Fave Blues Guitarist

Here's a question:

Who are the most important blues guitarists? Surely, Muddy Waters was important as the father of electric blues (or T-Bone Walker perhaps), but what about Jimmy Rodgers? Here's my take:

Earl Hooker: perhaps the best "West-Side" Chicago guy
B.B. King: probably the most sophisticated blues player
Jimmy Rodgers: maybe the greatest accompanist of all time
Freddie King: invented the blues instrumental, making the guitar the focal point of the performance.
Buddy Guy: proved that "crossing over" isn't selling out.
T-Bone Walker: without him, you probably don't get B.B.
SRV: re-charged the blues guitar.

Yes, I have left Albert King, Albert Collins, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Son Seals, Johnny Copeland, and several others off the list, although I really enjoy these cats. I believe that the above players did something to significantly change the blues guitar. Thoughts, comments?

I like Muddy waters

I listen to three blues man :

B.B. King
Buddy Guy
SRV

In my mind they are the best, but there's a lot good blues players out there.

People might hang me for this, but I love the blues playing of Robben FORD and Mike STERN.

I really like Gary Moore too!!!

P.S. Robben Ford kicks ass!

For some of the younger guys, how about Melvin Taylor and Bernard Allison? Anybody like Ronnie Earl?

Robben Fords "Handfull of Blues" is probably one of the most exciting and jamming blues cd's I've heard in a long time!!
B.B. King......keeps getting better w/time!
SRV....Hendrix meets the blues!!yeah!
Buddy Guy, I love his songwriting, but don't care too much for his guitar playin', a little sloppy for my tastes.

There was a guy who was playing for Roomfull of Blues not too long ago who everybody was ravin about, can't remember his name....anybody have any info on him?

Has anybody ever heard Larry Carlton play a blues, this guy is so tastey, he plays it the way it's meant to be played. Check out BP blues on his live cd last nite...you won't regret it.

I think that B.B kings is realy too overated. He has nice sound but thats all.
My favorites are:
SRV
Buddy Guy
Gary Moore
Eric Clapton (not all of his stuff)
Robert Johnson
Johny Lang (A new kid on the block, check him out)

Mick Taylor

You gotta check out Walter Trout! High energy blues but the guy can flat out play. Played with Canned Heat years ago. I heard about him on the Tater Red blues show here in Memphis a year or so back. If you like SRV, you gotta like this guy.
Grog go now

Really, Zep, you think B.B. is over-rated??? I mean, any time he plays, you can tell it's him. He's a true original! Plus, his band is always so solid.

Originally posted by Zeppelin
I think that B.B kings is realy too overated. He has nice sound but thats all.

I think that, along with many innovators, like Hendrix, BB doesn't sound as great or impressive as the other guys that came after him... But don't forget he popularized what he called string squeezing... wazzat? well, before him, who wasbending the strings?... Jimmie VAUGHAN introduces BB in the concert for his brother like that: 'without him, the electric blues would be different, because we have all tried, and still are trying to sound like him...'

Oh man, I expected a comment like that on Guitar.com on a versus Kirk Hammett post!!

(joking!)

heh
i didnt say he "suck" or something guitar.com-ish :)
I know why people like him and he is the king of the blues and everything BUT i hate that people treat him as some head of a gang:
If you want to be in the blues mafia you must play with b.b king. if he plays with you then you are in..

That's kind of true, I like that argument... Let's transpose it, if you wanna be a real shredder, uh, sorry, wrong term... Virtuoso, you gotta play in the G3...

haha, virtuoso!

My facourites accccording to style are

Slide - Son House, Chris Whitley
Acoustic - Lightnin' Hopkins, Eric Clapton
Electric - SRV (nach!) Buddy Guy, BB King, Robert Cray

Just some views from the peanut gallery...

The Blues Mafia be watchin you boy!

For a solid background in Blues I gotta spend some time with the Three Kings. (That's Freddie, BB, and Albert y'know?).

When I want to 'break out' and refresh my senses with something fresh and original, there's nothing like "Second Winter" from Johnny Winter! He got more mainstream as time, and other troubles wore on him, but that one album stands out for all time.

A band I've never seen mentioned here that I particularly enjoy, is Savoy Brown. Again, their early stuff is the best. Kim Simmonds' guitar work was the key to that band. The rest of the members rotated out frequently, but most of them were phenominal. Bob Hall's piano lines were amazing. "Blue Matter" should be in every serious Bluesman's collection!

Hubert Sumlin

John Lee Hooker

Hendrix/Healy.