Greatest blues guitarist?

[Joris ErikPaul van Aalst]

Hello!
I just had nothing to do, so... Who do you think is the best blues/blues-rock guitarist ever?

B.B. King? Eric Clapton? Santana? Stevie Ray Vaughan? John Lee Hooker? Jeff Beck? Someone completly else? You decied.

[sunvalleylaw]

I will go with Albert King as the best "original" electric blues guitarist. He seems to be the root of so much electrically. But my favorite overall for where he took it is SRV. His softer jazzier styles to his takes on the classic blues and King style licks etc.

[Robert****]

Jimi Hendrix of course. Isn't that kinda obvious?

[Tig***]

I'm not a so-called purest, but when I think blues, I have to divide it up into electric/blues-rock, or pure, original blues.

For blues-rock, that would be Jimi Hendrix. He ran with it and pushed the limits like no other.

For absolute feeling in the electric blues world, Gary Moore.

For pure blues, Robert Johnson. Unlike the English invasion lads (who I love, such as Clapton, Jeff Beck, etc.), the original Delta blues was created by guys like Robert Johnson. The Chicago guys had the right feeling, but they came along later and copied/progressed upon what the first bluesmen invented. It all came from the past slave work songs they created in the fields.

I'm sure this could go much deeper, but that's not my intention here. I;m also sure I'm not 100% accurate, but you get the meaning.

[Eric***]

Coming from a non blues fan, definitely R.L. Burnside.

I particularly love his stuff with the John Spencer Blues Explosion.

[Jipes***]

The truth is that ....No one win the contest because Music is not about being the best, all depends of personal taste and styles. To name a few I would put Albert Collins, BB King, Albert King, Robert Cray, Luther Jonhson, Jimmy Johnson, Tab Benoit, John Mooney, Son House etc....

[Jimi75]

It's personal taste of course. Question is if the initiators are automatically the best blues guitarists....
Well, to me there's one guitarist that fascinated me more than all others. I investigated Blues history, I made up stories in my head how things could have been. The best is, at first listening I had no ear for understanding his greatness, but his records were so special that it became like an addiction listening over and over to them. I always have his songs on my MP3 player...it's like a curse :-) When I hear him play, I try to travel back in time to that lonely hotel room, where he sat and played this handful of songs....you all know who I am talking about don't ya......it's Robert Johnson of course.

[progrmr]

Albert King is probably my favorite - although Buddy Guy and B. B. King are close 2nds. SRV is of course 100% awesome but I've found in listening to the old stuff that the old original players have more soul than anything that's come our way for a long time (IMHO of course).

EDIT: YIKES! How did I forget Muddy Waters???

[Retro Hound]

"Best" or "greatest" is impossible for something like this. How do you compare Son House with Joe Bonamassa? I always just go with "favorite." For acoustic I like Son House and Lightin' Hopkins among others. For electric I like B. B. King, Jimi Hendrix, and SRV among others. Though Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf's guitarist) needs to be mentioned.

[R_of_G]

Blind Willie Johnson

[Blaze]

I m a Johnny Winter Fan ... Son House & Robert Johnson are inescapable ..

Love the Iceman Albert Collins for tone and licks also Robben Ford for the personality and colors ..

[msteeln]

If I listen to anyone's blues it always leads me back to Jimi, he was the package. The only blues that doesn't do that to me is swamp, or jump blues, like Jimmie Vaughn's old T-Birds or James Harmon w/the late and fabulously under-mentioned Hollywood Fats/Michael Mann. SRV's pretty good too!

The Hook sez "That 'Red House', that'll make you grab your mother and choke her! Man, that's really hard, that tears you apart. He could get down, he could mash it, yeah, Lord! He had so many blues"

[Retro Hound]

My Netflix today is the American Folk Blues Festival vol 1., and after watching that I might have to add Earl Hooker to the list. I highly recommend these DVDs for any fan of the blues. There are three of them, Netflix has two of them, and they are all at Amazon.

[msteeln]

Yes, the Hooker bros. certainly had different takes on the blues, but they lived them and made them their own.