Most Underrated Trash Talk
We had a bit of a detour on Marcy’s Absolute Immunity post. To get it out of the way here, yes I think the absolute immunity claim is ludicrous. But that is what Trump does.
But the detour started with Adrian Belew being underrated. He was, and still is. What about other legendary, yet still underrated guitarists? I’ll throw out a few names off the top of my head, and let the discussion begin.
Frank Zappa. If you did not see him live, you may not understand how freakishly good of a guitar player he was.
Bill Nelson. Of Be Bop Deluxe. Just spectacular.
Earl Slick. Probably best known for his Bowie collaborations, starting with Diamond Dogs.
Ariel Bender of Mott The Hoople. Real name is Luther Grosvenor. He was great.
Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner. Probably best known for their work with Lou Reed, but also with Alice Cooper. They come as a pair.
The list is endless, so have at it!
The MLB playoffs are underway. Houston still seems very alive and Verlander still clutch. The DBacks somehow or another clobbered the Dodgers in game one. Not sure they can keep it up, but that was fun.
In what I can only term a tragedy, Verstappen won his second drivers’ championship yesterday in a stupid sprint race in Qatar. No, still not going to give Max the first one, because that was simply, and wrongfully, stolen by the FIA from Lewis Hamilton.
If you have not been watching the WNBA playoffs, you are missing out. The NY Liberty and Las Vegas Aces are the real deal.
Alright, hoop it up and let loose.
Gotta mention Robert Quine in this discussion. He also played with Lou Reed. He earns extra points here for his law degree and his daytime job with Prentice Hall.
I saw him perform in Matthew Sweet’s band. Most impressive in that power-pop setting.
Me, too. Girlfriend tour. Matthew Sweet with Susanna Hoff is almost heaven on earth.
I’m goofing off in Florida so this is the first F1 weekend I’ve missed this season. Since 2000 I’ve gotten used to ignoring the dynasties and enjoying the midfield. If I want real competition for the top I go to Indy, IMSA, and WEC. I‘ve followed Belew since the early 80’s. I love his 1st album Lone Rhino. He’s played with some of my favorite artists. Bowie, Zappa, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson. I’ll add some random favorites. Mark Ribot, Johnny Winter, Albert Lee, Richard Thompson.
Belew’s work with Bowie and the Talking Heads should have made his a household name. There are some great videos out there showing Bowie playing live with an incredibly young Below in the band. That kid constantly had a huge “this is so much fun – I can’t believe I get to do this” grin on his face, having so much fun.
Saw him play a Bears show in MPLS way back in the late 80s, where the crowd wouldn’t let them leave the stage. Mgmt pulled the power finally.
Bill Harkelroad (“Zoot Horn Rollo” in Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band).
Indeed!
Hit that long lunar note, and let it float.
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Love Zappa! and his everlasting influence in CZ, Plastic People of the Universe.
And Havel’s affection for him, too. His music did did provide fire under the Velvet Revolution.
Roy Buchanan! Always underrated and all but forgotten since his death, but if The Rolling Stones and John Lennon both asked you to join, you must have something going on. A unique and beautiful take on blues, 2nd Album and Live are both great.
If his version of Can I Change My Mind was the only thing he ever recorded, it would be enough.
Amen! Danny Gatton, if we’re talking local DC area legends from backintheday
Now I have Black Napkins in my head, thank you All. What a beautiful instrumental. Dovetails in my head with Stevie Ray’s Riviera Paradise. And for some reason, the B52s Follow your Bliss.
I believe that this is Zappa’s first TV appearance, playing the bicycle with Steve Allen in 1963. Clearly influenced by John Cage.
https: //www. youtube.com/watch?v=y9P2V0_p6vE
I’ve broken the link with spaces.
I’ve enjoyed the many hours I’ve spent listening to Jerry Garcia. I’m sure some of you have as well.
Another virtuoso: Guy VanDuser. Finger-style guitar. Here’s a link to his pioneering solo version of the Star Spangled Banner. https://youtu.be/u3eBmcwl9h8?si=lsp8tc7pC0deFido
I am struggling with Garcia as ‘underrated’; disparaged certainly (by those who don’t appreciate his virtuosity and range of styles).
He was also half (with Robert Hunter) of the great american songwriting teams.
They co-authored many, many instant folk and blues classics (Friend of the Devil, Ripple, Deal, Black Muddy River, …) that already stand the test of time.
True. But if one was looking for an underrated guitarist with the Dead, I’d suggest Robert Weir. Rhythm guitarists don’t stand out in general, but he did, and learning his trade playing with Garcia made him perfect in that role. He wasn’t just another pretty face …
Very much agree about Weir.
Speaking of which, we’re currently in Prague for the month, and it is sublime. Weather is perfect. Have tickets to attend Don Giovanni at the Tyl Theater, where Mozart himself premiered it in October 1787! Such a perfectly sized opera house with perfect acoustics — no amplification needed. Tiny little orchestra pit that fits an ensemble of 30 or so. My heart’s dream to hear Don Giovanni there! Next: Rusalka at the National Theater.
Hey, you should come out here and check out Grady Gammage. Another place often called acoustically perfect and no need for amplification. Got a chance to play there for a four song set in high school after we won part of a stage/jazz band competition. Surreal good.
i hear dave grohl did some magic with a Neve in a special place, too …
Super jealous of the Don perf in situ. Should be the opposite experience of the Met in NYC! Intimate in the way the Don himself was — I’ll bet he’ll be a little to close for comfort! BTW my boat’s name is “Madamina”.
Tony’s Cafe in the Hotel Paris is on the edge of the the center, wonderfully deco with very nice mosaics, and affordable compared to the restaurants in the center.
Check out the new Frontline episode “The Astros Edge”.
>FRONTLINE examines the Houston Astros cheating scandal and what it says about baseball today. With reporter Ben Reiter, the documentary traces the making of one of the best teams and worst scandals in modern Major League Baseball history, the limited accountability and how the Astros’ approach to baseball changed the sport.<
F#@K the Astros
Limited accountability is all the rage these days, unfortunately. I cite many in Congress who have not been held accountable for their role in J6. But, I digress.
Agreed. And it was a sad day for baseball when the last commissioner who wasn’t a shill for the owners, Fay Vincent, was deposed.
Every commissioner has been a shill for the owners, from Landis to Manfred. The owners have 100% control over hiring a commissioner. The owners have 100% control over the length of the commissioner’s contract. The owners have 100% control over firing a commissioner. The players have always had 0% input into any aspect of the commissioner’s job. Some commissoners are more obvious in doing the owners’ bidding and some like baseball more than others. But those are the only differences.
Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar) is a hugely underrated guitarist and songwriter. The five albums he released during his 50s (2012-20) might be the most creative run of his career. He turns 63 this month.
Agree on Bob. I have seen him 4 times in the last 10 years and bought the records as well. Saw him a few times way back. I’ll see him in Albany next week.
Thank you; I’m perfectly aware that the owners have 100% control over hiring or retaining a commissioner. The doesn’t change the fact that some nonetheless made an attempt to exercise independent judgment at times and, dare I say, do what they think is right for baseball rather than just being a puppet à la Selig or Manfred. So no, Vincent was not a shill for the owners, in comparison to his successors. That’s the general reason he was fired.
I will toss Clarence White into the hat of underrated guitarist. As for the baseball playoffs, I’m still hoping the O’s pull out the series win. The 29th team in payroll total. Money is not alway the determining factor.
Frank Zappa saw it coming.
“The biggest threat to America today is not communism; it’s moving America toward a fascist theocracy, and everything that’s happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe.”
Musically, Frank always surrounded himself with great musicians, many of them already mentioned here, but also Jack Bruce, Steve Via, Ruth Underwood, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Jean-Luc Ponty, and the list goes on. That said, Zappa was an incredible guitarist himself, and for anyone not aware of just how ridiculously talented a soloist he was, check him at 2 minutes into this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqp71DOJ3aY
If you’ve got the time, watch the whole thing—Ruth is hammering on the vibes, and the band is organismistically tight.
To tie this to baseball, Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s son is DeJon Watson, who until last week was the head of the Nationals’ farm system.
I did not know that.
And then there’s Doc Watson (perhaps a distant relation?), who famously managed to pitch a no-hitter while tripping his teeth out on acid.
That was Doc Ellis, who AFAIK did not play guitar. Check out Chuck Brodsky’s song, “Doc’s No-no”
*whiff*
He swings—he misses!
“Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar” and “Son of Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar” are two of my favorite Zappa albums, tho I understand Steve Vai plays a little too.
Hendrix pointed to Terry Kath’s solo on “25 or 6 to 4” as one of his favorites.
I know for certain I have posted this before, and I am too lazy to go find that post. But for anybody that is new or doesn’t remember, here is Terry Kath doing work on 25 or 6 to 4. Yes, even Hendrix would be in awe. Watch the whole thing, it is truly epic.
While not known as a technical guitar prowess as a shredder, The Edge from U2 is a profound stylist. He paints with a sonic palette of special effects, which leads him to riffs and song ideas born from the sounds that he creates.
Nice distinction. I would apply it to Bonnie Raitt–not the technician like many mentioned above, but so emotionally evocative on slide guitar.
Oh no, Bonnie was, is, fantastic on slide. Easily up there with anybody.
I’ll see your Bonnie, and raise you a Danny Gatton. But – Buddy Emmons (pedal steel) was magnificent.
Got to see her years ago when she first started to sport the white streak up top. At Wolf Trap, before she started to play, she asked the audience how we liked “her grill work”?
She seems like such a Real One.
“I want a man to rock me like my backbone was his own.”
You might be surprised to know she was raised a Quaker.
Had the joy of seeing Les Paul at the Iridium. Was in his 70’s and was killing it! I’ll toss in Kenny Burell too.
Surprised nobody has mentioned Pat Metheny but hey we are talking about underrated.
Love Zappa but don’t think he qualifies as underrated.
Got tickets for Metheny in Portland ME in April, and just saw Hozier in Boston a couple weeks ago. That was an amazing show, great ensemble and Hozier himself is a unique guitar stylist, though I wouldn’t rate him with the greats. Great songwriter though.
This will be our third Metheny show spanning back to the 80s. I’m really interested to hear his new stuff.
