It's good to see that as this thread progressed some real players got mentioned. At first the SRV, Buddy Guy thing (and all the vaunabees out there..man i'm sick of the texas shuffle), had me agreeing with sdcambell that ya'll need to get out more. I'll admit though I did see buddy with james cotton at Antones in about 1989 where he just killed but them days seem to be gone. Green gets hyped all the time in guitar player mag and elsewhere but while i agree he can play i just don't get where he is so great..maybe its that early influence thing. Clapton i never got. HDM mentioned thackery but never seen him live...been there about 4 or 5 times and i've seen him morph into hendrix, not just a lick copier but pour'n it out with the same feel and heart that Jimi had and what a killer tone. Coco Montoya, taught buitar by albert collins and nurtured by John Mayhall, is another killer player though his later discs are weak song wise. Another guy you must check out is Gatemouth Brown, he swings his a** off. Little Charlie from the Nightcats nails the west coast jump blues thing. John Mooney whips up a Delta/New Orleans tinged slide brew that will knock you socks off. Already mentioned guys who can smoke clapton or green: Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl (though the live show i saw was pretty weak), and Robben Ford (the one true guitar god IMO, who cites Bloomfield as a big influence). Then there is BB. I've seen a lot of the famous blues players over the last 15 years and while others may out play the King Ive never felt more of a presence come off of a stage than seeing BB from about 10 ft away at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in the late 80's. WOW! The truely best player? The one that gets YOU in that happy place with the ole feet jus tappin away. If you can't dig the blues you got a hole in your soul! peace.
