“I’ve seen a lot of guys who don't use a pick — George Benson, Bruce Bolen, Jerry Reed, Roy Clark — but never, never me, man,” B.B. King told Guitar Player in 1984. “Always the pick. I'm really lost if I've got to play without it. I'm horrible at chords without one. I'm terrible at fingerpicking. In fact, I'm even ashamed to try it. But I do know how to use a pick.”

As B.B. himself admitted, he wasn’t a particularly fast player, simply because “I play mostly downstrokes,” he said. Furthermore, he added, “I use a medium pick that isn't very flexible at all. I'm old-fashioned: I was taught to hold it with two fingers in the first place, so I still do it that way most times. I hold it with my thumb and index, and control it with my middle finger.”

To that end, he was a hard player, attacking the strings of his electric guitars more ferociously than a jazz player and even many rock guitarists. “I fight the strings at times for presence,” he said, “to get that force.”

Despite this, B.B.’s playing was dynamic and tonally varied. He played guitar licks and solos like he was talking to you, with all the variances and nuances of speech. A key to this was his pick handling. As he told us, there are a range of tones you can create on a guitar simply by varying your pick’s angle of attack and where it lands on the strings .

“Most times when you're playing, you don't hold your pick completely flat against the strings, like a shovel against the ground,” he said. “You turn it and have it so that it's not exactly flat with the string, but has a little bit of an edge or angle to it.”

That’s how you get a mellow sound, playing midway between the end of the neck and the bridge.

“But when I want a real staccato sound. I play near the bridge and hold the pick flat so I won't get that ‘whoosh’ sound,” B.B. explained. “I take the extra effort to make sure I'm hitting the string where I want to hit it. and the way I want to hit it.

“It's almost like playing golf or pool: You've got a certain bit of English that you're going to use,” he added, referring to the spin a player will put on a ball to affect its course.

“Now, most of us that have been playing a long time do these things without thinking about them. If you're new at playing or haven't tried different ways of holding the pick, give them a try.“

Joe Bonamassa has little patience for the idea that B.B. King wasn’t a guitar virtuoso, and he’s making that clear at every opportunity.

The contemporary blues heavyweight is currently promoting Blues Summit 100, his new all-star tribute album to the architect of modern electric blues. One track pairs Bonamassa with Eric Clapton, and the choice was deliberate. In Bonamassa’s view, the song required not just technical skill but historical weight — and few carry more than Clapton when it comes to King’s legacy.

The project has also reignited a familiar debate guitar virtuosity. Bonamassa recently bristled at a journalist’s claim that King didn’t qualify — a puzzling assertion, given that the blues giant’s influence stretches from Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to more recent guitarists like Lenny Kravitz and even Grace Bowers.

That irritation surfaced again in a new interview with Classic Rock .

“When people say, ‘Oh, B.B. King doesn’t play much on guitar,’ I just can’t believe it,” Bonamassa said. “He’s one of the only guitarists you can identify with one note. And if you really listen, there’s a lot of jazz in his playing — Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, and of course T-Bone Walker.”

Bonamassa’s defense of King pushes back against a flashier, post-’70s notion of virtuosity. Wolfgang Van Halen once joked that his father “kind of ruined” the ’80s by raising the technical bar so high. After Van Halen’s success, speed became the currency of credibility, and the decade filled up with Eddie Van Halen acolytes attempting to set new speed records on the electric guitar.

King operated in a different universe. His brilliance lay in restraint: the placement of a single note, the curve of a phrase, and his unmistakable vibrato. For Bonamassa — who once took Leslie West’s advice to heart and learned to say more by playing less — that economy is exactly what defines true mastery.

“By the ’60s, his phrasing was completely his own,” Bonamassa said. “But the real thing was his time.— where he put the notes. He was never in a hurry. And every solo he played told a story.”

Bonamassa has recently pushed back against caricatures of his own playing, too, rejecting the notion that he’s confined to slow tempos. In a Guitar World column, he pointed out that he can unleash “blazing licks” when required. The difference, he suggests, is knowing when not to.

And that lesson, he says, came straight from King.

“Everything I do — and everything everybody does — tips its hat to B.B.,” Bonamassa said. “I opened for him hundreds of times. Our band would come out and be cooking for 20 minutes. Then he’d walk out with an ES-355, hit one vibrato, and instantly, you knew it was him.”

Bonamassa has since admitted that adopting King’s fondness for punishing stage volume proved costly, after he suffered hearing loss during a show late last year. Even so, the influence remains indelible.

As Paul Rodgers recently put it, reflecting on his friendship with Bonamassa, his guitar playing flows like “blinding liquid” — a modern expression of the guitar language B.B. King helped to create.

In an illustrious career spanning more than 50 years, session guitar ace Dean Parks has clocked up more than 3,000 song credits. But he cautions us, “I don’t think films, TV and commercials are covered in that number.”

Parks’ guitar playing career began in 1969 when he teamed up with the 1960s pop duo Sonny & Cher. “I’d taken a road gig with them,” he explains. ”They were in their second phase as artists, with an aim on becoming a Las Vegas act.

“Then they got this weekly TV show and Sonny insisted that everybody in the rhythm section get a tryout to be on the show — a kind of a wall-to-wall hour-of-music show. We had to do pre-recordings for all of that in just three hours, so we had to work quick, and there was no room for error.”

Among the musicians was another guitarist, Larry Carlton, with whom Parks developed an immediate rapport. Carlton would later become pivotal in Parks’ entry into the tight-knit L.A. studio session scene.

“I met Larry on the first show. They had called him in to be guitar one, and I was allocated to be guitar two,” Parks says. “What I didn’t know was that they were planning to make me guitar one.”

Carlton’s busy session schedule meant he wouldn’t be available all the time. ”He was really there to scout me and tell them whether I could carry the ball or not,” Parks explains.

Parks soon showed he could handle the job on his own.

”Larry gave them the thumbs up for me,” he says. ”That was a good proving ground for my later session work, as it kind of had all the skill sets that you needed in a session gig, where you have to work quick, be in tune and in time, have good ideas and be able to read and cooperate.”

Carlton was so impressed with Parks that he began recommending him for the jobs he was too busy to take.

“Larry was so in demand at that point that he could no longer do song demos for people — he would just do master sessions. So he began throwing all of his song demo stuff my way. And anytime someone said, ‘Larry, we’d like you to play guitar but we want two guitars,’ he would recommend me to play second guitar to him.”

Parks eventually went on to become a mainstay on the Los Angeles studio circuit, cutting sessions for Steely Dan, Johnny Rivers, the Partridge Family, Dolly Parton and hundreds of other artists who would make use of his guitar services. Through his work, Parks bore witness to some of music’s greatest artists at work, including Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, and B.B. King. Here he shares stories behind some of those classic sessions.

Stevie Wonder

One of Parks‘ earliest important sessions was on Stevie Wonder’s landmark 1973 album, Innervisions. Wonder cut much of the album alone, working with assistance from Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, of the pioneering electronic music duo Tonto's Expanding Head Band. The two men — who worked with Wonder from 1972’s Music of My Mind through 1974’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale — assisted not only with production but also helped Wonder achieve his breakthrough sounds on synthesizers .

“The first time I worked with Stevie was when I was overdubbing an acoustic guitar on the song ‘Visions,’” Parks explains. “But when I got to the studio, he wasn’t ready for me to work; he actually made me wait until he was ready. I didn’t know how long that was going to be, so I just stayed in the control room. He had block-booked Studio A at the Record Plant, so all of his stuff was set up.

“He had a big synthesizer that was used for bass, a Fender Rhodes, drums, piano, a Clavinet… Everything was mic’d up and ready to go. The recording console had all the input modules on the left side ready to record, while the right side had our listening playback levels set.

“Stevie would call a tune, like ‘Living for the City,’ and Malcolm would go out and get Stevie situated on the instrument he was going to play and put the headphones on him. Meanwhile, Robert would be scurrying around and getting the tape ready to roll.

“Stevie would blow through the song once. Then he might say, ‘I want to do the Rhodes on “Higher Ground” now,’ so they’d scurry around again and get things ready to roll for that track.

“I watched Stevie do that for two hours and he only did one take on each piece. But it never felt like it was the first time he’d been through the piece on that particular instrument. I think he just kept recycling takes because it was fun to play and it was like jamming with himself. And he knew that as he put more instruments on, there was more to play to. I’m guessing he did that until he had good takes.”

When it finally came time for Parks to do his acoustic guitar overdub on “Visions,” he quickly dialed in a sound he was happy with, sat down with the chord chart and prepared for the tape to begin rolling.

“I hadn’t really heard the song, and he didn’t give me any direction at all,” he explains. “They just started playing it and I started playing along to it on the first run-through. At the end Stevie said, ‘That’s great. You hear anything else?’ And I said, ‘Well, I brought a nylon-string. Maybe you want to hear it on a nylon?’ And he said, ‘Sure!’

“And so they started again, and I expected they would mute the original guitar, the steel-string acoustic I had played, but they kept the steel-string acoustic in. So I played a nylon-string part that would kind of fit in with it.

“There was one little section where I had played a flurry of notes, so I did the same on the nylon-string and finished it all in one take. Stevie said, ‘Great! Thank you!’ I was curious to see whether they were going to use it, as it seemed like they weren’t taking what I had done seriously. But both takes are there on the record — one on the left and one on the right.”

Parks was also in attendance for tracks on Wonder’s 1976 magnum opus, Songs in the Key of Life.

“A similar thing happened on my acoustic overdub for Stevie’s tune ‘As’ from Songs in the Key of Life, where I just did it once, too. Stevie likes first takes. I’ve wondered if that’s part of the charm of the Innervisions album. His own performances on that album are like spontaneous first takes, although he had played through them all on other days.”

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

Parks recalls a late-night session in 1982 for Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, where he overdubbed guitar on “The Girl Is Mine.” The recording proved memorable, not only because of Jackson but also because of his partner on the song.

“I got the call to come in and do an overdub on a Michael Jackson record, but no other details were given to me,” he says. “When I arrived at the studio, it was revealed I would be playing on a track that Michael and Paul McCartney had written, and they would be singing as a duet.

“In the studio with me was just [producer] Quincy Jones and Michael, who was sitting in the corner, observing and available to contribute if he wanted to. The track was already done, with Steve Lukather’s little guitar rhythm part on it. I pulled out my Fender Princeton amp and plugged my ES-335 into it.

”Since I now knew who I was playing for, I thought, McCartney likes double guitar lines, like a George Harrison kind of thing. So I just came up with a little line at the end of the choruses and doubled it with a slightly cranked sound. And I was thinking compositionally too, which is sort of what I considered my job to be — an arranger with a guitar in my hand.”

B.B. King

In 1979, B.B. recruited Parks to contribute guitar to his album Take It Home. King’s rhythm section included members of the jazz-fusion group the Crusaders, whose ranks previously featured Parks’ friend Larry Carlton. The sessions gave Parks a rare glimpse into King’s captivating and economical approach to guitar solos.

“Working with B.B. was a great lesson in how to hold an audience during a solo,” Parks reveals. “He was set up in the booth with a guitar and a separate feed, and he was singing as we went along, playing all of his solos live. We got to hear him go through these tracks three or four times each, but what was remarkable was that he’d play a different solo each time, but kind of with the same three notes.

“You were on the edge of your seat waiting to hear the next thing he would play because it was such a solid idea. What he was playing was the statement. You’d wonder, How was he going to follow it up? And when is he going to follow it up? He didn’t blast you in the face and nail you to the wall. None of that stuff works very well. What does work is to think of it like fishing: you send out your bait and the audience will follow.

King called on Parks’ service two decades later for his star-studded 1997 album, Deuces Wild. B.B.’s no-frills style remained unchanged.

“B.B. always got a different sound every time I’ve ever heard him on a record,” Parks states. “On Deuces Wild, I had a Fender Tweed Deluxe combo, and I asked him if he would mind if he would try to play through that amp and let me get his sound, because I could kind of tell that he didn’t fool with amps and sounds. He’d just plug in and play, and whatever sound he was getting was the sound. I don’t think he thought about it.”

For blues fans, Joe Bonamassa’s all-star tribute to the late, great B.B. King is one of the year’s most anticipated releases. But Bonamassa says his guitar hero — the one and only Eric Clapton — only came onboard after another guest artist insisted on his presence.

And as Bonamassa says, Clapton was one of the few guitarists he felt was capable of taking on the King's biggest hit.

Bonamassa has spearheaded the creation of B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100, with Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, George Benson, Slash, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Gary Clarke Jr., and Warren Haynes all involved. It's a stunning cast list, and one fit for a king.

“Not many musicians represent the genre in which they succeed in quite like B.B. King,” Bonamassa says in a promo video for the album, which was announced on what would have been his 100th birthday. “No one else was doing a tribute record to him, [so this album] was a labor of love.”

A slew of singles have dropped so far, bringing together the old guard and those carrying the torch of the blues for a new generation. He tackles “Sweet Little Angel” with Buddy Guy, “Heartbreaker” with Trombone Shorty and Eric Gales, and “Don't You Want a Man Like Me” with Larkin Poe.

But the most exciting collaboration on the record won't be unleashed until the album's release on February 6. And it has an interesting backstory.

“We approached Chaka Khan about singing on the album, and she said, ‘I'll only sing on it if somebody like Eric Clapton plays the guitar,’” he recalls to Q104.3 New York. “I said, I think I can help you. Hold my beer.’”

Bonamassa has consistently cited Slowhand as his hero and had the “insane” honor of sharing a stage with him at the Royal Albert Hall. While he most likely had him on his wish list before his conversation with the “Ain't Nobody” singer, her request sealed the deal. He had to ask.

“We were lucky enough to get Eric to play the duet,” JoBo says.

For that matter, he believes the task of playing "The Thrill Is Gone" was one only a guitarist of great stature could execute.

“It's so iconic that anyone who dares to do it will be compared to B.B. and the original version, which is untouchable.

“You either need to have icons themselves do it, or you need to find an unsuspecting young artist that wants to do it, and you make them the sacrificial lamb. I don't want to do that! So we were very lucky that this all played out.”

It's unfathomable to think that the weight of JoBo's reputation didn't make the gig any more enticing for Clapton, and in doing so, it's a serious vote of confidence for the hard-working bluesman.

“He's my hero and the reason I play the way I play,” he writes on his website. “[He was] just one of those guys who plugs the guitar straight into an amp and it sounds like him.”

Suffice to say, them playing Clapton's take of Bobby Bland's “Further Up the Road” together in 2009 was a dream come true for the guitarist.

“I always apologize to Eric like, ‘Dude, you have no idea how much I've ripped from you,’” he joked with Rick Beato last year.

And in his Guitar World column discussing his Gibson years, before he turned to the Fender Strat, he wrote, “The hallmarks of Eric’s playing from this era are his exquisite finger vibrato and how perfectly in-tune his string bends are. The playing is fiery; the lines are emotionally powerful, and the melodic ideas and phrasing are perfect.”

That makes him the ideal man to cover “The Thrill Is Gone” and survive to tell the tale.

In related news, he recently challenged a journalist's definition of virtuoso when he didn't put B.B. King in that bracket. He has been forced to rethink his love of loud tube amps, having been diagnosed with hearing trauma after a show in Austin.

Buddy Guy has some 70 years of experience as a blues guitarist and has played his electric guitar on stages all over the world . From the two-string diddley bow he made as boy growing up in Louisiana to his first proper guitar — gifted to him by a stranger — to his rise in Chicago, where he was mentored by greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King and Guitar Slim, Guy rose to become a signature blues artist in his own right.

Guy fortified his innate guitar talent with a wealth of knowledge and skills he gained over his formative years. He then passed it on to players like Eric Clapton, who saw Guy onstage in England in the mid 1960s and was moved to form his own blues trio, Cream. And while Guy announced his retirement from the road with his 2023 Damn Right Farewell Tour in 2023, his influence lives on in a new breed of guitarists. That includes players like Gary Clark Jr., John Mayer and Johnny Lang, who learned to play blues authentically by watching — and learning — from the master, who honed his craft with a Fender Stratocaster in his hands.

As for Guy, his blues expertise came the hard way. He's a self-taught player, with no formal training—except for a couple of lessons with a high school music teacher who, to Guy's chagrin, couldn't show him the things he really wanted to learn.

"I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to go to high school," he recalled to Guitar Player in our January 1999 issue. "And they had a music teacher there, and I thought, 'My God, I've got what I've always wanted. I'm gonna let this guy teach me how to play the guitar.'

"I went in, and the teacher showed me some scales, and I said, 'I don't wanna play that; I wanna play like this' — I had a Muddy Waters record and a John Lee Hooker record at the time. He looked at me and said, 'I can't teach you that.'

“So I said, 'Well, then I can't take a music class!'

“I was so excited by the way Muddy played the slide, how B.B. King squeezed the strings, and how Lightnin' Hopkins and T-Bone Walker played their things. I said, 'If they don't teach this in school, I've got to find it myself.'

"Nowadays," Guy continued, "young people have advantages that I didn't have. It wasn't until 20 or 30 years ago that you even saw blues written in music notation—they claimed they couldn't write it.”

One tremendous benefit that Guy did have — after moving to Chicago in 1957 — was seeing Chicago blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Wayne Bennett, Matt Murphy, and Earl Hooker when they were at the height of their powers.

But no matter what a musician's cultural advantages — or disadvantages — might be, Guy maintains that anyone with enough heart can play the blues.

"If you love the blues, you can play it. Every interview I've ever had, I get asked 'Can a white man play the blues?' I hate that question! It's a human being, man. If I had eight fingers on my left hand, then! would say, 'No, a white man probably can't play like me.'

“But these guys, man—the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, this young Jonny Lang, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, to name a few — there's some things they do that I wish I had known.

"Look at athletes — boxers, football players, baseball players—they come in all sizes and all colors, and all those guys are great. Music is the same way. There's no advantage or disadvantage. If you want to learn this thing, man, and you love it the way I love it, you can do it."

“If you call me up to play, I’ve got to give you my best,” says Buddy Guy, whose ready-to-rumble attitude and no-holds-barred Strat attack have earned him eternal icon status.

Since B.B. King’s passing on May 14, 2015, Guy may have inherited the mantle of “Elder Blues Statesman,” but his in-your-face stage presence is a far cry from King’s gracious and kindly “grandfather” persona. Guy carries the torch with the devil-may-care attitude of a punk rocker.

“Thanks to the rappers, I can say whatever the fuck I damn well please these days,” announced Guy from the stage of the San Francisco Masonic while supporting Jeff Beck in 2016.

A few folks probably don’t appreciate Guy’s litany of f-bombs — or his over-the-top guitar antics — but most people find Guy’s firebrand blues a welcome presence in a genre watered down with each passing cliché. On his recent tours — Guy’s Damn Right Encore Tour wrapped this past August — the 89-year-old came across like a man possessed, as if he’s making up for lost time in the spotlight.

Throughout much of the ’70s and ’80s, Guy couldn’t even land a record deal, much less fathom being honored as a living legend at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors by an African-American president.

No one can deny that Guy — who was born George Guy in Lettsworth, Louisiana — represents the ultimate long shot. The atomic energy he channels through a Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Bassman would be thrilling and impressive at any age, but it’s almost supernatural for an octogenarian to rock so hard.

In 2017, Guy sat down with Guitar Player to discuss the blues’ legacy, Jimi Hendrix and the finer points of his guitar tone. Here's what he had to tell us.

B.B. KING

Most blues musicians I learned my lessons from are no longer with us, and they didn’t print a lot of stuff about those guys. Every night I go to the stage, I stop and imagine the history of some of the guys like Lightnin’ Hopkins and T-Bone Walker.

The media didn’t get us until the British started playing blues. That’s when major newspapers started interviewing Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and people like that. Before then, we were playing to a 99.9 percent black audience. When the British started playing blues, the audience completely changed.

My late friend, B.B. King, and I were in Memphis once, and this lady ran up to him, and said, “Hey man, these white people are taking the blues from us.” B.B. said, “No, ma’am. They didn’t take it. You just quit listening to it.”

It’s a little lonesome now. B.B. and I talked about it before he passed away. As a matter of fact, we used to talk about it before Muddy and all of them passed away. They would tell me, “Man, if you outlive me, don’t let the blues die.” That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.

STRATOCASTERS

When I was coming up, it was Lightnin’ and T-Bone, and then up stepped B.B. King, Gatemouth Brown, and, of course, Guitar Slim. There weren't many guitar players way back when, because it was unheard of. You literally couldn't hear an acoustic guitar onstage. The guitar was getting obsolete until Leo Fender and Les Paul electrified it

When Leo Fender came up with that Strat, man, I didn’t know what the hell it was! Guitar Slim was the first I saw play one, and I thought it was a joke. But you had to keep the acoustic guitar out of the weather, and this solid piece of wood Leo came up with took more wear and tear. Guitar Slim’s Strat had scratches all over it. Well, you can’t do an acoustic like that. I’m not sure if Leo made the first solidbody, but his was the one that exploded. The Stratocaster got the guitar heard.

THE BASSMAN THAT GOT LEFT ON THE RUNWAY

Some people tell me I have a tone. I barely pay attention to that. Back when the British guys started mentioning my name, players like Jimmy Page would come up to me, and say, “Man, I didn’t know anyone could play blues like that on a Strat. What are you doing?”

The Chess brothers used to say, “If you want it played right — go get Buddy.” But even I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I got my tone from a ’57 Strat and an old Fender Bassman. You can’t get that tone anymore. The Fender people do a good job at trying to replicate that ’57 tone, but there’s something different about the wood, or something else that Leo took with him. I’ll tell you what else Leo took with him: whatever he had in that [original] Bassman transformer.

I turned the bass [control] all the way off from day one. There was no reason to do anything else, because that was exactly the sound I wanted. I never had to worry about changing the tone. All I would do was wrap up the guitar cord and come home. Nowadays, you get different tones at different clubs, but that thing had the same tone wherever I played — except some of the smaller clubs where grounding issues would produce a scratchy sound that you hardly hear anymore.

I’ve still got that old Bassman. I almost lost it when I went to Africa around 1969. I was sitting by the window watching my bags being loaded, and my amp was just sitting there. As the plane was going to take off, I jumped up. The stewardess said, “Mister, sit down. You’ve got your ticket for your bag.” I said, “My amp is out there past the wing of the plane!” They kept that amp for five years. When it finally came back to me, it was all rusted out.

JIMI HENDRIX

There’s a video clip of the night we met. When I first went to New York in 1967, I was into a solo with the guitar behind my head when somebody started hollering at me, “There’s Jimi Hendrix!” I was like, “Who in the hell is Jimi Hendrix?” And he came up and said, “Can I tape your show?” He had a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

I was into Arthur Crudup, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, and all the old blues guys. I wasn’t into all the special effects. If I had been [into Hendrix], I probably would have got hooked myself. I liked what Hendrix was doing when I heard it. But I decided to let him have that. I figured my time would come.

THE WHAMMY BAR

I used a whammy bar. Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix would tell you that if you check your history. I cut a side at Chess [Records] using a whammy bar, but they weren't ready for it. They were like, “Nobody wants to hear that.”

These days, though, I don’t put a whammy bar on my guitars. Honestly, I stopped back when I was using very light strings because it made them break easier, and I couldn’t afford to keep buying new ones. Beck puts that whammy in the palm of his hand, and Stevie Ray Vaughan was good with that, too. Stevie, Beck, and Jimi are the best I’ve ever seen with that. A lot of guitar players couldn’t figure out how to work with it, but if you do it right — like Hendrix — it works.

ERIC CLAPTON, JIMMY PAGE & THE BRITISH BLUES BOOM

I couldn’t be B.B. or T-Bone, but they kept telling me, “Man, you got something there. You got a Buddy Guy tone.” I was so dumb. I didn’t even know that.

Even the Chess brothers told me. When I first went in there, they didn’t want to hear my noise. But when Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton all said, “I’ve been listening to Buddy,” the Chess brothers said, “Wait a minute. Let him come in and do what he wants.”

I was surprised. I said, “Man, what are you talking about?” They said, “These British guitar players are selling millions, and they’re eating up the shit you’ve been playing!”

Before speaking with D.K. Harrell, we asked Joe Bonamassa if he had any thoughts he’d like to share on the fast-rising blues star. And indeed, he did. Via email, Bonamassa wrote:

"When I first heard D.K. Harrell, it brought me back to the best of those Alligator, Black Top and Bullseye 1980s blues labels," Bonamassa tells Guitar Player. "The likes of Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, Z.Z. Hill — all those great '80s blues artists who had a powerful combination of modern production, great songs, a great voice and great guitar playing. It's nice to see a young man embracing that era of blues.

“Our generation, even as we grew up on the blues of the '40s, '50s and '60s, saw the '80s as a really important chapter," the blues virtuoso continues. "People like Chris Kane, and the stuff B.B. King and Earl King were doing – so many great artists. D.K. Harrell is right up there with some of the greats, and I love that he's embracing that '80s blues influence, which is such a forgotten era of great music in the genre."

All of which left Harrell more or less verklempt.

“I'm shocked,” he says after taking a few seconds to absorb Bonamassa’s praise. “Honest, I'm very shocked, because for one, I didn't know Mr. Bonamassa even heard about me. He’s such a pillar of a musician and guitarist, when it comes to blues itself, and he’s such a great entertainer. I’m lost for words.”

He laughs, then says, “Hearing all that makes me even more nervous now to go on the blues cruise next year. I thank him kindly, and I'll make sure to thank him personally for the kind words.”

No doubt the two guitarists will have much to talk about, and B.B King is bound to be among the topics they’ll discuss. One doesn’t have to be a forensic scientist to spot King’s influence on Harrell: It’s there in his emotive vibrato and his economical phrasing (those single-note bends can last for days). It’s even there in his cool, classy stage presence — the Gibson ES-355 and the tasteful choice of suits call to mind a youthful B.B.

Harrell takes on the matter directly. “I am heavy, and yes, I’m heavily influenced by B.B. King,” he says. He recalls his one and only time meeting the blues legend during a concert. “I was 15 or 16, and I went up to the stage and screamed, ‘Mr. King! Mr. King!’ he says. “My hair was in a pompadour at the time, and I said, ‘I have my hair just like you in 1955! I want to be just like you when I grow up!’

“B.B. just laughed and said, ‘The old man has made some mistakes, but maybe I've done some things right. I want you to be the best you can be, and if you're going to be like me, that's okay. Always remember to be yourself while doing so.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”

Harrell’s debut album, 2023’s The Right Man, signaled the emergence of a promising young blues talent, and his upcoming follow-up, Talkin’ Heavy (his first for Alligator Records), is a major step forward. Containing all self-penned cuts such as the stomping lead single “Grown Now,” it’s the joyous sound of a one-man revival. Harrell’s vocals are smooth yet forceful, and his authoritative guitar work — stinging and soulful leads that serve as memorable songs within songs — hits the sweet spot every time.

“I want to grab people and make them feel good,” he says. “I think I’m growing as a lyricist, too. Blues songs don’t have to be sad to resonate.”

You’re okay with being called a traditionalist?

Sure, or a purist. I did a show this past weekend and a good friend of mine said, “D.K., the difference between you and several other contemporary blues artists is that you're a blues purist.” He said, “You care about that old sound that nobody's doing anymore unless they cover a song.”

I think that’s true. In my opinion, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ and Bobby Rush and Buddy Guy are probably the only four I can name who are purists in the same way.

Have you encountered people who have called you a B.B. King clone?

Oh, of course. Here’s how I see it: Sam Cooke influenced two popular singers of color — Lou Rawls and Johnny Taylor. Then you have Mike Tyson, who looked up to Ali. We all have someone who influenced us. It’s not about wanting to be exactly like the person, but we want to be able to deliver what that person delivered in life. I’ve been called a B.B. King clone, a B.B. King copycat. I’m very proud of it.

You do wear it right on your sleeve.

I’m proud of it, yes.

And then there’s the matter of the kind of guitar you play…

It's a Gibson ES-355 TDSV, with the Varitone switch, so it’s not exactly the same guitar as Lucille.

In way ways did B.B.’s vibrato and his economy of style rub off on you?

Oh, it helps you cheat. You work smarter, not harder. And it’s been a big help. I can play a little bit of rhythm guitar. And I can’t lie: Because I’d had my nerve issue, my muscle memory has been affected a great deal.

Can you talk a bit about the nerve issue?

On February 28 of 2022, I woke up with pins and needles in my left hand. I went to work and thought it would go away, but it didn’t. I went to a clinic and they told me I was having a heart attack. Another doctor told me I was having a stroke, and then the third doctor did an X-ray and told me I had cervical radiculopathy, which is a pinched nerve in the neck.

Usually it can be decompressed through physical therapy, or you can have surgery. I didn’t want surgery, so I tried acupuncture. Didn't like that. I went to a chiropractor for months in 2022, but because of my slow performance at work, they put me on disability for a while. I couldn’t pay my bills and resigned from that job. I struggled to find another job and wound up homeless. I lived in my car. I've slept on floors of family members until they kicked me out. It’s been hard.

All I’m saying is, this style of playing has made it easier for me. On the outside, I might look like everything is okay — I’m playing the single-note phrases or doing vibrato — but I do have to struggle sometimes. I have days when it feels like all the blood has rushed to my fingers. If feels like they’re puffy and swollen, but they’re not. It’s a weird feeling that I have problems describing to people.

You seem so natural when you play. Was the guitar always a struggle?

It was a struggle when I was a teenager in that I got cocky. You start thinking that you know everything and like that. I'll be honest with you: I didn't learn how to tune a guitar until I was 16. I left the guitar alone for a couple of years because I kept popping strings and breaking them. I didn’t know anything about tuning.

When I turned 16, I decided to give it one more shot. I took the time to learn, and I learned how to tune. Then I continued to study videos of B.B. King. I watched everything I could find of him from 1968 to 2014. I liked his approach. I think playing chords is cool and nice — they come in handy when needed.

At the same time, it takes a collection of single notes to make up a chord, so if I play one note of that chord or one note that's in that chord progression, I'm still playing the chord. I'm just doing it as one note.

A few years ago, you did an interview in which you said that modern blues was being “overpowered by distortion and gain.” Do you still feel that way?

To an extent, yes. I’m not downing people who play rock or blues rock, but I wish the people would show their appreciation by going back to the blues. I know Joe Bonamassa may have distortion on his guitar, but he'll play songs like “Born Under a Bad Sign” or “Crosscut Saw” or “Killing Floor,” which I feel pays homage to traditional blues or the blues purists.

If you're just shredding onstage for 15 minutes, it makes me go, Well, I get you. I understand you're talented and you can play a million things, but right now we're not even having a conversation. I can't feel what you're saying because you're not coming up for air.

Of course, Hendrix was rooted in the blues, which he took into the cosmos with distortion and feedback.

If you listen to some of those old bootleg recordings of Hendrix live, he’s really playing the blues. It’s him going back home to where he started and what pleased his ear. In a sense, he was paying homage to the ones who came before him. That recording of Hendrix and B.B. at the Generation Club in New York? That alone is proof. Everybody knows Hendrix setting his guitar on fire, but the way I want to know him is when he played acoustic in that white room. He’s just playing the blues.

What are your thoughts on Stevie Ray Vaughan?

It’s funny that you brought up the B.B. King clone thing, because there are so many young white guitarists who dress like Stevie Ray. They try to play like Stevie Ray, they try to sing like Stevie Ray, and nobody says a word. But I come out and do one B.B. King song, and it’s like, “Oh, he’s a copycat.”

I’ve thought about this, and I think it’s envy. I can’t lie — a B.B. style is difficult because it’s about timing. It’s feeling and phrasing. There’s a lot going on mentally: “Should I play here? No, no, no, I shouldn’t play anything.” Or maybe it’s “I’m going to say something, but I’m going to think about it first.”

People love living life fast, but you know what they say: “Fast money ain’t always good money.” When you take your time and work at something, then you appreciate it.

In addition to Joe Bonamassa, what other blues contemporaries do you admire?

Gary Clark Jr. In my opinion, he’s taken the style of timing and incorporated it into his own music. When he did “This Land,” he’s not doing much, but it’s a great song. He’s not doing much on “Bright Lights,” either, but it’s a great song. I enjoy Gary a lot.

Even though she’s not a guitar player, Shemekia Copeland is great — great messages, great songs. And, of course, Tedeschi Trucks — love them. I’m good friends with them. I’ve shared a stage with Susan twice, and each time she was fine just playing rhythm.

I commend those artists because they know what it’s about. They know it’s not about flash. It’s about getting your point across and telling your story.

Okay, lightning round: What’s the best gig you ever played?

That’s easy: the Bilbao Blues Festival. I got to meet one of my idols, Martha High, who was a backup singer for James Brown. She was watching my show from the wings, and I was like, “I gotta bring Martha up.” Just for that reason, it was maybe the best show.

