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
I can't fault a lot of the standard greats just to answer back on a few faves (before my ride comes):
Peter Green - unless you'll never forgive him for birthing Carlos Santana
Pete Cosey - there's some ridiculous stuff on those Miles boot videos Hubert Sumlin - completely unmistakable
John Fahey - an encyclopedia of vintage moves who played with exquisite soul
Tommy Bolin - a mutant
Karl Precoda - ha! I loved him at the time (1982?). he had matching Silvertones w/one pickup removed running through some shitty graphic EQ w/all the sliders all the way up as a distortion box.
Judah Bauer - was remarkably talented w/JS and that Honeymoon Killers tour. glad to know he's still at it.
A few others:
Paul from Toiling Midgets, Gary Lee Conner from Screaming Trees, McLaughlin (more so on the Miles than Mahavishnu tho' I was a BIG Mahavishnu fan and saw them a few times and though he was the BEST at the time), Adrian Bellew (another mutant). OK gotta run
― factcheckr, Saturday, 31 May 2008 00:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Geir's "he's not that good lol racist" mention
didn't come across that way to me...
― stephen, Saturday, 31 May 2008 04:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Mine are incredibly predicatable and all old and from spent (like me, I guess) labels like SST. I need some new guitar heroes
Greg Sage Bob Mould (of old) Greg Ginn (so brutally messy) Robin Guthrie Westerberg That guy from MBV Dr Know - but he was jazz trained right? Ted Falconi - absolutely unique Nick Drake Townsend Curt Kirkwood D Boon Jay Adams (from El Paso's Rhythm Pigs - loved his distortion/chorus approach. It was kind of unique to 'Hardcore' in those days) Brian Egeness from Die Kreuzen Ira Kaplan, when he lets rip
I'm sure I've missed some of my favourite more modern pop pickers. Although more likely, I'm old and have been treading water for the last 15 years
― Fer Ark, Saturday, 31 May 2008 15:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Not the 'best' but my recent favourite has really been Mark Kozelek.
― derrrick, Saturday, 31 May 2008 20:14 (fifteen years ago) link
lindsey buckingham and david sylvian (check some of the solos on tin drum)
― r1o natsume, Saturday, 31 May 2008 20:23 (fifteen years ago) link
oh someone who i doubt has been mentioned but is also amazing and under-rated: alan rankine from the associates
― r1o natsume, Saturday, 31 May 2008 20:24 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah what Geir actually said was "I prefer the way Steve Hackett plays"
― J0hn D., Saturday, 31 May 2008 21:01 (fifteen years ago) link
David Sylvian playing a lead guitar, really?
― iago g., Sunday, 1 June 2008 01:40 (fifteen years ago) link
pretty crazy that eddie van halen hasn't received one mention on this thread. he's pretty awesome, dudes!
He is. Maybe he'd be "the best" guitarist. I'm only really familiar with Van Halen's singles and well-known tracks, but my favorite of his guitar work -- again, maybe not "the best" of his work, but my favorite -- is his almost funky-ish playing on Finish What You Started. Maybe some his other work has that kind of "swing" to it (Jump kind of does, too, I guess, but in a very different way), but that's the Van Halen song I immediately think of as having groove/swing.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 1 June 2008 01:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Bob Mould (of old) Robin Guthrie Westerberg That guy from MBV Ira Kaplan, when he lets rip
seconded all ^^
― stephen, Sunday, 1 June 2008 17:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, Ronnie Montrose
― Bill Magill, Monday, 2 June 2008 20:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I was thinking of posting Bo Diddley here just yesterday...(I know he's been mentioned before)...
also: David Gedge, James Honeyman-Scott and Richard Hawley (who I just heard explaining the great man on BBC).
― 2for25, Monday, 2 June 2008 21:35 (fifteen years ago) link
here's an article on my friend and bandmate Ava Mendoza: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/ava-mendoza
she's awesome
― Dominique, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski!!
― Evan, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 05:04 (twelve years ago) link