Guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel will play and pay his respects to a Spokane legend

Bing Crosby is what comes to mind when Tommy Emmanuel conjures images of Spokane. The Australian guitar hero has played the Bing Crosby Theater the last few times he’s been in town.

“Just before I played that beautiful theater for the first time years ago I heard that Bing Crosby is from Spokane and I had to learn more,” Emmanuel said from his Nashville home. “There are so many great photos of Bing in the theater and I learned a bit about him there. What many people don’t realize is that Bing was a tremendous singer and a brilliant artist. I was always impressed with the power and clarity of his voice. If it wasn’t for Bing Crosby we wouldn’t have had Frank Sinatra. It’s going to be an adjustment coming to Spokane not playing the Bing Crosby Theater.”

Emmanuel, 67, who will perform Thursday at the nearby Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, couldn’t help but belt out some Crosby during the phone chat, but the Chet Atkins acolyte is known more for his complex fingerstyle technique, in which he plucks strings with his fingernails, than his mellifluous voice.

“Playing guitar has been a passion of mine since I was a kid and I just love it,” Emmanuel said. “I was never a music theory person. I can play by ear, but the bottom line is putting the time in, which I’ve done over the years.”

It’s paid off and Emmanuel has developed a unique sound encompassing blues, country, rock, classical and Spanish music. The four-time winner of Australia’s best guitarist award, has played with and impressed some of the greatest songwriters and guitarists on the planet.

Emmanuel earned praise from a rock icon for playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Dixie” simultaneously . “I saw a figure in a blue suit and bright yellow hair come up to me and say to me after I played those songs, ‘You’re the two best guitar players I’ve ever seen,’ and that was Todd Rundgren,” Emmanuel said . “He was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.”

Alt-country singer-songwriter Jason Isbell has noted on numerous occasions that Emmanuel is one of the greatest guitarists he’s ever experienced. Isbell and Emmanuel recorded the moving “Deep River Blues” together for the latter’s terrific 2018 album, “Accomplice One.” Isbell impresses with the slide guitar as Emmanuel’s axe acts as the lead singer.

“Jason is simply one of the most talented musicians in the business,” Emmanuel said. “I can’t express how thrilled I was that he participated on that project.”

Guitar hero Mark Knopfler is also part of “Accomplice One.” Knopfler and Emmanuel collaborate on the amusing “You Don’t Want to Get You One of Those.”

“Mark has been so kind in terms of what he’s said about me and that he agreed to play on ‘Accomplice One,’ ” Emmanuel said. “Mark does have an interesting rule. Mark doesn’t play on other people’s songs on albums. I was asked if I would mind if we recorded one of his (unrecorded) songs and I said ‘Yes.’ ” It’s a comedy song, which I love. I’m crazy about humor in music. That’s part of the reason I love Randy Newman. It’s a great song and it was a tremendous session with Mark.”

Emmanuel was impressed by how efficient the former Dire Straits frontman is in the studio.

“I arrived and was greeted with a lyric sheet and an acoustic guitar,” Emmanuel recalled. “It was like, ‘Why don’t you sing this line and take a solo and I’ll take a solo and we’ll work it out.’ We played it once. I had a cup of coffee and I finished with the mixed master and it was all done in less than an hour. Mark fitted me in around three movie projects he was working on. He sussed it out on a special song, which most people think is about women but it’s about cars.”

“Heart Songs” is the follow-up album to “Accomplice One,” and it features Emmanuel and John Knowles covering such lovely songs as Billy Joel’s “Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel”), Michael McDonald’s “I Can Let Go Now” and the Bee Gees’ “How Deep is Your Love.”

“There is nothing like a well-crafted song,” Emmanuel said. “There are so many of them out there and I had so much fun focusing on them with this album.”

A generation has passed since the virtuoso became a solo artist. “I enjoy the autonomy,” Emmanuel said. “It just fits me better than being in a group.”

Emmanuel was part of the band, Dragon, which was akin to being the Aerosmith of Australia back in the ’80s. “We had great success,” Emmanuel said. “We headlined big venues and I remember going on a (European) tour with Tina Turner, but I made the right decision going out on my own. I get to make my own decisions.”

One choice Emmanuel will make when he returns to Spokane is visiting the Bing Crosby House Museum on the campus of Gonzaga.

“I didn’t even know that there was a Bing Crosby House that I could see in Spokane,” Emmanuel said. “I will certainly make time for that. One of the great pioneers of music came out of Spokane. Not every city has someone who changed the course of the arts like Bing did. I’ll stop by his house and learn so much more about Bing.”