Buckethead- amazing variety, technique and willingness to take chances
B.B. King- I have never not enjoyed a BB song. Still kicks ass live.
Lightnin' Hopkins
Jimi
Keith Richards
Slash- Nothing of note since '93, but before then, my favorite soloist.
Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo
Django
Prince
Hubert Sumlin
― Matthew E. Armstrong (gensu3k1), Sunday, 4 June 2006 02:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Sunday, 4 June 2006 16:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ice Cream Electric (Ice Cream Electric), Sunday, 4 June 2006 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link
Andy Partridge is a phenomenal guitar player - good enough to genuinely merit kicking Dave Gregory out of the band, I think.
I love Tom verlaine and Richard Lloyd together - slightly less so apart.
Tom Herman was great in Ubu, but I also like Jim Jones a whole lot.
Prince.
I've heard some amazing guitar on modern Ethiopian music, but I couldn't name any names.
Great sidemen/soloists whose own work I'm less fond of: Robert Fripp, Johnny Marr, Manzanera, Belew.
Some odd choices:
David Hidalgo, especially on the Latin Playboys records.
The guy from Stump - Kevin Hopper - was amazing on A Fierce Pancake, but I haven't followed his solo work at all.
Ron Sexsmith plays a mean acoustic guitar.
John Flansburgh was appealingly scrappy in the earliest days of They Might Be Giants. I loved his stage presence back in the day. He is clearly, however, runnin' on Dunkin' now.
― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Sunday, 4 June 2006 23:34 (seventeen years ago) link
Juliana Hatfield Roger McGuinn Patrick Pentland John McGeoch
― 2for25, Friday, 21 March 2008 02:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Robert Fripp - My personal favorite musician of all time
David Tronzo - Really, really interesting slide guitar player
Toby Driver - Currently the most interesting musician leading two of the greatest music acts in the world (Kayo Dot, Tartar Lamb)
Jerry Douglas - #1 Dobro player in the world
Pierre Bensusan - Jazzy celtic folk in all its glory
Don Ross - Only two-time winner of the US National Fingerstyle Championship Peter Finger - Master acoustic guitarist from Germany
Ralph Towner - 12-string acoustic jazz guitarist extraordinaire
― Cliftonb, Friday, 21 March 2008 09:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is one of my favorites. The fills and solos on My Old School ignite something in my head, and that's just one of many, many awesome tunes.
Richard Thompson, particularly for his solo on the live version* of "Can't Win" from the Watching the Dark set. It just seems like such a pure example of someone having extemporaenous fun with an axe.
There are many more, but these'll do for now.
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 21 March 2008 09:55 (sixteen years ago) link
McGuinn
Marr
Quine
Gavurin
The Edge!
― the pinefox, Friday, 21 March 2008 10:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Keiji Haino Ron Ashton Chet Atkins Mississippi Fred McDowell Blind Mamie Forehand (or is that A.C.?) Blixa Bargeld Rowland Howard Wata Verlaine and Lloyd Munehiro Nirito Gregg Ginn Sioux City Pete
A million others, of course.
― RabiesAngentleman, Friday, 21 March 2008 10:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Blind Willie Johnson!
― RabiesAngentleman, Friday, 21 March 2008 10:48 (sixteen years ago) link
^^^^ This. Also Nels Cline, Leo Kottke and Lindsey Buckingham.
― Daniel, Esq., Friday, 21 March 2008 11:04 (sixteen years ago) link
pretty crazy that eddie van halen hasn't received one mention on this thread. he's pretty awesome, dudes!
― mizzell, Friday, 21 March 2008 13:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes, but Steve Carlton
― calstars, Friday, 21 March 2008 13:26 (sixteen years ago) link
right now:
Matt Pike, because he gets a BIG fucking sound out of that thing.
D. BOON. He plays with such energy and inventiveness and uses that insanely treble-y, wiry tone. It's impossible for me not to love him.
Jandek, love him or hate him (I actually lean more towards the latter, really) is always unmistakable.
Jack Rose, because he does Fahey better than Fahey could sometimes.
Takashi Yamaguchi of Sambomaster, for reasons similar to the ones that I love D. Boon for, but mainly I am just itching for an excuse to rep how awesome Sambomaster are on this board.
