Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles sit down for a One On One Session at City Winery New York on January 16th, 2019. Watch the full session here: https://youtu.be/iDBvWybwmvk For more info visit: https://tommyemmanuel.com Audio & Video by: Ehud Lazin
Setlist:
Walking My Baby Back Home
I Can't Stop Loving You
In music as in love, one + one can add up to…not two but a new and greater one.
On Heart Songs two of the world’s greatest guitarists, Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles, make this clear. Both are masters of their instrument, honored by the iconic Chet Atkins with the rare designation of CGP (Certified Guitar Players). Emmanuel has twice been voted “Best Acoustic Guitarist” by readers of Guitar Player Magazine and honored as both a “Member of the Order of Australia” and an official “Kentucky Colonel”. Knowles is a Grammy winner, a member of the National Thumb Picker’s Hall of Fame, and editor of the respected FingerStyle Quarterly.
Their early journeys were dissimilar. Emmanuel began his in Australia, grew up on the road with his family’s band, settled as a teenager in Sydney and left his rock band to launch a spectacular solo career. Knowles followed a more academic path, eventually earning a Ph.D. in physics from Texas Christian University but then electing to pursue his true love of music.
Inevitably they would cross paths, become friends and perform on stages and clinics around the world. Their styles were distinctive but for that very reason they meshed seamlessly, with Knowles generally creating sophisticated but compelling foundations over which Emmanuel’s guitar would soar in astonishing yet always musical flights.
The more they got to know each other, the more they talked about someday recording together. Busy schedules made this difficult; still, the idea simmered on the front burner until, finally, the time was right.
First they defined the album’s focus, reflected now in its title. “A ‘heart song’ is really a love song,” Emmanuel observes. “Love has many facets—love of family, romantic love. So we started there and then looked for melodies that could be played with heart.”
“And we tried to choose songs that people have heard,” Knowles adds. “So that when they hear them, even though we’re not singing or they may not know all the words, they have a connection to these songs in their own hearts.”
Most importantly, they agreed from the start that Heart Songs would be about honoring the music rather than using it as a springboard for virtuoso display. From studying vocal interpretations of each song they covered, Emmanuel embraced a singer’s identity in how he would caress each melody. “It was a wakeup call to not overplay, to be respectful and serve the music properly,” he says.
“When you’re being respectful to the melody, you’re also respecting the listener’s previous experience with that song,” Knowles points out. “We play into their expectations while at the same time surprising them now and then.”
Working over Skype when far apart and over kitchen tables, in tour buses and Nashville cafes when they could, Emmanuel and Knowles assembled their list and developed arrangements. Eventually they rented out a flat on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles where they polished and finessed each morning and then walked to the famed EastWest Studios to record.
Setting up side by side, separated by a baffle, with Emmanuel on steel strings and Knowles on nylon strings, their guitars mic’d directly into the board, they brought their dream for Heart Songs to life. Like artful colors harmonizing into a masterpiece on canvas, the variety of songs ultimately unifies the project. They uncover an often neglected thoughtfulness in a ballad treatment of Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,” take the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love” on a carefree spin, playfully jam through “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home,” tap the brilliant vocal lines and harmonic bedrock to unleash the power of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” and West Side Story’s “Somewhere.”
On these and every other track – Billy Joel’s “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel),” Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” Michael McDonald’s “I Can Let Go Now,” the unforgettable “Where Is Love” from Oliver!, plus one original composition from each player – Heart Songs celebrates the music that has moved listeners. And it reminds us too of a different kind of artistry, a magic more subtle than dexterity and flash can achieve alone.
“Really, the bottom line is that Johnny and I just love to play this kind of music together,” Emmanuel says. “That’s the bottom line. We’re not trying to make a statement or set any trends. We’re just playing these songs because we love them. But we also hope that when people—young, old and in between—put this music on, it brings something to them that they haven’t felt in a long while.”
“There’s Tommy, there’s me and there’s us,” Knowles sums up. “This is an us project.”
So it’s true: One + one = one. And that one includes us all.
