At nearly 90 years old, Buddy Guy is still carrying the torch for the blues and remains a guiding force for current and future generations of blues players.

Fresh off his cameo in Ryan Coogler's highly lauded film Sinners, Guy’s legacy is continuing to be celebrated, as Blackbird Presents and Live Nation are teaming up to organize Buddy’s Got the Blues: A 90th Birthday Concert Celebration.

The event, taking place on October 1 at the iconic Radio City Music Hall in New York City, is set to be a one-night-only event with collaborations, performances, and heartfelt tributes from artists influenced by Guy’s work.

The all-star lineup includes a veritable list of legends and blues virtuosos: Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks, Jon Batiste, Aloe Blacc, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Billy F Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Bobby Rush, Isaiah Sharkey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jimmie Vaughan, Ally Venable, Willie Weeks, and Kim Wilson.

More artists and special guests are set to be announced soon, and the man himself, Buddy Guy, will (of course) also perform, proving that he's still got the blues.

Current Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan serves as the musical director.

Speaking about the event, Guy says, “Can't wait to celebrate 90 years of living, loving, and playing the blues with all my friends. We’ll make it a night not just for me, but for the folks who taught us, the friends we’ve played with, and the ones coming up behind us.”

In a recent interview with Guitar Player, the blues icon has explained why he’s not giving up touring just yet, as he prepares to hit the road on July 15, starting at Massey Hall in Toronto.

“I thought about retiring twice,” he says. “But, y’know, I thought about all those great blues players who are no longer with us – B.B. King. Lightnin’ Hopkins, all those guys – and they used to tell me, ‘You need to keep playing and keep representing the blues,’ ’cause they don’t play it on radio or anything anymore.

“So I said to myself, ‘Well, Buddy, you better hang on a little longer. My health ain’t doing too bad, so I’m still doing what I’ve always done. Every time I get onstage, just try to play the best I can.”

Tickets go on sale to the general public on June 26 at 10 AM ET. Head to Buddy 90 to find out more.

Guy is set for a very busy rest of the year, having also been announced for this year's edition of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival.

Since its inception in 1999, Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival has featured the crème de la crème of guitarists who, in one way or another, have earned the blues-rock legend’s respect.

Now, the seventh edition of the festival will be held on September 26 and 27 in Austin, Texas, at the Moody Center, marking the 28th anniversary of the 1998 founding of the Crossroads Centre Antigua, the drug treatment facility spearheaded by Clapton himself.

Among the numerous Crossroads veterans returning this year will be Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Sonny Landreth, John Mayer, the Del McCoury Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jimmie Vaughan, as well as Clapton himself, who will be performing on both nights. Meanwhile, Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage, and Pete Townshend will all be making their festival debut.

Guitar Center was also announced as the exclusive retail partner of the festival, and, in addition to onsite retail, there will also be a rare showcase of its Legends Collection. This includes Clapton’s 1956 Fender Stratocaster, “Blackie,” the 1964 Gibson ES-335 he played in Cream, and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s iconic 1965 Fender Stratocaster, “Lenny.”

Speaking about the festival in a 2019 interview with Guitar Center, Clapton said, “My identity is always going to be linked to Crossroads. I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play, and also invite people that I have high admiration for in the music world.”

He continued, “I like to use the festival platform as a way of getting [musicians] to come and play to a big audience, maybe for the first time. I think it's quite nice for the other musicians to meet them, too. I like cross-fertilization. I mean, that was a fascinating thing for me, the fantasy. And it worked.”

Tickets for the event will go on sale on April 3 at 10 a.m. CDT. For more information, head to the official Crossroads Guitar Festival website.

After it was teased at NAMM 2026, Gary Clark Jr.’s new signature guitar is here – and the Grammy-winning artist’s Gibson ES-355 pays homage to the late, great, B.B. King.

The run is limited to just 100 Gibson Custom guitars, each handcrafted at the company's Nashville, Tennessee workshop. It is a recreation of the Custom Shop model the bluesman had crafted for him six years ago, which has since become his go-to electric.

The Eric Clapton-approved guitarist and Guitar Center RockWalk honoree is one of modern blues and rock's most influential players, with his new ES-355 following a signature Epiphone Casino and a triple P-90-loaded SG.

The specs of the OG are replicated here. There is a three‑ply maple/poplar/maple body topped with figured maple, a mahogany neck with a ‘50s rounded C-shape, and a bound ebony fretboard with 22 Historic medium jumbo frets. And, of course, there are mother-of-pearl block inlays.

Grover Rotomatic tuners with kidney buttons and the split diamond headstock inlay ensure the model has vintage Custom Shop charm. At the other end, there's an ABR-1 Historic No-Wire bridge and Bigsby B7 tailpiece, so Clark Jr. can “go crazy if I want to.”

At its heart are two unpotted Custombuckers featuring Alnico 3 magnets, promising the warm and articulate tones Clark Jr. is known for – but, unfortunately, they won’t make you play like him.

They’re accompanied by CTS audio taper pots, paper‑in‑oil capacitors, a Switchcraft three‑way toggle, and a mono Varitone circuit topped with a black chicken‑head knob.

And how about that VOS Cobra Burst finish? It’s nuanced to the nines, and it’s absolutely jaw-dropping.

“When I was a child, I had a poster on my wall of B.B. King playing Lucille,” the guitarist recalls. “I always wanted one of those guitars. I just wanted to be a part of that world. Here we are years later and I'm holding this ES-355, it's a dream come true.

“I can explore all the sounds that inspired me as a kid, and today, it's one of the most versatile instruments. And it's gorgeous!”

The Gibson Custom Gary Clark Jr. ES‑355 is available now for $7,999. It ships with a premium hardcase emblazoned with the guitarist’s distinctive logo.

See Gibson for more.

If you aren’t quick enough to grab one, don’t fear. An Epiphone edition is set to follow in due course.

NAMM 2026: Gibson has revealed what it has in store for its wallet-friendly Epiphone guitars throughout 2026, headlined by a Futura range that's ready to take the brand into “a new era.”

By Gibson’s own admission, it is regularly “inspired [by] our history,” but nostalgia is just 50% of the Epiphone recipe this year, as far as its Futura range is concerned. It “takes the most iconic Gibson body shapes and remixes them with modern, professional-grade features at a price point for every player.”

