New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Coming off his singles/videos with
Molly Tuttle ("White Freight Liner Blues") and
Little Feat/Sam Bush ("Cajun Girl"), Grammy-nominated acoustic guitarist extraordinaire, composer and global touring artist TOMMY EMMANUEL has today (April 24) rolled out "Doc's Guitar/Black Mountain Rag Featuring Billy Strings." Watch TOMMY's video with Grammy-winning artist
Billy Strings - filmed by Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard for Neighborhoods Apart at TuneSmith Studios outside of Nashville as the song was being recorded. The video was premiered yesterday by The Bluegrass Situation.
With an intoxicating blend of precision and passion, both guitarists light up this two-song bluegrass medley honoring their hero, bluegrass legend Doc Watson (who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this past March 3). The track kicks off TOMMY's full-length collaborations album ACCOMPLICE TWO, the follow-up to his Accomplice One album (2018), out this Friday, April 28 via CGP Sounds.
"Doc's Guitar/Black Mountain Rag Featuring Billy Strings" starts with Doc's own song "Doc's Guitar" and segues into the "Black Mountain Rag," an old fiddle tune that was Doc's signature song.
Strings is the Michigan-born guitarist who won the 2021 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for his release Home. Like TOMMY, Billy honors his roots while also expanding always as a musician. His energy combined with TOMMY's is what drives the track.
Quote from TOMMY: "I knew I wanted to have
Billy Strings play with me on 'Doc's Guitar/Black Mountain Rag.' The moment we played together the very first time at MerleFest (2016), I heard his beautiful phrasing and his Doc quotes that took me back to hearing Doc when I was a teenager. Billy has Doc in his DNA, so getting him to come and record these tunes was only a matter of finding a time to capture it in a studio. The actual recording was quick, and we only did a couple of takes and we were done. I had never heard Doc in Australia as I had spent most of my life in very rural areas where record stores were rare and music by Chet, Merle and Doc was impossible to find. It was an American tourist who saw me play at a show and came up to me afterwards and told me I sounded a bit like Doc Watson. I said, 'who is Doc Watson? " He gave me his tape out of his car stereo and I heard Doc for the first time. I think that was around 1973-4. I was smitten with his singing and his great playing, and I could hear the influences of Chet Atkins and Merle
Travis all over his playing, but there was some Jimmie Rodgers too. Then I found more recordings that led to some of his fiddle tunes and blazing guitar works! My personal favorite recording by Doc is the album Reflections—a duets album with Chet Atkins. His legacy and body of work and influence are monumental and unequalled in my eyes. Thanks Doc for showing so many of us the way!"
Track details:
Doc's Guitar/Black Mountain Rag featuring Billy Strings
Doc's Guitar written by Doc Waters for Hilgreen
Music (BMI)
Black Mountain Rag written by
Leslie Keith (Public Domain)
Recorded at TuneSmith Studios in Goodlettsville, TN
Brad Benge - engineer
Billy Strings - guitar
Mike Bub - upright bass
Tommy Emmanuel - guitar
"My accomplices on this album are all in a league of giants to me," says TOMMY. "They all inspire me to reach for the stars; to give my best while supporting them as they give their best. We all have a chemistry and electricity together when we play music. I wanted to capture this power in songs and performances that will stand the test of time."
Produced lovingly by EMMANUEL, regarded by guitar great Chet Atkins as "one of the best guitar players I've ever seen," the 16-track ACCOMPLICE TWO is a spirited mix of new takes on indelible classics and brand-new originals from TOMMY. His collaborators are some of the most remarkable musicians on the planet - an "A" list of musicians including Billy Strings,
Molly Tuttle, Michael McDonald,
Jamey Johnson and Raul Malo.
The album is alive with the electric spirit of spontaneous, timeless joy created by inspired virtuosos. The combined artistry contained on these tracks is stunning, as is TOMMY's cheerful ease at connecting naturally with this vast spectrum of musicians. Like the first volume, he merges the presence of beloved, legendary musicians - such as Jorma Kaukonen,
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band,
Little Feat, Sam Bush, the Del McCoury Band and Jerry Douglas—with the bright spirit of acclaimed young artists breaking through with deep artistry and true reverence for the power of song.
Look for TOMMY's concert special "Accomplice LIVE!" - featuring such guests as Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell,
Sierra Hull and
Yasmin Williams - airing now on PBS during pledge drive. Known to deliver shows that are truly a head-spinning experience, TOMMY and his accomplices will be on the road throughout 2023 in America,
Europe and Australia.
Here's the track listing for ACCOMPLICE TWO:
1. Doc's Guitar
Black Mountain Rag Featuring Billy Strings
2. White Freight Liner Blues Featuring
Molly Tuttle
3. Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man) Featuring Jamey Johnson
*4. Precious Time Featuring
Sierra Hull
5. Cajun Girl Featuring
Little Feat & Sam Bush
6. Another Man Done A Full Go Around Featuring Jorma Kaukonen
*7. Son Of A Gun Featuring Richard Smith
8. Someone Like You Featuring Michael McDonald
*9. Mombassa Featuring
Yasmin Williams
10. Everybody Loves You Featuring Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
*11. Mama Knows Featuring Jerry Douglas
12. Sweet Temptation Featuring The Del McCoury Band
13. Yeller Rose Of
Texas Featuring Sam Bush
14. Tennessee Stud Featuring
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
15.
Seven Come Eleven Featuring
David Grisman
16. Far Away Places Featuring Raul Malo
*Original TOMMY song
TOMMY EMMANUEL has achieved enough musical milestones to satisfy several lifetimes. At the age of six, he 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 CPG (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). 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. On May 8, 2020, he released a newly recorded career-spanning double album, THE BEST OF TOMMYSONGS, via CGP Sounds/Cruzen Street Records). Watch the album trailer here which focuses on TOMMY's unique ability to tell stories without words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SOQEMWYAQ4.
EMMANUEL subsequently released three EP's with different collaborators, Accomplice Series Vol. 1, 2 and 3, the last of which was in 2022.
