My favorite underrated player is Greg Koch. A true master. If you don’t know, watch his YouTube channel.
Underated Guitarists
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I mentioned him in the other thread, but Reggie Young. His lines were so effortless and he really defined the Memphis sound in my opinion... Dobie Gray, Dusty Springfield, Elvis.... wouldn't have the timeless sound without Reggie.
David Rawlings has been mentioned already and I find his playing really engaging. He's just so lyrical--so much so that you almost don't notice the "chances" he takes harmonically. He embraces non-chord tones in a way that a lot of jazz guys don't, or can't, and when you remember that he's working within a trad/folk framework it should be quite jarring. And yet it isn't. Masterful.
Clarence White, even though he's on "The List" is criminally underrated. Such a loss.
Billy Strings is great--he's quite comfortable pigeonholing himself into a very specific genre and yet his approach to the style is informed by far more than just that genre. I still think Tony Rice is the godfather of flatpicking but his chops were a lot more universal. There's a whole crop of young hot-shot flatpickers who owe their existence to him. He showed us what could be done.
Steve Morse, now that's a name... met him many years ago at a masterclass in a little hole in the wall guitar shop in Sioux Falls when I was just a kid. There's another guy who really could do anything.
Honestly though, for every picker we've heard of, there's twenty guys doing the same thing as good or better. It's always fun discovering unknown (to me) talent, especially in places you don't expect it.
David Rawlings has been mentioned already and I find his playing really engaging. He's just so lyrical--so much so that you almost don't notice the "chances" he takes harmonically. He embraces non-chord tones in a way that a lot of jazz guys don't, or can't, and when you remember that he's working within a trad/folk framework it should be quite jarring. And yet it isn't. Masterful.
Clarence White, even though he's on "The List" is criminally underrated. Such a loss.
Billy Strings is great--he's quite comfortable pigeonholing himself into a very specific genre and yet his approach to the style is informed by far more than just that genre. I still think Tony Rice is the godfather of flatpicking but his chops were a lot more universal. There's a whole crop of young hot-shot flatpickers who owe their existence to him. He showed us what could be done.
Steve Morse, now that's a name... met him many years ago at a masterclass in a little hole in the wall guitar shop in Sioux Falls when I was just a kid. There's another guy who really could do anything.
Honestly though, for every picker we've heard of, there's twenty guys doing the same thing as good or better. It's always fun discovering unknown (to me) talent, especially in places you don't expect it.
Andy Summer was certainly a highly talented guitarist, but to my mind Jerry Garcia had a level of artistry that was so entirely sublime that he's in the very top tier of artists, up there with Jimi Hendrix. Where Nile Rodgers and Eddie Van Halen (and many more on the list) were simply not transformational.
Garcia took the guitar to another level.
Bill
Give a listen to Roxane Elfasci . Both her technique and musicianship are astonishing.
I'm still in awe of his playing. I was a huge Dixie Dregs fan.
I did not mean to dis Jerry Garcia, and I am certainly not saying that Andy Summers was better or more important than Garcia. I really like Garcia as a player, singer, songwriter (props to Robert Hunter, of course), and, I suppose, band leader. Definitely as a person. I think I like him most as the latter things. I think I know what you mean by transformational. Garcia did take from lots of different musical genres and blend them in a way no one had done before. I read that he influenced lots of other players but who exactly? John Mayer, I suppose, whom RS rated 61st, and whom I do not like much at all.
Garcia did a lot of improv. From the videos I have seen, so days live he was transcendent, other days pretty bad, or at least lackluster. I think he took a lot from jazz, and that is going to be beyond my knowledge. I read that a lot of what he played was difficult to play. There is a lot that that the Dead put on albums that I do not love. He does not seem to speak to me as much as lots of other players.
Like some of the other players, Garcia seems kind of unique to me, and thus hard to rank.
Rankings are almost impossible, anyway. Do you go by technical skills, by financial success, by innovation, by influence on others, by longevity, by concert play, by studio work, by how much they speech to you personally? I guess 34 seems about right to me, but I would have different people ahead of him than RS does. I think I can defend Hendrix as no. 1.
I like Nile Rodgers, but I do not know that I could rank him as high as RS does. I think he builds on what a lot of other funk players did. I suppose he has done a lot of studio work with others. I guess I understand that EVH was very innovative and influential on players of a certain kind. I guess he is technically good. He is not a favorite of mine.
Well-said. He seems to do things on an acoustic guitar that I do not hear anyone else doing.
So true.
I really do not know Reggie Young. Sounds good.
I do not know that he is comfortable pigeonholing himself. He started off professionally as a metal guy, I think, and in concert he performs some non-blue grassy stuff, that I do not really like. To me, he has to be on the list for technical skill. I think I said before I do not consider him underrated. He gets a lot of "press."
For those who care, the Grateful Dead had the foresight to make excellent recordings of their shows from the very inception of the band, an overwhelming amount of which are still extant and available in both officially released versions and in unofficially sanctioned uncommercial circulating versions.
Jerry's greatness is manifest in those recorded concerts.
Even this RS list says: "Garcia made every Dead show a different trip, never playing the same lick twice, which is why his psychedelic live jams stand up to endless listens." <--And that's rather an understatement in my opinion.
Bill
He's on a *lot* of tracks but "Drift Away," "Son of a Preacher Man," and the acoustic part on "In the Ghetto" are exemplary.
Speaking of Jerry Garcia, and Tony Rice, the jam record they did with David Grisman ("The Pizza Tapes") is worth a listen.
