[Controversial] Why is there not any great US guitarists?

Michael Bauer · March 2013

Noodlenot, I was probably a bit unfair to Eric. He had some great moments with Mayall, but I do think his later body of work falls short of greatness. I'm sure others will disagree, and more power to them. My original comment was intended to illustrate to the flame throwers that that "our guys are better than your guys" silliness cuts both ways, not that I don't like any British blues players. the glove box in my car is full of Groundhogs, Fleetwood Mac (the original band), and Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation CD's right now. I absolutely love Tony McPhee's playing because it's so raw, but I would never posit that he is a great player. The Brits had their own take on the blues, and I adore it, but Peter is the only one I think was truly great as a blues player, the only one I would put on a pedestal with B.B., both Alberts, Freddie, and a couple of others.

Jeezus, it's funny how a little aside can restart a fire that looked to have died out.

Buco · March 2013

Archtop Eddy wrote:

Ahem... ladies and gentlemen -- a special "Private-Reserve" YouTube just for you! AE

Hmmm, needs more bacon.
But no it's awesome, seriously, perfect way to put a stop to this.

In one of the first post originally was mentioned something about "lack of raw talent" (and I just said "perfect way to put a stop to this", tsk, tsk).
As if there is such a thing as gypsy jazz talent vs jazz or guitar talent?
A lack of raw interest maybe but not lacking in talent?
And what makes someone great in gypsy jazz or blues anyway? Or a great musician?
What's the criteria for greatness? I'm not saying this in sarcastic way but I really wonder?
'Cause this is more then once recently I heard Eric Clapton's name in less then favorable view and then there's been a mention of Paul Mehling and I'm surprised in both cases.
I think they're both great, not as in "oh man did you see that tv show last night? that was great!"
But great as they've reached an all around proficiency skill on their instruments, knowledge of music, were/are inspirational to many others, left a body of work behind to serve as a template to future musicians and of course are still at it in full swing, helping others reach their goals either actively or just by doing what they do as passionately as they do...I'm getting stuck with this list but I mean, and obviously all this is a matter of taste, sometimes people put an astronomically high bar to bestow someone with this adjective.
It's very hard to judge music objectively, it's not a sport and it can't be measured impartially, though people still argue about it in these definite terms.

I'm thinking I should've stopped with "needs more bacon".

Passacaglia · March 2013

Russell Letson wrote:

And why are all the great American polka bands in Wisconsin, eh? Just answer me that.

Beer.

Bones · March 2013

And bratwurst...

BTW, I loved Cream but for blues I always went in for the originals, Robert, Muddy, Howlin Wolf, etc. not to say that there are not great contemporary blues artists.

mikegnik · March 2013

rimm wrote:

Rory was amazing. I guess you don't know any of his stuff.

Not to be combative, but am I missing something? I sought out Rory Gallagher with an open mind, but I really don't see the appeal as either blues or rock (but I will vote myself likely to say that same of Eddie VH). So, I suppose I can be pretty particular, but I am afraid I see no musical value here (at least in this example).

Just sayin'..... click!

Jazzaferri · March 2013

Quite a showman.......zzzzzzzzz guitar

Check out Derek Trucks....he's the real deal.

anthon_74 · March 2013

touching on the blues rock thing - The blues rock Genre in general is very played. I have yet to hear a recent song that compares to early cream(the only clapton I personally like), early led zepellin, and so on. For 12 bar blues rock, you still can't do better than Chuck Berry.

Bowie did some interesting things with 12 bar blues style comping in the 70s as well... Usually when I hear a blues rock band nowadays it's bigtime snooze.

In fact, I'm not particularly fond of rock in general if it doesn't include a great singer with meaningful lyrics and awesome melodies (which sadly are also few and far between)...

In terms of pure guitar, one of the teachers at last years Django in june made a great point when talking about Gypsy Jazz v. other genres. He said "how many of you know a lot of great guitarists who can't play gypsy jazz at all ?" and everyone raised their hand.. Then he asked "how many of you know any gypsy Jazz guitarist who can't play pretty much any genre he/she chooses ?" And of course, nobody raised their hand.

It just seems that Gypsy jazz forces you to unlearn so many ways of playing, and maximize your energy output vs sound creation, that it allows any style to be fairly easy in comparison.

noodlenot · March 2013

on the blues thing, and quite lateral to all this - granted - many shades of blue there are, obi wan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nixx65PsvZM

beenawhile · March 2013

Anyone care to submit a top ten list for N.American GJ recordings....are there any comps out there featuring N. American players?

To my ears, I have yet to find a GJ album than I enjoy more than anything produced by the pre-war version QHCF. The combo of Django and Stephane is hard to beat. But I am always hoping to discover other great albums...just not sure where to start.