Month: February 2010

Photo: Brian Blauser

Experiencing a Tommy Emmanuel performance is one of those “You-shoulda-been-there” musical epiphanies. Emmanuel strides onstage with his acoustic guitar, displaying a self-assured countenance under his widow’s peak, and proceeds to mesmerize.

The Australian is also one of the privileged few pickers who recorded a duo album with the legendary Chet Atkins; their 1997 Columbia release, The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World, was nominated for a Grammy. Being an Atkins protegé is just one of the many facets of Emmanuel’s decades-long career, and when VG caught up with him, he was in the middle of a tour, anxious to talk about the release of his first true solo album, Only, on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label.

Vintage Guitar: Your earliest musical efforts involved playing in a family band.
Tommy Emmanuel: The first music I remember listening to would have been Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow, and some traditional Australian country singers. The Shadows were big, we listened to them, the Ventures, Duane Eddy, and some traditional Hawaiian music, as well. Merle Travis and Joe Maphis were high on our list, but it was hard to get that kind of music in Australia. My brothers, sisters, and mom and dad and I were all music nuts; we loved to play and learn.

I heard Chet when I was seven years old, and that kind of changed the course of my whole life. I was happy being the rhythm player in a band – my brother played lead – and when I heard that sound, it blew my mind. I could hear what was going on; I just didn’t know how to do it. But I kept at it, and eventually worked it out. Chet was not only an influence, he was a person who set a standard for you to look up to – in playing, sound, recording, quality of melody.

Did hearing Chet make you want to play more acoustic, even at that age?
Well, I wasn’t really aware of much difference; it was just guitar! It was a little later in life that I got into acoustic, but I’ve played electric all the time, and I still play electric a bit, but not much on tour.

I’ve still got my first electric guitar, an Australian-made instrument called a Maton, and I still play Maton acoustics on the road. I’m not an endorser, but I play their guitars, and they sound great. I’m a big fan of Martins, Gibsons, and Larivees, but at the moment I can’t travel with many of my guitars – I do have some wonderful Taylors, too – but I’m on tour all the time, and I take Matons out with me. You can play cricket with ’em (laughs)! They hold up very well.

Who played what in your family band?
My oldest brother, Chris, was on drums, my sister, Virginia, played Hawaiian steel guitar, my brother, Phil, was on lead, and I played rhythm and bass. I wasn’t so aware of bass guitar; I was kind of playing bass and rhythm at the same time. We formed the band in 1960, and it wasn’t until a couple of years down the road when we were playing a show with a bunch of other bands that I saw something onstage in the band that came on after us, and I asked my brother, “What’s that other guitar up there?,” and he said, “I don’t know; it’s only got four strings!” That was the first time I’d really noticed what a bass guitar was.

Emmanuel poses with his mentor, Chet Atkins, in 1997, the year their collaboration album, The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World, was released.

You established yourself in Australian sessions before you achieved international acclaim.
Between 1975 and 1990, I played on an enormous amount of records and film soundtracks; people like Air Supply, Roberta Flack, and a lot of Australian bands. I was was offered the soundtrack to the Crocodile Dundee film – the first one – but I turned it down because I didn’t think it would get off the ground. In hindsight, what a fool I was (chuckles).
Is it fair to say you established yourself in most of the world’s markets, and the U.S. is the last “frontier?”
I think America, England, and Germany are the new frontiers for me, because I’ve done a lot in Australia and Asia, and things are building well.

I’m really just getting going (in the U.S.); it takes time, and you have to keep coming back. I think getting the Only album out on Favored Nations is gonna take things up to a new level.

Describe how you eventually met and began your musical association with Chet Atkins.
I had been writing to Chet since my dad died. As I said, I just about lived inside (Chet’s) albums; that was my whole world. As I found out once I got to know him well, he would listen to people from around the world, and would want to know what they were doing. People who were from Australia that went to the States would take him my tapes. He was fascinated by his influence on people so far away.