While not underrated, I don't think Doc Watson made the list. He probably should have.
All great cuts and I agree, quality guitar work!
Now it is coming back to me who Reggie Young was. Lead guitar player for the Memphis Boys, the house/studio band for American Sound Studio in Memphis, which only operated from 1964 to 1972, but generated over 100 hits. RY was a great studio player.
No he is not underrated. Not by anyone who knows anything about guitar players.
And yet another example of RS seeming to be willfully sloppy and/or ignorant! RS did manage to get Wah Wah Watson on there (Funk Brothers)! I am joking. I love the Funk Brothers, and probably everyone who played guitar for them. But Dr. Watson is clearly more important on every scale that WW!I do not disagree, except that I would say that not every Grateful Dead set live jam was a "psychedelic live jam." I think some of the Dead Jams were more jazz than anything else. Calling everything they did psychedelic, as RS seems to imply, sells the Dead way short, I think. Believe it or not, you and I are really on the same page, Spy Car. I just to not think that every Dead jam stands up to endless listens. Many do. I do not think that RS is seriously saying that every Dead show was great or that every time Jerry picked up his SG he produced magic. Even when he was not strung out on heroin and/or nearly in a diabetic coma.
That said, while there is a fair amount of criticism on-line of Garcia simply noodling on guitar live, and certain concerts are cited as bad, I just found it very hard, if not impossible, to find video examples of him playing poorly. So, I suppose that says something! And I do not think it was always Garcia to blame for the Dead being off.
Their collective body of live recorded work is monumental.
I love Garcia, do not misread me!
David Gilmour
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
I entirely agree with on the point you make here about ""psychedelic live jams." That was just lazy journalism on RS's part.
The point they made that was spot-on (if somewhat obvious to anyone familiar with the archive of recorded shows) was that Jerry (so long as he was healthy) and the rest of the band were always stretching and improvising, which kept the music exciting and protean. Some performances were certainly more magical than others.
Jerry had a serious heroin addiction, as you know. Many times the playing suffered when he nodded out. But you are right, there are not so many examples of his artistic demerits, especially when compared with the overwhelming balance of shows where he played brilliantly over 3 decades of heavy touring.
I hope I don't sound disagreeable. I just believe his artistry is far greater than RS's 34th place ranking (which isn't "bad" exactly) suggests.
Bill
You don't sound disagreeable. You sound passionate about something you care about. In any event, just a discussion among friends!
Again, I do not think these two are underrated among those you follow guitarists. I really like Gilmour across the years.
Perhaps I will live to see it, or perhaps not, but I think we will eventually being able to "see" (using imaging) what happens to our brains as we listen to music.
Lacking the evidence of such imaging, I still find myself judging musical greatness not by fame, or fortune, or even influence, but rather in the ways that I imagine some music--the most sublime music--lights up my mind.
There are artists and composers whose music make me feel like my mental synapsis are crackling, as the music also moves my soul.
For me, that's what made Jerry great. In rock, Hendrix had that quality as well. Transportational music. Not just great hooks or fast technique, but true artistic expression that takes place on another plane.
And no more from me on this subject. LOL
Bill
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I wouldn't call them obscure, but Tom Scholz from Boston and Neal Schon from Journey are not on the list. They are both very melodic players with beautiful tone. My daughter would sing along with Tom Scholz guitar solos when she was a teenager (she became a voice major and is a music teacher now).
I personally have little patience for players who play a million notes a measure and yet seemingly have nothing to say.
I personally have little patience for players who play a million notes a measure and yet seemingly have nothing to say.
This is the essence. That quality can come through tapes and videos, but only so much. It came through much better in the 200 Dead shows I saw.
Ranking is impossible. I have seen some absolutely great guitarists who were technically amazing and deserved their place on the rankings, but did not have the...what? musical charisma? Whatever it is that makes a live show magical down to the bone marrow. In all my years of attending concerts, I never saw anyone who could equal Jerry Garcia in that respect. Once, in a large stadium, I went all the way to the top back worst seats, just to establish that the magic traveled that far. It did. Then they started into Row Jimmy, which a lot of people did not like for some reason I never understood, and I hightailed it back to my good spot on the floor to get the full blast of the magic.
Tony Rice and Norman Blake made some nice albums together.
I wasn’t familiar with many of the players on the RS list, but I was surprised some of my favorites were listed as high as they were. Mark Knopfler and Derek Trucks would be two of them. I seem to remember they had Duane Allman as 10th. I guess that’s enough respect for his playing but I’d rate him higher.
I wasn’t familiar with many of the players on the RS list, but I was surprised some of my favorites were listed as high as they were. Mark Knopfler and Derek Trucks would be two of them. I seem to remember they had Duane Allman as 10th. I guess that’s enough respect for his playing but I’d rate him higher.
I am going to go by memory, so you may have to forgive me if I get things wrong. As I recall, Scholz basically was/is Boston, right? Kind of a one-man band in the studio, who gave up performing live earlier on. I think he is recognized as an excellent player, songwriter, producer. I think, again going by memory, I know Boston had other albums, that the issue is that Boston had that fantastic 1976 debut album, and that was about it from the public and the music presses' perceptions.
Yeah, good point. Journey was/is a very successful band. A certain amount of drama around its lead singer, I guess, which may overshadow others in the group getting much attention. Perhaps perceived of as too commercial. I real do not know. I admit that I personally have not paid much attention to Neal Schon. He has a great resume.
