The creation of this list came to mind upon the passing of B.B. King.
You may argue with the order, but will be hard pressed to find a BLUES guitarist that can crack this list other than these ten masters
TOP TEN BLUES GUITARISTS OF ALL TIME
1. Jimi Hendrix 2. B.B. King 3. Eric Clapton 4. Buddy Guy 5. Muddy Waters 6. Robert Johnson 7. Johnny Winter 8. Stevie Ray Vaughan 9. Hubert Sumlin 10. Albert Collins
No Albert King , Lonnie Johnson, Mike Bloomfield or Earl Hooker ?? Honorable mention Freddie King and Peter Green
For pure guitar I would drop from your list Muddy Waters ( great singer and band leader -not guitarist), Albert Collins ( dynamic but not great-that capo limited him), Hubert Sumlin ( great band player but not a soloist) and Johnny Winter( close but no cigar )
One of the classic errors in judging guitarists is the propensity to focus on lead guitarists only. Hubert Sumlin has been acknowledged by players such as Eric Clapton, Stevie, Santana, Hendrix, Keith Richards, Robert Cray, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck et.al on down as a major influence, and was the quiet master behind Howlin' Wolf.
I think Mike Bloomfield is a close but no cigar compared to Johnny Winter, whose slide and lead guitar work and discography is more extensive. I would include Albert King and Freddie King as honorable mention.
Last Edited by atty1chgo on May 20, 2015 6:25 PM
Albert King is absolutely given without a doubt in my book. Nobody comes close to his expressive tone. Well close maybe, but only close. I'd put Skip James in a top 10. Son House honorable mention.
1.BB KING 2.JOHNNY WINTER 3.FREDDIE KING 4.ELMORE JAMES 5.4.ALBERT COLLINS 6.T BONE WALKER 7.JIMI HENDRIX 8.PETER GREENE 9.MIKE BLOOMFIELD 10.ALBERT KING 11.MAGIC SAM 12.LITTLE MILTON 13.HARVEY MANDEL 14.CHUCK BERRY
Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn are greatly over valued, in my view. ---------- Ted Burke __________________ ted-burke.com tburke4@san.rr.com
Last Edited by ted burke on May 20, 2015 8:46 PM
No Blues guitarist list is complete without Brownie McGhee.
I often try to get guitarists to help me play a S&B tune, and they initially think 'Meh, acoustic guitar - how hard can it be?
But Brownie does some really quite flashy stuff. I've had a few gat players baulk when they listen closely, and I usually tell them just to strum those parts lol.
---------- My YouTube Channel - Any Likes or Comments appreciated. :)
@ Danny Have to agree with you on this one. Saw Brownie on his own in Dunedin 30 plus years ago and it still rates as one of the best concerts I have been to.
As with all lists, the temptation for personal preference many times overrules reasoned analysis. But Ted, Harvey Mandel over Eric Clapton? Good God man, I would love to know how you came to that conclusion. Or Owen's pick of Jimmy Vaughan. Please tell me what you see that I am missing.
Last Edited by atty1chgo on May 21, 2015 5:19 AM
HA! I love that you put Hendrix at the top of this list. First album (album: how's that for a blast from the past!) I ever bought The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Smash Hits. I think I was 13. I always loved Jimi the most when he was leaning toward or playing the blues vs. his psychedelic artistry, eg. feedback and all the wild extended jam stuff. Though I definitely respected the latter.
I never expected him to be on anybody's top ten blues guitatist list though, never mind numero uno.
