Gary Moore didn’t set out to become a blues guitarist. In the late 1980s, he was still operating inside the hard rock machinery that had defined much of his career. But a shift was already forming that would take him toward his solo breakthrough album, Still Got the Blues and, eventually, toward a very different legacy.

The idea, Moore recalled in a 2003 interview with this writer, didn’t arrive as a grand revelation. It came instead through a series of small, repeated suggestions from an unlikely source: bass guitarist Bob Daisley.

It was Daisley who had already helped shape another major career turn with his support for Randy Rhoads as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist in 1980. In 1986, after joining Thin Lizzy very briefly, Daisley was working alongside Moore and continuing to make similar kinds of quiet interventions.

“Every time I was in the dressing room,” Moore recalled, “I’d be on my own playing some blues and Bob Daisley would come in and go, ‘You know, you should make a blues album, as it would probably be the biggest thing you ever did.’

“We both laughed when he said that. But it turned out that he was right.”

Moore didn’t act on the advice immediately. The idea lingered while he continued moving through the rock circuit.

“Eventually I thought, ‘I’d love to make a blues album, but I don’t think the record company would wear it,’” he said. “That was one of those occasions where I was getting really sick of the whole rock metal scene, and I just had to get away from it.”

When he finally did make the move, the response from Virgin Records was unexpectedly receptive.

“They were right behind it when they heard what I was trying to do because it wasn’t straight blues,” Moore said. “They heard a couple of songs and went, ‘Yeah, that could be good.’”

What became Still Got the Blues was recorded quickly, often in loose, exploratory sessions with a wide cast of collaborators. Daisley was involved, along with Ozzy keyboardist Don Airey, Rolling Stones pianist Nicky Hopkins and former Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey. Blues legends Albert King and Albert Collins also appeared, and George Harrison contributed to the session outtake “That Kind of Woman.”

“We went in and made the album and it didn’t take too long,” Moore said. “The tracks ‘Still Got the Blues’ and ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ were actually done the same day while we were just trying out the studio room.

“And then we got Albert King to come over and play with me, and as Albert Collins was in town too, someone got him to come down, and it all just worked out really great.”

Released March 26, 1990, the album enjoyed slow and steady growth as it climbed the charts to its peak at number 83 in February 1991.

“The plan was to do a three-week tour, but six months later we were still touring,” Moore said. “It just got bigger and bigger.”

For Moore, part of the record’s impact came from its spontaneity.

“I did ‘Still Got the Blues’ in one take,” he said. “Those moments usually happen because you’re relaxed, or it’s the end of the day, or you’re just trying out the studio. You’re not even aware it’s going to be a master recording. You just play without caring — and you’re lucky if you can capture that.”

The experience also reshaped how he viewed his own career trajectory, proving that stylistic risk could pay off commercially as well as artistically.

There were moments, too, that crystallized what the record had achieved in real time.

“There was one night during the Still Got the Blues tour when I was playing the Hammersmith Odeon and I looked across the stage toward the end of the show and there’s Albert King standing there, and next to him is Albert Collins too,” Moore recalled. “That was a pretty special night.”

Still, Moore remained slightly conflicted in hindsight.

“I was very proud of it at the time, though I’m not too sure about some of it now,” he said. “But at the time I was just so pleased that you could do something exactly how you wanted and people would like it at the same time. That gave me a lot of faith in music again.”

Years later, Moore extended that blues thread further with Blues for Greeny, a tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and to Greeny, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard Green had once owned and passed on to him — an electric guitar that would become central to Moore’s sound for decades.

Moore first encountered Green during a difficult period in the guitarist’s life, shortly after his departure from Fleetwood Mac.

“Peter was going through this very strange thing at the time where he had just left Fleetwood Mac and wanted to get rid of all his material possessions,” Moore said. “He came to me because he wasn’t playing at the time and said, ‘Do you want to borrow my guitar for a while?’ And I said, ‘Oh please, that’d be great.’”

What began as a loan quickly became something more permanent.

“We had become friends, so I went down to his parents’ house to pick up the guitar,” he said. “A few days later he called me up and said, ‘Do you want to buy it?’ I thought he was joking. I said, ‘Sure, but I can’t afford it.’ He said, ‘Just sell your guitar and whatever you get for it, give me that — it’ll be like swapping guitars.’”

Moore sold his Gibson SG for around £150, passing most of the money to Green, who kept only a portion. Green’s motivation, Moore later reflected, was not financial.

“He just wanted it to have a good home,” Moore said.

Moore would later be forced to sell the guitar in 2006 due to financial pressures, and it was eventually acquired by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett in 2014.

Although Moore is often credited with helping inspire Peter Green’s return to music in the 1990s, he downplayed that role.

“People say that, but I don’t agree with that,” he said. “Peter had come to one of my Blues for Greeny shows, and it was nerve-wracking because I hadn’t played for a while and we were being filmed as well. And Peter sat on my side of the stage. It was really strange.”

Moore instead credited guitarist Nigel Watson and the Peter Green Splinter Group for Green’s renewed activity.

“So it was around the same time as my Blues for Greeny, but I don’t know how much influence I really had,” he said. “I did it because I loved his music and as a way of thanking him for all those years of great music.”

In the end, Moore’s blues identity is often traced to Peter Green through the guitar, the tribute record, and the mythology that followed.

But in Moore’s own telling, the first nudge came much earlier, and far more quietly: not from legend or legacy but from Bob Daisley, who simply suggested a different path — and happened to be right.

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith has become the latest big-name player afforded a chance to play Kirk Hammett’s fabled “Greeny” Les Paul, and like others before him, he’s fallen in love with it.

The guitar, first made famous in the hands of Fleetwood Mac’s founding guitarist, Peter Green, has been enjoying a renaissance with Metallica’s chief shredder. Green gifted the guitar to Gary Moore after he left Fleetwood Mac, making Hammett its third high-profile owner. Since he purchased it in 2014, the electric guitar has regularly featured onstage with Metallica.

But in a show of generosity, Hammett has been happy to let others take her for a spin, and Smith is just the latest to check out the guitar. His opportunity came when Iron Maiden were touring in Canada.

“Kirk's a great guy. I bumped into him in a hotel in Canada,” Smith tells eonmusic. “We were just checking in, and Metallica were there. The first thing I said to him was, ‘Oh, you bought Greeny.’ He goes, 'Yeah, I've got it. You want to play it?’

“So I went to his room, and he gave me the guitar and a little practice amp, and of course, I played ‘Oh Well’. He and Ross [Halfin, photographer] were doing photos, so I took it to my hotel room, and I had a little practice amp in there. I played it all afternoon.”

Just like Jake E. Lee, who played Greeny backstage at Back to the Beginning, Smith had a hard time letting go of the guitar.

“It plays great; it's the intonation, the feel, the sound,” he says. “There's no doubt about it, that is a special guitar. The mojo is off the charts. I mean, Peter Green and Gary Moore? The classic middle position, the out-of-phase neck pickup, and there it is, the sound!”

“I'm glad somebody's using it, and it's not on a wall in somebody's climate-controlled guitar locker,” he adds. “It's out there being played, as it should be.”

From "Black Magic Woman," to "Rattlesnake Shake," "Oh Well," and "Albatross" — which is believed to have inspired the Beatles to write "Sun King" — Greeny was heard on many classic early Fleetwood Mac tracks..

Gary Moore recorded the entire Blues for Greeny tribute album with the guitar, as well as "Parisienne Walkways" from his seminal Still Got the Blues record, proving the instrument still had magic in other player's hands.

Meanwhile, Smith has been talking about a prized guitar from his own collection that he got for free, and still uses decades later, and has reflected on the two lucky breaks that led to him penning two massive Maiden anthems.

And original Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell has looked back on the time he played "Whiskey in the Jar " with Metallica, and why he went on to call them “a pack of bastards.”

Of all the guitarists who played in Thin Lizzy, Scott Gorham had the longest run. He served during the band's classic years, from 1974 to 1983, and again in the modern era from 1996 to 2019.

Over his initial run, Gorham was paired off with six-stringers that included Brian Robertson, Gary Moore, Snowy White and John Sykes. But only one of those players took him from ecstasy to anger: Gary Moore, whom he forged a partnership with in 1978 and who would leave the band acrimoniously just a short time later.

Moore had three stints in Lizzy. He replaced founding guitarist Eric Bell in 1974, but lasted just a few months. Three years later, he came to the band's aid when a hand injury sidelined Brian Robertson.

But his most fruitful era came in '78 when he stuck around long enough to sprinkle his magic on the ninth album, 1979's Black Rose: A Rock Legend. At the start, Gorham was excited to be working with a player of Moore's talent.

“I was thrilled that this guy was gonna come into the band, because I knew what he could do,” he tells Guitarist. “I knew that, once again, here was a guy I could feed off and learn some really great shit off of him. Gary was one of those absolute natural-born guitar players.”

Gorham had joined Thin Lizzy in 1974, pairing up with Brian Robertson to give the group its celebrated twin-guitar attack. The two guitarists had a fruitful partnership during which they defined Lizzy's signature guitar sound, as heard on hits like "The Boys Are Back in Town."

But Robertson left the band in July 1978 due to irreconcilable differences with bassist and singer Phil Lynott. Moore returned to the fold, and Gorham says their connection was instant. Both were Les Paul players — Gorham had treated himself to a new LP after securing the Lizzy gig, when his Japanese knock-off fell apart during his audition — and Moore, at that time, was toting Peter Green’s infamous Greeny.

“Every once in a while, he had an SG he would pull out,” Gorham details. “But 90 percent of the time it was the two Les Pauls. Pairing Les Pauls works because they both have similar sounds. The difference comes from the way the player attacks the strings.

“Gary was great with that. He'd attack the guitar with different velocities to bring out different tones. He was so inventive. I remember, he came up to me one day and said, 'Check this out — doesn't this sound like bagpipes?'

“I was like, 'Goddamn, it does! What are you gonna use that for?'

“And he said, 'Nothing, I just wanted to see if I could do it.'”

The album they worked on together, Black Rose: A Rock Legend, birthed the Thin Lizzy anthems “Waiting for an Alibi” and “Do Anything You Want To.” That, in turn paved the way for an iconic appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test, where the Gorham-Moore partnership gave “Don’t Believe a Word” a rampant, ear-splitting redressing.

But the honeymoon period could only last so long. Moore left the band abruptly in July 1979, in the middle of a U.S. tour later that year.

“I think, towards the end there, Gary really did want to play all the guitars,” Gorham reflects. “He just wanted it to be him and him alone. And y'know, that would have been fine. Both Phil and I would have been cool: ‘This is not a jail sentence. No band is.’

“But you gotta quit at the right moment, and Gary did the worst thing any band member can do.

“I was angry, man. You just don't do that. All the work we'd put in and he just stepped out the back door? Like, what the fuck, man?”

Moore's third entrance to Thin Lizzy came just as he was forging a solo career. Released in 1978, his solo debut, Back on the Streets, proved a success, particularly with the romantic blues ballad and closing track "Parisienne Walkways," and it gave him the confidence to go his own way.

Their less-than-amicable parting of ways saw Gorham give Moore the cold shoulder until Lynott's death in 1986 softened his edge.

"In the ensuing years, Gary kept trying to apologize to me," he reveals. "When we did the tribute to Phil in Dublin, he pointedly asked me to come over, and he just couldn't apologize enough for quitting the tour."

"So I said, 'Well, it was a dick move. But hey, you've apologized and I forgive you — let's just walk away from that one.' And we were friends after that."

Scott Gorham is currently recovering from a health condition that saw him undergo three bouts of surgery, during one of which he briefly died on the operating table.

Meanwhile, a campaign has been launched to erect a statue of the late Gary Moore in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A local politician believes “he deserves to be honored in his home city.”

Growing up in England, Jack Moore had a guitar teacher that many players — including pros — would have died for: his father, the Irish electric guitar virtuoso and onetime Thin Lizzy member Gary Moore.

As Jack tells Guitar Player, the arrangement had both its ups and its downs, particularly when the elder Moore instilled discipline in his son.

“He used to send me to my room to practice my vibrato,” Moore says. “He identified that as a weakness in me at first. So he was like, ‘Get to your room, practice.’ So I went and I listened to a lot of Hendrix. There's not many better teachers than that. I kind of honed it, playing for hours, trying to get his approval.”

When he did, it came in small but meaningful ways.

“I remember one occasion,” Jack says, “I was just playing in the living room, he walked past and he shot me this look of ‘Do that again.’ So I bent the string up and he gave me this nod of approval. Then he just walked off.”

Moore passed away in 2011 at the age of 58. Jack, now 37, is an experienced musician and vocalist in his own right. He’s one third of Smith, Lyle & Moore, the trio he formed with Los Angeles-based producer/musician Andrew Smith and Atlanta-based songwriter/musician Tyler Lyle. The group's debut single, "Fate," featured background vocals from another famous offspring: Dhani Harrison, the son of former Beatle George.

When Guitar Player caught up with Jack, he was in Poland, recording and jamming with his musical partner and multi-instrumentalist, Quentin Kovalsky, with whom he plans to release an album later this year. As it happens, Jack doesn’t live in the U.K. anymore, having moved to Barcelona.

As for his style, Jack and Kovalsky are working outside the electric blues realm favored by his father. “It's like a mix of classic rock, with modern pop sensibilities,” Jack explains. “So it's a nice contrast that is catchy and fun with a rock twist.”

On the duo’s current single, “Autumn,” one can hear echoes of his father’s voice, but with a certain easiness of style, as well as some fine guitar licks.

But while the music differs from his dad’s, Jack plays a Gibson Les Paul from the Gary Moore signature line, which his father gave him for his 18th birthday. There’s also his Firebird guitar that once belonged to his father and graced many a stage.

Jack laughs. “I remember when he bought it. I'd coveted that guitar from this shop, GAK, in Brighton, England. He told me I’m never getting my hands on that. So, yeah, that's quite a personal one for me.”

Jack has also been flirting with a Fender Telecaster as of late. “I've started using Teles quite a bit and have got a Signature Tele on the way to me from this little Polish company called Miuu,” he reveals.

Although Jack would describe Hendrix as his “number one” influence, he also name-checks B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Tom Morello and John Frusciante, testament to the diversity of Jack’s palette of guitar styles. Another stand-out is Joe Bonamassa, whom Jack shared the stage with in 2011 at the Sunflower Jam event at the majestic Royal Albert Hall in London.

“Joe is a real gentleman and has been nothing but kind to me,” he says, beaming. “He’s one of the finest examples of hard work and tenacity paying off in music. Joe is a phenomenal player and I’d love to work with him in some capacity in the future.”

Jack is no stranger to the biggest names in music, seeing them first hand alongside his father when he was growing up. George Harrison for example, respected Gary Moore deeply and was instrumental in getting him to participate in the Travelling Wilburys second album, Vol. 3, alongside Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan.

“Even as a very young kid, I remember George very fondly — a lovely human and truly special person,” Jack says. ”My Dad had his own Wilbury name. He was Ken. I remember there were plectrums around the house with 'Ken Wilbury' on them,” he says, smiling.

Bizarrely, Jack also has some amazing memories of Tom Petty giving him piggy-back rides around Petty’s ranch when Moore was a child. Jack recalls the huge impact of his songs. “My very first memory of listening to music with Dad was Tom Petty records," he says. “I am a big fan of their work, and Dad loved them too.”

Jack’s earliest memories of his father are from the early 1990s, around the time of Moore’s Still Got the Blues and Early Hours. Although his dad could be a stern teacher, he gave Jack the room to grow into his own style. While he did get to tour with his father in 2008, there is one aspect of their relationship he never got to realize. “I only wish I could have written with him,” Jack says. “I think we would have gelled really well.”

A project to create a memorial statue of Moore in Belfast is gaining momentum and has the full backing of Jack and his wider family circle. “I really hope it does happen,” he says. “It's looking promising. We’ll all be so glad and proud when we see it being unveiled.”

But Jack and his career may be the best memorial to his dad’s talent and memory.

“He instilled a lot of the hard work in music for me, and to never take anything for granted,” Jack says. “He also gave me the passion to do my own thing, go create and have my own unique kind of style and identity. He was a great dad in so many ways.”

