These are the guitarists that sing to me. Many are virtuosos; some are not. What they all have in common is a unique voice and a serious musical esthetic. Whether they write original compositions or do interpretations of cover and/or traditional music matters not. Again, like my LISTENING PLEASURES, this is not intended or pretending to be a 'world's greatest guitarist' list. Many of these folks are visionaries with long distinguished careers that have made significant changes to their style of play over the years. Many transcend what you may expect of what a guitar can sound like. And...all have influenced me aesthetically on small and large levels at various points in my life.
The last thing I would like to add is...if you like the music I produce, you are going to love these folks!
Eivind Aarset
Rez Abbasi
John Abercrombie
Will Ackerman
Jan Akkerman
Tuck Andress
Scott Appel
Dan Ar Braz (formerly Ar Bras)
Dan Arcamone
Chet Atkins
Duck Baker
Manual Barrueco
Robbie Basho
Jeff Beck
Adrian Belew
Stephen Bennett
George Benson
Pierre Bensusan
Debashish Bhattacharya
Raoul Bjorkenheim
James Blackshaw
Ulli Bogershausen
Tim Brady
Julian Bream
Lenny Breau
Jakob Bro
Jimmy Bruno
Roy Buchanon
Larry Carlton
Clive Carroll
Martin Carthy
Philip Catherine
Michael Chapman
Jeff Ciampa
Eric Clapton
Roy Clark
Nels Cline
Bruce Cockburn
Bill Connors
Larry Coryell
David Crosby
Peppino D'Agostino
Steve Dawson
Alex de Grassi
Philip deGruy
Paco De Lucia
Al DiMeola
Joe Diorio
Jerry Donahue
Christy Doran
Nick Drake
Scott DuBois
Marc Ducret
Antoine Dufour
Doyle Dykes
Jon Eberson
Mattias IA Eklundh
James Elkington
Herb Ellis
Liberty Ellman
James Emery
Tommy Emmanual
John Etheridge
Kevin Eubanks
Dave Evans
David Howell Evans (a/k/a The Edge)
John Fahey
Tal Farlow
Stephen Fearing
Peter Finger
Antonio Forcione
Robert Fripp
Bill Frisell
Jerry Garcia
Danny Gatton
Ed Gerhard
Vince Gill
Egberto Gismonti
Mick Goodrick
Davey Graham
Ted Greene
Stefan Grossman
Buddy Guy
Steve Hackett
Jim Hall
Fareed Haque
Joel Harrison
Warren Haynes
Michael Hedges
Gilad Hekselman
Scott Henderson
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Herring
Allan Holdsworth
Steve Howe
Michael Gregory Jackson
John James
Bert Jansch
Richard Leo Johnson
Randy Johnston
Vic Juris
Steve Kahn
Henry Kaiser
Kalle Kalima
Ledward Kaapana
Henry Kaiser
Jorma Kaukonen
Phil Keaggy
Mark Knopfler
Leo Kottke
Mark Kozelek
Wayne Krantz
Mike Kraynak
Jonathan Kreisberg
Volker Kriegel
Robbie Krieger
Andre LaFosse
Julian Lage
Birelli Lagrene
Michael Landau
Sonny Landreth
Shawn Lane
Jeff Lang
Peter Lang
Patty Larkin
Nguyen Le
Albert Lee
Adrian Legg
Lionel Loueke
Gary Lucas
Rob Luft
Alex Machacek
Dean Magraw
Pat Martino
Russell Malone
Harvey Mandel
John Martyn
Steve Masakowski
Pete McCann
Fred McDowell
Roger McGuinn
Andy McKee
John McLaughlin
Tony McManus
Ralph McTell
Pat Metheny
Dom Minasi
Joni Mitchell
Don Mock
Ben Monder
Wes Montgomery
Scotty Moore
Peter Mulvey
Tisziji Munoz
Michael Musillami
Wolfgang Muthspiel
Johnny Niland
Oz Noy
Gerardo Nunez
Miles Okazaki
Mark O' Leary
Jimmy Page
Joe Pass
Jeff Pearce
Jacques Pellen
Al Pettaway
Kelly Joe Phelps
Willy Porter
Dani Rabin
Doug Raney
Jimmy Raney
Harvey Reid
Django Reinhardt
John Renbourn
Marc Ribot
Tony Rice
Gyan Riley
Robbie Robertson
Adam Rogers
Jack Rose
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Brandon Ross
Don Ross
Ray Russell
Terje Rypdal
Samo Salamon
Nathan Salsburg
Carlos Santana
John Scofield
Mike Seal
Andres Segovia
Sonny Sharrock
John Sheehan
Drad Shepik (formerly Schoeppach)
Soig Siberil
Martin Simpson
Alex Skolnick
Ian Smit
Johnny Smith
Ferenc Snetberger
Tim Sparks
Vlatko Stefanovski
Mike Stern
Stephen Stills
Jacques Stotzem
John Stowell
Dave Stryker
Big Jim Sullivan
Andy Summers
David Surette
Miroslav Tadic
James Taylor
Martin Taylor
Richard Thompson
Steve Tibbetts
David Torn
Ali Farka Toure
Peter Townsend
Ralph Towner
Robin Trower
James "Blood" Ulmer
Nelson Veras
Pierre Vervloesem
Ulf Wakenius
Kazumi Watanabe
Stian Westerhus
Clarence White
Chris Whitley
David Wilcox (singer-songwriter)
John Williams
Keller Williams
Andreas Willers
Mark Wingfield
Johnny Winter
Erik Wollo
Ed Wynne
Andrew York
Dweezil Zappa
Frank Zappa