Definitely Harvey Mandel over Eric Clapton. Clapton as a guitarist , when he decides to be a guitarist and not a pop star, EC is a blend of all 3 Kings, very stylized, very repetitive, especially when he takes a long solo. He is infrequently inspired; in the studio he hasn't broken a sweat since his From the Cradle album, where he played with real fire, and not since his live recordings with Stevie Winwood from earlier this decade. Even so, for the duration of his post-Cream career he sounds like sped up version of what others have done . It's not that I don't like him as a guitarist--I do--but I don't think he's really the genius people make him out to be. His best work , in my view, is the live work he did with Cream on Wheels of Fire and Goodbye, balls to the walls blues improv where he forget his habit of blues formalism and let it fly in many directions. Since then, he's contracted and became a pop star over being an instrumentalist. Financially, smart career move, but at the cost of guitar creativity.Mandel, on the other hand, is amazingly under regarded; he is one of a kind, no one sounds like him, his style with the blues is unique, he has a jazz fluidity that Clapton lacks, he is a credible jazz/fusion player with two classic albums Shrengrenade and The Snake, he is funky , he is slippery, he is a master of sustain, he moves through the typical blues changes and then some with phrases , segues and turn arounds that are his alone. Mandel has always been a more interesting guitarist than Clapton. ---------- Ted Burke __________________ ted-burke.com tburke4@san.rr.com
Last Edited by ted burke on May 21, 2015 6:51 AM
Jimmy Vaughn plays the blues with a reverence to the music. He's been on stage with just about everybody who's who in the blues genre. In the '70's he was mentored by the best of the 40's and 50's blues guitarists at Antones in Austin. He kept the blues alive when everyone else was chasing disco tunes for the money. He seems to get every nuance from every note he plays. He slows down the music so we can hear the melody and then moves the music from one place to another as he feels it that day. He allows you a window into the music which comes from superb playing.
Eric Clapton has proven that he was and is a great guitarist many times over. His rock career is stellar and his homage to blues greats is very respectful. (He and BB did play together) As a Top 10 "blues" guitarist? He'd have to have played that genre for all of his career and he has not. I appreciate his talent and at 70 years old, he's still an undisputed superb musician/guitar player. Out of all the guitarists around now, he chose Jimmy Vaughn to accompany him at his May 5th birthday party. Perhaps he knows more about top ten 'blues' guitarists then you or I do? It's only my opinion and we are all entitled to one. Cheers. ----------
Lonnie Johnson probably needs to be on that list. He invented blues lead guitar. In 1929. He bent strings to make a regular guitar get those bluesy pitches.
He could jazz up the blues, too:
Last Edited by kudzurunner on May 21, 2015 8:19 AM
I think that how much one influences other guitar players on top of how much they have their own sound is too choose the best.Albert King, I feel has influenced more guitar players and there are many young players doing Albert King`s licks and don`t even know it,they think their copying SRV...
I like that last list by 6SN7 a lot. I would like to see Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Lonnie Johnson and Skip James included along with Elmore James and Magic Sam. And the group that timesight includes guys who should be consider, too - Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, Wayne Bennett, Louis Myers,Robert Lockwood, Guitar Slim. Just too many greats for a list of ten.
There are plenty of other guitar players many of you have failed to mention and much of what's been mentioned are the heavy string bender types and there are plenty of guys in no particular order I'd mention here to name a few:
Tiny Grimes Bill Jennings Gene Phillips Robert Nighthawk Earl Hooker Jody Williams Edgar Blanchard Mickey Baker Bukka White Matt Murphy Duke Robillard Junior Watson Sam Lawhorn Eddie Taylor ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I had already posted just before barbequebob (but it disappeared) mentioning Bill Jennings and Junior Watson, but I also mentioned Johnny Moore (Three Blazers)...bit more RnB though, but he was Charles Browns axe man and an influence on Chuck Berry.
@Owen Evans -- Jimmy Vaughn is highly respected by other guitarists because of two things he's able to do that many guitar players often absolutely suck at and that's the ability to play good rhythm and how to use space. As far as I'm concerned, Jimmy Vaughn, for a harp player, is a FAR better choice for backing up a harp player than his brother ever was unless you're one of those unfortunate types that listens ONLY to solos and nothing else but. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Although not top 10 material, the guys who have touched me the most live that haven't been mentioned are Robert Cray, Little Charlie Baty, Anders Osborne, John Mooney, Joel Foey (sp?) and Zach Zunis.
all those guitarists named are more or less meaningful to me and some i really like but i couldn't begin to rate them in any real objective way. i'm not really sure how anyone can. whats the criteria?
Adam has a top 11 blues harmonica players list. there are some clear criteria. this guitarist list seems too arbitrary to me. influence seems a possible criteria. innovation may be one? it doesnt seem right that mere popularity should be a qualification, and yet it probably figures in 'influence"
distinctiveness? technical skill? originality? (is that the same as distinctive or something different) what else? bluesiness?
Last Edited by SuperBee on May 22, 2015 4:36 AM
These lists should say "Top 10 Blues Guitarists I've Been Exposed To"....I can't make a list because many of these I have never heard, but thank you, I see names I will surely look up.