Aesthetics play a big part here, as it draws from the automotive industry for inspiration. There are Chromashift finishes that change color in real time, with premium features like stainless steel frets, which make their long-awaited Epiphone debut, and compound radius fretboards to bolster their specs.

Electronics haven’t been ignored either. They get ProBucker Ignite pickups, which are extra-hot passive humbuckers, and push-pull knobs for single coil spank on the fly, which conspire to “deliver the feel and fire to match,” ensuring players can get plenty of bang for their buck.

It’s a shrewd move from Epiphone. As competition in the budget guitar market is arguably fiercer than it’s ever been, the Futura range ensures its lower priced Epiphone models can persuade many to choose the company's electric guitars over, say, Harley Benton, by offering more than just stripped-back versions of Gibson mainstays. Expect them this spring.

The theme of value-for-money transfers over to its Inspired by Gibson range, too. The series was established to bring the “premium feel and performance” of Gibson guitars, via Custom Shop features, to lower price points like never before, with vintage icons like the 1959 Les Paul Standard, and a far more affordable version of a new classic, the Les Paul Special Double Cut Figured, on the menu.

There’s also an Explorer 80s EMG model, complete with control knobs in a triangular formation and, as the name suggests, high-output EMG humbuckers – reviving a cult classic. Sadly, though, we’ll have to wait until the winter for their launch.

Signature guitars aren’t limited to Gibsons, either. While a limited-edition run of Gary Clark Jr’s custom-made ES-335 has been confirmed, so too has an Epiphone version, set to follow closely behind.

There’s also a Gibson Custom Shop-inspired Alex Lifeson ES-355 reissue – celebrating “Whitey,” a workhorse guitar that has featured on virtually every Rush record in one way or another – and an all-new axe for Lzzy Hale.

The Halestorm songstress, who dropped a white-and-gold Epiphone Explorer in 2019, is back with a far more glittering visage. It rocks a standout sparkling finish, a chrome pickguard, and pickup covers to match for its twin humbuckers.

“[The Hale Explorer] is just eye-popping and so cool,” a smiling Gibson VP of Product, Mat Koehler, told Guitar World on the NAMM floor. No kidding.

See Gibson for more.

NAMM 2026: Gibson is celebrating 50-plus years of building electric guitars out of its Nashville, Tennessee headquarters with its 2026 roster, while simultaneously honoring “the blood, sweat, and tears” that have gone into their creation.

Founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1894, the firm relocated to Music City in 1975, and it says it's arrived at NAMM 2026 with “a powerful statement of innovation, craftsmanship, and artist-driven purpose.”

That translates into brand-new acoustic and electric models, a glut of signature guitars of all shapes and sizes, and cut-price access to one of its most celebrated pickup designs.

’50s- and ’60s-inspired Gibson Custom

It’s a three-pronged launch for Gibson Custom, as ES-330 reissues, ’50s- and ’60s-inspired ES-330s, and Les Paul Studio Double Trouble models rear their headstocks.

The ES-330, a thinline hollow-body electric guitar with twin f-holes, makes its Gibson Custom return after eight years in the dark. Saddled with P-90 pickups, which are having a bit of a glow-up right now, there are 1959 and 1962 ES-330 reissues, both of which are handcrafted by Gibson’s Nashville-based artisans, with “two distinct flavors in vintage-inspired colorways.”

Its center-block-loaded brother, the ES-335, also gets a look in, with these versatile guitars built using the same ES laminate press as the '50s and '60s originals they're inspired by. Again, vintage-inspired colorways feature, alongside a host of period-correct details, including their plastics, neck shapes, and pickups.

Both the ES models will be released in summer 2026.

Gibson Les Paul Studio Double Trouble 

After Gibson brought the Les Paul Standard ‘50 and ‘60s Double Trouble models to market last year, to much excitement, they’re now getting a Gibson Studio reimagining.

They’re based on the streamlined Les Paul Studio platform, but still feature Double Classic White Burstbucker Pro pickups with coil taps pre-loaded for snappier sounds. That’s a move that brings the celebrated pups to a record-low price point of $1,599, which is pretty big news.

The Double Troubles are coming in spring.

New signature guitars for vintage virtuosos and next-gen magicians

Gibson’s signature guitar range across 2026 is as much about honoring established legends as it is about celebrating those taking the electric guitar into the future.

That one-two is perfectly exemplified by a meticulously recreated Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom, for David Bowie’s late great foil, and a “soulful” new Gibson Custom ES‑355 for the Eric Clapton-approved Gary Clark Jr. It will be a limited edition run of the guitar he had custom-made for him six years ago, and a cheaper Epiphone model will follow.

As was teased by the former UFO and Scorpions man last year, there’s a reissue of the Michael Schenker 1971 Flying V, and yes, it’s got his trademark Black and White, Beetlejuice-esque Medalion colorway.

And at long last, a signature LP for Lamb of God’s Mark Morton is on the way. The Les Paul Modern Quilt has been thoroughly road-tested by the riff monster for several years now.

Legacy acoustics

For its new acoustic guitars, we’re headed 100 years into the past. The Gibson Century Collection serves up “a sound you can feel in your bones,” in light of the 100th anniversary of its flat-tops.

The guitars harken right back to then, with the no-frills 12-fret instruments “channeling the minimalist elegance of early 20th century design,” and an intimate playing experience. They’re expected in spring.

There’s also the return of the Gibson L-1, which was first introduced in 1902 and reinvented as a flat-top in 1926. An instrument that “has an indelible link to the blues,” it is limited to a 100-strong run and arrives with a Cremona Burst lacquer finish.

Its thermally aged red spruce top is partnered with mahogany back and sides – another historic 12-fret construction – and a 25” scaling, a bound ebony fingerboard, and a mother-of-pearl script headstock logo.

Honoring the craft

In 2026, Gibson says it wants to celebrate the people behind its guitars as much as the instruments themselves.

“We want to tell the handcrafted element of this, which is all of the work, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into these guitars,” Gibson's Mat Koehler tells Guitar World at NAMM 2026. “These are not guitars that go into machines that spit out guitars; they start as trees, and are finely crafted instruments.