All right, now the flipside: What’s the worst gig you ever played?

We did a show at blues concert series in West Memphis, Arkansas, and it influenced one of my new songs, “Praise the Blues.” West Memphis is a predominantly Black town, and we were on after a lady doing cover songs — things like “Car Wash” and all these Top 40 R&B hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

The Black people were enjoying it, so I got onstage and I could tell everybody was kind of looking at me. I said, “I understand you guys don't know me, but I'm D.K. Harrell, and I’m going to play you some blues.”

People left in the middle of the set. After the show, we went to get something to eat, and I told my manager, “People are always saying there's no new music, no new artists, but here I am. I’m doing justice to the blues. I put my heart and soul into it, and the people didn’t like it.” That gig broke my heart.

B.B. King had enjoyed a long friendship and musical relationship with Eric Clapton prior to his interview with Guitar Player in the October 2000 issue. That year he and Clapton released Riding With the King, their first collaborative album, a number-one entry on Billboard’s’ Top Blues Albums chart and the winner of the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. He told us how Clapton and his fellow guitarists in the British blues boom opened the door for his success, and gave us insights into the night in 1967 when they jammed in New York City.

“In the early years, I thought that everybody seemed to get a break but me,” B.B. King tells Guitar Player. “I wasn't bitter about it, I figured they got a break because they deserved it. But I thought I did, too.”

B.B. King’s name, face, music and heavenly finger vibrato were known far and wide long before the 20th century came to a close. But for the first half of his life, King toiled in near obscurity. His recording career was sustained largely by occasional hit singles on the U.S. R&B chart. He released 13 albums before one of them — 1968’s Blues on Top of Blues — reached any U.S. chart. It hit number 46 on the U.S. R&B roster. Its follow-up, Lucille, released later that same year, marked his first appearance on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

It was but a prelude to what came next. As 1969 arrived, King kept busy, releasing a pair of albums that would make him an institution unto himself. The first, Live & Well, became his first album to crack the Top 100. The second, Completely Well, soared to number 38, reached number five on the R&B chart and earned King a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. It also gave him a hit with the tune that will forever be his signature song, "The Thrill Is Gone."

King acknowledges his hard-won success was helped along by the popularity of the British blues boom.

“Finally — finally — when the kids started to play blues, they opened up a lot of doors for B.B. King,” he says. “I pray on it sometimes, and I say, ‘Thank God—better late than never.’ ”

But to make it through those years of obscurity, B.B. explains, it took a positive outlook.

“I was never bitter,” he offers. “I don't feel I have a reason or a right to be bitter. No, I didn't get the recognition that I thought I deserved, but why should I be bitter about it? You can't make people love you.” He laughs. “They love you if they want to. When it comes to playing, if you do it well and keep at it, somebody is going to appreciate it.”

Rather than pass blame onto others, B.B. accepts that, if there is a fault, it’s his own.

“When I feel that I'm not recognized now, I figure a lot of it has to do with what I didn't do back then, or what I'm not doing today,” he says. “That's the way I see it. Sure, anytime you're in a lineup trying to get a job and someone else gets picked, you wonder, Why didn't they pick me? But that's the way life is.”

As B.B. acknowledges, a new generation discovered him in the late 1960s after guitarists like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards began singing his praises, alongside bluesmen like Muddy Waters.

And while there are many great moments in an artist’s career that exist only in memory, we have photos of when B.B. King met Eric Clapton, and his rise to broader popularity began. It was the night he and Clapton famously jammed at New York City’s Cafe Au Go Go. The event is captured in a few prosaic snapshots that include guitarist Elvin Bishop. King is playing his Gibson ES-355 electric guitar, while Clapton — wearing his Cream-era bouffant hairstyle — strums the Fool, his psychedelic-finished Gibson SG.

“Ha, ha! And look at me — I'm wearing boots,” B.B. says, viewing the photos. “I haven't worn boots for years, but this was during the early rock and roll era, and boots were popular. And look at us — we're sitting on those Fenders.”

King confirms it was, to the best of his memory, the first time he and Clapton met. And while he can't recall if the jam happened during a show or after hours, he swears Jimi Hendrix and Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears were there as well. If his recollections are accurate, there may even be a recording of that night’s jam on a tape somewhere in the Hendrix estate.

“I remember Jimi recording what we played that night,” King says. “He was supposed to give us a tape, but he died before I got mine. When I die, if I can find Jimi, he's going to give me my tape!” B.B. laughs and slaps his knee. “Because that was a memorable occasion. It has been a lot of years of fun, man.”

Buddy Guy has some 70 years of experience as a blues guitarist and has played his electric guitar on stages all over the world . From the two-string diddley bow he made as boy growing up in Louisiana to his first proper guitar — gifted to him by a stranger — to his rise in Chicago, where he was mentored by greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King and Guitar Slim, Guy rose to become a signature blues artist in his own right.

Guy fortified his innate guitar talent with a wealth of knowledge and skills he gained over his formative years. He then passed it on to players like Eric Clapton, who saw Guy onstage in England in the mid 1960s and was moved to form his own blues trio, Cream. And while Guy announced his retirement from the road with his 2023 Damn Right Farewell Tour in 2023, his influence lives on in a new breed of guitarists. That includes players like Gary Clark Jr., John Mayer and Johnny Lang, who learned to play blues authentically by watching — and learning — from the master, who honed his craft with a Fender Stratocaster in his hands.

As for Guy, his blues expertise came the hard way. He's a self-taught player, with no formal training—except for a couple of lessons with a high school music teacher who, to Guy's chagrin, couldn't show him the things he really wanted to learn.

"I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to go to high school," he recalled to Guitar Player in our January 1999 issue. "And they had a music teacher there, and I thought, 'My God, I've got what I've always wanted. I'm gonna let this guy teach me how to play the guitar.'

"I went in, and the teacher showed me some scales, and I said, 'I don't wanna play that; I wanna play like this' — I had a Muddy Waters record and a John Lee Hooker record at the time. He looked at me and said, 'I can't teach you that.'

“So I said, 'Well, then I can't take a music class!'

“I was so excited by the way Muddy played the slide, how B.B. King squeezed the strings, and how Lightnin' Hopkins and T-Bone Walker played their things. I said, 'If they don't teach this in school, I've got to find it myself.'

"Nowadays," Guy continued, "young people have advantages that I didn't have. It wasn't until 20 or 30 years ago that you even saw blues written in music notation—they claimed they couldn't write it.”

One tremendous benefit that Guy did have — after moving to Chicago in 1957 — was seeing Chicago blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Wayne Bennett, Matt Murphy, and Earl Hooker when they were at the height of their powers.

But no matter what a musician's cultural advantages — or disadvantages — might be, Guy maintains that anyone with enough heart can play the blues.

"If you love the blues, you can play it. Every interview I've ever had, I get asked 'Can a white man play the blues?' I hate that question! It's a human being, man. If I had eight fingers on my left hand, then! would say, 'No, a white man probably can't play like me.'

“But these guys, man—the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, this young Jonny Lang, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, to name a few — there's some things they do that I wish I had known.

"Look at athletes — boxers, football players, baseball players—they come in all sizes and all colors, and all those guys are great. Music is the same way. There's no advantage or disadvantage. If you want to learn this thing, man, and you love it the way I love it, you can do it."

Despite being just 18 years old, Grace Bowers is a shining light for the future of blues guitar. She’s been championed by the likes of Devon Allman, Margo Price, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Susan Tedeschi since releasing her debut album, Wine on Venus, last year.

Bowers' rise has been nothing short of meteoric, with her talents and fame belying her youthfulness. Having regularly posted clips of her playing on social media in recent years, the comments sections of those videos soon played host to some reputable names.

“My guitar heroes would start commenting on my posts,” she tells Classic Rock. “I’ll never forget the day that Brian May commented on one of them. That was when I had to step back and be like, ‘Wow, that’s wild.’ It was kind of crazy how things all just built up so big before we [Grace Bowers & the Hodge Podge] put a single song out.”

Impressively, Bowers already has nine years of playing beneath her fingers and says a certain top-hatted guitarist was responsible for drawing her to the instrument.

“Slash is the reason I picked up a guitar when I was nine,” she says. “I somehow found the 'Welcome to the Jungle' music video by Guns N' Roses,” she told Marty Music. “You know, Slash in that, with his Les Paul and everything. He looked cool. I wanted to look cool like Slash, so I asked my mom for a guitar."

The pair crossed paths at a show in July last year, providing a full-circle moment for her.

Hearing B. B. King’s "Sweet Little Angel" on the radio shortly after sent her on a voyage of self-discovery via blue music’s rich history.

“That’s the song that made me realize I love this, that I want to do this forever,” she says.

Yet, despite being drawn to the blues, Bowers is veering away from one of its archetypal trademarks. Wine on Venus is brimming with happiness and smiling riffs, rather than the tales of woe and stinging licks that typically define the genre.

“I don’t hate sad songs,” she tells CR, “but I don’t think I’ll ever write a sad song. Being in the studio with all those people, there’s no reason to be sad about anything. I think what came out in the music was how much fun we all had recording.”

Even when the core of a song comes from a place of hardship or tragedy, she finds light in the darkness.

“The title track was written about my nana and before she passed,” she reveals. “Before she died she would tell everyone not to worry because she’ll be drinking wine on Venus because it’s the brightest star. I like that idea, it’s so out there.”

Bowers has gone on to share stages with Dolly Parton and Gary Clarke Jr., and rub shoulders with Billy Gibbons, and Orianthi, earning her a Gibson endorsement at the tender age of 14.

Her fast ascent through the ranks, coupled with her age, has seen her face her critics but she’s intent on winning them over one gig at a time.

“I get disrespected before I even play,” the guitarist told Guitar World last year. “People take one look at me, a young female, and immediately get a thought in their head of what I am, and they don’t take me as seriously as they should.”

Shinedown's Zach Myers, Michelle Malone, Driver Williams (Eric Church) Lynyrd Skynyrd's Damon Johnson, Trev Lukather, Steve Stevens, and Mother Mother's Ryan Guldemond were among the stars to hail her 2024's best new guitarist in Guitar World's end of year issue.

Gibson has released a commemorative ES-355 reissue in honor of B.B. King’s appearance at the Zaire '74 music festival. The performance was part of the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing event featuring Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Gibson Custom and Murphy Lab creation is a handcrafted limited-edition recreation of the guitar the blues maestro played that night, complete with its striking walnut finish.

The guitar it has worked tirelessly to recreate in great detail here was King's number one lady before he developed Lucille with Gibson six years later. Only 100 pieces will be made, each coming with a B.B. King “Zaire” hardshell case teeming with case candy commemorating the event.

Gibson has called Zaire '74 “a powerful moment in music history” that brought “the soul of the blues to unite a global audience” ahead of the groundbreaking bout between two towering heavyweight boxers.

Vassal Benford, CEO and Chairman of the B.B. King Music Company, extends that belief, saying that “B.B. King’s performance at the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ was not just a concert – it was a defining cultural moment,” and says the new build “captures the artistry and spirit of B.B. King’s legendary performance.”

Priced at $9,999, it comes brimming with premium appointments fit for a king, including Murphy Lab aging for its delectable finish, T-Type Custombucker Alnico 5 humbuckers, and a Maestro Vibrola tailpiece.

The construction of the guitar unites a laminated maple back, top, and centerblock with red spruce multi-ply binding, and single-ply binding for its fretboard and f-holes.

It boasts a three-piece mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard iced with reissue frets and Mother-of-Pearl block inlays. It's built to a 24.75" scale length with a 12" fretboard radius.

All hardware, including Kluson Waffleback tuners, True Historic pickup covers, a Tune-O-Matic bridge, and the aforementioned Maestro Vibrola, has been given an aged gold finish.

Benford extends his praise of the reissue, underscoring it as “a continuation of King’s enduring legacy, ensuring that future generations of musicians can connect with the heart and soul of the blues.”

The blues legend's daughter, Claudette, will front a new 10-piece band – which includes King's longtime drummer, Grady Champion – for a tour to celebrate his legacy later this year. An extra “flavor of funk” promises to breathe a unique new life into King's music.

The B.B. King “Rumble in the Jungle” 1974 ES-355 is available now and costs $9,999.

Head to Gibson to learn more

The B.B. King Blues Experience, a ten-piece band fronted by Claudette King, the daughter of the blues great, is set to tour North America and Europe in 2025 in honor of the late guitarist's 100th birthday.

Entitled The Thrill Lives On tour, the band also features Grammy-winning vocalist and harmonica player Grady Champion, and Tony “T.C.” Coleman, King’s drummer for over three decades.

Chicago guitarist Wilbert Crosby, who has toured and recorded with Pops Staples, Mavis Staples, and Aretha Franklin, has the honor of handling King's parts. He has played the Grammy awards twice, including alongside Bonnie Raitt, Phil Upchurch, WahWah Watson, Isaac Hayes, and Maria Muldaur in 1995.

Their show promises to celebrate the legacy of B.B. King and Mississippi Delta blues “with a flavor of funk” added to the mix.

“To have the opportunity to continue sharing my father's music with audiences around the world is a blessing and a privilege,” says Claudette King. “I'm thrilled to be bringing the B.B. King Blues Experience to the world and allowing new audiences to experience the thrill of this music live.

“I dare the audience to stay seated during our songs as they will make you want to get up and dance,” she adds.

No dates have yet been announced, with Pyramid Entertainment Group “open to offers” as it looks to spread King’s music far and wide. There’s also a hope that, by fusing these classic songs with a little funk, the band can win over a new generation of fans.

“We wanted to take King’s timeless classics and add some funk to it in order to reach a younger and different audience,” Champion expands. “The show is fun, entertaining, and suitable for all ages.”

Talking to Guitar World late last year, another blues legend, Buddy Guy, waxed lyrical about King's unrivaled talents when it came to playing the blues.

“I had to find my own unique voice on the electric guitar,“ he says. “Because I had heard guys like B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. I said, ‘I’ll never be that good. I’ve got to do something different from them or I’m done for.’

“B.B. King had a left hand that could do things that were not of this Earth. I knew I could never do any of that.”

But, in the wise words of B.B. King himself, he didn’t want players to stick too closely to his sonic template. He wanted to hear the individuality of every blues player.

“I believe your sound comes from within you,” he once said. “You can manufacture a sound by having a wah-wah pedal or something, but the actual sound comes from you. It’s your touch and your soul that makes it sound the way it does.

“You don’t want to play like B.B. King or somebody else. You want to be you. Try to borrow a little bit from each guy. And, like that, you become you.”

King passed away aged 89 in 2015, and is still hailed as one of the greatest blues players in the world.

Richie Sambora, to the more casual listener, may be known as the Talk Box guy behind Bon Jovi’s mega-hit-cum-wedding-party-anthem Livin' on a Prayer, but beyond that is a deep-set love for the blues. 

He started playing guitar at 12, idolizing the likes of B.B. King, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. Later on in life, they'd become far more than heroes. 

He'd go on to enjoy a strong relationship with King; Jimmy Page signed his early band, Mercy, to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song record label; and in 1995, Eric Clapton, ordered him to join a dream jam session at the Roxy. There was no asking. 

Speaking in the latest issue of Guitar Player, Sambora charts his career with candid anecdotes about life after Bon Jovi. More importantly, he also discussed being accepted by the blues community, and the moment Slowhand delivered a poetic full-circle moment to him. 

“In 1991, when I was finishing up Strange in This Town, I wrote a song, Mr. Bluesman, about a young man like me following blues guys around,” he remembers. “I asked Eric if he would play on it, and he obliged. 

“One day [in March, 1995] he called me and said, 'Richard, this is Eric...' I'm like [drops his mouth in amazement] because I'm still crazy and starstruck. He says 'Buddy, George [Harrison] and I are playing the Roxy tonight. You're going to come and jam.' 

“I'm like 'No, I'm watching the fucking Price Is Right, Eric?! … I will be there, I promise you!' Meanwhile, I'm shitting my pants.” 

Strangely, Harrison “didn’t show up”, with John Lee Hooker present instead, perhaps as a last-minute replacement as one of many legendary names in Clapton’s address book. 

“I played every lick I knew about three times faster – whatever I had to do to get through the whole thing,” Sambora continues. “Buddy's like 'Come on, come on!' and Eric's just laughing. 

“We blew the roof off the place, and we were backstage at the end. Hooker looked at me and said, 'Hey boy, was that you playing them strings up there?... You keep playing. You're good.' I got on my knees and kissed his hand.” 

It’s no doubt a moment that lives rent-free in Sambora’s mind. As he goes on to say, his own address book started filling out, and idols turned into peers and mentors.   

“Every time Buddy was around or I was anywhere near the vicinity,” he concludes, “we'd just call each other. B.B. was the same way. I was accepted by the blues community. But I did the work, man. I did the stuff. I played blues clubs for a reason and I loved every second of it.” 

Sambora released four new singles in 2024, his first new solo music since 2012’s Aftermath of the Lowdown. 

I Pray, Livin' Alone, Songs That Wrote My Life, and Believe (In Miracles) were released across consecutive weeks in April and May.   

Sambora left Bon Jovi in 2016 to have more time to spend with his family. You can read about his recent reflections on his departure from the band here.  

Head to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar Player, which includes the full interview with Sambora, alongside discussions with John Fogerty, Sue Foley, Thorn Florentine Empirial. 

“It’s probably the best rock and roll song I’ve ever written,” Robin Trower says about Day of the Eagle, the frenetic, heavy blues track from his second solo album, 1974’s Bridge of Sighs. “It’s still a lot of fun to play, too. To pull it off successfully, you have to be slightly on the edge of making it work. There has to be some effort involved. I think that’s what makes it so exciting to play.”

Day of the Eagle ranks as the pinnacle of Trower’s career, the song that established him as a six-string force to be reckoned with. Within the framework of his power trio – which included bassist/vocalist James Dewar and drummer Reg Isidore – Trower’s guitar work is soulful, emotive, and oozing with the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, a guitarist to whom he has often been compared. 

“My three mentors are B.B. King, Albert King and Jimi Hendrix,” Trower affirms. “I don’t think it does Hendrix any service for me to be compared to him, because he was a genius. I knew not to copy anybody else. 

“For instance, with Hendrix or B.B. King, I never sat down and worked out any of their licks; I was more interested in knowing what was behind the lick – what was the feeling, the emotion that made them play it like that. If you get hung up on other people’s stuff, it may stop your own creativity from coming through.”

It starts with the riff

The songwriting process for Day of the Eagle began when Trower came up with the song’s main riff. 

“That’s where all my songs start,” he explains. “Once I came up with that, the changes followed, along with the rest of the guitar parts. And once that was done, I then wrote the song’s lyric. 

“I’m not sure anything particular inspired the lyrical matter. They were just ideas that came into my head. The most important thing for me about lyrics, though, is that they’ve got to be saying something. The sound of the words is important too.”

A Beatles legend

When it came time to record, Trower decided to capture the spontaneous live energy of his band straight to tape, with no double-tracking or studio wizardry. 

“It went down as a three-piece, live in the studio,” he explains. “First, we laid down the rhythm guitar, bass, and drums together, and then I laid down the lead work. Once that was done, Jimmy [Dewar] sang the lead vocal. I’d say we probably did two or three takes of the song before we finally got the take that we kept.”

Beyond his band’s stellar contributions, Trower credits recording engineer Geoff Emerick for capturing their sound – especially his guitar – and power. 

“The sound of not only that track, but the whole album, is down to Geoff’s vision and creative ability to capture those sounds,” Trower says of Emerick, who famously lent his talents to the Beatles masterpieces Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s. “He was an amazing engineer to work with.” 

For gear, Trower says, “I used two 100-watt Marshall heads with two 4x12 cabinets. I also had a homemade volume booster pedal, which was built for me by a friend of mine who was an electronics guy. It didn’t have a distortion unit in it, but it made it possible for me to drive the amps a little bit harder. That was the only effect used on the track. Guitar-wise, it was just a newly bought, straight-off-the-shelf black 1974 Fender Strat with the larger headstock.”

Still flying high

Day of the Eagle has proven to be a popular choice for guitarists, including Steve Stevens, who covered it on his 2008 solo effort, Memory Crash, and Pat Travers, who put it on his 2003 album, P.T Power Trio. “It’s a great compliment that people think that much of it,” Trower says.

Although Day of the Eagle failed to chart, Bridge of Sighs climbed to seven on the Billboard album chart, and its commercial success brought Trower validation as a solo artist in his own right. Fifty years on, he remains as passionate about his career as ever. “I just love to play the guitar,” he professes. “That is my drug. And that’s what keeps me still at it.” 

Guitar players and enthusiasts will find a coterie of familiar faces adorning the Hall of Fame rotunda at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (a.k.a. The MAX), an interactive museum in Meridian that honors the state’s famed writers, actors, musicians, and other cultural figures. 

As the structure ascends from the ground floor through the center’s galleries and toward the open sky, the visages of Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Jimmie Rodgers, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, and Marty Stuart cast a message to visitors that’s echoed in the state’s tourism slogan: “The Birthplace of American Music.” No state has a more solid claim to it than Mississippi.

“We’re the birthplace of blues, country and rock and roll music,” says Penny Kemp, president and CEO of The MAX. “And the guitar is at the core of all of it.” Meridian itself has a hefty guitar legacy as the home of Rodgers, seen by many as the father of country music, as well as Peavey Electronics, which pioneered CNC technology in guitar making in the 1970s.

Beyond the museum’s own collection of notable guitars – including Diddley’s rectangular red Gretsch G6138, Hooker’s Wine Red Gibson SJ-200, Waters’ Gretsch Synchromatic and one of B.B. King’s “Lucille” Gibson ES-355s – there are more reasons for guitar fans to visit this spring.

Through May 11, The MAX is hosting America at the Crossroads: The Guitar and a Changing Nation, presented by the National Guitar Museum. There, visitors can see 40 of the most important guitars ever made, from the National Guitar Museum’s collection of 200 historic instruments, and learn how the instrument has impacted American history.

“The guitar kept showing up anytime you were looking at a huge cultural movement,” says H.P. Newquist, founder of the National Guitar Museum. “Look at the Vietnam War. You had people like Hendrix and John Fogerty writing songs that featured searing guitars, emulating the sounds of bombs with them, and becoming emblems of the opposition to the war. And you had plenty of guys going off to war who were taking their guitars with them.”

The story of the guitar in America dates to colonial times, beginning with explorers and settlers who brought their instruments with them across the Atlantic Ocean. By the late 1800s, guitars were parlor instruments to be played at home.

“Prior to World War I, women played guitar more than men did. The parlor guitar was designed primarily to fit a woman’s body and hands and arms,” Newquist says. “And then you move forward into the mid-1950s and you have people like Mother Maybelle Carter, who really invented their own style of strumming and picking that changed the sound of country music.”

As guitars became more affordable through retailers like Sears, Roebuck and Co, African-American sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta and other parts of the South adopted the instrument and evolved blues music from spirituals and field hollers. Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House, and other early bluesmen traveled from farm to farm, visiting plantations like Dockery and Stovall, where they entertained share-croppers with their homespun tales and slide guitar licks.

The guitar remained the driving force as blues gave way to rock and roll in the hands of Ike Turner, Chuck Berry, and other Black artists on the chitlin’ circuit, but this new music wasn’t strictly a gentleman’s club. As in the parlor days, women like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Cordell Jackson were fierce guitarists. The multimedia portion of America at the Crossroads shows how much Tharpe brought to the stage.

“Rosetta Tharpe should have been the very first person ever inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Newquist says. “She did a better job at ringing solos out of that guitar than a lot of people we give more recognition to today.”

In showcasing its many guitars, the exhibit emphasizes the instruments’ authenticity over the hands that played them. A Rickenbacker Electro A-22 “Frying Pan” provides an introduction to the electric guitar era, while models like the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul segue to the rock and roll explosion, and a venerable Martin D-28 speaks to blues, folk, and protest music.

Visitors will find curiosities, too. One of H.P. Newquist’s favorite guitars in the exhibit is a Soviet-era Tonika model that traveled across the Atlantic and reached the museum intact, despite being wrapped in just a garlic sack for protection against the elements and other hazards of shipping. Its origin story illuminates another piece of American history.

“In the Cold War, American goods weren’t sold in the Soviet Union,” Newquist says. “Youth were listening to pirated radio, and they wanted to play guitar but they couldn’t import them. So they created instruments they thought looked like a Stratocaster but which really look like a copy of a copy of a copy. You can’t plug it into anything modern.”

Back at home, Peavey Electronics founder Hartley Peavey, who built his first guitar amps a few blocks away from The MAX, adapted computer-controlled routing technology for the guitar-making process for the Peavey T-60 model, thereby vastly increasing the number of guitars that could be made while making consistency a priority. A T-60 prototype is part of the exhibit.

Performances by artists like Pat Metheny and Super Chikan, as well as workshops around guitar making, will be on tap during the exhibit’s run. Visitors can also enhance their visit by engaging interactive modules in The MAX’s permanent exhibits that give an even fuller picture of the guitar’s role in the story of America’s music.

“All the blues artists are heavily represented in the Juke Joint gallery, where visitors can learn more about each artist’s origins, inspirations, and collaborations,” Kemp says. In addition to sampling their music, visitors can form their own virtual band in an interactive exhibit. On guitar? The options are Diddley, Hooker, King and Waters – a dream team no matter who they pick. 

• America at the Crossroads: The Guitar and a Changing Nation runs at The MAX in Meridian, Mississippi, through May 11. Find more information on the exhibit and its events right here.

Back in 1998, Guitar Player caught up with Jimmie Vaughan following the recording of his maverick solo album Out There. The following interview originally appeared in the July 1998 issue of Guitar Player.

To hardcore fans, Jimmie Vaughan is a virtual deity -- a living legend with a guitar style so deep that it defies description. Since emerging in the Fabulous Thunderbirds 23 years ago, Vaughan has walked the long walk and earned the respect of blues superstars such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton. He has spun his signature licks in dives and stadiums, shared a bill with Jimi Hendrix, and toured the world with Clapton, ZZ Top, and the Rolling Stones. Not bad for a guy who traded high school for an endless stream of roadhouse gigs.

During his tenure with the T-Birds, Vaughan developed a wicked guitar style that would eventually evolve into using a capo and plucking the strings – some call it digging – with his forefinger. After all but disappearing from public view following brother Stevie Ray's death on August 27, 1990 (soon after the two had united for the highly acclaimed Family Style), Vaughan re-emerged in 1995 with his first solo album, Strange Pleasure. To the delight of worshippers of all things Vaughan, Jimmie was squarely on the scene again.

His latest release, Out There, is a swampfest of greasy grooves and maverick guitar playing, and underscores the Texan's knack for pulling rabbits out of some very old blues hats. During a recent conversation with Vaughan, he offered GP readers some insights into how he does what he does onstage and in the studio.

Out There really has a classic, old-school vibe. How did you get that blend of funk and finesse?

I like fat tones, and I try to use the best of the old and the best of the new. The whole album was recorded digitally. All that stuff about having to use tape – that's all bullshit to me. You just have to use the right limiters and mic preamps. If you put this album on any kind of stereo and turn it up, it sounds badass – at least to me. It's a bit out of tune, which gives it that little edge and dissonance. We didn't deliberately get out of tune, though.

You made a big instrumental change by having an organ play the bass parts.

Well, it was just a teenage fantasy. I've always loved the organ trio stuff. And I've always loved the Hammond B-3. The sound of it just rips your guts out. It's all wood and tubes, and it's got so much feeling. I wanted to have that behind me because I knew it would make me want to play guitar.

It sure makes the guitars stand out.

Yeah, because you can hear the bass drum go "boom." You can hear the whole drum kit, because there's no bass guitar covering up everything. You hear bass from the organ, but it's more of a hmmm – it doesn't have the attack of a bass guitar.

Has your recording process changed much since the Thunderbirds?

No, it really hasn't. Back with the Thunderbirds we got our sound by using the room. Instead of recording the signal and putting an effect on it to make it sound good, we moved the microphones away from the amps and the drums. There's almost no reverb or echo or anything on this record. For the most part, it was mixed by just setting the fader levels.

That's really how I get a good guitar tone. It's the room. Now I'm giving away all my little secrets. It's also the amp and the guitar, of course, but you record everything where there's enough room for the sound to breathe. You don't put the mic right up on the speaker. This is the same way I've recorded every record I've made -- the ones that sounded good, anyway [laughs]. You can go too far with that room sound, though. It can sound like you're out in the street or something.

Do you cut rhythm tracks with the whole band?

That's exactly what we do. I overdub a lot of my guitar parts, but I'll go in and play with the band because everybody gets excited and we start playing off each other. Then, I'll come back and sing it and play it, and fix whatever we have to. In the old days, you'd just do the song 20 times and pick the best take -- which is a very good idea. I'd like to do that again someday.

Were you the only guitar player on the record?

Yeah, except for "Feel Like a King." That's Nile Rodgers playing rhythm guitar. He wrote and produced that song.

Your voice sounds especially warm and rich on this record. In fact, the signal seems like it was pushed into overload.

Yeah, we're not past distorting the shit out of something if it sounds good. You want everything to sound like it's fixin' to explode. Just almost, though, not already exploded. [Laughs.]

Have you found any particular mics that work best for your voice?

No. I just set up a bunch of mics and sing into 'em until it sounds right. Whichever one sounds best, that's the one we go for. It's pretty difficult for me because I'm just a guitar player who's learning to sing.

You're being humble. In "Lost in You," there are moments where you almost sound like Al Green.

Well, thank you. Maybe the chord changes sort of remind you of that. Al Green is a phenomenal singer. He's like Mister Vocal, and I'm sort of urping it out. I'm getting more confident, though. The singing on this record is a lot better for me than it was on Strange Pleasure. Likewise, on Family Style -- which was the first time I ever sang -- it was pretty close to horrible, but it was fun.

"Tick Tock" was pretty tingling.

But, see, I only talked on that. Stevie sang that one. I always wanted to sing, but I was scared. Then I got backed into a corner and I had to do it. I can't sing like Bobby Blue Bland, Buddy Guy, or B.B. King, but if I sing like me, then it's okay.

Getting back to guitar -- once you've cut your rhythm tracks, do you move your amp to another room for overdubs?

No, it's the same room. We just set up a close mic and a room mic, and we can get any kind of sound by turning up the level of one mic or the other.

Does a close-mic position work better for rhythm parts?

Yeah. But there's only "Out There," "Kinky Woman," and "The New Ironic Twist" where I play a little rhythm thing in the background. Mostly, it's just lead stuff. I sort of think of my guitar as a saxophone, and I play it that way.

You started using a capo some time ago. How does it affect your playing?

I started doing that on the third Thunderbirds album. I wouldn't do it all the time, but I started using it more and more. See, I'm always in E, and I've got all those open strings. It just makes me think different. It's bluesier to me. When I play with a pick and without a capo, I have a tendency to go right over to B.B. King's or Buddy Guy's house. I can't help it because that's the way I learned. But when I use the capo, I think I sound more like me.

So you're moving the capo around a lot.

I just put it where it sounds right. On "Astral Projection Blues," the song starts with the capo in F and ends up with it in G. I actually move it right in the middle. You can almost hear it go "clunk."

You employ it a lot differently from, say, Albert Collins -- who used an Fm tuning and regularly capoed at the seventh fret.

He was completely on his own planet. Mine is sort of that Houston, Gulf Coast style of Guitar Slim, Gatemouth Brown, and Johnny Watson. Another guy who uses a capo is Lonnie Mack.

Your playing seems to get wilder all the time.

I like wild. Wild is good.

How did your style evolve?

Well, I've been at it for a long time, and I've copied all my heroes. When I first started, it was B.B. King and Buddy Guy. I was just a student, and I tried to learn what they were doing because I couldn't believe the sounds they were getting. I bought every B.B. King record I could get, and I'd sit there and learn the intro, the solos, the ending, and all his little licks in between. You know, I'd just play along with it and try to copy what he was doing. Same thing with Eric Clapton.

What made you choose a Strat?

It was just the whole Fender thing because I use Teles too. When I was a kid, I used to ride the bus downtown on Saturdays and just look in the window at Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Gibson SGs. I'd think, "I'll never be able to have one." I don't know how it happened, but, over the years, I just became aware of what I wanted to hear, and I tried to get that. I've narrowed it down to what works and what doesn't work, and what works is getting that fat tone on a Fender guitar – which is not necessarily known for that.

So, how do you get that sound?

It's not really any trick. You just turn the amp up and use your fingers to get a good guitar sound. I like the treble pickup because it has a pure tone without a lot of overtones. It almost sounds like a steel guitar, you know? That's what my tone is -- it's always the treble pickup. But you can say different things tonewise by where you pick. For example, depending on where I pick the string – closer to the bridge or farther away from the bridge – and whether I use a pick or a finger is sort of like my three pickups. We're gettin' pretty deep now. [Laughs.]

