Best Acoustic Guitar Players Of All Time?

Lanny Breau
Sandy Bull
Mississippi Fred McDowell

Doug Mcleod
Chris Smither
Mary Flower

One of my favorites is Jesse Cook.

Leo Kottke

Hedges, saw him twice in the Burgh!! Awesome!!

Baden Powell de Aquino, from Brazil. Underrated, but a good one.

Forgot to mention a lesser known but true giant of the acoustic guitar. Egberto Gismonti. Saw him live and swear to God, if you closed your eyes you would sometimes think there were two guitars playing. Try "De Repente" on the album "Sanfona".

Chet Atkins and Les Paul

they have a CD out: Chester & Lester...magical.

I attended a john fahey concert at the peanut gallery in tampa circa 1977-78. I have quite a few of his records. He has a style of composition and fingering pretty much his own. I still fail to see why anyone would think he is the greatest acoustic player!

Certainly John Williams deserves some consideration. I also agree with the poster who mentioned John Fahey. I recall someone calling Leo Kottke "the greatest acoustic guitar player not named John Fahey." That is a pretty fair assessment to me too.

Keller Williams is pretty outrageous.

Howard Morgen died, sadly, earlier this year. He was an extraordinary finger style jazz guitarist and an incredible teacher with whom I had the privilege to study for a few years. He is revered among jazz guitarists but his work deserves a wider audience.

Genre specific?

How about best acoustic guitar playing Hee Haw second banana?

Here's Jerry Reed with Chet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KBhnebwE

Hi, I'll add Jan Akkerman.

ok, i won't totally condemn the thread as there are some really good posts with useful information (I had never even heard of Michael Hedges, but thanks to this post, I did enjoy some of his works on Youtube and agree that he is a fine artist.) With that said, i would like to see these lists made more "genre specific".. Who is better, Andres Segovia or Rory Block? How about Doc Watson or Julian Bream? ... To list the best artists is great but to
rate them best to worst is silly. Besides, everyone knows that Roy Clark is the absolute best guitarist of all time!

I was lucky enough to see M Hedges a few times in some intimate settings...He was a marvel to watch and listen to...Doc Watson was another to enjoy...and being in NC the Merl Fest is truly a treat for acoustic and flatpickers delight...

Hard to pick just one but if pressed
Hedges.
He really sounded like there were multiple guitars being played all at once

I saw Segovia live once.It's hard to imagine a better player than him.If not #1 he should be in top 3 or 5 of all time.Chet Atkins is a really clean player also.

Pentangle deserves a special place on this list. Bert Jansch and John Renbourne are both astonishing players

Marty

Michael Hedges.

Rory block for sure. Anyone mention Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills?

In terms of originality, I'll mention another of the neglected female players, Kaki King.

Norman Blake. Sean Persinger. Richard Thompson. Chris Proctor. Richard Leo Johnson.

Nice list. I agree with you on Michael Hedges. One of the best concert experiences I have ever had was watching Hedges play "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" on the guitar. I would add Harry Manx to the top 5 on your list. He does some phenomenal things with acoustic instruments.

I didn't read through every post here as it is a rather dated list. I was happy to see many of the stalwart players, especially John Fahey (leading to Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho--where is the latter?). But there is a glaring omission on the British side: Davy Graham who pretty much defined the direction British fingerstyle would take for a generation. Bert Jansch (not mentioned anywhere) and John Renbourn both acknowledge this. Paul Simon's version of Graham's Angi (on Sounds of Silence) was perhaps the first highly popularized fingerstyle piece on American shores. All of Davy Graham's studio recordings have at one time or another been re-released and 2012 saw the release of the 3 disc Lost Tapes set with some previously unreleased work although not real high on the sonic quality side. There's been a number of archival releases of DG performances as well. He passed away in the last year or two and left behind an incredible body of work.

Joe Pass plays only acoustic guitar on at least one album, (Songs For Ellen).

Pat Martino has recorded acoustic guitar on a couple of albums that i know of, (All Sides Now, and Starbright).

Not saying either one is primarily an acoustic player, (I wouldn't have thought to list them)... i did miss the jab that was aimed at Jax 2 for picking Joe Pass. I guess Marco could jump you for misspelling Hellborg.

Helborg is a bass player. Look at the context of the post.

yes Grier is great, also Bryan Sutton is an excellent bluegrasser...

I agree with Cmo that the bluegrass/flatpickers appear to be underappreciated. Check out this guy, for example.

http://www.davidgrier.com

Go to the "media" page for sound clips.

Another great, cut short in his prime, Chris Whitley (and another terrible-quality video).

Marco

Here's a video of Rory Block, since women seem to be a minority in this thread. I saw her play locally in a small venue and can tell you, if you are a fan of the guitar, and or the blues, do not miss her if she plays nearby you.