“There are so many great stories within our crafteries, and that's going to be a huge focus for us this year – to finally start telling not only the stories of how the guitars are made, but the people behind them.”

There’s a lot of information to take in, then, but there’s also a lot to celebrate. With Gibson making inroads in Reverb’s best-selling guitars list of 2025, could this new collection improve its footing further still?

• Correction: January 24, 2026 – This article was updated as it initially incorrectly listed the Double Trouble Les Pauls as Gibson Custom, not Studio line, products.

Samantha Fish has risen to the upper echelons of the contemporary blues world. Aside from clinching the top spot on the Billboard Blues Albums chart in 2023 for Death Wish Blues, 2024 found her opening for the Rolling Stones and joining Slash's blues menagerie, the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival.

Her non-stop touring schedule has also led her to rub shoulders with a gamut of blues players – so who, in her opinion, are some of the best around right now?

“I just got off the road with [Christone] Kingfish [Ingram], and he’s pretty amazing,” she notes in a new interview with Guitar World.

“I think Derek Trucks is one of the greatest there is, not just in blues playing but any playing. He’s an alien. I like Gary Clark Jr. – he’s very tasteful, and he’s got a great tone. Eric Gales is incredible. He just blows everybody away. Luther Dickinson is one of my favorite contemporaries, too. He's awesome.”

As for her response to being ranked the 38th greatest blues player by Total Guitar, Fish says that it's “crazy and a big honor.

“I feel like being a guitar player is all about self-expression,” she enthuses, “so when you’re ranking guitar players, it’s tough for me, because I don’t think there’s one better way to do it.

“There are obviously people who are technically light years down the road from me, but I think when it comes to self-expression, it’s hard to rank them. I’m just trying to do what I can and what I know and get better at what I do.”

Speaking of keeping the blues alive, living legend Buddy Guy recently said that he's not retiring until the blues gets a higher profile – which is why his recent cameo in the Michael B. Jordan blockbuster Sinners was so pivotal.

For more from Samantha Fish, plus new interviews with Chris Buck, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, and many more, pick up issue 597 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Gary Clark Jr. has revealed what Eric Clapton said to him when the pair spontaneously crossed paths at a show – and although the bluesman isn't entirely sure what Slowhand meant by his words, Joe Satriani has assured him they were offered as praise.

The acclaimed blues rock electric guitar titan is one of his generation’s finest players, and last year he was positioned alongside Van Halen and Carlos Santana on Guitar Center Hollywood’s Rockwalk in a recognition of his dazzling talents.

He’s now recalled his random Clapton conversation via a new Instagram post, which also shows him playing Storyville’s Good Day for the Blues on a Bigsby-loaded ES-335 – his crystal clear licks wading through a sea of warming reverb.

“A man approached me while I was getting settled to play a show,” he recalls. “He had a big smile on his face while he said to me ‘Man, you’re like the king of reverb!’ In hindsight, I’m pretty sure that statement was not meant to be a compliment but was meant to be more of a subtle suggestion. That man was Eric Clapton.”

While the guitarist may see Slowhand's comment in such a light, Joe Satriani – who commented on the post – was quick to offer his own interpretation of the exchange.

“What E.C.meant,” he wrote, “was, ‘You're amazing. You lift people up, make them think, make them smile, so, don't ever stop being yourself.’ I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.”

It’s unclear when this conversation took place, but by the sounds of it, it was one of the pair's earliest meetings.

Though the blues is the beating heart of Gary Clark Jr.'s sound, and the main ingredient in his sizzling guitar solos, the Austin musician is something of a genre polymath. As his career has progressed, soul, R&B, and hip-hop are just some of the extra spices he's weaved into his music, helping him score an impressive four Grammy wins from six nominations. His LP, This Land, helped him to a trio of those wins.

Today, Clark Jr.'s stock could hardly be higher. But when he was cutting his teeth during his early club gigs, he was often mocked for his leftfield gear choices.

“I got made fun of because I walked in proud with an Ibanez Blazer and a solid-state Crate amp,” he recalls. “I was showing up to blues clubs with that, and they were like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ But, you know, at a certain point you can’t please everybody.”

It’s a move that echoes how Cecil Alexander was received for playing bebop on a Jackson Soloist at jazz clubs. Impressively, he’s made it sound like a big-body guitar and has revealed his secrets to Guitar World.

Last month Clark Jr. donned a Stratocaster for a sterling set of Stevie Ray Vaughan classics at Austin City Limits' 50th Anniversary televised special. He dished out SRV's sophisticated licks with fellow blues guitarist Eve Monsees – and it proved to be a full-circle moment for the guitarist, who watched his guitar hero on the show as a kid.

Clapton, meanwhile, has given more on-the-nose praise to a Japanese neo-soul player and has name-dropped an unlikely contender as his favorite contemporary guitarist.

Gary Clark Jr. has delivered a blazing take on Stevie Ray Vaughan's Pride and Joy and Dirty Pool alongside Eve Monsees on vocals and guitar – for Austin City Limits' 50th Anniversary PBS special, which will be premiering today (April 4) at 9 pm ET.

For Clark Jr., the performance was a full-circle moment, as he has often mentioned how, growing up, he watched his heroes – including Stevie Ray Vaughan – on old episodes of the series. Now, he's payed it forward with a stellar, blues-through-and-through tribute to SRV, via a two-song knockout of tunes by the Texas legend.

“I used to miss out on hanging out with my friends on Saturday nights to sit in front of the television and watch Austin City Limits,” comments Clark Jr. “I'd sit there with my guitar and that was my education. This show gave me purpose, it gave me hope.”

Another full-circle moment comes by way of the song choice – specifically SRV's Pride and Joy, from his 1983 debut Texas Flood – as Clark Jr. notes how the last time he played this track was back in 1998 at his eight-grade middle school talent show in Austin, where he also performed alongside his childhood friend, Monsees.

Fittingly for the occasion, GCJ and Monsees both brandish Strats – an Olympic White and a black one, respectively – a surefire nod to SRV's penchant for the model.

