Tommy Emmanuel - My Favorite Funky Guitar Player

Tommy Emmanuel is an amazing talent.

The first time I saw him was on a PBS special and I was mesmerized. My son and I watched with mouths wide open amazed at his energy and amazing innovation on the 6 string. A household name in his native Australia, Tommy is now gaining fame across the globe. His website details a new double live album that was released at the end of April. He was also voted "BEST ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYER FOR 2008" by readers of Guitar Player Magazine.

I like his stuff so much that I may give you a few snippets this week. It's part of our duty to musical education here on Paul's World of Funky Stuff. We'll start with Tommy playing "Angelina" recorded on KBS1 in Korea prior to a live show there. He wrote the song for his newborn daughter and you can hear here name "spoken" in his guitar playing.

Then, below, check out Tommy playing a classic tune called "Borsalino" on the PBS special from Sierra Center Stage. He does some really cool things during this two and a half minutes. Pay close attention.