourself and think, ‘This has to be music’”: Folk icon Richard Thompson on tuning revelations, keeping his chops up, and why you won't find him in a guitar jam

We meet Thompson to find out how he’s preparing to go head-to-head with Tommy Emmanuel, chat about the end of his touring days, and talk about how fresh tunings yield fresh ideas

Guitar World

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“She gets on the intercom and says, ‘There's a boy from Australia here to see you.’ I hear him say, ‘Is he a fingerpicker?’” Tommy Emmanuel knocked on the door of his biggest guitar hero – and ended up jamming with him

The acoustic virtuoso took a pilgrimage to Nashville and swung by the house of his hero, and came away having learned a lesson he still holds close to this day

Guitar World

“It’s really weird, being a teacher at Berklee College of Music: 400 students asking questions – I’m the instructor, and I’m the only one there who can’t read”: How Tommy Emmanuel deals with his lack of music theory – and when it lets him down

Guitarists regularly debate whether theory is a must-have or should have, and the renowned acoustic guitarist and Berklee tutor has revealed his own experiences on the matter

Guitar World

“It’s really weird: 400 students asking questions, and I’m the only person there - and I’m the instructor - who can’t read music”: Acoustic guitar hero Tommy Emmanuel plays The Beatles and Oasis as he discusses the glaring gap in his musical knowledge

“I can read a chord chart and follow the chords, but I can’t read notes,” he explains

MusicRadar

“Eric’s standing there drinking an orange juice. He looks at me and says, ‘Been doing this a while, have you?’” When Eric Clapton saw an up-and-coming Tommy Emmanuel play for the first time

When Emmanuel was still establishing himself as an artist, he supported Eric Clapton on the Australian leg of his 1990 Journeyman tour

Guitar World

“Being a guitar player is a way of life. Everything comes down to commitment": Tommy Emmanuel explains the difference between being a guitarist and a guitar player

The Australian fingerpicking legends reflects on a life of guitar and what made Chet Atkins so great

Guitar World

“In that last year of his life, I said to him one night, ‘Les, I don't know, but I swear, you're playing better than you were last year’”: Tommy Emmanuel recalls his final moments with guitar legend Les Paul

The acoustic great pays homage to Les Paul's dedication to leveling up his playing, even when he was well into his 90s

Guitar World

“Be intentional about where you’re picking. Moving from the bridge to the fingerboard is as dramatic as switching pickup positions on an electric”: 21 ways to get more from your acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitars are arguably simpler than electrics, but there’s still a wealth ofdetails involved in playing like a pro…

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“I’m always true to the melody but I try to do something unique with it. That makes it sound like me, even if it’s a Paul McCartney or John Lennon song”: Tommy Emmanuel on the art of arrangement, performance and why there’s no shortcut to virtuosity

Tommy Emmanuel does things with the acoustic guitar that defy belief. He does things with pop-culture's canon that blow our mind. Here he walks through his approach, sharing wisdom as he goes

Guitar World

“There is a legitimate straight line from me being intimidated by John Petrucci to picking up the acoustic guitar”: Mike Dawes names 10 guitarists who shaped his sound

One of today’s foremost acoustic virtuosos names the players who inspired his awe-inspiring percussive style and changed the game – and offers his pick for “the most criminally underrated name in guitar”

Guitar World

“When I heard the Rolling Stones, they sounded like a bad high school band to me. I didn't get it”: Tommy Emmanuel explains how a love of Chet Atkins meant he initially struggled to understand The Rolling Stones and Beatles hype

Emmanuel now “loves” both bands, but back in the day it took him “a long time to appreciate them”

MusicRadar

“I’ll see you there!”: George Benson announces 4-day “musical extravaganza” Breezin' With The Stars, with gigs and workshops featuring Tommy Emmanuel, Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather and more

Hosted in Phoeniz, AZ, in partnership with Ibanez, Benson's Breezin' With The Stars features concerts, signing sessions, stories from the stars, and Rick Beato as master of ceremonies

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Guitar World

“All arrangements have phrases where you encounter string squeak. You’ve got to practice a lot more. You’ve got to play that thing a thousand times. There are no shortcuts or easy ways. There’s only getting it right”: TommyEmmanuel on acoustic perfection

From honing your creativity to eradicating erroneous string noise, the acoustic maestro explains how to set the bar high for yourselfinthestudio and on stage

Guitar World

“I flirted with a more professional-looking ’board on the Periphery tour… but went back to the cracked, Velcro-covered piece of plywood I made with my dad”: It may not be flashy, but Mike Dawes’ acoustic rig is truly mind-bending

A new album, a collaboration with Periphery and a touring schedule that would make many artists weep are all in a day’s work for Mike Dawes, one of the world’s foremost percussive guitar specialists

Guitar World

“When I struggle with live sound, I think, ‘Oh God, I can play so much better when I’m just in a room and I can hear myself…’ But that’s when I dig in and try harder”: Tommy Emmanuel and Molly Tuttle give a tone, technique and touring masterclass

It’s not often that you find two of the world’s greatest acoustic players on tour together, and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to invite them for an interview and video masterclass…

Guitar World

“It’s a beautiful floating technique”: Watch Molly Tuttle and Tommy Emmanuel share the secrets of their right-hand technique and banjo-inspired rhythms in this acoustic guitar video masterclass

Two of the world's greatest acoustic guitar players talk shop, jam together, and tell us how open strings can be our best friend when playing improvised bluegrass

The Guardian - UK

Molly Tuttle review – galloping bluegrass as fun as a campfire jam

The US singer-songwriter is a virtuoso guitarist – with a galvanising charm that electrifies her audience

Guitar World

Your acoustic blues playing will come on leaps and bounds with new fingerpicking patterns – here are 10 you need to know

Ditch the pick and dive into these fingerpicking style guitar lessons on some of blues guitar's finest fingerstylists, including Eric Bibb, Rory Gallagher and Leo Kottke

Guitar World

Johnny Cash’s 1930s Martin makes a comeback – and so does Napster-era crunch: This week's essential guitar tracks

You just gotta hear these new songs from Sophie Lloyd, The String Revolution ft. Tommy Emmanuel, Crypta, Graveyard, The Linda Lindas, Wilco, Nervosa and so very many more

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