Whatever the reason, the lack of awareness of some of the great female guitarists is something that needs to be corrected. There have simply been too many fabulous women guitarists for at least a few of their names to not be household names.

The four women I choose to highlight in this article are just the tip of the iceberg of great players and I hope that by learning these few names, you can find your way to other great guitar goddesses – there are many to enjoy!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Why Ray Charles is credited with crossing Gospel with Blues has always been a mystery to me. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was doing it while Ray could still see. She was born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Arkansas in 1915. She toured with her mother, playing her guitar on stages and at church functions from as young as five. She had a healthy dose of Southern blues and jazz, and then her family moved north to Chicago, where her musical education continued with the Chicago blues and jazz scene of the 20′s.

Her style was unique to the period. A combination of finger picking and jazz voicings gave her a sound all her own.

She married Wilbur Thorpe, who later changed their name to Tharpe, in 1934 and moved to New York City. It was here that she was discovered by the Decca label and began making records.

Backed by a jazz orchestra, her songs caused an immediate uproar within the evangelical community, but the public loved them. She was soon appearing with bandleaders such as Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman, to mention a few.

During WWII she was one of only two gospel singers to record “V-discs” for the troops in Europe. During this period she became the first gospel artist to break into Billboard’s “Race Records” Top Ten.

After the war her popularity continued to grow. She gave a performance to a crowd of 25,000 people in celebration of her third marriage in 1951 in Washington, D.C.

She continued to perform until her death in 1973, of a stroke, on the eve of yet another recording session.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s legacy is immense. She was the first American Gospel act to tour Europe. She was a huge influence on modern music in many respects, both for her guitar playing and her blending of gospel, blues and jazz. Johnny Cash claimed her as his favorite singer.

Many of her recordings have been reissued in CD format, including several live performances. My personal recommendation is to pick up the box set entitled The Original Soul Sister, it’s a bit hard to find, but the discs’ one hundred and two tracks give a very good picture of her entire career.

Maybelle Addington Carter

Maybelle Addington was born in 1909 in southern Virginia. She grew up playing guitar and autoharp. When she was seventeen, she married and moved to Poor Valley.

Her unique stylistic twist was to pick out the melody on the lower (D, A and low E) strings while strumming the rhythm on the upper strings. This was one of the first uses of the guitar as a lead melodic instrument in American music. Playing with her brother-in-law and his sister-in-law she quickly became famous for playing at fairs and church events.

The “Original Carter Family” was signed by RCA-Victor in 1927. They made numerous records – many quickly became bluegrass and country standards that are played by bands and artists to this day.

By 1943 the group had broken up, but Maybelle reformed the group and continued to perform with her sisters through 1948.

Johnny Cash appears in this story as well, as he married Maybelle’s daughter June. Maybelle appeared several times on stage with Johnny as well as on the Johnny Cash Show of the 1970′s. But it was her playing in the ’40s that merits mention.

The Carter Family’s records were being played on Mexican “super stations” broadcasting to almost all of the lower 48 states. Chet Atkins recalls being influenced by Maybelle’s playing, as did Wayland Jennings. Quite a number of her songs became standards to be covered by singer-songwriter and country artists through the ’70′s.

The CD Can the Circle Be Unbroken released by Legacy in 2000 provides a great look into this important guitarist.

Liona Boyd

Often called the “First Lady of the Guitar,” Liona Boyd’s career has covered an amazing range. A classical guitarist of the first order, Liona also plays pop and Latin pieces. Her grandmother comes from the same town as Segovia, giving Liona a personal connection to the heritage of her music.

In her teens she took up the guitar after hearing a Julian Bream concert. She managed to study with a number of great classical artists, including Segovia. Segovia is said to have predicted she’d have a “magnificent” career.

She’s considered a first rate composer as well as a performer with few peers. She’s performed with nearly every major orchestra in the US and Canada, as well as having had private shows for numerous heads of state and royalty.

Her numerous gold and platinum albums and musical awards testify to both her talent and the accessibility of her music, but make it exceedingly hard to recommend one disc. However, if pressed, I’d have to say that her CD Baroque Favourites is probably my favorite.

