Tommy Emmanuel, CGP

Guitar icon Tommy Emmanuel C.G.P. 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 is something truly magical about the Sydney Opera House, and the magic of Tommy’s performances there has finally been capture on his new album Live at the Sydney Opera House.

“The moment and power in these hours spent playing music, is perfectly preserved here on this record.” Tommy says. “I hope you can feel the intensity of our musical and spiritual relationship… a bond built on a life freely given to all.”

Tommy performed 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” and his now iconic arrangement of “Classical Gas” and his thrilling “Beatles Medley.”

Tommy has a Grammy Award, multiple ARIA Awards and countless accolades, but nothing means more to Tommy than the three letters Chet Atkins designated at the end of Tommy’s name: C.G.P. The title of Certified Guitar Player was the highest honor Atkins could bestow on another player – a signifier that the recipient had not only mastered the instrument but taken it to new vistas and become a guiding light for the next generation of pickers. Like Tommy, Chet had never gone to a university, and the C.G.P. was his version of a PHD or a Doctorate of the guitar. He gave the honor to Tommy and only five other handpicked players.

As a songwriter and a performer, Tommy is a melting pot of influences across genres, from pop to bluegrass and jazz to rock n’ roll. To him, music is rhythm and emotion, all other distinctions are meaningless. Anyone who has seen Tommy play will tell you, the vocalist is there, as is the drummer, the bass player and the rhythm and lead guitarists. In a way that must often be seen to be believed, Tommy plays all the parts of a full band simultaneously, his fingers dancing around the fretboard with a dexterity and speed that would seem impossible if you weren’t witnessing it.

Tommy’s determination to entertain and move audiences through the power of music remains undimmed as he closes in on his seventh decade as a performer. He can turn a jazz café into a cathedral or a radio station performance into the Ryman. But there is still something that a truly iconic venue like the Sydney Opera House – a mecca for music; that brings out the best in him. To have witnessed the pin drop silent audience hanging on every note of “Sail On,” the propulsive rhythm of “Classical Gas,” the impossible bluegrass speed-picking on “Tall Fiddler” and the delicate wringing of melody out of Paul Simon’s immortal “American Tune,” is to experience the communion of music at its most pure. That is Tommy Emmanuel, Live at the Sydney Opera House.