Another great concert this last summer was Dave Matthews in Bangor. Wow. Like Hozier, Dave has a wonderful idiosyncratic style that’s crazy good, but the band as a whole is beyond phenominal. His lead player, Tim Reynolds, probably belongs on the underrated greats list.
https://www.roccitymag.com/music/dave-matthews-guitarist-tim-reynolds-solo-show-lincoln-hill-farms-brewfest-14951465
Zappa gets much deserved credit as a composer, but I rarely see his guitar playing mentioned.
One of my favorite stories where he gets shout-outs for both was by Ruth Underwood, the percussionist who played with him for years. She said he wrote one the most complex pieces for her while on a plane and there were no edits. He just wrote it straight out and that’s what they recorded. She also talked up his blues playing, which was probably little recognized because of his other more offbeat playing.
Agree on Bob. I have seen him 4 times in the last 10 years and bought the records as well. Saw him a few times way back. I’ll see him in Albany next week.
Ruth was the shit…. Have you seen the youtube with 4 zappa percussionists telling tails?
My favorite (probably apocryphal) Les Paul story: Les Paul and Andres Segovia played a joint tour of college campuses, with the two taking turns performing, followed by Q&A. One student asked Paul, “I noticed that you tuned your guitar before each song, while Mr. Segovia just tuned once, at the beginning. Why is that?”
“Well,” Paul replied, “Obviously Mr. Segovia doesn’t give a shit.”
I saw Pat Metheny perform solo last night — it was truly epic, made more so that it was on hallowed ground at the Ryman auditorium. Three encores, each with a surprise (think Chekov’s gun, except with guitars).
I’ll put in a word for Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music.” It was roundly dissed when it came out, and mostly ignored afterward. But I have listened to it several times (in fact, began again just last night). Maybe it was self-indulgent on Reed’s part, maybe it was little more than his FU to the record company and pretty much everybody else, but he took the electric guitar and the recording of it to a place no one else did, and showed us what was there.
I have it in quad. It’s not noise, it’s artful noise; those with ears to hear, let them hear. But hard listening, nonetheless. The live version from the early 2000s is great too. More accessible than these is “Lou Reed’s Drones”, more meditative and accessible. Laurie Anderson still produces those every now and then.
Denny Freeman. Can be heard with Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton, Bob Dylan (“Modern Times”).
The music for the Hulu show Reservation Dogs is pretty great. This article provides links to some of the top selections (warning: contains spoilers)
https://www.vulture.com/article/reservation-dogs-soundtrack-explained.html
It leans heavily on music by Native American pop artists, but others are there too.
I’ll use that as a pivot to recommending Reservation Dogs — it’s really the best show I’ve seen in years, better than critical darlings like Succession. It starts out as a low key hangout comedy about Native American teens, but it builds and builds, little by little into about as great an account of families, community and generations as you could hope for. Racial identity and hard issues are always there, but the show addresses them without ever being preachy or dumb.
The quality of acting by a mix of new actors and old pros becomes clear pretty quickly, but another thing that sneaks up on you is how brilliant the construction of the show is. The name of the show is an obvious nod to Quentin Tarentino, but where everything he does is flashy and hyperclever, Reservation Dogs seems as natural as can be, until it slowly reveals how little pieces were there for a reason all along. It doesn’t need to show off.
The longer you watch, the richer it becomes, and it gets funnier and funnier too. It’s an amazing achievement without ever feeling like it’s trying.
Big ditto on Rez Dogs. I’m in Oklahoma, a Cherokee Citizen, that show is already a legend to us.
Also a good opening to shout out Kiowa-Comanche guitarist Jesse Ed Davis. First noticed for his slide work with Taj Mahal, went on to play for every former Beatle except Paul. Clapton thought he was tops. Notable solo on Jackson Brownes hit “Doctor My Eyes”.
Speaking of Clapton, he was obsessed with another Okie, JJ Cale, who wrote “Cocaine” and “After Midnight.” JJ was an effortless guitarist, but was also a technically exacting player. He personally modified guitars and amps to his standards. A consummate musicians musician.
*apologies on byline, it’s been years since I chimed in. Appreciate the work done here. Thanks.
Wholeheartedly agree on JJ Cale.
If you don’t already know it – a great sample of Tulsa Sound is the 1:19 video “JJ Cale & Leon Russell at the Paradise Studios, LA 1979”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IaHxPi9dM7o
I absolutely love that video, such a great vibe. Love how they had a whole crew of Okies out in LA playing music. Fun times, thanks for sharing.
Seeing Jackson Browne’s name, gotta mention the recently deceased David Lindley who could play any stringed instrument put in from of him. The famous solo on Running on Empty is Mr. Lindley
David Lindley, for sure, as well as his occasional touring partner, Ry Cooder.
Others that I haven’t seen mentioned so far (maybe I will as a continue reading) are Richard Thompson, Bert Jansch, Amos Garrett, Jeff Baxter, Nels Cline, James ‘Blood’ Ulmer, Prince, and Rory Gallagher.
BobBobCon seems to understand the brilliance of Reservation Dogs, which also brings home the importance of catfish in OK. That an exec producer comes from the Marvel Universe is hard to fathom, until one knows the show runner’s mom is a national poetry Master. Watching Wes Studi (Heat, Geronimo) mold copper hats to protect against bad brain input, or watching Gary (Deadman and so many others) Farmer fight tornados naked is beyond cool for the Rez kids still fighting suicide. and because i don’t have Hulu (or whatever) in Germany, i haven’t even seen the third season yet.
For the 6-string native record, how about trail blazers Link Wray, Jessie Ed Davis, and recently sent on the Strawberry Road Robbie Robertson, whose work on Scorcese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” is about to explode globally. Lily Gladstone will receive an Oscar Nomm, stealing from De Niro and Di Caprio.
Reservation Dogs also has the only medicine man humorist who died at Little Big Horn when his horse tripped in a gopher hole.
PS. Robbie played in the electric band when a certain Dylan went rock n’ roll; and later played in another famous band, which Eric Clapton heard, and flew/drove to Woodstock, and offered to be the guitarist. But The Band told him, “we already have a guitarist.”
Sad that we lost Robbie a few weeks ago. Organ player and multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson is the only remaining Band member alive and he’s reportedly in bad health…sigh.
Yes, huge shout out to Robbie and may he rest in peace. The Band was epic. It seems they were one of the most respected groups among musicians of their era from all the accolades i’ve read by their contemporaries.
I remember from the Beatles Anthology series that George Harrison made a trip to Woodstock to see them as the Beatles were disintegrating. He was struck by the deference and respect the Band showed him compared to his bandmates when he got back to London.
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The offhand way the mystery of the mutilated catfish is slowly developed through the show is a great example of how well the show operates in terms of humor and deeper meaning. And it’s just one example of many.
I learned a few new things from this list. Maybe some of you will too:
“Female Guitarists You Should Know” – School of Rock
“Despite what its image in the 20th century might suggest, the guitar hasn’t always been a symbol of masculinity. In the 18th and 19th centuries, guitars were seen as women’s instruments. Guitars were smaller back then, and in the 1800s, the parlor guitar—a small, compact model—was developed for women. As a result, women, such as Spanish virtuoso Madame de Goñi, were some of the greatest early guitarists.”
https://www.schoolofrock.com/resources/guitar/female-guitarists-you-should-know
Missing from that list is Kathy Valentine.
And Grace Potter
B.B. King called Bonnie Raitt the best slide player in the country. Also Lowell George.
Yes for sure to both. Lowell George being another Zappa alumni. Little Feat is just one of those bands that always has a song to suit your mood.
Yes to all of those, thanks for sharing this list. Emily Remler, Cleoma Breaux and Memphis Minnie come to mind.
Check out St. Vincent/Annie Clark.
Love Annie. Her collaboration with David Byrne was total genius.
Venturing into female classical/spanish guitarists; last night I stumbled across a YouTube video of Ana Vidovic playing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez — solo. The video is very good and you can see the magic happening. I’m used to hearing this from orchestral recordings with a soloist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dne6Ofhykqw
You want something both classical and very different (not western)? Check out Wu Man’s pipa work, especially that featured video with the Kronos Quartet on the home page. https://www.youtube.com/user/wumusicpipa
“Stone Soup” (pipa & madolin duo) – Wu Man & Bill Bradbury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QAev97bk0c
“Duo for Pipa & Cello” – Wu Man & Mike Block https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XClxwcwMGDs
The number of frets on her pipa boggle my mind, being a violinist who dabbles with mandolin.
That is nice. And I’m thankful for the “Pipa 101” video.
Thanks for sharing those links, Rayne. I will be watching more of her.
Don’t know if we are including bass players, but I adore Julie Slick (who, to bring it full circle, plays for the Adrian Belew Power Trio). Besides her solo stuff, she’s one of the principals in EchoTest. Their album Daughter of Ocean is my favorite thing I’ve heard in the last 5 years.
David Gilmour—flowing, lyrical & melodic
Mick Ronson (also quite a talented producer)
Leslie West: Heaviest guitar tone at Woodstock (yes, I’m aware Hendrix and Townsend performed)
Ritchie Blackmore: Early Neo-classical soloing style melded with protometal riffage
Micheal Schenker: Took what Ritchie B started and blazed his own trail. Had a rough patch in the 90’s/’00s, but is back with a vengeance—lean, mean, and on top of his game
Uli Jon Roth: Hendrix reinvented as a mustachioed German hippie. More Neo-classical shredding (eh, sue me) with a psychedimetalic sheen
John Goodsall: British Jazz-prog-rocker (Progrock-jazzer?): Best known for his stint in Phil Collins’ Fusion side project Brand X. Speed ain’t nothin’ without class, and John had them both. sadly, John passed away recently from COVID.
Lol, have seen Schenker with three different bands. Original Scorpions, UFO and MSG. He is seriously good. Go listen to Lights out again. Just incredible.
Lights Out is an album I pull out whenever I’m in the mood for some energetic rock. Classic!
Frank Zappa’s band played one night at Philadelphia Spectrum on a day the iggles were playing across the street at the vet.
Ovations was the members only resturant below the spectrum which opened for brunch for iggles games.
I was a bar back setting up before we opened.
Suddenly a black fellow with a leather sport coat, and bearded white dude with a plaid shirt were standing at the bar waiting for me to notice them .