You've always gone for maple fretboards.

I don't think it makes any difference. I mean, Stevie used maple and rosewood, but he got the same sound. I think it's just whatever you like. I just always liked to look at the maple. It's cool. It looks like Gene Vincent. You know that famous picture of the Blue Caps with all the Mary Kay guitars? ["Mary Kay" is a common term for the white-blond, translucent finish used on some ash-bodied Fenders.] I look at that picture and go "Man, look at that!" It's just what I got used to, because my first Strat was a '58 maple-neck.

Have you experimented with different pickups?

Yeah, a little bit. But I always ended up back with the stock pickups. See, I like my guitars to be pretty much stock -- there's nothing on my guitars that's not pretty regular. You're going to think I'm kidding, but I used my Fender Tex Mex Strat on this record. The only difference is that its treble pickup is a little hotter than standard. I guess they put more winding on it, but I don't know. They all come that way. I used my old Strat on "Kinky Woman" -- my old white one -- and I used a '54 reissue Strat on "Astral Projection Blues." But the rest of it is the Tex Mex.

How do you adjust your pickups?

I don't know if this is good advice for anybody else, but I raise up my treble side and lower the bass side. It just seems more balanced that way -- you know, the ratio of the volume between the treble strings and the bass strings. But I really just want the treble to just blow the shit out of it. Now, if you get the pickup too close it'll start making a beating sound. One thing I do that I don't think nobody else does is raise my action up real high. I don't necessarily use big strings, but I have the action up pretty high so that my strings really ring. I know Fenders were designed to play really easy, but I like it when you've got something to hold on to.

Your guitars feel like they're strung with .010s or .011s.

That's about right. Some guitars feel tighter than others. I go to it guitar by guitar, but usually I end up with just a regular set of .010s. If I go on tour and start playing hard every night, I'll move up to .011s because I'm getting stronger.

Do you prefer any particular brand?

I use D'Addario.

Do you always keep your trem bridge flat against the body?

Yeah, and I've got all the springs on. That's the way my Tex Mex and old white are set up. I don't really even use the thing. I like it, though, and occasionally I might do something with it.

How important is a guitar's weight to you?

I like 'em kind of light. Some people say that heavy guitars have more sustain, but I can't tell. You know when a guitar sings through you -- through its back? I like it when you hold the guitar, and it sort of breathes through itself.

What amps did you use on the new record?

I used an old Fender Pro that I borrowed from [Austin musician] Denny Freeman, and an old Silvertone with one 10" speaker -- just a cheap, garage-looking thing. I also used my Matchless, the one with four 10s. When I go out on a gig, I use two piggyback models. I think they're Chieftains -- the ones with two 12s in each cabinet. I used a Bassman on a couple of things. As long as it has tubes and it's a Fender-type amp, you can't beat it. I've used a pair of Fender reissue Bassmans for gigs, and I've used them on records from Family Style on.

There's a photo of you using a Fender Super Reverb with the Thunderbirds, and from the back of the amp you can see that it has mismatched speakers. Was that something you did intentionally?

I think it was just what we had. The Jensen speakers sounded the best to me, but when we couldn't get those, we probably ended up with EVs. They were real durable. In the Matchless amps, I've got stock Celestions. They're the perfect speakers for that amp.

Are there other new amplifiers that you like?

I just bought three Kendricks. I got a 4x10, a 2x12, and one of their Black Gold 35s. Man, the Black Golds sound fabulous! If you can get a better guitar tone than that, I want to hear it. There really are some good amps now. There was a time when you had your old Fender, and that was it. Now, between Fender, Matchless, and Kendrick, a guy can get anything.

Are any effects added to your amp sound in the studio?

Nothing. I just get a good tone from the amp. There's always an exception to the rule, though. I'm not going to say that I'll never do this or never do that, but effects usually don't sound good with the room sound. The room mic is the effect, if you can call it that. On all my favorite old records, no matter how they had the band and the guitar miked, when the guy stepped away from the vocal mic to play his guitar, they would turn up his vocal mic. That's what makes it get all crazy-sounding. When B.B. King's playing and singing, you hear his guitar coming through the vocal mic, which has a little distance on it. When he steps away, they turn it up, and bam!

You've pretty much avoided effects pedals.

Well, I had an Ibanez Tube Screamer when I was in the Thunderbirds. I also had some kind of tremolo gizmo that made the pitch go up and down, and I ran my guitar through a Leslie on Butt Rockin'. But I just decided that the guitar was enough of a gadget. I have nothing against effects, but I just want to play the guitar. I'm not trying to be a purist or anything, it's just what I like.

You have a very identifiable guitar sound. Are you completely satisfied with it?

No, I'm never satisfied. What keeps you sounding good is when you're always trying to keep it fresh. The best advice I could give anybody is just to play, play, play. The more you play, the better you're going to get because you'll get bored with yourself, and then you'll learn new ways to express yourself.

Has the guitar ever been a struggle for you?

Truthfully, it has always come pretty natural. I don't want to say it was easy, but it seemed the perfect thing for me. I'd be in sad shape if I didn't have this.

This interview originally appeared in the July 1998 issue of Guitar Player…

Although it was Gibson’s first major endorsement-led electric guitar, the Les Paul model failed to set the market on fire during its initial run, from 1952 to ’60. But the thinline semi-hollowbody ES-335 that joined the company’s lineup in 1958 was much closer to an overnight success. 

The seminal semihollow design immediately proved to be one of the world’s most versatile electric guitars, and it has retained that reputation ever since. And just as Gibson had extended the Les Paul range in 1953 with the Custom model, a.k.a. Black Beauty, the company added to the ES lineup in late 1958 with the ES-355, the top model of the range. 

The step up to the ES-355 brought with it changes to the guitar’s electronics — including stereo wiring and a six-position Varitone switch — as well as cosmetics. 

Like the Les Paul Custom, the 355 served up the bling, adding ebony, gold hardware and large fret-marker blocks, rather than the dot inlays of the ES-335 model. Just as the undeniably classy Custom had smartened the look of the base Les Paul model with its dinner-jacket attire and gold hardware, the standard Cherry finish of the debutante ES-355 brought more color to the palette and helped the rest of its adornments really pop. 

Framed by seven-ply body binding, the deep-red translucent finish provided a stunning background for the gold-plated hardware, completing a package that screamed “top shelf” from any angle. 

Sunburst and Natural were introduced as standard finish options in 1960, but for most players, the Cherry finish — which on many examples has faded to a watermelon red — will always be the classic look. 

FANCY BUT FUSSY

The ES-355’s high-end appointments carried on right up the neck, where pearloid-block position markers contrasted with the ebony fingerboard, and to the headstock’s split-diamond inlay. 

Elaborate five-ply binding encircled the enlarged headstock, which was further upgraded with gold Grover Rotomatic tuners as standard and a truss-rod cover engraved (in most instances) with “Stereo.” 

In other regards, the ES-355 had the same construction as the ES-335, which included a body made from laminated maple, a maple center block to help impede feedback and improve sustain and clarity, and a glued-in mahogany neck. 

The use of an ebony fretboard on the ES-355, however, rather than the rosewood of the ES-335 and ES-345, enhanced the guitar’s treble response and gave a little more bite and clarity to the overall tone. It’s a brightness booster that some players don’t feel this model needs, which is why many have favored the standard-issue ES-335 over the years. 

But a big part of that love for the down-market sibling stems from the ES-355’s overly complex electronics, starting with its stereo wiring. Placing the three-way pickup toggle in the front or back position selects the bridge (lead) and neck (rhythm) pickups individually but sends them to different “hot” terminals on the stereo (TRS) output jack. 

With the switch in the middle position, however, both pickups are sent to their respective outputs simultaneously. Either way, the result requires a special Y cable to connect the guitar’s output either to two separate amps or two channels of the same amp (or, ideally in Gibson’s view, one of their own stereo amps, such as the GA-79RVT). 

The ES-355 could also be special-ordered in mono, but most were made with the stereo feature, which a lot of guitarists avoided or converted to mono for ease of use. Bear in mind that Gibson reversed the polarity of the pickups in vintage stereo ES-355s, arguably to enhance the spread of the stereo effect when both were used together. Unless you’re a fan of the out-of-phase Peter Green tone, that’s another modification to factor in. 

In its first three years of existence, the ES-355 came standard with a Bigsby vibrato (very few were made with no Bigsby and a stopbar tailpiece). For 1961–’62, the Bigsby was replaced with the arguably cumbersome sideways vibrola — as seen on our 1962 example featured in this issue — which, in turn, was replaced with a long vibrola with lyre cover plate in 1963. 

Given the potential persnicketiness of any of these vibrato units, players have also sometimes paid a premium for one of the relatively few factory-hardtail vintage ES-355s made in the early years.  

LUXE FOR LESS

The result of all this is that good ES-355s from the late ’50s and early ’60s have often sold for considerably less than comparable ES-335s, despite their elevated cosmetics. Those who dig the model for what it is, though, have often gotten great use out of its special features, and many players have found a lot to love in the Varitone settings, too. 

The ES-355 has appealed to a wide range of notable guitarists over the years, including B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Alex Lifeson, Otis Rush, Noel Gallagher, Johnny Marr, Tad Kubler from the Hold Steady and Ray Benson from Asleep at the Wheel. All have made hay out of the model’s broad sonic palette. 

Though if you’re mainly drawn to a vintage ES-355 for its looks, it’s reason enough to scratch that itch.

Essential ingredients

• Thinline symmetrical doublecutaway body made from laminated maple with solid-maple center block 
• Seven-ply body binding, five-ply headstock binding 
• Glued-in mahogany neck, 24.75” scale length 
• Ebony fretboard with pearloid block inlays 
• Two humbucking pickups (one PAF, one Patent Number on this example) 
• Six-position Varitone switch and stereo output jack

B.B. King's The Best of the Early Years is available to buy and stream now

In a new interview with Guitar World, blues legend Buddy Guy – who is currently in the midst of his farewell tour – revealed how his style was shaped by watching his heroes – and learning what he could, and couldn't, do from them.

It was one of Guy's own idols, B.B. King, who once said “listen to me and anybody else you like. I won’t use the word ‘steal,’ but try to ‘borrow’ a little bit from each guy. And, like that, you become you.“

Indeed, King was one of the figures who most influenced Guy, but the latter recognized early on that it made little sense to incorporate certain King quirks into his playing.

“I had to find my own unique voice on the electric guitar,“ Guy says. “Because I had heard guys like B.B. King and T-Bone Walker, I said, 'I’ll never be that good. I’ve got to do something different from them or I’m done for.' A guy like Guitar Slim was wild, and B.B. King had a left hand that could do things that were not of this Earth. I knew I could never do any of that. 

“So, I told myself, if I can ever become any good at guitar, I’d like to act like Guitar Slim but play like B.B. King and T-Bone Walker.”

In an interview with Guitar Player earlier this year, Guy also pointed to King as one of the reasons why he chose to end his touring career on a high note. 

“I think Muddy [Waters] died at 70, and he was still okay, but B.B. King was [still touring at] 89 years old,“ Guy told Guitar Player. “Every time I would go play for a promoter that had him six months or a year before me, they’d tell me he was forgetting his songs.

“He was doing the same song three or four times a night. ‘You Are My Sunshine’ – that was his favorite. And everybody was afraid to tell him he was singing it three or four times a night, ’cause he was the boss at all times. So I started thinking about that, and I don’t want it to be that way for me.“

To read GP's full interview with Guy, step right this way.

Over the years, Guitar Player enjoyed a close relationship with B.B. King and we collected some wonderful quotes during the blues great's many interviews with our writers.

Here are some of his thoughts that we published in The Guitar Player Book.

His Personal Heroes

“T-Bone Walker has a touch that nobody has been able to duplicate. He seems to scrape his pick across the strings – how he hits specific strings, I just don’t know! He was the first electric guitar player I heard on record, and he made me go out and get an electric guitar. 

"He used to use a lot of horns, too. They made a beautiful sound – like shouting in the sanctified churches. He also had a good rhythm section. And, to me, T-Bone seemed to lay right in-between there somewhere. That was the best sound I ever heard."

“Blind Lemon Jefferson played solo-acoustic guitar, and his way of executing left you with the feeling that you could hear someone else backing him up. Bill Jennings used to play in Louis Jordan’s band, and his rhythm was so even and driving. You know, once you start a beat to going real good – keep it. That’s what he did so well.

"Johnny Moore played a big Gibson Super 400 with [pianist] Charles Brown, and he used to put in quite a few chord changes – things like big, fat 9th chords. They were really modern changes, but they always fit what he was doing. He would even slide into chords sometimes, and give a good, bluesy feeling to a ballad.

“Earl Hooker was the best slide guitarist I ever heard. He always knew exactly what he was doing. For instance, take a truck driver, tell him to park next to the curb, and he knows exactly where to put the rig. That’s how Earl Hooker played."

“Of course, Charlie Christian was amazing. I first heard him in 1941 or ’42. He was a master at diminished chords, and a master at new ideas, too. And he was kind of like a governor on a tractor. If a tractor is bogging down in the mud, the governor will kick in and give it an extra boost. Christian was the same way. 

"When the band would hit the bridge, he would keep the whole thing flying and get it really taking off. Charlie didn’t fluff notes much, either. A lot of us slide into notes because we aren’t sure. Like, if you want to hit a Bb, you hit a B, and slide down into it, or hit an A and slide up. But Charlie Christian knew. He was so sure. 

"I could go on and on, but, you know, I’m influenced by anybody I hear. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody play something that didn’t intrigue me at one time or another.”

On Style

“I believe your sound comes from within you. You can manufacture a sound by having a wah-wah pedal or something, but the actual sound comes from you. You know, if you have a piano sitting out in the lounge, and Ray Charles is playing it, he’s going to sound like Ray Charles. If Elton John is playing it, he’s going to sound like Elton. My point is that it’s your touch and your soul that makes it sound the way it does. 

"Now, you don’t want to play like B.B. King or somebody else. You want to be you. So what you do is listen to me and anybody else you like. I won’t use the word ‘steal,’ but try to ‘borrow’ a little bit from each guy. And, like that, you become you.”

On Soloing

“I was at the Apollo Theater one time, and a critic gave me one of the greatest compliments anyone has ever given me. He said, ‘B.B. King sings, and then Lucille [King’s guitar] sings.’ That made me feel very good, because I do feel that I’m singing when I play. That’s why I don’t play a lot of notes like some people. Maybe that’s the reason most of my music is very simple – that’s the way I sing.”

On How to Play the Blues

“The big mistake about people in the blues is they seem to think you have to be high, completely smashed or stoned out of your head to be able to play the blues. And I don’t think a guy has to wear patched trousers, either. That image is what people seem to put on us, and it’s wrong. 

"Blues music is like any other kind of music. Some of us excel, and some of us don’t. Some of us are really able to please people, and some of us can’t. But we all have the blues – red, white, black, brown, yellow, rich or poor. You can be successful and still have the blues. I have been fortunate, and yet now I have more to sing about than I ever did before.

"I look around and read the papers, and I see what’s happening in this country and around the world. There are money troubles. Food is running low is some places. There are oil problems. I go to the prisons and see what’s happening there. I think of my people – the ones I left behind in Mississippi, and all the people in all the Mississippis. 

"We are part of each other, you know. When one person is hurt, it hurts me, too. When I see their condition, I know what they feel, and I feel it. And it hurts.”

A trend popularized by Eric Clapton in the '60s and continued by Stevie Ray Vaughan in the '80s was the slashing, searing, single-note line. Ever since, this has become a cherished goal for all aspiring blues guitar heroes.

But well before Clapton arrived on the scene, blues guitarists were using double-stop lines to fatten up their lead work. In fact, Sylvester Weaver, the first African-American blues guitarist to be recorded, waxed a classic of inestimable importance in 1923 with “Guitar Rag.” 

A slide piece in open E, the track depends heavily on harmony in 3rds for the melody and fills. Contemporary lead guitarists would be well advised to follow Weaver’s pioneering example and use double-stops to fatten their chops.

Double-stops often operate in that middle ground between single notes and chords and regularly appear as 4ths, 5ths and 6ths in the blues, although 3rds derived from the diatonic scales are the most common.

Figure 1 shows dominant-flavored G Mixolydian double-stops on strings 3 and 2, but they may be accessed on any pair of consecutive strings with a slight fingering adjustment.

Figure 2 is similar to the head of “Shake Your Moneymaker” as recorded by electric slide deity Elmore James in 1961. 

Though it’s slide-based, this is also a hip riff when fingered conventionally as shown, and it belongs in any Blues 101 course.

Dig how merely flatting the major 3rd (B) on beat 1 of measure 1 (I chord) to the b3rd (Bb) on beat 1 of measure 2 (IV chord) – where it functions as the b7th leading tone of C – succinctly indicates the chord change, as the rest of the dyads remain the same.

The 3rd-b3rd (b7th) concept is further explored in Figure 3 in one of the all-time classic blues riffs. Countless tunes have employed this form and its variations. B.B. King was a particularly enthusiastic fan of its tonality-defining qualities. 

The hammer-on to the major 3rd (B) from D/Bb (5th and b3rd) in measure 1 is the apex of blues cool.

Figure 4 contains triplets implying a dominant 7th on beats 1–3 in measure 1 as favored by the legendary Lightnin’ Hopkins in many of his compositions. 

Check out how the chromatic sequence of dyads on strings 4 and 3 in measure 2 implies movement from the G major to G7. 

Inasmuch as this device exhibits a strong tendency to move forward to the IV or V chord, it’s suggested that you use it as a turnaround in measures 7 and 8 (I chord) of a 12-bar blues.

Thirds are the building blocks of many turnarounds, and Figure 5 exhibits a typically smooth pattern.

Contributing to this fluid characteristic is the fact that each double-stop contains the same relative interval all the way down the line. 

Skip James’ “I’m So Glad” and Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago” both employed variations on this cadence.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram learned his first guitar licks in an after-school program at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of the crossroads that many music fans consider hallowed ground. 

Ingram may be known for keeping the traditions of his hometown Delta blues alive, but that’s only half of his story. 

As it happens, influences ranging from psychedelic funk to gospel and hip-hop have their own chapters in it as well. 

Here are the five riffs that shaped his guitar playing...

1. Albert King – "I Play the Blues for You"

“I learned this at the Delta Blues Museum under my teachers Daddy Rich [Richard Crisman] and Bill ‘Howlin’ Madd’ Perry. We would learn different Albert King songs, such as ‘I Play the Blues for You,’ and one of the licks in that song influenced my playing a whole lot, because it was one of the first licks I learned in that blues pentatonic scale that I could use. I worked my way around it, and from that I built up on other stuff.”

2. Funkadelic – "Hit It and Quit It"

“Eddie Hazel is a big inspiration to me. I love his playing. I listened to Maggot Brain almost every day; it’s one of my favorite tunes. I feel like he’s one of the most underappreciated and underrated guitarists, and he’s one of my favorite guys. Funk rock is a big inspiration to my playing, so I owe it all to him.”

3. Robert Petway (in the styles of Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix) – "Catfish Blues"

“This is ‘Catfish Blues’ two ways. The first way is the Muddy Waters way. Hendrix took that and made it a little different. I like to alternate between the two – have that traditional sound but still get contemporary every now and again. 

"I’m influenced by a lot of things. Blues music is my first love, obviously, but I’m into rock and classic rock and all sorts of other stuff. I had been playing bass, and I started on guitar around 12 or 13, and I found this Hendrix Smash Hits CD that my mom got me. From that point on, it was right to where I am now.”

4. Nate Dogg – "Never Leave Me Alone"

“I’m a die-hard Nate Dogg fan. He comes from the same city as me in Mississippi, Clarksdale, before he moved to Long Beach [California]. I listened to the bass line and listened hard to the guitar on the record, and this is basically those played together. 

"You can pretty much pull off the song in any instrumentation. My love of Nate Dogg has to do with my love of music all together. I’ve always loved his vocal style. He’s always been one of my favorite singers. I try to do some of my vibrato like him. He had this long, shaky vibrato, and sometimes I like to emulate that.”

5. B.B. King Lick

“This is an old B.B. King lick that sounds very common, but it’s definitely a lick that I love. You can incorporate it into any blues solo in 12 bars. Some of that at the end is stuff I added, but it’s B.B. King influenced. It’s not a particular tune. It’s one of his signature licks that I would add into my playing a lot.”

Visit the Christone "Kingfish" Ingram website for news, music, tour info and more.

***The following originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of Guitar Player***

Certain guitar solos are infused with magic. They may or may or may not be technically challenging, flashy, or otherwise virtuoso, but they have that special something that sets them apart from what came before, and they typically alert guitarists everywhere that their world has forever changed. 

What’s more, those magic solos tend to inspire legions of guitarists to attempt to unlock their technical and tonal mysteries, and permeate the six-string community’s collective unconscious, re-emerging later as direct and indirect influences on individual players’ styles. Somewhat paradoxically, however, there is no consensus on which solos have achieved this iconic status.

When we began working on this story, we came up with a lengthy list of solos to include. Our first task was to set up some guidelines. We decided to limit the list to electric rock solos, along with blues and jazz-rock fusion solos that influenced rock. We also set a limit of one solo per artist.

At that point, there were still many more than 40 solos on the list, so we had to make some hard choices. To start, guitarists who were hugely influential overall, but couldn’t be tied to an ultra-influential solo – such as Tony Iommi and George Harrison – were cut. 

We then had to narrow down our selections to just one for each artist, which was difficult for someone like Eric Clapton, whose entries at that point included “Crossroads,” his cover of Freddie King’s “Hideaway” on the Blues Breakers album, and his historic wah workout on “White Room.” Once the smoke cleared, however, we had reached consensus. 

The solos are organized chronologically – including those that fall within the same year – because we thought it would be instructive to see how they relate to each other historically. 

We hope that you like we came up with and perhaps even discover an overlooked gem or two for yourself...

1. Elmore James “Dust My Broom” (1951)

Jimi Hendrix originally called himself Jimmy James and Maurice James in homage to Elmore, and every bluesman since the ‘50s – particularly slide players – owes something to the King of the Slide Guitar. 

Played in an open-D tuning (D, A, D, F#, A, D, low to high), probably on a Kay flattop or Harmony Sovereign with a D’Armond pickup, the slide hook on this tune, and the solo based on it, reappear countless times throughout blues and rock music.

2. Les Paul “How High the Moon” (1951)

The super-syncopated, slap-back soaked runs, chukka-chukka doublestops with bluesy bends, plucky cascading figures, and idiosyncratic ornamentations in Paul’s two solos helped propel this standard up the charts, and further established Paul as the most creative electric guitar player of his generation. 

It was recorded with his “old Epiphone” – a.k.a. “the Clunker” and “the Breadwinner” – with custom-wound hot pickups and other major modifications.

3. Scotty Moore “That’s Alright, Mama” (1954)

Armed with his Gibson ES-295 through a ‘52 Fender Deluxe, Scotty Moore, bassist Bill Black, and their bud Elvis, had no idea what a firestorm they were about to create with this early single. 

Moore’s simple, to the- point style covered the drummer-less bases quite easily with a fat tone and swinging musicality, giving this rather hillbilly ensemble some dangerous sonic heft.

His break on “That’s Alright, Mama” inspired everyone from George Harrison to Keith Richards to Jimmy Page, as well as Danny Gatton, who never missed an opportunity to throw a Moore homage in the middle of one of his famed rockabilly rave ups. 

Moore’s barking double-stops and approximation of a tic-tac bass line on “Mama” are as hooky as it gets, making this solo one of the most important ever.

4. Eddie Cochran “Sittin’ in the Balcony” (1957)

Slinging a 1955 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Hollow Body 'G'-branded guitar with a Gibson P-90 in the neck slot, Cochran, with his iconic presence and echo-drenched tones, hugely impacted early rockers – such as Lennon and McCartney, who bonded over Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” upon meeting in 1957 – and innumerable players thereafter, particularly Brian Setzer. 

The twangy solo on Cochran’s first hit, “Sittin’ In the Balcony,” crackles with the influence of his heroes Chet Atkins, Joe Maphis, and Johnny Smith.

5. Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode” (1958)

While some people might not consider this song’s intro a “solo,” it might be the most important rock guitar part ever recorded. 

The doublestops essentially usher in the post-Elvis rock era, and the tone and balls of this iconic part would echo in the playing of George Harrison, Keith Richards, Eddie Van Halen, and Angus Young... and that's just one tenth of one percent of the players who have copped these licks. 

Listen to it again. You’ll see.

6. Hank Marvin “Apache” (1960)

A primary influence on nearly every British guitarist of a certain age, Marvin created a dreamy, echo-y sound on this #1 U.K. hit that was achieved by playing his Stratocaster – the first in England – through a Meazzi Echomatic tape delay and a Vox AC30 tube amp. 

Marvin mostly used the bridge pickup, but picked near the neck, and palmed the vibrato arm to impart his trademark twang.

7. Freddie King “Hideaway” (1960)

Freddie (a.k.a. Freddy) King cobbled “Hideaway” out of parts lifted from tunes by Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy McCracklin, Robert Lockwood Jr., and even Henry Mancini. 

Between the breaks where he recycled bits of “The Walk” and “Peter Gunn,” King played stinging solos that he plucked on a P-90 equipped Les Paul using a plastic thumbpick and metal fingerpick. 

Eric Clapton did his own version of the tune on John Mayall’s 1966 album, Blues Breakers, and the success of “Hideaway” made it a launch pad for a number of other King instrumentals that would further his notoriety as one of the top blues guitarists of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

8. James Burton “Hello Mary Lou” (1961)

Having turned pro as a teenager on the Louisiana Hayride, Burton was a seasoned vet by the time he became the lead player in Ricky Nelson’s band, which was featured regularly on the TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. 

Burton was a great rock and roll player, as evidenced by his Chuck Berry-style solo on “Believe What I Say,” but he also inspired legions of pickers with his explosively twangy lead break on “Hello Mary Lou.” 

Burton’s playing on Merle Haggard’s early ‘60s hits like “Mama Tried” and “Swingin’ Doors,” inspired the late, great Roy Nichols, who said, “I learned a lot from Burton, and I copied some of his licks, but I couldn’t copy him to a ‘T’.”

9. Jeff Beck “Over Under Sideways Down” (1966)

Along with the Rolling Stones, no band inspired more hard-edged guitar-wielding maniacs than the Yardbirds. Beck’s playing on their classic garage rock anthem is, like much of his playing at this time, inspired by the groovy sounds of the sitar. 

Equal parts spacey modal madness and meth-infused pentatonic fury, it still ranks as some of Beck’s most inspired playing, and that says a lot. 

And not only was Beck’s otherworldly playing inspirational to a generation of guitarists, but his punky stage demeanor and nasty sonic streak (a ‘54 Fender Esquire into a Tone Bender fuzz and AC30), served notice to everyone that a new sheriff was in town, and he was kicking ass.

10. Albert King “Born Under a Bad Sign” (1967)

If Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix lift your licks lock, stock, and barrel, your influence has been spread very far and very wide. In fact, one can make the case that Albert King was the most influential King, just by virtue of the not-so-subtle tributes by his admirers. 

King Albert’s authoritative bends and economical phrasing are required study for anyone who wants to play blues-rock guitar. On this cut, the Velvet Bulldozer lives up to his nickname, making his Gibson Flying V moan, scream, and move mountains with sweeping bends and a stinging tone that delivers all of the nuances in his playing. 

It also proves that, even though SRV and Clapton could “do” Albert, they were never really even close. 

11. Eric Clapton “Crossroads” (1968)

This one is a giant among giants. Little did Slowhand know, after he walked off the Winterland stage in San Francisco, he had created a template setting the standard for expressive, lyrical, howling blues-rock guitar. 

Armed with a ‘64 Gibson ES-335 and a couple of non-master volume 100-watt Marshall stacks, Clapton’s first break is a textbook example of how to build a solo’s intensity, while the second manages to kick it up one more notch for maximum climax. 

Not a duff note in the bunch, impeccably phrased, and with a vibrato that’s as classy as they come, Clapton could have never played another note and he’d still be one of the most influential players ever. 

12. Jimi Hendrix “All Along the Watchtower” (1968)

One can only guess what sort of “light bulb” moment Jimi experienced when he first heard this tune from Bob Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Maybe it was the biblical references in the lyrics, or the great melody – or perhaps just the wide-open space for improvising afforded by the four-chord progression. 

Whatever it was, the version that appeared on Hendrix’ Electric Ladyland album gave rise to one of Jimi’s most memorable solo outings. Playing soulfully and inventively using a wah and fuzz, Hendrix reinvented “All Along the Watchtower” to such a degree that it’s sometimes easy to forget who actually wrote the tune!

13. Peter Green “Black Magic Woman” (1968)

B.B. King once said of Green, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” After establishing himself as a masterful blues stylist in John Mayall’s band, Green quickly evolved both as a player and a songwriter with Fleetwood Mac. 

On his D minor tour-de-force “Black Magic Woman,” Green pulls off an incredibly captivating melody, and his beautiful phrasing and soulful bending on a Les Paul with “magnetically out of phase” pickups was pure gold. 

Carlos Santana made the song a huge hit on Abraxas, and Green was also influential on Irish blues rocker Gary Moore, who would own – and eventually sell – Green’s famous Gibson. 

14. Robert Fripp “21st Century Schizoid Man” (1969)

Fripp’s serpentine solo on this alarmingly virtuosic track combines a supersaturated sustained tone with atypical intervallic movement, non-bluesy bends and trills, and note choices and phrasing that had more in common with Coltrane than Clapton. 

Playing a three-pickup ‘59 Les Paul Custom through a Marshall stack and probably either a Burns Buzzaround or a Colorsound Tone Bender, he recorded the seminal progressive rock solo.

15. Jimmy Page “Heartbreaker” (1969)

Selecting the most influential Page solo led to a heated debate. 

But the squawking tone of a ‘58 Les Paul into a Marshall SLP 1969 Super Lead, maniacal cluster picking, wicked hammer-ons and pull-offs, and behind-the-nut G-string bending in the first solo on “Heartbreaker” – not to mention the smoking second solo – explain why everyone from Brian May to Steve Vai to Steve Morse have hailed it as a definitive guitar solo.

16. B.B. King “The Thrill is Gone” (1969)

With a tone sweeter and thicker than molasses, B.B. King graced this song with one of his most emotive blues solos of all time. King knew what the tune called for in context of the highly produced album Completely Well (his first with strings), and it wasn’t about showboating. 

Far from it, judging by the way he grooves so succulently behind the beat. Besides being a big hit for B.B., “The Thrill is Gone” showed guitarists the power of playing slow and cool. 

In an era when Johnny Winter was introducing blues-rock shredding, B.B. King’s huge vibrato and deep soul defined what “playing from the heart” was all about. 

17. Leslie West “Mississippi Queen” (1970)

Leslie West’s massive and massively influential tone on Climbing! – which included “Mississippi Queen” – was created by playing through a Sunn Coliseum P.A. head and four 4x12 speaker cabinets. 

“The head had four microphone inputs and a master volume control, huge transformers and gigantic KT88 tubes, and the cabinets were loaded with Eminence speakers, which never hurt your ears, even with the treble all the way up,” West told GP in 2010. 

He was playing Gibson Les Paul Juniors at the time, and used a single-cutaway 1956 Jr. with a single P-90, strung with La Bella Electric Guitar strings (with a .010 banjo string for the high E and the other strings moved down one to create a light-gauge set) on the track. 

The song reached #21 on the Billboard charts, assuring that West’s signature sound was heard across the country and around the world.

18. Duane Allman “Statesboro Blues” (1971)

By 1970 Duane Allman and Dickey Betts had forged one of the most iconic guitar sounds of all time with their harmonized melodies on songs like “Revival” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” 

But as far as slide players went, few at the time got more acclaim than Duane himself, after the 1971 release of The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East. Duane’s slick phrasing and fat, singing tone on the opening track of the double live album was inspired by hearing Taj Mahal’s rendition of the song with Jesse Ed Davis on slide. 

Sonny Landreth, who remembers seeing the Allman Brothers at the time, recalls: “That huge tone that Duane got when he played slide on a Les Paul through a Marshall was a real game changer. I don’t remember anyone else who had a sound like that back then.”

19. John McLaughlin “Meeting of the Spirits” (1971)

Although he had already done revolutionary work with Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Miles Davis, and as a solo artist, McLaughlin’s combination of molten Gibson-through-cranked-Marshall distortion, impossibly fast and complex yet ultra-precise picking, and unique phrasing on The Inner Mounting Flame shattered all existing concepts of “electric guitarist” and lit the fuse of fusion.