The Gary Moore Statue for Belfast campaign aims to raise EUR80,000 to erect a statue of the former Thin Lizzy member in his native Belfast. The campaign has the support of members of Moore's family, the Belfast City Council and local councillors. To donate, visit idonate.

Think you’ve heard the most jaw-dropping hardcore blues solos of all time? We don’t think you have until you’ve heard every solo on this list of what we consider the 50 greatest badass blues guitar solos of all time.

Let’s face it: Thousands up thousands of great blues solos have been played on the electric guitar, so you can imagine how daunting it was for us to narrow our selection down to just 50. For starters, we siphoned off more than a dozen artists and solos that have already been so widely celebrated that they hardly need additional mention. After all, who isn't already hip to Clapton's extraordinary solo on "Crossroads" or Jimi's on "Red House"?

We also excluded a few legendary players who were renowned for their acoustic guitar solos, but did little of note once they switched to electric, such as Tampa Red, along with several well-known guitarists that played fantastic electric blues, but didn't really take solos, like John Lee Hooker. And early on we decided not to include seminal acoustic blues players like Robert Johnson, Son House and Blind Willie Johnson, both because their numbers are too great, and because in most cases they played unaccompanied, and therefore didn't "solo" in the same sense as the artists on our list.

After fighting over which guitarists should be included, GP editors Matt Blackett, Art Thompson and Barry Cleveland enlisted additional aid from four blues-savvy contributors — Teja Gerken, Jimmy Leslie, Adam Levy and Michael Ross — and each member of the team was tasked with choosing the particular solo they wanted to spotlight. Whether you hail us as brilliant or bash us as bums, we at least hope that you'll dig reading this as much as we did writing it.

"Ohio" — Dan Auerbach (Black Keys)

Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach is never flashy, but he's naturally poignant, and the fuzz freak is largely responsible for the past decade's dirty blues resurgence. Auerbach eschews prominent guitar breaks, and almost never strays past the pentatonic box. "I'm not much of a solo guy," he told GP in his February 2012 feature. But I do love 'rips." Auerbach really rips near the end of the single "Ohio," which was released independently from 2010's Brothers. The Akron native's vibrato quivers like the shivers of a cold Midwestern winter. Auerbach eventually engages a wah, induces feedback, and then climbs up the fretboard with flurries of tremolo picking until he reaches a dramatic climax. —J.L.

"Deep Feeling" — Chuck Berry

Even though he recorded for Chess records, home of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf, Charles Berry is not known as a blues guitarist but rather as one of the inventors of rock and roll. Nevertheless, this instrumental, released as the B-side to "School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes the Bell)," is a straight 12-bar blues. Well, maybe not completely straight, as Chuck throws in a V chord where you don't expect it, and, oh yeah, he performed it on an unusual pedal-steel guitar — thought to be a Gibson Electraharp. The country- style string bends might have been played by anyone, but the wolf-whistle slides are pure Berry. —M.R.

"Stormy Monday" — Dickey Betts (The Allman Brothers Band)

Half of one of the greatest guitar teams of all time, Richard Betts' job description involved going toe-to-toe with the genius of Duane Allman night after night. At Fillmore East, on an evening recorded for posterity, he had the unenviable task of following Duane's incendiary solo on the blues chestnut "Stormy Monday." After Duane comes Greg Allman's jazz waltz organ solo. As the band breaks it down from there, Betts begins his sliding, squeezing and screaming licks that build into a masterpiece of soul, lyricism, intonation and tone that give away nothing to his legendary partner. —M.R.

"Red Dog Speaks" — Elvin Bishop

How about some greasy slide playing over a slow blues in E? That's exactly what Elvin Bishop dishes up on "Red Dog Speaks" (from the album of the same title) and as a bonus, he describes his ax (Red Dog) in the song's lyrics. Want to hear a 1959 Gibson ES-345 Stereo really wail? Wait for Bishop to say, "Speak, Red Dog," and hang tight, as he unleashes a soulful solo that combines fretted notes and fluid slide playing in a relaxed, in-the-pocket manner that puts style and class ahead of showboating. —T.G.

"Albert's Shuffle" — Mike Bloomfield (Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper & Stephen Stills)

When Michael Bloomfield appeared on the scene with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1964 no one had ever heard guitar playing quite like that, nor did any previous blues album have a printed exhortation to "play this record loud." Indeed, Bloomfield's excitable, ahead-of-the-beat soloing had more to do with rock energy than blues mystery. It wasn't until 1968's Super Session, featuring Bloomfield with Al Kooper and Steven Stills, that Bloomfield settled into this pocket of more traditional blues playing, while retaining the desperate energy that set him apart from the traditionalists, and gave him his distinctive voice in the first place. —M.R.

"Blues Deluxe" — Joe Bonamassa

Bonamassa began his professional career when many lads are being Bar Mitzvahed. His early blues work was that of an impressionist: his solo on "Long Distance Blues" from 2003's Blues Deluxe is Joe doing Eric Clapton. In the decade since, Bonamassa has melded his influences and made them his own, honing a style of diamond precision playing and to-die-for tone. This slow blues from Jeff Beck's first solo record (itself a cover of B.B. King's "Gambler Blues") starts off with three minutes and 50 seconds of soloing that take you from B.B., through Clapton and Eric Johnson, all inflected with a heavy dose of Bonamassa. — M.R.

"Cry" — Doyle Bramhall II

If ever there was a guy to get a handle on the SRV attitude and fire without copping Stevie's licks, it's Doyle Bramhall II. On this slow 12/8 number, Bramhall gets all kinds of righteous Strat tones, including spooky tremolo, clanging semi cleans and a positively massive exploding-amp lead tone. He does a killer, thematic break mid-tune but saves his best stuff for the end of the song. For the outro solo, he coaxes awesome, howling feedback before leaning into his powerful bends that are jam-packed with emotion. His note choices and phrasing as fresh as always, due in part to playing lefty-strung righty, but Bramhall's super-deep pocket might be his greatest asset. —M.B.

"Okle Dokie Stomp" — Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown

You can hear echoes of the big-band era in Brown's recordings from the 1940s and early '50s. It's in the instrumentation— with an ensemble of horns, upright bass, and a drummer driving spang-a-lang on his ride cymbal. Rock-and-roll was about to happen, but hadn't quite. Music from this in-between period is sometimes called "jump blues," and Brown's instrumental "Okie Dolde Stomp" is a first-rate example. T- Bone Walker's influence is apparent here, particularly in a lick that Brown repeats: an up-bent 4 on the third string followed immediately by a 5 on the second string. Still, Gate had his own thing, and it's a whole lot of fun to listen to. —A.L.

"John's Blues" — Roy Buchanan

In 1971 PBS aired a documentary: Introducing Roy Buchanan a.k.a. The World's Greatest Unknown Guitarist, and the world's perception of what a Fender Telecaster could do was forever changed. Buchanan wrenched human cries and animal squeals out of this dead simple guitar design. His style of blues melded James Burton's chicken pickin' with Albert King's expressive bends, definitively illustrating the deep connection between country and blues. It is all here in "John's Blues" from his first record. This is the guitar tone and technique that inspired Danny Gatton, Gary Moore and Jim Campilongo, as well as causing Jeff Beck to dedicate "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" to Buchanan. — M.R.

"When My Train Pulls In" — Gary Clark Jr.

The second flight on the second track from buzz bluesman Gary Clark Jr.'s diverse major-label debut, Blak and Blu, is a gnarly fuzz/ wah solo that kicks off hissing. "We recorded that track first and cut it live in one take," the Epiphone Casino enthusiast revealed in his January 2013 GP cover feature. "I had my Fender Vibro-King, and stomped on all of my pedals for that solo." It peaks when Clark launches into a Chuck Berry–like lick at the 12th fret, and then starts incorporating the G at the 15th fret and the F# at the 14th fret on the high E string. "I'd been experimenting in that range," Clark revealed. "I played that lick over and over to build momentum. We were eager to prove ourselves, and there was an overwhelming sense of 'Let's go for it!’ “ — J.L.

"Feelin' Bad Blues" — Ry Cooder

In interviews over the years, slide guru Cooder has shared some juicy details about his hot-rodded guitars and unusual rigs. It's tempting to tag a particular pickup, compressor or amp when trying to pinpoint the source of his mystical sound, but let's face it — it's a touch thing. That's most apparent in his nakedest recordings, like this laid-back guitar-and-dolceola duet from the Crossroads soundtrack. Cooder has always shunned picks, and this cut shows just how adept he is with his bare hand. Working in open-D tuning, Cooder blurs the line between rhythm and lead. You may be inspired to take up a bottleneck and start practicing — or quit altogether. —A.L.

"Chicken in the Kitchen" — Robert Cray

Though he owes much of his success to a fairly slick, mainstream crossover sound, Robert Cray can play no-holds-barred blues with the best of them. Recorded live, "Chicken in the Kitchen" (on Cookin' in Mobile) not only features some of the most beautiful, sparkly, out-of-phase Strat tone you'll ever hear, it also has not one but two great solos. Number two, especially, is full of incredibly cohesive lines with blindsiding surprises, occasionally getting close enough to the edge that you start worrying whether Cray will make it out alive. —T.G.

"Shake 'Em on Down" — Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars)

The North Mississippi Allstars lived up to their name when they brought tribal elders R.L. Burnside, Jim Dickinson, and the whole neighborhood to Bonnaroo in 2004, where they documented history in progress. Luther Dickinson pays homage to the past while dragging classic Hill Country blues kicking and screaming into the present via groovy Gibsons, mighty Marshalls, and occasional echo and other effects. He does it to death with a Les Paul in open D on Fred McDowell's "Shake 'Em on Down," which kicks off Hill Country Revue as wickedly as it did the Allstars' debut CD, and, in turn, their career. When Dickinson lays a slide to the treble strings while thumbpicking the bass strings and incorporating optimal open ones, he brings the honeysuckle sweet and the dirty primitive together in glorious harmony. —A.L.

"Blues After Hours" — Hollywood Fats

Fats is one of the more obscure players on our list, but if you've got an appetite for the blues then you really need to put some Fats in your diet. His style was somehow brash and classy all at once. Most frequently seen wielding an ES-335, he was an itinerant sideman who did stints with the Blasters, Muddy Waters and Canned Heat. For raw blues power, though, it's hard to beat his playing with his own Hollywood Fats Band. On the sultry "Blues After Hours" (from Deep on America / Larger Than Life, Vol. 2), he delivers a textbook example of how to build a solo from a humble beginning to a searing climax, and then how to wind it back down for the subsequent vocal verse. —A.L.

"Prison of Love" — Robben Ford

The word "uptown" is sometimes used to describe blues with more jazz-inspired harmonies — chords beyond the common I, IV, and V. Ford can take the blues farther uptown than just about anybody, as this minor-key shuffle from his 1992 record Robben Ford & the Blue Line illustrates so colorfully. He stays in familiar pentatonic territory for the first four bars, and then shades his phrases with canny chromaticism in the next four. He plays even more ear-tweaking lines in the next few measures before taking the express train back downtown for a gritty finish. —A.L.

"The Change in Me" — Eric Gales

Based on a riff that borrows heavily from ZZ Top's "La Grange," Eric Gales' "The Change in Me" is a hard-driving rocker of a tune, and Gales plays highly melodic fills to provide a dynamic counterpoint to the crunchy theme. Demonstrated by several YouTube clips of the song, Gales varies the actual solo considerably from one night to the next, often employing a modern-sounding, delay-drenched high-gain tone and a great ability to allow the solo to alternately breathe and burn. —T.G.

"Bullfrog Blues" — Rory Gallagher

It's no easy task to choose a favorite Rory Gallagher blues solo, but his slide work on "Bullfrog Blues" is a serious contender. Leaving his trademark Strat behind (several YouTube videos show him playing a Gretsch Corvette), Gallagher gets to work in open-A tuning, with a capo on the second fret. The solo itself uses licks in the I, IV and V chord positions at the fifth, seventh and 12th frets, and it isn't unlike Gallagher's acoustic bottleneck work, though a ferocious amount of gain yields one of the meanest electric slide tones that you'll ever encounter. —T.G.

"Please Send Me Someone to Love" — Amos Garrett

In 1974, Amos Garrett's solo on Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis" was all over the AM airwaves. It gobsmacked guitarists worldwide with its triple-string bends and unusual phrasing — but the previous year Garrett had already blown minds with his spectacular solo on this Percy Mayfield classic. The Canadian guitarist navigates the changes more like Benny Carter than Albert King. His trademark double-stop bends and large-interval, two-string pull-offs, facilitated by his huge hands, are nothing short of astonishing. The two choruses here are perfectly constructed, and were, in fact, composed. To improvise something this flawless would be superhuman. — M.R.

"Blues Newburg" — Danny Gatton

Danny Gatton had such a great grasp of country, jazz, rockabilly and blues that it's tough to pin down when he was at his bluesiest, but this tour de force is as good a place as any to start. It's got only about one percent of what the guy was capable of, and that means excellent bends on the high and low strings, amazing single-note and chord melody, wicked vibrato, faux pedal-steel licks, blazing runs, breakneck chromatic passages, volume swells, and lots, lots more — all played with impeccable time. Boy, do we miss this guy! —M.B.

"Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell" — Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)

Billy G. is one of the finest blues players around, but ZZ Top's boogie-oriented repertoire tends to overshadow a tune like this slow-burn gem from the 1972 album, Rio Grande Mud. The song isn't in the classic 12-bar mold, but Gibbons decorates the 12/8 groove as if it were. Deploying a moderately distorted tone for the licks he plays over a clean arpeggiated rhythm figure, Gibbons shows his usual mastery of note choice and placement, building his solo to create maximum emotion during the song's extended outro. — A.T.

"The Blue" — David Gilmour

You could say David Gilmour has never played anything that wasn't the blues — after all, Pink Floyd was named for blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Gilmour's tone and vibrato have always been touchstones of the modern electric blues sound. Though he played a number of awesome solos with Pink Floyd, "The Blue," from his own 2006 record, Islands, deserves mention for several reasons. Reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross," the solo quickly pushes the envelope with evocative whammy pedal work, which continues throughout, seamlessly woven into classic Gilmour licks delivered with the gorgeous tone and pocket that make him a guitar legend. —M.R.

"Lonesome Dave" — David Grissom

Already astounding when he made the classic Live at Liberty Lunch with Joe Ely in 1990, Grissom has refined his style through the years in stints with Storyville (featuring the SRV rhythm section) and the Dixie Chicks. It is all there in "Lonesome Dave," from his first solo record: the Danny Gatton organ pedal point, the pedal-steel licks (Grissom taught himself to do B-Bender licks without a B-Bender), and the ZZ Top grind. Imagine Bluesbreakers Clapton and Billy Gibbons meet Brent Mason and Albert Lee and you get the idea. Throughout, Grissom's innate taste and musicality let him be jaw dropping without being flashy. —M.R.

"How Blue Can You Get" — Jeff Healey

Healey's blindness and unconventional playing style never hindered his ability to turn in amazing guitar performances, one of many being "How Blue Can You Get" from his posthumous 2008 release, Mess of Blues. Healey burns white hot here, pulling off wickedly fast lines and dramatic bends that defy the physical realities of holding a guitar flat on his lap. And if that's not enough, visit YouTube to also see what a gifted jazz trumpeter Healey was. What an incredible musician! —A.T.

"Blue Guitar" — Earl Hooker

Earl Zebedee Hooker, first cousin to John Lee, recorded this instrumental on May 3, 1961, and It was released the following year. A short time later, Muddy Waters overdubbed vocals onto the track, renamed it "You Shook Me," and released it under his own name. Now a blues staple — covered famously by Page and Beck among many others — Hooker played his immortal slide licks in standard tuning, which was novel for a Chicago blues guitarist at the time. He went on to experiment with echo, wah and other effects, attracting the attention of Jimi Hendrix for one, but this early recording, sans Muddy, showcases one of the most original stylists of all time. —B.C.

"It Hurts Me Too" — Elmore James

No doubt, "Dust My Broom" is slide guitarist James' signature song, but there's so much more mojo to be found in his cover of Tampa Red's "It Hurts Me Too,” if only for his sound. (You can bet your best bottleneck that Ry Cooder has listened to this recording more than a few times.) James takes full advantage of this throaty tone, letting his notes speak in vocal-like phrases. Whatever there is to say in open-D tuning, James says it here, with astounding character and confidence. Blues doesn't get much bluer than this. —A.L.

