best blues guitar players

dreadnut

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I'd have to give the nod to Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, and SRV for slots one, two, and three.
 

shihan

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Nobody did it like the King of the Blues, Mr. BB King. He was the innovator. He set the standard everybody else tried to reach.
 

Default

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Nobody did it like the King of the Blues, Mr. BB King. He was the innovator. He set the standard everybody else tried to reach.


Can't argue with any of the Kings. Almost every guitar player has cribbed notes from them. Start with the roots of the tree, before you point to the leaves as "best".
 

rampside

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Start with the roots of the tree, before you point to the leaves as "best".

I totally agree with that statement.

There are so many variables when it comes to blues guitar and in turn, there are many, many "bests", IMHO.

Who has ever been able to duplicate the vibrato and make an electric guitar actually sing, as "BB" could?

Then you have the acoustic players that started it all, Such as "Josh White" and the techniques he was able to come up with on his songs such as "Number Twelve Train". Unbelievable!
 

rampside

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Tough to pick the best of the best. However, I really liked Luther Allison a lot for sure.

Luther Allison....yeah!

I feel very fortunate to have heard "Luther Allison", live at an outdoor blues fest, when all the circumstances made for, perhaps, the best performance I have ever experienced.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Gotta put Robert Johnson at the top for sheer musicality and chops, as well as for coming on the scene at the right time to be both an innovator and a distiller.

If you can get past the poor pressing quality of the existing 78s of his stuff, check out Blind Blake. Not solely a bluesman but a rippin' and entertaining player regardless of style.

Love me some Skip James, both his early stuff and later post-"rediscovery" recordings. Same goes for John Hurt.

-Dave-
 

Westerly Wood

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I really liked JJ Cale when I was younger. So mellow. Less is more. Naturally is a quintessential album or was for me a long time ago.

From the Wiki...
Naturally is the debut album by J. J. Cale. First released in 1972, it includes his song "After Midnight", which had been recorded first by Eric Clapton in 1970. Cale, who was languishing in obscurity at the time, had no knowledge of Clapton's recording of "After Midnight" until it became a radio hit in 1970. Cale recalled to Mojo magazine that when he heard Clapton's version playing on his radio, "I was dirt poor, not making enough to eat and I wasn't a young man. I was in my thirties, so I was very happy. It was nice to make some money."[4] Cale's friend and producer, Audie Ashworth, encouraged Cale to record a full album in order to capitalize on the success of his song.

Naturally was recorded independently, "on spec," the musicians being paid demo fees. Some songs, such as "Call Me the Breeze", were recorded with primitive drum machine accompaniment and sound almost like demos. The album showcased Cale's distinctive, understated style, and it successfully established his solo recording career, which continued until his death in 2013. The album contained the 1972 hits "Crazy Mama" (Billboard Hot 100 #22- his only Top 40 hit [5]) and "After Midnight" (#42) as well as turntable hits "Bringing it Back" (recorded by Kansas for their first album), "Call Me the Breeze" (later recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd) and "Clyde" (later recorded by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show and a 1980 country hit for Waylon Jennings).

Thom Owens of AllMusic rated the album three out of five stars and then said that "Cale effortlessly capture a lazy, rolling boogie" opposite to the early 1970s mainstream "styles of boogie, blues, and country rock."[6]
 

adorshki

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Nobody did it like the King of the Blues, Mr. BB King. He was the innovator. He set the standard everybody else tried to reach.
Peter Green,
Mr. King had this to say about Mr. Green:
"He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats."
Moving right along, and to paraphrase the old Lays potato chip commercial: "Betcha can't pick just one":
Johnny Winter
Muddy Waters
Howlin' Wolf
Mike Bloomfield
Harvey Mandel (Canned Heat)
(yeah I like Chicago Blues)
Jorma Kaukonen (Hot Tuna; acoustic and electric)
Gatemouth Brown
Johnny Guitar Watson
T-Bone Walker (B.B. King cited hearing Walker's recording of "Stormy Monday" as his inspiration for getting an electric guitar)
The last 3 all influenced "Joe", too:

cover_281861762016_r.jpg



Nobody for Clapton?
 

griehund

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OK, this seems like a good spot to tell a story. I'm sitting outside the bar at my country club enjoying a beer or 2 and a stogy when a greyish haired fellow sits on the other side of my table. I'm listening to tunes on my phone. IIRC Buddy Guy and Junior Wells "Messin With The Kid" is playing. So the guy says "sounds like the blues ay" I says "yup". He say's, "great thing about the blues is we own it". I confess to feeling a rather unfriendly response. It started internally with Tonto's response to The Lone Ranger "what you mean we paleface" and it got worse from there. In one corner of my mind I knew what he meant but I still felt angry. In my mind nobody owns any genre of music. If anyone owns the blues it would be Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonsey, Howlin Wolf, even Sister Rosetta Tharpe has a bigger investment in the blues than this fellow sitting across the table. Ironically, Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" is next on my play list and I decided to let it play.
I expect that every genre of music starts with a cultural expression of living people. When Clapton et al played the blues it was their interpretation of what went before. None of them ever claimed to own the genre or even be the king.

So anyway, I got that off my chest and didn't solve a damned thing other than getting it off my chest.

BTW I don't have a favorite player. I have lots of favorite songs from different players. Blues is my favorite genre because it is a cultural expression of real life. In it's original form it is story telling about life as a second class citizen. Nobody owns it.

End of story. Turning off mic.
 

adorshki

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When Clapton et al played the blues it was their interpretation of what went before. None of them ever claimed to own the genre or even be the king.
The beauty of blues: It's alive, it evolves.
:friendly_wink:
And I probably wouldn't have killed my buzz by engaging in that conversation, either.

By the way Clapton quit the Yardbirds after one too many country club gigs:

1cf6c9d2-754c-4285-80e8-17f8717666d0


:glee:
 

wileypickett

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Howling' Wolf's guitarist, Hubert Sumlin, is, for me, electric blues guitar personified. Not flashy, but absolutely deadly riffs, killer phrasing, biting attack -- the best! Sumlin's guitar parts characterize Wolf's classic songs almost as much as Wolf's voice does.

(BTW, I once hit Humbert Sumlin in the head with the front tire of my bicycle -- true!)

Glad to see Sister Rosetta Tharpe mentioned here -- her recordings were ubiquitous in the south, and were on the radio constantly. Every early rockabilly player worth his salt mentions her as a prime influence.

I love many of the electric guys and gals, but my first love is for acoustic blues, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Willie McTell, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, Bukka White, Son House, Memphis Minnie, etc.

As Keith Richards said, ". . . there's a touch that you can get off an acoustic guitar that you'll never get off an electric."
 
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