Leni Stern

Leni Stern was born in Germany and has been playing in bands out of the New York area since the mid-1980′s. Her combination of jazz and rock is slightly reminiscent of Jeff Beck, but has a sense all it’s own. Her guitar playing is precise, gutsy and filled with emotion.

She has nine instrumental albums to her name, and each is a joy to listen to. After demonstrating such perfect understanding of modern jazz guitar, Leni expanded to songwriting and singing on her records in the last few years. She’s obviously an experienced artist, and the jazz singer-guitarist mold fits her like a glove.

Listening to a Stern performance, you get the sense of a performer perfectly attuned to her instrument, her audience, and her band. She spent some time studying with Bill Frisell, and learned to master loops and effects in a similar way to Frisell. The result is exceedingly deep guitar lines that layer up on each other to build to something greater than the sum of their parts.

Her musical style is incredibly varied and hard to define. Tracks that are tinged with elements of Northern African musical traditions meld with Django Reinhardt licks all wrapped up in an Hindu folk melody all with an ever so slight and appealing light rock sensibility.

Any of her discs are worth a listen, but my personal favorite is the wonderful 1998 release Recollection.

Guitar Goddesses was written by David Wagle for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

What if I told you that the guy who invented punk rock, popularized the basic harmonic ideas of modern rock and metal, and who was a direct influence on Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Townsend and others is someone you’ve never heard of and who will never get into the Rock Hall of Fame. You’d think I was crazy. But I’m not, that artist is . . .

Link Wray

His single Rumble is what made Pete Townsend pick up the guitar in the first place. Link didn’t invent the power chord of course, that harmonic idea has been around for centuries, but he did apply it to rock guitar. When he did that, Link set the stage for the entire direction of the rock genre.

Hailing from Dunn, North Carolina, Link had few choices in the musical world. He could be a country guy or a country guy. So in the early 1950′s he teamed up with his brothers Vernon and Doug and formed Lucky Wray and the Lazy Pine Wranglers. By 1955 they’d changed their name to Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands. Not precisely the stuff of rock legend! They moved to the Washington, D.C. area and added Shorty Horton on bass. Vernon did the vocals as Link was missing a lung from catching a bad case of tuberculosis while in the Army during the Korean War. So Link was left to playing the guitar, which he took to with great enthusiasm.

They had some minor success, but it wasn’t until they worked down to a trio, Vernon Wray changed his name to Ray Vernon and the group changed their name to The Ray-men that they found their groove.

Link was a great improviser and never backed down from a challenge. One gig, during a set, the house crowd asked for a stroll. Says Link, “They wanted me to play a stroll. I didn’t know any, so I made one up. I made up Rumble.”

The recording companies almost passed on Rumble, but the Cadence label owner Archie Bleyer’s daughter wouldn’t let her dad off the hook. She said the whole song reminded her of the fight scenes in West Side Story, so Bleyer renamed the song, and it soon topped at #16.

Cadence records came under immediate fire for releasing a song that “was promoting teenage gang warfare.” To counter this bad press, Bleyer tried to get The Ray-Men to team up with some Nashville clean-cut straight country artists for their next record. The Wray brothers saw no point to that, and broke their contract with Cadence, teaming up with Epic records.

With Epic, their follow-up to Rumble was the single Rawhide, which was, of course, an immediate hit.

Still, the Epic label wanted to clean up Link, get him out of his black leather jacket, and sell him as a country artist. Link and his brother wanted none of this. They liked being the bad boys on stage, and after a few stints recording things like Danny Boy backed by an orchestra, The Ray-men left Epic as soon as they could.

They formed their own label, Rumble Records, with the hope that being out on their own and out from the clueless label mangers, they could find the success their music clearly deserved. Their next big hit, recorded under Rumble Records was the single Jack The Ripper. In order to get the echo effect they wanted, they put Link’s amp at one end of a hotel staircase and the microphone at the other end.

