Bob-Dubery
Squonk wrote:
I know we all hate lists....
But treat this list as a who's who in acoustic guitar playing.
Well these lists are NEVER inarguable. WHich is part of the fun. I'd agree that it's a good place to look for names of artists to listen to.
But there's other fish in the sea. And players who would be disqualified from this list because they crossed over between acoustic and electric. Which, I presume, is why Bruce Cockburn isn't in there. Though Atkins and Martyn played a LOT of electric guitar.
[deleted]
PeteM wrote:
What? No Django?
"Criteria: - This list is intended for those musicians whose primary instrument throughout their careers has been or is now the acoustic guitar. It is based upon their individual originality, innovation, technique & influence within this genre. It does NOT include the Pioneers of Blues, Jazz, Classical, or the Latin acoustic influenced genre's such as Flamenco, or those modern guitarists who have recorded or performed their music in an occaisonal [sic] "unplugged" setting."
:-\ *shrug*
MikeM
I was going through this, and didn't find someone that really appealed to me, then I spotted this guy, AWESOME. Have to share ? Never heard of this fellar before but definately going to find out more about him.
guitarboy2828
MikeM wrote:
I was going through this, and didn't find someone that really appealed to me, then I spotted this guy, AWESOME. Have to share ? Never heard of this fellar before but definately going to find out more about him.
Very nice video! Great fingerstyle! ?
Renesongs
I only recognize 6 names on the list so I probably don't listen to much acoustic guitar however if you limit the criteria of acoustic guitarist to preclude Django Reinhart, Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins or even Paco Lucia I think the list becomes rather meaningless clique geek thing of "oh gee here is a list of 100 guitarist that I think are really neat" which is reminiscent of the infamous Rolling stones top 100 guitarist of all times. ?
PS: ( I say this of course because I have never made it on to any of these lists)
Squonk
Remember my comments in the beginning dont treat this as a list of 'THE' 100 best acoustic guitarists but rather as resource to check out some great acoustic players
@ Rene, if you have only heard of 6 of them, there's a lot you missing out on.
If you surf this site you will understand why Django, Paco etc are not on the list because they are bigger than just acoustic, there are other lists of jazz guitarists, flamenco, blues etc.
I am sure when you hear the name Robert Johnson the first word that comes to mind is not "Acoustic" but maybe "blues", so have a look at the Blues list rather and the same for Django etc.
@ MikeM didn't find anyone that appealed to you? Tommy Emmanuel, Michael Hedges, Monte Montgomery, Pierre Bensusan, Leo Kotke, Phil Keaggy, Martin Simpson are not that appealing?
I didn't post this list to discuss the merits of lists, rather a list of acoustic guitarists to investigate
@ Pete - have a look at some of the other lists, Django is on a lot of them
MikeM
Squonk, Tommy Emmanuel floats my boat like nobodies business, but I already know him. But yes, going down from #1, Mr Juber was the first guy to really impress me ?
guitarboy2828
This is the point in time I wish i had uncapped adsl.. So i could youtube all these guys and watch them play.. But alas, its the 13th, i've used more than 50% of my data bundle.. No more youtube for me!
Bob-Dubery
Generally this list makes no sense at all to me unless, as Squonk suggests, you just use it as a resource.
Even then there are names missing. The big omission for me is Bruce Cockburn. How can you include Joni Mitchell and Roy Harper as guitarists and then leave Cockburn out? Maybe points were deducted because Cockburn "went electric" for a while, but he started off as an acoustic player and for the bulk of his live and recorded work he has played acoustic guitar.
Nick Drake too. If you can have Harper in that list then you can have Drake.
The big problem for me is that there's a notion that there's a genre called "acoustic guitar". There isn't. The acoustic guitar is just a tool and it can be applied to many genres. Start limiting yourself so that you exclude blues players or jazz players or players who (gasp!) have also played electric then you start missing out on a lot of good music and players.
Following on from that, I doubt that Laurence Juber, fine player though he is, actually meets the compiler's criteria. He was a session player for some years and played a lot of electric (it's true, have the smelling salts handy) including a stint with Paul McCartney. I don't think this list is well considered or has been exhaustively researched.
So ja... for me it has no value other than as a list that makes me scratch my head and repeatedly ask "who dat?" Mind you, I could name, with conviction, acoustic players that will make whoever drew up that list say "who dat?". Steve Newman for one. He's a fab player, he's just not that well known globally.
singemonkey
Seems to be about people with some kind of "acoustic" mindset. A group linked by some kind of artistic similarities.
