Ya know? I never thought of Eric Sardinas as a Blues Guy, but he sure the heck is. Have you seen him jam with Steve Vai on Live at The Astoria? Breathtaking. I better go out and get a Sardinas CD!

_________________
"Persistence Is The Father Of Invention"
-Crazy Old Man In Training

Besides the obvious masters it's Jimi Hendrix for me.
Just listen to Red House, Hear My Train Comin' and Bleeding Heart.

Peter

The last great newer blues guy was Buddy Wittington of John Mayall's
Blues Breakers. He is HUGE and he plays the hell out of that little red
strat. The strats not really little, it's just that he is HUGE. And he plays HUGE. I like that word, HUGE, when it comes to my favorites!

For sure Stevie Ray Vaughn 1st choice, 2nd Eric Clapton, 3rd BB King.

robert johnson, blind blake obviously ...but electric i'd say clapton

If you want to hear the most authentic sounding blues from a non-black musician listen to Duane Allman's intro on " I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town". It is indistinguishable from one of the great blues artists ( Muddy Waters, etc.). To many guitarists sound too derivative - they can play the notes, but as far as the "feel" for it .... that's another story !!

ps - there's no such thing as the "best" blues guitarist or any guitarist for that matter. As the late, great Roy Buchanan would say " there is no #1 " ........and he knew what he was talking about !!

I've got an opinion after being on the fence. Eric Clapton is the greatest Blues guitar player.

For straight electric blues - what we think of from Clapton - it is a tie imho between SRV (with a slight edge), BB King for groundbreaking, and Clapton (just listen and it's there you know it).

What sets Clapton apart from others is he's a student of music and the instrument in every way. He does more than just the "Clapton" thing.

For slide, Clapton played slide with slide master Duane Allman on Layla. They're both going at it. Taking nothing away from Duane Allman, Clapton is right there with him.

One of Clapton's biggest albums was unplugged and he's excellent with his Martin acoustic guitar, fingerpicking Robert Johnson tunes.

Because he is the most versatile and accomplished musician of our era, Clapton is the best Blues artist.

Now, expanding the universe of players, Jazz guys may want to say Al Dimeola can wipe the deck with Eric, but I don't think so, especially when you look at the bottleneck blues.

_________________
"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

You should ask Clapton who the best blues guitarist is. I'm sure it wouldn't be himself. You can't pick a #1 except maybe for yourself, if you can, then you need to listen to a lot more blues artists. Dig back from the early 1920's and work your way up. These guys were incredible and they wrote the music that a lot of the new players play. There hundreds who influenced Clapton, B.B. and especially SRV.

Since it asked for the "Best Blues Guitaris", I answered Stevie cause he's my favorite. If it asked "Greatest Blues Guitarist", I would have had to go with T-Bone Walker, or *Memphis Minnie (She fronted her own band with an electric guitar before Muddy did.).

If it was not Guitar Specific, and only asked for the "Greatest Blues Musician" I'd have said Willie Dixon, But if it asked for "The Most Importanr Blues Contributor", I'd say Pinetop Perkins, or Peetie Wheatstraw. The first recorded blues guys that influenced Robert Johnson and Willie McTell.

But I'd have to make a new catagory for Elmore James, Muddy, and Hubert Sumlin. Cause, they're important, too.

*(Edit-Retraction-I meant to say Big Mamma Thorton fronted her own band with an Electric guitar)

_________________
"Persistence Is The Father Of Invention"
-Crazy Old Man In Training

Stevie Ray, but I feel as though I've answered this question before.

_________________
"Music is really a way to reach out and hold onto each other in a healthy way." --Stevie Ray Vaughan

Hello 63supro I want you to know that I get a lot out of your posts. What you say is true - about what Clapton would say and the deep history of the Blues. At the same time, I'm playing along with the inquiry and giving my opinion. Progress is real. Robert Johnson is a fantastic, mind-blowing artist. He's like an early incarnation of Hendrix or something with just unreal lyrics that are so touching and true. Check out Keb Mo's version of Love In Vain. It's just searing. Who else has written songs and lyrics like that within the Blues? Clapton and BB King both have. They've also written a lot of other stuff. A wounded BB King in the 1950s wrote some stuff that's classic - How Blue Can You Get? You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now and others. Clapton on the Layla album and select solo work has reached the heights of songwriting, like Hendrix did with Little Wing and some of his other incredible songs. You can't rank this kind of artistry. These guys are all in the stratosphere as artists. So, I take the question to be one of musicianship. SRV, BB King and Clapton are all tremendous musicians. All of them had a lot of advantages that the original Blues pioneers like Robert Johnson or Son House or Leadbelly didn't have - nutrition, technology, and whatnot. BB started about the same as Robert Johnson but he came up fast and used everything he could. They all stood on the shoulders of Robert Johnson and that generation, and really SRV and Clapton stood on the shoulders of BB King and the bendy electric blues. There's been progress and advancements from the terrible heartbreaking conditions overcome by the genius of Robert Johnson and that era. Who can play the original acoustic blues, bottleneck blues, electric slide blues, bendy electric blues and give away little or nothing to anyone who ever played? Clapton's the only one I can think of.

Maybe that's not the way to approach it. For sheer speed, Yngiew or Dimeola are probably faster although I'm not sure that's true, but they don't have the soul and so they're not even called Blues artists.

I've got to say though - the young BB King had an incredible singing voice and BB King live in his heyday has a swinging Blue blues feel that is musical genius. He's often underestimated because he's humble. He's not big on slide and acoustic and bottleneck but doing his thing and arranging a band with horns and whatnot, BB was the King.

_________________
"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton

Not to take this off topic too far, but I have recently become aware that I have missed one of the greats, and important innovators, in T-Bone Walker. I do not have any of his stuff. One of my personal favorites here in Southern California, Dave Alvin, cites him often. I don't see Walker mentioned here much, but could someone who's familiar fill me in? Most Important: recommend a career retrospective CD (or 2) that I can buy.

I read on some web site that Walker either actually taught, or was definitely an influence, on my favorite rock-and-roll guitarist, Chuck Berry.

I mentioned him, but it was lost in the text of a wordy post. He played with his teeth before Hendrix, and In a Mohair Suit with a Clean Jazzbox.

_________________
"Persistence Is The Father Of Invention"
-Crazy Old Man In Training