Later i found out black fellow was Zappas flute player. His name was Napolean. The bearded dude was Roadie.
:Any chance we can get some food ?
Where the fuck these guys come from im thinking before realizing these guys are with Zappa.
Mind you, theres 40 waitresses, bus boys , busy as shit doing their sidework getting ready to open noticing nothing.
: We open in an hour and you can get some real food but let me see what i can get you now, which turned out to be danish and a pot of cofffee. When we opened my brother and his friend who had iggles tickets appear and soon Napoleon and his friend and my brother and his friend are drinking bloody Mary’s telling stories and jokes.
By the time game started , the four of them were feeling pretty good.
Napoleon stuck tickets in my brothers top pocket.
When the game was over the two pairs again show up.
Now everyone is toasted. The iggles won. its 5pm the show is at 7 . Ovations is closing. Shift is over, but i still have on my monkey suit black pants , vest . bow tie, white shirt crew cut.
Napoleon sez lets go down to the dessing room, and down we go in the concourse.
Security for the stadium come on duty and at some point see brud and friend have no passes.
A tussle ensues and my drunken brudder and friend get wung.
in the midst of the chaos in the hall way, i didnt find out till later who it was) i follw the roadie guy into a separate dressing room and low and behold who sitting there warming up on a guitar but Zappa. He and the roadie chat a bit but zappa is looking my conservative church boy looking ass and it’s apparent he is wondering who the fuck is this guy
Realizing I too was about to get wung I said the only words i could think of to lighten things up.
: Mr. Zappa, have you ever accepted Jesus into your heart ?
He cbuckled and I was politely shown out.
Meanwhile by brother and his friend use their tickets Napolean gave them to get back in the building so they could continue to fight mor
with the guards who had put them out.
The show was great.
Walter Becker of Steely Dan….wasn’t exactly underrated….and his solo on The Boston Rag is a favorite
My son and his wife and our grandson Calvin live two blocks from Camden Yards. Last Sunday Calvin got to run the bases. 😁
https://x.com/bobbygvegas/status/1709196771908292734?s=61&t=2glrsxu75HaIThpgAUeP7g
The Orioles lost the playoff opener last night 3 – 2. The second game is this afternoon.
Hats off to Baltimore – It must have been a thrill for your grandson.
I’m on board with the Birds and their manager Brandon Hyde.
He played for the “Dirt Bags” at Long Beach State
If they’re into baseball history, Babe Ruth Field isn’t far from Camden Yards, and it’s on the site where Ruth learned to play as a kid.
The site of Memorial Stadium is a few miles north and there’s a kids diamond there with home plate at the spot where it was for the Orioles.
If there aren’t any teams playing, it’s easy to whack a few tee balls and run around where a ton of Hall of Famers used to play.
Cool. Yeah, my wife and I pick our grandson up after preschool every day in Fells Point, and then drive him across town to where they live. We pass the Babe Ruth museum every day. Walking distance from the house.
We’ve been to Orioles games with them at Camden yards. Gotta love them $15 beers.
Just a quick tip o’ the cap from Baltimore and Kenwood on the opposite corner of the park from ya!
Tough one today but this is still so much more a beginning than an end.
Steve Vai comes to mind (his name was misspelled above.) But if you want to hear someone really impress their fellow musicians, I give you Prince at the George Harrison tribute. He gets a lot of credit as a solo artist, but his guitar prowess is amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRCooFKk3c
Also Eddie Hazel. Give the original version of Maggot Brain a listen in all its ten-minute glory. My personal favorite guitarist is David Gilmour – the dude can bend a note better than anyone else.
Nothing to do with Guitarists, but I’ve recently re-listened to Thomas Dolby’s Golden Age of Wireless and it’s a brilliant album (which I think gets better as one ages,) and some of the songs that didn’t get radio play are incredible, particularly “Airwaves,” “Flying North” and “Cloudburst on Shingle Street.” I should note that there were multiple versions put out, each with a slightly different list of songs, so look for the version put out in 2009 which had all the songs from all the different versions of the album.
Also Satriani.
I was going to point to that Prince bit. Not a fan, generally, but the boy sure was showy!
I’m here all day, every day for the Thomas Dolby references. Tying that back to guitars (though not underrated guitarists), on Dolby’s 1992 album Astronauts & Heritics, Eddie Van Halen guests on one of the tracks.
If you like Golden Age and haven’t heard A&H yet? Get thee to a Spotify or something. You will not be dissappointed.
Astronauts and Heretics is my second-favorite Dolby album, but not in Golden Age’s league.
And we will talk about Budapest by Blimp, but maybe not the rest of Aliens Ate My Buick, lol.
Such a fabulous album. “Silk Pyjamas” was on the playlist at my wedding reception. And in addition to EVH, closing song “The Beauty of a Dream” is basically Dolby fronting the Grateful Dead.
Thomas Dolby is another serious genius (and educator). Screen Kiss may be the most elegiac song about Hollywood; it deserves equal billing with Hotel California. It’s from the Flat Earth album, though.
Love having him hangin’ out here in Baltimore leading a media/music program at Johns Hopkins. He’s really embraced the community, which is great.
No mention yet of Stevie Winwood? I just loved his guitar stuff, but he had it in his head to concentrate on keyboards. And a shout out for Robert Cray, who is still around and doing the business.
As for Frank Zappa, I had the dubious privilege of attending that crazy concert , way, way back, at the Rainbow in London when a jealous punter pushed him off the 10 foot high stage. He broke his leg, but got lucky that day – it could have been a lot worse.
Say what you will, if Winwood was in a band that included Clapton, Winwood not going to win that battle.
Low Spark of High-heeled Boys?
Of course they did team up for Blind Faith, and were quite appreciative and pally with each other over the years, but I wouldn’t dream of comparing the two. Clapton was a ‘one off’. That type don’t come around very often.
Precisely. Clapton has become a difficult pill to swallow, there is just no way to not appreciate what a once in a lifetime talent he is on guitar.
When you have a trash talk about overrated guitarists, Clapton, like cream, will rise to the top.
Clapton was great. In fact, he was the third best guitarist in two bands- the Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Peter Green, Mick Taylor).
I thought Clapton was imitating a lot of Freddie King when he played with the Blues Breakers.
But when he played Albert King’s solo (Oh Pretty Woman) in the middle of Strange Brew, I realized what was going on.
..Agree to all musical mentions, especially BeBop Deluxe, a bit underated and a favorite of Musicians everywhere. The double live is at their peak and a fave of all I know who play.(white vinyl issue is collectable). Adrian Belew is still at it, folks should check the current project with Mark King & Stewart Copeland — Gismodo. And dont forget Warren Haynes.
A Thousand Thanks for this thread & all who work on it. Happy Sunday!
The Remain In Light redux tour he did this past year with former Turkuaz members was loads of fun. Belew is a very happy performer, even in small venues.
That Remain in light tour was wonderful, saw it in March and June.
He tours solo ( with Julie Slick and a drummer( regularly, and luckily often close by.
Bears show in Boston late 8p’s, Living Color opened .
sorry,
*Gizmodrome,
:(
Group, coming down heavier on the under appreciated end of this, I nominate the song “serve me right to suffer” by Jimmy Johnson. He’s no longer with us. His guitar playing was all, appropriately, subordinated in the service of the music.
Totally agree on Jimmy Johnson. Other Chicago greats who deserve a mention: Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Hubert Sumlin, and (a little more obscure) Brewer Phillips.
Som Seals in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s.
“Son”
Yes. Also Fenton Robinson, Magic Slim, Lonnie Brooks.
Yes to Jimmie and Son and especially to the often overlooked Lonnie Brooks! Lonnie had chops for miles but he came to entertain and entertain he did. Ames in the 80s was the pre-eminent Midwestern blues tour stop outside of Chicago. I saw many bigger names and arguably more foundational players and/or writers there (Dixon, Mack, Gatemouth Brown, Guy, Collins, Mayall, Albert King, Rush, Seals…) but Lonnie came every spring like clockwork and those were the most jouful and repeatedly anticipated blues parties ever.
“Crawler,
So true. Otis Rush, So many roads, so many trains to ride. “I was standing at the window, when I heard that whistle blow…” still gives me chills.
Magic Sam, at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival. Dead so F’n young.
Two white blues guys worth mentioning: Elvin Bishop, maybe the most melodic blues guitarist I ever heard and one of the best slide players as well; and Danny Kirwan from the great Fleetwood Mac lineup of the late 60s.
Speaking of beautiful slide work, never leave Bonnie Raitt out, she is seriously good.
… plus she said Little Feat lead singer Lowell George was “cute” (he had some slide magic as well as those lungs, and his own Zappa history).
Yes, indeed. She remains a national treasure, maybe the most consistently great musician I can think of.
I think Carol Kaye should be mentioned. Of course so many of the wrecking crew could qualify, but I was so unaware of all the music I grew up with being performed by individuals who were unknown.
Anyone unaware of the “wrecking crew” should remedy the situation. It will change you.
No mention of The Wreaking Crew should go without mention of Glen Campbell. He was seriously good.
Oz Noy
Gypsy jazz: Benoit Convert, Adrien Moignard (see for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz8lIYVyZB8/watch?v=Cz8lIYVyZB8 )
Bireli Lagrene (also a top notch bassist)
Tommy Emmanuel
Frank Vignola
There’s an amazing scene in the Glen Campbell documentary “I’ll Be Me”. Glen’s performing in the late stages of alzheimers at a fund-raiser, two of his kids are in the band and he can barely remember their names, he has to read the lyrics of his own hit songs stumblingly off a tele-prompter and he pulls off a brilliant 3 minute long note-perfect complex guitar solo. He was an amazingly gifted guitarist.
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Loads of guitarists I love, like Kevin Shields or John McGeoch, whom it’s not really true to call underrated. I’ll second Marc Ribot and John Goodsall, both mentioned above, and I’ll propose Phil Miller, who was a core member of the Canterbury scene. National Health’s second album, Of Queues and Cures is one of my all-time faves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftKM6vfrLjo
Re guitar cats, anyone hip to Drew Zingg?
Yes, Drew played lots in NYC before joining the Dan.
Sorted by first name.
