Any true blues musician recognizes this as a ridiculous question. There is no "best" blues guitarist. Blues is (are) played for expression, not technique and certainly fretboard pyrotechnics are not a criterion for "best." Expressiveness wins. At any given time a "primitive" player like John Lee Hooker can humiliate a capable player like Clapton. As a guitar player myself, the adulation for Clapton eludes me. He's quite ok, even good. I scarcely listen to him. Obviously capable technically, Clapton just lacks expression. I'm old enough for all of Clapton's recorded output to have been new when I heard it. At no time in his career has he impressed me as unsurpassed. He's always played into a context of many "better" guitarists. Green arguably played closer to Blues but still was not a standard-setter.
Blues isn't about "playing circles around another." when I want to listen to Clapton I listen to Clapton because no one else sounds quite like him. But I don't confuse what he does with a guitar with Blues. It's Blues-influenced and that's fine. But if I want to hear Blues on guitar, give me Joe Callicot, T-Bone Walker, Hubert Sumlin, Albert King, Little Milton, Gatemouth Brown, Luther Tucker, Albert Collins, Lowell Fulson, Elmore James, Guitar Slim, Matt Murphy, Lightnin' Hopkins, Leadbelly, Bloomfield, Hendrix in Blues mode. Certainly Buddy Guy. and if you want a case for Duane Allman, just listen to him on Boz Scaggs' "Loan Me A Dime," 1969. Clapton? Where's the line between Blues and rock? Listen to Hound Dog Taylor on "See Me In The Evening." That will show you Clapton plays Blues like a rock guitar player, not quite competing in Blues expression.
Now we have Bonamassa and Trucks. If they had been Clapton's peers in 1966, I'm not sure we'd be remembering so much about Eric, or even Green.
Phil
Blues isn't about "playing circles around another." when I want to listen to Clapton I listen to Clapton because no one else sounds quite like him. But I don't confuse what he does with a guitar with Blues. It's Blues-influenced and that's fine. But if I want to hear Blues on guitar, give me Joe Callicot, T-Bone Walker, Hubert Sumlin, Albert King, Little Milton, Gatemouth Brown, Luther Tucker, Albert Collins, Lowell Fulson, Elmore James, Guitar Slim, Matt Murphy, Lightnin' Hopkins, Leadbelly, Bloomfield, Hendrix in Blues mode. Certainly Buddy Guy. and if you want a case for Duane Allman, just listen to him on Boz Scaggs' "Loan Me A Dime," 1969. Clapton? Where's the line between Blues and rock? Listen to Hound Dog Taylor on "See Me In The Evening." That will show you Clapton plays Blues like a rock guitar player, not quite competing in Blues expression.
Now we have Bonamassa and Trucks. If they had been Clapton's peers in 1966, I'm not sure we'd be remembering so much about Eric, or even Green.
Phil