But it wasn’t until Swan Records picked up Jack The Ripper that the brothers were able to get national coverage for the song. Swan Records liked Link and his brothers, and under a new contract, gave them free reign to experiment with different sounds and to dress and act how they wanted. Swan, like Epic and Cadence, came under heavy fire for “allowing” the band to do it’s live gigs in the roughest clubs it could find, and earning a reputation as serious party animals, the likes of which the newly evolved Rock World had yet to see. But Swan’s president understood what it had in Link, and would respond to his critics with a shrug and a smile, saying, “What can you do with an animal like that?”

Link’s career continued into the ’70′s, ’80′s and he still plays today. While Link never had another hit like Rumble, his influence in all of rock music is profound. Now in his late ’70′s, Link continues to tour. Sadly, most of his records are not readily available, and one has to work hard to find his music. But you can find a few places on the web selling CD’s of his songs. Particularly worthwhile is the CD of Swan record singles. Another source for hearing Link is through “Link Wray-dio” station.

Link is on tour through at least July of 2005, and if you can find him near you, go see the grandfather of punk!

Now how would you feel if I said that the most important guitarist in Country Music wasn’t Chet Atkins? You’d think I had flipped a lid. And I might have. But, there’s a good case to be made that while Chet was a phenomenal guitarist and musical talent, it was his skills as a producer, manager, engineer, and record executive that really earned him his stripes. But for pure Country Guitar glory, you have to look to…

Grady Martin

Thomas Grady Martin was born in 1929 in rural Tennessee. The youngest of four, he was spoiled a bit by his family, even through the rough depression years. He learned music from his mother and began recording at the age of 15. He dropped out of school to pursue his love of music and made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in 1946 with the Bailes Brothers Band.

Grady was playing as a session musician and working the Grand Ole Opry regularly, as well as appearing on the Ozark Jubilee and the Kate Smith Show. He played on countless country hits, and was soon one of the most sought after guitarists in Nashville. He played backing guitar for any number of artists, from Little Jimmy Dickens, Red Foley, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Waylan Jennings, Joan Baez, J.J. Cale, Patsy Cline, and countless others.

Martin had his own band, The Slew Foot Five. They regularly played on records with a number of great vocalists. They are present on recordings by Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, and others. However, their own recordings, released by the Decca label, did not garner much attention.

Grady’s style of music influenced early Rockabilly, Country and Rock. Chet Atkins may be responsible for producing the Nashville sound, but it was Grady Martin who was responsible for playing it. When Atkins was producer, Grady Martin was his favorite guitar player.

Grady remained busy through the 1970′s, working with Elvis, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, and Kris Kristofferson.

In 1978 he joined Jerry Reed’s band to return to doing live performing. He played on the soundtrack to Honeysuckle Rose, where he rejoined up with his old friend Willie Nelson, and from there spent the next sixteen years as a member of Willie’s band. He had to quit in the early 1990′s, owing to his health starting to fail him.

From Spanish-style nylon string country guitar on Marty Robbins’ single El Paso to rock-n-roll electric work on Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison’s Nashville sessions, to finger-picking country licks with Willie Nelson, to folk singer-songwriter styling with Joan Baez, Grady Martin simply did it all. And he did it better than any other country guitarist since.

While it would be impossible to list all of the records Grady played on, it is safe to say that if it was a Nashville Record released between 1946 and 1975 and it had a great guitar riff, it very well probably was Grady! Still, Sony Music has put together some of his best work on one CD called Cowboy Classics.

Grady died in 2001 after a long illness.

As always, I’m always excited to hear about guitarists. Please send your feedback to david.wagle@gmail.com. If there’s someone in particular you’d like to see profiled, or you want to take issue with some point I’ve made, drop me a line. While playing the guitar is more fun that talking about guitarists, it’s a close call! Let me know your thoughts!

Back To Basics was written by David Wagle for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

The rock solo, be it improvisational or orchestrated, is in some ways the quintessential “guitar sound.” For many of us, the dream of playing one really great solo is more or less why we keep strapping up and plugging in. For the more proficient, the power of personal expression in owning a solo is often the height of our playing experience. In any case, for those of us who love the rock guitar sound, listening to a few great soloists now and again is a great way to help our own playing advance, if only a little bit.

