Roy Clark, Elvin Bishop, Peter Frampton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, BB King.
Derek Trucks
Jack White
SRV
Billy Strings
Trey
Marty Mcfly
Glen Campbell
Joe Satriani
Susan Tedeschi
Gordon Lightfoot
Angus Young
My list:
mark knopfler, Jimi, David Gilmour, jerry Garcia, Trey anastasio
Elvis
Ted Nugent
Angus Young
Randy Rhoads
SRV
Umm, Clapton anyone?
Good guitarist, not great or really even super entertaining. Really kinda overrated. And boring.
Glen Campbell
The Snowman, Jerry Reed (Smokey and the Bandit Day was yesterday…)
Angus and Malcolm Young (they need to be considered a single entity…)
Dan Tyminski
Dave Grohl
If you don’t know Glen Campbell, this video should explain why he was so damn great. Just watch a hierarchy of the some of the greatest musicians ever revel in what Glen does here:
Entertaining? Jimi, SRV, Chet Atkins, EVH, Duane Allman.
Good list! This might shoulda been a top 10 list… hard to wittle it down to 5.
Way too many to narrow down to just five, especially when you consider across genres. I’ll just add some names. I’m thinking about people who weren’t just great guitarists in the context of a band, but were the standout star or played solo. For example, Angus was fine, but mostly he was just entertaining in the context of the band.
Some are pretty obvious in the rock/country/blues genres.
SRV
Satriani
Tommy Emmanuel
Chet Atkins (as an alternative to Campbell)
Jimi
Maybe also:
Billy Gibbons
EVH
Gilmore
Steve Vai
Eric Johnson
James Taylor
Paul Simon
Some you might not think of:
Michael Hedges
Mike Dawes
Andres Segovia
Joe Pass
Django Reinhardt
Wes Montgomery
Rodrigo y Gabriela (duo)
Billy Strings or Molly Tuttle
Another good list!
That’s why I put Angus and Malcolm together. Angus was always the show, but he’s always said Malcolm was the better guitarist. For entertainment, it is hard to beat Angus, but without Malcolm keeping the rhythm, it’s all show, no go.
Chet Atkins deserves his own special place, as he developed the country-lead that everyone would come to emulate. Glen Campbell, however, took what Chet started and turned it up to 11.
This is an absolutely phenomenal thread, because really there is no wrong here. Just good discussion about kick-ass pickers. Love it!
- Jeff
Glenn Tipton in his prime was one of my favorites.
I can only think of three before falling into the “good” or “best” trap.
Bootsy Collins
Pete Tosh
Herman Li & Sam Totman
Point of order that Bootsy is a bassist.
It did say “entertaining”.. Prince?
Lots of good ones already mentioned and I hadn’t seen him.
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Lindsey Buckingham
“Entertaining”, to me, implies stage presence and showmanship, too, not just talent at playing guitar. Clapton and Trucks are talented, but have little/no stage presence. Among guitarists I have seen live:
Robert Cray
Albert Collins
Tom Petty
Chrissie Hynde
Lindsey Buckingham