"Texas" — Eric Johnson

This session for Johnson's 2010 sonically superior release Up Close features guests Jimmie Vaughan and Steve Miller (vocals), who dropped by his studio and inspired him to rise to the occasion. The famously fickle and laborious Strat cat played a '59 Les Paul Standard dubbed "Buddy" through a Fuzz Face and a 100-watt Marshall on the solo—a first-take monster in the moment. Brandishing a sizzling tone and feeding off of Miller's vocal setup, Johnson's searing first solo soars to the heavens. Perfectly timed major thirds sound surprisingly blue, and EJ incorporates just enough diminished and chromatic runs to add spice without pushing too far beyond the boundaries of the blues. —J.L.

"Playing Around" — Lonnie Johnson

Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson is best known to guitarists for his groundbreaking acoustic six- and 12-string work in the late '20s, including his celebrated duets with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang in 1929, and his 1927 recording "6/88 Glide," featuring what is now widely considered to be the first flatpicked single-note guitar solo. But Johnson's career continued for decades after that, and in 1947 he began playing electric. You'll find great electric solos scattered throughout his subsequent tunes, but the brief but rocking romp on 1949's "Playing Around" notably foreshadows moves that early rockers such as Eddie Cochran, Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore will explore a few years later. —B.C.

"Born into This" — Wilson T. King

"I was listening to Eddie Hazel on 'Super Stupid' and Jimi's Band of Gypsys when I recorded this," Wilson T. King says, "and I wanted a future blues style of real whiplash out of the bends and tones." Well, he got it, while wielding a '69 Strat with DiMarzio Fast Track pickups played through an early '80s Marshall 2104 2x12 combo cranked way up, and using only his fingers. King is known for pushing the blues envelope in new directions, and this particularly passionate example of that predilection would, no doubt, elicit a big grin from Jimi. —B.C.

"Chief's Blues" — Greg Koch

Although he's known for his monstrous chops, Greg Koch displays tasty restraint for most of this slow blues, and the results are simply delicious. Much as the native people did with the mighty buffalo, Koch uses every part of the scale on these amazing seven minutes, blending major, minor and chromatic lines brilliantly over the changes and milking several notes out of every bend. It's hard to pick the coolest part, but a strong contender would have to be his jarring, pre-bent, triple-stop descending groans. This solo has it all: space, dynamics, humor, sensitivity and bombast, with damn near every lick being of the "must steal" variety. Yes sir! —M.B.

"Wind In Denver" — Sonny Landreth

Louisiana's singular slideman delivers a pinnacle performance on this track that only appears officially on his landmark live recording released in 2005, Grant Street. He tells GP that he achieved the gargantuan stereo tone playing a '66 Strat in open D minor tuning (D, A, D, F, A, D, low to high) through a Matchless HD30 with a 2x12 onstage and a 100-watt Dumble Overdrive Special pushing a 2x12 located offstage in a former freezer storeroom for maximum ambiance. "I was going for that wonderful 'Voodoo Child' vibe that still gets me every time I hear it," Landreth says. Sonny probably has the most evolved technique in slide blues history, and on "Wind in Denver" he delivers a host of hallmarks such fretting notes behind the slide and coaxing heavenly harmonics with a level of unbridled moxy that makes the solo truly monumental. —J.L.

"A Quitter Never Wins" — Jonny Lang

The baddest blues showcase on then teen sensation Jonny Lang's 1997 major-label debut, Lie to Me, is still his showstopper on 2010's Live at the Ryman. In his July 2010 feature he told GP that Albert Collins inspired him to become a Tele player, and Tab Benoit inspired him further. "When I heard his tone I freaked out — the Thinline Tele with humbuckers became the staple for me after that," he said. GP relayed that Lang eventually placed a P90 pickup between the two humbuckers, and he features the classic single-coil during the fiery intro and first solo on Tinsley Ellis' tune at the Ryman. He cuts into the second solo with sheer reckless abandon. —J.L.

"I'm Going Home" — Alvin Lee (Ten Years After)

It's hard to think of Alvin Lee without taking note of his solo in Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home." The band first recorded the song on its 1968 release Undead, and it upped the fast shuffle's octane level during its performance at the Woodstock festival. Playing his iconic "Big Red" 1959 Gibson ES-335, Lee takes the unusual step to start his solo accompanied only by drums for a full 24 bars, playing without the comfort of harmonic guidance from the band. He then proceeds to play one of the most blistering and fluid, Chuck Berry–influenced solos you'll ever come across. —T.G.

"Out of My Mind" — John Mayer

Regardless of whether or not you're into John Mayer's songwriting or vocal style, it's hard to argue with the fact that the guy has chops. Sure, he may not be the most original player to come along, but whether on acoustic, electric, lead or rhythm guitar, he is clearly in command. Eschewing the slick production found on much of his work, Mayer takes a decidedly more raw approach on the live recording of "Out of My Mind" (on Try!), giving his ES-335 a pentatonic workout with great vibrato, slightly overdriven, fat tone, and an excellent climax before resuming his vocal duties. —T.G.

"Still Got the Blues" — Gary Moore

Moore emerged from early British fusion and then spent his career alternating between turning out hard rock and blues records. It would be easy to go with any of his incendiary solos on a straight blues tune, or one of his letter-perfect recreations of Peter Green on Blues for Greeny, but "Still Got the Blues" is pure Moore. Okay, this cycle of fifths progression is not "the blues" per se, but its sharp-five-to-five resolution is blues approved. More importantly, the yearning in the gorgeous melody that Moore milks on the final solo, before tearing the roof of the sucker, is what the blues is all about. —M.R.

"Steroids" — Oz Noy

Oz Noy can get so far outside so quickly that it's easy to think that what he plays is not blues. Despite the funk and fusion elements that he throws in here, the fact is he's playing wild, vibey, blues-on-acid on this tune. We could all add a heaping helping of freshness to our 12-bar playing if we adopted one iota of Noy's phrasing, note choices, or fearlessness that are so abundant on this song. —M.B.

"Three Time Loser" — Bonnie Raitt

While blues and contemporary pop are not always an easy coupling, Raitt has been interlacing the two for decades now with consistently cool results. This track from her 1977 album, Sweet Forgiveness, is a high-water mark. The chord progression here has nothing to do with the customary 12-bar form, but Raitt's supernatural slide work infuses the song with deep blues feeling. Nobody else can make a quarter-tone glissando sound so expansive, and her overdriven Strat tone burns the way whiskey does going down your gullet. Listen close to hear her widen her vibrato and pluck harmonics in the final ride out. Pure swagger. —AL

"Greasy Kid Stuff" — Kid Ramos

Known for his explosive lead work on a Tele or Strat, and the ballsy sound he gets from a Vox AC30 with a stand-alone reverb, Kid Ramos has played with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Roomful of Blues, James Hannan, and the Mannish Boys. He has also recorded several solo albums, including 2001's Greasy Kid Stuff, where he makes the instrumental title track jump with his fierce attack and fat tone. Check out YouTube to see Ramos tearing it up in a variety of situations, including on a baritone Tele with Los Fabulocos on "Burnin' the Chicken." —AT

"It's My Own Fault" — Otis Rush

Rush takes three solos on this track from the 1967 album Chicago/The Blues/Today!, Vol. 2. His first, in the song's intro, is amazing from the get-go, not because it's a display of guitar fireworks, but precisely because it's not. Phrase by phrase, Rush uses his Epiphone Riviera to masterfully tell a story here. After a couple of vocal verses, he ventures higher up the neck, ramping the thrill factor. His final break is just four stop-time measures to set up the saxophonist's solo, with a staggering impact-to-bar ratio. Rush was a southpaw who played his righty-strung guitar upside down, with the high E on top. This gives his bends an unusual sound because he's pushing the strings where most guitarists would pull, and vice versa. —A.L.

"Blues for Salvador" — Carlos Santana

Santana may not be though of as a blues player per se, and "Blues for Salvador," the title track of his 1987 solo album isn't a standard blues form. But by playing nearly six continuous minutes of intensely bluesy melodic work Santana laid down a masterpiece that helped him win a Grammy in 1989 for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance." Robben Ford later covered the song, and Santana has played it in concert with Buddy Guy, the Wayne Shorter Group and Mexican guitar star Javier Batiz. —A.T.

"Blue on Black" — Kenny Wayne Shepherd

When Louisiana native Kenny Wayne Shepherd broke big while still a teenager in the mid '90s, he was heralded as the next Stevie Ray Vaughan. Of course, nobody is ever the next SRV, but Shepherd's highly rhythmic Southern Strat histrionics clearly owe a debt to Austin's patron guitar player. And like SRV, KWS has a knack for turning stock blues licks into memorable, melodic moments via clever phrasing. You know a player — especially a bluesman — believes he's made a statement when he sticks close to the recorded version of a solo onstage night after night, year after year. "Blue on Black" is case in point. It's hook-laden licks get under your skin and stick in your brain whether it's the original version on 1997's Trouble or 2010's Live! In Chicago. —J.L.

"Three Hundred Pounds of Joy” — Hubert Sumlin

Released as a single on the Chicago-based Chess label in 1963 — with Howlin' Wolf leading the session — this is Sumlin's nonpareil. He plays teasing fills at the top of each verse, with an assured attack and shuddering vibrato, finally launching into his solo midway through the song. He begins with an unusual high-E string bend from the minor 3 up to the 4, falls a few steps back down the minor-pentatonic scale, then repeats the phrase twice more with slight variations. It's a spunky start, and he never relents. In a genre where clichés are an easy pitfall, this is one of the most unique solos ever rendered on a popular recording. —A.L.

"Wild About You Baby" — Hound Dog Taylor

Famously called “the Ramones of the blues" by The Village Voice, Hound Dog Taylor and his band the House Rockers played a ferociously raw kind of boogie blues. Based on the familiar "Dust My Broom" slide riff, "Wild About You Baby" (from Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers) is all about a game of call-and-response between the vocals and the guitar. When the time comes for Taylor to solo, he doesn't stray far from the main riff, and his note choices are perfect examples of a solo taking the place of a vocal line. —T.G.

"Slow Blues" — Mick Taylor

Released on Mick Taylor's self-titled post–Rolling Stones solo album, "Slow Blues" is a study in how to avoid mere noodling while essentially blowing for the entire duration of an instrumental track. The fact that "Slow Blues" uses a very cool, modified 12-bar progression with a distinctive bass line and chorused-sounding 13th chords taking the place of an actual melody certainly helps in keeping the tune engaging, but Taylor's throaty, reverb-drenched tone and dynamic playing keep the tune moving forward in a way that is not to be taken for granted in such an extended solo exploration. —T.G.

"Jesus Is Everywhere" — Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Tharpe may not have considered herself a blues artist, favoring gospel songs as she did throughout her career. But when you listen to her live 1964 recording of "Jesus Is Everywhere" — from The Authorized Sister Rosetta Tharpe Collection —the gap between sacred and secular doesn't seem so wide. Armed with a thumbpick, and backed by a bassist and drummer who sound like two thirds of the best rockabilly trio you've ever heard, Tharpe digs in hard on her early '60s SG-style Les Paul Custom. The first half of her solo is relatively straightforward, but when she starts swerving and swooping you'll wonder which way is up. Glory, glory! —A.L.

"Whisky Train" — Robin Tower (Procol Harum)

Like Hendrix, to whom he is overly, if not unfairly, compared, Robin Trower's blues roots run deep. Fifty years into his solo career, he still makes records worth listening to, these days filled with more classic blues tunes than ever. Still, the best example of his rooted playing might be "Whisky Train," a tune he wrote for Procol Harum's fourth album. The song could be considered one long cowbell-driven guitar solo, with Trower riding one of the great guitar riffs over and over, occasionally answering brief Gary Booker vocal sections with short modern blues excursions that preview his style as a solo artist. —M.R.

"I Know" — Derek Trucks (The Derek Trucks Band)

"Nearly everything I do on guitar has a foundation in blues music," says freak of nature Derek Trucks who primarily plays a Gibson SG tuned to open E with a large Dunlop Pyrex slide through a cranked Fender Super Reverb to conjure his signature, liquid fire tone. The way Trucks furthers Duane Allman's electric bottleneck style via Eastern-influenced microtones is mesmerizing. The Derek Trucks Band's 2010 release, Roadsongs, is a supreme document. His "Key to the Highway" solo reaches the highest zenith, but "I Know" is extraordinarily interesting as it progresses from droning raga into a swinging R&B feelgood number with one of the most musical, uplifting major-2 blues solos ever recorded. —J.L.

"Miracles & Demons (Part 2)" — Eddie Turner

A master at creating spooky atmospherics — such as those infusing several Otis Taylor records — Turner is also a funky and hard-rocking psychedelic bluesman in the Hendrix tradition, as evidenced on this track. Rooted in a repeating 6/8 figure played on dual resonators, with Turner's haunting vocals and wicked, wah-inflected, heavily echoed solo intertwining throughout, the tune showcases his ability to simultaneously wail and conjure uncanny sonics via Custom Shop Strats, a '59 tweed Deluxe, a Budda Twinmaster, a Roland RE-301 tape echo and other magical implements. —B.C.

"Tuff Enuff” — Jimmie Vaughan (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)

The other Vaughan is as cool as the other side of the pillow, especially compared to his fire-spitting brother. They both favor Strats, but the similarities pretty much end there. Jimmie rarely plays fast or dirty, and is never flash. He mostly sticks to stabbing single notes within a traditional framework, giving them plenty of space to breathe. Jimmie Vaughan reminds us that less notes can certainly mean more, and the solo on the title track from the Fabulous Thunderbirds' 1986 album, Tuff Enuff, is a shining example. Vaughan doesn't usually do effects, but in this instance shimmering reverb and delay add remarkable depth to his sparse phrasing. It's hard to find better evidence of a pure blues solo building a perfect bridge to a crossover hit. —J.L.

"Call It Stormy Monday" — T-Bone Walker

Chances are, you're not old enough to remember the impact this song made when it was originally released in 1947. (By way of perspective, Clapton was only two years old then, and the first Stratocaster was still seven years off.) So you may listen now and find yourself thinking, What's the big whoop? I've heard other guitarists play that stuff. The big whoop is: Walker invented that stuff. Without his influence, there might've been no B.B. King, no Chuck Berry, and no Gatemouth Brown. Go back to the source and listen, taking note of Walker's rhythmic sophistication. Sure, there are eighth-notes and sixteenths and some triplets. But such subdivisions were never more elastic than in Walker's hands. — A.L.

"Ball and Biscuit" — Jack White (The White Stripes)

Jack White kicked the blues straight in the nuts on "Ball and Biscuit" utilizing a bizarre, ferocious sound the likes of which had never before been heard in the history of America's senior guitar genre. No "real" bluesman would have imagined such blasphemy as a Detroit garage punk playing a plastic guitar (a 1964 Montgomery Ward Airline) with a fuzz-drenched, Whammy-infected tone on a blues romp. White made it his signature tone, and his signature guitar album, Elephant, landed him his first Guitar Player cover story on the June 2003 issue. The bombastic trio of solos throughout White's sideways statement "Ball and Biscuit" play like a blues from hell trilogy. — J.L.

Gary Moore could soon be honored with a statue in Belfast, hot on the heels of fellow Irish blues guitar great Rory Gallagher receiving a statue in the Northern Irish capital.

Gallagher’s statue has caused a little controversy in the city in which he often played shows — particularly during the Irish Troubles — after one crucial detail appeared to have been overlooked. It’s hoped that Moore’s statue will avoid a similar fate.

Plans for Moore’s (presumably) bronze immortalization on the streets of his hometown have been shared by Belfast’s Green Party councilor, Brian Smyth as the city looks to show a greater recognition of its musical heritage.

“Belfast City Council agreed to my proposal to carry out a land check of sites in the Cathedral Quarter for a potential Gary Moore statue,” he said in an Instagram post. “As a proud son of our city and East Belfast, he blazed a trail and has left a lasting legacy for rock and blues fans across the world.”

