“I LISTENED TO MYSELF ON A RECORD, AND I WAS KIND OF CRUSHED. I WAS TRYING TO SHOW OFF TOO MUCH”
I LEARN SO much from other players,” says acoustic guitarist extraordinaire Tommy Emmanuel. Emphasizing that point, he lets us in on a little secret: “I even steal from them.” He laughs. “No, really, it’s what we do, all of us. You have to have your antenna up all the time. If I spend a few minutes with people like Jeff Pearson or Steve Vai, they’ll do things that just knock me out. Before you know it, I’m playing the same licks, but I make them mine. And that’s okay. It’s part of the musical dialog we have as musicians.”
Although he’s (CGP Sounds), a duet with British acoustic virtuoso Mike Dawes, he tackles songs such as Sting’s “Fields of Gold,” John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” and Nirvana’s iconic alternative rock smash, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