I'll tell ya one. When he plays blues, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top has excellent phrasing, doesn't try to be too fancy, totally gets the value of space, great tone, and can milk a note for all it's worth.
Not being a guitar player (heck, I am barely a harp player), I can't claim any expertise in assessing top blues players. However, I do know what I like, what moves me, and Hound Dog Taylor certainly is near the top for me.
Last Edited by Rgsccr on May 22, 2015 9:01 AM
I hate top 10 lists. They are too limiting,especially when it comes to guitar-there are so many good ones.Maybe 10 most influential would work.Before I played harp I would have chosen those who can endlessly solo. Now, I find I listen for what they do when they are not soloing. Do they play well with others(particularly harp players)? That's not to slight the great soloists,but my tastes have changed. 48-72 bar solos bore me to tears.
The lists so far are statements of taste, not matters of fact. "Top Ten Guitarists of All Time" implies infinity, time before time and all the rest, and it's a lead pipe cinch that no one has heard every guitarist, ever, who considered him or her self a blues player. What I say, though, is that this has been a civil discourse , quite a distinction than what you hear on You Tube comment thread relating to shred guitar videos. ---------- Ted Burke __________________ ted-burke.com tburke4@san.rr.com
To me you'd have to a least define the criteria of Best by Genre ie.Folk blues ,Chicago,big band,rock etc etc No one guitarist would be on every list,would they? I can't think of one who could.Not by recorded output anyway.
Last Edited by indigo on May 22, 2015 11:00 PM
In my view, players on this list need to have staked out new ground.
BB King and T Bone Walker absolutely. SRV too, much later, but what a difference he made. Maybe also Jimmy Rogers, because he appeared on so many of the Chess recordings. Solos were few, however his backup lines were essential to this seminal style.
I'd also include the British guys, Eric Clapton and Peter Green in particular. They studied their heroes to death, but then put a harder Marshall based edge on it. This was new.
Have a listen to Strange Brew, by Cream. Who else on the radio was sounding like that back then? But ask yourself, who had Eric Clapton been listening to?
Albert King, of course. ---------- Tony Eyers Australia www.HarmonicaAcademy.com everyone plays...
This forum is about modern so I figured I would throw Roy Buchanan in the mix. I became friends with Roy in the mid 70's after seeing him and my friend interviewed him after the show for his college raidio show. I then saw him play at least 50 times up till he died. He did stuff on the guitar that just about every blues rock guy used. Here is a clip with him and Johnny Otis. I use to help Johnny carry his box of cds to and from the powerhouse brewing company when he did a weekly radio show from there. It was a trip to see people from all over the world come to sit and listen to him play cds and talk. Most wanted photos with him and left. Often times there was no more than a few people in the audience. I never told him I was a musician. He was concerned with his and his wife's failing health so I would carry his stuff and listen to him. It sucks getting old as a pro musician unless you are a superstar.
This next clip is from carnige hall. I was at the show backstage with albert and roy. 2 of the greatest tele players ever IMO. They made them play very quiet and none liked it because they couldn't crank the amps to where they got their tones. Another link to this show is when I hit Austin my guitar couldn't keep up with the insane volumes they play at down there. I was given a 63 jazzmaster that Lonnie gave to stevie Vaughn when they recorded their album and I still have it.
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
It's all a matter of taste. Here's my list, in order of admiration:
1 Robert Johnson 2 Brownie McGhee 3 Lightnin' Hopkins 4 Lonnie Johnson 5 Skip James 6 Muddy Waters 7 T-Bone Walker 8 Albert King 9 Freddie King 10 Albert Collins
I'm an old man. In another life (no kids, no mortgage), I saw five of them-- Brownie, Lightnin', Muddy, Freddie, Albert C.
I shared a gig with one of them (Brownie) and played with one of them (Albert C.)
Muddy might be a stretch, but listen to the solo work he does in his early albums (Can't Be Satisfied, etc.).
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on May 23, 2015 10:41 PM
i just want to know one thing how the heck do they get the upright piano on the tour bus. who the hell tours with one of those?
now i,m sure they can arrange to have one at each and every stop on the tour but it looks like the same piano each time. plus it would need to be tuned every day.