20. Ritchie Blackmore “Highway Star” (1972)

Actually a harmonized pair of solos, the tasty bends, rapid-fire triplets, and whammy manipulations on this Strat-into-a-Marshall-amp (via a reel-to-reel tape recorder preamp) solo make it one of Blackmore’s most memorable.

The Deep Purple guitarist’s influence on legions of rock and metal shedders from Morse to Malmsteen to Mustaine is undisputable.

21. Billy Gibbons “La Grange” (1973) 

Gibbons made his mark on this classic shuffle with two solos. 

The first, done on a ‘55 Strat, enters screaming with that classic rear pickup Fender bite, before Gibbons flips to the front pickup for a swinging double-stop workout and some liquid pentatonic runs delivered with his impeccable sense of time and swing. 

But it’s the track’s second solo that the guitarist is most famous for, and the one that every hard rock player would study, due to Gibbons’ insane pinch harmonics. With his “Pearly Gates” ‘59 Les Paul, the Reverend squawks, grunts, and chokes out so many pinch harmonics that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so damm bad ass. 

22. Brian May “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975) 

Brian May’s touch, tone, and orchestral instincts have proven impossible to imitate, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying. 

His majestic lines on this classic are quintessential May, with precise picking, impeccable phrasing, and a bold, loud sound. 

The solo’s placement in the mix was influential, informing how bands such as Boston and Styx featured their solos. You’ve got to assume Dr. May’s harmonized lines at the end of the song got Tom Scholz’s attention as well.

23. Larry Carlton “Kid Charlemagne” (1976)

Carlton was already a session legend known for his smooth-as-silk lines that were reminiscent of Wes, Pass, and Trane when he cut this Steely track. 

But when Mr. 335 combined a rock dude’s tone with a jazzer’s harmonic sensibilities, he created the standard by which every jazz rocker would be judged. 

Ask Steve Lukather, Robben Ford, or Mike Stern what impact this solo had on them. 

Alright then.

24. Carlos Santana “Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile)” (1976)

Santana masterfully caresses the tune’s main melody with his trademark singing sustain and thick tone, never quite giving up the goods until the outro solo where he lets it all hang out in an outpouring of soulful yet wicked playing. 

He displays a fluid, tactile control at all times, and his tone is more open-sounding and less compressed than in recent years. 

And when he kicks the wah on, look out – he ratchets up the intensity tenfold, just when you think it can’t go any higher. Simply put, “Europa” is a study in pace, melodicism, and space – as well as good, old fashion burning!

25. Al Di Meola “Race with Devil on Spanish Highway” (1977)

Sure, there were people who could play fast before Di Meola, but nobody had made it such a central part of their deal before Big Al came along. 

Di Meola’s picking ability coupled with his sick, self-described “mutola” technique raised the bar for audacious shred and players interested in pushing the limits of picking. 

Far from being a pattern-minded monotone shredder, Di Meola’s Latin influences and his compositional sense have always made his displays of virtuosity supremely musical. 

And for all of the shred haters, Di Meola proved that the emotional impact of many notes is just as valid as a few well-placed ones. 

26. Eddie Van Halen “Eruption” (1978)

What can you say about this cadenza from hell? Cut in 1978, this has to be one of the most influential pieces of guitar playing ever. 

EVH took a Strat with a humbucker, an MXR Phase 90, and a plexi Marshall, and then played some supercharged Clapton licks that boggled just about every 6-stringer’s mind in the world. 

It was Van Halen’s two-handed tapping that truly grabbed everyone’s attention, however, and made this the most recognizable solo of the next two decades. “Eruption” made an impact on millions of rock dudes and seemingly every kid who set foot inside a Guitar Center.

27. Allan Holdsworth “In the Dead of Night” (1978)

As Bill Bruford put it, this solo was, “94 seconds of liquid passion married to a blinding technical facility that was to go down in the annals of rock guitar history. 

"All the hallmarks of his brilliant playing were there in this solo: poise, pace, melody, the Slonimsky interval jumps, the whammy bar, and all over a killer groove.”

28. Mark Knopfler “Sultans of Swing” (1978) 

When Mark Knopfler released this fingerpicked two-pickup masterpiece, he showed guitarists that you don’t need distortion or a plectrum to rock. 

With a Strat on the bridge and middle pickups, a Fender Twin Reverb and a Roland JC-120, Knopfler played two deft, bouncy solos that referenced Chet Atkins with snappy popped notes, crying bends, and clever arpeggios. 

Along the way he influenced just about every clean tone for the next 20 years. When people talk about an “out of phase” Strat tone, they’re talking about this tune.

29. Michael Schenker “Rock Bottom” (1979)

The 1970s was a great time for live records, with classics from Frampton, Lizzy, and Ted Nugent, but one of the sweetest solos to grace a double LP came from UFO’s Michael Schenker. 

The extended break on this tune has everything great about Schenker: melody, dynamics, tone for days, and burning. 

This lead would fascinate rockers all over the world, including George Lynch, Vinnie Moore, Akira Takahashi, and Kirk Hammett.

30. David Gilmour “Comfortably Numb” (1979)

Few solos can match the vibe of Gilmour’s work on this iconic piece. 

Playing a ‘79 black Stratocaster with a ‘62 neck and DiMarzios through Hiwatts and Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker cabinets, Gilmour transformed what are essentially blues licks into a signature statement that affected the molecules in myriad musical minds. 

This is arguably his crowning achievement as a soloist.

31. Angus Young “You Shook Me All Night Long” (1980)

It serves to reason that a song that is all about getting it on should have a solo that is sexy, right? 

Damn straight. 

Young’s turn on this global hit finds him harnessing his kinetic blues tendencies into a steamy, attitude-laden solo that is actually kind of funky. 

His tasteful major pentatonic flavorings as well as his gorgeous tone – thanks to a wound up old Marshall and a Gibson SG – are the icing on the cake of his impeccable groove, intonation, and phrasing.

32. Randy Rhoads “Crazy Train” (1980)

After Van Halen, it wasn’t easy for an L.A. rocker to make a mark, but Randall Rhoads did so in a big way on his debut with Ozzy. 

Rhoads took what he had gleaned from Mick Ronson, Gary Moore, and Bach, and synthesized it into this metal tour de force. 

He wasn’t the first guy to blend classical music and rock, but he was absolutely the gateway drug for players like Zakk Wylde and Tom Morello.

33. Stevie Ray Vaughan “Pride and Joy” (1983)

The second cut on SRV’s debut album, Texas Flood, “Pride and Joy” blasted onto the airwaves courtesy of a great melody, catchy lyrics, and a gamechanging solo in which Vaughan threw down a barrage of killer licks with a gargantuan tone from his Fender/Dumble rig. 

SRV’s deft songwriting and his Albert King/Hendrix-influenced style succeeded in making what was fundamentally a classic “tay-hass” shuffle into a huge AOR hit that every classic rocker is expected to cover in perpetuity. 

Bottom line is, after SRV came along, anyone who thought they could play blues with fire and passion got a schoolin’ the size of Texas.

34. Yngwie Malmsteen “Black Star” (1984)

Mike Varney’s rep as a finder of great guitarists was already solid when he wrote about a kid from Sweden with a funny name in 1983. 

Many players’ first exposure to Malmsteen was on this shred fest. With his blinding speed, dazzling classical arpeggios, gorgeous Strat-into-Marshall tone, and larger than life vibrato, he didn’t raise the bar for rock technique – he obliterated it. 

Yngwie changed the game forever with this one, just ask any rocker who has swept an arpeggio since then.

35. George Lynch “The Hunter” (1985)

Dokken's George Lynch has inspired countless rock and metal players for nearly 30 years with his perfect blend of structured melodicism and off-the-rails fury – all in the space of a 16-bar solo. 

This solo is a perfect example, as he eases into it with memorable, understated melodic motifs that are helped along with some thick-ass tone and sick vibrato. 

Halfway through, however, Lynch begins to turn up the jets. Alternate picking, sweep picking, and legato playing become one within a single winding phrase, giving him a sound and style that are difficult to ape. 

However, Lynch did show the way for shred-obsessed guitarists on how to structure a meaningful statement in the middle of a tune and leave an everlasting mark. In fact, his solos are the only thing that don’t sound dated about Dokken.

36. Kirk Hammett “Master of Puppets” (1986)

Kirk Hammett’s influences include his teacher Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker, and Thin Lizzy. And nowhere are those influences more prominent than on this tune. 

Hammett’s whammy bar work and speed picking would inspire countless kids to notch their mids, cram their theory, and play blazing solos over chugging grooves.

37. Joe Satriani “Always with Me, Always with You” (1987)

Satriani is obviously known as a master technician, but it’s his melodic side that has left the biggest imprint on guitardom. 

This sweet ballad showcases Satch’s singing tone, skillful ornamentation, and ability to blend the tasty with the jaw dropping. 

The reach of this solo is apparent in hundreds of instrumental guitar records, country ballads, movie soundtracks, and car commercials.

38. Kurt Cobain “Come As You Are” (1991)

Although he took about as many solos and Johnny Ramone, the late Nirvana guitar anti-hero played a memorable one in this song from 1991. 

Presumably using a Boss DS-1 for dirt and an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus for the warbly modulation, Cobain simply quoted the vocal melody in a snotty, vibey way, and the kids went crazy. 

Suddenly, young players – many with a sanctimonious disdain for ‘80s-style wanking – were taking a break from strumming through songs and trying their hands at playing single-note lines.

39. Zakk Wylde “No More Tears” (1991)

Logic dictates that Zakk Wylde was doomed to failure when he got the gig with Ozzy. 

A blond kid with a Les Paul? Really? 

But then people got a taste of his huge tone, squealing harmonics, and rapid-fire pentatonics and a new star was born. 

On this tune Zakk channeled Rhoads, Billy Gibbons, and Frank Marino into a solo that was emblematic of the new generation of metalheads.

40. Dimebag Darrell “The Great Southern Trendkill” (1996)

The post-Van Halen, post-Randy Rhoads world was in dire need of a champion when Darrell Abbott came on the scene. 

He took the styles of those guys, mixed in some Ace Frehley, some Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a heapin’ helpin’ of moonshine and created the ass-kicking solo here. 

Dime made it cool to love Holdsworth, EVH, and Billy Gibbons all in the same song.

Back in 2015, shortly before his death, I spent a weekend going back through B.B. King's back catalog. 

It was during one of my visits to YouTube that I found a video of him performing at Sing Sing, New York State’s maximum-security prison.

The show took place on Thanksgiving Day 1972 and featured B.B., Joan Baez, Mimi Farina, the Voices of East Harlem vocal ensemble, and comedian Jimmy Walker, who was then a stand-up and had not yet found fame on the TV series Good Times. 

Titled Sing Sing Thanksgiving, director David Hoffman's concert film is available on DVD.

Hoffman says the legendary bluesman called this “the best recording of his music he had heard”, and judging by the video below, it’s easy to see why. 

In this clip, the legendary bluesman turns in a stunningly impassioned performance of “How Blue Can You Get,” full of soul, humor, and his fantastic guitar work. 

B.B. had originally recorded the song as “Downhearted” for his 1963 album, Blues in My Heart. 

Soon after he remade it as “How Blue Can You Get,” it was released as a single in 1964. 

From then on, it became a staple in his live set.

Browse the B.B. King catalog here.

As musical acts go, the Tedeschi Trucks Band is a large, family-style affair consisting of a dozen of the finest, top-caliber musicians.

At the front of it all is the husband-and-wife team of slide virtuoso Derek Trucks and singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi.

Now some 12 years into their history, the Tedeschi Trucks Band has just issued a quartet of albums as sprawling and packed with musical virtuosity as the group itself.

Released under the umbrella title I Am the Moon, it consists of 24 new songs, with a total running time of more than two hours, presented in easily digestible servings as I. Crescent, II. Ascension, III. The Fall and IV. Farewell.

This avalanche of new music is the result of a period of feverish creativity, when the band was forced off the road due to the global shutdown in the wake of COVID-19.

The inspiration for the project came after TTB member Mike Mattison suggested the band should read the epic 12th century Persian poem Layla and Majnun, written by Nizami Ganjavi, which inspired “Layla,” the classic-rock tune penned by Eric Clapton.

Connections and coincidences between the song’s history and Trucks’ and Tedeschi’s own backgrounds are many: Trucks was named after Derek and the Dominoes, the banner under which Clapton released Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs on November 9, 1970, the very day Tedeschi was born.

Trucks has worked extensively with Clapton in the past, so his interest in the poem was already piqued.

“I had been meaning to read it for about 15 years,” he tells Guitar Player. “So when Mike proposed the idea, it wasn’t with the idea of making a record; it was more of a nice thought exercise for the whole band to be on the same page, because we were all stuck at home.”

Given the tragic nature of Layla and Majnun and its tale of unrequited love, one might naturally expect I Am the Moon to be a collection of maudlin, downbeat songs.

In fact, it is far from it.

Covering a broad spectrum of blues, soul and gospel, the record explodes with joyful, powerful and positive music.

“The poem details a sense of longing,” Tedeschi explains. “And I think the alternative ways of viewing that desire just seemed to fire up everybody’s imaginations. The songs sound positive even when, sometimes, lyrically, they are perhaps a little dark.”

Naturally, the four records are overflowing with killer guitar playing. Trucks’ slide playing has never sounded so expressive, and on the tracks where he and Tedeschi trade solos, the enthusiasm leaps from the grooves.

“The whole band is really thrilled with what we’ve created,” Tedeschi says, “and I think we all appreciated that this was a special project that we were really able to focus on.”

Trucks concurs. “It came together better than we could ever have hoped for,” he says. “We certainly didn’t think that we were going to write this much music, but we could tell that something special was going on as we were recording.”

Could this project have happened without lockdown and the enforced layoff from touring that it dictated?

DEREK TRUCKS The amount of time that we had available was definitely what allowed us to do this. Another aspect of that is, between us, we’ve been on the road for maybe 20 years without a break, and the fact that we were forced to stop gave us the chance to regenerate our creative spark.

Even though the pandemic and lockdown were really terrible for so many people, it was, ironically, kind of a perfect storm for us as a band.

Given that there is so much new music, did you always envisage that you would release it in stages, over four separate albums?

SUSAN TEDESCHI When we started recording and putting the songs up on the board, we realized that there was way more material than one record’s worth. I think we were all of one mind that the way records used to be made, where a great album would last between 30 and 40 minutes, was a much better approach from an artistic point of view.

It’s such a sweet spot for running time, and you can really focus your attention on the music. I think the CD format is largely to blame for the increasing length of albums, where there was so much more available space. Whereas when records only came out on vinyl, the optimum sound quality was around 20 minutes or so per side. The way we’ve divided it up means each set of songs works perfectly on vinyl.

You already had a big live repertoire. With the new songs added in, what would you be looking at?

TRUCKS It’s about 150 or so. When we did the Beacon Theatre [in New York City] a year ago, we performed about 118 songs over the course of seven shows, and that wasn’t everything we could have played.

TEDESCHI When we’re writing set lists, we run out of space because there’s so many songs we want to play. [laughs] We’ve already done some shows where we played the first record in its entirety, and I think we’ll do that for all four of the albums.

How do you keep so many songs stage-ready?

TRUCKS We use our soundchecks every day as a rehearsal, and we also set up a small rehearsal room at the venues where we can work on ideas and tighten up problematic parts or whatever, just with little amps. When we haven’t done a song for a long time, we need to really kick it around.

Given how many songs you recorded, the sequencing of the albums must have been quite a challenging process, I imagine.

TRUCKS We really spent a lot of time on that. We realized very early on that there was way too much music for a single album. A few more weeks down the line, I asked a good friend of mine, Jud Strickland, if he could sequence the four albums. He really got into the details. 

He had a card for each song with tempos, time signatures, what key it was in and what kind of feel each song had. I’d gotten way too close to the process, so he really managed to pull everything together on that front.

What were your go-to guitars for the albums?

TEDESCHI I used my ’93 Tele a lot. I was planning on using a whole bunch of guitars, but we were literally writing and recording ideas off the floor, live, thinking we might go back and add or redo some parts, but that never happened, and we kept the first versions pretty much as we came up with them on the spot.

That meant that we ended up mostly using the gear that we take out live. I actually played a Gretsch White Falcon a little bit, plus I used a guitar that I stole from Derek that I really love, which is a Custom Shop replica of Eric Clapton’s Beano guitar [as used on the John Mayall’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton album].

He had a couple of those made, and he gave one to Derek, but I’ve been playing it a lot. I also used a ’30s Martin 00-17 for a lot of the acoustic work.

TRUCKS I think the vast majority is the B2B [Brother to Brother] Dickey Betts reissue SG. I also used a ’65 Gibson ES-335 and a ’30s L-00. And I played an old National resonator guitar and an old Gibson Roy Smeck as well. 

With the exception of the acoustic guitars, we generally take the guitars on the road that we record with.

What were your amp choices? There are some seriously great tones all over the record.

TEDESCHI I mostly used my Fender ’64 Deluxe Reverb that I’ve had for years. I don’t use much in the way of effects. I have a Vox wah-wah pedal and a Moollon Zeppelin overdrive, but that’s pretty much it.

TRUCKS The main tracking amp for me was a ’64 Fender Deluxe Reverb, which has an incredible sound. I also used a Vibrolux occasionally and a little tweed Deluxe that I used here and there, plus a real old lightning-bolt Supro.

When you’re both working out your respective guitar parts, how much planning goes into who plays what? It must be difficult enough anyway to carve out your own sonic space with such a big band.

TEDESCHI I guess that’s pretty much become an instinctive, organic thing for us now. Of course, we already play so differently from each other, as Derek plays in open E tuning and I’m in standard.

Derek tends to use an SG a lot, so I would instinctively opt for my Tele, for the mix of humbucker and single-coil sounds. We try to avoid both using humbuckers, although the tone of the Beano Les Paul is very different from Derek’s SG, so that is an exception.

Sometime Derek will play all the parts on a particular song for the record if I’m concentrating on the vocals, but then I’ll figure out for the live show how to cover some of those guitar parts.

TRUCKS A lot of it is definitely instinctive at this point. Plus, since I’m in open E, if a song calls for open cowboy chords, that’s already a non-starter for me.

A lot of times it depends on who writes the song. Whoever writes it, the other tends to fold in around that. With so many years behind us now, we have a real instinct for what works. When we do find that something just isn’t working, we’ll really drill down on our parts.

You both have strong individual styles. What do you think is the secret to getting started and finding your own voice on the guitar?

TEDESCHI I think the best start is to find out who you like to listen to and try to play along to their records. For me that was Magic Sam, the three Kings, Otis Rush, Johnny Guitar Watson and T-Bone Walker.

I did five world tours with B.B. King, and I also used to tour with John Lee Hooker, so those experiences were unbeatable in really steeping myself in the traditions and roots of the blues. I learned so much.

When you start to study your favorite records, you begin to hear licks and phrases, which you unconsciously adapt to your own playing. But in doing that, they morph into an essential part of your own vocabulary as a musician.

The next thing you need to do is get up and play live, because that’s where you really forge your own identity. Then you see what does and doesn’t work with an audience, and you learn how to build a solo and the importance of rhythm.

TRUCKS Rhythm is so important. I think when people have blind spots in their music, it’s often due to rhythmic limitations. That’s where listening to great drummers can be inspiring. Playing the guitar isn’t just ripping and playing solos, although that can be incredible fun. [laughs]

TEDESCHI Finding your tone is crucial. That often comes down to experimentation. Make sure everything you play is musical, with a beginning, a middle and an end.

TRUCKS I started out when I was so young, so I was kind of lucky in that regard. By playing and meeting a lot of people and listening to what they were doing and recommending to me, I found things that really moved me. And that was where I drew inspiration from.

The more you listen, the more you find what moves you, and at some point you stumble across combinations that no one’s really come up with before. And that’s the entry point for discovering your own unique thing.

I think the starting point is always to absorb what you love about other people’s playing, because in the end, every player is a combination of their influences. No matter who your guitar heroes are, you always know what they were listening to.

But then the secret to their success is similar to how a great chef tastes food: Those legendary guitarists took their influences and found something in there that spoke to them and allowed their own identity to shine through.

Obviously, Duane Allman and being born into those waters were the starting points for me, followed by Delta blues and the three Kings. But then I really got interested in Indian classical music.

Do you think it’s important to listen to musicians who don’t play the guitar?

TRUCKS Totally. I really love tenor sax players, like Wayne Shorter, John Gilmore and John Coltrane. Things like that became the bedrock for me. People should be open to all areas of music, because you don’t know where inspiration might come from.

What sparked your interest in Indian music?

TRUCKS I got into it through our good friend Colonel Bruce Hampton. A drummer that was playing in his band, Jeff Sipe, turned me on to Pakistani qawwali music and Indian classical music artists like Ali Akbar Khan, who was really the guy for me. I really dove right into it for quite a period.

Later on with Kofi [Burbridge, Tededschi Trucks’ former keyboard player and flautist, who died in 2019], we’d really dig into those scales. I would go sit in on some of Ali Akbar Kahn’s classes at San Rafael in California.

Whenever we were out west, Ali would let us drop in and check things out. To say I studied would maybe be taking it too far, as I didn’t spend enough time, but I definitely did investigate it in depth.

When you started to explore Indian music and discovered the different microtonal subtleties, did you immediately connect that with slide guitar, where the fine microtonal nuances are something that is very particular to slide playing?

TRUCKS Yeah. The fact that I’m essentially playing a fretless instrument and the sarod is a fretless instrument was one of those little epiphanies that you get when you’re exploring music. I realized that, with slide, you’re really singing through your instrument. There are no frets on the human voice.

The melodies are so incredibly strong in a lot of Indian classical music, and that was something that really hit me. What Ali Akbar Khan did was very modal when he was exploring those ragas, and it was almost like the rules changed in mid-melody. It could be based on whether it was an ascending or descending melody.

Things like that just totally captured my imagination and opened up new pathways to expressing myself on the guitar.

Do you feel restricted when you’re not playing slide and you’re working with frets and a more definite sense of where notes sit?

TRUCKS I feel like it just gives me different ways to explore. There’s an Indian electric mandolin player that I listen to a lot, Srinivas, and when you hear him play you can’t even tell that it’s a fretted instrument.

I sometimes think about his approach when I’m playing without a slide. It’s a way to blur the lines between fretted and slide playing.

Did you ever learn solos note-for-note from old records?

TRUCKS Yeah, I definitely borrowed/stole a lot of lines from horn players. [laughs] Any time that I’d hear a phrase or a melody that really pulled my ear, I’d try to work out what they were doing and adapt it for guitar.

I think with horn players and the fact that they’re not playing the guitar, they can come up with ideas and approaches that you hadn’t imagined before.

What’s funny is when you find something like that on the guitar, it’s almost like you’re saying, “Oh yeah? That’s been sitting there on the neck the whole time and I never knew?” [laughs]

TEDESCHI T-Bone Walker’s “Here in the Dark” and “Right Place, Wrong Time” by Otis Rush were two real favorites. But as I said, even though you play what they played, you find that your own personality starts to change the way lines are phrased, and that’s when you start to put your own stamp on ideas that you hear other people play.

I would say playing with Derek has really improved my playing. I realized how dynamic a player he is, and that’s opened my eyes to the idea of being more patient and letting a solo build up.

He can play super loud or pin-drop quiet. It’s all about using dynamics to tell a story. It’s been such fun to play with Derek.

Do you think you brought influences to each other that you hadn’t previously been aware of?

TEDESCHI Definitely. When we first started dating, Derek would kid about how we had brought these new artists to each other. He didn’t know who Magic Sam was, and Derek liked a lot of people that I wasn’t familiar with, like Sun Ra and some really weird and wacky stuff.

The funny thing is that I went to jazz school, and he knows way more than I do about jazz, that’s for sure. [laughs] He can hear something and identify the artist in two seconds, whatever their instrument.

We both liked Wes Montgomery and Grant Green before we met each other.

TRUCKS That was one of the real fun things when we first got together, to explore our mutual likes and trade favorites.

Let’s discuss some of the tracks in detail. “Playing With My Emotions” sounds like you’re trading lines on the solo.

TEDESCHI Yeah, that’s right. That was a really fun one to play. Derek wanted us to both take lines on the solo, and I think it worked out really well. It has a joyful spirit to it.

TRUCKS That’s one of the tunes where we basically wrote it and played it in the studio. The trades were very spontaneous, we just went for the take right there on the floor. We don’t do that a whole lot on our records, so it was nice to get that on the album.

“Yes We Will” sounds like you are both taking a solo as well. There is a flavor of B.B. King’s work with the Crusaders on this one.

TEDESCHI Yes, I take the first one and Derek takes the second one. That is another real bluesy track, like “Playing With My Emotions.” Those two songs really reflected a lot of the live dynamic that Derek and I have, where we will often trade solos or call-and-response guitar lines.

I was definitely always pushing for us to get into more blues as that is such a big part of my roots and also Derek’s, so it’s very much a tribute to B.B. King.

You cover a wide range of styles on the album. A track like “So Long Savior” is a rollicking gospel number. Like many great gospel songs, the bleakness of the lyrics is in opposition to the spirit in which the message is delivered.

TEDESCHI It’s definitely a tribute to gospel music, but the acoustic feel is a little like Bukka White, where Derek plays a line and I sing it back. It is definitely rooted in the call-and-response of gospel music.

“La Di Da” has an interesting rhythmic pulse, and the solo on there is sublime. It is short, yet packs so much emotion and melody. Did you work out what you’d play beforehand?

TRUCKS That was just done live on the floor. Sometimes when you’re tracking, you think the track sounds really good, so I’m not going to leave a space for the solo, I’m just going to go for it, which does put quite a lot of pressure on me, because then I’m thinking that I really hope I don’t blow this, and we all have to start again. [laughs] 

It’s mildly intimidating. You really don’t want to fuck up.

One of the simplest, yet most effective songs is “I Can Feel You Smiling.” The slide solo on there is particularly sublime.

TRUCKS That’s one of my favorite tunes on the record. Again, it kind of played itself. It was another time where I thought I should just go for the solo as we were recording.

The other thing that can be intimidating is when you record a perfect track and leave a space for the solo; then there’s a whole world of pressure to make that solo count. It gives you a lot to live up to. [laughs]

TEDESCHI That is a really beautiful song. It definitely has a mixture of [Malagasy slide guitarist] D’Gary crossed with Dolly Parton. [laughs]

For the band, is the live experience more important than making records?

TRUCKS I think that is where our heads were for a long time. This band is incredible live. I do think that there is something very enjoyable about recording though, and I think that is almost a lost art.

There are times when people don’t spend the time to craft a really great record because they’re rushing to get back on the road. I think the only way you can make a lasting statement is by making great records.

I also think it limits a band if they aren’t creating the best record that they can. Your recorded music is your legacy. That’s what we have for all the great artists who are no longer with us.

As an artist, writing music and finding new things to say is really important. At a certain point, what you see with many acts is that they’re still playing the same songbook forever, and there’s only so much you can say.

The key point, though, is that whenever you bring new material in, it refreshes everything, gets everyone excited and inspired, and takes what we do to another level.

Order I Am the Moon (I. Crescent, II. Ascension, III. The Fall and IV. Farewell) here.

Great blues tone isn't rocket science – you just need to get a happening sound in your head, and then use the right tools to replicate the magic.

All great players have specific guitars, amps, and effects that are essential to their sound.

Some, like B.B. King, used the same setup for decades – in his case, a Gibson ES-355 through a Lab Series combo or a Fender Twin Reverb – while others tweak their systems incessantly in the pursuit of groovier tone.

Stevie Ray Vaughan favored one guitar – a Stratocaster – and a few key effects throughout his career, but he experimented a great deal with amps and speakers.

No matter which player you choose to emulate, it's important to understand that merely replicating every detail of their gear is no guarantee that you're going to sound exactly like them.

Tone is, after all, 90% touch and 10% hardware.

Buddy Guy would sound like himself no matter what equipment he used, and the same holds true for most great players.

Still, some guitars and amps can inspire you to play a certain way, and using rigs similar to the ones used by players you respect may help you zone in on a killer sound that can later be morphed into something uniquely yours.

ERIC CLAPTON

"Clapton Is God" graced many a structure in the late '60s, and for good reason – he practically wrote the book on how to play blues-rock electric guitar.

Attaining a credible Clapton sound requires that you first determine which period in his long career you like best.

During his time with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Clapton famously used a late-'50s Gibson Les Paul Standard through a model 1962 Marshall 2x12 combo.

Part of the secret here is that Clapton's amp was equipped with KT66 output tubes, which have a more refined midrange and clearer top end than either EL34s or 6L6s.

With Cream, Clapton went to high-volume heaven with 100-watt Marshall heads and 4x12 cabs.

He also used a Vox wah-wah and, occasionally, a fuzz.

After his Les Paul was stolen, Clapton played a '61 SG-style Les Paul, and then a Gibson ES-335 for Cream's farewell concert.

With Blind Faith, Clapton used a Gibson Firebird through a Fender Showman.

He then switched to maple-fretboard Strats through Fender tweed Champs during his Derek & The Dominos/"Layla" period.

Both setups yielded tones that rate among Clapton's best.

ALBERT COLLINS

The "Iceman" had one of the most original tones around – just listen to his fabulous sting on such classic cuts as "Frosty," "Too Many Dirty Dishes," "Iceman," and "Put the Shoe on the Other Foot."

Collins certainly did things his own way.

He played a beat-up Fender Telecaster, with a Gibson humbucker in the neck position, that he tuned to open Fm.

He used a capo – often at the fifth or seventh position – and he snapped and popped his strings with his thumb and forefinger.

Collins also favored '70s-era Fender Quad Reverb amps (100 watts into four 12s), and he used a 100' cord.

This latter detail allowed him to get friendly with the audience, while the added cable capacitance helped defrost his icy highs.

ALBERT KING

Almost every blues guitar player "borrows" something from Albert King – even Stevie Ray Vaughan based his blistering style on King's mammoth bends and lightning-bolt stabs.

Almost no one tries to duplicate the left-handed bluesman's gear, however, which isn't too surprising, considering that King played a flipped-over Gibson Flying V with the low-E string closest to the floor.

According to repair ace Dan Erlewine (who built King's replica V, "Lucy"), Albert strung his guitar .009, .012, .024W, .028, .038, .050, and tuned it C, F, C, F, A, D (low to high.)

Steve Cropper, who produced a number of King's albums, offers a different tuning – C, B, E, F#, B, E (low to high) – which he says allowed King to create a one-finger Em chord by raising F# to G. (Another important aspect of King's tone was that he played exclusively with his fingers.)

Onstage, King often plugged into an Acoustic 370 solid-state guitar amp driving a 2x15 enclosure with a built-in high-frequency horn – a real pawnshop prize!

While a Flying V is the way to go here, just about any quality, dual-humbucker guitar can be coaxed into the Albert zone.

Consider, however, that Otis Rush gets a chillingly similar sound with a Fender Strat!

Amps? That's a good question, as almost nothing available sounds anything like an old Acoustic 370.

Our advice is choose an amp (or amp channel) with enough clean headroom to preserve your note attack. Crank the volume, but go easy on the distortion – King's tone was big and bold, not squashed and compressed.

B.B. KING

The King of the Blues' sweet, singing tone stands out as one of the great guitar sounds of all time.

King's original tone recipe was a Gibson ES-355 through a long-discontinued Gibson Lab Series 2x12 combo amp.

From the '80s, he played a Gibson Lucille model stereo guitar, which features a TP-6 fine-tune tailpiece and no f-holes.

King used both pickups simultaneously and strung his guitar with light-gauge Gibsons (.009-.042).

Though he favored vintage Lab Series amps, he often ran through a Fender Twin Reverb onstage.

Replicating B.B. King's sound requires running your amp's output stage fairly hard, while avoiding the fuzzier distortion produced by high-gain channels or stompboxes.

T-BONE WALKER

Often called the father of electric blues, T-Bone Walker helped establish the guitar as a featured lead instrument in the 1940s.

Guitarists inspired by Walker's playing (or his flashy stage moves) include Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Billy Gibbons, Albert King, Otis Rush, Michael Bloomfield, and Duane Allman.

Walker cut his teeth on primitive acoustic-electrics, but his signature ax was a blonde, maple-bodied Gibson ES-5 that he bought at the peak of his career in the early 1950s.

Walker held the guitar perpendicular to his body (when he wasn't playing it behind his head or between his legs), and it's likely that he plugged into a Gibson tube amp.

T-Bone Walker forged the basic vocabulary of rock and roll using double-stops, half- and quarter-step bends, and his patented, third-to-second-string unison bends.

His unorthodox playing style probably created a little extra string lift and snap, and he preferred his tone dry, clean, and relatively bright compared to jazz guitar players of the time.