In a 2012 Guitar World interview, Clark Jr. waxed lyrical about SRV's impact on his trajectory, recalling how receiving Vaughan’s Texas Flood (along with the Jimi Hendrix compilation The Ultimate Experience) “just set it off for me.”

He continued, “Through Stevie Ray Vaughan I learned about Jimmie Vaughan and other Austin guitarists, like Denny Freeman and Derek O’Brien. When Clifford Antone brought Hubert Sumlin and Buddy Guy to his club [Austin’s famed nightclub, Antone’s], I’d go see them. I soaked it all up. That was my foundation.”

Beyond this special tribute to Vaughan, Austin City Limits' 50th-anniversary two-hour broadcast will also feature performances by the likes of Chris Stapleton, Billy Strings, Leon Bridges, Indigo Girls, and Ángela Aguilar.

Gary Clark Jr. has been announced as Guitar Center Hollywood's RockWalk latest inductee. The event, which took place on May 1, also saw Clark Jr. perform in LA for the first time since releasing his new album JPEG RAW.

In an Instagram post commemorating the event, Clark Jr commented, “Proud day at the @guitarcenter Rock Walk. It’s been a wild week. Not sure why I wrote my name like I’m in 1st grade but there it is. Thank you all.”

“Gary's induction is a testament to his incredible impact on the world of music, and we were pleased to celebrate his achievements at this year’s ceremony. His handprints are a prestigious addition to Guitar Center’s RockWalk, alongside the legends who have shaped the industry,” said Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Guitar Center. 

Gary Clark Jr. added, “This recognition holds immense significance for me, as it not only reflects my unwavering dedication and love for music but also acknowledges the respect and admiration of my peers and fellow musicians, who I also equally love and admire.”

The RockWalk ceremony made its return to LA after six years. It honors artists who have a significant impact on the history of rock, blues, and R&B. Inductees include Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Carlos Santana, Johnny Cash, Van Halen, AC/DC, Aerosmith and Marvin Gaye, to name but a few. 

Gary Clark Jr. dropped his fourth album, JPEG RAW, on March 22 via Warner Records. He is currently on the North American leg of an extensive album tour.

He recently spoke to Total Guitar about how the album saw him indulging his shreddier side, and reconnecting with his 12-year-old guitarist self via a Floyd Rose-equipped Ibanez.

Hello there, and a very warm welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our new-and-improved, comprehensive monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of March, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Without further ado, let’s hand things over to our EIC MAB to kick things off…

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief, GuitarWorld.com

First, we need to talk about Beyoncé. Whatever your musical affiliation, Cowboy Carter is a goddamn masterpiece, and features some sensational guitar talent including Gary Clark Jr, Justus West, and recent recipient of a signature Telecaster, Raphael Saadiq. Saadiq lends his skills to my personal standout, Bodyguard, a breezy, yacht rock-indebted strummer which rides into the sunset with a gnarly Whammy’d solo that’s all hooks.

St. Vincent has also been dominating my playlists. We’ve got an interview coming, but in the meantime, I’ve been reveling in the diversity of All Born Screaming, from its neo-Nirvana bombast (Flea) to QOTSA riff blasts (Broken Man) and esoteric pop à la Prince (Big Time Nothing). But the standout guitar moment might just be the ripping solo on So Many Planets, a chromatic legato workout that sounds like a buzzing bee… in space, obviously.

It’s been a big month for guitar-forward pop in general, actually, with new releases from Tora Daa and Emily Krueger, and more emo-tinged direction from Japanese metal stalwarts Band-Maid with new single Bestie, a co-write with Incubus guitarist (and Avicii Wake Me Up collaborator) Mike Einziger. But just before you go thinking they’ve gone soft on you, lead guitarist Kanami Tōno burns through some blistering alternate-picking runs that must rank among her personal best(ie).

My heavier picks of the month are the bouncing wonk-chug of Chicago psych outfit REZN, who are signed to the reliably excellent tastemakers Sargent House. And shoutout to GW scribe Phil Weller for recommending Finnish progsters Wheel my way. Guitarist James Lascelles recently told us why nothing can replicate the chunk of a good Les Paul, even in baritone tunings, and serpentine, Tool-esque rocker Porcelain is proof that sometimes the classics simply can’t be beaten, no matter the context.

Damian Fanelli – Editor-in-Chief, Guitar World magazine

Like any good (and increasingly rare) Byrds fan, I went to see Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and Marty Stuart – twice – when they toured together in 2018 (backed by Stuart’s band, His Fabulous Superlatives). 

Although the tour was a tribute to the Byrds’ 1968 country/rock classic, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which turned 50 that year, McGuinn & Co. padded the set with other country-leaning tunes from the band’s catalog. Among them was Mr. Spaceman, which appeared on 1966’s Fifth Dimension. 

When I saw their Albany, New York, show on September 18, 2018, Stuart’s Telecaster – famously once owned by the Byrds’ Clarence White – was mixed so freakin’ loud (especially during Mr. Spaceman) that I felt like I was at a Yo La Tengo show in Hoboken, circa 2002 (you know, the one where I thought my head was gonna fall off). 

Not that I was complaining, because all that juicy, Apple Watch-alarming volume let Stuart’s B-bender brilliance wash over the audience in an almost nasty, “There’s no escaping this guitar solo, Albanyites!” way.

Anyway, even though it took them six years to do it (BTW, what’s up with that?), McGuinn, Stuart and the gang finally released a live album from the tour – Sweetheart of the Rodeo 50th Anniversary (Live) – this past Record Store Day, April 20. I don’t know if the album’s performance of Mr. Spaceman is from the Albany show, but I’m just glad it’s finally out there. As McGuinn shouts after Stuart’s solo, “Yeah!”

Meanwhile, a little something called The Light Up Waltz showed up in my “New releases for you” pile over on Spotify a couple of weeks ago. That’s the new album by Minor Moon, a Chicago band fronted (and masterminded) by Sam Cantor. 

I was immediately drawn to the topsy-turvy guitars (possibly and/or partially played by Chet Zenor), most of which benefit from ​​some sort of fake-rotary Uni-Vibe situation, which definitely support the band’s claims of playing “knotty country rock”. The catchiest knotty country-rocker of the bunch is probably I Could See It Coming, the off-kilter solo for which blends overdrive, vibe and maybe some phase shifter, resulting in a hard-to-pin-down, ’70s L.A. session-pro vibe.

