This musical son of the legendary Chet Atkins considers himself a “pop guitar player (“Bach was a pop composer”). He writes and plays tunes that include the sounds of rock, flamenco, boogie, blues, rag and country—you name it. An ear player (says he can’t read music), Tommy has recorded—live and in studio—with the Australian Symphony Orchestra, a program that includes his own compositions as well as Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto, and Debussy’s Gollywog’s Cake Walk.

In his hands, the acoustic guitar body can get drummed on with both palms, his ring, a snare brush, while the strings get picked, plucked, flailed and strummed at the nut and the bridge to emit cascades of rhythmic clicks, cracks, taps and tones you never hear this side of a pod of whales or at the least an entire African percussion ensemble. This happened on a tune called “Mombassa”. At the heart of his spectacular display, impressive enough as creative use of a guitar, what you hear is Tommy’s sense of melody. His guitar rocks, and his rocking sings, always.