A deep-bodied guitar – preferably with P-90-style, single-coil pickups – running through a reasonably clean-sounding tube amplifier are essential ingredients for T-Bone tone.

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN

Stevie Ray Vaughan forged a sound that defines big blues tone.

Five basic ingredients are required here:

• Rosewood fretboard Fender Strat strung with heavy-gauge strings (Vaughan used GHS sets as heavy as .013-.060)
• Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrive (either a TS-9 or an older TS-808)
• Rotating speaker (he favored vintage Fender Vibratones, but you may wish to substitute a stompbox-sized simulator here)
• Vox wah wah pedal
• Fender tube amp with four 10" speakers

Vaughan often combined amps – Fender Super Reverbs with 1x15 Fender Vibroverbs, Marshall and Dumble rigs with Fender combos, and so on.

Heavy electric guitar strings are an important part of the Vaughan recipe, but remember that Stevie tuned down a half-step – you'll want to do the same if you plan on performing his gargantuan bends on girthy gauges.

Choose your Strat carefully for lightness and resonance, and set your amp's controls to produce a clear, beefy clang from the neck pickup. (Fender Super Reverbs do this naturally.)

Larry McCray’s new album, Blues Without You, is his first record of original material since 2007. McCray burst onto the scene as a major new voice in blues guitar way back in 1991, with the release of his debut album, Ambition, followed two years later by Delta Hurricane.

It looked like he was destined for the sort of mainstream crossover appeal enjoyed by the likes of Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but his blues train started to derail.

By 2001, without a record deal, McCray was releasing his music on his own label. He’d resigned himself to the possibility that his major-label days were behind him, when Joe Bonamassa called to ask if he’d record for Bonamasssa’s label, KTBA (Keeping the Blues Alive).

The result is Blues Without You, not only McCray’s career-best record but also one of the strongest blues guitar albums released for many years. Indeed, it is hard to imagine that there will be a better blues record released in 2022.

McCray presents the same kind of two-fisted combo that made giants like B.B. and Freddie King such formidable artists, with not only the ability to play blisteringly effective solos but also a voice that can rival the best blues singers from any bygone age.

McCray’s soloing is both fluid and visceral; he is unafraid to hang on to a couple of notes until every last drop of emotion and soul has been wrung from them.

The release of Blues Without You will be accompanied by a documentary that reveals the ins-and-outs of McCray’s hookup with Bonamassa, and shows both men and co-producer Josh Smith working out ideas for the record.

The film also demonstrates that McCray’s stalling career was in part due to poor management from his former manager, Paul Coch, who died in 2021 in a car accident.

It makes for compelling viewing and reveals McCray to be a deeply humble, emotional man who truly appreciates getting a second bite of the cherry.

It must feel good to be back on a label that has prominence in the industry.

Yes, absolutely. Sometimes, when things don’t work out, you have to make peace with yourself. That’s what I was doing, and then the opportunity just kind of fell into my lap. I am very pleased with how the record turned out. It’s my best album by far.

In the documentary, you use an acoustic guitar to perform many of the songs that subsequently turned up on the album in electrified form. They were such strong performances. Was there ever any thought of recording them that way?

I’ve been trying to get that done for the last 25 years, and I couldn’t. I’ve never been one to use race as an excuse for what you can’t achieve. I don’t know if my image wasn’t palatable to the people who make these decisions, who had the control, or if they just weren’t interested in my brand of music. But with that said, there was never a plan to make this anything but an electric guitar album.

Watching the documentary, you seem very humble about your own talents. Do you think perhaps the way that your career became derailed undermined your sense of where you should be in terms of recognition?

I guess it’s not really that important what I think about my music; it’s what the people think. I’ve spent over 40 years making music, and if somebody wanted to give me an opportunity, it’s not like I sat on my ass and didn’t work for it. I’ve played every honky-tonk and every dive.

I’ve played some high places and some low places, and a lot in-between. If the powers that be don’t accept what you do, there are some doors that you can’t open yourself. I put albums out on my own label, and I worked constantly, but I never had the means to promote them properly.

There are some parallels with you and your label mate Eric Gales, in that you both lost your way career-wise for some time, and now you’ve both just released career-best albums on KTBA.

I knew Eric at the start of his career. We’ve been friends since the late ’80s. Eric was always my go-to when anybody was talking about who was a great blues guitarist.

He was such a talent even then; I knew him when he was just a kid. He used to come out to my house and we’d sit up late playing guitar. He’d play guitar and I’d listen. [laughs]

I’m a non-political and a non-controversial person, but when you look at it straight on, I wonder how people could justify why someone like Eric or me couldn’t get opportunities in the music business.

I think, fundamentally, sometimes people can get judged by two different standards. I’ve been away from the game too long to just make that a focus, but I know I worked my ass off to do everything that I could.

Blues Without You is a very organic, timeless album. Was that a deliberate attempt to re-create the warmth of those classic blues albums from the early 1970s that B.B. and Albert cut?

I don’t have to try, because that’s who I am. I’m just being myself. When I look back on my career, that’s what I’ve always been, and I guess that’s just how it comes out. [laughs]

It seems like there are a lot of church and gospel influences in your vocals. Was that something you grew up with?

No. I was raised around that, but I was raised differently. I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, so I didn’t get the chance to pursue that gospel side of music. My parents converted to that when I was about six years old. I did hear that music, and it had an influence on me, for sure.

You are the kind of singer who sounds like they’re living every word that they say, so presumably the lyrics of a song are very important to you.

I sing about life. And I sing about it in a way that everyone can relate to, whether it’s being sick, not having money, relationship problems or whatever it might be. I feel every word that I’m singing.

We all need to feel whole, and I hope that’s what my music helps people to achieve. I call my music “good-time, feel-good music.” I don’t want to be technical or nothing, trying to win the respect of people who care about those things; I want to win the hearts and souls of people – what people feel in their heart.

You always have great phrasing on your solos and fills. A prime example of this is your playing on “Without Love It Doesn’t Matter,” where you leave gaps between phrases, almost as if to allow the listener time to digest what you just played.

Exactly, that’s right. It isn’t necessary to play any more than that. Whenever I play something on my guitar, I try to channel what I call the four greats: B.B., Freddie and Albert King, and Albert Collins.

I think of Albert Collins as the razor. He slashed, cut and sliced with his guitar. B.B. was class and elegance. Freddie was raw power with both his vocals and guitar. And Albert King played the crying, weeping guitar.

My playing draws from all those four guys every time I take a solo. If I want cut, elegance, power or a real weeping feel, I tap into one of those four guys.

“No More Crying” is such a great southern soul ballad with the same emotional resonance of Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High on That Mountain” and an ability to comfort someone dealing with loss.

I co-wrote that with a youngster that I influenced, Aaron Sarkar, who was 30 years my junior. We met at a B.B. King concert when he was working in hospitality there. He was 15 years old at the time, and I remember him saying that he wanted a musical career.

Fifteen years later, he came to my house and he was showing me some words that he’d written. He said they’d come to him and he wrote them down in about five minutes.

As soon as he read the words to me, I automatically had those chord changes. I just sang it exactly as it is, the first time I tried it. It just came in an instant. It was the easiest song I ever wrote.

The turnaround in your career is very much echoed by the sentiment behind “Don’t Put Your Dreams to Bed.”

Definitely. I wrote that with my girlfriend, Peggy Smith. We thought of that concept together. That was another song that was real easy to put together. I think a lot of the best songs do come very easily, as if they were just meant to be.

It is interesting that the song “Blues Without You” was dedicated to your former manager, Paul Coch. Obviously you had plenty of good times together, but I know he also caused problems for your career at times.

Although we had a lot of rough roads and went through some tough things together, I certainly didn’t hate the man. We spent 34 years together, you know? He definitely did work very hard to try to help me get success, but he just didn’t have the right people skills.

For whatever reason, people sometimes found it hard to work with him. I know Joe had tried to contact me years ago to do this, but Paul didn’t tell me. That was just one of many incidents that happened over the years.

In some ways there wasn’t a whole lot that I could have done. Maybe I could have found another manager, but I couldn’t find someone else who was interested.

The closing track, “I Play the Blues,” is a solo acoustic and vocal piece, which is a great way to close the album, as a real contrast to what has gone before.

I did think that we were going to do it with the band, but Joe thought it would be nice to do the stripped-down acoustic guitar version. We did the whole album in seven days, and that was the last song that we recorded.

I did a lot of singing and playing in that week, and by that time my voice was starting to feel a little rough. Joe thought the slight rawness in my voice really worked for the song, although I do think that maybe I could have sung it better if I’d had a chance for my voice to recover slightly. But that’s all that I had left.

When it comes to playing solos, do you plan beforehand what you’ll do?

No, I never do. I always just play straight through without any preparation, in one pass or maybe two passes at the most. I do like to warm my chops up before I record, maybe for an hour or so.

What were you playing on the album?

I only took one guitar with me, a Les Paul Deluxe, as I was flying and I couldn’t really take any more than that. I used a lot of Joe’s guitars and amps.

Joe has so much great gear that there isn’t anything that I could have taken with me that would have been any better anyway. [laughs]

You’re very much a Gibson guy, although I believe way back you used to play a Strat.

That’s right. In fact I played an Ibanez before the Strat. What happened was that I went over to England, and I saw Gary Moore playing. When I heard his humbuckers, I thought, Okay, there’s a bigger bear in the woods; I need to keep up here. [laughs]

As soon as I got back to the States, I bought a tobacco-brown Flying V, which I played a lot. That was when I also discovered that I really liked Les Pauls as well, and the 335 came soon after that.

I like to switch my tones a lot, even in the middle of a solo, where I’ll flip from one pickup to another. I know Albert King always did that. I think it takes the solo on more of a journey through different tonal ranges.

Things must be very busy for you now that the album is being released.

Yeah. I’m also doing some things with Devon Allman and the Allman Brothers Revue right now, and I’m starting to book a lot of dates for myself.

Everything is really starting to build up, and I’m determined that I’m going to make the most of every opportunity to make up for a lot of lost time.

Order Blues Without You here.

Albert Cummings is an electric blues powerhouse. Having shared stages with guitar masters of the sheer caliber of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter, among many others, he is known today as one of the greatest players on the contemporary blues guitar circuit.

Cummings arrived at the blues party later in life than you might expect, given his natural ability to stun audiences with a seemingly effortless display of jaw-dropping technique.

In fact, he was 27 years old when he first played with a band. At an age when some of the world’s greatest musicians checked out, Cummings was just checking in.

 “It was a couple of years after that when Double Trouble had me come down to Austin,” he tells Guitar Player. “Then I met B.B. King and Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter. It happened quickly. I was doing all that and still building houses.”

Yep. You heard him right: He was still building houses. And with one foot onstage and the other in the construction business, he’s still building houses today.

“There’s a song on the new album, Ten, called ‘Two Hands,’” the guitarist explains. “It’s one of my favorites, and it tells the tale of a working man. I think a lot of people are going to relate to that song.”

Relatable, open and honest, Cummings is a guitar player with whom anyone can connect.

Now, with more than two decades’ worth of solo releases under his belt, his recorded body of work catalogs a guitarist who has gone from strength to strength.

We caught up with the man himself to talk about the art of blues guitar following the release of Ten (Ivy Music Corporation), a ripper of an album recorded in Peter Frampton’s Phenix Studios in Nashville with legendary engineer/producer Chuck Ainlay.

You’re currently endorsed by Fender, but what was your first guitar?

I just inherited an old acoustic guitar that was hanging around that my father had. I remember it was an Aria jumbo. I wish I could find one again. It was fancy looking. I remember it had stars on the pickguard. But the action was just terrible! I mean you could park a truck under the strings. [laughs]

But really, whatever you have to learn on is good. Seriously, if you’re learning to play guitar, that’s great. You know, at the end of the day, it’s a piece of wood with some metal tied onto it.

You’re known for performing wild, improvisational stage shows. How did you develop that sort of approach to playing?

My father played guitar a little bit, but he had given up performing in a band just about the time I was born. I never really got to see him play regular shows, although he would get together with his old band whenever one of the sons or daughters of the band members got married. They’d always be the house band and play the wedding. So I’d get to see them do it then.

My father was really good at improvising, but only around certain solos. He’d play the melodies perfectly and then he’d stretch out a little bit. That was what got me thinking about improvising and playing something that’s not exactly the same, so you’re not just repeating yourself all the time.

How do you grab an audience’s attention?

I’ve been to shows where I’ve seen the guitarist come out and just widdle away, but where are the feelings? That’s what you see on social media all the time. Tommy Shannon [of Double Trouble] is a good friend of mine – you know, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s bass player – and we talk about this a lot.

He’s been in music stores where he’s heard bass players that are scary good, but if you put them in a band setting, they just can’t groove. They can’t make the audience stop talking. When everybody’s talking, it’s often because there’s nothing going on onstage.

What are you looking to achieve when you pick up a guitar and perform?

I’m looking to make somebody’s life better. Especially in the world today, people need something. I’ve cried playing. I’ve laughed playing. My guitar is my communicator when I’m not singing. It’s my way of communicating with people. It all sounds kind of crazy, but I love connecting with people.

What advice would you give to people learning how to play blues?

You know, when kids come to the show, I’ll give them a pick and I’ll tell the parents, “Make sure he or she is understanding there are so many greats.”

But like B.B. King told me, “Just borrow something from the ones you like.” It’s like if you go to a farmers market and you’ve got your little basket that you’re going to put your vegetables in: Pick the ones you like and bring it home. It’s just endless.

Who are some of your favorite guitarists working today?

Tommy Emmanuel is one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen him play live, but I’ve watched his videos. He’s completely amazing. I love it when I can’t even understand what a guitarist is doing because they’re so advanced.

Redd Volkaert is another guy like that. He played guitar for Merle Haggard, and I think he’s probably partly responsible for helping Brad Paisley learn a few things. Redd is one of those guys who you watch and go, “I don’t even know what he’s doing – is it even in the same tuning?” Because he’s just so advanced.

I love players like that because everything they’re playing has something unique to them. That’s what I like.

What about Stevie Ray?

It was his “take no prisoners” approach that I loved so much. You know, it’s a freight train and you’re not going to stop it. Stevie Ray was the first guy that really made me stop in my tracks to listen.

When I first heard Stevie Ray, I was like, “There’s no way that’s real. Nobody plays like that!” I thought it was two guitars: one hitting rhythm and one playing lead.

Early on, when I was in college, I went to see Stevie by myself, and I just remember thinking how incredible it was. I just didn’t know anybody could play like that.

That experience was so inspiring, it set me on a mission to move more toward that way of playing. It was just so powerful. And relentless. He let you see his spirit – who he was. That was Stevie Ray.

What does the blues mean to you?

To me, blues is an expression of feelings. And if you’re not willing to expose your belly and let people know how you feel through that instrument, then you’re not really revealing yourself. You’re not being yourself. No matter how good you get or what you’ve learned, you’re hiding something.

It’s a state of mind.

Exactly. And it’s very hard to teach that. I mean there’s no music school in the world that can teach that. You can say, “Here’s a chord pattern, here are the notes, charts, learn this, read this,” et cetera.

And that’s great, if you want to be a performer. But if you want to be a creator, you’ve got to go on a whole different journey. As a true creator, you don’t have a trail to follow and there’s nobody in front of you, because there’s nobody like you. You’re on your own path.

Order Ten by Albert Cummings here.

A year before Bob Dylan went electric with a sunburst Fender Stratocaster at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, a bluesman who hadn’t recorded and had rarely performed since the 1930s stunned the festival’s crowd of 15,000 spectators with an electrifying performance of his own.

Just weeks earlier, Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James had been recovering from cancer treatments in a Tunica, Mississippi hospital when John Fahey and two friends tracked down the 61-year-old legend and persuaded him to play again.

His re-emergence came during the 1960s blues revival at a time that also saw the “rediscovery” of Bukka White, Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mississippi John Hurt and others, who played to new audiences and scored record deals.

Armed only with an acoustic guitar and a microphone, Skip James captivated the Newport audience with his high falsetto and spidery fingerpicking that often commanded all 10 of his fingers.

“Skip at Newport ’64 was just transcendent. It was incredible,” recalls Dick Waterman, who witnessed the performance and later managed James’ career until his death in 1969.

“He sat down and he set his fingers down on the fretboard, and he took a breath and hit the first note of ‘Devil Got My Woman,’ and it was just incredible. Just shivers even at the memory of it.”

It’s safe to say no one else at Newport was playing blues guitar the way James did at the time – not House and not White, who were also on the bill in 1964.

Instead of the more commonly used open-G and open-E major-key tunings, James played in a D-minor tuning, which lent songs like “Hard Time Killing Floor” and “Cypress Grove” an ominous tone. The tuning was so particular that it became associated with Bentonia, Mississippi, James’ hometown, through a succession of players.

“In other regional styles of Delta blues, you may have an open-tuned guitar where the minor gets introduced against the major chord,” says Ryan Lee Crosby, a Massachusetts-based blues artist who learned Bentonia blues from Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, the last living musical link to James.

“But in the Bentonia style, it’s a minor chord, where major notes get added on top, so the tension between the major and minor is inverted.”

This differentiator sets up the darker, minor-key sound of Bentonia standards, but there are also other structural differences – or, rather, a lack of structure, as there are no choruses and few turnarounds in Bentonia blues, and no set number of times to repeat a pattern.

The droning, hypnotic tones come from ringing the open strings with the thumb or forefinger while fingerpicking, and frailing across the strings with the others.

While James doesn’t have the household-name recognition of B.B. King, Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson, his influence has never been stronger among blues and folk musicians. The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a folk collective that launched the careers of Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons and Leyla McCalla, carries his penchant for freeform, minor-key romps.

Emerging blues guitarists and singers like Buffalo Nichols and Adia Victoria wear his influence even more prominently.

“I came into Skip James’ music at the perfect time in my life,” says Victoria, who discovered him around the time she got her first guitar, at age 21. 

“I felt spoken to in a way that I’d never felt spoken to. I felt reached and seen. And I felt like, through Skip James, I became more in touch and aware of my culture as a Black southerner, in a way that I hadn’t been before.”

James’ 1960s revival didn’t last long. Before his cancer roared out of remission in 1967, his handlers squandered the considerable buzz he had created at Newport. By the time Waterman helped him get a record contract in late 1965, more palatable blues artists like Hurt were getting more attention, gigs and money.

It didn’t help that James, by all accounts, was a proud man who felt his playing was of higher artistic merit than his contemporaries on the folk blues scene.

“He was a very different, difficult, contrary kind of person,” Waterman says. “In other words, Skip had a huge ego and he loved to be flattered, and the best way to get along with Skip was to be flattering and tell him how great he was. 

"He felt he himself was performing at a much, much higher level, which may or may not be true, depending on how you look at it. He definitely was not ‘one of the guys.’”

Bentonia, Mississippi, sits atop the hills that rise above the vast alluvial Delta, where blues music evolved at sharecropper plantations and juke joints, makeshift venues where laborers could find music and moonshine.

Like many former farming outposts across the South, Bentonia is bisected by a railroad whose trains don’t bother stopping anymore. The only thing riding these rails are freighters headed north and south on the same tracks that dropped Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf in Chicago.

The Blue Front Café, considered the oldest juke operating in Mississippi, still stands next to the tracks in the center of town. Behind the cinderblock façade and barred front doors, locals mosey in to buy cigarettes and sundries, lingering sometimes to talk to the proprietor, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes.

At 74, Holmes is not only an elder statesman – he’s also the last of the Bentonia bluesmen.

The walls of the Blue Front are covered with faded posters and snapshots of the Bentonia Blues Festival, which Holmes has run for five decades. Music equipment is everywhere – microphone stands at half mast, guitars mounted onto the cinderblock and shiplap walls, a pair of dusty Peavey guitar amps on the floor under a pile of cables.

On a folding card table, copies of his eighth album, the Grammy-nominated Cypress Grove (Easy Eye Sound, 2019), are stacked for sale. Holmes recorded the collection of potent and haunted performances from the Bentonia canon – the title track, “Hard Times” and “Devil Got My Woman” were part of the original 26 sides James recorded for Paramount Records for $40 in 1931 – with the Black Keys at Dan Auerbach’s studio in Nashville.

“There’s an urgency with getting any of these types of people in the studio, older musicians that are sort of one of a kind,” Auerbach says. “The whole thing just felt like a blessing, really, just to be able to get to do it. And to share the love of the music and live in Jimmy’s world for a little bit.”

Holmes didn’t learn the Bentonia blues from James, who played the Blue Front occasionally. James and another Bentonia artist, Jack Owens, both learned from a man named Henry Stuckey, who lived in the area and, for a time, on the Holmes farm.

Stuckey allegedly learned the open D-minor tuning from a group of Bahamian soldiers he met in France during World War I and brought it home. Owens began to teach Holmes off and on beginning in the late ’70s, and by the ’90s the pair were playing daily at the Blue Front.

“I picked up some licks from him, which I was doing all along, but he was a hard act to follow,” Holmes says. 

“He wanted me to learn it, and I think now, from a divine perspective, he wanted me to learn it but he didn’t know how to teach it. He would come every day and say, ‘Boy, let’s play. You’ve got to learn to do this.’”

Over the past few years, Holmes has taken on the role of instructor to younger players who visit him at the Blue Front. Robert Connelly Farr, a Mississippi native who lives in Vancouver, B.C., reinterprets his lessons into thunderous back-alley blues, while Mike Munson’s adaptations are fully absorbed into his singer-songwriter compositions. Ghalia Volt, who honed her one-woman-band craft while busking in Brussels, Belgium, frequently shows up to perform at the juke.

Neither Victoria nor Nichols have made a similar pilgrimage to Bentonia, but James’ influence is a strong undercurrent in both artists’ music. On A Southern Gothic (Warner Bros.), Victoria’s third album, the Bentonia sound manifests in the eerie tension, tuning and fingerpicking on songs like “Magnolia Blues” and “Carolina Bound.”

“That D-minor tuning lends itself to some of the more melancholic aspects of human emotion, and combining that tuning with his voice, that falsetto, was very plaintive, mournful, but it could also sound manic, as well,” Victoria says. 

“His style of singing is what my internal voice sounded like. You can hear that weariness. You can hear that wisdom and that defiance, as well. It’s like a combination of dark and light that really spoke to me – that startled me, really.”

Nichols discovered James on a blues compilation when he was 12 or 13, he says, but didn’t seek out a full James collection for another five years. As a metalhead at the time, Nichols was already familiar with drop-D tuning, so transitioning to open D-minor tuning wasn’t too much of a stretch.

He eventually left behind his shredding for the organic tones of an acoustic guitar and a country-folk blues sound. For Nichols, the most enduring influence of James on his own playing isn’t what he played as much as his individualism.

“Whenever he would play songs that weren’t his, he would always make sure to play in his own style,” Nichols says. “That’s always stuck with me, because I’ve never really been the type to learn other people’s music. The two or three Skip James songs that I play are the two or three that I know. This music to me is supposed to be individual and be about the expression of the player.”

True to his word, on his cover on the James composition “Sick Bed Blues” from his 2021 self-titled debut album (Fat Possum), Nichols speeds up the tempo and improvises on the original licks with his own slide-accented descending figure.

Such improvisation is a central feature of the Bentonia sound. Holmes maintains that the songs are impossible to transcribe because they’re never played the same way twice. That’s due in part to playing from the heart, he says, but also because guys like Owens were uneducated.

“If you told Jack Owens, ‘I want you to do four counts of ‘Hard Times,’ he wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” Holmes says. “‘Uh, can you run me an E chord?’ Have no idea what you’re talking about. Even though he could do it, but he was unaware he was doin’ it.” 

Adds Nichols, “You hear the way he plays, and the biggest challenge is you can’t really sit down and transcribe it because it’s not very predictable. 

"The way he’s going to play, it all relates to the way he sings, and if you hear him do three recordings of the same song, it’s always going to be a little different. I had to unlearn a lot of the sort of technical precision and rely more on the feeling of it.”

Victoria agrees that playing the music riff-for-riff is missing the point. James understood how to use the guitar to serve his purpose of telling honest stories. Emulating him or anyone else takes the heart out of the music.

“Skip James’ music is an invitation to use your imagination to press forward in what he did,” she says. “He’s already done that. He’s mastered that, so there’s no point in trying to replicate it. 

"But I think that he still serves a valuable lesson of how can you give sound to your mood and your world, and how can you swathe your storytelling in this oral blanket.

“And to stay out of your way,” she adds. “If the story is good, the guitar should serve you. The guitar should never be a crutch behind a lack of insight in your story. I think that was the brilliance of Skip James. His storytelling was as brilliant as his guitar playing, and vice versa.”

Browse the Skip James catalog here.

For '50s-era guitarists who would soon be playing rock and roll, the Fender Telecaster hit the music industry with the impact of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Leo Fender's so-called "plank" ushered in the era of the commercially successful solidbody – echoing the immense industrial and social impact of Henry Ford's Model T. While Ford was never one of Fender's idols, the car maker bestowed the wonders of the automobile upon the masses by standardizing a sound design, streamlining production techniques, and lowering costs.

Likewise, Fender's "Model T" – initially called the Esquire, then the Broadcaster, and finally the Telecaster – was a powerful, affordable tool that helped a vast community of working guitarists ignite a cultural revolution.

The tumult was so far-reaching that Gibson was compelled to introduce the Les Paul to compete with the Tele – and Leo himself was inspired to develop the Stratocaster in an attempt to make its older sibling obsolete.

These three models are still modern music's most important guitars – and they all have Leo Fender's 1949 "standard guitar" prototype to thank for kick-starting their enduring glory.

THE ARCHTOP ERA

As twilight fell on the Big Band era toward the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States.

Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section.

Pickup-equipped archtops had reigned in these late-'40s dance bands, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper, and more durable axes.

Players also needed faster necks and better intonation to play what the country boys called "take-off lead guitar," and Rickenbacker Bakelites and other '30s-era solidbodies failed to deliver.

Custom-made solidbodies such as Merle Travis' Bigsby – as well as kitchen-table contraptions like Les Paul's "Log" – pointed in the right direction, but were beyond the means of the average player.

The demand for better electric guitars was as obvious as their reality was elusive.

ENTER LEO FENDER

Fender recognized the vast potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, easy to tune, and easy to play.

He also recognized that players needed guitars that would not feed back at dance hall volumes like the typical archtop. (Many guitarists had to stuff rags into their elegantly crafted guitars to stop the howling.)

In addition, Fender sought a tone that would command attention on the bandstand and cut through the noise in a bar.

By 1949, he had conceptualized the perfect tone – a clear, bell-like sound with distinct highs and lows, but devoid of muddled midrange frequencies that Fender considered "fluff" – and began working in earnest on what would become the first Telecaster at the Fender factory in Fullerton, California.

Although he never admitted it, Fender seemed to base his practical design on the Rickenbacker Bakelite. One of the Rickenbacker's strong points – a detachable neck that made it easy to make and service – was not lost on Fender, who was a master at improving already established designs. (He once said, "It isn't a radically different thing that becomes a success; it is the thing that offers an improvement on an already proven item.")

Not surprisingly, his first prototype was a single-pickup guitar with a detachable hard rock maple neck and a pine body painted white. The seeds of revolution were sown.

THE ESQUIRE

Don Randall, who managed Fender's distributor, the Radio & Television Equipment Company, recognized the commercial possibilities of the new design and made plans to introduce the instrument as the Esquire Model. (Although Randall – the company's de facto namesmith – gave the Esquire its moniker, Fender supported the name, saying that it "sounded regal and implied a certain distinction above other guitars.")

In April 1950, Radio-Tel started promoting the Esquire – the first Fender 6-string officially introduced to the public. The company prepared its Catalog No. 2, picturing a black single-pickup Esquire with a tweed form-fit case.

Another picture showed Jimmy Wyble of Spade Cooley's band holding a blonde Esquire. These debut models, with a planned retail price of $139.95, exhibited the utilitarian shape of thousands of Fender guitars to come.

"The Esquire guitar features a new style of construction which vastly improves the useability of this type of instrument," Randall wrote. The claim was further embellished by stating that the guitar could be played "at extreme volume," and that the fast neck was an aid to easy fretting.

Randall added, "The neck is also replaceable and can be changed by the owner in approximately ten minutes time. This feature eliminates costly repairs and refretting."

Fender believed that the neck was strong enough to resist warping without a trussrod. If a neck did warp, he planned to mail the customer a new one in a shipping tube.

Unfortunately, the necks didn't turn out to be as tough as Fender claimed. Randall reported that the necks on his samples had warped badly while traveling to the 1950 summer trade shows, and asked that the new guitars be outfitted with reinforced necks.

Initially, Fender had been contentious about the extra effort it would take to design and manufacture reinforced necks, but then a test guitar in his lab suffered the same problem.

Faced with mounting evidence that his guitar truly needed a reinforced neck, Fender bought a routing plate to install trussrods on October 3, 1950.

Randall's primary marketing ploy was to establish the Esquire in music instruction studios, reasoning that the affordable, practical guitar would be a hot commodity in those circles. In addition, a healthy response for the one-pickup version would prime the market for the more expensive two-pickup model that Fender already had in mind.

In fact, Fender's choice of a 3-position lever switch – which allowed three distinct guitar tones – probably coincided with his plans to add a rhythm pickup.

Fortunately, the Esquire's body design easily lent itself to both one- and two-pickup configurations. Ultimately, all production models had cavities routed for two pickups because Fender wanted players to have the option of adding a pickup in the future. (The one-pickup models hid an empty cavity under the pickguard.)

The two-pickup Esquires were manufactured with the second (rhythm) pickup positioned under the strings near the end of the fingerboard. Fender shielded the rhythm pickup with a metal cover to cut high harmonics and to emphasize fundamental tones.

A handy blend control knob mixed the rhythm pickup signal with that of the lead pickup when the pickup selector was in its lead position.

Putting the selector in the middle position activated the rhythm pickup alone.

In the forward position, the rhythm pickup was also selected, but along with a capacitor that rolled off high frequencies. (Fender called this sound "deep rhythm," and reasoned that guitarists could use the position to play bass lines.)

Dual-pickup Fender guitars featured these same electronics until 1952.

Although the single-pickup guitars used capacitors to mimic the mellow sound of a rhythm pickup, the real thing sounded better. Jimmy Bryant, who epitomized the new wave of postwar electric-guitar wizards, liked the jazzier sound of the dual-pickup guitar, as did Fender himself.

THE BROADCASTER

The factory finally went into full production in late October or early November 1950, and the name Randall chose for the dual-pickup guitar was "Broadcaster."

Musical Merchandise magazine carried the first announcement for the Broadcaster in February 1951 with a full-page insert that described it in detail. The guitar had what Randall called a "Modern cut-away body" and a "Modern styled head." And what player could resist the "Adjustable solo-lead pickup" that was "completely adjustable for tone-balance by means of three elevating screws"?

Finally, the industry had an up-to-date production solidbody. (Fender sold 87 Broadcasters on the guitar's initial release in January 1951.) Many people took note – including Gretsch, who claimed the Broadcaster name infringed on the company's trademark "Broadkaster." Faced with this fact, Randall wrote a letter to his salespeople on February 21, advising them that Radio-Tel was abandoning the Broadcaster name and requesting suggestions for a new one.

On February 24, Randall, who had some good ideas of his own, announced that the Broadcaster was renamed the "Telecaster."

The Broadcaster-to-Telecaster name change cost Radio-Tel hundreds of dollars and derailed the initial marketing effort. Brochures and envelope inserts were destroyed, and some unlucky worker had to clip the word "Broadcaster" from hundreds of headstock decals with a pair of scissors.

For several months, the new twin-pickup guitars sported nothing but the word "Fender." Years later, collectors would coin the term "No-caster" for these early-to-mid-'51 guitars.

TELE TWEAKS

In 1952, Fender replaced the Telecaster's blend control circuit with a conventional tone control.

Now the switch's rear position selected the lead pickup, the middle position selected the rhythm pickup, and the front position delivered the "deep rhythm" sound.

Teles were equipped this way until the mid-'60s, when the modern switch setup was introduced: the middle position selected both pickups, the front position selected the rhythm pickup, and the rear position selected the lead pickup.

One drawback of the 1952 to mid-'60s wiring is obvious today: The wiring made a two-pickup combination impossible unless the player delicately positioned the spring-loaded switch between settings.

However, once players learned this trick, they received a tonal surprise: Different models produced different dual-pickup sounds, depending on the rhythm pickup's magnetic polarity.

The "between" setting – which helped define the mystique of vintage Telecasters – could offer the robust tone provided by both pickups or produce a snarly growl similar to the Stratocaster's half-switch sound. (James Burton, playing his '53 Telecaster, exploited this unique tone on Ricky Nelson's "Travelin' Man.")

However, it was the Tele's lead pickup that captured the hearts of most players.

