Tommy Emmanuel Shares “Gdansk” Video, Adds 2026 U.S. Tour Dates

Photo Credit: Simone Cecchetti

GRAMMY-winning guitarist Tommy Emmanuel has released the official video for “Gdansk,” a standout track from Living In The Light, his first solo album in ten years. Recorded and mixed with producer Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Phish), Living In The Light is a virtuosic blend of acoustic pop, jazz, classical, and roots music delivered by one of the modern era’s most accomplished and versatile guitarists.

The release has earned praise from outlets including Rock and Roll Globe, Premier Guitar, American Blues Scene, and The Bluegrass Situation, which called it “his most eclectic album.” Emmanuel will bring the new music to the road with a U.S. tour this spring, and a run of August dates was announced today.

Watch: “Gdansk” (Official Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUt4dwS3vHQ

Stream / Purchase Living In The Light
https://go.mhe.fm/tommyemmanuel_livinginthelight

“I wrote this song in the city of Gdansk in Poland,” explains Emmanuel. “It’s an interesting mixture of storytelling and sailing with some melody.”

Emmanuel captured most of the performances on Living In The Light in one or two takes, and the sense of joy and wonder in these explorations is more than palpable; it’s intoxicating. While many tracks are solo instrumentals, Emmanuel lends his voice to several songs as well, grounding his dazzling, percussive fretwork with warmth and vulnerability.

“There are elements of rockabilly, blues, even traditional African music all woven into the music,” Emmanuel adds. “I’m a world traveler, and I’ve absorbed so much music along the way. It all gets synthesized through a kind of osmosis into my psyche and my soul and then comes out in my own unique style.”

Emmanuel first began touring at age six in his native Australia as part of a family band. In his teenage years he turned heads as a sought-after session player and sideman, and by his early twenties he was playing on chart-topping hits and performing with some of Australia’s biggest names, including Air Supply and Men at Work. Inspired in part by his hero Chet Atkins — who would later become a friend, mentor, and collaborator — Emmanuel stepped out as a solo artist in 1979, releasing the first in a string of acclaimed instrumental albums that made him an unlikely celebrity in Australia and beyond.

Over the decades, he has headlined everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall; toured with artists including Eric Clapton and John Denver; won a GRAMMY Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement; performed for a televised audience of more than two billion at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics; and collaborated with everyone from Les Paul and Mark Knopfler to Joe Walsh and Richard Thompson. NPR’s World Café declared him “one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world,” while The New York Times hailed him as a “prodigy,” and Atkins crowned him with the title of Certified Guitar Player — an honor bestowed upon only a handful of artists.

In the early 2000s Emmanuel relocated permanently to Nashville and continued to push himself creatively, collaborating with a rising generation of guitarists like Jason Isbell, Molly Tuttle, and Billy Strings on Accomplice One and Accomplice Two. “Those albums were a real labor of love,” Emmanuel explains, “and I was thrilled with how they came out. But I felt a strong desire to focus on my writing again after that, and I found that the songs for Living in the Light just started pouring out of me.”

More than sixty years into his storied career, Emmanuel remains hungry for adventure. “As I get older, I find myself taking a lot more risks, and having a lot more fun in the process,” says Emmanuel, who recently celebrated his 70th birthday. “When young people come to my shows and have this awakening that it’s okay to be different, that the possibilities of music and self-expression are limitless, that’s what it’s all about for me.”

Living In The Light Tracklist

U.S. Tour Dates