Ten of the Very Best Blues Guitarists

Blues guitar is the king of genres, having paved the way for successive ax handlers playing everything from jazz to metal. The genre’s main players combine outstanding technique, creative application and raw emotion with semi-mythical lives – the stories of which have seemingly grown greater with every telling.

Of course, as with any ‘top’ list there will be vociferous disagreements about who does and who doesn’t quite make the grade. Some historians suggest the greats of today were but minor figures in the true history of the blues. According to author, Elijah Wald, ‘It is only white audiences who will now sit down and listen to a bluesman just playing his guitar.’ White or not, listening to a ‘bluesman just playing his guitar’ is something that many cherish, especially when the bluesman is a super-inspirational badass.

B.B. King

Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925) is a blues supremo who provided the world with some of the most expressive guitar playing ever heard. His style of soloing – with its fluid vibrato and bends – has been much emulated. Time magazine voted King as one of the world’s greatest electric-guitar players, noting that his guitar (named Lucille) sounded ‘like a real woman singing the blues’.

Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is one of the most influential musicians of any genre. Rolling Stone ranked him fifth in its list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, while Eric Clapton regarded Johnson as ‘the most important blues singer that ever lived’. Most will know Johnson as the man rumoured to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for some supreme shredding skills. According to authors, Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch, the legend that Johnson traded his soul at the crossroads dates back to an interview given by his friend, the blues musician Son House, in 1966.

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton (30 March 1945 – present) is one of the handful of living greats. Few white men play the blues like Clapton, who is fluent in every style – though he’s most commonly credited with owning the Tulsa Sound. Clapton’s signature melodic playing has won him fans across the board and seen him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not once, but three times.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was born near Clarksdale, in the backwoods of Mississippi. Hooker is renowned for metrically free music, often described as ‘talking blues’.

Buddy Guy

George “Buddy” Guy (July 30, 1936 – present) is a consummate showman, incorporating drumsticks and the audience while playing solos. Though often labelled as ‘Chicago blues’, Guy’s sound is far broader than that – showing a mastery of choppy rhythm, double-stops and innovative bending.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was notable for his ability to simultaneously incorporate lead and rhythm parts. Grammy Award-winning Vaughan was ranked 12th in Gibson’s greatest guitarists of all time list, which credited him with channelling ‘music from the depths of his soul and through his body and guitar, which were connected as one’.

Jimmy Reed

Mathis James “Jimmy” Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) helped bring blues to mainstream audiences long before the time of Clapton and friends. His memorable guitar patterns, which sound like they’re being played while reclining on a leather sofa bed, are still easily recognizable.

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (October 18, 1926 – present) is one of the pioneers of rock’n’roll music, a fact reflected in the old cliché – ‘Before Jimi went to the moon, Chuck built the rocket.’

Otis Rush

Otis Rush (April 29, 1935 – present) created a sound known as ‘West Side Chicago’ that was defined by its long bent notes. Rush’s distinctive sound is credited to him playing with the little finger of his pick hand curled under the low E of his upside-down strung guitar.

Albert King

Albert Nelson ‘King’ (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was of the less-is-more school of playing and a fan of unorthodox tuning – sometimes dropping to C to enable ever grander bends. Along with B.B. King and Freddie King, Nelson is known as one of the ‘Three Kings of blues guitar.’