Marco

Hey Howard - Can you recommend a good Nuno CD? All the selections on Amazon were priced at $34 and above...WTF?

Criminy, I don't know why they would be so much. $92 for Guitar Wars...sheesh! As for Nuno stuff, you may/may not like the music. I'm not too into the band Extreme, but his guitar work is amazing. I like Schizophonic a lot, his solo album, though I'm not sure if it would be your thing. I'll see if I can send you one for a listen. I'm not familiar with his Drama Gods stuff. His new project should be stellar: Satellite Party, with Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction).

Hey Howard - Can you recommend a good Nuno CD? All the selections on Amazon were priced at $34 and above...WTF? Here's one for this thread: Guitar Wars

Marco

Nuno can smoke!... Kind of wondering about the earlier mention of Jonas Hellborg; As far as i know he's a bass player. Buckethead did some fantastic acoustic guitar playing on Hellborg's Octave Of The Holy Innocents disc and Shawn Lane also delivered some excellent acoustic guitar work on a couple of Hellborg discs. Are there some other Hellborg discs w/ acoustic guitar out there anyone can recommend?

I can't believe I forgot Uwe Kropinski. Good call, Duane. That guy is incredible.

Also:
Mark Knopfler

And one my favorites, whether electric or acoustic, Nuno Bettencourt. Excuse the poor quality, but this video of Nuno is purty darn good.

-Mantas Di Plata was pretty astounding (Paco fans will probably dig him, unfotunately the recording quality is generally not real spiff... still worth checking out)

-Uwe Kropinski, So Oder So and Berlin Concert are both way more psyco-active and head warping than most electric guitar records, (extremely percussive).

-Larry Coryell did some good stuff w/ Phillip Catherine and Steve Khan

-Derek Bailey may be tough to absorb, but was still a #$%^!! giant!

-Sylvain Luc, first Trio Sud disc is great

-Egberto Gismonti's use of harmonics alone on the Fantasia record sets him apart from anyone else.

-Bernd Steidl put out a good acoustic hair metal shred record

U.Srinivas/Dream w/ Michael Brook holds up pretty well

-Fred Frith has invented some cool acoustic things that got recorded

-Eddie Van Halen Spanish Fly does not suck, same w/ Allan Holdsworth's acoustic work on on Velvet Darkness and with Gong.

Don't forget Alex Degrassi, William Ackerman and Andrew York

Pat Metheny, Jerry Garcia (I love his style & tone) & John Carlini (one of Tony Rices' sidekicks)

Nice list. Hedges is easily my number one too.

I saw someone else mention Dave Evans, and that was nice to see. If you are into to acoustic fingerstyle guitar his album "Sad Pig Dance" is an absolute must have. It can be hard to find, but it is worth the effort of tracking that one down.

there are a few other people that I also dig but didn't see on the list:
Peter Finger
John James
John Renbourn
Leo Wijnkamp jr

20. Tony Rice.

I'm glad he was there as I was listening to one of his albums at the time.

Regards,

I can't figure why Doc Watson isn't on this list??? No Tony Rice, Norman Blake??? Clarence White?!? Flat pickers of the world rebel!

Ma'God.. Then there's Eddie Lang,Lonnie Johnson... Oh, That gypsy guy... Django something..

Robert Johnson.. Could be.. Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Rev. Gary Davis (he was blind too).... Least we got Ry listed up above...

There's that Bhatt guy too..

Chris

Doc Watson

STEVE HACKETT

kudos to the paco fans...you guys need to hear the
assad brothers!

I was trying to remember Paco de Lucia, when I put Al DiMeola on the list. I agree, he's magic on the guitar.

If you're going to suggest Joe Pass, you might as well add Pat Martino to the list. Might as well add Jonas Helborg while we're at it. Saw him open up for John Scofield a few years ago.

PS - I highly recommend checking out video of Doyle Dykes. I true master.

I too would have added in a living time frame Paco de Lucia, Antonio Forcione and I am surprised no one has mentioned -Martin Taylor- just amazing and available on Linn records. One wonders how there are no over dubs on his playing- as it sounds like he has four hands!
cheers!
Nev

Other than Segovia, none of these is even close to Paco de Lucia. If you haven't heard him, you haven't heard the greatest living guitar player on the planet.

No mention yet of Martin Simpson? Tsk, tsk.

In no particular order; Kelly Joe Phelps, Segovia, Rory Block, Joe Pass, Robert Johnson, Julian Bream, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole (Slack Key), Carlos Paredes (Portugese Guitar), Tim Reynolds ....oh, I'm sure I can think of more, but that's all for now...

Marco

Tiny Tim.