And it’d be weird to leave out Evolve, the new single from Phish, a track that heralds the coming of the band’s 16th studio album, also called Evolve, due in July. It’s about as enjoyable as anything “song Phish” (as opposed to “jam Phish”) have put out over the past 20 years. In fact, with its simple chord structure, it brings to mind songs like Crowd Control from 2004’s Undermind. Here’s hoping Evolve (the album) is as twisty and labyrinthian as its 20-year-old predecessor.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

I certainly haven’t the world’s most diverse taste, but my favorites from this, the month where temperatures warm and trees blossom, are truly all over the place. 

First, I wanna talk about Kings of Leon. I have sentimental reasons for liking them as much as I do (they opened for Radiohead at the first show I ever went to), but I’ve always found a lot of nuance in their steamrolling twin-guitar approach. Whether crafting parts for supermarket PA perennials or cowbell-aided bar brawl-starters, the Followills have never quite taken a straight path from A to B, and that’s led to more fascinating riffs and unpredictable but melodically moving solos than people annoyed by their ubiquity give them credit for. 

Nothing To Do – the new single from the band’s forthcoming LP, Can We Please Have Fun – charges out of the gate almost at a Ramones pace, but is far from an empty “back to the basics rock ‘n’ roll” cliche. Matthew Followill, ever a disciple of The Edge, perfectly blends the band’s weird and stadium instincts with a warbly solo packed with funky single-note stabs and fire-alarm arpeggios. 

LA rockers Milly, meanwhile, released one of my April headphone perennials, Drip From The Fountain. Need a grunge or shoegaze fix? Look no further. On the back of a Siamese Dream-sized wall of guitars, the chorus of this song absolutely slams. 

On a much more subdued note, I’ve been preaching the gospel of North Carolina-based singer/songwriter Jake Xerxes Fussell to anyone who’ll listen for years. He channels the American songbook into a vision that’s wholly unique, and his new single, Going to Georgia, is the best song called Going to Georgia to come out in over thirty years. In all seriousness, just listen to how perfectly Fussell’s driving acoustic fingerpicking pairs with texture master Blake Mills’ funky fills. Sublime stuff. 

Finally, if you’re looking to start your summer playlist early, Mei Semones’ Kabutomushi, the title track of the Brooklyn guitarist’s new EP, is worth a listen. With a none-cooler jazz sensibility, a bossa nova gait, and immaculate string arrangements, Kabutomushi will lower anyone’s stress levels. 

Matt Parker – Features Editor

Traditionally, April is the month in which I pick up all my spring-iest tunes. We’re talking colorful melodies, lush tones and earworm hooks. Not so in 2024. Perhaps it’s just been a late spring, or maybe it’s the way the planets have aligned (or that eclipse?), but the most exciting stuff I’ve heard this month seems to be coming directly from, er… the dark, gaping mouth of hell. 

Kentucky’s vicious hardcore exports Knocked Loose have felt like a band on the precipice of much bigger things for a while now, but Don’t Reach for Me is the track that looks like it will send them hurtling over the edge. It opens with a mechanical riff so crushingly heavy that it will give you the bends – and yet it still swings and breathes in a way that evidences the group’s bouncing hardcore punk underpinning. 

More than that, it’s not a mindless thug of a track. The arrangement is intricate, dynamic and unpredictable, full of clever tonal and rhythmic hooks – from the monstrous groove of that chorus line, to the clever use of siren-like wails, unsettling delays, and stomping post-chorus riffs. And, yet, despite its complexity, guitarists Isaac Hale and Nicko Calderon somehow never get in the way of that yell-along chorus.

It feels like a genuine step forward in terms of heavy playing – a band that is re-shaping a metal landscape that has been dominated by the mechanical post-djent approach for the last 10 years. I’m not bad-mouthing that movement, it’s just time for a refresh – and Knocked Loose are very ready to oblige. 

Elsewhere, on the hardcore front, New Jersey’s GEL only released their debut album a scant year ago but are already back with the sub-three-minute Mirage. It goes big and guitarist Maddi Nave has a brief but superbly effective whammy solo that sees them knock seven shades out of the vibrato – and leaves me seriously questioning my hardtail tendencies. 

Meanwhile, former Emma Ruth Rundle collaborators Thou have returned with the excellently-titled I Feel Nothing when You Cry – the first taster of their new album, Umbilical. It is bitter on the mouth. The one-time sludge group has seriously upped the pace and given their black metal tendencies a newly-serrated edge, as a result.

Finishing on a lighter note, mk.gee’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live caught many guitarist’s ears for his remarkable tone – ably explained by Rhett Shull – and I was no exception. It feels like someone crossing the rubber bridge mutes with the shimmering indie landscape in a truly unique and affecting way and feels like another ‘moment’ of change. 

Spring seems to have hit differently then, but there are still green shoots, all over.

Matt Owen – Senior Staff Writer

I was admittedly quite late to the party, but upon finally hearing Cub – the 2022 debut album from Wunderhorse – last year, the British indie rock upstarts quickly became one of my favorite new guitar acts of recent times. Their energy was fresh and off the rails, and permeated through 11 songs that brought a neat spin to gung-ho guitar rock. 

They returned with a new single, Midas, which has probably already cemented its place on my 2024 Spotify Wrapped. It’s loose yet tight, littered with gritty guitar and a one-word chorus hook that has become something of a daily affirmation.

My indie ear this month has elsewhere been occupied by the new album from Hovvdy – particularly the noodle-heavy A Little, which blissfully balances between lap steel country and wistful acoustics – and Laufey, whose sheer musicality never ceases to astound me. The only thing that matches her vocals are the crafted extended chord progressions she weaves together – expertly showcased in Bored – which continue to be a fruitful source of inspiration when it comes to my own playing and writing. 

Imogen and the Knife, another up-and-coming UK act that made its way onto my radar, also launched a soft reboot of sorts with Mother of God, introducing a grittier, fuzzier sound that paves the way for some exciting future material.

February and March were quite blues/jazz-heavy months for me: I rinsed Black Country Communion, went down the Al Di Meola rabbit hole, and even saw Joe Bonamassa live. I developed some solo fatigue on that front (hence the chosen highlights), but I still had time for Joanne Shaw Taylor, who returned with the supremely soulful Devil in Me.

Of course, I’d be remiss not to give mention to David Gilmour and Mötley Crüe. The former announced his first solo album in nine years (which features a new producer tearing up the rulebook) with The Piper’s Call, while Crüe embarked on a new chapter with their first single to feature John 5.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

April has been my first month with GW, so I'm excited to add my picks to this monthly track roundup. To kick things off, I have to start with a track I just discovered this morning – Sababa 5's Ashkamoni. This group fuses Mediterranean folk, groove-based rhythms, and psych-funk, creating a truly compelling sound that ticks off all my boxes. In this particular track, the guitar and synth weave together like intricate lace, exchanging solos that made my morning espresso taste even better. 

Speaking of Mediterranean sounds, the next two tracks come by way of Malta, my home country. Alt-rock band Brodu mix jazz-infused, indie-rock guitars and an addictive guitar riff reminiscent of classic '90s rap in their track Kusksu Clan [feat. Peklektru]. Indie-pop quartet Oxygyn paint an ethereal image through shimmering guitar chords in their song Waste and make a strong case for why less is more.

On the opposite end of the minimalist-maximalist spectrum are Los Bitchos and La Bomba. Guitarist Serra Petale shines with a seriously catchy guitar hook in this guitar-driven, feel-good track. 

This month also saw ultimate mood-makers Khruangbin release their fourth album A LA SALA. My standout track is Juegos y Nubes, which sees guitarist Mark Speer subtly experiment with multiple genres in the span of just a couple minutes, while retaining the staple Khruangbin guitar sound. 

We wrap up with some good ol’ post-punk. Canadian band METZ make their return with their fifth album, Up On Gravity Hill, which, in true METZ fashion, packs a punch. In the track Superior Mirage, Alex Edkins creates tension with a repetitive riff that rings throughout the track. 

On the other side of the pond, South London's Goat Girl return with ride around. The track leverages its grungy guitar part to create a dark and hypnotic mood that paints an intriguing picture of what we can expect from their forthcoming album Below the Waste. 

When Gary Clark Jr. greets Total Guitar on Zoom, it’s with a warm smile and a slight sense of amazement. After a quick scan of this writer’s music room, what grabs his attention is an unexpected “blast from the past” – the same electric guitar he cut his teeth on, in the exact same finish, on a guitar rack in the background. 

The rare model in question is a late-’90s Japanese-made Ibanez Blazer in Vintage Sunburst, which is exactly what the Texan brought along to the blues jams that schooled him at the very beginning of his teenage years. These were no ordinary club nights, however, given how Antone’s – the legendary downtown Austin venue –was also where Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan started their careers, and a place that was frequented by many a guitar great. 

Seeing the old favourite transports Clark Jr. back to the start of his musical journey and, as we soon learn, draws parallels to much of his work on latest album JPEG RAW. The 12 tracks eloquently stretch out the format of blues into new sonic horizons without losing the core fundamental values, travelling through the realms of gospel, jazz, soul and hip-hop while also roping in star guests including Stevie Wonder, George Clinton and Valerie June.

“What felt different about this record is that I kinda went back to my 12-year-old self,” Gary says. “There was a fork in the road where I could have headed towards blues or shred. I chose blues, and ended up being the kid at those jam nights with that same Ibanez Blazer and a 60-watt solid-state Crate amp.

“The blues guys were looking at me like I was crazy! I actually still have the Blazer and play it all the time. I bought it because I needed some versatility. I thought the coil-tap meant it would cover all the tones I’d need for the rest of my life.”

He adds with a laugh: “That didn’t quite go according to plan…”

So what exactly informed the musical direction you took on this album?

“After that Ibanez and Crate setup, I got myself a Fender DeVille, a Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster and a Gibson ES-125, but I had a bunch of friends who were listening to Guns N’ Roses and they introduced me to Slash’s playing. The G3 thing was also huge when I started – you had Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson playing together. 

“I’d read about those guys all the time in the guitar magazines. I’ll never forget seeing Eric Johnson playing Cliffs of Dover on Austin City Limits. I’d stop the tape, rewind it and watch every part closely. Eventually I realised it was too complicated for me. I knew I needed to learn more of the basics and figured I’d circle back around to it later down the line.”

Did you ever get round to it?

“Well, fast-forward to 2020, the whole world shut down and I decided to become a 12 year-old guitar player learning again. This time, however, I went the other way and got an Ibanez with a Floyd Rose! I went crazy on distortion, chorus and delay, going nuts in my studio for hours and hours every day. 

“That was the approach for this album. I was being a full-on musician and not sticking to one style. I didn’t care. I didn’t know what was going on with the music business or my record. I just played for me. I didn’t care what anybody thought because I didn’t know if anybody would hear it or not!”

But we’re guessing you relied on more vintage-leaning instruments for the album sessions? There’s the 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard reissue from Pat Smear you used on your last album, plus all the Gibson and Epiphone archtops you’re typically seen with.

“I mainly used my Gibson ES-355. They hooked me up with a very special one of those. I used my Epiphone Casino, that SG you mentioned which Pat Smear gave me, as well as my signature SG. There was a 1991 American-made Fender Squier Strat. What else? 

“There was a Wide Sky guitar – Patch Rubin in Taos [New Mexico] has been really doing his thing with these handmade guitars. I think that’s about it. I didn’t really go too crazy. There was a Dobro on the song Don’t Start, that I completely fuzzed out and played nasty slide over – which was very disrespectful!”

Is your Fender Vibro-King still the main guitar amp?

“Yeah, I still use it a lot. I put an Ampeg on top of my 2x12 Fender cabinet and had fun with that. But there was also a 100-watt Cesar Diaz amp at Arlyn Studios that I fell in love with. I could just crank that thing up and go… It was unapologetic playing! The tones I got out of that were sick, especially with my whole pedal rig. I was experimenting a lot. We also went over to Mike Elizondo’s studio in Tennessee. 