― telepathy_rock!, Friday, 30 May 2008 01:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Ricky Wilson, still.
― nerve_pylon, Friday, 30 May 2008 01:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Judah Bauer doing "Make It Rain" w/ Tom Waits on Letterman is pretty awesome
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rF3YQ5WajJk
― milo z, Friday, 30 May 2008 01:55 (fifteen years ago) link
That Tom Waits video is BADASS.
Sambomaster tearing shit up in '04: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJAjrSmLkb4
This band needs to come to the US already.
― telepathy_rock!, Friday, 30 May 2008 02:18 (fifteen years ago) link
All those rhythm players in reggae.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, 30 May 2008 06:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Nile Rodgers isn't getting enough love, certainly the most fun if not the best.
― Popture, Friday, 30 May 2008 06:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Karl Precoda had a great sound. And David Kilgour!
― gnarly sceptre, Friday, 30 May 2008 09:49 (fifteen years ago) link
No James Burton yet? J. Honeyman-Scott?
Second Derek Trucks from way upthread--that young man is a whale of a player with really wide-ranging interests. Songlines is a tremendous record. Someone asked him why with his southern rock bloodlines he played Roland Kirk and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan songs and he said "Well, it's all the blues."
― ellaguru, Friday, 30 May 2008 12:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Redd Volkaert is amazing.
― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 May 2008 13:03 (fifteen years ago) link
You made him up
― Tom D., Friday, 30 May 2008 13:04 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.reddvolkaert.net/
No, not so much.
― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 May 2008 13:05 (fifteen years ago) link
elisa ambrogio and robert fripp.
― m the g, Friday, 30 May 2008 13:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Great name! (xp)
― Tom D., Friday, 30 May 2008 13:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Indeed. Plus he looks like some redneck greasemonkey who just wandered onstage at the honkytonk, only he's one of the baddest pickers I've ever heard.
http://www.reddvolkaert.net/photos/midsize/bill_kirchen.jpg
L-R, Redd, Bill Kirchen.
― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 May 2008 13:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Nile Rodgers - my favourite by a long way.
― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 30 May 2008 13:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Dr. No from the bad brains
― X-101, Friday, 30 May 2008 14:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Guys I like listening to who never pop up on those stupid lists: Mick Ralphs, Mark Farner, Uli Roth, Jerry Garcia, Deniz Tek, Catfish Collins, Robertson/Gorham, Tommy Bolin, Buck Dharma
― Bill Magill, Friday, 30 May 2008 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
(x-post) Bill Kirchen is no slouch, either.
My personal fave is Carl Finch, from Brave Combo. He's got an awesome way of hitting those polka/ska backbeats. He doesn't play solos, as such; he's really all about rhythm guitar, in the same sense that Ricky Wilson from the B-52's was.
― Dan Peterson, Friday, 30 May 2008 14:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow, I forgot to mention Mick Ralphs!
― Tom D., Friday, 30 May 2008 14:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Kind of astonished that Hendrix only has three mentions (not counting Geir's "he's not that good lol racist" mention) in this thread. Ditto Steve Cropper. I'm not massively into Hendrix, and Em used to hate the idea of him (+ Page and Gilmour and Clapton and all the typical boy-idol rock royalty guitarists), but when I actually played his stuff to her properly she had to admit that he's actually awesome and his music is cool. Hendrix is about the only "look at me, ma!" guitarist I've ever bothered to listen to.
I'm not really into guitarists, I guess. I don't play and can't remember the names of guitarists in most of the bands I like. I guess I adored John Squire and Nick McCabe when I was a teenager. Only impressed by McCabe now, really. Kevin Shields I like as a sound-maker but I've never really thought of him as a guitarist. Mark Hollis did some guitar parts I love. Totally untrendy and not a virtuoso by any means, but what Richard McNamara does has always been a big part of what I like about Embrace. He's kind of like a cross between Steve Cropper and Kevin Shields. That sounds so fanciful.
Dude from Lift To Experience. Dude from Kitchens of Distinction. Dude from Long Fin Killie. George Harrison in The Beatles - everything he played was a hook. That Clapton solo in While My Guitar Gently Wanks is fucking awful though. Josh Homme. Geoff Barrow. PJ FUCKING HARVEY. The Os Mutantes dude. Did Ian Crauss play guitar in Disco Inferno? Califone dudes. Michael Karoli. Graham Coxon before he went off and did crappy solo albums.
― Scik Mouthy, Friday, 30 May 2008 14:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Not mentioned but all much more than mere self-accompanists :-
Elliott Smith. Kristin Hersh. Dylan. Joni.
― Thomas, Friday, 30 May 2008 15:47 (fifteen years ago) link
That's the truth about Joni Mitchell.
― ellaguru, Friday, 30 May 2008 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Dylan f'real.
― Oilyrags, Friday, 30 May 2008 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Been mentioned a few times already but Phil Manzanera - he just plays such memorable lines
― Tom D., Friday, 30 May 2008 15:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Not too familiar with his work with Mellencamp but I saw David Grissom as part of Joe Ely's band and man, was he brill.
― ellaguru, Friday, 30 May 2008 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Tony Rice Bryan Sutton David Grier Duane Allman Jimi Hendrix Mississippi John Hurt Keef Mabon “Teeny” Hodges Curtis Mayfield Eric Clapton (Bluesbreakers/Cream/Layla era)
― B.L.A.M., Friday, 30 May 2008 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Some folks whom I've recently been digging (even) more than usual:
Tony (T.S.) Mcphee Bill Nelson Leo Kottke Joseph Spence Steve Tibbetts Ernie Isley and Davie motherfucking Allen!
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Friday, 30 May 2008 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Billy Dolan
― Lolpez, Friday, 30 May 2008 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Two not mentioned that are absolutely great: Pete Cosey (with Miles, mostly) and Franco.
― The guy who just votes in polls, Friday, 30 May 2008 17:13 (fifteen years ago) link
I forgot to mention two other of my favorites: Jim McCarty (Detroit Wheels, Cactus) and Leslie West.
Cosey's great. Electric Mud mutherfucker
― Bill Magill, Friday, 30 May 2008 19:13 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't really know shit about guitar on any technical level, but I like finger picking types lately, like Seu Jorge and James Blackshaw. I also like standard rock types like Eddie Van Halen, Billy Gibbons, Leslie West, Frank Zappa, and Kirk Hammet. Oh and <3 Robert Fripp too.
― rockapads, Friday, 30 May 2008 19:29 (fifteen years ago) link
People who I'm sure are quite good but don't understand why or how: Marr, Coxon.
try playing a few of Marr's songs, his fingers are seriously ALL OVER the place, i don't know how he gets the fingerings on some of those chords. plus he uses his pinky finger very, very well.
― stephen, Friday, 30 May 2008 19:54 (fifteen years ago) link
John Lennon was a bad-ass rhythm player. The way he locked in with Paul and Ringo made songs like "I Feel Fine" really "howl and move."
I've always loved the funky twang of Clarence White. Any excuse to post old Byrds clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m37-2eB-wj8
― leavethecapital, Friday, 30 May 2008 20:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Really? Last time I spoke to Mr Rowe, he seemed to be under the exact opposite impression, i.e. he influenced Townshend, viz. came to AMM gigs, then ripped them off adopted some of their strategies for the Who.
So...Pete Townshend ripped off AMM before they existed? He was working with drones and feedback in 1963-1964; AMM didn't start until 1965.
― Sara Sara Sara, Friday, 30 May 2008 20:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Always, mighty Brit bloozman Robin Trower. George Harrison. Ted Nugent. Buck Dharma. Billy Gibbons. Johnny Winter. Michael Schenker, UFO catalog. Mike Campbell.
― Gorge, Friday, 30 May 2008 20:35 (fifteen years ago) link
And Kim Simmonds, at least once a week for the last fifteen years.
― Gorge, Friday, 30 May 2008 20:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Piggy from Voivod.
Although I finally saw Candlemass last night after all these years and would definitely rate their Swedish lefty lead player Lars Johanssonn very high on my list.
― Nate Carson, Friday, 30 May 2008 21:33 (fifteen years ago) link