Is Tommy Emmanuel The Greatest Acoustic Guitarist Ever?

A bold title and a bold claim, so I’ve decided to provide the evidence as if we were in a court of law. This will allow you to make up your own mind and either agree with me or disagree if my case isn’t strong enough.

So, let’s get started with the first piece of evidence by taking a closer look at Tommy Emmanuel’s early years and upbringing and comparing it to that of some of the contenders for the title of Best Acoustic Guitarist.

Table of Contents

Tommy Emmanuel Early Life

Tommy was born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia in 1955. His father was an engineer and brought an electric guitar home to find out how it worked. But a very young Tommy, and his elder brother Phil, were more interested in playing it than knowing how it worked and sneaked away with the guitar.

They had already been shown some chords by their mother, who could play acoustic guitar, and they learned the rest by copying what they heard on the radio. Tommy was 4 years old at the time.

The sibling rivalry between the two brothers pushed them to develop fun educational contests and challenges to test each other’s skills and they both became very proficient on the instrument in no time at all.

The Midget Surfaries

They then got their big brother Chris to play drums, and their sister Virginia to play lap steel, and The Emmanuel Quartet was born. However, the name was quickly changed to The Midget Surfaries, because everyone thought that a Quartet only played classical music. It was now time to enter a Battle of the Bands competition and they won, the prize was a chance to appear on Australian national TV.

The day of the performance came and they played a blistering version of ‘Apache’ by The Shadows. The show’s producer was so impressed that they told the children’s father that he should keep the momentum going and take them out on tour. This led to him selling the family house and taking them on their very first national tour, Tommy Emmanuel was an astonishing six years old at the time.

They toured continuously for many years from then on until the Australian Child Welfare Department ruled that they couldn’t continue due to their ages.

So my lord (court reference to stick with the theme)… to summarize, Tommy started playing at age 4, was performing on national TV playing a relatively complicated song (‘Apache’) at age 6, and then went off on a national tour and became a professional musician also at the age of 6.

Comparing Tommy Emmanuel to other Guitar Legends

When we compare this to other contenders for the Greatest Acoustic Guitarist ever crown such as Django Reinhardt who started playing at age 12, Adrian Legg at age 15, Michael Hedges at age 13, Leo Kottke at age 11, and Paco De Lucia (although a nylon-string flamenco, not strictly acoustic guitarist) who started playing at age 5, it is obvious that Tommy was years ahead of all of them apart from Paco.

If we now compare what age they first appeared on national TV, Django Reinhardt was before the mass adoption of television, Adrian Legg was in his twenties, Michael Hedges was in his late teens, Leo Kottke was 24, and Paco De Lucia was 14 when he appeared on ‘Escuela de Guitarra’, a year before he was on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. Therefore Tommy was by far the youngest, by a staggering 8 years.

As for a national tour, Django Reinhardt was in his late teens, Adrian Legg was 18, Michael Hedges was 27, Leo Kottke was 24, and Paco De Lucia was 14, so again Tommy wins categorically by 8 years, which was his lifetime plus a third at the time, from the nearest contender.

If you also add the friendly but fierce sibling rivalry he had with his older brother which, as I mentioned, led them to invent challenges and competitions to try and outdo each other, none of the contenders had a similar upbringing with a constant focus to be better than someone they saw every day of your childhood.

Tommy’s 20s and 30s

Next, let’s consider Tommy Emmanuel’s 20s and 30s and see how that compares to the other contenders.

By his twenties, Tommy was one of the most sought-after session musicians in Sydney. And by 30, he was a highly respected electric guitarist playing stadiums across Europe.

All the other contenders were concentrating on their acoustic guitar playing during these years of their career, but does that make them a better acoustic guitar player now? I would argue no, the fact that Tommy had not been a strictly acoustic player for the first 30 years of his life in my mind makes him a better one today.

He spent these years mastering the electric guitar and all its nuances which he has been able to translate to his acoustic playing when needed. He also mastered the stagecraft you can only learn from constantly playing in packed stadiums, something none of the other contenders experienced as they were perfecting their craft or even experienced later on in their careers on a regular basis.

The Acoustic Years

Now let’s move from his 30s all the way up to the present day, in the era I will call the Acoustic Years.

You are probably now asking yourself why did Tommy have this sudden change of direction. Well, he was looking for a more pure musical direction that was closer to his heart, so Tommy put his electric guitar back in its case, packed up his pedals, turned off the Marshall stacks, and went acoustic!

He wanted to move away from endlessly noodling countless notes and to concentrate on the ones that mattered, the ones that touch the heart. He spent time perfecting the dynamics as well as the spatial and sonic dimensions of arrangements and adapting them to something as basic as a single acoustic guitar.

This decision then took him on an epic one-man journey of no-stop tours, television appearances, countless awards, and recognition from the guitar community (both acoustic and electric) as well as from the millions of music lovers who attend his shows and buy his records.

Tommy Emmanuel Accolades

One of Tommy Emmanuel’s greatest accolades was given to him by his hero, Chet Atkins. This occurred at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in July 1999 when Chet bestowed Tommy with the highly coveted title of Certified Guitar Player (CGP). An honor that has only been awarded to four guitarists ever, and since Chet’s passing in 2001, will no longer be awarded.

This accolade led to the world taking even more notice of the talents of Tommy Emmanuele, with worldwide sold-out shows, multiple Grammy nominations, various Awards, and numerous wins in the “Best Acoustic Guitarist” polls of music magazines.

To wrap up my case, yes there are a number of guitarists who have a rightful claim on the revered title of the best acoustic guitarist ever, and some of them are better than Tommy at certain aspects of guitar playing. For example, there are technically more accomplished acoustic guitarists than Tommy, such as Adrain Legg or Michael Hedges, and there are more commercially successful acoustic guitarists, such as Paul Simon, Neil Young, or even Ed Sheeran. And there are probably more influential acoustic guitarists than Tommy, such as Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch, or even Doc Watson.

However, what I think makes Tommy Emmanuel the greatest acoustic guitarist ever is that he is amongst the very best in all the necessary disciplines – technique, performance, emotion, songwriting ability, influence, humor, modesty, and the way he adds a unique sense of joy to every note he plays. This makes him easily the number one across all the categories and therefore the Best Overall Acoustic Guitarist to have ever lived.

And I rest my case.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my unusual way of establishing a fact that I firmly believe, if you agree then leave a comment below, or if you think that there is another acoustic guitar player who is actually better than Tommy, then also please let us know below.