This is a fun list I took part in for Facebook.
Hmmm, now who did I forget? LOL Okay, yeah, I obviously took longer than 15 minutes, and there’s more than 20, but it was so much fun….
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The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Twenty guitarists that will always stick with you. List the first 20 you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I’m interested in what guitarists my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in new notes, cast your picks and tag people in the note – in the tag line).
1. Ry Cooder – rocked Bumbershoot 1974 with just a mandolin! Yeah!!
2. Sonny Landreth – amazing, unique slide technique & tone
3. Johnny Winters – the fastest blues guitarslinger, back in the day – a great body of work
4. John Fahey – tortured avante-folk & blues genius, fingerpicking, alternate tuning & slide
5. Leo Kotke – genius folk & blues finger picker & slide
6. Tony Rice – quite a bluegrass flat-picker
7. John Frusciante – Red Hot Chili Peppers, solo
8. Andres Segovia – classical
9. Clarence White – the Byrds, bluegrass/country
10. Bob Dylan – what can one say? Yep!
11. John Cippolina – Quicksilver Messenger Service
12. Richard Thompson – great to see live!
13. Don Rich – Buck Owens’ 60’s guitarist
14. Jorma Kaukonen – Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna
15. Paul Westerberg – The Replacements, solo
16. Tommy Stinson – Replacements, Bash and Pop
17. Albert King – “Born Under A Bad Sign”
18. Jerry Garcia – The Grateful Dead, other – so much listenable music
19. Ronnie Earl – bluesy jazz
20. Brother Oswald – dobro guitarist
21. Neil Young – I love “Powderfinger”
22. Dick Dale – surf-guitar pioneer/king
23. Dave Alvin – The Blasters & various
24. Lowell George – Little Feat
25. Hubert Sumlin – Howlin’ Wolf
26. Johnny Thunders – NY Dolls; invented whiny-tone
27. John Mayall – a father of British blues; prolific
28. John Olufs – the Picketts, Red Dress, other
29. Robert Cray – soul-blues
30. Bo Diddley – soulful & rhythmical rock pioneer
31. Jerry Douglas – Dobro guitarist
32. James Burton – Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson
33. Wes Montgomery – Classy jazz player – octaves & chord melodies
34. Also must mention: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Ron Wood, Robbie Robertson, Steve Cropper. I wish I was more familiar with the great soul/rhythm & blues guitarists.
added 4-5-12:
35. So good I had to count him twice, lol! Clarence White – Byrds; influential bluegrass flat-picker and Telecaster player; co-inventor of the Parsons/White B-Bender (which allowed for pedal-steel type effects on the guitar); country-rock pioneer. Listen to one of my favorite tracks featuring his playing on “Tulsa County” by the Byrds. That guitar sounds like beautiful birds swooping around you! Inter-played with the beautiful accompaniment of Byron Berline’s fiddle.
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