Early "level-pole" units offered outstanding tone with significant bass content and non-offensive highs (although manufacturing inconsistencies caused a small number of these pickups to produce an out-of-balance, bass-heavy low-E sound).

In mid-1955, Fender staggered the polepiece heights as he had on Strat pickups. The results were mixed. The volume balance from string to string was better, but the Tele's overall sound was harsher.

In 1953, the factory began notching the two outer brass bridge pieces under the low E and high E, which allowed a lower adjustment for these strings. By 1954, Telecasters employed steel bridges again, but they were rounded and made from a smaller-diameter stock than the 1950 bridges.

By 1958, the bridge pieces were changed yet again to a threaded stock with less mass, and the factory stopped putting the strings through the body.

In 1959, Fender introduced the Telecaster Custom and Esquire Custom, fancy versions of the originals with white binding that helped protect the edges from wear. These guitars had Jazzmaster-like rosewood fingerboards, which looked more traditional and wore better than one-piece maple necks.

Some early-'60s, pre-CBS Custom Telecasters had necks capped with maple fingerboards made in the same manner as the necks capped with rosewood. However, at no time during the pre-CBS years did Fender regularly produce Customs with the older-style maple neck. (The only exceptions may have been unlikely special orders.)

While the standard Telecasters and Esquires came with blonde finishes, the Customs were offered with sunburst finishes. A few even had more expensive custom colors.

THE PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE

In the early 1950s, a broad spectrum of Tele players established themselves in combos – even young blues guitar legend-to-be B.B. King spanked the plank.

With its versatile sound, ease of playing, and reasonable cost, what better guitar to yellow with perspiration and cigarette smoke?

Most serious students could afford the $189.50 price, ensuring a new guitar generation would grow up on Fenders. Still, most players preferred top-of-the-line instruments, and almost all professional jazz guitar and pop players employed something other than a Fender.

And after Fender introduced the Stratocaster in '54, the Tele wasn't even Fender's top-of-the-line ax.

Then an interesting thing happened. By the late '50s, the Telecaster was becoming an integral part of the session player's arsenal.

California-based guitarist Howard Roberts endorsed Gibson and Epiphone but also played an old Telecaster on countless rock sessions, as did Tommy Tedesco. These players knew what models recorded best and pleased record producers.

The Telecaster and its solidbody cohorts produced the teenage sound that proclaimed a guitar generation gap: old versus new, jazz and pop conformity versus rock rebellion.

At the same time, the Tele was heard increasingly on pure country recordings, treading in the big-box domain of Chet Atkins and Hank Garland (who sounded anything but twangy).

As the '60s unfolded and rock guitar playing matured, the Telecaster's role, onstage and off, solidified. While the guitar played a small part in the rise and fall of instrumental rock and surf music, Steve Cropper played one with Booker T. and the MGs, as did the Ventures' Nokie Edwards.

James Burton and Tele moved from Ricky Nelson's band to TV's Shindogs, all the while chalking up hours as L.A.'s premier session stylist in rock and country.

Much of the British Invasion had the look of Rickenbackers and Gretsches, but Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck recorded many of their milestone sides with the Yardbirds on a Telecaster and Esquire, respectively.

Mike Bloomfield chose a Tele for his highly influential mid-'60s work with Paul Butterfield and Bob Dylan, and Jimmy Page played one on Led Zeppelin's first album and on the solo of "Stairway to Heaven."

As Roy Buchanan told Guitar Player in '76, "The Telecaster sounded a lot like a steel, and I liked that tone. I like the old Teles because of the wood, the way the pickups are wound, the capacitors, and the whole works."

THE TELE LEGACY

By the late '60s, it was clear the Telecaster had shaken the foundations of the music industry. The Tele – and the host of solidbody models introduced as a result of its success – changed the way the world heard, played, and composed music.

Ironically, Leo Fender, who worked incessantly after '51 developing new models such as the Strat, Jazzmaster, and Jaguar (and then, in the '70s and '80s, formulating Music Man and G&L; models), had a very hard time topping what he accomplished in his first go-round.

"Everyone thought his first guitar was his best, but no one would tell him that," said longtime friend and pioneering electric stylist Alvino Rey in the '80s.

The Tele was Leo Fender's Model T, but, unlike the old Fords, it didn't go away.

For thousands of guitarists, the Telecaster is still state of the art – an enduring battle ax for rock, country, or anything amplified.

• Upgrade your Tele tone with the best Telecaster pickups

Award-winning blues guitarist Larry McCray has released the second single – “Breaking News” – from his forthcoming album Blues Without You.

Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, Blues Without You will be released on March 25 via Keeping the Blues Alive Records (KTBA Records.)

One of the great bluesmen of the American Rust Belt, McCray holds a very special place in Bonamassa’s heart.

“Larry McCray is a legend,” he says. “In the spirit of B.B. King, Luther Allison and Little Milton, Larry is among the greats.”

Over the years, McCray has performed alongside some of the biggest names in blues guitar including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, John Mayall, Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Keb’ Mo’, Jimmie Vaughan and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Guesting on Larry McCray’s latest 12-track long-player are Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes, Joanna Connor, and Reese Wynans.

Speaking of Blues Without You, McCray said, “Writing this album made me feel proud, as it allows others to see me as more than a blues musician.

“The songs are reflective of my broad taste in music styles and the subject matter, although personal at times, is relatable to anyone’s life. Hopefully, the words and message of the songs will help others express their feelings in a similar synopsis."

Following up The Gibson Sessions, Blues Without You is McCray’s first album in seven years and is a result of having hooked up with a team of people whom he feels are kindred spirits.

“I feel totally reborn, with a whole new career,” says the guitarist, “and I'm optimistic about what the future holds.

“But truthfully speaking, sometimes I do wish it would have happened 30 years ago. I would have been much more qualified for the job at that age than at 62.”

It’s never too late, we say!

Pre-order Blues Without You here.

Albert Cummings is an anomaly. A late bloomer by anybody’s standards he started playing guitar at 27. Indeed, at an age when some of the world’s greatest musicians checked out, Cummings was just checking in.

Once his superlative musical talent was eventually tapped into there was no going back and his unique brand of pyrotechnic electric blues rapidly became an unstoppable force.

Before long, he was sharing stages with the likes of B.B. King, Johnny Winter and Buddy Guy. In fact, Cummings is regarded as one of the greatest blues guitar players on the circuit today. Renowned for his raw, off-the-cuff stage performances, what you see really is what you get with this maestro.

With over two decades’ worth of solo releases under his belt, his recorded body of work catalogs a guitarist that has gone from strength to strength.

And the best, he promises, is yet to come.

His tenth solo album – aptly titled Ten – is due for release this year on April 8 via Ivy Music. Recorded in Peter Frampton’s Phenix Studios in Nashville with legendary engineer/producer Chuck Ainlay (Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton) Ten also features a guest performance by Vince Gill.

We caught up with Cummings ahead of the album’s release to talk guitars, Nashville and the blues.

You’re currently endorsed by Fender. What is it you like about Fender guitars?

I’m almost exclusively Fender. That’s pretty much all I’ve ever played. Gibson have sent me stuff before. And PRS sent me three or four guitars once, but I could never find the tone I liked. They were beautiful pieces of work – all this quilted maple and stuff – but, boy, I just wish they sounded as good as they looked! I like the simplicity of Fenders. They’re pretty rugged too.

What’s your go-to guitar right now?

I call it CC. It’s a Strat from around ‘92/’93. It’s on its second neck. Fender put a new neck on it for me because I wore out the truss rod on the last one. I just wore it out again. I tend to beat on my guitar a little bit.

I’ve put at least five different pickup configurations in it. I ended up with one of the most unique configurations I’ve ever seen on a Stratocaster. I have a Tele pickup in the neck, a Texas Special in the middle, and I have a ’59 humbucker in the [bridge]. That guitar with the five positions: you can get any sound you want.

Also, I play heavy Dunlop strings – a 12 down to a 58. And with those gauge strings I can get a beautiful clean sound. With that pickup configuration there’s not a sound I can’t get.

What amps did you use to record Ten?

I’m a [Fender] Vibro-King junky. On this album, I used a Vibro-King along with a [Fender] Vibroverb – the original brownface Vibroverb model with two ten-inch speakers. I think it was Peter Frampton’s.

I love a Vibro-King because it’s got the punch, but it sometimes misses that little bit of sweetness. So, live, I usually play a [Fender] Deluxe with it at the same time.

For those who haven’t seen you perform, how would you describe your live shows?

When I start a show, I don’t usually stop until I’m finished. I don’t talk much; I just go from one song to the next. I believe if you’re thinking, you’re stinking. And I rarely use a set list. I just let the music take me where it’s going to go.

My style of music is completely off the cuff. People ask me, ‘what was that third song?’ or whatever and I’ll have literally no idea. I’ll jump off songs into others. If I feel like playing something, I’ll give it a shot.

What did you learn from gigging with B.B. King?

B.B. King taught me that I’m there as an entertainer. If the audience wants to hear something, I’m happy to oblige. I go onstage and I become a member of the audience. There’s no negativity on my stage. I want people to come to my shows and feel good when they’re there, and when they’re going home. I’m just an entertainer. That’s my goal.

How did you meet B.B. King?

I was able to meet B.B. King’s assistant manager and she came to see me play when I did the first show with Double Trouble. The next thing I knew I was on stage with B.B. I did several tours with him and ended up being really good friends with the man. It was just such an education for me to sit and watch B.B. King every night.

That man has been the biggest inspiration in my life. And not only with guitar. Anybody that picks up a guitar will be influenced by B.B. King. They might not realize it, as they might have copped something from somebody else who was directly influenced by B.B. King.

B.B. told me one night: “We don’t steal licks – we borrow them.” And that’s so true. It’s like vocabulary – the more words you know, the smarter you are. The guitar communicates, no matter what language you speak.

What’s the best way to advance as a guitarist?

I think the best way to advance on your own instrument is to get lost. Because once you get lost, you learn a new trail to get out. If you’re following the same path, you’re not lost. So, my advice is just run off into the woods and don’t think about the path. If you make a mistake, just do it again and it’ll sound intentional. [laughs]

Tell us about how your career took off.

The first time I ever played with a band I was 27 years old (I just turned 54), and it was a couple of years after that when Double Trouble had me come down to Austin. Then I met B.B. King and Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter. It happened quickly. I was doing all that and still building houses.

And to this day, you’re still working in construction…

There’s a song on the new album, Ten, called “Two Hands.” It’s one of my favorites and it tells the tale of a working man. I think a lot of people are going to relate to that song.

What was your experience of recording the new album, Ten?

I’ve never been so excited about a record before. I’m still on the honeymoon. Every day I think about it. This one is completely different. I’ve been growing as an artist over the years, but everything came together at the right time on this one.

Chuck Ainlay is like the Stevie Ray Vaughan of producers. He is so gifted. He’s incredible. The first thing he said to the band was, “Our main goal here is to give Albert something he’s never had before.” And they certainly did. They just killed it. Vince Gill told me, “You’ve got the best players in Nashville, Albert.”

What’s your philosophy to making music?

My philosophy in life is that building something – be it a house or a record – takes a team. And if I can assemble the right team, everything’s better. They were just pushing me and making me feel as comfortable as possible. They were just warm-hearted, beautiful people and they have my ultimate respect.

I really wanted them to bring their personalities and their feelings. I mean, I was in Nashville. Every city has a different sound, and I believe if I cut that record in L.A., London, or Austin it would have sounded different.

I want every record I do to be my best one. Like every house I build, I want it to be better than the last.

Pre-order Ten by Albert Cummings from February 18, 2022, here.

Continuing their generations-long association with blues guitar hero B.B. King, Gibson have just announced the release of the new B.B. King Lucille Legacy model. 

This premium semi-hollowbody instrument from Gibson's Custom Shop – currently priced $6,999 – features a plethora of high-end appointments and is a fitting tribute to the man known as the King of the Blues.

Standout features of the B.B. King Lucille Legacy include a Transparent Ebony nitrocellulose finish, split block inlays, “Lucille” mother-of-pearl headstock inlays, and gold hardware throughout.

Those familiar with Gibson's earlier B.B. King signature guitars will notice the Lucille Legacy also comes sans f-holes. This unique feature was requested by the man himself when his original models – the Lucille Standard and Lucille Custom – were introduced in the early '80s.

“It has been a pleasure working with the Gibson team in developing a new line of B.B. King Signature Lucille guitars,” said CEO and Chairman of the B.B. King Music Company, Vassal Benford. 

“I am proud of the new Lucille Legacy guitar and delivering a true work of art, opening B.B. King’s life and legacy to new artists across the globe.”

“We are honored to celebrate the life and spirit of B.B. King,” adds Senior Director of Product Development at Gibson, Mat Koehler. “The Lucille Legacy model features both classic Lucille features and some new ornate elements like split block inlays and a stunning figured maple body. 

"Its beauty and character pay tribute to the man who brought joy to millions around the globe and created music so powerful it will live forever.”

The Lucille Legacy’s body is constructed using a 3-ply (maple/poplar/maple) lamination and a maple centerblock, while its mahogany neck boasts a 355-style ebony fingerboard. 

In tandem with a TP-6 tailpiece, an ABR-1 bridge allows for accurate setup and easy adjustment, while Grover tuners provide excellent stability and smooth operation.

In terms of electronics, the B.B. King Lucille Legacy comes loaded with a pair of Gibson Custombuckers. Wired by hand, the instrument’s circuit comprises a 6-position Varitone switch (mono), CTS audio taper pots, and paper-in-oil Bumblebee tone caps.

A Custom Shop hardshell case and certificate of authenticity are also included.

Those seeking a less expensive alternative may be interested in checking out the new Epiphone B.B. King Lucille (above).

For more information on the Gibson B.B. King Lucille Legacy click here.

The traditional blues players from the 1920s through the ’60s established many popular song structures, chords and guitar techniques. It’s testament to the quality and enduring popularity of these artists that so much of the identity of their playing can still be heard in today’s blues music. 

Less well known is that blues is at the heart of much of the rock and metal that would emerge from the ’70s on – so there’s something for everyone to learn. What more reason do you need to follow our lesson on some core blues basics?

Classic Blues

Get jamming the easy way, with a simple, traditional repeating boogie riff in the style of the great John Lee Hooker (Ex. 1). Based around an A root note, this line can easily be taken through a standard 12-bar blues progression (A - D - E) by shifting the pattern up one string to a “D shape” riff and down one string set for the E chord.

Ex. 2 uses the rhythm and blues groove first popularized by Bo Diddley in his self-titled 1955 single and known today as the “Bo Diddley beat.” It’s been adapted by many artists, including the Rolling Stones in “Not Fade Away,” Bruce Springsteen in “She’s the One” and George Michael in “Faith.”

This catchy groove is all about the rhythm and timing, so strum slowly at first, then try using some other chords you know. To achieve the desired feel, keep your picking hand moving in a continuous, uninterrupted down-up-down-up manner with the underlying 16th-note pulse, even during the rests.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was famed for the shuffle rhythms and ferocious lead work he’d coax from his “Number One” Strat. In Ex. 3, a blues bass line is woven around an open A5 power chord. You get the weight of the chord while the bass line outlines a more sophisticated A7 harmony. Listen to SRV’s “Pride and Joy” and “Rude Mood” for inspiration.

Ex. 4 shows a blues turnaround inspired by Eric Clapton, who adapted Robert Johnson-style changes to electric blues guitar. Playing fingerstyle will help make all the melody notes and the descending bass notes ring out clearly.

Funk-rock blends nicely with blues rhythms, as Jimi Hendrix demonstrated in many of his classic tracks. Ex. 5 is informed by his style and employs one of his favorite chords (the 7#9, often dubbed “the Hendrix chord”) played in both E and C. In the single-note part of the riff, you can pull the 5th-fret G note slightly sharp for an even bluesier flavor.

B.B. King was famed for his soulful touch and his quivering “butterfly” vibrato technique, which is deftly employed with the A note in Ex. 6. To emulate B.B.’s signature sound, aim for a quick wobble of the string but without too much pitch change. Rest the base of your fretting finger on the side of the fretboard then “flutter” your hand around this pivot point to create the vibrato. It’s easier than using pure finger strength, and it’s pure B.B.

In blues circles, a mini sweep across the strings is referred to as a rake. This drag of the pick is more of a percussive effect, so the notes don’t need to be perfectly fretted. You can even mute the strings entirely as you pick, so that the rake notes are pitchless “chucks.” We’ve written picking directions for the rakes here (Ex. 7). Notice how the quarter-tone bend in bar 1 provides a blues edge too.

Playing two notes at once is a great way to thicken up your guitar sound. This is an effective thing to do to help avoid the dreaded “tone dropout” you might experience when soloing in a power trio. Ex. 8 is inspired by John Mayer, and in bar 2 we’re playing a line that descends the B and high E strings in diatonic 3rds strings, sweetly harmonizing the key of A minor.

From Eric Clapton to Joe Bonamassa, great blues guitarists seem to have a never-ending vocabulary of stock phrases, yet they somehow always sound authentic. The key is to use the minor or major pentatonic scale as a foundation and keep your solos simple at first. In Ex. 9, we’re playing a very triplet-y phrase based on the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G) and presenting ideas that can be reimagined in myriad ways.

With some minor pentatonic basics under our belts, we can expand these ideas into something more sophisticated, using fast pentatonic flurries, as demonstrated in Ex. 10. Legendary bluesman Buddy Guy often plays fast flurries of notes, straight from the minor pentatonic scale. That means the shape feels familiar but you’ll be delivering more “angular” phrased licks.

Blues isn’t only about minor keys. Listen to Freddie King’s “Hide Away” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Need Your Love So Bad.” Both of these songs feature extensive use of the major pentatonic scale (intervallically spelled 1, 2, 3, 5, 6). The simple lick shown in Ex. 11 is designed to help get you started with this warm-sounding set of notes. Watch out though. There’s a bluesy minor note in there too – the 5th-fret C, right before the last dyad (two-note chord).

The previous lick hinted at an idea we’re going exploring more fully in our next example – mixing up parallel major and minor pentatonic scales in solos. Why bother? Well, the combination of “happy” major and “serious” minor scales sounds way more sophisticated than sticking to just one or the other. Ex. 12 keeps things simple, but this idea is a key part of blues, so experiment!

21st Century Blues

Whether it’s the fuzz-fuelled lo-fi riffing of the White Stripes and the Black Keys, or the Zeppelin-like hard rock sensibilities of Rival Sons and Greta Van Fleet, it’s fair to say that blues has evolved somewhat in recent years.

Though many of the chords and scales owe a debt to earlier forebears, many bands are putting their own stamp on blues with retro-inspired drive tones and tone-bending effects like octavers and wild fuzz distortions. Here we’re looking at a few of the tricks and riffing tropes of the current generation of blues players.

Dan Auerbach

Spiky fuzz distortion tones have been a big part of the signature retro sounds of the aforementioned bands. The riff shown in Ex. 14 is designed to make good use of a dirt pedal. If you’re using a regular drive pedal, keep the treble high, roll off a little bass and experiment with your amp’s EQ and gain.

From Robert Johnson and Elmore James to Derek Trucks, Gary Clark Jr. and Auerbach, slide guitar has long been at the heart of blues. The simple electric slide lick shown in Ex. 15 will help you develop this tricky technique.

Place your slide on your 3rd or 4th finger and aim directly over the fret you’re playing (not behind it). Use your 1st finger to dampen the strings behind the slide and suppress unwanted string noise and overtones. Additionally, it helps to use your pick hand to mute the strings your not playing on at the moment.

Contemporary bands’ minor pentatonic riffs owe as much to ’70s rock as they do to early blues. The pentatonic riff shown in Ex. 16 could easily be a Black Keys tune, a Led Zeppelin line, or you could slow it down and give it a traditional “Hoochie Coochie Man” treatment. It describes an E minor tonality, so the 6th string can be used as your tonal center to “bounce” the other notes off.

The advent of multi-track recording in the ’70s saw bands double-tracking guitar riffs. In recent years, duos like Royal Blood have used switching systems to recreate the effect in live performances. The layered riff in Ex. 17 is ideal for two guitars.

We take this idea further in Ex. 18. Here, we’re playing a simple melodic line on top of our previous riff. To make sure it stays riffy, we’re following the same rhythm for both lines – no solo widdle here! It’s based on the E minor pentatonic scale (E, G, A, B, D) throughout.

If you’re playing in a guitar-drums duo, White Stripes-style, you’ll need to fill out your sound. Ex. 19 covers plenty of notes to provide a full backing sound, then punctuating them with some fat-sounding power chords. For more weight, think about using an octaver effect as Jack White and Auerbach and Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr might do.

Even simple minor pentatonic licks can kick a song’s proverbial rear end. Ex. 20 demonstrates this with a lick inspired by Auerbach’s fretwork on the Black Keys song “Eagle Birds.”

From his first session for the Mamas & the Papas when he was just 16, Lee Ritenour forged a career working in L.A.’s pressure-cooker session scene and became a first-call guy for every major act from Michael Jackson to Pink Floyd. “I’ve done every style of music except country,” he tells Guitar Player.

After becoming one of the most recorded guitarists in history, Ritenour decided in 1976 to make the switch from session superstar to solo artist with his debut album, First Course. “For modern-day readers, that session era probably seems like a thousand years ago,” Ritenour says. “The mid-to-late ’70s was an interesting period because, having already been established as a studio musician playing just about everything, I needed to create my own sound. My first album was a little lighter in feel to Captain Fingers [1977], which did well for me. Fusion guitar was really starting to come through with Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth and the rest.”

Although Ritenour’s career has proceeded without a hitch, he has suffered terrible personal misfortune. In the space of a few months in 2018, his house burned to the ground, taking with it priceless personal possessions, guitars and music. Soon afterward, he had major heart surgery.

Ritenour rebounded from those setbacks to record Dreamcatcher, which was released in 2020. “It was interesting that I got the chance to do that album, after the fire and the surgery,” he says. “It was a good way of getting myself back on track. It definitely functioned as part of the healing process.”

As a guitarist who worked hard to find his own voice on the instrument, Ritenour has strong thoughts about what musicians must do today to forge a unique identity in a world where countless teenage prodigies steal views on social media and the like.

“You have to be very wary about the fact that everybody has amazing technique,” he says. “A lot of kids can copy incredible things, but the depth that goes into creating your own style and your own voice is much harder to achieve. I always stress the need to compose. You have to be a B.B. King, a Wes or a Jeff Beck, with such a strong individual identity to be able to do someone else’s song and make it your own. 

Look at Sinatra: Every song he sang became a Sinatra song. I think it’s particularly important for anyone interested in making a career in music to always be learning about the music business itself. Understand promotion and social media, and find ways to get yourself heard.”

He likewise has strong feelings about rhythm guitar. “You need to listen to the history of accompaniment guitar, not only in this country with things like rhythm and blues but also in areas like folk music in England, or old blues,” he offers.

“Even in medieval times, the lute was used to accompany singers. The role of accompaniment is such an important thing to understand. Segovia used to say that the guitar was a mini orchestra. A lot of times when I was on sessions, I was listening to what the drummer and bass player were playing and trying to fit into the cracks. Most importantly, uppermost in my mind, was what the song called for, which most often was what the singer needed.

Like many artists, Ritenour has lost an enormous amount of live work due to the pandemic and is eager to get back on the road. “Besides thinking about getting back out there, I’ve got a couple more studio projects brewing for me,” he reveals.

True to form, his love of fusion and sense of the guitar as the perfect means of expression remain central to his art. “While I know the energy level in straight jazz can be very intense, there is so much intensity in fusion,” he offers. “The guitar is the perfect vehicle if you love exploratory music. We’re dealing with 12 notes in the Western musical tradition, and maybe a few bent ones as well, but the guitar has the ability to exceed those inherent limitations.

“I think in some ways modern instrumental metal is the new version of fusion. Once upon a time there was the ‘jazz committee’ who would decide what jazz should be or what would be rock, but that all got blurred by fusion. Today’s world is a perfect example of the genre. The whole world is interconnected. The pandemic proved that.”

1. “Captain Fingers” from “Captain Fingers’ (1977)

“This track had a combo of chops and technique, which were a big part of fusion, but it also had a great groove, and not too many people had that. When this album came out, I think it captured a lot of my personality and showed that I did have a distinctive voice as a guitarist.

It’s still not an easy tune to play, even to this day; it wasn’t just fast for the sake of it. It would have been recorded with my ES-335 into a Fender amp, a Deluxe Reverb maybe, but Paul Rivera was doing a lot of mods to amps back then, so he probably worked on that one. Actually, I had a very early version of the Mesa/Boogie at that time, so that may have been part of the sound.

That era was the first time that rock guitar and jazz guitar started to be lumped into fusion. It was a boom time for the fusion guitar movement. The first time I heard Mahavishnu with John McLaughlin, I was like ‘Damn!’ [laughs] I was also impressed by guys like Bill Connors, and of course no one could figure out what Allan Holdsworth was doing. I guess if Hendrix had a career that had endured, he could well have been doing great stuff in fusion.”

2. “Morning Glory” from ‘The Captain’s Journey’ (1978)

“This was the first tune I wrote that really got a lot of attention, not only from other guitar players but also from fans and other artists, some of whom wanted to write lyrics to it. I recorded this version in 1978, and I actually revisited it on Dreamcatcher.

Harmonically, rhythmically and melodically, it really defined who I was as an artist because I’d been so versatile as a studio player that I had to find my own identity, as every guitarist does. I always say the key to finding who you are is to compose, and ‘Morning Glory’ is a good example of that. I think it really helped me home in on what my ‘thing’ was.

“I wrote this tune, and Eric Gale, an artist I really admired at the time, covered it [on his 1977 album Multiplication]. Then Bill Champlin put the vocal on. I remember playing at the Roxy in L.A. with my band, and as soon as I started to play ‘Morning Glory,’ it got a strong reaction from the crowd. You don’t have to be some kind of scientist to work out that if something is really connecting with a crowd, as ‘Morning Glory’ did, you’re onto something valuable.”

3. “Night Rhythms” from ‘Festival’ (1988) and “Harlequin” from ‘Harlequin’ (1985) by Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour

“I wanted to pick two tracks to kind of stand as one, because they reflect my deep love of Brazilian music, There is a lot of Brazilian influence on Festival. At the time that I recorded it, I’d started hanging out with my soon-to-be wife, who is Brazilian, and she was doing a big project in New York at the same time. She had a lot of amazing Brazilian artists coming to it. That lit a fire under me, and it started me working on music that reflected that Brazilian influence. This song became a signature sound for me, and I still hear it all the time on digital radio.

“The Harlequin album was also very Brazilian influenced. Dave Grusin has been a longtime collaborator for me. I met him when I was 18, and he was such a prolific composer for TV and film. I heard about him from his scores; he’d have Howard Roberts blowing over these really long chase scenes. I met him through Sérgio Mendes, and soon after that he started hiring me for some of the shows. The rest is history. We’ve been friends for about 50 years now.”

4. “Stolen Moments” from ‘Stolen Moments’ (1990)

“This was a very traditional jazz album for me. I pulled out my ’49 Gibson L-5 that I’d had since I was a teenager. A lot of people didn’t know I had that traditional jazz background – the whole Blue Note thing – as the sessions and solo albums that I’d done previously weren’t in that style, of course. People knew I had the fusion and Brazilian things going on, but at the heart of everything I do is my love for jazz.

“We did this album direct to two-track. It only took two days to record it at Sunset Sound studios in L.A., which is my favorite studio. It was recorded for JVC in Japan originally. There were so many excellent musicians that played on that record with me. I always loved this Oliver Nelson tune, and I feel that the album holds up really well when I listen back to it. The studio has such a beautiful vibe. I plugged the L-5 into a Fender Deluxe, but again one that had been modified by Paul Rivera.”

5. “Lay It Down” from ‘6 String Theory’ (2010)

“There is a lot more blues guitar in a lot of my playing on this album, and this track was a wonderful duet with John Scofield. The two guitars really complement each other. I think something about his playing influenced me into a more bluesy direction. The whole album was a dream project, working with so many great guitar players. I’d never done anything like it before.

“When I first put the project together, I knew it was going to be an expensive album, so I thought I’d go to a few guys that I trusted the most, and if they said that they wanted to do it, then I knew it would be viable. Those guys were Steve Lukather, who I’ve known since he was a teenager, and he immediately said yeah.

B.B. King was the other one that I called. I had a long relationship with B.B. I used to play rhythm on his records, and there was a double album that was sponsored by Guitar Player way back that I appeared on with him. I met him when I was 19, and we were friends ever since.

The third guy I went to was George Benson. After he agreed, I started to branch out into a whole bunch of newer guys, like Andy McKee and Joe Bonamassa. We all wanted to make a great record. Nobody wanted to show off.”

Buy Lee Ritenour’s latest album Dreamcatcher here.

Awhile back, Joe Bonamassa treated his Facebook followers to a very special Throwback Thursday when he shared a video clip of his 12-year-old self opening for B.B. King in 1989.

Bonamassa played roughly 20 shows as King’s opening act on what would be his first tour, billed as Smokin’ Joe Bonamassa. The youngster had been gaining a following by performing in cities in Western New York and Pennsylvania. His mother wouldn’t let him perform out on school nights, but when the invitation came through from King, she relented. Judging from Bonamassa’s own account, at least part of the tour took place over a school vacation.

In the video, Joe can be seen playing a red Telecaster with the name Rachel lettered across the pickguard. Bonamassa recalls that he also owned a 1972 Fender Stratocaster in crimson red, which he called Rosie. 

“He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in the music business. He is the blues, the blues is him,” Bonamassa said, recalling the late blues guitarist. “He helped me write the playbook on what I’m doing now.”

(BB's appraisal of the young man would open doors for years to come: “This kid’s potential is unbelievable," he said. "He hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface. He’s one of a kind”) became a powerful endorsement that opened doors.)

Once the tour was over, Bonamassa returned to school. “The teacher asked what we’d done on our vacation and I wrote a detailed account of touring with B.B. King,” he says. “The teacher’s reply was, ‘Please stop making stuff up in your gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane in the Land of Make Believe.’

“But I had the backstage pass.”

Deborah Coleman was a great blues guitar player. She was well known in the blues world but had a rock background, which gave her playing a distinct edge. Coleman was as at home playing Billie Holiday as she was Jimi Hendrix, and she was known to stretch out her live show into extensive and expressive jams, where one song might last 40 minutes.

The blues world felt a great loss when she passed away suddenly in 2018 from complications due to pneumonia. GP spoke to the award-winning guitarist back in 2008 following a tour in support of the collaborative Sue Foley, Deborah Coleman, and Roxanne Potvin album Time Bomb.

How did you start playing professionally?

On weekends I would go to blues jam sessions, and that’s when I started meeting a lot of traveling musicians coming through town. Kenny Neal was one of the first I met. I remember the first question I asked him. I said, “How much money do you make in blues?” And he gave me this unbelievable figure. He told me, “I make, like, a couple hundred thousand dollars a year.” I said, “Oh really?” I thought that sounded pretty good!

When you started out, was anyone surprised to see you playing leads?

Dickey Betts for one. Dickey was like, “Finally, a girl that plays!” I met him in Sarasota, Florida, one year doing a festival with Steven Segal. I’ve worked with some really great people in my band, too, and everybody was great in their own right. To make it out on the road with a group of guys, you almost have to be one of them. You gotta act cool and learn how to talk football and baseball.

Do you still listen to rock and roll?

If I do, it’s the old stuff. I’ll still go listen to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles or Joe Satriani. My favorite rock and roll guitar player is Eddie Van Halen. That guy had feeling! He just had so many unique ideas, and he took things in a different direction.

Tell me some of your career highlights.

I’ve been blessed with a lot of great opportunities. I won the Orville Gibson Award [for Best Blues Guitarist, Female] in 2001, and I’ve had about eight or nine W. C. Handy Blues Music Award nominations.

But really, the best thing has been getting to perform with some of the musicians that I never thought I’d have a chance to play with, like Bonnie Raitt. I also got to play with Paul Rodgers. We were at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gig and he needed a guitar player that could play the song “All Right Now.” Somebody told him, “Deborah plays rock and roll,” so he called me. I went over to his hotel room and learned the song, and I got to play it onstage with him.

One of the best highlights of my career was playing B.B. King’s 80th birthday [in 2005]. I was surprised to even be on the stage, and I was the only girl up there. I’m up there with B.B. and Bobby Bland, Bruce Willis, Montel Williams – some of the most famous people and notable musicians in the world. I remember, Montel looked at B.B. while we were playing. He pointed at me and said, “Give the girl a round!” So B.B. let me play a solo, and then he actually said my name after. I was the only performer whose name he announced.