Billy Karren (Bikini Kill; check out ‘The Singles’ collection)
Carlos Alomar (Bowie)
Eric Erlandson (Hole)
James Honeyman-Scott (Pretenders)
Joni Mitchell
Lee Ranaldo & Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
Marc Bolan
Mick Ronson (where my mind and ears and heart go first when listing guitar faves)
Nile Rodgers (Chic, Bowie, Madonna)
Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music)
PJ Harvey
Steve Jones (Sex Pistols)
Tom Verlaine (Television)
BTW: I’m pretty sure Earl Slick didn’t hook up with Bowie until the Diamond Dogs tour (not album) and was first in the studio with him for Station to Station, where he is six-string-razor-sharp against Carlos Alomar’s gauzy and phasey ten-fingered caresses. Bowie always deploys guitarists to maximum effect.
The list is endless. And the end is listless.
2nd the vote on PJ Harvey, which gets me thinking a bit.
I think the idea of “underrated” is a tricky subject. If it’s somebody that Rolling Stone loves, but Pitchfork hates, are they underrated? Depends on which one you read, right? I think for a lot of people if you ask them to name someone who is underrated, their first instinct is to name somebody they love who they don’t hear other people talking about… but that can often simply be a reflection of generational distances, geography, or genre bias.
So on that note… I would encourage the older set on the forums here whose favorite music is from the 60s and 70s to give PJ Harvey a listen. She’s pretty spectacular and while she’s certainly gotten her respect from GenX-era music snobs, she’s had like ONE radio charting song in the US and it’s a damn shame.
This is spot on, I think. There are definitely folks who span the 70s Hed and Indie Hipster two-cultures divide — Belew, Fripp, Verlaine, Quine. Plus so much of 80s/90s legendry, st lesst indie side, was more feeling and sonics than shredding. In the 8os, I’d pitch Mitch Easter, a legendsry producer but far less known for his evocative guitar work with Let’s Active. In the 90s and beyond, Steve Malkmus evolved from a slacker noise man to a very multifaceted and talented player. Mary Timony brought more clean, supple (think current West African) work to Helium and Ex Hex. And Sleeter-Kinney is NOTHING without their guitars, even if neother player fits the bill of a classic shredder.
The kids, and especially the gals , have really picked guitars back up in the last five years and you love to see it.
Underrated? Dave Edmunds comes to mind, as well as the band he played in, Rockpile, which had some of the best live shows I’ve seen. After 3-4 encores, they had to beg the audience to let them leave.
I’m with you on Dave Edmunds…which brings me to ALBERT LEE. Still going strong, both of them, as far as I know.
billy bremner from rockpile and later the pretenders is a fantastic player.
dave gregory from XTC super tasteful and unique.
I dunno if Peter Frampton is under rated, but wife and I recently saw him at the The Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL.
If Rosalind stops by she can tell us a whole lot about Frampton and the somewhat odd connection between him via his father Owen and David Bowie and the relationship between Frampton and Bowie during his drug/alcohol recovery period.
Peter suffers from degenerative Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) and this year’s Never Say Never Tour came about only because his therapy (see link below) had him feeling up to it. He sat the whole – long – time and had his axes handed to him. A lot of axes.
Terrific.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/2021/02/musician-peter-frampton-provides-johns-hopkins-with-new-insights-for-treating-inclusion-body-myositis
A little less hair, but as sharp as I can recall him – saving the dancing around part.
Pete
welp, i don’t have any specialized knowledge, just what i learned reading Peter’s autobiography, which i highly recommend. he and bowie were schoolmates growing up, and peter’s dad was the art teacher at their school and became a mentor to bowie. when peter was at a personal and professional low, bowie asked him to join his upcoming “Glass Spider” tour, which got Peter back up on stage – with less pressure – and started him back on his path to the center stage spotlight.
aside: i grew up in 70s San Francisco Bay Area and like thousands of others had “Frampton Comes Alive” on repeat, and harbored quite the crush. Cut to 20 years later standing alone backstage in the Steve Miller Band production office at Universal Amphitheatre, doing my work, when a polite british male voice said “excuse me?”. i turn – and there is my crush come to life. i have no idea what look crossed my face at that moment, but i pulled myself together enough to ascertain he had a ticketing screw-up, his tickets came from the opening act, and i escorted him to the correct production office. i still cringe at whatever goofy look Peter was hit with when i turned around…
I was and still am a huge Frampton fan. Saw him just after Frampton’s Camel came out before many people knew him, several more times in the 70s and 80s and again a few years ago in San Francisco 3rd row & he still makes me swoon at his guitar prowess, even without the long hair!
I’ll add Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell to the list, especially as currently touring/performing soloists, magnificent careers both! And Bmaz, they are both playing here in two of our finest halls, the MIM and the MAC in the next couple of weeks! See you there?
and I am remiss to not salute Nels Kline as well, as his genius was on full display with Wilco this last week — and what a display it was in one of our newest venues, the East Amphi at Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Shredding is an overused term these days, but I’d believe it you told me Nels invented it. They went through so many guitars Tuesday night! Thank you Jeff Tweedy too!
“Cline” ooph!
Wait, you go to the MIM? Love that place.
Love the MIM, have been attending shows since it opened. Beautiful facility, and really nice disabled seating areas for our boy, when we can take him. Front row for Bill Cobham last year, speaking of Zappa! And I got to see David Bromberg *again*, one of my all-time favorite “big bands.”
Last one we went to was whatever band John Popper has currently. Love that place.
Frisell is so good. Solo, in ensemble, performing his own tunes, covering anybody else’s. Run, do not walk. to see him if possible.
Absolutely! Run as fast as you can. And I’ve heard him perform more than 100 times.
But inasmuch as Frisell was described in the booklet for the 2023 Big Ears Festival as “no living guitarist has been more influential or embraced a wider range of stylistic collaboration,” I wouldn’t consider him to be an “underrated” guitarist. Then again, scrolling through the names of some of the guitarists so nominated on this thread, that seems a rather nebulous term. Fun reading, though, to be sure.
Here’s three of several on my list —
1) Nancy Wilson – her opening to Crazy on You is transcendent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVcl0Iw3fs8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuiDF5EX4bQ
2) Joan Jett – rocker whose face, voice, and style often obscure her guitar work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdYo2SGulik
She’s inspired generations of women rock guitarists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uds7g3M-4lQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYV-XJdzupY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZad9-BzR4w
3) Underrated only because the white dominated rock world has failed to give her the recognition she’s long deserved as a grand-mère of the genre: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
https://youtu.be/Y9a49oFalZE?feature=shared&t=53
Yes – the women!
I have one granddaughter (of three – so at least) who sees to have an inclination to guitar or drums.
So any female guitarists or drummers I send her way.
Thanks,
Pete
Just as she’s surely aware of Taylor Swift, guitarist, your granddaughter is likely well aware of Olivia Rodrigo’s work as singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist. We don’t see enough of her on guitar because she’s got it all, does it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGczofguB0c
Tracy Chapman’s riff in this piece is haunting, always sticks in my head long after I hear it. Simple, not big and artsy-fartsy, but genius in artistry is like that – economic, effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOAlaACuv4
Wendy Melvoin’s work was highly respected by Prince. Watch how she follows Prince’s singing as well as guitar playing for cues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRz8sre4VXY
Joni Mitchell, of course – but another artist whose guitar work is lost next to her singing and songwriting. Interesting video – note Nina Simone in the opening; Mitchell’s song begins at 1:37.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZ6P7D3BIw
I just listened to Olivia Rodrigo’s newest album, Guts, just this last week. I had been hearing a ton of positive stuff said about her work. I’ve also been feeling a sort of musical anxiety lately.
Growing up in the 70s and 80s when Top 40 radio was dominant, I was exposed to so many different kinds of music. Rock, pop, R&B, country, virtually anything could cross over and become an important part of the musical landscape (the instrumental theme to Chariots of Fire went #1 on Billboard!). However starting in the late 80s, a progressive balkanization of popular music has been pushed by the recording industry that’s helped produce a cultural polarization as much as we talk about political polarization.
So in spite of the fact that I promised myself in my early 20s that I would continue to listen to and maintain an appreciation for new music my whole life, to not get locked into a box of nostalgia over the soundtrack of my college years, I still find that what I listen to has narrowed dramatically from when I was a kid.
So when I started noticing that Olivia Rodrigo was getting love from some unexpected corners (the former lead singer of riot grrrl band Bikini Kill adores Driver’s License), I had to check it out… and yeah she’s amazing. A-maze-ing.
Everybody who doesn’t know her stuff should take 18 minutes out of their life and go check out her Tiny Desk concert:
https://youtu.be/KGczofguB0c?si=5KevnOrs6HmQcZh0
Rodrigo is very good. Kind of Swift like, give her a listen and you are “damn, who is that??” I also come back to HER, because she not only sings, but can really play guitar too.
The Tiny Desk Concert is really stripped down, no extra bells and whistles, and yet Rodrigo’s brilliant, a diamond.
Can’t tell you how many times I have listed to Rodrigo’s good 4 u and thought to myself, “Damn, that I would have played the fuck out of back in the late 1970s-1990s.” The guitar, the vocals — she’s the heiress of The Runaways, The Slits, Bikini Kill.
Turn her on to The Darts. They’re a Phoenix based garage rock band whose current drummer, Rose (aka Beef), is great to watch. She’s a good example for young drummers. Very exciting and virtually no bad habits. Their current album is “Snake Oil.”
Wow that opening to Crazy on You IS transcendent. Amazing. All those women are. Thank you, Rayne, for sharing the links.
Thanks for that, Rayne. So much of Heart’s work seems to have slipped under the rug lately.
I was seventeen when I saw Heart, in one of their first gigs after Dreamboat Annie was released, opening for BTO, at the horrible Memorial Arena in Victoria, British Columbia. and came away knowing two things: Ann had a voice that was so strong it could start earthquakes, and Nancy could play the absolute living fuck out of her guitars. Great show.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe and her band should probably be credited with inventing Rock and Roll. If you list to her recordings from the 1930s and ’40s all the elements of the genre are there, long before anyone else I can think of.
And definitely Nancy Wilson.
Talking of female guitarists (but not singling out any one of the various members here) I think both Band of Susans and Lush might qualify as underrated, perhaps because they used the guitars to create texture and atmosphere rather than for showing off.
Bilinda Butcher of My Bloody Valentine might fit into that oeuvre—very textural and cinematic.