Gallagher, born in Ballyshannon, but raised in Cork, passed in 1995, meaning the statue's unveiling came just shy of 30 years after the fact. Belfast-native Moore died in 2011 leaving a legacy of work behind him that transcended across rock, blues, and jazz fusion playing styles as a member of Skid Row, Thin Lizzy, and a solo artist.

Smyth, it seems, wants to make up for lost time by recognizing the city's most beloved musicians.

“Gary was one of the greatest ever guitarists and deserves to be honored in his home city,” his post goes on. “We have never been great at celebrating our people who have achieved great success. It’s time to change that in relation to Gary Moore and tell his story for future generations of aspiring musicians in Belfast.”

The councilor has been collaborating with the Wild Frontier Memorial Project, established in Moore's memory, to raise €80,000 (approx. $83,202) of private funding for the statue.

Speaking to The Irish News earlier this month while highlighting the need for the funding, he called Moore, “probably the greatest guitarist to come out of Belfast.”

Gary Moore famously came to own Peter Green's "Greeny" Les Paul – now under the care of Metallica's Kirk Hammett – and even played it on a kid's TV show on a Saturday morning to promote his Wild Frontier album in 1987 as his sensational musicianship blew his peers away time and time again.

The electric guitar also starred on the iconic slow blues song, Parisian Walkways, a song characterized by some incredible sustain from the guitarist. In a 2007 interview with GP, he reflected on how a young Randy Rhoads became enamored with the song after seeing him play it love. He would pull from the song for his epic outro solo on Mr Crowley.

By the latter part of his career, 'Greeny' took a back seat as he “tried to get a modern, less high-gain version of that natural sound that Eric Clapton had in the '60s.” The revelation came during a 2009 chat with GP which also revealed the extent of blues greats have impacted his sound.

Speaking after his passing, former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell said of Moore: “His playing was exceptional and beautiful. We won't see his like again.”

If you thought kids' TV was nothing but Barney & Friends, Sesame Street, and Peppa Pig, here's a surprise for you. Back in 1987, Northern Irish guitar legend Gary Moore made an appearance on a family-friendly show where he played a few "old favorites" from his guitar collection to promote his album Wild Frontier.

The show was Number 73, a Saturday morning program broadcast in the U.K. during the 1980s. Although clearly a children's show, it featured many special guests that would, at times, be more appropriate for the parent. Was this an attempt to convert younger fans or simply keep mom and dad entertained? Who knows, but it's responsible for this gem of a clip, so let's not question it too much.

Uploaded to YouTube is an abridged version of Moore's episode, compiling only the sections he's featured in. After an intro of sorts about a broken doorbell — more on that later — Moore slings "Greeny" over his shoulder before explaining, "This one here is my oldest guitar. It's a 1959 Les Paul. I've had this for about 12 years, and it used to belong to Peter Green."

Moore then asks if the presenter knows "Albatross" by Fleetwood Mac, to which he replies, for the sake of television, that he doesn't.

Ironically, the host, Neil Buchanan, had actually experienced some minor success as a guitarist in the U.K., so he would have been more than a little bit familiar with the hit instrumental in question. But you have to appreciate him dumbing it down so we all get to hear Moore play one of Green's guitar hooks on the legendary Les Paul it was recorded with.

The Belfast-born guitarist also revealed that he "used it on 'Parisian Walkways' as well," before treating us to the song's instantly recognizable opening phrase.

Moore, who had been friends with Peter Green since his band Skid Row supported Green's Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s, bought the Les Paul from Green for the equivalent of less than $200, under the condition that Green could have it back whenever he wanted. The electric guitar is now in the hands of Kirk Hammett, who has owned it for the past 10 years.

Moving on, Moore's attention shifts to a few more axes from the collection, including a 1955 Les Paul Junior that once belonged to the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones and "an old ES-5 Gibson" that he got from Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Greg Lake. Notably, the guitar is featured on the cover of the album he was there to promote.

Next up, we see Moore's Fiesta Red 1961 Fender Stratocaster, or as he describes it, the "salmon pink Strat like the Shadows used to play."

Surprisingly, Greg Lake also had a connection to this guitar, as Moore purchased it during the recording sessions for Lake's self-titled debut solo release in '81, to which Moore contributed lead guitar.

The story goes that the guitar was actually brought to the studio by the seller for Greg Lake to purchase. However, Moore's guitar tech told Guitarist in 2016 that, after hearing how the pre-CBS Strat sounded acoustically, "Gary had his fingers crossed, thinking, 'Please don't buy it. Please don't buy it.'" He got his wish.

At one point, Moore is questioned on how he's able to create a signature sound with the instrument. "Well, different players can make guitars sound completely different just by the way they touch the strings and the fingering techniques," he explains. "It's down to the individual player."

Referring to his appreciation for instruments of a particular vintage, Moore explains, "Older guitars tend to sort of mellow with age, you know. As they get older, they get a warmer tone, so I like them."

The lighthearted segment ends with Moore plugging in his single EMG-loaded Charvel San Dimas and using the floating trem to replicate a police siren, a Honda 500 Motorcycle, and a dive bomb effect before deciding that a recording of harmonics is the best replacement for that broken doorbell.

See, I told you I'd get back to it.

The curtailed clip ends with a high-energy performance of "Take a Little Time" from the previously mentioned new album — with Gary and company doing well to ignore the bloke with some sort of plumbing around his neck and a broomstick for a guitar. Be warned, however: You will be annoyed when the clip fades out just as the solo section kicks in.

The thorny subject of the greatest guitar solo of all time has long been a fiercely contested debate, probably because every solo is different. How do you compare, say, “Comfortably Numb” with “Crazy Train,” or “Stairway to Heaven” with “Sultans of Swing”? It’s impossible. Still, public opinion ebbs and flows, and we wanted to find out which solos currently rank among our readers as the greatest of them all.

So we ran a poll on GuitarPlayer.com to find out and here we present the results. We’ll take a look at the stories behind the songs and find out just what made those lead guitar breaks so great through conversations with Brian May, Kirk Hammett, Michael Schenker and others.

20. Gary Moore | “Still Got the Blues”

GUITARIST: GARY MOORE (1990)

The definitive blues guitar ballad.

Presented as the title track from his 1990 album, this wistful tune in A minor became Gary Moore’s calling card fairly late in his career, when he reinvented himself as a blues artist. There’s a point in the solo where you can hear the Belfast great switch from the neck humbucker to the bridge on the 1959 Les Paul Standard he nicknamed Stripe and start deviating from its main theme, mainly sticking within the A minor pentatonic scale, with a few notes from the Aeolian and harmonic minor scales.

Moore was plugged into his prototype Marshall JTM-45 reissue head with one of the company’s newly designed Guv’nor distortion pedals out in front. More than 30 years later, this remains one of the most raw and expressive blues tracks, with Moore almost fighting his guitar at points, yet never failing to deliver the goods

19. Metallica | “Fade To Black”

GUITARIST: Kirk Hammett (1984)

Metallica’s first ballad features some of Kirk’s most epic playing.

Recorded at Flemming Rasmussen’s Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen in February and March 1984, Ride the Lightning, Metallica’s sophomore album, was more progressive and stylistically greater in scope than the all-out thrash assault of their debut, Kill ’Em All. That change is evident on “Fade to Black,” which features acoustic guitars and a nonstandard structure more akin to the “Stairway to Heaven” school of songcraft. But it is the song’s timeless melodic solo that most vividly signals a stylistic shift in guitarist Kirk Hammett’s playing. And the signature element he employs for the last solo is arpeggios.

“I have been playing that song for so long now,” Kirk tells our sister publication Total Guitar. “For the very last solo, I know how I want to start it, but then I am in an area where I can improvise for 16, 18 or 24 bars, and then [drummer] Lars [Ulrich] will hit a certain fill, which means that it’s up and it’s time for the arpeggio part. And then I just slide right into those arpeggios.” And they are arpeggios played on two strings, Hammett specifies. “When guitar players first started incorporating arpeggios into their playing, before the whole Yngwie sweep-picking thing, arpeggios were played on two strings – not three or four strings,” he explains. “And that was what the vogue was at the time in the 1980s, so I have been playing those for a long time. I use my middle finger just to anchor my position on the neck.”

That’s a great tip from the man who plays the solos. But how should you tackle them yourself? First, there are two essential scales you’ll need to know: the B natural minor scale and the B Phrygian mode, both shown below. These cover you for the entire opening 30 bars, which, let’s face it, is a lot of music, so this is a good reason to learn a couple of shapes if ever there was one.

To make it simpler, most of your time is spent in the natural minor scale. Not until around bar 20 will you find yourself briefly landing on the C note, which appears in the Phrygian mode. The bottom line is that Hammett improvises this part of the solo live – and these are the shapes he uses.

Up next are those two-string arpeggio shapes, and they’re 16th notes – all of them! At 142 bpm, it’s pretty fast, but Hammett doesn’t pick every note, opting to use pull-offs to make those rapid licks easier. It’s definitely something to experiment with and if you’re still struggling, you could try adding in an occasional hammer‑on, too.

18. Steely Dan | “Kid Charlemagne”

GUITARIST: Larry Carlton (1976)

Messin’ with the “Kid.”

Steely Dan’s catalog is filled with remarkable guitar solos, but Larry Carlton’s brilliant work on The Royal Scam’s “Kid Charlemagne” remains the most celebrated. Carlton strings together a series of tasty phrases that follow the underlying chord changes with a blend of inside and outside playing that is technically mind bending and emotionally satisfying.

“I was pretty familiar with the tune, so I just improvised,” he tells Guitar Player. “People think I’m kidding when I say that, like I had worked the solo out beforehand, but I didn’t. It was straight improv, and it worked.” Very well, in fact. Perhaps more has been written about his solo than of the song itself.

Despite the acclaim, Carlton was, and remains, nonplussed. “When the record came out, there was a wonderful review of the tune in Billboard and they raved about the solo,” he says. “I put the record on and listened to it with my wife, and at the end of it I said, ‘I don’t know. It just sounds like me.’”

17. Cream | “Crossroads”

GUITARIST: Eric Clapton (1968)

The finest rock and roll cover of an acoustic blues song.

It started as a blues tune called “Cross Road Blues” by Robert Johnson and became one of the finest examples of natural ability, soulfulness and showmanship from a virtuosic 22-year-old guitarist named Eric Clapton. His reimagining of the song as “Crossroads” further cemented a legacy that by then had earned him the nickname God.

Famously recorded at San Francisco’s Fillmore West venue for supergroup Cream’s Wheels of Fire album, Clapton’s arrangement retains the soul and spirit of Johnson’s original but updates it for a contemporary audience raring to cut loose and be entertained by dazzlingly quick, passionate musicianship.

Remarkably, Clapton is no fan of the performance: He complains that the band lost the “one” in the first verse of his second solo break, thereby throwing off his phrasing. That’s perfectionism for you. For everyone else, this four-minute track remains a source of fascination more than 50 years on.

16. Eric Johnson | “Cliffs Of Dover”

GUITARIST: Eric Johnson (1990)

Heavenly tones from the Texan great.

This instrumental won Eric Johnson a Grammy for its exquisitely tasteful guitar playing and jaw-dropping tones. For the recordings, the Texan musician mainly stuck with his early ’60s ES-335, though he chose to use his 1964 “Virginia” Strat for the opening lead and parts of the main solo. The guitars were fed into a 100-watt Marshall Super Lead, with an Echoplex and BK Butler Tube Driver to help achieve those smooth, violin-like tones and warm sustain.

“I first heard him in 1986 on Live at Austin City Limits,” Joe Bonamassa told us in 2015. “It was ‘Cliffs of Dover,’ and it was just terrifyingly good guitar playing. I wasn’t even sure if it was real! Then I saw him live, and his tones were the best I’d ever heard. I wondered how this guy was getting all of these sounds out of his Strat. I’d never seen anybody have such a forward-thinking rig like that.”

15. Prince | “Purple Rain”

GUITARIST: Prince (1984)

The Purple One’s defining guitar moment.

The epic outro to “Purple Rain” – which takes up nearly two thirds of the song itself – stands out as some of Prince’s finest work on the six-string, wailing away in G minor pentatonic and occasionally including some more modal notes, like the minor 6th. There’s also that repeating motif that dances around the 2nd and minor 3rd intervals.

It’s simple and effective, setting things up for the vocal melody that comes in toward the end. It’s not a busy solo by any means. Rather, the Purple One chose to leave a lot of space in between the lines he played and focus on big hooks instead of monster licks.

Prince would extend the solo for up to 15 minutes in live performance. While there are many great live renditions of this track, his half-time performance for 2007’s Super Bowl in Miami is the stuff of legend. Shredding alone onstage in the middle of a storm, Prince seemed to be living the moment for which this song was written.

14. Deep Purple | “Highway Star”

GUITARIST: Ritchie Blackmore (1972)

Race with devil on English highway.

“I wrote that out note for note about a week before we recorded it,” Ritchie Blackmore said of his remarkable and most definitely memorable solo to “Highway Star.” “And that is one of the only times I have ever done that. I wanted it to sound like someone driving in a fast car, for it to be one of those songs you would listen to while speeding. And I wanted a very definite Bach sound, which is why I wrote it out – and why I played those very rigid arpeggios across that very familiar Bach progression – D minor, G minor, C major, A major. I believe that I was the first person to do that so obviously on the guitar, and I believe that that’s why it stood out and why people have enjoyed it so much.

“Over the years, I’ve always played that solo note for note, but it just got faster and faster onstage because we would drink more and more whisky. [Keyboardist] Jon [Lord] would have to play his already difficult part faster and faster, and he would get very annoyed about it.”

13. Guns N’ Roses | “Sweet Child O’ Mine”

GUITARIST: Slash (1988)

A game of two halves.

Slash’s solo on this Guns N’ Roses breakthrough single is rock guitar at its finest. The first half is laid-back and modal, built around the Eb minor scale with a few major 7ths thrown in for a harmonic-minor flavor. The second half is much more aggressive and bluesy, and sticks mainly to position one of the pentatonic scale an octave up the neck in the same key. The bends feel that much wider and the vibrato more pronounced.

Slash plays the first section on the neck pickup for thickness and warmth before switching over to the bridge for more bite, with his Cry Baby engaged. Perhaps most impressive is his off-the-cuff sense of feel and how he strings it all together, which is the mark of any great guitar solo. Remarkably, although Slash’s riff was responsible for the song’s creation, he wasn’t fond of the song originally. “We were a pretty hard driving band, and that was sort of an uptempo ballady type of a thing,” he said. “So it’s grown on me over the years.”

12. Ozzy Osbourne | “Crazy Train”

GUITARIST: Randy Rhoads (1980)

Fretboard fireworks galore on Ozzy’s Blizzard of Ozz comeback.

The Double-O has often cited Randy Rhoads as the man who saved his career – and when you hear the solo on “Crazy Train,” you understand why. Although Rhoads’ classical- and modal-based approach was far from Tony Iommi’s blues leanings, he was, like Ozzy’s old bandmate, a true inventor.

There’s a section toward the end of this solo that actually sounds like a train squealing off the tracks, thanks to the use of a chromatically ascending trill that then descends in key. Rhoads concludes the solo with a fast-picked F# minor pentatonic phrase before a rapid Aeolian legato run ending with a big bend on the 19th fret.

The shredder performed the solo with his customized Jackson guitar through a Marshall and a couple of 4x12s while sitting in the control room. “We’d plug the guitar directly into the console,” recalls Blizzard of Ozz engineer Max Norman. “We’d preamp it in the console and send it down to the amp from there. That way we could control the amount of gain that hit the amp.”

11. Michael Jackson | “Beat It”

GUITARIST: Eddie Van Halen (1982)

Breathtaking results from an unlikely pairing.

Asked to contribute guitar to Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, Pete Townshend declined but offered a suggestion: How about Eddie Van Halen? Jackson and producer Quincy Jones thought that was a great idea, and got Ed onboard to play the solo to “Beat It.” But after hearing the part where he was asked to solo, the guitarist was unhappy with the chord changes and had the engineer edit the tape to create a new pattern that better suited what he had in mind.

Ed knew Jackson might be surprised and possibly unhappy with his executive decision. “So I warned him before he listened,” he told CNN in 2012. “I said, ‘Look, I changed the middle section of your song.’ Now in my mind, he’s either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he’s going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, ‘Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo but to actually care about the song and make it better.’” And he did it for free.

10. The Beatles | “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

GUITARIST: Eric Clapton (1968)

An uncredited Slowhand makes a rare guest appearance with the Fab Four.

By 1968, George Harrison was penning compositions that rivaled those of his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was every bit as good as anything his musical partners wrote, but no one could get up the enthusiasm for it, so Harrison invited his pal Eric Clapton to play on the session, knowing it would put the Beatles on good behavior.

Using Harrison’s 1957 “Lucy” Gibson Les Paul through a Fender Deluxe amp, Clapton doesn’t so much mimic the haunting, aching main melody as he creates a harrowing song within a song. His descending bends and release notes, and that inimitable vibrato, are on full display and are appropriately tear-jerking, weaving a dramatic narrative that builds to a shattering climax.

9. Chicago | “25 OR 6 TO 4”

GUITARIST: Terry Kath (1969)

Wah-drenched ecstasy.

This magazine once described Terry Kath’s “25 or 6 to 4” solo as “Wes Montgomery meets Jimi Hendrix,” and it’s a fair point, as Kath was influenced first by jazz and, later, hard rock. As a founding member of the jazz-rock band Chicago, he held down guitar duties for the group until his tragic death from an accidentally self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1978.

Though his superb playing graced many tracks – notably “Introduction” and “Free Form Guitar,” both from the group’s 1969 debut, The Chicago Transit Authority – there’s no denying the power of his soloing on the group’s early hit “25 or 6 to 4.” Kath uses his wah generously to add emotion to his lines, giving them at times a frenetic despair.

Kath most likely played his Gibson SG Standard, as pictured on Chicago Transit Authority’s inner sleeve, using his favored string set, as revealed to GP: the high E string from a tenor set and a standard set for the rest, moved down one string (i.e. high E for the B string, B for the G string, and so on).

8. Lynyrd Skynyrd | “Free Bird”

GUITARIST: Allen Collins (1974)

The Bird is the word.

As it happens, the four-minute-and-24- second guitar solo that closes “Free Bird” was originally added to give singer Ronnie Van Zant a chance to rest his vocal cords during Lynyrd Skynyrd’s relentless performance schedule. At 143 bars long, the solo is far and away the most epic offering here (in fact, it’s 286 bars of recorded music because the whole thing is doubled).

The tune appeared on the group’s eponymous debut album in 1973, and guitarist Allen Collins delivered the lot on his 1964 Gibson Explorer. As Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Gary Rossington once told Guitar World, “The whole long jam was Allen Collins himself. He was bad. He was super bad! He was bad-to-the-bone bad. When we put the solo together, we liked the sound of the two guitars, and I could’ve gone out and played it with him. But the way he was doin’ it, he was just so hot! He just did it once and did it again, and it was done.”

7. Dire Straits | “Sultans Of Swing”

GUITARIST: Mark Knopfler

An understated guitar hero fingerpicks his way to glory.

Right when the world was crowning Eddie Van Halen the new King of Guitar, along came the rather unassuming Mark Knopfler – schooled in rockabilly, blues and jazz – who demonstrated that you didn’t need walls of distortion to turn heads.

Knopfler composed this pub-rock classic on a National steel guitar but thought it sounded “dull” – that is, until he picked up a Stratocaster, at which point the song “came alive.” Using nary a hint of grit on a Fender Twin, he fingerpicks not one but two standout solos.

The first features a lyrical section of elegant, Chet Atkins-style single-note and chordal bends that sigh and swoon with dreamy romanticism. In itself, that would be enough, but the outro solo is the real attention-grabber, on which Knopfler builds to a dazzling set of spitfire 16th-note arpeggios – cleanly played, precise and rousing every time you hear it.

6. The Jimi Hendrix Experience | “All Along The Watchtower”

GUITARIST: Jimi Hendrix (1968)

The greatest solo in a cover version.

This song tops any list of covers that are better than the original. Guitarists invariably refer to it as a Hendrix cover rather than a Bob Dylan original, proof of how much Hendrix made it his own. Jimi’s rhythm playing is astounding, both in the intro and in the deft chord/ melody work of the verses, and of course, there’s the small matter of four guitar solos to consider. The man many refer to as the best of all time makes the most of his Strat and Marshall rig here, but it’s his offering at the 2:20 mark that we’re interested in. Following an opening run of octaves, he gets into his stride with a typically blues-based minor pentatonic approach in C#.

At 2:32, the main solo explodes into a trademark combination of rhythm and lead, plus funky scratching on muted strings. It’s worth playing along with the scratches, trying to keep a loose wrist and consistent down-up strumming. Those few beats alone will teach you a lot about Jimi’s groove and feel.

To get the sound, select a bridge-position single-coil pickup, dial in delay at around 350ms, add compression for sustain and opt for a Vox wah pedal or something similar. You’ll hear the wind begin to howl.

5. Eagles | “Hotel California”

GUITARISTS: Don Felder & Joe Walsh (1977)

Those iconic twin-guitar harmony lines took the Eagles to new heights.

The title track from the Eagles’ fifth album, and without doubt the song the band will be most remembered for, “Hotel California” frequently tops greatest guitar solo polls. The solo begins at 4:20, forming an extended coda, over which guitarists Don Felder and Joe Walsh trade licks before joining together to play those iconic harmonized licks at 5:39.

As it turns out, those harmony lines work in a relatively simple fashion. Felder and Walsh play an arpeggio of every chord, and the harmony is created by one of the guitars always playing one note lower down in the chord. For example, the notes of the Bm chord are B, D and F#, so, if the higher guitar plays an F#, the lower guitar will play a D, and so on.

This nugget of information can take you a long way to mastering those descending arpeggios. We won’t go as far as to say you could easily work it out by ear, but if you know the chords to the song, it’s possible to jam along. And you can’t say that about many of the solos on this list!

4. Queen | “Bohemian Rhapsody”

GUITARIST: Brian May (1975)

It might just be the biggest rock song of all time.

Following Freddie Mercury’s 1991 death and a cameo moment in 1992’s Wayne’s World, “Bohemian Rhapsody” became a trigger point for a worldwide outpouring of affection and respect for Queen. Their renewed popularity would continue into the new millennium as Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You musical and the band’s discovery of a different way to exist behind frontman Adam Lambert brought their music to a new generation.

And “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Unsurprisingly, it’s Queen’s best-known song, and its brief nine-bar solo is a short and sweet musical interlude, bridging the verses to lead into what’s become known as the song’s “operatic section.” Those two words alone should warn you that this song shouldn’t work. There’s no chorus and, aside from two verses, no repetition. But of course it does work, and Brian May’s solo is the perfect melodic break.

His phrasing is loose and natural, moving across the backbeat rather than sticking to a rigidly timed grid. The fastest licks are expressive bursts, rather than repetitive noodling, and his articulate pre-bend and vibrato technique demonstrates his beautiful touch. Somehow, within the confines of the complex structure of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” this solo is made to order.

3. Led Zeppelin | “Stairway To Heaven”

GUITARIST: Jimmy Page (1971)

Heaven-sent soloing.

From the moment Jimmy Page plays the opening run on his ’59 Fender Telecaster, right through to the flurry of notes and the wailing bend that completes it, this is guitar-solo perfection – a masterpiece of composition. Rather than wander aimlessly, Page creates a song within a song.

The opening phrases set the scene, as he adds notes to the pentatonic scale to follow the song’s final chord progression. A rapid mid-solo repeating lick raises the bar before a game of question-and-answer with a haunting overdubbed guitar leads into that last flurry and bend. As we say, it’s all about the composition: licks that track the chord changes, the contour of the melody and the pacing of the widdly bits all take the listener on a journey.

Three takes were recorded (the other two allegedly still survive, presumably locked in a Led Zeppelin vault somewhere), all of them improvised, although Page has reportedly said that he had worked out the opening line. But while we’re all certainly curious to hear those solos, let’s face it: They’re not going to be any better than the one we’ve come to know and love all these years.

2. Van Halen | “Eruption”

GUITARIST: Eddie Van Halen (1978)

Eddie’s iconic solo that shook the world.

With its mix of fast legato hammer‑ons and pull-offs, pinched harmonics, whammy-bar dives and two-hand tapping, Eddie Van Halen’s mind-blowing instrumental guitar solo inspired a generation of guitar heroes. While the tapping gets the attention, his tone, blistering legato and creative note choices are all equally important. Amid all that virtuosity, Eddie still played with joyous rock and roll abandon.

Remarkably, Ed was never completely happy with the released recording. “I didn’t even play it right,” he told Guitar World. “There’s a mistake at the top end of it. Whenever I hear it, I always think, Man, I could’ve played it better.”

His admission aside, the track is a technical opus. The first eight bars are a bluesy affair, whose virtuoso legato licks perhaps recall the mojo of Jimmy Page’s breakdown solo in Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” It’s a theme Eddie develops over the following eight bars, taking notes from the major and minor pentatonic scales to add chromatics.

His tapping finale is probably one of the least understood solo sections in rock history. Eddie’s taps are not always on the beat, which makes for tricky timing changes as he switches from tapping the first and fourth sextuplet notes to the third and sixth notes. From start to end, “Eruption” is a masterpiece that would take most guitarists a lifetime to perfect.

1. Pink Floyd | “Comfortably Numb”

GUITARIST: David Gilmour (1979)

Gilmour’s greatness comes through in waves.

In a 1992 interview with MTV’s Ray Cokes, Gilmour was asked what he thinks of Keith Richards’ theory that songs, lyrics and guitar solos are “just out there in the air and you sort of grab them.” Gilmour agreed. “I think he’s right. They sort of appear as if they are out there in the air. But I don’t know how they get there.” But the best ones he said, just happen. “The best ones do, but often you work very hard and struggle over them.”

Gilmour's two "Comfortably Numb" solos are certainly among his best, and it’s easy to understand why our readers voted his efforts to be the number-one pick in our poll. But the real question is, which of those two solos qualifies for inclusion? Whichever way you go — and granted, most fans prefer the first solo to the second — there's certainly plenty to justify the song's position at the top.

The tone is legendary. Gilmour’s signal chain consisted of his iconic black Strat, then featuring a DiMarzio FS-1 bridge pickup, into a HiWatt DR103, with the essential EHX Ram’s Head Big Muff pedal. The FS-1’s fatness and the Big Muff’s smoothness leave no hint of the harsh treble that can plague Strats. With some extra help from an MXR Dyna Comp, Gilmour had so much sustain that he could hold notes as long as he wanted. As in his live rig, he combined a WEM 4x12 cab with a Yamaha rotary speaker lower in the mix, to add subtle modulation. The epic delay was added in the mix.

The first solo, in D major, uses the Strat’s neck and bridge pickups together, permitted by a custom switching arrangement. His phrasing here is the more unconventional of the two, with arpeggios and sliding passages. Gilmour’s use of the bar for vibrato – aided by its shortened tremolo arm – again distinguishes him from typical bluesers, inspiring many a fusion player in the process. He rakes into the beginning of many of the phrases, similar to Brian May, extracting all the excitement he can from every note.

By comparison, the outro solo’s licks are more standard, with phrases similar to Hendrix’s. The passages at 4:57 and 5:12 could be from “All Along the Watchtower” or “Foxey Lady,” but in this epic track few listeners would make the connection. It sounds both masterful and improvised at the same time. Gilmour has explained he created this impression by recording five or six takes and compiling the finished solo from the best bits of each. The result is stunningly well written, with a combination of repetition and development that keeps the excitement building for two minutes. The Hendrix-style blues lick returns at 5:27, longer and more intricate than before. The aggressive double-stops first appear at 5:15, and by 5:35 he has turned that idea into a motif.

For the climax, Gilmour shoots up an octave just when it seems he’s wrung every inch of expression from his maple neck. He descends back down the neck, incorporating one of his spectacular three-fret bends on the way, and finishes with another take on that double stop motif. It has all the excitement of an improvised performance, and all the structure of a careful composition.

Both solos share brilliant rhythmic awareness. Gilmour uses triplets, sextuplets, 16th and 32nd notes freely, within the same phrase. And check out the effect at 5:10 when he plays a lick in 16th notes and then immediately repeats and expands in sextuplets. A good solo can have great tone, rhythms, melody or expression, but only a work of rare brilliance features them all to this degree.

Gary Moore’s 1961 Gibson SG Junior, used on Showbiz Blues, and across his Blues for Greeny tribute album to Peter Green, is to be sold at auction.

It’s returning to the auction block just two years after it was last sold alongside a collection of some of Moore’s other beloved guitars, with this rare model being used extensively on stage and in the studio.

The instrument enjoyed its heyday under the Irish blues legend’s fingers three decades after it was built. As auctioneer Luke Hobbs details, it was played on the road by Moore and immortalized on some of his most iconic recordings and performances.

“This guitar was used for some of the press photo sessions for the BBM Tour; Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and Gary Moore,” he says.

“It was also used on some of the sessions for Blues For Greeny and it does appear in the [concert film of the same name].

“And there is one track in particular that this features on, and you can see that up on YouTube, Showbiz Blues. There’s some fantastic playing there where Gary Moore is using a slide but it just sounds incredible.”

Moore, a known modder, seems to have toyed with the instrument after it made its way to him. Its original tuners – included in the lot – have been swapped out for more robust locking tuners, but the real intrigue comes with its sole pickup.

Gibson and Epiphone Junior models are famous for their use of P-90s in favor of the PAF-style humbuckers typically seen on Les Paul and SG-propers.

Yet, while it retains the original pickup, there was a spell when the guitar – as the 2022 auction lot details – was loaded with a Seymour Duncan JBJ humbucker.

Indeed, a close look at Moore’s propulsive Showbiz Blues performance shows the JBJ in place.

It’s not clear if the modification was made by Moore, or if he was the one who re-installed the original pickup – with its original cover sadly lost somewhere along the way – but what is certain is that it’s a guitar with history.

It was built to be played, and Moore played it a lot, as some minor neck and body wear signals.

The guitar’s TV Yellow finish was a staple of Gibson’s ‘50s creations, with the rumor being the colorway was devised to make the instruments look better on television. They were, however, slowly phased out by the early ‘60s, meaning Moore’s may have been one of the last to leave the factory.

Its shape also adds to its rarity. Les Paul Juniors have been mainstays in the guitar world for years, with the likes of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong synonymous with them, but the SG Junior has enjoyed only a slither of that spotlight over the past 60 years.

Gen-Z' ‘guitarist of the people’ Yungblud has helped reverse that trend in recent weeks with the launch of his new signature guitar, what is believed to be Epiphone’s first signature SG Junior.

Moore's guitar ships in an Ibanez case, possibly for another forgotten relic in the Ibanez Musician, with the original case lost long ago. Hobbs says it adds to “the charm” of the guitar.

Moore’s 1995 Blues For Greeny album was a touching tribute to Peter Green, one of his biggest influences and someone he was proud to call a friend.

After Green quit Fleetwood Mac, the guitarist sold his near-mythical Greeny Les Paul to Gary Moore for £100, helping support Moore's career early on.

Suffice to say, he put it to good use, with his performance of Don’t Believe A Word with Thin Lizzy arguably the most famous moment he created with the instrument.

Metallica’s Kirk Hammet is the latest custodian of the guitar, and he takes the “guitar of the people” all over the world with him. He has since worked with Gibson to create multiple replicas of the guitar.

While Moore’s SG Junior isn’t quite as illustrious or well known, it tells its own story, and with ties to Moore and his hero, it will be interesting to see how much the guitar sells for.

Head to Gardiner Houlgate to learn more about the sale.

This interview originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Guitar Player. 

“There’s an Internet radio station based out of London called Planet Rock, and they asked me to host six two-hour blues programs,“ says legendary guitarist and pioneering blues/rock stylist, Gary Moore. “As I was digging around looking for songs to play on the show, I came across some great tunes that I wanted to record myself.“

So when Moore fired up the jets to track his new record, Close As You Get, he composed five originals, and then tore into some Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Son House – whose “Sundown“ closes the record, and features the 55-year-old Moore’s first recorded bottleneck/resonator outing in his 30-plus year career. 

“I used a cheap skinny-bodied thing called an Ozark that’s easy to play because it sits so close to your body,“ he says.

Close As You Get is one of Moore’s most focused – yet varied – blues outings to date. His tones range from the savage to the sublime, and his tunes sport an understated elegance that highlights his vocals, as well as his transcendent guitarcraft.

Did you do anything different during the tracking of Close As You Get as compared to some of your other recent releases?

“I made a couple of rules for myself on this record, and one of them was that I had to track live as much as possible, and not overdub any of my solos. It’s always tempting to say, 'I’ll go back and fix that bit.' So, to make sure I couldn’t do that, I created a situation where there wasn’t much separation between the instruments in the studio. I left the door to my amp booth wide open so my guitar was all over the drum mics!

“My other rule was that I didn’t want to use any pedals. I wanted the tones to be as immediate and in-your-face as possible, and the best way to do that is to eliminate anything extra in the signal path between the guitar and amp. I did, however, use more amps than I typically use on a session. 

“I used a mid-’60s Vox AC30 on the opening track, Chuck Berry’s 'Thirty Days.' That amp, coupled with a Fender Telecaster, gave me a wonderful, rough-edged tone. I also used an Orange Tiny Terror head – a great little amp. I coupled it with a Marshall 2061CX 2x12 on Sonny Boy Williamson’s 'Eyesight to the Blind.' 

“I used a Fender Vibroverb reissue for the spooky reverb sound on 'I Had a Dream,' and for 'Nowhere Fast' and 'Evenin’.' I also used a Marshall DSL head on 'Have You Heard' and 'Checkin’ Up on My Baby.'“

Have you used Fender amps much in the past?

“A little bit. I used a Fender Dual Showman for 'Don’t Believe a Word' on my solo debut, Back on the Streets, from the late ’70s. The Dual Showman was the amp Peter Green was using when I first met him in Dublin. He had two of them – each atop a 2x15 JBL D130-loaded cabinet. But when I tracked 'Don’t Believe a Word,' I ran the Dual Showman through a Marshall 4x12. It softened up the sound beautifully, and took some of the twang out of the stock Fender setup.“

You played Les Pauls early in your career, then you became a Strat guy. The Telecaster is a different guitar for you, isn’t it?

“Oh yeah. I used it on about three tracks on the record. I’m also using it on four songs live, and I’m really enjoying it.

“The Tele was my first proper guitar when I was 14, and the one I’m playing now – a ’68 – is the same year as the one I had as a kid. It’s quite hard to play, but it sounds so good. I mean, it’s fairly easy to coax tones out of a Les Paul, whereas a Telecaster won’t give it up unless you put a lot of physical muscle into it. Strats are the same way, but the tone and dynamics are worth the extra effort. Plus, the Tele tends to lead me into Roy Buchanan territory – which isn’t a bad place to be.“

What types of strings are you currently using?

“I string my guitars with Dean Markleys – sometimes .010-.052, and sometimes a .009-.048 set. Honestly, I only hear the difference in gauge on the bottom strings, not the top. For picks, I use either Gibson or Fender heavy gauges.“

Do you track with onboard amp reverb? 

“A little bit – but since I recorded Still Got the Blues in 1990, I’ve been using an old Alesis Midiverb II on my guitars during mixdown. You can’t even program the thing, but there are a few patches on it that I love. I much prefer the slightly grainier sound of it to expensive studio reverbs – they sound a bit too slick to my ears.“

How do you feel your playing has evolved from Still Got the Blues to now?

“It has changed quite a lot. I feel that if you listen to the new record, and then go back and listen to Still Got the Blues, you’ll almost hear two different guitarists. I think my blues playing has really grown up, in that I’ve learned how to leave more space. And my phrasing – without a doubt the most personal aspect of any guitarist’s playing, regardless of genre – has grown a lot. I’m more conscious about phrasing now than ever, and it has taken me quite a long time to get it where I want it.“

How would you recommend a player work on their phrasing?

“Well, I can tell you what worked for me. The best piece of advice I ever got was from Albert King. He was leaving the studio after we tracked 'Oh, Pretty Woman' for Still Got the Blues, and right as he was walking out the door, he turned to me and said, 'Gary, play every other lick.' That’s all you need to know, isn’t it? 

“It’s quite simple, yet it’s the best thing anyone could ever tell you, because, let’s face it, guitarists are like those guests at a dinner party who think they’ve got the most important thing to say, so they never shut up!'

“So try and leave some big moments of silence in your solos – at least twice as long as what comes to you instinctively. After a while, you get in the habit of hearing those spaces, and the waiting comes naturally. And if you’ve got a good tone, you’ll create this anticipation where the audience can’t wait for the next note. I remember feeling that way when I’d see Peter Green. I was hanging on every note he played. And then, when he would hit the note, it would just go right through me.“

You covered the classic Bluesbreakers/Clapton track “Have You Heard” on your new record, and you were a Peter Green protégé growing up. How deep does the British blues influence run for you?

“Pretty deep. Anyone or anything that influences you that heavily when you’re 14 is going to stick with you throughout your life. I’m not conscious about it, and I think I have my own voice. But if I play, say, a slow minor-key blues, you’ll hear Peter’s influence in both my vocals and my guitar playing. And the Bluesbreaker 'Beano' album with Eric Clapton completely changed my life. 

“I couldn’t afford the album, so I would go over to a friend’s house to listen to it on his little mono record player. Thankfully, he let me borrow it, and I would go home every day after school and drive my mom crazy learning those solos. I didn’t give the guy his record back for six months!“

“When I tracked 'Have You Heard' for the new album, like Clapton, I was using a Les Paul – my ’59. But I would always end up playing the Clapton version because it’s so ingrained in my head. My fingers immediately went to the Clapton licks from that Bluesbreaker record. So, after a few takes, I switched to an ES-335, and that helped me get my own version down.“

Were you a fan of Mick Taylor’s stint in the Bluesbreakers?

“Oh yeah. I saw him when he first joined the Bluesbreakers. He was just 17 years old. He played in Belfast at the same venue where I saw Peter Green for the first time. Belfast had a good blues scene in the late ’60s. 

“I remember watching Taylor standing on the side of the stage right before he was about to go on, and he had a little nail file that he was using to adjust the polepieces on that Les Paul with a Bigsby he used to play. He plugged straight into a 50-watt Marshall and a single 4x12 cab, and he had an absolutely beautiful sound. He did something quite original for the time, as he was always pulling way up on that Bigsby for really wide bends.“

Do you hear your influence on rock players like John Sykes, Vivian Campbell, and Randy Rhoads?

“I do, but they were influenced by one side of my playing – the rock side. I met Randy when he first came to London with Ozzy Osbourne. I really liked that kid. He was so humble. 

“He came to a gig of mine at the Marquee with Ozzy’s wife, Sharon. He loved my tune 'Parisienne Walkways,' and he kept telling Sharon I should release it as a single, even though I already had – and it was a hit! In fact, he liked that track so much he used the melody for the outro solo on Osbourne’s 'Mr. Crowley.' Randy definitely got that from me.“

How objective are you about your playing?

“I live in my own world when it comes to my playing. I think most guitarists do. I’ll walk around thinking, 'I can do this better, or I can do that better' all day long.

“Developing your style and improving is an ongoing process. It’s a lifetime’s work, really. I know the sounds I want, and I know the feeling I want to convey, but it’s a slow process getting that across to the listener. You may not get exactly what you’re hearing in your head, but if you get 75 percent of the way there, then you’re doing pretty good.“

“The blues had a baby,” goes the old Muddy Waters line, “and they named it rock and roll.”

By the early 1960s, though, the family tree had started to get incestuous, as the scratchy, haunting Delta porch songs of yore were hijacked on both sides of the Atlantic by a new strain of blues that applied speed, attitude, volume and chest hair.

Blues had met rock. And it was the start of a beautiful relationship.

Conventional wisdom tells us that blues rock peaked in the mid to late ’60s, and it’s a watertight argument.

From that five-year period alone came world-shaking albums from icons including Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Peter Green’s original Fleetwood Mac.

If you don’t remember the 1960s, then you probably weren’t there. (Or you were too high.)

As the decade drew to a close, the blues-fueled energy of the early ’60s mod clubs had drifted, and all-night dancing had been replaced by a laid-back, dope-smoking vibe.

Key players such as John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Peter Green reached a crossroads in their careers, as the blues scene split between purists and those following the path toward out-and-out rock.

Meanwhile, the likes of Free, Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull took their first steps toward ’70s greatness.

British, Irish and American heroes took the blues, made it their own and turned it into the full-throttle rock that we know today: from the rough-edged ’70s swagger of Rory Gallagher to Jimmy Page, whose love of blues informed Led Zeppelin’s dazzling career.

Many rock subgenres blossom but then wither on the vine. Others are simply cynical media inventions, coined to lump disparate acts into an editorial-friendly pigeonhole.

Blues rock is different. Unlike, say, acid folk or prog jazz, the two ingredients are co-dependent, joined at the hip in both sentiment and musical content.

“No matter what direction rock goes in, it has to stay with the blues,” Eric Clapton once said, “because that’s the spine and body of it.” And if anybody would know, he would. His blistering Les Paul/Marshall tone on John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers’ 1966 debut Beano album defined the blues rock sound.

Celebrating their 60th anniversary this year, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers is a blues rock institution whose alumni also include Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Walter Trout and many other notable musicians.

In this live clip from the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival, blues rock luminary Gary Moore joins John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers for a stunning rendition of “So Many Roads.”

Trading solos with Buddy Whittington, the late Irish guitar legend’s performance is fire.

In 1990, the most extraordinary thing happened. In the midst of the death throes of hair metal and the birth of grunge, former Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore released an album that caught everyone by surprise and took the charts by storm.

The album was Still Got the Blues, a glossy set of originals and covers and, as declared by the title, a very blues-based piece of work.

“I did Still Got the Blues when I was 37 years old, and I went back to the music that I always loved,” Moore explained to Classic Rock in 2007. “It wasn’t commercial, it wasn’t cool. And nobody in a million years could have predicted how successful it became.”

Moore was a guy from Belfast who had a couple of stints in Thin Lizzy but whose blues influences underpinned his playing rather than directly informed it.

He’d first come to attention in the 1970s with a blues-rock band called Skid Row, but it certainly wasn’t what was expected from him at the turn of the ’90s.

It’s not surprising Moore became fascinated with blues-based music. “There was a great blues scene in Belfast,” he said. “All these guitar players used to come up from Cork, like Rory Gallagher. And then we heard about British blues.”

Indeed, it wasn’t the post-war Mississippi Delta musicians who were influencing Moore’s guitar playing. “I mean, I’d heard the name Robert Johnson,” he said, “but the acoustic blues didn’t mean anything to me at all.

“It wasn’t even so much the song and lyrics at first; it was all about the emotion of the electric guitar.”

And that’s really where it all began for the young guitar hero, in particular with John Mayall’s 1966 album, Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton. “That album was a real turning point for me,” Moore recalled. “That was the stuff I really knew about. My friend had the album, and I spent all my time around his house. I was very passionate about this new sound.

“I took the guy’s album and I ruined it by playing it over and over. I came home from school and learned all the sounds, and learned all the songs note for note. I could just relate to it somehow.”

The fact that Clapton was creating those sounds had a tremendous impact on Moore, not only with respect to his playing but also in his choice of instrument.

“The first time I heard Clapton play guitar, it changed my life,” Moore said. “I was already learning to play, but something very profound happened when I heard that record. Within two seconds of the opening track, I was blown away.”

Moore adopted a Gibson Les Paul as his weapon of choice – a decision influenced as much by Clapton as by his other blues hero, Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green – and after a self-imposed apprenticeship with Clapton began to discover the old-school blues players for himself.

But by using Clapton and Green as a key influence, Moore took their blues essence and injected it with a high-octane fire that would go on to characterize his playing with Thin Lizzy, where melody is fused with traditional blues lines.

He was even more impressive onstage, where the passion was visible in his performance.

“That’s the thing with the blues,” he said. “Even if you’re playing the rock stuff, it instills a sense of emotion into you, and into your playing.”

Sadly, Moore died of a heart attack on February 6, 2011, at the age of just 58.

Order Still Got the Blues by Gary Moore here.

This interview with Gary Moore was originally published in the February 2009 issue of Guitar Player.

Plenty of guitarists have received more acclaim in the rock arena than Gary Moore. Others have gotten more nods from headbangers. And certainly there are bluesmen with more cachet than Moore. But good luck finding a single guitarist who has garnered the kind of critical acclaim and commercial success that the Belfast, Ireland, native has had in all three genres.

While still a teen, Moore caught the eye of Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green. Besides becoming a seminal influence on the young guitarist, Green helped Moore’s then-band Skid Row (no relation to the ’80s hair metal band) seal a record deal. He also sold Moore his famed “out-of-phase” ’59 Gibson Les Paul that would become his main guitar for years to come.

Shortly thereafter, Moore’s eclectic side emerged. He started his own trio – taking up vocal duties in the process – before serving several stints with Thin Lizzy, appearing on an album by classical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and adding licks to projects by drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Greg Lake. 

In the early ’80s, he issued a series of metal-tinged albums full of impressive guitar work before turning back to his roots with his 1990 masterpiece, Still Got the Blues. Though it featured guest appearances by heavyweights such as Albert King, Albert Collins, and George Harrison, it was Moore’s tasty tones and incredibly lyrical lead work that won the album accolades worldwide. 

In 2008, Moore released, Bad for You Baby, one of his gutsiest and most compelling blues statements in years.

Did you have an overarching goal in terms of feel or tones when you began this project?

"I wanted to capture more of the energy of my live playing. We were touring all last year, finished in November, and, by January, I was back in the studio. If you record after a tour, your playing is strong, your chops are up, your energy is up, your inspiration is there, and you’ve got ideas for songs. So the best thing to do is get in and make a record as soon as possible – before that post-tour energy dies off."

Throughout your career you’ve employed numerous traditional blues forms and progressions, but your tone usually has a lot more gain and bite than that of traditional blues guitarists.

"Absolutely. And I’ll tell you why. I played rock for a long time, and then I made Still Got the Blues in 1990, starting off very quietly, and going back to the early Fleetwood Mac kind of format. Then I realized, 'Man, if I play like this, everyone is going to think I’m faking it. It’s not going to sound like me.' So I decided to keep more of the rock guitar sound. 

"I’ve tried to get a modern, less high-gain version of that natural sound that Clapton had in the ’60s. And I’ve pretty much done that ever since – except for Blues for Greeny [Moore’s 1995 Peter Green tribute], where I emulated Peter’s tone as much as I could."

What gear did you use for Bad for You Baby?

"I didn’t use my ’59 Les Paul at all. I played a goldtop Gibson Vintage Original Spec Les Paul on 'I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know' and 'Trouble Ain’t Far Behind,' and a ’61 Gibson ES-335 on 'Did You Ever Feel Lonely' and 'Holding On.' I played the ES-335 through a little brown Tolex Fender Vibroverb reissue from 1989, because I wanted a very old-fashioned sound on those two songs. 

"I used a ’68 Fender Telecaster on 'Down the Line' – the fast country-blues one – and 'Walkin’ Thru the Park.' I had played that Tele on the first track of Still Got the Blues, called 'Moving On,' but I’d never used it for playing lead before. Somebody changed the neck, so I don’t know what year it is, but it plays great, and it has a very aggressive, Albert Collins-type vibe."

Did you plug into any other amps?

"I used a Fender Dual Showman head, which is what Peter Green used with Fleetwood Mac. The original cabinet had two 15-inch JBLs, but I never liked those, so I use it with a Marshall 4x12 cab loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s. I used that and a custom German solidbody with Bare Knuckle pickups – which are kind of out of phase to give you a Peter Green vibe – on 'Someday Baby.' 

"I just ran both pickups up full, and I went straight into the amp for that song. I used a Marshall DSL 2000 for a couple of things, and I used the ES-335 through a Marshall 1959 SPLX head – which is basically an old 1959 with an effects loop – on 'Did You Ever Feel Lonely.' That amp has a very dirty sound – almost like it’s about to blow up.

"I used DSLs from about 1996 until last year, but now I’m using two Marshall 1959HWs – the handwired reissues – onstage for a really nice, big, round sound. They have more presence and a rawer sound than the DSLs, with a feel that’s closer to that of the amps Cream and Hendrix used. 

"I’m also having a signature Marshall built that will try to incorporate all those qualities. I’m going for a 100-watt head like the old 1959 Super Lead – with a spring reverb and the four inputs – but it will have a switch that links the inputs internally so you don’t have to jumper them. It’ll also have a half-power switch, and a boost with just enough gain to give a lift to solos."

What effects are you using these days?

"I use a DigiTech reverb pedal because the handwired Marshalls don’t have reverb. I used a Roger Mayer Stone Fuzz on the opening track, and I really like the T-Rex Moller, which has a clean boost on one side and an overdrive on the other. I also use the T-Rex Mudhoney distortion/overdrive and Replica delay pedals on 'All Your Love' and '30 Days' to get those rockabilly-type sounds. The Mudhoney has a nice, warm tone. I’ll also be using a T-Rex chorus on the next tour."

“Preacher Man Blues” has sort of a Booker T. & the MG's/Steve Cropper feel to it, and you really lay back and take a backseat to the rhythm and harmonica.

"The whole song has a very held-back feel, so you have to really pull back on the solos and not rush ahead. When you get to those solo breaks, you have to play them really dirty, and then pull right back. That very thin, hard sound is a red Gibson Firebird I picked up in Finland last year. That guitar has a nice twang to it, and it really brings out the twang from the spring reverb. I played the harmonica myself, which I’ve never done before."

How did you get into singing?

"I began singing when I couldn’t find a singer and had just given up trying. I got sick of the singers I was working with because there were always problems. I hated singing rock, though. It wasn’t until I discovered the blues that I started to enjoy singing. I brought the song keys down a bit, and I didn’t play rhythm guitar through every song, so I was kind of answering myself with the guitar, which made it a lot more interesting."

You’ve dabbled in a lot of styles over the years, but you’ve stayed largely in the blues-rock realm for the last stretch. Are your experimental days behind you?

"No, I would never say that. Otis Taylor, who I play with, wants me to do an acoustic album. He had me playing banjo and lots of acoustic instruments this year, so that is a possibility. I’d also like to make a cover album of songs from when I was growing up in the ’60s, but I’d do my own versions, rather than trying to capture the original sounds. That would be experimental by nature, because that era was so psychedelic.

"I just saw Jeff Beck last week, and he got me thinking about sounds on the guitar again, because he was using so many different tones. He had ring modulators and lots of reverbs and delays, and they really worked for him. He had a beautiful sound, and it made me realize that sometimes you should be a bit more sonically adventurous."

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.

Often cited as the best blues guitar player to emerge from England, Peter Green began his brief career with the unenviable task of replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall's band. Recorded in '66, A Hard Road – the second Bluesbreakers studio album – proved Green and his '59 Les Paul were up to the task.

While sharing Clapton's respect for American bluesmen, the 21-year-old Green had his own take on Les Paul tone.

His quick, stinging vibrato; penchant for clean, cutting timbres (often drenched with reverb); acute sense of dynamics; and unmatched melodic subtlety set him apart from all English blues players before or since.

Green's haunting, 10-second-long sustained notes in the instrumental "The Super-Natural" established him as England's new tone god.

After a short stay in the Bluesbreakers, Green left to form Fleetwood Mac, which played its first gig at the '67 Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival.

Green wrote prolifically for the band, penning "Albatross" (rumored to have inspired the Beatles' "Sun King"), "Black Magic Woman," "Rattlesnake Shake," and "Oh Well."

In early '68, the group's debut album, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, reached #4 on the British charts. Soon Green added the 18-year-old Danny Kirwan – whose beautiful playing bore an uncanny resemblance to Green's own – to create a twin Les Paul lineup.

In '70, Green abruptly left Mac and the music biz. He sold his magic Paul – with its unique, snarky honk and mysteriously wired pickups – to Gary Moore, who used it to record Blues for Greeny, a 1995 collection of 11 Green originals rendered with tone and heart.

During his brief career, Green played through a variety of tube amps – including a Marshall head and 4x12 cab (A Hard Road) and Orange half-stacks (early Mac).

Most often, however, he wailed through silverface Fender Twin Reverb and Deluxe combos.

Peter Green’s famous '59 Les Paul – now dubbed ‘Greeny’ – currently belongs to Kirk Hammett who acquired the iconic electric guitar from U.K. guitar dealer Richard Henry.

“I rolled into London and I called him up and said, ‘Hey, Rich. What have you got for me? Anything interesting?’” recalled Hammett.

“I plugged it in and I checked the bridge pickup. It sounded nice, bright, full. Great tone. The tonal spectrum was very, very smooth from low to high. I checked the neck pickup. I thought, ‘Oh my God. This is so nice.’ It has that full-on Still Got The Blues sound; I recognised it instantly.

“Then, you know, I put it in the middle position and started playing and all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Holy… Lord!’ I looked up at Richard and I said, ‘I’m not giving this guitar back to you guys.’”

Hammett, who regularly plays Greeny live and in the studio, wowed the audience at an all-star Peter Green tribute performance hosted by Mick Fleetwood at the London Palladium in 2020.

“It was amazing,” said Hammett. “It was a full circle thing for me having Peter Green’s guitar and playing “The Green Manalishi.” That song has been with me for a very, very long time. And to be able to play it with Mick Fleetwood and a bunch of other players who just understand that era of Fleetwood Mac was an amazing thing.

“Greeny was so at home with that song, and all the tones were just sitting there waiting to be used inside of her. It was a transcendental experience. When it came time to do the solo, I dug deep. I didn’t know what I was going to play, but having Greeny in my hands and with that Marshall Bluesbreaker and with that band, I knew I was going to be okay.”

Mike Bloomfield is known to have possessed benchmark tone. And while a great deal of that sound was down to his inimitable touch, Bloomfield’s go-to electric guitar was a Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Along with other hard rocking blues guitar heroes such Gary Moore, Paul Kossoff and Jimmy Page, Bloomfield has long been synonymous with the ‘Burst, though Gibson’s iconic single-cutaway solidbody is not the first Les Paul he owned.

Having pored over Gibson catalogs for years he was first introduced to the joys of a Les Paul when his guitar teacher gave him a top-of-the-range “fretless wonder” Les Paul Custom model.

In the mid-‘60s, while on tour with the Butterfield Blues Band, Bloomfield became aware of British guitarists such as Keith Richards, Peter Green and Eric Clapton playing the ‘mid-priced’ Standard model which was prized for its sustain, volume and tone.

Along with these famed British guitarists, Bloomfield did much to popularize the Les Paul Standard and help create a demand that has shown little sign of slowing down since the '60s. Indeed, the sunburst Les Paul is by far Gibson’s most successful electric guitar design.

Following its discontinuation in 1960 when it was superseded by the thin-bodied, double-cutaway SG-style, the single-cutaway Les Paul format was eventually reintroduced in 1968, thanks to players like Bloomfield who used it to devastating effect – as show in this classic live clip.

Performing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 with The Electric Flag, Bloomfield pulls a dynamite solo out of the bag that perfectly encapsulates what the 'Burst is capable of doing in the right hands.

Browse the Mike Bloomfield catalog here.

We’ve all seen pedalboards that look like the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon or a futuristic scale model of Manhattan. These days it seems as if there are no limits to their complexity. But back in the early ‘80s, the pedalboard concept was just beginning to catch on as Boss continued to expand their catalog of compact pedals.

When Boss unveiled their BCB-6 “Carrying Box” in the early ‘80s they introduced the idea of owning a pedalboard to countless guitar players the world over. And as the variety of guitar effects pedals became ever more numerous a growing number of guitarists began to customize their floor rigs in a practical and affordable way.

Along with many other pro level guitarists such as Joe Walsh and Robert Smith, Gary Moore was an early adopter of the BCB-6, using it alongside a DS-1 Distortion to conveniently house a CE-3 Chorus, DM-2 Delay, OC-2 Octaver, BF-2 Flanger, and PSM-5 Power Supply & Master Switch.

In this clip taken from the BBC television series Rockschool you can get a close-up look at Moore’s pedalboard as he demos these ‘80s vintage stompboxes.

To some, Moore’s pedalboard might appear rather basic but back then the BCB-6 was among some of the most exciting, cutting-edge guitar gear on offer. And let’s not forget it was developed by Boss merely 5 years or so after their very first compact pedals appeared in 1977 (the OD-1 Over Drive, PH-1 Phaser, and SP-1 Spectrum.)

In more recent years, Boss has revisited the “Carrying Box” idea and their current Pedal Board line-up consists of the BCB-60-derived BCB-90X, the smaller-size BCB-30X, and the suitcase-style BCB-1000.

In the first part of our lesson in navigating the last four bars of a blues guitar progression – the so-called “blues turnaround” – we looked at the styles of T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Albert King, Peter Green and Eric Clapton. In this second part we conclude our study with a look at how guitar greats Carlos Santana, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford and Larry Carlton create soulful and harmonically effective melodies in their turnarounds, adding melodic and harmonic interest and resolution that leads the song back to the start of a new verse.

As we saw previously, a turnaround is usually improvised and generally occurs in the last two bars of a blues or jazz standard. In the context of a 12-bar blues progression, the vocal melody typically 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 provide interest and forward momentum for the progression to loop back to its start.

Turnaround licks are frequently played over four chords (two per bar), usually I-IV-I-V or the jazzier I-VI-ii-V (lowercase Roman numerals indicate minor-type chords), but there are many variations, as these lessons demonstrate. 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).

As per the previous lesson, each player will be represented here with three examples that cover major and minor keys and feature a range of grooves and tempos. In addition, because some licks can be interchanged between major and minor keys, our examples will start on the same root note. Once again, the examples are presented as they would occur in the last four bars of a 12-bar blues progression – bars 9 through 12. Remember that turnarounds also function as intros and can be used to launch a blues song or guitar solo.

Carlos Santana’s famously Latin-influenced style and thick, singing tone provide a unique flavor to his blues playing. Performed in the key of F minor, the Santana-style turnaround changes in Ex. 1 (bars 11 and 12) are a variation on a jazzy i-VI-II-V progression, with tritone substitutions applied to what would be the VI and V chords (D and C), which become bIII (Ab) and bII (Gb), respectively. The lead melody in these bars begins on an Fm7 arpeggio (F Ab C Eb), which then follows the chromatically descending chord sequence by targeting the 5th of each chord.

Throughout his career, Santana has excelled at the moody minor blues style, as shown in Ex. 2’s i-vi-ii-V turnaround, also played in the key of F minor. Interestingly, while the progression is based overall on the F natural minor scale (F G Ab Bb C Db Eb), with its minor, or “flatted,” sixth and seventh scale degrees (Db and Eb), the vi chord in the turnaround, Dm7b5, is rooted on the major sixth scale degree, which is “borrowed” from the parallel F melodic minor scale (F G Ab Bb C D E).

Notice how this is highlighted in bar 11, perfectly outlining the underlying Dm7b5 chord. Likewise, the V chord in bar 12, C7aug, is native to the parallel F harmonic minor scale (F G Ab Bb C Db E). This kind of use of modal mixture – borrowing notes and chords from different, parallel modes based on the same root – adds color to a progression by offering different “flavors” of major or minor to the harmony.

Ex. 3 offers a Santana-inspired I-VI-ii-V turnaround phrase in the key of F major, in which the VI chord (D7) is non-diatonic, meaning not native to the parent F major scale, but is rather the temporary V chord of the ii chord, Gm, or, more simply, the “V of ii.” Notice how the third of D7, F#, is deliberately played on beat three of bar 11. Targeting a chord tone on the change in this way, especially the third, fifth or seventh. is a highly effective technique to employ to achieve a harmonically strong melody.

Gary Moore’s blues soloing style was soulfully passionate and hard hitting, often characterized by wide, ferocious finger vibrato and a bold, high-gain tone, but he also had a softer, jazzier side, which informs Ex. 4. Played in the key of G, the progression here includes a I-VI-ii-V turnaround (G7-E7- Am7-D7). Notice the way notes from the parallel scales G major pentatonic (G A B D E) and G minor pentatonic (G Bb C D F) are liberally combined and how in bars 11 and 12 the use of notes from G minor pentatonic add altered tensions to the E7 and D7 chords.

Moore also explored fusion with his band Colosseum II in the mid ’70s, and Ex. 5’s I-bVI-ii-V turnaround in the key go G minor (Gm-Ebmaj7-Am7b5-D7#9) is idiomatic to that style. The melody notes here are based mostly on G minor pentatonic, but notice in bar 11 the addition of the second, or ninth, A, and how the G harmonic minor scale (G A Bb C D Eb F#) is employed in bar 12 to generate D Phrygian-dominant sounds over the D7#9 chord.

Ex. 6 is a Moore-style solo passage played over a medium blues shuffle in the key of G, with a standard I-IV-I-V turnaround in bars 11 and 12 (G7-C7- G7-D7). Despite the use of nothing more than the G minor pentatonic scale, with the exception of the first note, A, which alludes to D minor pentatonic (D F G A C) over the V chord, D7, every chord change is beautifully acknowledged and outlined, due to the placement of the notes.

Stevie Ray Vaughan pioneered a blues rebirth in the ’80s, achieving a bold, muscular and distinctive electric guitar voice while remaining faithful to the heritage and language of the blues. 

Performed in the key of A, Ex. 7 presents an SRV-style lead phrase played over a I-Ib7-IV-IVm-I-V turnaround with a descending bass line (achieved through the use of chord inversions) that illustrates how parallel major and minor pentatonic sounds can be mixed, T-Bone Walker-style, to create licks that are both cool- and warm-sounding. Notice the inclusion in bar 11 of the high B note, which is the ninth of A. This note lends a sophisticated, “uptown” quality to the melody.

Played in the key of A minor, the i-iv-i-V turnaround in Ex. 8 (Am-Dm-Am-E7#9) is another example of “forward thinking.” Here, the first chord of the turnaround, Am, is anticipated with an A minor pentatonic lick at the end of bar 10. Notice also the trademark SRV hybrid-picked double-stops with grace-note hammer-ons in bar 11, which create a soulful, organ-like sound. In bar 12, A minor pentatonic licks provide altered tensions to the V chord, E7#9, with C serving as the #5, or b13, relative to E.

Presented in the key of A, Ex. 9 is a perfect example of how to simplify your turnaround approach, à la Stevie. Here, think only of the I and IV chords, A7 and D7. By ensuring your ideas and phrasing are strong, you can play over the entire sequence with an A blues-scale (A C D Eb E G) lick that concludes on the V chord (E7) on beat three of bar 12. Remember, it always sounds good to anticipate the resolution a beat or a half a beat early, as demonstrated here.

Robben Ford spent many years working as a sideman for acts that included the Yellow Jackets and Miles Davis before he set the world alight with his 1988 solo album, Talk to Your Daughter. The record showcased his virtuoso bluesy-fusion style, which he delivered with a fat, organic tone that many other players try to emulate. Ex. 10 shows a simple, yet effective Ford-style approach to a turnaround in the key of B that applies a descending phrase in bar 11, which creates a cool-sounding contrary motion against the ascending bass line.

Ex. 11 is a Ford-style phrase played over a i-vi-ii-V turnaround in the key of B minor. Remember that the vi chord in a minor turnaround (G#m7b5, in this case) is almost always rooted on the major sixth interval, relative to the tonic key (see Ex. 2). This is highlighted in bar 11 here, where a G# note is played on beat three. In bar 12, the ii chord (C#m7b5) is intentionally and effectively ignored to allow more time and space for a lick based on the tense-sounding F# Super-locrian mode (F# G A Bb C D E) to play out across the entire bar. This provides a strong, welcome resolution to the Bm tonic chord in bar 13 (bar 1 of the next 12-bar chorus).

Ford will frequently add the major-sixth interval to the minor pentatonic, allowing him to create a 13th sound over the tonic chord, as demonstrated in bar 11 of the I-IV-I-V turnaround shown in the key of B in Ex. 12. As the progression moves to the IV chord (E7), the tonic minor blues scale (B D E F F# A) is used to craft a long, rolling-and-tumbling phase that fits the chord perfectly. In bar 12 the B major tonality is acknowledged with a double-stop hammer-on, from the minor third of B, D, to the major third, D#. Note how the lick concludes on the b7 of the V chord, F#7, on beat three, with a chromatic “walk-down from F# to F to E.