“Smokin’” Joe Bonamassa had an early start to his illustrious career as a blues guitar hero while sharing stages with the likes of B.B. King and Danny Gatton at age 12. But 30-plus years and 11 Billboard Blues chart-topping albums later, the most high-profile blues guitarist around has recently had a couple of realizations: “I’m not a guitar player; I’m not a singer or songwriter. I’m an entertainer,” Bonamassa told GP in our exclusive interview.

“What I do onstage is an extension of my personality, which then morphs into a character that does not exist outside of the theater. I like not being recognized.”

In this intimate and revealing conversation with GP “the man in the suit” discusses the gulf between self-image and the public eye. “When I put on the suit, I become “that guy.” And therein lies part of the success and part of the problem,” reveals Bonamassa before going on to confess, “Truth is, I hate the way I play guitar. I hate the way I sing. I know I can do it pretty well, but I wish I could do it so much differently.”

Read more surprising revelations (such as his desire to play guitar in somebody else’s band and why he never wants to shoot a TikTok video) in our latest issue – out now!

Due out on October 29th Joe Bonamassa’s latest album – Time Clocks – can be purchased directly from his website.

As its name suggests a blues turnaround is a section of music that comes at the end of a verse, giving it harmonic interest and resolution and leading the song back to the start of a new verse, which is almost always a repeat of the first, in terms of form.

Generally speaking, a turnaround occurs in the last two bars of a blues or jazz standard, whether it’s an eight-, 12-, 16-, 24- or 32-bar form. In the context of a standard 12-bar blues progression, the melody generally concludes at the beginning of the 10th bar, so instead of simply sitting on the tonic, or “one,” chord for two more bars, a chordal turnaround is inserted in bars 11 and 12 to maintain interest and forward momentum and create a strong setup for a repetition and “looping” of the progression.

Turnaround licks are typically improvised and are generally built around the framework of four chords (two per bar), usually I-IV-I-V but sometimes the jazzier I-VI-ii-V (lowercase Roman numerals indicate minor-type chords). As you’ll see in this lesson, there are many variations on these two basic forms.

The chord types may be diatonic or non-diatonic (based on the parent scale of the key, or not) and are also influenced by the style of blues (major versus minor). It’s generally understood that professional players will be familiar with the harmonic intricacies generated by the many permutations of these two basic forms.

In both parts of this two-part lesson, we’ll study lead licks played over blues guitar turnarounds in the styles of 10 of the genre’s most influential players of all time. Each player will be represented with three examples that cover major and minor keys, and because some licks can often be interchanged between major and minor keys, our examples will start on the same root note and feature a range of grooves and tempos.

Instead of illustrating the turnaround in isolation, the examples are presented as they would occur in the last four bars of a 12-bar blues progression – bars 9 through 12. And because turnarounds are also frequently used as intros, these examples can also serve as useful ways to kick off a song or guitar solo in a blues tune.

Because turnarounds customarily occur at the end of the vocal melody, they provide a clear space and musical opening that the guitarist can fill, whether they’re soloing or not. Not surprisingly, different players have their own approach to turnarounds. Some plow through the changes with pentatonic-based ideas, taking little heed of the chords, while others carefully target notes in each underlying chord to create a melodic shape.

It takes practice to deftly negotiate this sequence and make your playing sound relaxed and casual, but the time spent doing so will improve your improvisational and soloing skills tremendously. The turnaround contains all the chords of the blues but in condensed form, so you really need to keep on top of the changes and nail those target notes.

Technique Focus: Scale Choices

To get the most out of this lesson, make sure you can play these scales in all five CAGED positions and familiarize yourself with the suggested applications. 

MINOR PENTATONIC: R-b3-4-5-b7

Use this form in the I-chord position over the I, IV and V chords. It can also be transposed to start on the root of the V chord but can only be transposed to the root of the iv chord in a minor key. Also, you can freely add the blues-scale’s b5 passing tone to this scale.

MIXOLYDIAN MODE: R-2-3-4-5-6-b7

Use in tonic position over the I chord. It can also be transposed to the IV and V chords.

MAJOR PENTATONIC: R-2-3-5-6

Use in tonic position over I and V. It can also be transposed to the IV chord. Also, you can freely add the blues-scale’s b5 passing tone to this scale, as the b3.

PHRYGIAN-DOMINANT MODE: R-b2-3-4-5-b6-b7

Play this scale over the V or V7 chord in a minor key. This is the harmonic minor scale’s fifth mode and is the same as playing the tonic harmonic minor scale of that key.

THE B.B. KING “BLUES BOX”: R-2-4-5-6

Use in tonic position over all chords, but bend the B string only a half step when playing over the IV chord.

SUPER-LOCRIAN MODE: R-b2-b3-3-b5-b6-b7

Use in root position over an altered-dominant chord, such as 7b9, 7#9, 7b5, 7#5, or any combination of these. This is the same as playing the melodic minor scale rooted a half step above the altered[1]dominant chord’s root.

Let’s begin with a T-Bone Walker–style lick played over a I-IV-I-V turnaround in the key of G (G7 C9 G7 D7aug). T-Bone’s jazzy and harmonically adept style has influenced countless players, and echoes of his pioneering approach can be heard in the playing of guitarists ranging from Chuck Berry to Jimmy Page.

Walker’s solos frequently featured the major second (or ninth) and major sixth from the Mixolydian mode (in this case, the notes A and E from G Mixolydian: G A B C D E F), as demonstrated in bars 9 and 12 of Ex. 1. Notice that the minor third, relative to G, Bb, is played over, and only over, the IV chord, where it effectively highlights the b7 of C9.

Walker’s style also informs the i-iv-i-V minor turnaround in the key of A minor shown in Ex. 2. Here, the IV chord is dominant in bar 10 (D9) but minor (iv, Dm) in bar 11, during the turnaround. To avoid any harmonic clashes, you can play the tonic A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G) over both incarnations of the IV chord, as demonstrated here.

That unusual lick in the first bar is created by applying an augmented triad to the root of the V chord and then ascending in whole tones, referencing the whole-tone scale) This is a harmonically sophisticated idea and showcases T-Bone’s musical depth.

Presented in the key of A major, Ex. 3 offers a phrase played over a jazzy I-VI-ii-V turnaround in T-Bone’s style. To negotiate the more complex chord movement in this example, the A Mixolydian mode (A B C# D E F#G) is extended over the dominant VI chord (F#7) to imply an F#7b9 sound (via the note A), which is a move frequently employed by jazz guitarists, such as T-Bone’s contemporary back in the 1940s, the great Charlie Christian.

In bar 12, the fifth of the ii chord, Bm7 (E) is highlighted, followed by a walk down the A minor pentatonic scale over the E7 chord, which includes what would be the #5 tension tone of that chord, C (or B#).

The great B.B. King is another blues guitarist celebrated for his impeccable note choices and phrasing. B.B.’s signature go-to pattern was a hybrid major-/minor-pentatonic “blues box,” which is based around the root note of the song’s key (typically played on the B string), with the major sixth played below it and the major second, perfect fourth and perfect fifth played above it. The guitarist would typically bend the major second up a half step to the minor third, or up a whole step to the major third, and would also often bend the fifth up a whole step to the major sixth, or one and one half steps to the minor seventh. In so doing, the guitarist would greatly expand his palette of note choices and musical colors.

Ex. 4 features King-style licks played over the final four bars of a 12-bar blues in the key of Bb, with a harmonically complex bass-line “walk-up” turnaround in bars 11 and 12 that features the use of a first-inversion chord and a diminished seven, but this can be approached as a more straightforward I-IV-I-V turnaround.

Ex. 5 offers an example of how B.B. would solo over the last four bars of a minor blues progression in the key of B minor that includes a i-bVI-ii-V turnaround (Bm Gmaj7 C#m7b5 F#7#9). The bVI chord (in this case, Gmaj7) is commonly encountered in a minor blues progression; it can be either major (with or without the major seventh) or dominant, but never minor.

This entire turnaround is skillfully negotiated by hitting just the right “color tones” over each chord, all achieved in this example with just the B minor pentatonic scale (B D E F# A), with the major second, C#, added, which is borrowed from the B Dorian mode (B C# D E F# G# A).

B.B. also had a penchant for occasionally beginning a turnaround lick before the turnaround begins, as in bar 10 of Ex. 6, which leads into a jazz-flavored I-VI-ii-V turnaround in the key of Bb major (Bb7 G7 Cm7 F7).

The turnaround phrase begins by chromatically encircling the third of the tonic Bb chord, D. This creates tension, which is resolved perfectly on beat one of bar 11 by landing squarely on the Bb root note. In bar 12, the tonic major arpeggio, Bb, flows into a chromatically descending blues-scale phrase (resolving on Eb, the b7 of F7), which beautifully outlines the Cm7-F7 chord change.

The legendary Albert King was famed for his wide, howling “over-bends” of a minor third (equal to three frets) and sometimes a major third (equal to four frets) and fiery delivery, as exemplified in the line played in the key of C over Ex. 7’s descending I-I7-IV-iv-I-V turnaround. The apparent complexity of this six-chord sequence can be approached as a more basic I-IV-I-V turnaround and negotiated with nothing more than the tonic C blues scale (C Eb F Gb G Bb), as demonstrated here.

The minor pentatonic or blues scale (which additionally includes the b5) can indeed almost always be applied as a blanket approach over an entire turnaround sequence, but it is only really effective when the relevant chord tones are targeted, as demonstrated in Ex. 8, an Albert King-style i-iv-i-V turnaround in the key of C minor.

Notice how the phrasing here is always anticipating the chord changes. This is the only way to achieve slick and musical results. Albert is often thought of as a “simplistic” player, but this clear sophistication belies that view.

Played in the key of C major, Ex. 9 is another Albert-inspired turnaround phrase, one that illustrates an even looser approach to the basic I-IV-I-V turnaround. Here, a strong C minor pentatonic (C Eb F G Bb) lick is forced over the sequence and resolves satisfyingly to the V chord, G7.

This approach exemplifies a great way to start getting your turnaround chops together. Simply think of the sequence as a bar and a half on the I chord followed by two beats on the V, but be sure to anticipate the resolution to the V chord, as shown here. A “late” resolution – meaning on the beat – will just sound wrong in this context!

Peter Green was a precocious master of the blues. His signature finger vibrato and controlled phrasing were already fully developed by the time he joined John Mayall’s backing group, the Bluesbreakers, at the tender age of 19.

The melodic lick played in the key of C minor over the descending i-iv-i-v-i-V7 descending turnaround in Ex. 10 illustrates how adept Green’s approach was when dealing with a complex minor-key turnaround such as this (with the use of both minor and dominant V chords and inversions), using nothing more than the tonic minor pentatonic scale, in this case C minor pentatonic.

Also in the key of C minor, Ex. 11 offers another Green-style lead phrase, this one played over two bars on the iv chord, Fm, followed by a i-bVII-bVI-V turnaround: Cm Bb6 Ab7 G7 Cm. The chromatic bVI7-V7 chord sequence (Ab7 G7) is very common in minor turnarounds but can be approached as a regular i-V7 sequence since the bVI chord shares critical notes with the tonic minor chord, namely the root and minor third.

Notice how the C minor pentatonic melody is used to generate altered-dominant tensions over the all-important G7 chord in bar 12, with the tonic note, C, phrased on the upbeat. Green really knew how to nail a solo!

The blues scale contains the über-cool b5 interval, a note that is all too frequently employed merely as a passing note for creating fast licks. In Ex. 12’s I-I7-IV-iv-I-V turnaround in the key of C (C7 C7/Bb F/A Fm/Ab C/G G7), inverted chords are used to create an pleasingly effective descending harmony line. Notice also how the phrase effectively resolves to the V chord, G7, illustrating total rhythmic and harmonic control.

Let’s wrap up this first half of our lesson with three examples in the style of the great Eric Clapton, Green’s Bluesbreakers predecessor. Clapton’s blues playing with the Bluesbreakers in the mid-’60s demonstrated a deep understanding of the genre that belied his youth and suburban background. His phrasing has always been impeccable, infused with fiery licks and B.B. King-style “thumb off the neck” finger vibrato.

In Ex. 13, the climbing bass line of a I-I7-IV-#IVdim-I-V7 turnaround in the key of E (E E7/G# A A#dim7) is juxtaposed by a contrary-motion descending melody line, resolving tidily to the V chord, B7.  

Oblique unison bends figured prominently in Clapton’s early soloing style, and they’re featured in bar 11 of Ex. 14, at the start of a i-iv-i-V-i minor turnaround in the key of E minor. This simple lick is typical of Clapton’s economical phrasing style, outlining the four turnaround chords with precision and clarity.

Played in the key of E major, our final Clapton-style example, Ex. 15, illustrates the effectiveness of the major pentatonic scale, in this case E major pentatonic (E F# G# B C#) when applied to a I-IV-I-V turnaround sequence.

Notice how the fourth, A, borrowed from the parallel E minor pentatonic scale, is added to provide the root of the IV chord, A7, on beat three of bar 11. It’s important to note here that you should avoid playing the tonic major third (in this case, G#) over the IV chord (A7, in this case), as doing so creates an unpleasant harmonic clash.

Next time, we’ll finish up our lesson with a fresh batch of blues turnaround lick and phrases in the styles of Carlos Santana, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford and Larry Carlton. See you then!

The great blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded for Paramount from 1927 through 1928. As one of the earliest blues recording artists, he was among the first to attain exposure via disc. This, together with his genius, made him a monumental contributor to the blues as we know it.

Dubbed the father of Texas blues, Blind Lemon Jefferson’s influence has impacted many musicians, such as Lead Belly, T-Bone Walker, Charlie Patton and Chet Atkins, who called Jefferson “one of his first fingerstyle influences.”

His music has been recorded by a diverse crew that includes Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Phish and the Beatles, who covered his song “Match Box Blues” as “Matchbox,” learning it via Carl Perkins. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named the song one of the 500 that shaped rock and roll.

That said, much of Jefferson’s history is conjecture, contradictory or unknown. The son of sharecroppers, he was born blind, or partially blind, in Texas, in 1893 or 1894. He died sometime after 1930 either by exposure, a heart attack or foul play. In any event, his recordings survive, and they are, fortunately, filled with certainty and truth.

Jefferson’s blues guitar playing was similar to ragtime piano, with a counterpoint that implied a left- and right-hand piano approach. “Low Down Mojo Blues” is terrific example of his command of the guitar, as he stabs and caresses triads interlaced with turnarounds. “Match Box Blues” features a wonderful melody, as does “Bootin’ Me Bout,” where he knowingly lays down a strong downbeat. “Lemon Worried Blues” almost sounds like two guitarists, yet it’s relaxed with none of the posturing of virtuosity that might distract from the melody.

While you may not wish to learn a Jefferson piece note for note, you can easily cherry-pick from his goldmine of turnarounds, bass runs and clever dominant-7th triads, and his piano-like approach. His guitar style is like a mini-orchestra of players who prefer whisky to wine, and his playing perfectly supports his fiery singing.

There are many reissues of his Paramount sides. Browse Blind Lemon Jefferson albums here.

‘King of the Blues’, scheduled for release on October 5 in the United States from Atlantic Monthly Books and 14 October in Britain from Grove Press U.K., delivers the first full and authoritative biography of B.B. King, the guitarist Eric Clapton termed "the most important artist the blues has ever produced."

Daniel de Visé presents King as the archetypal guitar hero, a man whose unique, vocal style of solo guitar came to dominate popular music. The author interviewed nearly every surviving member of King's inner circle and tapped a wealth of historical sources, including crucial clippings from the Guitar Player archives.

In this fascinating and insightful excerpt from the book, de Visé tells the story of how the blues guitar legend recorded his breakthrough hit, “3 O'Clock Blues.” 

One night in February or March 1951, Ike Turner was driving back to Clarksdale from a gig with his band when he came upon a mass of cars parked outside a roadhouse and a sign announcing that night’s performer as B.B. King. Turner walked into the club and found B.B. At their last meeting, Turner had sat in with B.B.’s band as a favor. Now, Turner asked B.B. if his band could play a song. B.B. agreed, and, by Turner’s account, the Kings of Rhythm “tore the house down.” At night’s end, B.B. told Turner, “Y’all got a good group. Have you ever made any recordings?” Turner, still a teenager, confessed to B.B. that he didn’t know how. B.B. replied, “I think I can set up a recording for you in Memphis with Sam Phillips.” He told Turner to show up at Sam’s studio around 10 a.m. on the next Wednesday.

B.B. turned up at the Memphis Recording Service studio shortly after Turner and his band. He pulled Phillips aside to tell the producer what he had heard at the club. At this session, Phillips was about to hear something else altogether. On the way to the studio, someone in Turner’s band had dropped a guitar amp. When the guitarist plugged in, the amp produced a horrible rasp. Everyone was deflated – except Phillips. He told the band the guitar would sound “different,” in a good way. He ran out to find brown wrapping paper to wad up inside the cabinet as a mute. Turner didn’t know quite what to make of the frenetic young producer, and he didn’t really care. “All I could picture was B.B.’s picture being tacked up on the posters,” Turner recalled. “That’s the next thing I was gonna be.”

The session yielded “Rocket 88,” a song later claimed by Phillips as the first true rock ’n’ roll single. Its distinctive quality lay in the sonic interplay between the saxophone and the oddly distorted guitar, which doubled the bass part through most of the song before briefly harmonizing with the horns at the end. Just as Phillips had predicted, it sounded like nothing that had been recorded before. The song rocketed to the top of the rhythm-and-blues chart, establishing Phillips as a major producer.

In April 1951, WDIA lost one of its stars. “Hot Rod” Hulbert decamped to radio station WITH in Baltimore. His exit left an opening for host of his three o’clock daily show, Sepia Swing Club. Bert Ferguson awarded it to B.B., who, after two years at WDIA, finally became a regular deejay with a weekly salary. The distinction is more important than it sounds. With his fifteen-minute slots singing the blues and hawking Pep-ti-kon, B.B. had enjoyed growing fame in juke joints around Memphis. But he had not been recognized, let alone embraced, by the city’s larger African American community, the rarified world of black-tie charity balls and award dinners. By the spring of 1951, B.B. ruled the roadhouses, but he had not been mentioned in any news article or column in the African American press in Memphis or anyplace else. He had not attained the civic currency of fellow deejays Nat and A. C. “Moohah” Williams, both established Memphis celebrities with newspaper columns of their own. All of that was about to change.

B.B.’s first singles on Modern Records sold well around Memphis but failed to chart nationally. The Bihari brothers, still trolling for a hit, sent B.B. back to the Memphis Recording Service several times between the fall of 1950 and spring of 1951. The rift with Sam Phillips over B.B.’s contract quietly faded: Phillips needed their business. Affable Joe Bihari, at twenty-five the youngest of the Bihari boys, supervised a session in May 1951. B.B.’s backing band included the full Newborn family: Phineas Sr. on drums, Phineas Jr. on piano, and younger brother Calvin a new presence on second guitar, with other musicians supplying bass and horns.

The single Joe Bihari culled from this date was a cover of a rollicking boogie-woogie number by the Chicago blues guitarist Tampa Red, titled “She’s Dynamite” and chosen for its commercial promise. B.B.’s recording, like Tampa Red’s original, was prototypical rock ’n’ roll, anchored by a galloping boogie-woogie bass line, doubled on piano, and adorned with stabbing, two-string guitar bursts and tinkling piano triplets. The production hummed with overdrive. B.B. sang with abandon, capturing the sensuality of Tampa Red’s lyric. No one could fail to divine the meaning of the raucous refrain, celebrating a lover who “knows what to do” and “knows what it’s all about.” Sam Phillips harbored high hopes and dispatched the single to several deejays. But the Billboard reviewer dismissed “She’s Dynamite” as “ordinary.” The song appeared on a few local charts, but it made no mark on the national stage.

B.B.’s Modern Records singles weren’t selling well, but his career as a disc jockey stood in full flower. In October 1951, “Gatemouth” Moore departed WDIA for a new African American radio station in Birmingham. Once again, the beneficiary was B.B., who took Moore’s prized 1 p.m. slot with a new show titled Bee Bee’s Jeebies. Lucky Strike cigarettes bought time on B.B.’s shows, making him WDIA’s first African American personality with a national sponsor. B.B. made a credible Lucky Strike pitchman, being a smoker himself, even if the product he now touted was far worse for one’s health than Pep-ti-kon. In November, the radio station put B.B.’s face atop a display ad in the Tri-State Defender, a new weekly newspaper for the African American population of Memphis and environs, for its annual Goodwill Revue, a Christmastime fundraiser for the city’s Black community. B.B.’s currency was rising.

“You know, I’ve watched that boy go up the ladder, from just a 5-minute [sic] segment on Nat’s Jamboree to where he now has a series of programs all his own, and every one a hit,” wrote A. C. “Moohah” Williams, B.B.’s fellow deejay, in his column for the Tri-State Defender. “I’ve tried to figure what makes him click… and I’ve come to the conclusion… The reason B.B. is banging at the top of nearly every Hooper Rating is his all-fired sincerity.” Hooper Ratings measured a radio program’s listening audience, and the latest numbers revealed B.B. as a bona fide Memphis radio star. His close study of Arthur Godfrey had paid off.

B.B. had now cut several strong singles with Sam Phillips and the Bihari brothers. Had their collaboration continued, who knows what direction B.B.’s career might have taken. But in 1951, Sam and the Biharis fell out for good. This time, Phillips betrayed the Biharis. The brothers had the right of first refusal on everything Phillips recorded. That spring, Phillips sold the master of “Rocket 88” to a rival record maker from Chicago, Leonard Chess. The Biharis felt double-crossed.

The Chess brothers already controlled Chicago’s greatest blues-man, Muddy Waters. Now they sought to corner the market on Chicago blues, most of which was really Mississippi blues, by way of Memphis. Phillips gave the Chess brothers both “Rocket 88” and Howlin’ Wolf, who migrated north after making his name as a West Memphis deejay. Wolf’s Chess debut, “How Many More Years,” emerged in August 1951 and further redefined the Chicago sound.

Sam Phillips had no contractual power over B.B., so the rising star of Memphis blues remained in Memphis, out of the clutches of Chess. The Biharis set about finding new studio space for B.B.’s next session. They settled on the “colored” YMCA – conveniently, a block away from the rooming house where B.B. and Martha now lived. Joe Bihari rented a room at the Y for the September 1951 recording date and drove over with a Magnecord reel-to-reel tape machine in his car. He hung blankets over the windows to mask the sounds of passing cars.

Many men have claimed to have played at the Memphis Y that day: success, it is said, has many fathers. Hank Crawford, a teenager destined for jazz stardom, might or might not have played sax on B.B.’s session, possibly joined by Fred “Sweet Daddy Goodlow” Ford or Evelyn “Mama Nuts” Young or Ben Branch or Richard Sanders or Adolph “Billy” Duncan – but surely not by all of them. Bandleader Tuff Green might have handled the crucial bass part, or perhaps it was James “Shinny” Walker. Willie Mitchell, bound for fame as Al Green’s producer, might have played trumpet. Either Earl Forest, Phineas Newborn Sr., or Ted Curry manned the drums. Calvin Newborn might have provided a second guitar. If memories seem fuzzy, that is partly because Joe Bihari was recording several artists that day: the corridors of the Y hummed like a Memphis blues convention.

The song chosen for B.B.’s session was “3 O’Clock Blues,” a 1948 hit for Lowell Fulson, a West Coast blues guitarist. B.B. had the single on heavy rotation on Sepia Swing Club. Fulson rewarded the deejay by allowing him to record it. B.B. set out to put his own stamp of sincere intensity on Fulson’s song, whose lyrics “start out as an insomniac’s lament, but end up with a weepy farewell more suited to a suicide note.” It seemed perfect for B.B.’s emerging vocal style, fervent, intimate, and intense. But after the first take of “3 O’Clock Blues,” Joe Bihari recalled, “nothing was happening. It was just not working.” Joe called a fifteen-minute break. Part of the problem was the pianist, whom Joe recalled as young Phineas Newborn. Joe found his playing too jazzy: this song needed a blues beat. During the break, Joe heard someone playing the very piano part he imagined. He ran back into the recording room, shouting, “That’s what I want!” and found Ike Turner sitting at the piano. Joe hired Turner on the spot and sent Phineas Newborn home.

Joe tried a second take, and the song came together. “3 O’Clock Blues” was the first recording to showcase B.B. and Lucille in equal measure. It was also the first to feature both his voice and guitar high above the rest of the mix, if “mix” is the right word for a recording made on a monaural reel-to-reel tape recorder. Sam Phillips and his engineers had given plenty of space to B.B.’s voice but less to Lucille’s. No one in B.B.’s entourage had given him much credit as a guitarist. Now, at last, B.B. and Lucille stood front and center in a recording, commanding the listener’s attention. Lucille opened the song with a long, confident run of emotive notes. The horns fell into place as B.B. began to sing, marching along like a funeral procession. “Three o’clock in the morning,” he lamented, “can’t even close my eyes.” Lucille wailed a wordless reply. Ike Turner’s barroom piano tinkled in the background, combining with the dirge-like horns to weave a chilly veil of suspense.

“3 O’Clock Blues” was a triumph both for Lucille and for B.B., whose warmth and humanity finally prevailed over his native reticence on disc. Perhaps his newfound success as a deejay had loosened him up. As B.B. concluded the second verse, vowing to go down to the boilin’ ground if he couldn’t find his baby, he retreated into his speaking voice, just like Charley Patton of old, to comment on what he had just sung: “That’s where the mens hang out at.” His commentary rolled on as Lucille proceeded into an emphatic solo. He punctuated her forceful licks with cries of “Yeah!” and “Come out, baby!” The solo was simple and tasteful and masterful. Some of Lucille’s velvety phrases ended in long, sustained tones, drenched in vibrato. Others just stopped, as if B.B.’s guitar were catching her breath. B.B. erred only on the song’s final chord, which he played a half step too high. Tape was expensive, so Joe Bihari didn’t bother with another take. The rest of the performance was breathtaking. For all of Sam Phillips’s genius, the youngest Bihari brother had finally coaxed greatness from B.B. King.

“When I got back to California,” Joe recalled, “I listened to it, and I knew we had a hit record then.”

Pre-order your copy of 'King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King' by Daniel de Visé here.

Gibson and the B.B. King Music Company have announced the reaffirmation of their partnership by way of the B.B. King Legacy Initiative, which aims to preserve the name of the legendary blues guitar player and introduce his repertoire to a new generation.

The news was announced on September 16 – marking King's 96th birthday – and was accompanied by an official release date for the previously announced Epiphone Lucill signature guitar, which is now set to arrive October 19.

Specifications for Epiphone’s latest Lucille iteration are mostly unknown, though a handful of features can be discerned by Emily Wolfe’s recent livestream, which saw the contemporary blues-rocker play the upcoming guitar.

Those features include a Kalamazoo-style headstock, Varitone switch and a TP6 bridge with fine tuners.

The Epiphone Lucille is the first of many commemorative offerings that Gibson and the B.B. King Legacy Initiative will release. Other upcoming projects include a biopic titled B.B. King – King of the Blues, a 24-hour blues channel dedicated to King and a new documentary series.

Further, a new educational initiative, expanded B.B. King merchandising and a 2022 B.B. King Experience tour will also feature on the Legacy Initiative’s agenda.

Of Gibson and the B.B. King Music Company’s revitalized partnership, the latter’s Chairman Vassal Benford commented, “It has been a pleasure working with the Gibson team in developing a new line of B.B. King Signature Lucille guitars.

“I am especially proud of the forthcoming new Epiphone guitar and delivering a true work of art that will be broadly accessible, awakening B.B. King’s life and legacy to new artists.

“Gibson is a tremendous partner and they have demonstrated a sincere alignment with our mission to not only preserve the legacy of B.B. King, but to expose new artists to his music.”

Elizabeth Heidt, VP of Cultural Influence-Global, Gibson Brands, commented, “B.B. King is a cornerstone of Gibson’s music history, and we are honored to bring his legendary music and persona to a new audience.

“From high-end Gibson Custom Shop guitars to more accessible Epiphone models we will be offering beautiful guitars for every fan to help carry on his vast music legacy.”

B.B. King called her the “best damn slide player working today.” Indeed, with a glass slide on the second finger of her left hand, Bonnie Raitt coaxes a voice from her Fender Stratocaster as tough, sensuous and expressive as her own. Here are five reasons she remains a blues guitar legend…

1. Philadelphia

Her decades-long career almost didn’t happen. Born in Burbank, California, in 1949, to the Broadway musical star John Raitt and pianist Marjorie Haydock, Raitt began playing guitar at a young age before attending Radcliffe College and majoring in Social Relations and African studies.

While there, she got friendly with blues promoter Dick Waterman and moved with him and other musicians to Philadelphia. “It was an opportunity that young white girls just don’t get,” she said, “and as it turns out, an opportunity that changed everything.”

2. “Runaway”

Raitt was opening for “Mississippi” Fred McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village in 1970, when a reporter from Newsweek caught her performance and began to spread the word about her. Soon after, she signed with Warner Bros. and released her self-titled debut.

Raitt’s record sales were modest, but in 1977 she had her commercial breakthrough with a bluesy remake of Del Shannon’s 1961 hit, “Runaway.” The song raised her profile, and in 1980, she appeared as herself in the film Urban Cowboy, singing “Don’t It Make Ya Wanna Dance.”

3. Perseverance

The 1980s proved tough, as Warner dropped Raitt and she battled substance abuse. In 1988, she met producer Don Was while recording a track for the Disney tribute album Stay Awake, and the two subsequently worked on her 10th album, 1989’s Nick of Time. Featuring the singles “Nick of Time,” a cover of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love” and “Have a Heart,” the record went to the top of the charts and swept the Grammys.

Raitt’s streak rolled along with Luck of the Draw, Longing in Their Hearts and the live Road Tested, and she turned in a Grammy-winning performance of “I’m in the Mood” with John Lee Hooker on his album The Healer. Her career has continued to thrive ever since, with her last five studio albums reaching into the Billboard Top 20, and 2012’s Slipstream debuting at the top of the Rock and Blues Albums charts.

4. Political Activism

A politically active artist, Raitt advocates against the use of nuclear energy and is a founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy. In 1979, she organized five concerts for MUSE at Madison Square Garden, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and many others, resulting in the album and film No Nukes. Raitt has also financed headstones for the graves of several blues legends, including Fred McDowell and Memphis Minnie.

5. Accolades

In March 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2002 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As the blues’ premier female guitarist, she continues to enthrall and inspire.

I’ve always found that almost every guitarist has a shared connection with the blues. It’s one of the most inspiring genres in its own right, but it’s also where so many of us first cut our teeth on pentatonic licks. There’s nothing particular about the blues that requires a specific guitar. In fact, many legendary blues guitar players could shred an emotional response from even the cheapest guitar-shaped object. That said, certain aspects of the best blues guitars make them perfect for the genre, whether that's warm-sounding pickups, excellent sustain, or rich harmonic overtones.

Thanks to legends like BB King, Albert King, and Rory Gallagher, the blues is now inseparable from the electric guitar. And after nearly a decade working in a busy guitar shop, I’ve seen first-hand what players gravitate towards when they’re chasing that unmistakable bluesy feel. That’s the experience I’ll be drawing on as I pick out the best guitars for playing blues today.

Maybe you’re after a certified classic like the Gibson ES-335, a guitar that’s graced the hands of countless legends and remains a hall-of-fame choice. Or perhaps you want something with a more modern edge, like the Yamaha Revstar Element RSE20, which puts a fresh spin on the classic two-humbucker formula and is superb value for money. Either way, there’s no shortage of options out there for this evergreen genre.

If you’re new to the blues, make sure you go check out our FAQ section before you pull the trigger. I’ve also curated a how to choose section for those totally new to buying a guitar, and a glossary of key terms that will get you up to speed on blues guitar lingo. For the blues veterans out there, keep scrolling to see our top picks…

My top picks

Best overall

Overview: The list of players who have wielded an ES-335 to devastating effect is as long as your arm, and it’s easy to see why. Its rich, complex, bell-like tone has a way of pulling you in and inspiring you to play away the blues.

Build Quality: There have been countless versions of the 335 over the years, but the current iteration offered by Gibson stays true to the 1960s era of this gorgeous semi-hollow. The laminated maple and poplar body, maple center block, and mahogany neck are all classic touches that convinced blues heroes of its quality — and the latest model carries that same tradition forward.

Playability: With a beautifully playable, hand-rolled, rounded C-profile neck, the ES-335 practically dares you to keep jamming over backing tracks for hours. The double-cutaway offers superb upper fret access, while the glassy nitro finish, available in options from classic Sixties Cherry to the striking Dark Purple Burst, adds plenty of visual appeal for players of different tastes.