As always the number of really great guitarists is much greater than the length of time given to write an article, besides, it’s more fun to focus on a few really fantastic players and then discuss how those players inspire us, and who else inspires us as well.

I’m not going to point out the folks we’ve all heard. Sure Page’s solos are remarkable; and there is no doubt that Gilmour’s play is worth listening too; and who doesn’t think Allen Collins’ playing on Skynyrd’s Freebird is worth hearing over and over again? My purpose isn’t to point out the great players with whom we’re already familiar; rather, my purpose is to provide a glimpse at some of the lesser-known, but still great players who can expand our own guitar playing (and listening) horizons.

John Petrucci (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Age of Impact, solo)

I first heard Under a Glass Moon at the urging of a friend whose primary genre is mellow smooth jazz. I was blown away. The oddness of having a smooth jazz fan recommending progressive metal is soon lost once you start listening. John Petrucci is all about good music.

Petrucci grew up on Long Island, NY, and attended school with fellow Dream Theater musician John Myung. He started playing guitar in seriousness when he was 12 years old. Myung and Petrucci both ended up at Berklee together, and there formed Dream Theater.

Dream Theater is an amazing band, great musicianship from all quarters combined with an excellent understanding of composition makes this progressive metal band readily accessible to even non-metal heads.

The entire Dream Theater back catalog is worth owning. There simply isn’t a bad disk in the mix. Live at Budokan is a great live recording that captures the magic of the band in a great concert performance. Images and Words presents some of Petrucci’s best work in the track Under a Glass Moon.

Jeff Beck (Lord Sutch, Yardbirds, Honeydrippers, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Jeff Beck Group, solo)

Beck has never been the household name fellow Yardbird Clapton became, nor has he been seen as visionary as Page, though he is at least as innovative. Beck’s lack of commercial success and popular recognition may be due largely to Beck moving from jazz fusion to heavy metal to easy listening and back whenever the mood struck him. This lack of focus on a single genre makes it hard to sell a record and an artist.

Still, his great sounds leave little doubt that Beck is a worthy guitar idol.

Beck attended Wimbledon Art College where he was able to parlay his work with Lord Sutch into the lead guitarist role with the Yardbirds after Clapton left. (As an aside, if you aren’t familiar with Lord Sutch, you’re missing a wonderful bit of music and anti-cultural history!)

After 2 years with the Yardbirds, Beck “retired” only to return to the music scene in 1967 with the Jeff Beck Group, which included Ron Wood on bass and Rod Stewart on vocals. Even though neither of the groups’ two albums prior to Wood and Stewart’s departure in 1970 were particularly successful commercially, the sound they created was an innovative addition to what would become heavy metal.

Beck re-formed the Jeff Beck Group, but it never had the power of the original line-up. He joined with Appice and Bogart in 1972, but never went anywhere as their lone Japanese release suffered from weak arrangements and poor performances all around.

In 1975 Beck emerged from an 18-month hiatus with a rock/jazz fusion album. After the jazz foray, Beck retired again, but soon returned with a new offering. Beck sometimes teams up with other musicians and artists, such as Roger Waters, Mick Jagger (on his second solo album), and others, but his best work is undoubtedly his solo material.

He’s still going strong, his latest album, the 2003 Epic label release Jeff is well worth the price of admission. Still, if you’re just looking for the seminal Jeff Beck disc, you have to look to the first two Jeff Beck group albums, Truth and Beck-Ola.

Richie Blackmore (Blackmore’s Night, The Lancasters, Rainbow, Deep Purple)

Blackmore started life as a session guitarist before becoming one of the founding members of Deep Purple in 1968. He stayed on for twelve albums before leaving the group in 1975 when he formed Rainbow with the remains of the New York group Elf.

Rainbow suffered from a continuous string of personnel changes, and never seemed to really find a lasting combination. The second and third Rainbow albums, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Jim Bain on bass, Tony Carey on keyboards, and former Jeff Beck Group drummer Cozy Powell were some of the best offerings. Dio stayed on for a fourth album but left half-way through the recording of their fifth. After Dio left, the band seemed to lose it’s magic. Rainbow disbanded in 1984 after eight albums and Blackmore joined a reformed version of Deep Purple.