In 1980, I finally got to make the trip to Nashville; we met in person and played. We had a great time. By ’88, I’d had enough of playing on everybody else’s albums, and I started my solo career. I got a tour with John Denver in ’88 that kind of “launched” me into the public. The musicians knew me, but when the public discovered what I did, it appealed to them. I’m always out there playing for the people, anyway, and I think that’s another reason I got so much studio work – because I didn’t approach a session like a studio player; I approached it like a real performance; what was right for the track.

Was James Burton the guitarist for Denver at the time?
Yeah, and that’s somebody else who taught us so much. All those old Ricky Nelson and Elvis records; we all bought them and learned from them. Jerry Scheff was with John Denver then, too. I saw them, along with Glen Hardin and Ronnie Tutt – the “Elvis” tour – boy, did they play great!

The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World

Was The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World the first time you’d recorded with Atkins?
No, the first thing we recorded together was in ’93, on my album The Journey; a track called “Villa Anita.” From that time on, we started to get close, like family. Every time I came to Nashville, he’d invite me up to his house, and I ended up staying because he had kind of a “granny flat” on the side. I’d get up early in the morning, come up to the kitchen and sit with him and (Atkins’ wife) Leona, and we’d start playing.

Details about The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World?
We both wrote for the album, and wanted to do “Waltzing Matilda,” the famous Australian song. I wrote a song on there called “Mr. Guitar,” which is dedicated to him, and another original of mine on there is “Dixie McGuire.” We did an arrangement of a tune called “Borsolino,” which is from an Italian movie. We sing together on “The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World,” and there are a couple of comedy songs; “Mel Bay” is kind of a spoof about how we’re two guys who bought Mel Bay’s books.

Other exciting times with other notable players besides Chet?
I was the opening act for Eric Clapton on an Australian tour, and he was very nice to me. I’ve toured with Tina Turner and Michael Bolton.

Has any of your live material ever been released on CD?
I’m sure there are live albums all over the world, but there’s no label on them (laughs)!

How many Chet Atkins Appreciation Society conventions have you attended?
Every one since 1996.

One of your more exciting numbers, as performed at that organization’s closing concert in 1997, is “Initiation,” which you announced was inspired by an Aboriginal ritual. The song included use echo and percussion effects you play on the guitar body. Tell us about how you set things up for that song.
The song is a piece of musical drama; it’s supposed to be telling the story of the ritual where a boy proves himself to be a man. It takes time, and he has to go through all sorts of tests; they circumcise him with a rock, cut him, burn him, and leave him out where he has to survive. I try to create an atmosphere using the body of the guitar, and I try to create sound effects that add to the storyline.

I use extreme EQ on it; exagerrated midrange and bottom-end. That’s the way you get those sounds, but if you bang on (the guitar) too hard, you’ll break speakers, so I have to be real careful at the same time. I use digital delay, and the sound man at the front puts some long reverb on it; about four seconds. And I crank everything up until it’s almost in the red. While that’s going on with all of those noises that are supposed sound like wind, rain, thunder, and animal sounds.

The band, 1963. Left to right, Tommy, Phil, Virginia, Chris Emmanuel.

I’ve got this groove going, kind of like a pulse. The way I play the melody with the digital delay, it sounds like there’s at least two things going on at the same time. In fact, people are always looking around to see who else is playing! Or they’re at least looking around for a lot more equipment, and there isn’t any.

Is “Initiation” your standout concert piece?
Yeah, but I play a lot of different styles. I play flatpick style as well as thumb- and fingerstyle. I play blues, jazz and country, but I’m a melody player; that’s my main criteria. I try to make people feel good when I play; I’m in the happiness business!

“Initiation” isn’t the only song where you hit your guitar with your hands to evoke a percussion effect. Has your style ever been compared to Michael Hedges or Preston Reed?
I think it’s totally different. I don’t know whether people compare me to those guys or not, but occasionally people will say, “Do you listen to a lot of Michael Hedges?,” and the truth is, I didn’t. But I really liked what he did. In fact, when we were making Only, we played a lot of Michael Hedges’ albums in the control room before we started working. He had a beautiful tone.

How did you earn the coveted “Certified Guitar Player” (C.G.P.) designation?
That had to come from Chet, and it was a total surprise to me when he gave me the award, which says “For A Lifetime Contribution to the Art of Finger-Style Guitar.”

It’s his way of recognizing someone who has taken what he’s done and has done something different. But I’ve also taught all over the world, and I continue to do that; I’m like an ambassador for him for that style. I try to pass it on to others.

Only is all original material, but do you have any favorite covers, besides “Waltzing Matilda?”
I really enjoy Beatles songs, but I choose carefully what I want to play. Everything has to work; the arrangement has to work and the melody has to be strong.

Why was Only recorded in Germany?
A friend of mine has a great studio there. My wife and daughters and I had moved from Australia to England, and I didn’t want to go all the way back to Austraila to record. At the time, my youngest daughter was having some health problems, so I didn’t want to be far away. She’s fine now.

Did you write specifically for that album, especially since it was your first true solo album?
There were some songs I’d written a few years ago that I reworked, and I started writing the rest of them on the road. I didn’t write specifically for that project, but once I got my freedom from another label, I wanted to make a solo acoustic album because a lot of people told me they wanted to hear me play on my own.

One could infer that “Train to Dusseldorf” might have been written specifically for Only.
That was written about two weeks before we recorded, but my only criteria was to try and write the best songs I can.

How long did it take to record the album?
Two afternoons. Everything was one take, except for track number five, “Questions.” I did a take of it the first evening, came back and listened to it the next morning, and said “Nah, I can do it better; I can get a better feel on it,” so I did it again. But everything else, I just played once.

“Biskie” is about a minute and half long, and the last 10 seconds have about a zillion notes.
(Laughs) I wrote it, then I did have to practice it. It’s the name of the daughter of a friend of mine named Will Harmon who lives in Knoxville. She’s been to a lot of my shows; she’s really sweet. She became a fan, so I wrote her a song!

You played at the closing ceremonies for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. How did it feel to be performing for a television audience estimated at 2.75 billion?
Well, NBC went to a commercial break (chuckles)… But it was very exciting. My brother and I rehearsed for about a week; we did a John Jorgenson song called “Back on Terra Firma.” There were 150,000 people in the stadium; 30,000 people on the ground there. That was just the live gig not counting the television feed, so plenty of people heard it.

After a long career, you’ve finally gotten a true solo album out. Are you satisfied with the way Only turned out?
Well, at the time, I did the best I could in the short time I had, and I think the strength of the songwriting and performance is there. I can play the songs a lot better now – I’ve “polished” them – plus I’ve written a lot of new songs, so my next album will be solo acoustic, as well. Hopefully, the next album will be out around April.

The fact it only took Tommy Emmanuel two afternoons to record Only, plus the fact that all but one track on the album were first takes underlines the level of his abilities. There are still musicians who can be entertainers without videos and other visual aids, and Emmanuel exemplifies the same dedication as his mentor, Chet Atkins.

Photo courtesy of Yep Roc Records.

After two decades of constant touring, Jim Heath decided it was time to go home. Guitarists who put out half the energy he expends in concert usually burn out much sooner. Heath, a.k.a. Reverend Horton Heat, stayed home in the Deep Ellum district of downtown Dallas, Texas, to be with his family while he decompressed, opting to record the next album just down the block at Last Beat Studio.

“We travel to play music, and I’m gone so much,” says Heath. “To leave my hometown to have to go sit somewhere to do a recording, that’s just very hard for me to do. I’m away from my family enough as it is.”

Recorded in 10 days, Revival is loaded with RHH’s trademark energy, excitement, fun, and high-octane guitar picking.

Vintage Guitar: Talk about those ascending crosspicking licks on Revival’s title track.
Rev. Horton Heat: I like to try to emulate Merle Travis and Chet Atkins licks. I can’t play much of that Chet Atkins stuff, but I’ve got some concepts from him going lately. The crosspicking thing is something a lot of the country guys who fingerpick while they’re holding a flatpick do.