Sounds: The sweet, calibrated T-Type humbuckers and hand-wired control assembly deliver an unmistakable tone that sits right at the heart of Nashville. Anyone chasing an instantly recognizable blues voice will feel right at home here. The Gibson ES-335 and the blues are so intertwined that it is hard to separate the two. If you are looking for one of the finest blues guitars available today, this timeless instrument is hard to beat.

Best budget

Overview: It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see a Yamaha guitar on a list of the best blues guitars, with legends like Carlos Santana having favored the old-school Yamaha SG back in the day. While the SG is still available, we’ve decided to include its younger, and equally cool, sibling, the Yamaha Revstar RSE20.

Build Quality: The RSE20 carries Yamaha’s impressive craftsmanship and attention to detail. Its chambered mahogany body makes it lightweight and comfortable to wield, while build quality is rock solid thanks to the usual excellent construction from Yamaha.

Usability/Playability: Although up-and-coming blues ace Chris Buck makes playing look effortless, Yamaha guitars like the RSE20 certainly encourage slick performance. The neck feels smooth and fast, while the 12-inch radius provides a flat enough surface for soulful bending with the jumbo frets. It’s the kind of guitar that begs you to dig into modern blues licks and once you do, you’ll see why.

Sounds: The humbucker pickups are really powerful, perfect for searing lead guitar tones. They respond beautifully to overdrive, and sound really nice when played clean too. Combined with the chambered mahogany body and a set neck you get plenty of sustain for those epic bends.

Best Strat

Overview: It seems like the humble Fender Stratocaster has always been the weapon of choice for the trailblazer. The incredibly versatile nature of the Strat has meant that guitar innovators such as Hendrix, Clapton, or SRV were able to bend the Fender classic to their will, resulting in some of the most remarkable guitar tones of all time.

Build Quality: We could've picked several Stratocasters for this guide, but we succumbed to the vintage charms of the American Vintage II 1957 Strat. This retro-inspired axe features a plethora of period-correct specifications, such as an Alder or Ash body with a Nitro lacquer finish and a chunky 1957 ‘V’ neck with a vintage 7.25" radius fingerboard.

Playability: Vintage tall frets ensure those big blues bends are a breeze, offering a phenomenal playing feel for soul-searching lead guitar work. For those after the vintage sound and feel of a golden-age Fender, the American Vintage II series is most definitely for you.

Sounds: The three Pure Vintage '57 single-coils deliver a smooth top end, dynamic lows, and a rounded midrange. They are ideal for a wide palette of blues tones, from bend-heavy, soul-drenched leads to spanky riffs full of swagger.

Best Les Paul

Overview: There are a handful of guitars out there that have taken on a whole legend of their own and become, in some ways, more famous than the players who wielded them. Peter Green's "Greeny" has to be one of those guitars. This mythological '59 Les Paul is responsible for some of the most replicated guitar sounds of all time - and the reason modern LPs have an out-of-phase setting!

Build Quality: Gibson has used state-of-the-art technology to capture every little detail - from laser-scanning the necks to get the exact profile to recreating the plastics down to a molecular level. Even the finishes on offer are color-matched shades of sunburst to best represent the original models that are so sought after.

Playability: This guitar’s neck is near perfect. Instead of feeling like an uncomfortable baseball bat, the ’50s rounded medium C profile has just the right amount of chunk for a solid grip without making it difficult to reach across all six strings. There’s no weight relief here, but Gibson has opted for lightweight mahogany to take a bit of heft out of the equation. That said, if you’ve got a bad back, this still isn’t what you’d call a featherweight.

Sounds: If you are chasing the tone of the blues rock greats, such as Peter Green, Gary Moore, and Billy Gibbons, then you're going to need your very own '59 Les Paul. The Custombuckers are the closest thing possible to a vintage PAF and after years of research, Gibson has made that famous tone a little bit closer to some people’s reality. For us, Gibson is making the best recreations of these priceless guitars they have ever done - and although they may be expensive, they are a damn sight cheaper than an original.

Best Tele

Overview: One glance at the Red Dog Telecaster and you can tell this isn’t your average Tele. Inspired by Mike Campbell’s heavily modified 1972 original that powered Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Refugee, this model from Fender’s Stories Collection captures that same road-worn, high-octane spirit.

Build Quality: The alder body is finished in a striking Red Dog Red, Fender’s custom cousin of Candy Apple Red, complete with light finish checking courtesy of the Heirloom nitrocellulose process. The details are spot on, from the ’70s “F” tuners and black logo to the maple neck and matching fingerboard.

The Bigsby bridge and “Destruct” boost circuit give this guitar a unique edge, both visually and sonically. One fun replication is the cable tie holding down the Bigsby, a trick that Campbell’s guitar tech used so he wouldn’t lose the spring when restringing backstage.

Usability/Playability: The medium “C” neck profile is fast and familiar, with a 7.25-inch radius and narrow vintage frets that offer an authentic feel without fighting you. It plays with that old-school Fender charm, smooth under the fingers but responsive enough for expressive bends and slides. While it’s slightly weightier than a standard Tele, the balance is solid, and the Bigsby adds a touch of classy vibrato for extra flavor.

Sounds: Boy, does the Red Dog have plenty of bark. The two full-size humbuckers and single-coil bridge pickup deliver a wide sonic spectrum, from warm, creamy rhythm tones to biting, overdriven leads. Hit the push-button “Destruct” boost and you’ll unleash a punchy gain lift that’s perfect for solos or fattening up your tone. It’s a Tele with muscle, tailor-made for players who like their blues with a touch of grit.

Best with P-90s

Overview: Well, after 50 years of being made in various factories - and countries - the Casino has finally come home to the USA, and we couldn't be more excited about it. So many great players have opted for the deep, hearty tone of the Casino, such as the unstoppable Keith Richards, the late great John Lennon, and modern blues master Gary Clark Jr, to name a few.

Build Quality: Although this guitar may look similar to its ES-335 brethren above, it's a somewhat different animal. The Casino forgoes the maple center block in favor of fully hollow construction, resulting in a slightly warmer, woodier tone. Other nice touches include an Indian rosewood fingerboard and a stylish thinline trapeze tailpiece, adding a touch of class.

Playability: Also, the fully hollow construction makes the Casino lighter than the ES-335, making it very comfortable to play standing up. The familiar rounded ‘C’ neck is a perfect launch pad for smooth blues licks and the double-cutaway allows access all the way up the fretboard.

Sounds: The P-90 pickup means this Epiphone has its own sonic identity, perfect for not only the blues but also as a jazz guitar and even rock - just be careful with your volume, as they do like to squeal. Okay, this might not be a real vintage Casino, but frankly, it's as close as you will get, and with the constant rise in vintage guitar prices, it's the most cost-effective purchase you can make - if you want an American-made Epiphone.

How to choose

If you’re considering your first blues guitar purchase, there are a few things to think about. I’ve crafted this section, calling on my experience selling guitars in the instrument industry, as a step-by-step guide you can use when looking for the best blues guitar. I’ve helped hundreds of players find the right guitar for their style, and I’m confident this process will work for you too.

1. Solid, semi-hollow, or fully hollow

First things first, what body style do you want to go for? A solid-body electric guitar may be the most practical choice, as they are more compact, have plenty of sustain, and feedback won’t be as much of an issue.

On the other hand, you can opt for a semi-hollow, like the ES-335. With a more breathy, warm, and resonant tone, semi-hollow guitars have been a go-to choice for blues legends like B.B. King and modern players such as Christone "Kingfish" Ingram.

Lastly, a fully hollow guitar, like the Epiphone Casino, offers a beautiful woody tone, lightweight construction, and a unique sonic identity. Like semi-hollows, fully hollow guitars can suffer from feedback, which becomes more noticeable when using high gain.

2. Pickups

Next up, think about pickups. The three main types — single-coils, P-90s, and humbuckers — all have their pros and cons for blues. Humbuckers are arguably the most popular, with their warmth, roundedness, and body making them a great choice for soulful playing.

On the other hand, P-90s, which offer more midrange bite and clarity, are perfect for certain blues styles. Lastly, single-coils are bright, articulate, and spanky. Players like Rory Gallagher used single-coils in all their bluesy glory. Ultimately, this comes down to taste — there’s no right or wrong choice.

3. Neck profile

Finally, it’s worth thinking about the neck profile. This will ultimately determine how comfortable you feel holding your guitar. Some players prefer a chunkier neck that fills the palm for gripping cowboy chords, like a U-shape, while others prefer a slimmer, more modern neck if they want to play fast, fluid licks, like a soft-C profile.

FAQs

Key terms

• Action: This refers to the height of the string from the distance of the fret. High action can be harder to play, whilst too low action can cause fret buzz.
• Bridge: The metallic part of your guitar that anchors the string ends to the body.
• Coil split: A type of electrical switch that turns off one of the two coils in a humbucker to produce single-coil tones.
• Fret buzz: This is when you hear a string buzz against the fret because there isn’t enough height for it to oscillate properly.
• Humbucker: A type of electric guitar pickup featuring two wired coils to cancel out any hum typically found in a single-coil pickup.
• Intonation: Correct intonation is when the open string and the fretted note are in tune with each other. This is achieved by correctly adjusting the bridge saddles.
• Neck profile: This is the cross-section of a guitar’s neck, typically described as a letter, i.e., ‘C’, ‘U’ or ‘D’.
• P-90: A type of single-coil pickup whose bobbin is shorter and wider than a standard single-coil, resulting in a unique tone with a strong mid-range punch.
• Pickup: The part of an electric guitar made up of magnets and coiled wire that detects vibrations made by guitar strings and converts them into an electrical signal to be amplified.
• Radius: This is the measurement of the curvature of your guitar’s fingerboard.
• Semi-hollow: A type of guitar whose body has hollow ‘wings’ attached to a solid center-block.
• Single-coil: This is a type of guitar pickup featuring a single coil wire that is wrapped around a magnet.
• Slide: A tube typically made of metal, glass, or ceramic that is used to create smooth glissando tones and is featured heavily in blues genres.
• Sustain: This is the length of time a note played on a guitar will ring out before fading away.
• Tonewood: A type of wood selected for particular tonal properties. For example, maple is considered a bright-sounding tonewood, whilst mahogany sounds much warmer.
• Vibrato: A technique or effect that creates a wavy sound by fluctuating the pitch of a fretted note.

How we test

At Guitar Player, we are a team of passionate guitarists who have immersed ourselves in the world of blues music. With our deep appreciation for the blues, we have thoroughly tested and played numerous guitars to identify the best instruments for capturing that most soulful of sounds.

To compile our list of top blues guitars, we combine our hands-on experience, extensive research, and in-depth discussions with our editorial team. We take into account factors such as playability, tone, craftsmanship, and historical significance to ensure we showcase the finest blues guitars available.

As avid blues players ourselves, we understand the significance of finding the perfect instrument to convey the emotional depth and expression of this genre. Our mission is to provide reliable and informed recommendations to help fellow guitarists discover the ideal blues guitar that resonates with their individual style and musical preferences.

Whether you're wailing on a Delta blues riff or bending strings with Texas-style licks, our goal is to empower you to unlock your blues potential with the best guitars for the job.

Read more on how we test gear and service at Guitar Player.

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Former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden has announced a new solo album, Kings.

His first solo effort since 2014, Kings is Marsden's tribute to BB, Albert, and Freddie King, and features 10 covers and two King-inspired instrumentals as bonus tracks. It's set for a July 23 release via Conquest Music/Little House Music.

The LP is also the first of a series of planned Inspirations albums from Marsden, inspired by when ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons asked him, “Bernie, wouldn't it be great if we could all record the songs we grew up with as we learned to play the guitar?”

A second Inspirations album, Chess (which aims to pay tribute to the legendary Chicago blues label of the same name) is due out later this year.

Marsden is also set to embark on a tour to promote Kings, Chess, and his 2019 memoir, Where's My Guitar? The shows will feature both storytelling and music, and will take place from early September through late October 2021 throughout England.

You can check out a full list of the dates at conquestmusic.co.uk.

In 1992, while touring in support of his most recent release, After Hours, Gary Moore was joined onstage by blues legend B.B. King. 

Together, they played “The Thrill Is Gone,” jamming out an extended 10-minute version of the Rick Darnell/Roy Hawkins–penned song that had been a hit for King in 1969.

The performance, shown above, took place at the Town and Country Club in London. King’s appearance was due in no small part to his appearance on After Hours, where he performed on the track “Since I Met You Baby.”

Moore and King shared a stage only a few times in their long careers. Enjoy this special performance.

Yes, many blues and rock licks are cliches, but there’s a good reason for that – they sound so cool that listeners and guitarists want to hear and play them again and again.

For those willing to pay their dues and play the blues, these licks are a rite of passage and a continuous source of inspiration. They are the foundation on which a solid house of blues is built.

Presented here for your edification are 12 classic blues guitar phrases, each with a certified pedigree. You can drop any of these into a blues-based progression and come out smiling. Or you can play them in sequence over a standard 12-bar blues to create one very hip solo, as we’ll do for the very last step of this lesson.

Before we dive in, let’s take a look at three blues scale patterns that form the basis of our 12 licks. A quick run through these shapes will help wake up our hands and minds.

The first pattern, Figure 1, is a full-blown A blues scale in 5th position. Notice that it contains the root, b3rd, 4th, b5th, 5th, and b7th degrees of an A major scale. All of the licks that we’ll look at here will be presented in the context of an A major blues.

The second pattern, Figure 2, is a reduced version of this same scale, which includes only the root, b3rd, 4th, 5th, and b7th. This compact shape, known colloquially as the “Albert King Box” – because King virtually lived there after he signed with Stax/Volt Records in 1966 – is an especially finger-friendly position.

The third pattern, Figure 3, commonly called the “B.B. King Box” (because he spent so much time there from the Sixties onward), contains the same scale degrees as the previous box but covers more of the fingerboard.

Now, with fingers poised and minds focused, let’s begin our journey from Mississippi to Texas, with pertinent stops in Chicago, Memphis, and New Orleans.

Our first lick, Figure 4, is a striking opening phrase to be played over a I chord. T-Bone Walker showcased similar hot licks in his "Description Blues" and "Alimony Blues." 

The bends to the b5th (Eb) and the true blue note (between C and C#) establish a solid blues tonality. Resolving to the root (A) of the I chord allows us the opportunity to follow with a lick that can chart an entirely new course, which is exactly what we see next.

B.B. King employed a lick like the one shown in Figure 5 in his track "Sweet Little Angel" from Live at the Regal. The bends to the b5th (Eb) and the b7th (G) tantalize our auditory nerves before resolving smoothly to the 4th (D), which is the root of the IV chord.

Any listing of the great blues guitar licks would have to include its fair share of B.B. King-isms, and this one is no exception. Figure 6 is the classic I chord lick, popularized by B.B. on countless tunes, including "Please Love Me," and appropriated globally by blues merchants everywhere. 

The bend of the b7th (G) to the root (A) should be executed with the pinkie, backed up by the ring, middle, and index fingers. Accurate intonation and a steady wide vibrato are paramount to make this bad boy sing.

Figure 7 is the classic Albert King lick. Prominently displayed in "Crosscut Saw" and "Born Under a Bad Sign," it hovers and swoops like bird of prey. Start with your ring finger, using it for the full-step bend and the repeat of the root (A). Use your index finger for the b3rd (C) and the bend and vibrato'd major 3rd (C#).

Breaking free momentarily from the tyranny of the scale, Figure 8 purveys a sliding IV6-to-IV9 chord pattern beloved by the likes of Johnny Moore (who played with Charles Brown in the 1940s) and T-Bone Walker. This particular example, with a root-4th (A–D) dyad thrown in, was used by the underrated Lonnie Mack in "Down and Out." Perform the slide with your index finger, nicking the dyad with your pinkie.

Considered by many to be the first electric guitar hero, Mike Bloomfield favored tangy bends like the one shown in Figure 9 in "Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong" and "I’ve Got a Mind to Give Up Living."

Bend the b7th (G) of the scale to the root (A) with your ring finger, and hold the bend while you add in the b3rd (C) with your pinkie. The resulting dyad (A–C) provides the 5th and b7th of the IV chord, reinforcing its bluesy, dominant 7th flavor.

B.B. King had been heard tweaking up the tension in his solos with this slippery triplet pattern, shown in Figure 10. The quarter-note bend that begins each beat imparts an elastic feel that is quite captivating. B.B. played this one on "Three O’Clock Blues," and it's entirely possible that Eric Clapton learned it from that breakthrough hit.

The mighty T-Bone cut heads in tunes like "Strolling with Bones" with this powerful diminished chord voicing, shown in Figure 11. Dig that the root (A), b5th (Eb), and b3rd (C) are right out of the A blues scale, while the 6th (F#) hints at the A Mixolydian mode. Low to high, use your index, ring, middle, and pinkie fingers on this chord, and don’t ignore that quarter-step bend.

B.B. flashed a similar climactic lick to this one (Figure 12) in King of Guitar. Start with your index finger, switching to your ring finger for the full-step bend of the 5th (E) to the 6th (F#). 

Walk down the chromatic run (E-Eb-D) with your ring, middle, and index fingers. Articulate the half-step bend with your ring finger. Note the use of Eb as a passing tone between E and D, and the half-step bend from the B to C – neither of these twists belongs to the A blues scale.

B.B. steps up to the plate once more with this lick (Figure 13) in a King’s Special vein. Bend up to the 3rd (C#) with your ring finger, holding it while you play the 5th (E) with your pinkie. Vibrato the root (A) with your index finger like a hummingbird.

Freddie King continues this run (Figure 14) much like the ones to be found in "Torn Down." The use of the b5th (Eb) – played straight on rather than bent up to – is more characteristic of jazz than blues, but the pattern makes for a dandy turnaround lick over the I chord when you want to maintain a scalar approach.

This last lick (Figure 15), probably has its roots in the work of B.B. King, but credit Jimi Hendrix and his version of "Red House" with securing it a spot in the Blues Hall of Fame. 

Make sure that you barre fret 5 with your index finger after the blue note bend at fret 8. Use one continuous upstroke to zip down the run to the 5th (E). Play the root (A) with your ring finger, crossing over it with your middle finger to access the 5th.

Figure 16 presents a very straightforward take on our 12 licks. We’re simply playing them in a row, as presented, with a few slight modifications in rhythm. Try doing the same yourself. 

Remember all of these licks can be moved up or down the fretboard, which means that you can fit them into just about any key. So find a lick or two that you like and practice it up and down the neck.

B.B. King was among the artists who performed at Farm Aid on September 22, 1985. In this video, he delivers a fantastic rendition of “How Blue Can You Get,” a song that served as the showstopper at many a B.B. King gig over the decades.

But what makes this performance so special is what happens about three and a half minutes in. B.B. breaks a string on his guitar and changes it himself – right onstage – while he carries on performing the song.

All strings are still clearly attached to the guitar at the three-minute mark. The video then cuts to a shot of the horn players, and when it returns to B.B., the highest string is dangling from the headstock.

At around 3:12 you can see a roadie, wearing a blue cap, running behind the band, and a few seconds later he hands a replacement to King. After casually twisting off the broken string, King winds the new one on while he continues to sing up a storm.

One thing’s for certain – B.B. wasn’t about to let down the crowd. There were 80,000 people in attendance that day.

This is showmanship and professionalism in action. And it’s one more reason why they called him the King.

Johnny Winter died six years ago today, and we lost B.B. King only 10 months after that, on May 14, 2015.

So it’s both saddening and at the same time quite uplifting to see the two of them here in this clip from the CBS News Nightwatch show. The program ran from 1982 through 1992, and the clip appears to be from around 1983, judging by King and Winter’s appearances and by the host, Felicia Jeter, who was a co-anchor on the show in its early years.

Whenever it was made, it features the two men talking about the blues, sharing their insights and - best of all - playing together.

That’s right: B.B. King and Johnny Winter, playing together, just the two of them, loose and spontaneous, and having one hell of a good time.

The clip features Winter talking about his love of the blues and noting that there are all types of blues.

“There’s happy blues,” he remarks. “It always made me feel better. Even if you’re singing about your problems, it makes you feel better somehow, y’know?”

“I have no experience with happy blues,” says Jeter. “I thought blues was for being sad.”

“I have a happy blues for you right here,” says King before breaking into “Sweet Little Angel.”

The conversation, like the playing, is illuminating, and Jeter doesn’t shy from asking direct questions.

“Now blues is a kind of music that has its roots in blackness,” she says to Winter. “And here you are a white guy. Are you supposed to be playing this music?”

“It never seemed like there was a problem with me,” he says. “I never really stopped to think about, 'Are you supposed to do this'?”

He and B.B. go on to tell a funny story about when Johnny first asked to sit in with B.B. while King was performing in a black club. Take a look.

Incidentally, the video quality is VHS-esque, but it’ll have to do. Enjoy.

Anytime you draw up a list of the “greatest” guitarists of all time—or in this case “most influential”—passions are bound to be ignited one way or the other.

After all, we each have our own favorites, whether it be a particular player, style or era. However, that doesn’t mean such a list can’t be based on some element of objective reasoning. To some extent, the proof is in all of us: anyone who picks up the instrument borrows at least a handful of techniques and stylistic tendencies that someone else brought to the table. The key is determining which guitarists have had the most impact among the larger number of players—in other words, who has contributed most across the board to the way we approach the instrument.

One thing is for certain: if the following musicians are not the 12 most influential guitarists of all time, they are certainly 12 of the most influential.

Regardless of their respective styles, all are players who have excited the imagination and kindled the flame to pick up the instrument in countless individuals. By singling them out, we honor their contributions and, at the same time, bring to mind great guitar music we have treasured.

ROBERT JOHNSON
Robert Johnson is the greatest blues guitarist of all time and one of rock’s founding fathers from the pre-World War II Delta blues era. While his haunting and suggestive lyrics have inspired singers in all genres, it’s his virtuoso and innovative solo guitar playing that places him on this list.

Three recording sessions between 1936 and 1937 produced 29 songs, including the verifiable classics “(I Believe I’ll) Dust My Broom,” “Sweet Home Chicago,’” “Walkin’ Blues,” “Love in Vain” and “Crossroad Blues.” His popularization of cut boogie patterns presaged electric Chicago blues and rock and roll, while his fretted and slide guitar licks are so timeless that they still show up in contemporary music.

The first guitar hero, Johnson had the attitude to go with the chops. His tragic death in 1938 at the age of 27 has made him an icon for those who also mourn Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.

In the style of Robert Johnson:

CHARLIE CHRISTIAN
When Charlie Christian got on the bandstand with Benny Goodman in 1939, he single-handedly propelled the electric guitar into the mainstream. Though he wasn’t the first guitarist to plug in and play electrified, Christian’s performances as a soloist on Goodman tracks like “Flying Home” and “Honeysuckle Rose” document the first instances that the electric guitar was used effectively as a lead instrument in a Big Band setting.

The increased volume and sustain that amplification offered put the guitar on a level playing field with customary soloing instruments like the trumpet and saxophone, and Christian’s participation in early bebop jam sessions alongside such luminaries as Thelonius Monk and Dizzy Gillespie also makes him one of the founding fathers of the genre.

Sadly, Christian died from tuberculosis at 26. HIs body of work inspired a generation of jazz guitar giants, including Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow and Jim Hall.

In the style of Charlie Christian:

B.B. KING
Every guitarist who bends or vibratoes a string to make it sing owes a debt to B.B. King. With influences as diverse as T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, the late guitarist turned the blues world upside down in 1952 with “3 O’Clock Blues.” Almost overnight, the harmonica was supplanted as the primary solo instrument in blues, as guitarists scrambled to imitate B.B.’s soloing style, especially in Chicago.

In 1970, B.B. crossed over to the white rock audience with “The Thrill Is Gone.” In 1988, he virtually repeated the trick when he recorded “When Love Comes to Town” with U2. Always the humble student of the instrument, B.B. King became jazzier and better than ever as his life and career continued well into the new century. His loss earlier this year was deeply felt by the music community and, particularly, by the guitarist he influenced.

In the style of B.B. King:

CHET ATKINS
Chet Atkins made countless recordings as a studio musician and solo artist, beginning in the Forties. In fact, much of the session work he recorded and/or produced in Nashville with artists like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers laid the foundation for early rock and roll.

Though comfortable playing many styles, Atkins was most often associated with country music and the acoustic guitar. By using a combination of his fingers and a thumb pick, he created his signature “fingerpicking” sound—a style somewhat inspired by fellow guitarist Merle Travis. Atkins even recorded a duo album with Travis, as well as with other respected guitarist like Doc Watson, Les Paul, Jerry Reed and Mark Knopfler.

A guitar legend, Atkins was elected to the Country Music Hal of Fame in 1973. His musical contributions inspired artists ranging from Eric Johnson to the late Lenny Breau. In virtually any high-end music store, you can still find Chet Atkins signature model guitars, which Gibson and Gretsch designed to his specifications.

In the style of Chet Atkins:

CHUCK BERRY
The first popular performer to sing, play and write his own material, Chuck Berry roared into rock and roll in 1955 with the country two-beat rhythms of “Maybellene” and claimed the genre for his own. His influences were similar to those of B.B. King but also include jump blues and country-and-western music.

It was Berry’s songs from the late Fifties with cut boogie patterns—like “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Carol”—that realized electrically the guitar ambitions first dreamt by Robert Johnson. Berry’s tone—courtesy of a hollow-body Gibson through a tweed Fender amp—was raw and loud. This, along with his duckwalk, ringing double-stops and songs about cars and girls, grabbed the youth market. Tall and handsome, he brought the guitar as the “cool” instruments to a ready audience via appearances on TV and in movies, in a way that the Beatles would repeat in the early Sixties.

In the style of Chuck Berry:

WES MONTGOMERY
John Leslie “Wes” Montgomery first picked up the guitar in 1943, at the relatively late age of 19. He honed his chops by emulating his hero, Charlie Christian, and got his first paying gig by playing Christian’s solos note for note.

Unlike Christian, however, Montgomery used his thumb instead of a pick to create the percussive-yet-warm tone associated with his style. (According to interviews, Wes learned to play with his thumb because it created a softer sound, appeasing his neighbors.) With his phenomenal ear, Wes quickly grew beyond his influences and developed a style all his own. His knack for melody, groundbreaking use of octaves in a soloing context and intricate chord solos—as demonstrated in his devastating interpretations of standards like “Round Midnight” and “Days of Wine and Roses”—broadened the range of guitar, pushing the instrument into unchartered territory.

Montgomery died in 1968 at the pinnacle of his career. his musicality has inspired a broad range of jazz guitarists, including George Benson, Joe Diorio and Pat Metheny.

In the style of Wes Montgomery:

ERIC CLAPTON
Bluesy British bloke Eric Clapton has been a household name since his recording debut with the Yardbirds in 1963. During the mid Sixties, his legendary performances with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Cream established him as a pioneer of the modern electric blues and rock guitar.

In the Seventies, Clapton’s work with Derek and the Dominos and his first solo albums added a slew of masterpieces like “Layla” and “Lay Down Sally” to classic rock’s repertoire. The Eighties also saw Clapton’s music featured in movies (The Hit in 1984 and Lethal Weapon in 1987) and commercials (“After Midnight” for Michelob in 1987), while a string of albums produced by Phil Collins established Clapton as a pop/rock icon.

After championing the “unplugged” phenomenon in the early Nineties with his MTV Unplugged concert, Clapton returned to his roots with From the Cradle. He has since helped keep the blues alive with his annual three-day Crossroads festival, which features both Clapton and a host of established and upcoming blues guitarists.

Regardless of the musical format, Eric Clapton has always kept his brilliant blues-inspired guitar playing in the forefront, influencing the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Steve Lukather, Joe Satriani, Jonny Lang and countless others.

In the style of Eric Clapton:

JIMI HENDRIX
In his early days, Jimmy James, as he was then known, played in rhythm sections, backing artists like Little Richard, B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner. It isn’t until 1966, when he moved to London and formed the Experience, that Jimi Hendrix was able to cut loose and start getting the attention he deserved for his magnificent guitar work. Alarmingly, Hendrix was virtually unknown in the U.S. until he played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967—the legendary performance in which he doused his Fender Stratocaster with lighter fluid and set it on fire.

Though he was influenced by everyone from B.B. King to Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan, Hendrix’s complete artistic vision included elements of blues, funk, rock, psychedelia and utter chaos. His frequent use of effects like the wah and Octavia pedal, pioneering studio effects like “backward” guitar and flanging, and use of controlled feedback and the tremolo bar added another dimension to his music.

Hendrix also had a beautifully subtle side, as depicted in tracks like “Little Wing,” “Bold As Love” and “Castles Made of Sand.” He died on September 18, 1970. During his brief stay on this planet, he had a profound impact on musicians ranging from Miles Davis to Eric Johnson to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

In the style of Jimi Hendrix:

JIMMY PAGE
Jimmy Page is one of rock music’s ultimate riff masters, guitar orchestrators and studio revolutionaries. His vast body of work with the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin exhibits the type of wild abandon often associated with Jimi Hendrix, the passion and grit of a seasoned bluesman, and the sensitivity of a folk musician.

Extremely eclectic, Page has a diverse array of guitaristic influences, which includes blues guitarists Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and Hubert Sumlin as well as early rockabilly guitarists Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore. He combined these influences with a strong interest in the occult and plenty of his own studio savvy to paint a musical landscape within every Led Zeppelin song. Page’s landmark use of echo effects in tracks like “How Many More Times” and “You Shook Me,” bizarre tunings in cuts like “Friends” and “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp,” and excursions with a violin bow in songs like “Dazed and Confused” yielded textures that were unparalleled at the time.

Although Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 after drummer John Bonham’s death, they have reunited on a few occasions, most recently in 2007 for a tribute concert in memory of Ahmet Ertegun, who had signed them to Atlantic and launched their career. Page continues to go strong. After reissuing the band’s catalog in 2014 and 2015, he’s promised a new project to come in 2016. We couldn’t be happier, and more eager to hear what he has.

In the style of Jimmy Page:

EDDIE VAN HALEN
Believe it or not, Eddie Van Halen hadn’t even heard rock music until he and his family moved from the Netherlands to Pasadena California in 1967. After hearing Cream, he quickly abandoned piano and drums for the guitar, learning the instrument by picking licks off records by Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. These influences were merely a springboard, though. Eddie was quickly able to put his own mark on everything he played.

Today, Van Halen is one of rock’s most influential and imitated innovators. As unpredictable and flamboyant as Hendrix, Van Halen has had an unmeasurable impact on the guitar community. By the mid Eighties, his self-described “brown” sound, over-the-top techniques (including two-handed tapping), and revolutionary trem-bar effects inspired a generation of aspiring guitarists who bought the one-pickup, one-volume-knob, Floyd Rose–equipped Strat-style guitars that Van Halen made famous.

For a taste of Ed at his most smoking, check out “Eruption,” “Spanish Fly,” “Cathedral” and the intros to “Mean Street” and “Little Guitars.”

In the style of Eddie Van Halen:

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
Stevie Ray Vaughan played blues like a man possessed. The perfect combination of chops, taste, conviction, tone and showmanship, Vaughan and his ’59 Fender Stratocaster exposed a whole new generation of listeners to the blues and, in turn, Stevie’s own influences: Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy.

Initially inspired by his older brother Jimmie, Stevie picked up the guitar at an early age and was playing in bands by the time he was 12. By the time he formed his legendary trio Double Trouble in 1980, Stevie Ray Vaughan was already a legend in his adopted hometown of Austin, Texas. After hearing and seeing Vaughan playing at Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival, pop icon David Bowie invited Stevie to play on his Let’s Dance album. Vaughan’s career took off form there.

His first solo album, Texas Flood, was released in 1983 and featured blistering renditions of “Testify” and “Texas Flood” as well as now-classic originals like “Pride and Joy” and “Lenny.” Several other successful solo albums followed. On August 27, 190, Vaughan perished in a helicopter crash while returning form a gig he shared with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray.

In the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan:

YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN
An import from Sweden, Yngwie J. Malmsteen specializes in what many regard as “Bach and Roll,” or neoclassical rock—a style of music that features furiously fast scalar and arpeggiated sequences reminiscent of the Bach and Paganini virtuoso organ and violin works written in the 18th century.

After moving to the U.S. for brief stints with the group’s Steeler and Alcatrazz, Malmsteen flew his old Swedish bandmates out to the states and reformed Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force, releasing the band’s self-titled debut in 1984.

Yngwie’s staggering virtuosity, as exemplified on the track “Far Beyond the Sun,” inspired countless guitarists to refine their alternate-picking and sweep-picking chops. Some even went as far as to scallop their fretboards, carving out the wood between the frets in a crescent, as Malmsteen does, to facilitate playing with a lighter touch.

The mass appeal that Yngwie achieved among guitarists in the mid-to-late Eighties opened up the market for other burning shredders like Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Paul Gilbert and Jason Becker, among others.

In the style of Yngwie Malmsteen: