The blues as a genre is possessed of a deep and varied history with many artists contributing their own style to the genre and changing it through their work. Despite this varied history, a number of great blues guitarists stand out as either individuals who heavily influenced the genre or individuals who captured the public’s imagination as performers. In this article, I wanted to share with you a few of the great blues guitar legends of our time.
A blues guitarist whose impact is still felt today, Robert Johnson belongs at the beginning of any article on great blues players. Born in 1911 and poisoned in 1938, Johnson was a publicly successful blues guitarist for only a few years before his death. In his short time performing, Johnson contributed a great deal to the Mississippi Delta Blues tradition and helped pioneer the slide guitar technique as used in blues guitar. His blues songs like “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” and “Crossroad Blues” were popular in their day and are considered standards in blues guitar today.
Playing blues songs in the tradition established by Johnson, B.B. King is a legendary blues guitarist whose crisp guitar style makes him an important icon for beginners just learning blues guitar. King has an extensive discography and is known for a number of songs but two that might stick out to fans are “The Thrill is Gone” and “Everyday I Have the Blues.” Unlike Johnson, King doesn’t represent or fit neatly into any specific blues tradition like Mississippi Delta Blues of Piedmont Blues; instead, King developed an individual style incorporating various blues traditions such as slide guitar. Overall, King is an example to beginning blues guitarists who could learn a lot from his crisp individual style and mastery.
Another standout individual in the blues genre, Eric Clapton cites bother Johnson and King as significant inspirations and influences in his own career as a blues guitarist. Clapton was a product of the British blues revolution of the 1960s when a number of British bands – including Clapton’s “The Yardbirds” – emerged playing American blues music. As a product of this British movement, Clapton can’t be categorized as part of any American blues traditions the way that Johnson can be. Instead, Clapton developed an individual style closer to blues-rock than the American blues of men like Johnson and T-Bone Walker. Even as someone with a very individual style, Clapton’s blues pedigree is evident in songs like “Layla” where Clapton makes heavy use of slide guitar techniques.
Inspired by Clapton as well as Otis Rush and Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan demands a place on any survey of great blues guitarists. His particular style is similar to Hendrix’s and combines a number of blues guitar styles including a heavy use of vibrato. Vaughan’s style is also noteworthy for including some elements of jazz guitar but it is his stage presence and the personality in his guitar style that single Vaughan out for praise. Beginning blues guitarists would do well to study songs like Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” or “Little Wing” in an attempt to both learn more about blues guitar and the specific stylistic choices that made Vaughan great.
These four guitarists do not constitute a top four list of blues guitar legends but merely represent four standout personalities in the history of blues guitar. Examining the work of each would benefit every student of blues guitar as they attempt to learn more about specific styles of play.