For me Django and Robert Johnson being left out is madness - while Chet Atkins, primarily famous for his work on electric guitars, is included. Weird. But as a couple of people have said, I guess it's an interesting list for finding out about some new people.
Bob-Dubery
singemonkey wrote:
Seems to be about people with some kind of "acoustic" mindset. A group linked by some kind of artistic similarities.
Oh I dunno. I don't see a lot of common ground between Martin Carthy and Michael Hedges. Or between John Martyn and Chet Atkins.
For me Django and Robert Johnson being left out is madness - while Chet Atkins, primarily famous for his work on electric guitars, is included. Weird. But as a couple of people have said, I guess it's an interesting list for finding out about some new people.
Davy Graham ranked below Jansch ? If it weren't for Graham there wouldn't be Jansch, or not as we know his work now. Graham was very influential though not that famous in his own right.
Can I get a big "amen" for the Reverend Gary Davis?
singemonkey
Amen indeed ?
FriendyAnil
I use a Seymour Duncan Woody for my acoustic- it's cheap and has very good tone. I assume you're looking for a soundhole pickup that can just be dropped in, as opposed to an under-saddle pickup or whatever. A side note: No pickup can accurately reproduce an acoustic's tone- it just won't sound as open and airy. If you want almost exact reproduction of tone, try micing your guitar. Experiment with mic positions until you find what works best.
Squonk
Hi Friendly Anil ?
[deleted]
I cant believe I never saw this post..
I have to agree to disagree with the positioning of them, but all the guys on the list are great players...
Tommy Emmanuel is by far the best... IMO
Tony Rice? so low down? NO ONE can flat pick like Tony Rice...
Monte Montgomery? probably the best of the lot technique wise...
Laurence Juber is magical, he did/does plenty of Beatles numbers, if I'm not mistaken he has an album of ONLY Beatles numbers, great compositions, such a graceful player.
There are quite a few good players that are not on the list... ?
Malkav
I'm kinda confused by this whole trend of saying the ones who came first were the better players, I listen to tons of guitarists who are influenced by Hendrix and it hasn't made me like Hendrix cause in my opinion the guys I listen to are better.
In the same sense I just recently got into Steve Morse - Do I think he's an incredible genius guitar player, yes - Do I completely understand where John Petrucci got a lot of his style from, yes - Do I respect Morse for the influence he's had on the music I love, yes - would I rather listen to Morse as opposed to Petrucci (assuming we had a situation where I never got to listen to the other ever again), No.
I think in a lot of ways the older players are the ones who stress this kinda stuff cause their guitar heroes are the ones who influenced ours, but unfortunately our guitar heroes are the ones we'd rather be listening to. Partially because their music is more relative to our time and partially because they're also breaking the mold but in our context not the one that was around in the 60's or whatever.
That's just one of the possible reasons why Davy Graham might have been ranked below Jansch, I'm not saying that this is good or not (I've never heard either) but this list is essentially a large group of other peoples opinions that differ with your own, as all these lists generally are to most of us. Now in order to have your opinion respected you have to respect the opinion of others - not implying that Bob is not respecting the opinion of others, this is more of just a broad statement aimed towards everyone as I'm sure at one point or another we will all find ourselves in a scenario where our opinion differs and we'll feel strongly about it ?.
In much the same respect I wish the older gentlemen would respect the younger ones when they feel that certain "Legendary" players aren't to their liking, it's not that we can't see what it is they've done or that we don't respect the legacy of their work but musical tastes are opinion related and one cannot be forced to love something, only shown that it is there and given the opportunity to experience it for themselves.
AlanRatcliffe
Some great points Chad. As an "older player" myself, I try and keep up with modern players (who introduced you to Bumblefoot and Eklundh?), but it gets real hard to investigate everything new in depth when you're still struggling to catch up on all the interesting stuff created on the periphery of your own decade. So give us old folk a little leeway... ? But yeah, we allend up a little set in our ways.
However you also have to take into account that we have the benefit of knowing the context surrounding an older player which allows us to gauge just how revolutionary they were. This also puts the newer players in a different context for us - I see players like Andy McKee or Kaki King (we are talking acoustic players here) and while they have impressive skills, they do not have much originality when compared to Michael Hedges who came out of leftfield and screwed all our heads on backwards during the '80s.
The true test of many players is time - in 20 years time you'll be surprised by how you feel about certain players you like now, just as I have been.
(Oh - and Morse can compose circles around Pettrucci ? [Alan ducks and runs] ?)