Blackmore has a huge discography. Some of the more “shouldn’t miss material” includes the CD Take It!, a 1994 release of Blackmore’s studio work for producer Joe Meek. It’s amazing to hear how one great guitarist can totally lift an otherwise horribly bad recording! More conventional recommendations for Blackmore’s work include the seminal Deep Purple album Machine Head. Released in 1974, this album is in many ways the triumphant maturing of Heavy Metal into a genre all its own. Sure, there are earlier examples of the musical stylings that would mark Metal as a style. But few albums captured the minds of other musicians the way Machine Head did. I remember as a kid listening to Blackmore’s solo work on the track Lazy with my friends over and over and over again. It still is an awe-inspiring track. And since 1974, what guitar player hasn’t learned Smoke on the Water? It was an instant standard.

Dimebag Darrell (Pantera, Damageplan)

Born Darrell Lance Abbott in 1966 in Dallas Texas, Pantera’s lead guitarist learned his chops imitating Kiss’ Ace Frehley. He co-founded Pantera in the mid-80′s with his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, and bassist Rex Smith. Their early recordings are really fairly pedestrian offerings of an average metal band. Fed on a heavy diet of Zepplin, Def Leppard, Judas Priest and Deep Purple, the early songs have a predictable, amateurish feel to them.

After lead singer Terry Glaze left after the third album, the group found their own way with new singer Phil Anselmo. By 1990 they had signed with a major label, received some high end production advice and backing, and began tearing up the metal charts.

Sadly, in December of last year (2004) Darrell was shot by a member of the audience while on stage in Columbus, Ohio. Dead at only thirty-eight years of age, the rock world lost a true visionary. Darrell’s death was a loss to metal on par with the death of Stevie Ray Vaughn on the blues/rock world.

Darrell’s shred technique is second to none. He’s been recognized as a real genius of the metal realms and was often invited to appear on other artists’ recordings. On top of that, he’s remembered as a very down-to-earth, approachable person. Numerous Texan musicians will tell stories of Darrell coming up to talk to them after a show in one club or another in Dallas or Austin.

It’s hard to go wrong with any Pantera release in the post-Glaze era, but Vulgar Display of Power has been called “one of the most influential heavy metal albums.” Perhaps the best track for displaying Dimebag Darrell’s fabulous gift, though, is the track Floods from the 1996 release The Great Southern Trendkill.

Frank Zappa (Frank Zappa and the Mother’s of Invention, solo)

Frank Zappa is perhaps the most under-appreciated musical artist of the last century. A composer with stunning range and command, a band-leader with extraordinary charisma and presence, and a guitar virtuoso, Zappa simply defined excellence in everything he did.

Sadly, Zappa seems to be remembered more for his non-conformity and his children’s odd names than for his musical talents. He started composing seriously in high school, and was largely self-taught. He managed to write the score for a B-movie while still in High School, which included a piece written for a fifty-two piece orchestra.

As a composer, Zappa will surely be being appreciated for his genius for decades to come.

As a producer and label owner, Zappa was largely responsible for a host of artists getting their starts: Alice Cooper, Captain Beefheart, GTOs, Tim Buckley, and The Persuasions.

Zappa was also a political activist driven by his distrust of authority and big government. He played an important part in the Parents Music Resource Center hearings in Washington in the early 1980′s. And then turned around and used sound clips from the hearing for the twelve minute long Porn Wars.

But it as a guitarist that Zappa is most often imitated, but least often appreciated. One of the more amazing bits of Zappa’s history is that he recorded nearly every one of his performances. In the mid-1970′s Steve Vai began the job of transcribing Zappa’s guitar solo’s. The result was released as a three hundred page book of guitar solos, which contain some of the weirdest rhythmic groupings imaginable, but whose sound is amazing.

Zappa released several of his best guitar solo’s in the two collections, the three album set Shut Up and Play Your Guitar and the 1987 2-CD release Guitar. Both are still available on CD.

Of course, these artists are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to great solos. I’m sure you have your own favorites as well. If you have any comments on these artists, or other artists you’d like to see reviewed, please write me at david.wagle@gmail.com.

