Fifteen Favorite Guitarists

A few weeks back, a friend posted a query on Facebook, along with his own list of 15 favorites. One thing I liked was that he put a 15-minute time limit on it, so I wouldn't end up overthinking my list. So I jotted down a couple dozen candidates, winnowed them down, and called it a list. Then I packed up and left town, burying the list in a pile of stuff on my desk.

Today I found it, and now I have time to do some overthinking. The thing about lists like this is that it's not so much who you put on as who you leave off. When you're talking about instrumentalists of this caliber, there's no "best;" there are a bunch of people who are equally great in different ways.

So the first half of the list are genuine monsters I just couldn't leave off, whereas the second half contains some more idiosyncratic voices who have always been personal favorites. It goes like this:

1. Jerry Garcia
2. Eric Clapton
3. Jimi Hendrix
4. Buddy Guy
5. Keith Richards
6. David Gilmour
7. Frank Zappa
8. Jeff Beck
9. Ry Cooder
10. Adrian Belew
11. Richard Thompson
12. Diblo Dibala
13. David Lindley
14. Kaki King
15. Merle Travis

Fifteen is a nice, comfortable number for a list like this; ten is just too crowded. Of course, my friend fudged it by including his "Honorable Mentions," and my leftovers list included Robbie Robertson, Chet Atkins, Freddie King, Bonnie Raitt, Franco, Ralph Towner, Leo Kottke and Django Reinhardt.

Today it occurs to me that I left out Thurston Moore, Derek Bailey, Sonny Sharrock, Santo & Johnny, etc, etc.

(No time for links right now; do your own googling.)

So who are your faves?