For the lick in “Revival,” you hold a three-note chord, hit a note with the flatpick, then pull up with your finger to hit that middle note, come back over the top of the middle string and hit the high string with your flatpick, come back up with your finger, then down with your flatpick. It’s a lick you don’t have to do that way, but it makes it very easy to flow in and out of playing straight chords and other fingerpicking patterns. I can get those fast, banjo-style 16th notes through the crosspicking.

One of the great curveballs you throw on this album is “New York City Girls.” What led you to that sound?
That one has some jazzy twists and turns. When we finished our last album, one of the things I got into was Django Rheinhardt. A lot of those are just three note chords, but they sound so fat. “New York Girls” has a Django-style rhythm part to it, kind of mixed in with a little surf riff. It uses minor 6ths, and I’ve been doing that for my whole career.

You have a lot of different guitar sounds and textures on this album. Was it a long equipment list?
Not really. We were trying to get this done as quickly as possible, so my goal was to get one good guitar sound and not change. But that was hard to do because my amps kept going out and we had to switch them out with ones that worked. But our amp repair guy lives a block from the studio, so it worked out. I had guitar trouble, too. My Gretsch 6120W actually got a problem in the middle of the session and I had to switch to the Gretsch White Falcon for a couple things. I used my ’54 Gibson ES-175 a little, too.

Are you a collector?
I have several pretty cool guitars and amps, but I’m not a big collector. I have a ’57 Gretsch Streamliner that looks brand new, which I got from Billy Gibbons. I’ve also got an early-’60s Gretsch Sparkle Jet that’s in excellent condition, and a New American Standard Tele I like a lot.

The ’54 Gibson used to be your main axe. What led you from that to the Gretsch?
I used to use vintage guitars. I’ve got an old Guild Duane Eddy, and the Gibson was about the only one I was using for a long time. But I was having a lot of trouble with it on one tour, and I had all my tour money in my pocket, so rather than re-fixing the Gibson I decided to buy another guitar. I saw the Gretsch 6120W, and it had the hollow body and the Bigsby. The Gretsch can do the jazz thing really well on the neck pickup, but the other pickup can do rock and roll. I can also get a little Telecaster sound that I really couldn’t get out of the Gibson. And it had that vintage tone. Nothing’s like a vintage guitar, but those are all different, too. The Gretsch just worked. We’re a road band. I don’t have time to be fixing all this fancy vintage stuff.

Any chance you’d give away the secrets of your setup?
Sure, I don’t mind. From the guitar I go to an Ernie Ball volume pedal. That’s fun because I can get steel guitar-like swells and a little simulation of an amp vibrato with it. I also have the switch for my echo there. Next it goes to a Boss tuner, then to one input of a Chandler digital delay. I rarely change the settings on that. It always does a simulation of a ’50s-style slapback echo. Can’t be a rockabilly cat without my slapback, y’ know? From the Chandler’s right output it goes to the silverface Fender Super Reverb that’s turned all the way up.

From the other side of the Chandler a line goes to stomp boxes. There’s a Boss analog delay that I rarely use except to make crazy sounds, for when I break a string or when I’m just feeling like an idiot and want to screw around. Then there’s a Boss Blues Driver that’s always on, and then it goes into a blackface Fender Twin. When I record, I can just pan those a little bit side to side and it’s a great big sound.

I get a distorted signal through the Twin because of the Boss Blues Driver, which I can turn up a bit to get just a little extra dirt. In certain rooms that are really small but dry, I can’t turn the Super up to 10, but I can turn up the Blues Driver and still get the dirt. I don’t usually turn the Twin up very loud, because that isn’t really the bulk of my sound. My sound really comes blaring out of that Super Reverb. It doesn’t have any distortion of its own, but I get distortion by turning it all the way up, and by the way I play. If I grind out a little extra, it almost sounds like heavy metal, but if I play a little bit cleaner it sounds like a country thing. It’s hard to get that kind of sound from any distortion device, so I prefer to go that route for most of my sound.