“We’ve done some great work together musically, writing- and production-wise. Anytime I go to his studio, I’ll play through whatever he decides to rig up. I’ll bring my pedalboard and he’ll look at it saying, ‘Hmm, let’s try something else!’ He very politely pushes all my gear aside and takes responsibility for the sounds. I don’t know what I used half the time!”

You’re well-known for being a bit of a fuzz aficionado, having mainly stuck with the Analog Man Astro Tone and the Fulltone Octafuzz in the past. What are we hearing this time round?

“On this record it was an EarthQuaker Park Fuzz and the Toronzo Cannon fuzz made by Function F(x). Those are my go-to pedals. But so much got done at Mike’s studio, I can’t say for sure. He also had this crazy reverb pedal that I cannot remember the name of. It was this out of this world, psychedelic-looking thing. I know we used some Universal Audio delays and reverbs. 

“There was a TC Electronic tremolo. Things keep getting rotated out. Whenever I’m not quite satisfied, the people in my band and our techs will throw stuff on my pedalboard and tell me to mess with the dials, just to see what works. I’ll try it all out for a week or two, and keep swapping stuff out.”

It was interesting to see footage of you with an Abasi Concepts Larada Space-T a few years ago. It’s definitely not the kind of guitar you’re known for playing!

“Oh yeah! That thing is a beautiful instrument. Tosin is such an incredible player and his attention to detail for his brand is crazy. When I picked up that guitar, it was so buttery. It just made sense, you know? Every single amp it hit, it resonated just right. So shout out to him. He’s been doing his thing with those funky space guitars. It’s very cool!”

It says a lot about your attitude towards gear in general.

“At a certain point, it’s not about sticking to what you know. I’ve always been open to trying stuff out because why not? You never know until you try it. Especially with music and gear – it’s cool to paint with all the colours. If you get an opportunity to try something, you never know what might happen. 

“You could find a creative spark and end up being inspired to do things you never thought you’d be capable of. There’s no greater buzz for me than self-discovery and problem-solving. I love the idea of adjusting my perspective in ways I’d never considered before.”

So what are the oldest or most valuable instruments in the collection?

“I’ve got a 1937 Martin D-18… at least, I think that’s what it is! I’ve got a 1966 Gibson Casino, a 1968 Riviera that my wife got me which is in mint condition. I opened it and immediately put it back in the case because I didn’t want to get any dust on it! It’s an incredible instrument, but she always tells me, ‘You never play that guitar I got you!’ She also got me a nice late-’70s Firebird. I’ve got a 1958 ES-125. That’s a couple of them. 

“I’m not too big on being a collector. I’m not too precious with my stuff – I want to beat things up and play them in. Maybe one day, when I slow down and I’ve beaten up all my guitars, I’ll sit down and appreciate them. But I’m scared!

“I remember with the first SG signature I got from Gibson, I tripped over a cord and the thing went bam! The headstock snapped off and that’s happened with too many of my guitars. I don’t want to be that guy with all the precious ones.”

One of the new songs, To the End of the Earth, is notable for your use of harmonic minor and diminished ideas alongside embellished jazz voicings. This definitely feels like new ground for you.

“If I’m being honest, I feel like I’ve been getting away with the pentatonic for a long time! Straight-up minor blues and seventh chords. It’s been fun; people love that. I love it. That’s the sound of the blues, it’s rootsy and evokes a certain feeling, but I also listen to Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Lonnie Johnson.

“Even B.B. King in his early days was doing some crazy jazz voicings and wild runs! I was inspired because Mike Elizondo played me this record Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane did together. It had this beautiful singing, this crooning that nobody seems to be doing anymore. I sat there with some chords and put it together. We recorded it real quick. When everyone asked if I had another verse, I said, ‘No, that’s it, all I got!’”

Other tracks like Maktub, This Is Who We Are and Hearts In Retrograde demonstrate how lyrical you can be with the humble blues scale. What pentatonic tips can you offer those of us who haven’t grown up around so much history?

“I didn’t study any music theory or scales until the pandemic. When I was the young kid at those jams, people would point at the note on my fretboard or I’d mirror what they were doing. They’d say, ‘This is the one, this is the four, this is the five.’ That’s all I knew. Everything else was just guesswork. 

“See, it wasn’t cool to know music theory when I was growing up – it was about the feeling. I’d ask all the other players and they’d say, ‘All you need is three chords and the truth!’ So that’s just what I lived by – the pentatonic scale with a little bit of soul. I’d hit some bum notes that sounded kinda off but weren’t, and I wouldn’t know what they were called.”

In 2017, you and Eric Gales teamed up in the studio to reproduce Freddie King’s version of Boogie Man. That felt like a big moment for modern blues.

“Eric Gales is one of my favourites, if not the favourite guitar player of mine. The way he can be so soulful, funky and free with it, but his attack and intention is so clean and precise. He’s like the Beethoven of guitar – that guy will take you to church! His level of talent is so crazy. Working with him was such an honour – it was amazing and I felt so inspired. I’m not going to lie, I definitely tried to steal a couple of licks!”

Eric Clapton once sent you a letter thanking you for making him want to play again. That’s pretty powerful. How many other people can say that?

“I’m not sure, but I can’t be the only one! It was definitely an honour. I think back to the 12 year-old sitting around in the living room, whose sisters were complaining as he kept watching the Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute concert. Hearing Eric Clapton on Ain’t Gone ‘N’ Give Up On Love was magical. I loved the sound of that Strat and that vibrato. I’d listen to that solo over and over again.

“I remember my dad handing over Clapton and Santana records and saying to me, ‘If you want to learn how to play guitar, this is how you do it!’ That was my homework! So to have Eric Clapton call me up and say such nice things meant a lot. There are no words that can fully capture it, almost like it was a dream. You want to be called up by the big dogs and then they do! I have to remember, ‘This really happened!’”

Which other blues players did you learn from the most? 

“My biggest tricks came from people like Buddy Guy, who would overbend his strings and exaggerate the hell out of it – it’s ridiculous how far that guy can bend a string! I learned how to do things like that in order to evoke emotion. Put a fuzz pedal on top and your eyes will roll into the back of your head! I’ve also been trying to play with more intention – being more musical instead of getting too excited.”

How exactly does one achieve that?

