Tommy Emmanuel Releases 20th Anniversary Remastered Version Of 'The Mystery'

09-05-2026

(MPG) GRAMMY-winning guitarist Tommy Emmanuel released the 20th Anniversary Remastered version of his album The Mystery. First released in 2006, the album includes the track "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag," which was nominated for "Best Country Instrumental Performance" at the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

In honor of the 20th Anniversary, this special-edition album is now released on vinyl for the first time - it is remastered and contains bonus tracks, including a new live rendition of the album track "Keep It Simple," which Tommy released a video for today. Recorded live in October 2025 at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, the live performance's audience consisted of his fans from Tommy Emmanuel's Guitar Camp USA.

Tommy Emmanuel says of the reissue: "I'm excited for people to rediscover some of my earlier songs and hear them in all their purity, not road-honed or beaten up by too many shows, just to be heard as the composer intended. I hope you get a fresh look at my songs with this reissue on vinyl."

The Mystery has a peace and a gentleness that emanates throughout the compositions. The song titles offer some insight: "Cowboy's Dream," "The Mystery," "That's the Spirit," "Footprints," "Keep it Simple." Emmanuel proves skillful without being flashy; calm without being dull; thoughtful without being pedantic. He remains faithful to the melody, using his exceptional guitar work to support the essence of the song. The record also features one of Emmanuel's most popular original songs "Lewis & Clark," and a very beautiful instrumental arrangement of the Billy Joel classic "And So It Goes."

Tommy Emmanuel first began touring at the age of six in his native Australia as part of a family band. In his teenage years, he turned heads as a highly sought after session player and sideman, and by his early twenties, Emmanuel was playing on chart-topping hits and performing with some of the biggest names in Australian music, 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 on his own as a solo artist in 1979, releasing the first in a string of critically and commercially acclaimed instrumental albums that would make him an unlikely celebrity in his home country and beyond.

In the decades that followed, he would go on to headline everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall; tour with the likes of Eric Clapton and John Denver; win a GRAMMY Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement; perform for a televised audience of more than two billion at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics; and collaborate with everyone from Les Paul and Mark Knopfler to Joe Walsh and Richard Thompson. NPR's World Cafe 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 honorary only ever bestowed upon four other artists).

Emmanuel continued to push himself throughout his career, relocating permanently to Nashville in the early 2000s and collaborating with a rising generation of guitarists like Jason Isbell, Molly Tuttle, and Billy Strings on the studio albums Accomplice One and Accomplice Two. Last year, Emmanuel released 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.

More than sixty years into his storied career, Tommy Emmanuel is still 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." Stream the album here