Jaen-Pierre Dowling wrote
I'd just like to know who I can listen to that has written well composed guitar music within in the last five years? It feels as though people want to compare today's blues guitarists with, say, Hendrix, and then fault the young guns, but times- and composing has changed? (but obviously this is no excuse for poorly written music though I might ad?)
Sorry. Didn't read your question properly. 5 years might be a bit of a short time as most artists release CDs every 3 or 4 years these days, so how to identify those who do it consistently?
Personally I don't concern myself much with wether or not the music is GUITAR music. If the song is good and if the players are good then the chances of a favourable outcome are ... errr.... good.
That said, Bruce Cockburn released an album of instrumentals titled
Speechless. That's all acoustic guitar, with some help from friends on various instruments. He's a very good player with good composing skills (instrumental and songs - IE words and music).
If you like slidey things then you might want to take a listen to Harry Manx who combines American slide and Indian music. Very interesting.
If you want really good songs that happen to have strong guitar playing on the recordings then Richard Thompson is somebody to consider. His most recent album
Sweet Warrior has some fab playing on it - though the thing that I enjoy about Thompson is that whilst he has big chops he aims to complement and serve the song, so you get solos and they're really good, but it's not a shred fest and might not meet your definition of "guitar music".
