SINGAPORE, Oct 26 — He is a household name in his native Australia; he has been voted Favourite Acoustic Guitarist in both Guitar Player Magazine and Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s reader polls; and his video for Classical Gas had more than 8 million views.

Not bad, for someone whose main repertoire is instrumental pieces on acoustic guitar.

Tommy Emmanuel’s unique playing style — he calls it simply “finger style” — is drawn from the country style made popular by his hero, guitar legend Chet Atkins.

But Emmanuel developed that such that he plays melody, rhythm, bass and percussion parts — and more — all on one guitar.

This weekend, the guitarist returns for yet another concert on our fair shores as part of his Asia tour to support It’s Never Too Late, his latest album.

And he’s keen to be back.

“Singapore has been so wonderful for me. People come a long way to go see the show there, so it means a lot to me,” he said over the phone from Busan in South Korea.

“It’s a little different every night. I bring back songs that I haven’t played in years. This tour is to support the new album, so people will get to hear the new songs.”

Of course, his song choices depend heavily on where he’s playing.

“Like tonight, I’m playing in Busan and I’ve never played here before, so it’s more like open season—I can play whatever I want. When I come back to Singapore, it’ll be a real cross-section of the latest songs that I have written and others that people love such as Classical Gas, Angelina and Mombasa, stuff like that.”

Emmanuel acknowledges the importance of his fans when it comes to his success. Not only does he look at the comments people leave online, he also communicates with them.

“I like to keep it as personal as I can,” he said, although he admitted that he while most messages are complimentary, he does get the odd complaint once in a while. “I have had people — especially in America — who write in to my website: ‘I drove 500 miles to hear you play Classical Gas and I bragged about you all of my friends and talked them into coming here with me but you didn’t play it!’

“It’s funny, the moment that I think ‘well, I’d better toss that old song out’, I get into trouble!” he quipped.

“You can’t please everybody, that’s a formula for failure. But you can do your job to the best of your abilities for the people who come to see you.”

It’s one of those lessons that Emmanuel has put into practice in his decades-long career. He was given his first guitar at age four, and he started working professionally just two years later in the family band, the Emmanuel Quartet. He never learnt to read and write music: He hears the patterns in the song and works it out.

Through the years, he has worked with the likes of Atkins, Air Supply, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin, John Denver, Joe Walsh, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Keith Urban and many more. He also teamed with Atkins on a 1997 project, The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World, which proved to be Atkins’ final project.

Onstage, Emmanuel gives an exuberant performance, full of verve and vigour as he conjures melodies and sounds from a single guitar that many might not think possible.

This idea to put on “a show” for the audience stems from how he approaches a solo show.

“I’m in this for the fun and I’m also trying to expose my inner self to the audience as much as possible. When you play solo acoustic guitar, you may as well play naked because everything is exposed. Your sound, your tuning, your abilities, your arrangements, touch, sensibilities, all of your knowledge is all on display,” he elaborated.

“There’s nowhere to hide — no keyboards, drums. When people say, ‘My son wants to do what you’re doing’; I say, ‘He’d better be prepared to be naked on stage!’

He continued: “You really have to have your stuff together — making sure that everything you do is interesting and that it has twists and turns in your songs. Otherwise you may as well just go through the motions. Who wants to pay to see that? Not me. When I go and see an artiste, I want that artiste to change my life.”

One of the recent changes in Emmanuel’s life has been the birth of his daughter, Rachel. The title track to his new album, It’s Never Too Late, is an ode to her. “I turn 60 this year. And I have a baby. Things couldn’t be better. So I wrote the song for her.”

But it album title is also another life lesson that Emmanuel tries to put into action each day.

“On the front cover of the album it says, ‘It’s never too late’ and on the back, it says ‘...To live happily ever after’. That’s taken from a sign in my house. My children are a big part of me living happily ever after. So I say, don’t waste time: life if short so you’d better get on with doing what makes you happy.”

What makes Emmanuel happy, of course, is music.

“I found a way of bringing whatever I have — call it a gift or ability — but I learned when I was really young, that whenever I played, something really good happened when people were listening. It’s not me per se, it’s something that happened when I played. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. And to ensure that you come back, I make sure I give you what I can every time.”

That said, the guitarist admitted that while he doesn’t always score at every show; the trick is to not let it get you down.

“So many people think the audience is the judge and jury and they’re not — they want you to do well,” he said.

“The only downside is that I don’t play as well as I expect, then I have to live with that and say, ‘okay, I’ll try again tomorrow’. When I was younger, it would take me three or four days of moping around trying to figure it out. But we’re only human and we’re not perfect. I can only try my best.

“If I don’t hit the bullseye I don’t lose sleep over it any more,” he said.

“It’s the same as when you watch a great tennis player and he is always winning and then one day he has an off-day and some up-and-coming kid beats him. He goes: ‘well, I just wasn’t 100 per cent today.’

“If you go out and do your best, even if you don’t come up to the standards that you were expecting, at least you did your best.” — TODAY

* Tommy Emmanuel performs on Oct 31, 7.30pm at the Esplanade Concert Hall. Tickets from SISTIC.