guitar solos where less is more

Check out acoustic guitar work by David Rawlings on any of the Gillian Welch recordings. Their recent "The Harrow & the Harvest" album is a perfect example of what you're talking about.

I've always liked Andy Latimer (Camel - check out "Ice"), and Mark Knopfler (Solo work - check out "Our Shangri-La") for this reason. For that matter David Gilmour is also a less is more soloist.

Check out David Gilmour Live at Royal Albert Hall (DVD) (2-disc)...very tasty w/o flash. I would also say Vince Gil takes a similar approach, though his songs are a wee bit different than Gilmour's.

JJ Cale...any album he has put out.

There's a couple of approaches that could satisfy the "less is more" description. Here are a few guitar solos that are short (less) and that don't feature rapid playing (less, again), but really serve the song (more):

Todd Rundgren - "I Saw The Light"
Terry Kath (Chicago) - "25 or 6 to 4"
Dave Davies (Kinks) - "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"

There are also longer solos that boil along at a slower tempo which could be nominated - but many of those end up at speed. It would probably require a little thought to identify those that never accelerate.

Marty