Until next time – Happy Listening!

Rock On! was written by David Wagle for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

But there’s another bit of listening all guitarists wishing to improve should do; and that is listening to the recordings of the great guitar artists. By listening to the masters, we gain insights into the capabilities of our instruments. Moreover, by listening to great guitarists, we gain inspiration. The masters not only fuel our desire to work harder, they also provide us a source of musical ideas that might not have occurred to us otherwise.

Most any aspiring guitar player today has heard of, and listened to, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. But it’s rare for someone to explore more than the tip of his or her particular iceberg, that is, the handful of easily recognized star players of a certain genre. We are all, to a greater or lesser extent, trapped by our own styles and preferences. Jazz players may listen to plenty of Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass, but they barely pay attention to Ritchie Blackmore. Blues guitar players know every tune of B.B. King’s down cold, but they have rarely payed attention to Eddie Van Halen. And few modern guitar players are even aware of the contribution of niche players like Sol Ho’opi’i Ka’ai’ai.

The purpose of this article (and of the others to follow) is, hopefully, to serve as a reminder that there is a vast amount of guitar knowledge to be gleaned from listening to other great guitarists and to suggest various artists and specific recordings that all guitarists should consider owning not only because it’s great music to have in one’s CD or MP3 collection, but also because of the wealth of guitar technique and insight captured on the recordings.

Like all such collections, personal taste will obviously play a part. Hopefully no one I select here will be total undeserving of attention, but there will always be room for discussion as to the appropriateness of one choice over another. In the end, though, all such discussion is healthy if done in a way respectful of other people’s opinions. The real offering here is a challenge: Open up your horizons and explore the world of guitar music through listening to the great guitar artists.

To kick off our series, I want to give a “Top Ten” list instead of looking at a specific artist or genre in depth. But it’s not going to be your typical “top 10″ type offering. We all know who would be on that list, even if we might argue about the order: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Andres Segovia, Stevie Ray Vaughn and fill in the last slots with other perennial favorites from jazz, blues, rock and classical greats.

This “Top Ten” is the “Top Ten Great Guitarists Who Never Make Top Ten Lists But Should!”

10. Al DiMeola

If you are a fan of the clean technique and blazing speed of guys like Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen, then you should know of Al DiMeola. A tour-de-force in the jazz fusion world in the mid ’70′s, DiMeola was the standard for blazing speed and flawless technique. His early efforts with the group Return To Forever (which included Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke) demonstrate his huge talent and incomparable mastery of fusion jazz. He left the band in 1976 to launch a solo career. His commercial and artistic success continued into the ’80s when he joined up with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. In the ’90s DiMeola stunned the jazz world by turning his back on fusion jazz, and recording acoustic pieces based on various cultural music styles. Fans of DiMeola will undoubtedly have a particular disk as their favorite, but it’s hard to go wrong with Land of the Midnight Sun, released by Columbia records in 1976 and readily available on CD.

9. Derek Bailey

Anyone who’s parents every complained that all they did was “make noise” with their guitar should run out and buy a Derek Bailey CD to demonstrate what real noise making sounds like. Bailey is a very different kind of musician. His recordings are dissonant, atonal, non-melodic, and at first listen seem to lack any real direction. He has sat on the leading edge of avant-garde jazz for decades and has seen possibilities in the guitar few others have ever thought of. Perhaps the best CD from the “godfather of free improvisation” is the disc Improvisation, a 1997 re-release of an obscure 1970′s recording by Italian label Cramps. Derek Bailey is an acquired taste, and maybe his recordings aren’t your idea of music at all. But the thing to take away from the Derek Bailey experience is, if nothing else, the extreme range of tones and timbre a guitar is capable of producing.