A couple of good documentaries on her:
Shout, Sister, Shout! Sister Rosetta Tharpe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii06ABCd9ww&t=161s
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_n0vkzc8PU&t=307s
Mojo Nixon is a surprisingly good guitar player but it doesn’t really enter into his stuff so doesn’t come up a lot
Alvin Lee. The fastest guitar player in rocknroll. Michael Heatley, noted author (bios of J Lennon, N Young, M Jackson) said on the 2013 passing of Alvin Lee, frontman for Ten Years After: “When Alvin Lee told me that he joined the Elvis Presley fan club just to get a photo of Scotty Moore and his guitar, it punctured the aloof rock god stereotype I had been expecting.” Alvin himself said “Once you’re bored with rocknroll, what the hell is there left in life to do.” Amen.
They named a planet after Zappa, so he’s not underrated anymore. The most underrated guitarist today is Bill Frisell. I saw him play with McCoy Tyner and Gary Bartz at Jazz Alley in Seattle and he is currently the best living jazz guitarist, in my opinion.
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I’ll throw Robyn Hitchcock into the mix. Not particularly well-known, but does some amazing work. As a non-guitar-guy, I just thought it sounded good. Then I saw a video of the utterly ridiculous fingering that he was doing.
My list:
Prince.
Bonnie Raitt.
Django Reinhardt.
Sister Rosetta Tharp.
Leadbelly.
Pierre Bensusan.
Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Adrian Belew is incredible-still think late 70’s early 80’s he must have been running his signal through a dial up modem. Bonnie Rait on slide is real good IMHO and not necessarily recognized for her playing. My entry in the guilty pleasure air guitar category-Gary Rithrath of REO Speedwagon. Yeah, I know.
Screwed it up. Richraff
Early REO was very good. Not as much after they were big.
Yes, after “Tuna Fish” they got squishy. And like many rock and roll stories it all ended sadly for Richraff.
Since my son and I were walking the beach today at beautiful Crystal Cove, CA watching the sanderlings it put me in mind that Adrian Belew did the soundtrack for the Pixar short “Piper”. A different side of him for sure. Just listened to it.
Love Crystal Cove.
Saw Leslie West and Mountain at a festival in Cincinnati, early ’70s. A guy from the crowd ran out on the stage while West was on an extended solo. Without missing a note, West body slammed him off the stage. Amazing.
I haven’t seen any mention of Maury Muehleisen, Jim Croce’s sideman, who died with Croce in the ’73 plane crash. An incredible finger-picker, he did all the guitar fills on Croce’s 3 albums.
meidustouch led me to video. Not guitar, but still a stringed instrument. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s7hmuIYjZWo&pp=ygUUbWNhZmVlIHBsYXlpbmcgY2VsbG8%3D
LOL, excellent judgment.
bmaz, I was kinda leaving Glenn Campbell as the prize at the bottom of the box for anyone willing to investigate.
Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Leon Russell, Mac Rebennack and many more fed a bit from that agar.
It truly astounded me that, at the time, those musicians were never given credit for the music being played ad nauseam.
The Wrecking Crew talent was off the charts. Think referenced it before, but one of the funniest moments ever was driving along a Suburban I looked over and Glen Campbell was driving and Alice Cooper was the passenger. They were very tight. I had heard of it before, but there it was.
Ya take a few days off, and ya miss out on the important stuff. I can’t believe I missed out on the Adrian convo in Marcy’s earlier post. He has been at or near the top of my list since the early 80’s. Love his early solo albums (on which he plays all of the instruments). He can still play, and was the highlight of the ‘Remain In Light’ tour with Jerry Harrison earlier this year. Although stylistically different, his ground-breaking guitar abilities are on par with another of my favs – Roy Buchannan. I’ve seen him live too many times to remember, but one of my top concerts of all time (any artist) was the mid-80s tour with his band The Bears.
The live Bears album is a good example of them at their best. Last saw them at Mercury Lounge; probably 25 years ago!
Seems like
There’s no way to delay
This trouble
Comin’ everyday
Suck on that harmonica, son…
Because the boys they got downtown are workin’ hard and doin’ swell
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street they say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can’t be beat
bmaz, thanks for the shout-out to the WNBA. I used to go to Liberty games in the early years. They were raucous, dirty events that posed a huge contrast to Knicks games, which got the MSG high-gloss treatment. The Liberty games were more fun; you could get tickets for a song, and many young girls showed up when the Knicks crowd skewed adult, wealthier (often corporate seats), and spoiled.
The WNBA boasts some of the world’s best athletes. They play real basketball, not stunt ball. So I second your endorsement: watch!
Frank Zappa had large hands and he had a Bosendorfer Imperial he used to accommodate his span…
Did you see Adrian Belew on his tour with Jerry Harrison last year …he played and sang like a great rocker…ergo.
Dave Mason rarely gets credit for his skills
And Zappa had another pretty fair slide player early on that went on to form Little Feat in Lowell George. Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett are overlooked as well
That is because Jim Krueger played most of the leads.
Love the MIM, have been attending shows since it opened. Beautiful facility, and really nice disabled seating areas for our boy, when we can take him. Front row for Bill Cobham last year, speaking of Zappa! Saw David Bromberg there, *again*, one of my all-time favorite “big bands” and performers. Seeing Dave Mason mentioned, he’s also coming next month, to the Celebrity. With Shawn Phillips! Iconic in his own right. Roctober!
Lol, Kareen Abdul Jabbar I am not, but just don’t fit well into the Celeb anymore.
Roy Clark. Getting stuck in that Hee Haw milieu kept the wider world from seeing just how good he was. The man could play a mean spanish guitar.
Plus, it’s ten minutes to lights out and I’m not sure what to expect out of this race except a likely bunch of safety cars. The sprint race did offer a lot of drama despite three of them. IMO that was what the FIA had in mind for the sprint format.
I should have added that that is what they intended it to be, but it hasn’t worked that way in practice. Plus good for Piastri.
Let’s not leave out Nils Lofgren. From his early work with Grin to his solo career to being off/on memeber of Crazy Horse to working in Bruce Springsteen’s band his guitar work is stellar.
The greatest unknown rock guitarist (and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist) is Nick Saloman of the band The Bevis Frond.
My favorites tracks are Oh Gideon, Three Mile Wall, Reflections in a Tall Mirror, Walking in the Lady’s Garden, I’ve Got Eyes in the Back of My Head, Heavy Hand and many more.
The song Window Eye is a psychedelic masterpiece.
I’m a fan of psychedelic era music. I have complied an Amazon Prime playlist of (mostly) obscure psychedelic era music. You can listen to it here: https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/d47cd31afe6349ba8471e942d9e07a88sune?ref=dm_sh_6462-9620-6655-82b1-86d65
I tried to click the link but it said the playlist was no longer available. Probably Amazon’s fault somehow. If you are into psychedelic rock though, you might or might not be familiar with a Japanese band by the name of Kikagaku Moyo:
https://youtu.be/egmECvOCZ8Y?si=9s9VqN6muZc5Y1UQ
Sorry the link didn’t work. It worked for me. If you like Kikagaku Moyo, I recommend King Buffalo.
My psychedelic era rock playlist is mostly obscure songs from about 1964-1974.
How about a. shout out for Ronnie Wood, Faces and Stones, maybe overshadowed by Keef but seriously good.
Sonny Landreth
Tinsley Ellis
Walter Trout
Jackie Venson
Ana Popovic
Grace Powers (watch this space)
Saw Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar at Freight and Salvage a few months ago… amazing duo, they played off each other so well.
I’d add Samantha Fish to that list for sure.
You got me thinking about New Orleans. Don’t forget Leo Nocentelli of the Meters, Walter Wolfman Washington who died recently, and Anders Osborne. Saw a show a few years back that was 4 guitarists on stage: JJ Grey, Luther Dickinson, Marc Broussard, and Anders stole the show, a powerhouse. Also haven’t seen any mention of Will Bernard who seems to always be playing with other greats on stage. Like Stanton Moore of Galactic. If we’re talking drummers, he’s at the top of my list right now.
Those first two!Especially Sonny. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, but what I remember is a brilliant balancing act between cerebral and evocative playing. He can make one think and then make one stop thinking as best serves the moment,
P.S.
Mick Taylor
Miami Steve Van Zandt
Of course Zappa whom I had the good fortune of seeing a time or three (its a bit hazy) ;-).
But for under-rated rock guitarists I always point to Steve Howe (Yes, Asia). An amazing virtuoso of many styles and instruments. I mean how many rockers can play original ragtime-ish fingerstyle one moment and scorching electric riffs the next?
https://youtu.be/iNUedapF-bo
He’s certainly in my top ten.
Underrated? Let’s see:
Randy California (Spirit)
Steven Stills
Andrew Latimer (Camel)
Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, and ,,,,) Winner of several Guitar Player mag polls, but still relatively unknown. Incredibly talented and able to play multiple genres. I saw him play with the Guitar Trio (McLaughlin, DiMeola, De Lucia). He was opening (solo) and then joined them for a finale. Absolutely no problem fitting right in. Oh, and he plays with Deep Purple from time to time.
Absolutely Randy. I came back here just to see if his name was mentioned yet. Tragic death, saving his kid in an undertow or whatever you call it.
Agree on Stills, too, but he hadn’t come to my faulty mind. Good one.
Gotta shout out for Spirit! Randy California and his ex-stepfather Ed Cassidy, who was the drummer for Spirit, were a dynamic duo.
In a similar vein, give it up for Jefferson Airplane. Jorma Kaukonen on lead and Jack Casady on electric bass were incandescent. Like California/Cassidy when they played together it was sublime.
As far as the Airplane was concerned, Grace Slick was not only a powerhouse singer, but her writing for the band was spectacular. It’s a shame that their only song that achieved classic status was White Rabbit, because they had so much great material.
Spirit was fantastic. And Ed “Mr. Skin” Cassidy wildly good. Go back and listen to Bless Its Pointed Little Head by the Airplane. One of the best live albums ever.
Jorma and Jack were still getting together and playing and posting videos during Covid days. A long friendship in music, those two.
Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult is my pick for one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time
He came out of the gate blazing hot on their eponymous debut album
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Seen many times, maybe under-appreciated, but never underrated.
