Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel’s trajectory seems near-vertical: at age six, he was touring regional Australia with his family band; by 30, he was burning up stadiums in Europe; at 44, he became one of five people named a Certified Guitar Player by his idol, music icon Chet Atkins. Today, he plays solo sold-out shows from Nashville to Sydney to London. What’s next? An album of collaborations, of course, with some of the finest singers, songwriters and—yes, guitarists—alive today.

Accomplice One showcases not only Emmanuel’s virtuosic hot picking, but his musical range, one that stretches from country-blues to rock shredding. Some of the most respected performers from across the musical spectrum help Emmanuel mix new takes on indelible classics and new originals—Jason Isbell on “Deep River Blues,” Mark Knopfler on Chet Atkins’ “You Don’t Want to Get You One of Those,” Jerry Douglas on Hendrix’ “Purple Haze,” Amanda Shires (sings and fiddles) on Madonna’s “Borderline,” well as Rodney Crowell, Ricky Skaggs, Jake Shimabukuro and David Grisman, to name a few.

Explaining how he put together the many moving parts, Emmanuel gave Elmore one example of how these diverse tracks came about: “My old friend Jorma Kaukonen, from Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna, was a person I really wanted to record with for the Accomplice One album…I just had to find the right track. I didn’t want to just do another blues track, I wanted to give him the opportunity to play on something different. This song is a Merle Travis classic and I approached it like a jug band. The solos are in the key of B and Jorma laughed that he’d never played in B before. Pat Bergeson added some cool harmonica and really made this track a lot of fun.” Pat Bergeson will be at Tommy Emmanuel’s Guitar Camp in Memphis.

You can hear Jorma Kaukonen on the album version, but here’s an inside look at Tommy Emmanuel and Pat Bergeson dueting on “Saturday Night Shuffle”:

To learn more about Tommy Emmanuel, click HERE

Connect with him on FACEBOOK

Find a performance near you HERE

Learn more about Tommy Emmanuel’s Guitar Camp in Memphis HERE