Larry Carlton’s early influences included jazz guitarists Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery and blues virtuoso B.B. King. His blues playing is marked by beautifully sophisticated and tasteful phrasing that’s never overly complex, and always features his trademark wide dynamic range. Played in the key of E, Ex. 13 is a jazzy-bluesy turnaround in Carlton’s style. Note the use of the B.B. King “blues box” in tonic position throughout bar 11 and later transposed to fit the V chord (B7) in the following bar (starting with the bend to the 14th fret).

Ex. 14, in the key of E minor, offers a Carlton-style phrase played over a i-bVI-ii-V minor turnaround (Em-Cmaj7- F#m7b5-B7aug). The bVI chord in a minor turnaround shares the essential chord tones of the tonic minor and can effectively be ignored, hence the cool double-stop fourths in bar 12 that seem to float across the changes. These are followed in bar 13 by a major-sixth double-stop that outlines the ii chord’s b3 and b5 (A and C, respectively).

Ex. 15 wraps up our lesson with a Carlton-style phrase shown in the key of D and played over a I-VI-i-V turnaround (D7-B7-Em7-A7). In this final lick there’s a reminder of the effectiveness of mixing parallel major and minor pentatonic scales in your turnaround licks, in this case D major pentatonic (D E F# A B) and D minor pentatonic (D F G A C).

In bar 11 the D major tonality is enhanced by chromatically approaching the major third, F#, from a half step below, via a decorative finger slide. The rest of the lick draws from D minor pentatonic, highlighting chord tones and color notes from the accompanying harmony. Carlton does this effortlessly, and to achieve his level of easy sophistication will take dedicated practice and listening.

This live performance of "Don't Believe a Word" is probably one of the best clips of Gary Moore playing 'Greeny' you could hope to see. Filmed in the late ‘70s for the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test an unbeatable line-up of classic rock luminaries includes Moore's Thin Lizzy bandmates, guitarist Scott Gorham and bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott; Deep Purple keys player Don Airey; and Jeff Beck/Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell.

Released in 1978, Back on the Streets was Moore’s first solo album following 1973’s Grinding Stone by The Gary Moore Band, and features the top-ten UK hit co-penned with Lynott, “Parisienne Walkways”. "Don't Believe a Word" (written by Lynott) is the second track from Back on the Streets and also appears on Thin Lizzy’s 1976 long-player Johnny the Fox.

Of equal star appeal in this incredible rendition is one of the most famous electric guitars in the world – the now legendary 'Greeny' Les Paul Standard that once belonged to Fleetwood Mac blues guitar hero Peter Green. In the early ‘70s, Moore and Green became good friends, and after accepting Green’s offer to borrow his ‘Burst, Moore promptly fell in love with it, taking the guitar everywhere he went. Happy that his guitar had found a good home Green later insisted on taking around £100 in exchange. 

Suffice to say, Moore soon put 'Greeny' to good use.

The current custodian of 'Greeny' – Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett – is also known to take the guitar everywhere with him. A big fan of both Peter Green and Gary Moore, Hammett says he sees 'Greeny' as “the people’s guitar”. Known to enjoy using the ‘Burst for its intended purpose of being played he says, “This guitar wants to be heard. I’m doing all I can to make sure it’s still being heard by playing it live, recording with it, and having people see it and hear it in real-time… I want to share the magic of this guitar, because it gives so much. It gives more than any other guitar I’ve ever played in my life.”

Last week, Gibson announced they will be collaborating with Hammett on a new line of signature Gibson and Epiphone models. “It’s a really great and exciting time for me to be joining forces with Gibson,” said the guitarist. “I look forward to achieving great things together in the future.”

Rumours abound as to whether or not this will include a Greeny model. Watch this space for more news!

Get the The Old Grey Whistle Test, Volumes 1-3: The Definitive Collection here.

It's no exaggeration to say that Eddie Van Halen's volcanic displays of virtuosity, showmanship, and technical prowess on the electric guitar changed the instrument forever. 

In his wake, his techniques inspired untold thousands of young, up-and-coming guitarists to bend the rules and dare to take the guitar to parts unknown.

What might be a little less obvious though, is how Eddie left a mark on his already-established guitar god peers.

In an excerpt from Paul Brannigan's upcoming book, Eruption: The Eddie Van Halen Story (published exclusively by Louder), Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham recounts the first Van Halen gig he, Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, and then-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore ever saw, at Detroit's Cobo Arena on September 14, 1978.

What the trio witnessed left even them – seasoned rock veterans already – dumbstruck.

"We were on the same label in America, Warners, and whenever we hooked up with anyone from the label, you always heard, 'Wow, man, I was just out with Van Halen – what a fucking band!’" Gorham says in the book. "It got to the point where Phil would tell them, 'Look, if you get into this fucking car, you’re not going to talk about Van Halen, all right?'

"So we were interested in this band we’d heard so much about. And these boys came on and just shredded everybody a brand-new asshole. They were amazing. When Eddie started doing his tapping thing, I turned around to Gary [Moore] and said, 'What the fuck is that? What is he doing there?' Gary was just staring at him, and he said, 'I don’t know.' 

"Ten minutes later, I went to ask Gary another question, and he was gone. The next day, I was standing in his hotel room, and he said, 'Hey, check this out...' and he started tapping away. He’d gone back to the hotel the night before to teach himself how to do it."

If, like Moore on that fateful night, you now find yourself in the mood to learn (or brush up on) Eddie Van Halen's tapping approach, give our EVH techniques primer a read here. 

The goal to building single-note playing technique and increasing speed is a popular and passionate one among many improvising guitarists in a variety of musical styles.

While there are several paths one can follow to develop the finger strength and dexterity required to perform fast, clean licks and runs, you’ll find there’s much to gain by taking a small fragment of a scale or arpeggio and drilling on it until it becomes comfortable and seemingly effortless to perform. 

In this lesson, I’d like to show you what I find to be a particularly effective approach to achieving this objective, and that is to use what some call a “pivot” arpeggio as a musical springboard to generate cool-sounding repetition licks that flow and work well in a variety of musical contexts. 

We’ll begin by focusing on a popular arpeggio-based pivot lick that has been employed by many rock, metal, and jazz players alike. As you work through the examples and concepts presented in this lesson, you’ll hopefully learn how to generate your own variations based on a single musical idea. 

Doing this will no doubt expand your repertoire of licks, so this is a worthwhile pursuit for any aspiring lead guitarist. Let’s get started!

At the core of this lesson is the aforementioned pivot arpeggio, which may be thought of as a major seven shape. 

After a quick listen to Gary Moore’s opening guitar solo in “End of the World,” from his classic album Corridors of Power, you’ll locate the origin of this timeless and breathtaking legato phrase. 

During the middle section of Moore’s solo, you’ll hear him distinctly perform a fluid legato repetition lick (performed in two different fretboard positions) that has since filtered into the playing of countless other guitarists over the years. 

Example 1 depicts a basic version of this celebrated lick, performed here on the D and G strings, in the key of E minor and at a moderate speed, using an eighth-note triplet rhythm. 

In terms of notes and their melodic-harmonic function, we have the note set G, E, C, B, which forms a Cmaj7 arpeggio and, relative to an E minor tonal center, give us the minor third, root note, minor sixth, and perfect fifth, respectively, painting an Em(addb6) sound, which lives within the E Aeolian mode (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D), also known as the E natural minor scale.

Practice the repeating note pattern slowly until you get a feel for how the phrase should flow and develop the two-hand coordination necessary to perform it quickly, seamlessly, and with minimal effort, which you’ll discover entails keeping both hands as relaxed as possible and using economy of motion – small, efficient movements.

As you practice the lick, strive for a connected sound as the movement between the two strings and slurred activity begin to merge. 

The pivot here is the C note located on the D string’s 10th fret, which functions as a sort of hinge or fulcrum connecting the B note on the D string’s ninth fret and the E note located at the same fret on the G string. After this pivot and string cross is performed, the six-note sequence begins again on beat three, on the 12th-fret G note, and the entire cycle repeats.

After you’ve practiced this lick a bunch of times at a slower tempo and acquire a feel for how it’s supposed to flow, you can kick it into high gear by performing it twice as fast at the same tempo, as 16th-note triplets, as demonstrated in Example 2. 

This figure recalls the blistering flurry of notes heard in Moore’s “End of the World” solo, and as you play through the example, notice that once you’ve performed the entire six-note sequence four times (in bar 1) it shifts down a half step and one fret (in bar 2), from the key center of E minor to Eb minor.

Once you’re comfortable playing the lick this way, shift it up an octave to a higher fretboard position and the top two strings, as illustrated in Example 3. 

This phrase recalls the octave shift you’ll hear Moore employ during his aforementioned solo. Notice that we’re employing the same fingering shape and movement on the top two strings that we used previously on the D and G strings, only now we’re three frets higher up the fretboard.

Example 4 introduces a variation to our previous six-note sequence, by reaching up to the high note A at the 17th fret and substituting that note for the 15th-fret G every other time. 

This move requires a bit of a fret-hand stretch and some limberness to reach the high A note with your pinky, so be patient, and make sure your hands are warmed up first before attempting this move. 

With practice, it will become easier to execute. Note that, as you reach for the A note, you can shift your fret hand up the neck slightly, then quickly shift it back down the play the E note at the 12th fret again with your index finger. 

The introduction of the high A note adds variety and color to the sound of the lick and transforms our six-note sequence into a longer and more interesting 12-note phrase. It also reveals a new harmonic application that we can explore with this idea, which is to repurpose it to the key of A minor, producing cool, jazzy Am9 and Am(add9) sounds.

Example 5 offers a Steve Vai-inspired eight-note variation on our pivot arpeggio that’s played in a faster rhythm of 32nd notes and includes both the G and A notes, beginning with a pick-hand tap on the A note, followed by two pull-offs to the fret hand. 

You can hear Vai utilizing this type of lightning-fast, dizzying phrase in several of his songs, typically performed in conjunction with his wah pedal, which he’ll often use to accent specific notes, giving his solos an aggressive edge.

In Example 6, we have another Vai-influenced tapping variation on our lick, now played in the context of the key of D minor. Here we’re shifting the fret-hand shape down two frets, to 10th position, then back up to 12th position while keeping the tapped A note stationary throughout. 

This variation creates a unique twist to the sound of the phrase and transforms it into an even longer and more interesting two-bar idea. As you play around with this and the other examples presented in this lesson, use your imagination and creativity and try exploring and experimenting with different keys and tonal centers and transposing both the left- and right-hand notes to different frets.

Also inspired by Steve Vai, Example 7 presents another harmonic repurposing of our original six-note pivot arpeggio sequence, similar to a fast legato run the guitarist played in his solo on the David Lee Roth song “Ladies Nite in Buffalo." 

Here we’re starting out with what looks like a Cmaj7 shape played in 12th position, which, when played over a D bass note, implies either a D Dorian (D-E-F-G-A-B-C) or D Mixolydian (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C) sound. 

In bar 2, we shift the shape up a perfect fourth and five frets, to 17th position, which gives us an Fmaj7 shape and a cool Dm9 (D-F-A-C-E) sound. Try to make the abrupt position shift sound smooth and seamless.

Example 8 is inspired by Nuno Bettencourt’s brilliant intro solo in the Extreme song “Mutha (Don’t Wanna Go to School Today),” from the band’s eponymously-titled debut album, and offers another highly useful variation on our six-note pivot arpeggio shape. 

Here we’re moving up the fretboard through a series of implied chord changes and arpeggio movements, using both our familiar Cmaj7 shape (bar 1), transposed up to Fmaj7 in bar 4 – and a new, minor-seven shape (bars 2 and 3), which incorporates the use of wider intervals and finger stretches and may be analyzed as Dm7 then Em7, or F6, and G6, respectively. 

This extended run should ideally be articulated quickly and cleanly, so practice nailing the position shifts from bar to bar, with the goal of producing a seamless flow of notes across the entire four-bar phrase. 

Notice how this example moves through an Em-F-G-Am chord progression, which reveals another path that you can explore with this concept – matching the underlying chords of a progression with shifting melodic arpeggio shapes.

There’s much to be learned and earned from taking a short musical idea and expanding and developing it into variations and longer phrases of connected repeating sequences. 

This “reduce, reuse, and recycle” musical mentality is crucial to understanding how you can borrow a musical lick or phrase and creatively transform it into a seemingly endless assortment of new sounds and possibilities. 

Now that you’ve fully-explored this pivot arpeggio idea, branch out and look to discover additional licks and phrases from other guitarists whose playing you admire. Doing so will help you uncover even more variations, fresh sounds, and new ideas to put your own stamp on. Good luck!

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.

Back in February, it was announced that a new Gary Moore album – featuring previously unreleased original songs and never-before-heard alternate versions of Moore favorites – would be released in April.

Titled How Blue Can You Get, news of the album came with the release of its first single, the Moore-penned ballad, "In My Dreams." 

Now, a second single from the album – a previously unreleased cover of Freddie King's "I'm Tore Down" – has been unveiled. You can check it out below.

Compiled from recordings in the Moore family archives, How Blue Can You Get heavily showcases Moore's love for classic blues, with versions of Elmore James' "Done Somebody Wrong" and additional, previously unreleased takes on Memphis Slim's "Steppin' Out" and BB King's 1964 hit, "How Blue Can You Get."

It's set for an April 30 release via Provogue.

You can check out How Blue Can You Get's cover art and tracklist below. To preorder the album, step right this way.

For more on Moore and his music, stop by gary-moore.com.

Gary Moore – How Blue Can You Get

1. I'm Tore Down
2. Steppin' Out
3. In My Dreams
4. How Blue Can You Get
5. Looking At Your Picture
6. Love Can Make A Fool Of You
7. Done Somebody Wrong
8. Living With The Blues

A new Gary Moore album – featuring previously unreleased original songs and never-before-heard alternate versions of Moore favorites – will be released this spring.

Titled How Blue Can You Get, it was compiled from recordings in the Moore family archives, and will be released on April 30 via Provogue.

You can check out the album's first single, the Moore-penned ballad, "In My Dreams," below.

In addition to "In My Dreams," the album features another previously unreleased Moore original, "Looking At Your Picture."

How Blue Can You Get also heavily showcases Moore's love for classic blues, with versions of Freddie King's "I'm Tore Down," Elmore James' "Done Somebody Wrong," and previously unreleased takes on Memphis Slim's "Steppin' Out" and BB King's 1964 hit "How Blue Can You Get."

You can check out How Blue Can You Get's cover art and tracklist below. To preorder the album, step right this way.

For more on Moore and his music, stop by gary-moore.com.

Gary Moore – How Blue Can You Get

1. I'm Tore Down
2. Steppin' Out
3. In My Dreams
4. How Blue Can You Get
5. Looking At Your Picture
6. Love Can Make A Fool Of You
7. Done Somebody Wrong
8. Living With The Blues

Gibson has given Metallica's Kirk Hammett an official, custom reproduction of "Greeny," his beloved, and legendary, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Originally owned by the late blues guitar legend and Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green - and sporting a famously backward neck pickup that gave the guitar its trademark, "out-of-phase" sound - "Greeny" was purchased by Hammett from vintage guitar dealer Richard Henry in 2014.

Hammett has used the guitar - which was later sold onto the equally influential Gary Moore - extensively since, both onstage with Metallica and at the star-studded Peter Green tribute concert that took place at the London Palladium in February. 

"Special thanks to Cesar [Gueikian] and Mark [Agnesi] at Gibson for making me a Greenie twin!" Hammett wrote on Instagram.

The elephant in the room, of course, is whether or not this means we'll soon be seeing a Gibson Custom Shop Greeny replica produced on a wider scale.

There have been a number of unofficial replicas - not to mention the countless guitarists who've had the Greeny neck pickup mod applied to their own Les Pauls - but an official Greeny replica run would definitely be timely, given the guitarist's recent passing. 

Replica run or not, we'll certainly keep our eyes peeled!