Recently you’ve been playing live with baffles in front of your amps. What’s the reason for that?
People come up and say, “Turn it down a little bit!” But if I’m getting a good sound and my amp is on 9, and I turn it down to 8, it changes the whole tone structure. The baffles let me keep it on 9 and keeps my amps from bleeding too much into my vocal mic. We try to help the people right up front hear the whole band, like the rest of the house can, because those people up front are our best fans.

Casher with actress Brooke Shields at a soundtrack recording session.

He’s called “The Papa of the Wah-Wah Pedal” and has been a top session cat since the early 1960s, introducing the Ecco-Fonic and wah pedal to film scores. He’s also an unsung hero of the recording industry whose love of technology made him the perfect candidate to usher in a whole new era of sounds and guitar effects that still resonates today.

Vintage Guitar: Do you see yourself sort of as the bridge between the old-guard session guys and the younger guys who could add a rock sound.
Del Casher: Absolutely. I came from the school of having to learn my harmony, my chops, my chord progressions and learning how to write what I had played. I saw this revolution happening. The older guys from the big-band era, were different. When they tried to play a rock date, the flair just wasn’t there because they hadn’t grown up with it. I grew up hearing Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. I was playing tunes that had 30 chords, so it was easy for me to look at a chart.

I played a lot of record dates for Motown, and they were fun – you could really show your stuff. I wasn’t part of The Wrecking Crew, but I was certainly being called in along with them.

How did you hook up with Elvis?
I got a call from the music director at Paramount Pictures. He said he wanted me to do a film with Elvis, called Roustabout. He said, “You’ll have to be on the set with Elvis, because they’re going to need somebody to appear in the scene.” Well, the first thing Colonel Tom Parker said on the set was, “Nobody talks to Elvis!” On the fourth day, we broke for lunch and I started practicing. Elvis was sitting in the director’s chair, staring at me. So I start rippin’. Five minutes later, he walks up very humbly and says, “I’d give anything if I could play guitar like that.” He was so nice.

That afternoon, I was back onstage, and the other musicians were in a closeup shot with Elvis. I’m staring at the ceiling while we’re filming, and Elvis suddenly ran over to me and said, “You’re in the movie! I want you to be with me!” Then he ran to the cameraman to make sure he wasn’t blocking me out. He blocked the scene in such a way that the spotlight would be on him and myself.

What have you been up to lately?
I’m recording several new projects called “The Americana Suite” with an orchestra. I’m doing tours and a bunch of personal appearances demonstrating some of my vintage guitars I’ve used over the years. I have a pending television show where I guest host. I’m still playing the guitar all the time and perform at every opportunity. I play to my audience; at the Viva Las Vegas Festival, it was rockabilly, which I love. So I played “Guitar Boogie” and “Freight Train,” which is sort of a country tune, but I take the guitar playing all over the world and play in a bunch of different styles. I play “Twelfth Street Rag” which is a fast tune. Some of these are things I’d done with The Three Suns back in the early ’60s, and the audience loved it because it’s retro. I played The Coffee Gallery in Altadena and the audience is a lot different. They want to hear some of my classical works. I play “Guitar On Fire” which is an original guitar flamenco work. I play several jazz works… a lot of Jerome Kern. My latest album is called Magic Guitar.

What kind of gear are you using these days?
The guitar I have for my jazz stuff is the R.C. Allen, which is sort of a copy of my Stromberg, which I don’t like to go out and play. I’m also representing Sunlite guitars, which are very much like Fenders. Of course, I still use my Gretsch Duo-Jet, and I still have my Strat. I have a collection of 60 or 70 that I’ve kept and always enjoyed playing.

For amps, I use one of my vintage Fender Deluxe Reverbs. I also have a tweed Fender Bandmaster, and an amp made by a friend named Russell Alee. It’s called Amp. I still have my Ecco-Fonic units working. If I’m doing a show where it’s really a truly vintage show, I’ll bring a vintage amp, a vintage Ecco-Fonic and a vintage guitar. I want to let them know that those guitars are still working and also I’m still working [laughs]!