Blue Oyster Cult played my neck of the woods a few years back. Beautiful weather. Sun going down. Just as the band took the stage a small flock of geese flew low right above and in front of the stage in their V formation. A perfectly timed, perfectly silent opening flyover. And the band was off. (In a good way!)
—
“under-appreciated, but never underrated”: Another one of those: Leo Kottke. (I do see him mentioned below.)
Leo wasn’t really rock, and typically was solo on stage. Still, what a talent. And funny as hell with his stories. He claims when he was young he would get so in a trance while playing that he’d come out of it realizing he’d been drooling for quite some time.
Leo again: “I met Bob Dylan when he was recording “Blood on the Tracks.” And I talked to him for about an hour and a half in the studio… But I didn’t know it was him. I would have said things…differently.”
I nominate Robin Trower to the list of underrate guitarists. Saw him at the Paramount in Portland OR so many years ago. “Bridge of Sighs” still gives me chills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_xK35C1Yg
I’ll throw another name onto the seriously underrated guitarist list: Joey Landreth. His solo album “Whiskey” is a fantastic introduction to his playing – slide-heavy, with a guitar tuned to open C – but anything he’s released, whether solo or as the Bros. Landreth (with brother Dave on bass; earlier incarnations also included guitarist Ariel Posen) will serve. No relation to Sonny Landreth, btw.
If you’re a Bonnie Raitt fan, Joey and Dave wrote the lead-off single “Made Up Mind” from her latest album. Bonnie’s slide guitar work stayed pretty true to Joey’s playing on the original.
And to add one more Canadian: Dallas Good of The Sadies.
May he rest in peace. He was an incredible talent.
Okay, one more, to help correct the gender imbalance of my eariler picks: Madison Cunningham
Okay, so I didn’t read through all the comments yet, and if these guys have already popped up, apologies for the duplication.
Paul Gilbert. No, not unknown or under-rated, but stellar nonetheless. He also has played with a group called Yellow Matter Custard. They did a live version of the “suite” on side 2 of Abbey Road.
Joshua Lee Turner. A younger guy, but he and his friends do crazy good cover versions, like this one of “And Your Bird Can Sing,” where he replicates two guitars on one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAtGpU_xY8
Somebody mentioned Laurie Anderson above. Home of the Brave still not available on digital media. Long ago I had a VHS copy I taped off a friend’s satellite feed (I think HBO, but not sure). Absolutely Astonishing.
As to Guy Van Duser, there’s a good version of S&SF in duet form with Richard Smith. Worth a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKt4nBHeL6k
One life is not long enough to locate and listen to all the great players in the world.
Check out Gilbert with Frank Black and the Pistoleros – those are live to two-track recordings.
Johnny Winter
I got women in California
Man, in New York and between
It’s a fulltime operation
Trying to keep my business clean
Trying to keep my business clean now
This a part of why I follow this blog.
My family is top-heavy on artists and musicians. (Not so much on the baseball.)
It’s a pleasure to read.
Steve Hunter also played with Mitch Ryder on the Detroit album, which is also seriously underrated. When Ryder said he wanted to cover Lou Reed’s “Rock’n’Roll,” Hunter came up with the idea of using a Leslie West/Mountain-style guitar hook for the song (he’d just seen them in concert and was wowed) … and the rest, as they say, is history.
From the vinyl collection I inherited from my uncle, these are the guitarists I had never come across prior but now quite enjoy listening to:
John Abercrombie
Jan Akkerman
Roye Albrighton (Nektar)
Pete Carr
Al Di Meola
Rory Gallagher
Steve Hillage
Leo Kottke
John McLaughlin
Wes Montgomery
Someone mentioned Alvin Lee above, he and Mylon LeFevre put out a very pleasant little album called On the Road to Freedom that is worth a spin.
Thanks for remembering Bill Nelson and Be Bop Deluxe. I saw them many times in New York and he is a brilliant guitar player. Just listen to “Crying To The Sky” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Bill’s always been great and still has it. Sister Seagull is my go-to Bebop De Luxe jam.
Most of the guitarists mentioned in the comments (great as they are) don’t strike me as ‘underrated’, just not overrated. It’s great to see some of the rock players mentioned, Schenker, Roth, etc (that EU rock/metal scene produced some amazing musicians back in the day). Frank Marino, Pat Thrall, Elvin Bishop, Buzz Osborne… A few more on the pile.
Still though, I wouldn’t consider any of these cats as ‘underrated’.
That woeful prize belongs to Andy Partridge of XTC.
Strunz & Farah, from Costa Rica and Iran respectively. Unbelievable technique, used in the service of gorgeous improvisational instrumental music. Been recording and performing together since 1980. Astounding musicianship and musicality. Influenced a generation of international musicians. Many world microcosm groupings: African drummer, numerous Afrocuban percussionists, Indigenous Mexican Indian percussionist, South Indian violinist L. Subramaniam, North Indian sarod player Ashish Khan, Persian and Arab percussionists, Persian santur, Peruvian kena, too many to mention.
No Steely Dan session love?
Dean Parks
Larry Carlton
Ron Jarzombek is I suppose in the “metal shredder” category — not so much underrated as unknown.
https :// www. youtube. com/watch?v= BMHY4tL43IQ&list=PLN_G7yTx9SXe-LrM3wTYlJri3cOCXyZU5
His drummer brother Bobby is of the same musical pedigree although much better known (currently with George Strait.)
As far as underrated goes, I think of Elliot Easton. Always plays the perfect part and really can’t be duplicated.
Well, you did say “guitarists” sans any genre, so: Lenny Breau. Someone mentioned Roy Buchanan, who brings to mind (my mind at least) Danny Gatton. And John Fahey delivered the Washington Post when he was a kid; I know because our house was on his route. All these guys were staggeringly good, and maybe not under-appreciated (among those who knew them), but certainly under-valued in the larger music scene.
Lenny Breau…a tragic life but what a talent. Relatively unknown among the general public but definitely not underrated by guitar players. When the Police were at the height of their popularity, touring the U.S. and filling stadiums, Andy Summers looked him up and tried to hire him for a guitar lesson. Lenny asked him if he already knew some guitar, to which Summers told him that he was in a band and they were very popular. Lenny told him that he would give him a lesson, but he’d still have to pay full price; he didn’t give discounts just because a band was popular.
Haven’t seen anyone mention Johnny Marr yet. Johnny first played lead guitar for The Smiths during the 1980s. Following the breakup of The Smiths, he was briefly a member of The Pretenders, touring with them in the late 80s. In the 00s he was helping the band Modest Mouse with some of their songs and ended up becomming a full fledged member of the band for a while. For the rest of Modest Mouse, this was a chance to collaborate with one of their personal rock heroes. For Johnny, it meant the first and only time he played on an album (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) that went #1 in the US.
Also want to shout out Tom Morello, who is hardly underrated, but I feel like he has to get name-checked with some of the luminaries that have been called out already. For those who don’t recognize the name, he’s the lead guitarist of both Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave who has an immediately recognizable style. If you’re averse to the rap metal and post-grunge of those bands, here’s a Tom Morello guitar solo playing on stage with Bruce Springsteen:
https://youtu.be/TmMHfKwJGGs?si=iKYxNWKlH_P3muI_
Finally I think someone who is truly underrated, at least in the US, is Miyavi. A Japanese guitarist, if you don’t know the name then your only exposure to him might be in his acting debut as the cruel prison camp guard in the 2014 film Unbroken. In Japan though, he’s a rock legend and superstar. This clip is a short example of his ability. I picked it because he’s playing acoustic rather than electric:
https://youtu.be/eOj2eeSGjn8?si=ymTw-g6mcaDTswjK
Stanley Jordan – extensive use of two-handed tapping; saw him live maybe 30 years ago :( and again a couple of months ago doing his “What if Jimi Hendrix were alive today” tribute. Amazing.
Go 9ers
Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac, deserves recognition here. Clapton rightfully gets his share of deserved love (in spite of his degenerate politics), but their peer Jimmy Page says Green was the best singer, best songwriter, and best guitarist of the Brits.
Check out “Rattlesnake Shake” on their 1970 “Live in Boston” album…the interplay and guitar work of Green and Danny Kirwan is stunning…on another level even from the Allman Brothers live “Whipping Post” of the same era.
John 5.
Terry Kath.
Vince Gill.
Prince.
Yeah, Terry Kath. Unreal good. What a loss.
The magazine was empty, but not the chamber.
The guy put out a lot of great music in 31 years.
I saw them early on when he was still alive. Just amazing.
In the Leo Kottke-John Fahey-Takoma Park vein – how about Robbie Basho? He excelled at playing extended Indian raga-like music with open tunings, had a strange voice and a tragic death in 1986 due to unfortunate adjustment by his chiropractor.
Thanks for mentioning Robbie Basho–he was seriously good. I met him when I was visiting friends in Berkeley in about 1984 and ended up giving him a ride to his guitar repair guy in San Jose. Sadly, the repair didn’t “take”–the problem returned in the middle of a show that night, leaving Basho in tears of frustration. I thought his playing was great, but he was incredibly self-critical.
We corresponded after that, but his letters stopped coming. It was only much later that I learned he had died. RIP
Lindsey Buckingham has always been underrated, except by other guitarists. Mick Ronson had razor-like solos and was an incredible arranger as well. Although he is not my cup of tea, Buckethead can shred your skin off.
Wonderful thread today on the guitarists, from which I’ve been feverishly copying names. I’m a dedicated EW reader, but as an electrical engineer nearing retirement, I know better than to comment on the regular subject matter of this blog. This has been a terrific diversion.
Chris Cain, Kirk Fletcher, Bo Carter.
Oh no, comment anytime please.
Zappa all day every day. Saw the Waka Jawaka tour at Constitution Hall in ‘72 when I was 15 and was just utterly blown away.
I also wanted to be Tina Weymouth so bad after I saw the Talking Heads Stop Making Sense tour in ‘83. She was just soooo cool.
Don’t forget Ry Cooder!
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – 24 years old and straight outta Clarksdale! Lucky enough to have seen him twice – first in LA and then at the historic synagogue at 6th & I in DC. He is utterly remarkable now and will only get better and better with age. Hard to imagine how good, better, best he can be with a few more decades under his belt.
