Unsung...Underrated...Who's Yer's?

[slimchance]

I spend a lot of time on guitar message boards, 'cause I'm a nerd and stuff. Seems like the same names get trotted out every time we start talkin' about our influences. You know who they are and I ain't gonna namecheck 'em here. I was just wondering who your unsung influences are. The standard namechecks are all great players- nobody's overrated. I'm just wondering why we never hear about...
Mark Ribot... Richard Thompson... Robert Quine.... Charlie Christian... JJ Cale.... James Wilsey... Howard Roberts.... Johnny Marr.... Hell, Merle Haggard... I know these guys are influential, but you never hear them namechecked...

Which guitar player isn't getting his propers? Who is your unsung hero?

(I just named my guys.)

[night0wl]

Alot of people (atleast in my area) have never heard of Brett Garsed and TJ Helmerich. Both are great guitarists!! I first heard Garsed in 1986 and he started my interests and what would end up being my career in music. I lost track of Brett when he went to the U.S. in about '89 and only recently re-discovered him and TJ Helmerich.

I have led a fairly sheltered life I guess, even so much to say until recently I never listened to the likes of Hendrix or Clapton!! I didn't know what I was missing!!

So anyway, Brett Garsed is my guitar hero!

Cheers,
Shane

[slimchance]

Brett Garsed.....What sort of stuff does he do?
Slim

[night0wl]

He does rock/fusion. He has some mp3's on his site here if you wanna check him out. When he was in the U.S. he worked with TJ Helmerich, Shawn Lane, Frank Gambale and a few others.

Shane

[mlrpa]

Bill Nelson is THE man! Formally of Be Bop Deluxe in the '70's, Red Noise, and about 50 solo lp's since, he came back to the guitar world in around 92. A true guitarist!
Robert Fripp of King Crimson. Listen to 1973's "RED" and you'll understand why todays metal pales in comparision.
Anthony Phillips/Steve Hackett/Mike Rutherford. All Guitarist from Genesis, and all brilliant in their own right.

[slimchance]

Yeah, Fripp is a pretty darned interesting guitar player. And some of that King Crimson stuff is real real heavy...

[wolf]

Randy California of Spirit. An underrated guitarsist and an underrated group.

I'll also cast my vote for Robert Fripp.

[mutato]

Another's Neil Clark. Guitarist from the 80's Alternative British band "Lloyd Cole and the Commotions".

He's recorded a lot with Lloyd Cole on his numerous solo albums over the years (alongside Robert Quine on some!). He has a great British style. He's up there with Johnny Marr in that arpeggio/alt music style. He's still producing, which is great.

www.neilclark.com/

[pollyshero]

Michael Ward:

School of Fish, John Hiatt, Wallflowers, Tiny Buddy, and many more bands. A prolific, diverse, and talented musician.

www.wardworldwide.com

[sumgai]

Does it have to be a guitarist?

I have so many "guitar" albums, I should be able to play anything ever written by anybody, but noooo.....

I listen to sax players for single note phrasing and their beautiful tremolo and vibrato effects (all with their mouths!), harmonica players, particularly for single octave blues licks, piano players for their multi-part chordal melodies.... Hell, you get the drift. Anyone can be a guitar-slinger (except me ), but there are so many influences out there that to close one's self off from them is a shameful waste of potential new musical directions.

Try reading a page or two out of somebody else's book. The horizons thus opened up for you just may make a difference in the music world, someday.


sumgai

p.s. But don't stop naming your favorite off-brand guitarists, I like looking for the obscure stuff in this field too!

[jdl]

Hey;

I guess I'll chime in on this one. Being from Canada, i've always listened to a band called Big Sugar. The guitarist is Gordie Johnson. He plays a mean slide guitar. Their early music was kinda straight bluesy rock stuff, but then they got into heavier music, and even some reggae, all the while playing with the slide!

Recently the band broke up but Gordie moved down to Austin(i think), where he met up with Chris Layton (Double Trouble), and a bass player, Ben Richardson, and formed a band called Grady. This music is unbelievable! I saw them live up here in Canada, and Gordie became my new guitar hero. The music is all tuned down heavy slide riffs, that will probably make you want to pick up your axe immediately, and start playing! The bad news I just found out was that Chris Layton left the band due to too many projects that he wanted to explore. But, they have a new drummer, and as far as i know they are still playing down in Texas (Maybe Runewalker can vouch for this).

Great bands, great guitarist, definately worth checking out;

James
P.S. Gordie Johnson was on that Austin City limits show, I think it was called Been A Long time, that had double trouble backing a bunch of artists. you can hear him playing on a song called Groundhog Day, with Jonny Lang singing and also playing guitar.

[Ripper]

Great thread!...I really like Lenny Brau, who when he was on and not too messed up on drugs was amazing! Don Ross is another great Canadian guitarist. Django Reinhardt played with only two fingers and was simply awesome. The reason I picked up a guitar?...Believe it or not Ace Frehley!...I know now that hes not really that outstanding as a player, but his look and his style made me want to play. Oh yes, and Floyd from the muppet show.