8. Jimmy Nolen

Admit it, you’ve always loved James Brown’s rhythm section. Well, the heart of that undeniably great band’s rhythm was guitarist Jimmy Nolen. Johnny Otis said “Jimmy Nolen was the founder of funk guitar, yet the very people who are influenced by him are not aware of it.” Nolen, who died at the early age of 49 in 1983 from heart failure, had a number of early gigs with Johnny Otis, including playing on Willie and the Hand Jive, however it is as the heart of James Brown’s band that Jimmy will be remembered. Nolen’s distinctive sixteenth-note strumming techniques, his choppy styling, and chord voicing defined funk, and became integrated into nearly all modern R&B, funk and even disco guitarists style. If you can find a copy of Otis’ Rock and Roll Hit Parade, Vol. 1 from 1957, buy it at any price and never let go. Otherwise, look for any of James Brown’s recordings from between 1967 and 1983. You’ll notice that Nolen is not listed on the albums, a terrible injustice to one of the greatest rhythm guitarists of all time.

7. Robert White

Just as Jimmy Nolen was never recognized by James Brown, Motown records never paid recognition to their great studio musicians. Motown records could be instantly identified by the style of the studio musicians, but no one knew who they were, and they were never given credit on the albums they played on. Robert White was one of Motown Record’s famed “Funk Brothers.” Berry Gordy is said to have prevented them from touring as a band because he wanted to make sure he kept his best contract musicians all to himself. White played the intro to My Girl for the Temptations. The best disc for listening to this guitar master, besides the complete Motown box set, is the soundtrack for the movie “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” the documentary film that tells the story of this group of the remarkable musicians that made up the “Funk Brothers.” While you’re at it, pick up the movie. It’s a story that deserves the telling, and the hearing and you’ll certainly agree that Robert White has contributed much to today’s guitar music.

6. Christopher Parkening

We’ve all heard of Andres Segovia, but unless you’re a classical guitarist, that’s probably where your knowledge of classical guitarists ends. Segovia’s mastery of his instrument was complete, and he could recognize the same talent in others. About Parkening, Sergovia stated that “Christopher Parkening is a great artist – he is one of the most brilliant guitarists in the world.” That alone should be reason enough to add a Parkening CD to your collection! He’s considered the best living classical guitarist in the world by many, and his devoted fans will argue vociferously that he could well be the greatest of all time. He also makes sure that his talent is shared with the world. If you happen to be near Bozeman, Montana in the summer, stop by the Montana State University Music School and sign up to take a master class with the man himself. Here, you can’t go wrong with any disc you choose, but Parkening Plays Bach from EMI is a personal favorite.

5. Paco Pena

We’ve all heard Flamenco guitarists, but few of them are household names. One that should be is Paco Pena. Pena’s biography is an amazing story of talent and dedication overcoming poverty. Pena was playing professionally by the age of ten. In his early twenties, he played at a “guitar-in” in London with Jimi Hendrix. Pena is a traditional Flamenco guitarist (as opposed to a modern Flamenco artist), and is recognized world wide for his virtuosity. If you can find a copy of the out of print, vinyl only, Paco Pena Live in London, you should definitely acquire it. For those of us with more modest means, however, the Decca label CD Fabulous Flamenco! is an excellent introduction to his music.

4. Phil Keaggy

It’s rumored that either Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, when once was asked what it was like to be the greatest guitarist in the world, answered, “I don’t know, ask Phil Keaggy.” There’s no real proof to support either version of the story, though it does seem to be the case that Hendrix called Keaggy the best “up and coming guitarist today” on the Dick Cavett show. Keaggy really came to the national seen with his early ’70s rock trio, Glass Harp. An opening act for Chicago, Yes, Iron Butterfly, Hendrix and Traffic, Glass Harp was headed for rock-n-roll stardom. But it wasn’t to be. Keaggy’s parents were killed in a car accident and Keaggy left the rock scene a born-again Christian. Musically, Keaggy has remained innovative and vibrant, but few people outside of the Christian music circles are aware of his talent. Luckily, in recent years, Glass Harp has begun playing together again, and the superb rock imrov technique that made Keaggy an initial star can be seen showcased with musicians of equal talent once again. While Glass Harp’s self-titled 1970 debut album is a personal favorite of mine, being the first piece of vinyl I ever owned, the 3-disc set Stark Raving Jams is a delight that shouldn’t be missed. Taken from multiple shows, it’s a compilation album, so it lacks continuity, but it more than makes up for that with the sheer volume of magnificent performances. If you aren’t a fan of the extended improv jam sessions, no matter how tight, check out the live acoustic performance captured on the CD Philly Live! Phil Keaggy In Concert An Evening Of Acoustic Guitar.