Have not seen Jorma Kaukonen mentioned, maybe because he is not really underrated. In his work with Jefferson Airplane and Starship, Hot Tuna, and as a soloist, he brought the finger picking style of Reverend Gary Davis into modern blues and rock. I am lucky to have seen him perform live in 5 different decades.
Oh no, I know Jorma. Good call, yeah he is that good. But everything about the original JA was all that. Everything.
Jefferson Airplane is my favorite band. Never got to see them live because I’m just a bit too young, but had the pleasure of attending several Hot Tuna shows. Jorma is definitely augmented by having Jack Casady as his partner. As we Tuna fans say, if you don’t know Jorma, you don’t know Jack!
Yes, sorry, I’m going to be that guy who mentions someone you might not have heard of.
I’ve had the fortune to see Johnny Gallagher play live a few times and it’s spellbinding.
https://www.johnnygallagher.com/biography
His album A 2020 Vision is pretty widely available to stream if anyone wants to check it out.
Linda Perry, first album with 3 non-blonds and two solo afer
Speaking of Perry, love this video of her with Pink performing What’s Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nnj-bhv6vQ
i’ m so out of my league here i shouldn’t even comment, but i kinda liked stevie ray vaughan and john fahey. R.I.P.
Are they really underrated, though?
(My apologies if I am not using the same name. It’s been a while.)
bmaz just touched on this distinction: underrated vs. under-appreciated. I am not sure which category best fits Zappa, but his mention queued up Willie the Pimp in my brain.
I binged Adrian Belew in the early 90’s having missed most of his earlier work. Oh Daddy is one of the most charming videos ever made. Not exactly representative but it was the hook.
I didn’t see Chris Whitley mentioned yet. An unusual talent that used almost as many tuning variations as Joni Mitchell.
Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys deserves mention. He owns a recording studio in Nashville, and session man Tom Bukovac shows up once in while. Buk, aka Uncle Larry, recently uploaded an interview with Hermanos Gutierrez- brothers now based in Switzerland, but originally from Ecuador. Auerbach, Uncle Larry, and the brothers are variations on the theme. Auerbach’s guitar is perhaps a bit too raunchy to be considered good. Bukovac is a session legend, so relatively anonymous. The Hermanos Gutierrez are relatively unknown, but not for long.
Last: these guys are amazing: Mathias Duplessy et les Violons du Monde.
Good call on Chris Whitley, yet another R&R tragedy.
His brother, Dan, is an excellent guitarist/singer/writer, lives and plays in (I think) up state New York, has some indie albums out.
James Honeyman-Scott from the early Pretenders. His lyrical solo on Kid is a long time fave.
Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief (and solo work).
Jimmy Rogers from Muddy Waters’ 50s-era band and from his own band.
Willie Johnson from Howlin Wolf’s Sun-era band.
Jen Turner, who plays on Natalie Merchant’s album, Tigerlily. Just listen to Wonder!
The big D stands strong. Jeebus, it was a long game down here in Mary land with a ravines bar right across the street! Go Stillers!
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Glen Campbell is often not mentioned in lists of great guitarists, but he was quite talented.
I will throw in Maui’s own Willy K on the guitar whether playing acoustic Hawaiian and country or electric blues or shredding Hendrix’s he could have been on the world stage but remained a local legend in Hawaii.
He was also a top notch singer with a range from Hawaiian, Blues/rock through Opera. RIP William Awihilima Kahaialiʻi, October 17, 1960 – May 18, 2020.
https://williek. com (broken link)
I’m going to agree with the comment that Peter Green was better than Clapton. But Rory Gallagher may have been the best from the British Isles.
Love me some Al DiMeola, just saw him at the MIM, but I don’t think he’s underrated. Also, heard he recently had a heart attack on stage somewhere in Eastern Europe, but he’ll be OK and back at it after some rest.
Also just saw Albert Lee at the MIM. You need a guy to play something? Doesn’t matter what it is, call Albert. Everyone else has. Pretty good piano player as well.
Agree that Ariel Bender’s work with Mott is underrated, as is his work in Spooky Tooth.
Arthur Neilson from Shemekia Copeland’s band is just amazing. His solo stuff is worth checking out.
Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick. Underneath that goofiness is a superb player.
For the women I pick Lydia Warren – She was a teenage phenom out of the Boston area that plays like Buddy Guy and sings like Ann Wilson. She did a few excellent albums, then semi-retired to go to school and hasn’t quite got back on the path to success.
Peter Green better than Clapton? What drugs are you on?
Well, it’s all subjective. How do you measure quality in music? Certainly not by sales or airplay. You like what you like and I like what I like, but here goes…
Sorry, but I find Clapton to be very, very overrated (blast away, folks!). Greeny’s sound was the template for both Santana and Gary Moore. And speaking of Mr. Moore:
– He played many times with Mayall and it was incredible
– Recorded and toured with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker and I think the BBM album is better than anything by Cream
– “While My Guitar…” at George’s last concert, with Moore on guitar, is to me, the best version ever.
– When Gary died and Clapton did “Still Got The Blues” at a show in tribute, Clapton didn’t attempt the solos and instead, Winwood played them on the B-3.
So, while definitely not as influential, and not as well known, I think Gary Moore was “better” than Clapton. As was Peter Green. And Albert Lee, and Alvin Lee, and Robin Trower, and Dave Edmunds, and Midge Ure (hugely talented and vastly underrated player), and Mick Ronson, and so on…
And that’s just on that side of the Atlantic.
Of course there are probably a dozen guys toiling in bar bands or noodling around in their basement that are as good as any of those above, but for whom the stars never aligned.
I will have to check out Lydia Warren, a name have not heard before. I saw Buddy Guy a couple of times when he’d come through this little place in Evergreen, CO. I don’t think any of the recordings of him I’ve heard off Alligator or such really capture the full intensity of his playing. Its insane.
Rory Gallagher was great, but the greatest guitarist from the British Isles is Jeff Beck … or Richard Thompson … or Jeff Beck …
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Daniel Fischelscher (Popol Vuh), Manuel Gottsching (Ash Ra, solo), Andy Gill (Gang of Four)
Someone mentioned Steve Hillage, and John McLaughlin already, but I wouldn’t call either unknown/underrated. Just saw McLaughlin with Shakti on their 50th anniversary tour–still amazing. Scary to think that I’ve been listening to someone for 50 years! Always enjoy bmaz mentioning Blue Oyster Cult for that very reason.
Damn, yet another R&R tragedy in Andy Gill. Gang of Four were brilliant in 1983 and 30 years later, too.
bmaz, suggestion topic for the next Trash Talk: Underrated bands
Oh, I’ll ask if anyone ever listened to or got to see a guy named Glenn Phillips, from Atlanta I think.
Instrumental guitar rock, very much in the Belew vein. Blew my mind the 2 times I saw him.
Underrated band? The Verlaines, from Dunedin, New Zealand.
No relation to Television Tom.
Equally groundbreaking and enthralling.
Mike Rutherford: well-known but quite underrated as a guitarist.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mgtlGksDM_0&pp=ygUgc21hbGxjcmVlcCdzIGRheSBtaWtlIHJ1dGhlcmZvcmQ%3D
Go Niners
Can’t let this pass without mentioning one of my personal heroes: Sonny Sharrock. If you like electric jazz, his album Ask the Ages with Pharoah Sanders on sax is essential listening. RIP.
Oh yes, thank you! “Essential listening” is precisely right. How fine to find this close to the end of this l-o-n-g and evocative/provocative thread.
…read the whole thing through and no Junior Brown?
Junior Brown is amazing. Not sure if he’s underrated. The first time I saw him live, it was a surprise as he was opening for someone my ex-wife wanted to see. He closed with a medley of Purple Haze, Pipeline and Mizerlou played on his double neck Telecaster/slide guitar.
Hey bmaz, when ya gonna do another favorite rock show? I’ve been thinking about it and would love to add more.
Soon? I dunno, I do stuff like this when it seems right.
…and then I forget to mention Jan Davis.
Can’t say for certain, but this Purdy kid in SF seems fairly good.
Holy moly… as I write this, one minute into the fourth quarter, this looks like a “statement” game to me… and another interception as I was typing. Yeah, I think he deserved to go a few draft positions above where he ended up… oh look, another touchdown as I was typing that.
I’m old, and forgetful,
…and I read the whole thing through again and can’t find mention of Joe Pass, Lenny Breau or Roy Clark.
Roy and Joe together playing Hank Williams is not to be missed.
I first saw FZ and the Mothers with Flo and Eddie on the Live at the Fillmore tour at the Meadowbrook outdoor amphitheatre where the Detroit Symphony played in the summer.
Worst pairing of an opening act I ever saw with Livingston Taylor on acoustic guitar with a guy playing upright opening for Frank. Ouch. I did manage to catch my hair on fire and got a bigger ovation from the crowd than Livingston did.
Also saw Mahavishnu Orchestra open for FZs Overnight Sensation band in Detroit and then Toronto. Both nights guys in Franks band were in the wings watching Mahavishnu play and the Mahavishnu guys watched the Mothers.
One name that hasn’t been mentioned is Robert Fripp. King Crimson was incredibly influential in the development of English Progressive rock. The first time I heard 21st Century Schizoid Man it blew me away like the first time I heard Foxy Lady and Purple Haze. I saw them when they were touring for their second album In Wake of Poseidon at a movie theatre converted to what FZ called a “psychedelic dungeon popping up on every street”. They opened for Procul Harum with Robin Trower still on board. Of the guitarists who emulated Jimi I liked Trower the best. He captured the spirit but with a unique style.
Fripp worked with Eno, Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Darryl Hall among others.
Adrian Belew’s work with King Crimson was I think his best. He has said he was heartbroken when Fripp dissolved the band and then reformed with tne 3 drummer line up. Belew was an heir to Jeff Beck in the way he could manipulate his tones, use of whammy bar, etc.
I have been a Captain Beefheart fan since high school. (I am SunZoomSpark after all). Our band covered Willie the Pimp. We saw Ry Cooder who should be on the slide guitar list open for The Magic Band with Ted Nugent as the headliner! Our whole band got up and left when Ted got onstage and somehow got into the Captain’s dressing room. Of course we were completely tongue-tied.
John Scofield, Larry Carlton, Denny Diaz, Jay Graydon, Skunk Bxxter
Pat Martino, Joe Pass
Lowell George who gave Bonnie Raitt some slide instruction.
