Review: 'Tommy Emmanuel Endless Road 20th Anniversary Edition'

Review: ‘Tommy Emmanuel Endless Road 20th Anniversary Edition’

By Martine Ehrenclou

The Grammy Award-winning acoustic guitarist, songwriter, composer and global touring artist, Tommy Emmanuel, is a master of the acoustic guitar. But not in the way you might think if you’ve never heard his music before. If you’re thinking this is classical guitar at its best, you’d be wrong.

Tommy Emmanuel is a rock star.

A virtuosic acoustic guitar player, Emmanuel is also highly skilled at crafting melody and songs. He throws his soul and spirit into his music, infusing it with humor, and masterful storytelling. And he has lots to draw from. He began his career at the age of six, when he toured regional Australia with his family band. By age 30, he was a rock n’ roll lead guitarist burning up stadiums in Europe. Today, he plays hundreds of sold-out shows every year from Nashville to Sydney to London. He’s piled up numerous accolades, including a Grammy Award win, two Grammy Award nominations, two ARIA Awards from the Australian Recording Industry Association (the Aussie equivalent of the Recording Academy) and at 44, he became one of five people ever named a CPG (Certified Guitar Player) by his idol, music icon Chet Atkins.

In case you aren’t aware, Emmanuel is a noted fingerstyle guitarist who 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. Add to that his modern style, sense of fun and joy that come through his music, and you’ll understand what grips audiences the world over.

The newly remastered classic album Tommy Emmanuel: 20th Anniversary Edition isn’t just worth diving into because it’s remastered, or because it has three new live performances on the 22-song set or because it’s now out on vinyl for the first time. It’s an expansive album that gives you a deep dive into Tommy’s live show favorites, his fans’ favorites too. And the choices here are deeply moving pieces of beautiful music.

Unlike Emmanuel’s recent releases such as Accomplice One and Accomplice Two which featured collaborations with noted artists who also sing, this 20th Anniversary Edition kicks off with “Endless Road,” an upbeat and stunning instrumental with a cross between dazzling fingerpicking and strumming. The melody here is beautiful, as so many Emmanuel originals are.

Tommy’s songs are often like short stories. Imagine this one as a collection of them—all different, all unique and all with their own main character and emotional journey.

Other standouts on Tommy Emmanuel The 20th Anniversary Edition include “Tall Fiddler” which won Instrumental of the Year at the 2005 Country Music Awards of Australia. More gems include “Bella Soave” and “Angelina” written for his daughter, the cover “Windy & Warm” (John D. Loudermilk), and the angelic “Morning Aire.” There are more of course, but it’s almost impossible to pick out additional favorites when this album features so many.

Tommy regards Endless Road as a “wonderful album in my life and in my career. It has a lot of songs that I get asked to play, like ‘The Endless Road,’ ‘Angelina,’ ‘(The Man With The) Green Thumb,’ and ‘Mona Lisa.’” He adds that these songs “are dear to my heart and dear to my fans and friends out there.”

And that’s true. You’ll find so many of these in Emmanuel’s live shows. If there is ever an artist you must see live, it is Tommy Emmanuel.

Watch Tommy Emmanuel Trailer