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Coinciding with springtime, TOMMY EMMANUEL has today (March 21) released the single and video “Windy and Warm” from his album LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (C.G.P. Sounds), which also has been issued today. Watch the live performance video of the evocative instrumental track, beautifully filmed by Bondi Rocks Media at the Sydney Opera House in his native Australia, HERE. Stream the album HERE.
TOMMY EMMANUEL is an acoustic guitarist extraordinaire, composer, global touring artist, and Grammy® Award winner. He’s also one of five people ever to be named a C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player) by Chet Atkins, the great innovator, songwriter, producer, record company executive, and visionary.
“‘Windy & Warm’ was the first song I heard by Chet Atkins, and the very first song I learned in thumb and fingerstyle,” says TOMMY. “It was the song that everybody wanted to play but had so much trouble trying to play it. It’s a timeless classic with elements of blues, jazz, and country fused together into an irresistible cocktail of groove!
“With this recording at The Sydney Opera House, I decided to recut this classic song in a much more traditional style, because I messed with it before making it funky and jazzier, so I took it back home! John D. Loudermilk wrote this song especially for Chet to record.”
Also, look for the film LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE streaming exclusively on TOMMY’s website. This film features performance highlights from his sold-out residency at the Sydney Opera House plus a visit to the Maton Guitar Factory, a cruise on Sydney Harbor, and much more. Watch it HERE.
Meanwhile, watch the album’s live performance videos for the first three singles including “The Jolly Swagman,” “Gdansk/Tall Fiddler,” and “Secret Love.”
EMMANUEL is no stranger to iconic stages from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to London’s Royal Festival Hall and Paris’ L’Olympia. The legendary entertainer has dazzled audiences across the world. But there’s something truly magical about the Sydney Opera House, and the magic of his sold-out performances there has finally been captured on this new EMMANUEL-produced album. It features 16 tracks, four of which are medleys, including his famous “Beatles Medley” (a previous live version of this has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube).
“The moment and power in these hours spent playing music, is perfectly preserved here on this record,” says TOMMY. “I hope you can feel the intensity of our musical and spiritual relationship… a bond built on a life freely given to all.”
He played two spellbinding shows on the Concert Hall stage in May 2023, with the best of both performances represented here. The setlist showcases the most beloved songs of TOMMY’s career—classic compositions like “Tall Fiddler,” “Mombasa,” and “Country Wide,” recent fan favorites like “Fuel” and “Sail On,” his now iconic arrangement of “Classical Gas,” and his thrilling “Beatles Medley.”
“As a 15-year-old boy living in Circular Quay, I spent many a time walking past the Opera House,” he says. “I would daydream about what it must be like in there, what it would be like to perform there. After fifty years in the business, we finally got there!”
“Playing the shows for this recording was a dream come true for me,” TOMMY adds. “I felt so ready! I was surrounded by my team of brilliant people, and I was looking into the faces of so many loving and happy fans in the concert Hall. The momentum and power in these hours spent playing music, is perfectly captured and preserved here on this record. I hope you can feel the intensity of our musical and spiritual relationship…a bond built on a life freely given to all.”
A noted fingerstyle guitarist, EMMANUEL 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. You can hear his wizardry captured brilliantly on LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE.
Here’s the album’s track listing:
Here are TOMMY’s North American tour dates for 2025. The full international list of shows is HERE.
March 21 – Nashville, TN – Grand Ole Opry March 25 – Thunder Bay, ON – Thunder Bay Community Auditorium March 26 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre March 27 – Saskatoon, SK – TCU Place March 28 – Regina, SK – Conexus Arts Centre March 30 – Calgary, AB – The Jak Singer Concert Hall March 31 – Edmonton, AB – Winspear Centre April 1 – Kelowna, BC – Kelowna Community Theatre April 2 – Vancouver, BC – The Centre for Performing Arts April 4 – Victoria, BC – Royal Theatre April 5 – Campbell River, BC – Tidemark Theatre June 3 – Honolulu, HI – Hawaii Theatre June 5 – Kahului, HI – McCoy Studio Theater July 21 – Halifax, NS – Rebecca Cohn Auditorium July 24 – Waterville, ME – Waterville Opera House August 14 – Manchester, VT – Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots Festival August 15 – Homer, NY – Center for the Arts of Homer August 16 – Homer, NY – Center for the Arts of Homer October 11 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium October 14 – Lexington, KY – The Kentucky Theatre October 15 – Evanston, IL – Cahn Auditorium October 16 – New Albany, OH – McCoy Center for the Arts October 17 – Fort Wayne, IN – Clyde Theatre October 19 – Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre October 21 – Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre October 23 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre October 24 – Tarrytown, NY – Tarrytown Music Hall October 26 – Derry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall October 28 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur Theatre October 29 – New Brunswick, NJ – State Theatre New Jersey |
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Artist: Tommy Emmanuel Photo Credit: Simone Cecchetti
ABOUT TOMMY EMMANUEL: TOMMY EMMANUEL has achieved enough musical milestones to satisfy several lifetimes. At the age of six, the Grammy® Award winner was touring regional Australia with his family band. By 30, he was a rock n’ roll lead guitarist burning up stadiums in Europe. At 44, he became one of five people ever named a C.P.G. (Certified Guitar Player) by his idol, music icon Chet Atkins. Today, he plays hundreds of sold-out shows every year from Nashville to Sydney to London. He’s piled up numerous accolades, including two Grammy Award nominations, two ARIA Awards from the Australian Recording Industry Association (the Aussie equivalent of the Recording Academy); repeated honors in the Guitar Player magazine reader’s poll including a cover story for their August 2017 issue; a cover feature for Vintage Guitar’s July 2020 issue; and was Music Radar’s reader’s poll #1 winner of the Ten Best Acoustic Guitarists in The World (December 2019). He has also earned the “Lifetime Achievement” Award from The National GUITAR Museum. A noted fingerstyle guitarist, EMMANUEL 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. His talents, which translate in any language, carry him to the far corners of the globe, but EMMANUEL never plays the same show twice, and he improvises big chunks of every date. That leaves him open to those technical imperfections, though they also provide some of the humanity to an other-worldly talent. |
Mitch Schneider