3. Sol Ho’opi’i

Playing his own special C# tuning of a lap steel guitar, Solomon Ho’opi’i Ka’ai’ai was unquestionably the master of Hawaiian steel guitar from his first recording session in 1927 until he gave up his musical career to become an evangelist in 1938. Sol Ho’opi’i is to steel guitar what Les Paul is to electrics; he is simply the guy that did everything first. While much of Ho’opi’i's music is still only to be found on old ’78s, the two CD set Master of the Hawaiian Guitar, Vol. 1 & 2 shouldn’t be missed. The recordings have all the defects of any recordings from those days, and you can tell that some songs are remixed from non-masters. But it doesn’t matter, no matter how grainy the recording, Ho’opi’i's brilliant jazz and blues styling come through.

2. Leo Kottke

People don’t normally associate the Twin Cities in Minnesota with innovative musical talent (all you Prince fans can argue about that statement all you want, it’s still true!) But that’s where Leo Kottke’s unique acoustic sound was honed. Record labels kept trying to make Kottke into a “singer-songwriter,” a mold he knew he could never fit into. For one thing, he really didn’t write that good of a lyric. But more importantly, his singing voice, in his own words, is “geese farts on a foggy day.” He rarely plays live, though he does seem to manage to get to St. Cloud State University (his alma matter) in central Minnesota on a regular basis. A master craftsman on a 12-string, Kottke has a unique sound that is all his own. Kottke’s discography is a sketchy collection, his own experimentation combined with various attempts at vocals and backing bands seems to keep coming back to haunt Kottke’s recordings. His best work is without a doubt is his solo instrumental material. Mudlark, his first album with Capitol records from 1971 is most likely his very best individual work. The 2004 release, Try and Stop Me, is a more mature guitarist, but Kottke takes far fewer musical risks than on his earlier efforts.

1. Steve Cropper

Yes, the guy from the Blues Brothers movies. Yes, I’m serious. Steve Cropper’s career took an early jump start working with Otis Redding, he’s credited with helping write (Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay and Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa (Sad Song). His work with Booker-T and The MG’s is some of the tightest soul guitar work ever. Sam and Dave, Wilson Picket, and hosts of Memphis recording acts found their sound with Steve Cropper directing the studio recording, playing himself, coming up with pithy filler riffs, and doing the mix down and postproduction work. Cropper is best known for his minimalism. A guitar genius by any stretch of the imagination, he is an absolute genius in not to drawing attention to his playing while at the same time making it the center piece of the music. Listen to Booker-T and the MG’s Green Onions or the Blues Brothers cover of Sweet Home, Chicago and what makes them stand out is the amazing guitar work, but what you hear are the bass, organ, and horns. Cropper’s amazing ability to know when just enough is enough is unmatched. If you ever find the 1981 vinyl Playing My Thang! buy it and then let me buy it from you! You can hear Cropper at his very best with the CD re-release of the 1971 album With a Little Help From My Friends and you can always pick up a Booker-T and the MG’s “best of” collection as well.

So that’s our list for this column. It’s certainly not complete, and there’s more to come. In the meantime, hopefully, you can find at least one artist here that you’ve never heard of and explore their music or find a riff that inspires you and figure out how it’s played. Maybe you’ll hear a groove you’ve never heard before and bring it to your band or try to recreate it with your home gear to jam along. And maybe you can let me know what you agree with and disagree with in my list. Maybe there’s a better disc than ones I mentioned, or maybe you really, really think that one particular artist shouldn’t have been left off this list. That’s good too – talking about our music is almost as much fun as making it!

In the near future we’ll take an in-depth look at specific artists, with the intent of introducing you to the many great musicians out there who’s work can not only be great company, but which can provide the inspiration needed to take one more step on the path of guitar mastery. If you’ve suggestions for artists to cover in future columns, please feel free to write to me at David.Wagle@gmail.com

Listening To Learn was written by David Wagle for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise