Who is your favorite blues guitarist


Such a hard question. there are so many people who have influenced blues guitar. I'm born and raised in chicago been to rush street many times, so the blues have always been a part of my life. But to me no one has ever done to the blues what STEVIE RAY VAUGHN did. He was able to do things on the guitar that artists are still trying to do today, and I think he gets forgotten because he has been gone so long, but if you ask most blues artists today who they thought was the best most would put him in thier top 3. One of my greatest blues recordings of all time was A CD made in 83' called in session" It was done with my other great blues guitarist ALBERT KING. If SRV would have lived he would have done things that would have blown us all away!!
dabairzdavid

Showing 2 responses by martykl

I guess this isn't a BB King crowd - I'd have guessed his name would come up first among the electric guitarists.

Albert Collins was a great live act and Michael Bloomfield is a good call, too. Gatemouth was a terrific performer, but he spent as much time on fiddle as guitar. Among the younger set, Robert Cray is a really good player and I also like Duke Robillard.

Many jazz players like John McLaughlin and Wes Montgomery also played a fair bit of blues and did a wonderful job.

For those looking at rockers who are bluesmen at heart, I'd also add Peter Green, Sonny Landreth, and arguably the omni-genre David Hidalgo (Cesar Rosas is also a wonderful blues player),

The ladies usually get overlooked (although Susan Tedeschi has some profile), but I also like Joan Armatrading and the criminally underappreciated Bonnie Raitt.

Marty
Oops,

Under "omni-genre" I forgot Danny Gatton. He played some blues - and a bit of everything else. Whatever he played, he played with astonishing skill and grace.

Marty