Steve Hackett – Genesis
Ralph Towner – Paul Winter Consort, Oregon, Solo nnd only guitar player featured on a
Weather Report album.
Mick Ronson (Bowie)
An almost new category, these guys are all extremely good. Gives me hope for the next generation. There are several ‘making of’ videos of the individual parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5NoQg8LdDk
I am tired of the old stuff. (I still love BeBop Delux from the last time you used that killer album cover.)
Don’t know if I could call Belew “underrated,” but he is definitely my *favorite* guitar player. I’ve been lucky enough to see him several times, including this last year when I took my son along.
Here are a couple of guitarists no one has mentioned yet:
Mike Oldfield — I love the way he can keep ratcheting everything slowly up to where you don’t think it can go any higher, and then it just keeps building. Good examples of his virtuosity are the live versions of Platinum and Incantations. His album The Songs of Distant Earth is the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard.
Dick Dale — The King of Surf Guitar. I saw him at a festival where the local paper had suggested seeing a different show instead of his because he was “inconsistent”. He may be, but he took that personally (and mentioned it more than once) and was absolutely *on fire*.
In the late 80s/early 90s I saw Dick Dale play in a hotel dining room to a crowd of perhaps 200 people. His sound was massive. He broke a string, and while he was restringing his guitar he said that the reason no one else sounded like he did was because his strings were seriously heavy. The physical strength it took for him to play was his secret weapon. He was living far from the surf in the California high desert at that point because he wanted the solitude.
Dick Dale was great. He literally did not want music companies sucking his money up, so he would set up a table and sell his own music after his shows. You gots to love that.
A name I don’t think I saw in reading through was John Frusciante. Under-rated may not be the term; maybe more like obscure with his on again/off again life. But his playing with the Red Hots makes them more than the sum of their parts.
Anyone ever see Tom Morello playing with the E Street Band and Bruce live? His guitar playing is transcendent. As much as I dislike Eric Clapton’s politics (back in the 70s and ever since), his guitar playing is extraordinary … Relatedly, has anyone heard of Michael Ubaldini? He’s a musician in Southern CA, great guitar – I came across him, though, through his one-hour show, “Outlaws of Folk,” Monday nights 10-11 pm on a Laguna Beach radio station that only transmits to a 5-mile radius BUT can be heard online – KXFM. It’s an incredible show – Michael tells the history of every song and artist, from the 1920s to present day, and it’s really great – the combination of history and music is something else. KXFM record the shows but they’re changing their storage and his show hasn’t been available for a few weeks – hopefully it’ll be back online soon, because I am looking forward to hearing his last 2 weeks of shows. Do try it – he’s a great guitar player, too, and plays his own songs sometimes. https://www.kxfmradio.org/
Lots of awesome guitarists mentioned above. In terms of underrated, I’ll add David Hidalgo, even more in Latin Playboys than in Los Lobos. I also give bonus points for the breadth of the music he can play. I’ve got my tickets for Los Lobos’ 50th anniversary tour at the Belly Up.
The last time I saw Los Lobos was at the Observatory with X and the Blasters. Billy Zoom had to sit on a stool the entire set: another woefully underrated guitarist.
As is Dave Alvin.
As a guitarist George Benson, played with Miles, Check out his version of Take Five on CTI album Bad Benson, also featuring Phil Upchurch. Shout out to Larry Coryell too.
I will slap anyone who claims 10‐time Grammy winner George Benson is an underrated guitarist. I wore out my copy of his Breezin’ album.
Slapping accepted. Just think that his stunning guitar virtuosity is some times over looked, because he’s such an all round talent.
Speaking of Miles, Pete Cosey made Agharta into a 50 year brain ride…
https://youtu.be/DUR6zK9XcaM
I tried to name only those not named above. A couple are known, but I felt should be mentioned as mebbe not as famous as they should be as players. All are who came to mind as I read the above.
Jason Isbell
Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (Long Riders, Steve Earle)
Eddie Shaver, RIP
J. Mascis (Dino, Jr.)
Doug Martsch (Built to Spill)
Ricard Lloyd (TV)
James Blood Ulmer
Shawn Lane
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins)
Jack White
Bob Stinson, RIP (Replacements)
David Grissom (Joe Ely, et al.)
Carl Precoda/Paul B. Cutler/Jason Victor (Dream Syndicate)
Gail Ann Dorsey (bass/vox – Bowie)
Vernon Reid (Living Color)
Hillel Slovak (RHCP)
Reeves Gabrels (Tin Machine, The Cure)
Robert Smith (The Cure)
Porl Thompson (The Cure, Robert Plant)
Robbie Blunt (Robert Plant)
Andy Bell (Ride, bass for Oasis)
Ronnie Drayton (Defunkt)
Stevie Salas
Bob Mould
D. Boon (Minutemen)
Chris Brokaw (Come)
Roger Miller (Mission of Burma)
Adam Granduciel (The War on Drugs)
Snowy White/Scott Gorham/Eric Bell/Brian Robertson/Garry Moore (Thin Lizzy)
Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead)
Phil Campbell/Fast Eddie Clark (Motorhead)
Rick Rizzo (Eleventh Dream Day)
Steve Albini (Blig Black, Rapeman, Shellac)
Mike Campbell (Petty and Heartbreakers)
Johnny Thunders (NY Dolls, The Heartbreakers)
Peter Buck (REM)
Robin Finck, too!
A bit of a character, Finck used to play in The Impotent Sea Snakes, a band whose label I represented for a while.
Really good guitarist, and as good a showman, in that genre.
Sorry!!!! Autofill got me on the above … Please correct. Sorry!!!
I subscribe to Guitar Player magazine and I think this comment thread may have covered every significant guitar player of the past sixty years or so. Not sure if I saw Steve Hackett’s name mentioned, the original guitarist for Genesis. Love his acoustic work, especially “Horizons”, which I spent a lifetime trying to play. Mick Ralphs, of both Mott the Hoople and Bad Company was always an underrated lead player, in my estimation. Simple but juicy classic rock licks galore!
Philip Lithman, a.k.a. Snakefinger
https://youtu.be/7nChsRC4wuc
Sonny Sharrock
https://youtu.be/jks0N05l4OY?feature=shared
Saw Zappa at Newport along with Clapton playing with the Blues breakers Zappa was better
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I had a really beat up old guitar that was missing a string or two, had a cracked top and the neck was bowed like you could hunt with it. It was standing against the wall in the corner when a visitor I’d just met asked if he could play it. I told him that he could surely give it a try, but it was hopelessly cruddy, and turned to speak with the friend who’d brought this fellow with him. Momentarily, after I began to hear incredible melodic sounds coming from my old guitar and it seemed miraculous! I later learned more about my visitor, who’s name was Lenny Breau.
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Underrated seems like a bit of a tricky category, but haven’t seen these great guitarists mentioned after all those comments, so I’ll contribute:
Steve Howe from Yes
and
Jeff Beck from I’m not sure what group besides the amazing solo album I had as a teenager.
Thank you Rayne, for the Nancy Wilson vote, I heard Crazy on You on my Spotify liked songs playlist, and it’s been stuck in my head for days…what chu gonna dooooooo?
Wilson’s opening of Crazy on You still gives me goosebumps all these years later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBq_THTWNM4
I’m gonna shock all ya’ll and throw out Keith Urban. I know, I know, but, if you haven’t watched/listened to him live, take a look at some of his live videos. He began as a studio musician and can play anything, any genre.
Alright, have at me. Ha ha.
You’re fine — this post was about underrated guitarists. If you have a link to a YouTube video with an Urban performance you think is particularly good, that’d be helpful.
Welcome to emptywheel.
There’s lots of unsung Nashville greats:
Brent Mason
Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakum)
Brad Paisley
How could I forget:
David Lindley
Waddy Wachtell
And,
James Ilsey/Hershel Yatovitz (Chris Isaak)
Tito Larriva/Peter Atanasoff (Tito and the Tarantulas)
I’m glad someone mentioned David Lindley. His guitar solo and outro on slide guitar on Jackson Browne’s “Runnin’ On Empty” will live forever. Everyone knows it and can whistle along to it. Timeless. That is the impression only a genius musical phrase can leave with people. Waddy Wachtel also was the ultimate lead guitar hired gun for forty years, leaving super juicy riffs and licks all over Linda Ronstadt abd Warren Zevon’s music. Also a timeless player…..
I’ve been a women’s basketball fan my entire life and at my age, absolutely no one in my orbit ever watches or mentions it. They are, of course, evil people for their deliberate indifference. I’m a Liberty diehard only because Stewie is the supreme goddess of the world and has been since she won national titles at UConn, and, of course, I am the exact same age as her old UConn coach Geno Auriemma and Boomers gotta boom. For this bmaz shoutout, it makes me wish there was a “Like” button.
Nice discussion. Will be seeing Belew with Jerry Harrison on 12/31.
Kudos to theartistvvv for the Stevie Salas mention.
I’ll throw a few more into the underrated (or under appreciated) ring:
Billy Zoom
Captian Sensible
Deniz Tek
Derek Trucks
Joe Walsh
The way Mike Bloomfield evolved from the Butterfield Blues Band to the Electric Flag amazed me.
What’s His Name from the SNL band ended up with Bloomfield’s Telecaster from the Butterfield days, and did a YouTube about “The Guitar That Killed Folk Music.” He pointed out Bloomfield’s part on Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited.
Bloomfield’s guitar part isolated is available on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40RER5YuQIY
That is very cool. Thanks!
Mike Campbell. Always tasteful, never a showoff.
Second on Vernon Reid. If you don’t believe it, listen to the first minute of “Desperate People” (Living Colour) for starters.
I’d say Johnny Greenwood too, but we may be getting out of underrated territory.
Eric Gale.
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Yes. Gale was really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twCrdkag_1U
And of course Gale was the reason Roberta Flack pulled off Killing Me Softly successfully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEbi_YjpA-Y
Eric Gales, also.
one very few would recall. randy holden. check out population II from 1970. two man band. massive amplification. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MUOPUlXuVM
very heavy guitar. may remind some of robin trower but he was before that.
Surprised no one has mentioned Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, bothgreat guitarists.
But underrated guitarists? Everybody my age who listened to rock knew The Allman Brothers’ Band’s guitar work — Ramblin’ Man was inescapable for a time.