“When I first started, it was three-piece band stuff and I only had a few songs. All I had was long guitar solos to fill up the time. That’s where I learned how to start slow, build it up, introduce more excitement and bring it down before a final climax going back into the final chorus or verse. My songs would end up being 12 minutes long! 

“These days I’m more precise about it. I kinda get grossed out by these long, ridiculous, noisy solos. I want to be more creative in terms of orchestrating and arranging music… because I love music. Sometimes it’s a little disrespectful to put a loud, obnoxious solo on a beautiful arrangement.”

Speaking of beautiful arrangements, in contrast to a lot of your peers, you mix the blues with other genres to produce more contemporary sounds. You might have one foot in the past, but it seems like you’re only ever looking forward…

“All the guys that came before me were pioneers in terms of moving it forward. Robert Johnson. Muddy Waters. Son House. All these guys put their own flavour into this music and evolved it. We sometimes look at it as this thing to preserve, but the guys who were making it weren’t preserving it. They were trying to push the boundaries. If you’re trying to do Muddy Waters, that’s some big shoes to fill, and I don’t really want to spend my time trying to be that guy. 

“People used to tell me all the time, ‘Just play the blues, you gotta preserve the blues!’ And I’d think, ‘Yeah, but look at Buddy Guy with a record like Sweet Tea – what the hell is that?’ Why would people want me to sound like Buddy Guy’s old records when even Buddy Guy doesn’t sound like that anymore? What the hell kinda sense does that make?”

It’s easy to forget the blues had to evolve to get where it is now.

“Hubert Sumlin was an electric guitar pioneer. He didn’t play it like Charlie Christian or Wes Montgomery. The guys who ended up listening to him, like Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, then took it forward in their own way.

“I’m not going to just do the one-four-five thing just because people want some sense of nostalgia. That’s not my role. Blues keeps on going. It’s inspired by everything around it. Why would I not put my own filter on that? I like playing and experimenting. I just love making noise – my own noise. Why not?!”

• JPEG RAW is out now via Warner.

Every guitarist has, at some point in their playing career, encountered some form of tonal or technique snobbery, and it seems that the A-listers are no exception: as Gary Clark Jr. explains in his new cover feature for Guitar Player.

The Austin-raised guitar hero famously cut his teeth in the city’s blues clubs. However, he says he also started out with a more shreddy set of influences, but found that the same club scene was far less accepting of that side of his playing, and also his gear.

Asked if shred guitar was frowned upon in the local blues clubs in that early-’00s period, Clark confirms it was indeed a hard sell.

“Oh, sure,” say Clark. “When I was coming up in Austin, you wanted to be part of the cool club. There was this one club that was very strict about what they would allow… [Shredders weren’t welcome]. Not at all. 

“I got made fun of because I walked in proud with an Ibanez Blazer and a solid-state Crate amp. I was showing up to blues clubs with that, and they were like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ But, you know, at a certain point you can’t please everybody.”

It’s quite reassuring to know that even a player of Gary Clark Jr.’s stature and ability faced the same wobbles in finding his feet – and his confidence – that the rest of us have faced over the years. 

Needless to say, he’s had the last laugh over the genre puritans and tonal cork sniffers, though – carving out a career that has been distinguished by his chameleonic ability to blend influences and different sonic worlds. 

What’s more, the guitar hero has since returned to those shred-heavy influences of his youth as he explains elsewhere in his Guitar Player feature.

“When I started on guitar, my friend Eve taught me about the blues and I learned about rock from my friend Gilberto,” says Clark. 

“He introduced me to guys like Slash and the whole G3 thing – Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson. During the pandemic, I was bored and thought, ‘What if I studied that?’ I basically turned into a teenager again. I locked myself in a room and started shredding guitar.”

You can hear the results of that pandemic woodshedding – reportedly practiced, with a sense of karmic redress, on a Floyd Rose-equipped Ibanez – on new album, JPEG RAW, with the likes of recent Editor’s Pick track This is Who We Are showcasing some super-shreddy pentatonic runs in its closing moments.

Nonetheless, Clark says he still doesn’t pay much attention to labels – whether it’s genres, or pedal brands: “I don’t care who makes it,” concludes the guitarist. “I just care what it sounds like.”

After publishing a brief social media tease earlier this week, Slash has now finally announced details of his long-awaited blues solo album – and with it, he’s unveiled the guest stars he’s recruited for the ride.

Slash’s sixth solo album – a blues cover record officially named Orgy of the Damned – was first revealed to be in the works back in 2023, when the Guns N’ Roses titan surprisingly shared the fact it would take the form of a fully fledged blues record.

Since then, anticipation surrounding the LP has only grown, with an all-too-brief audio clip posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday of this week heralding the onset of the album’s marketing campaign.

Now, the floodgates have opened, and the Gibson Les Paul loyalist has revealed both the tracklist (complete with a full list of guest musicians) as well as its lead single – a cover of Howlin’ Wolf classic, Killing Floor, which features AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson.

Johnson will be joined on the 12-track album by Tash Neal, Beth Hart, Paul Rodgers, Iggy Pop, Dorothy, Chris Stapleton, Billy Gibbons, Gary Clark Jr. and Chris Robinson, as well as pop star-turned rock artist Demi Lovato, whose own involvement in Orgy of the Damned had already been confirmed.

Neal, who sings on a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Living for the City, will also make up part of Slash’s blues band, which is rounded out by his ‘90s-era Blues Ball collaborators Johnny Griparic (bass) and Teddy Andreadis (keyboard), as well as drummer Michael Jerome.

The ensemble can be heard (and seen) in action alongside Johnson for Killing Floor, which also features Steven Tyler on harmonica.

For it, Slash swaps his Les Paul out for a more traditionally blues-style, Bigsby-clad ES-335, which plays host to his swampy 7th chords, shuffle-y arpeggios, and a guitar solo that leans heavily into B.B. box bends and searing pentatonic runs.

“Killing Floor is one of my favorite Howlin’ Wolf songs, but also one of the iconic blues riffs that turned me on as a young guitar player,” Slash reflects. “I've always wanted to cover it in some capacity and this record was the perfect vehicle. 

“But playing it with this band, and with Brian Johnson singing, it was an achievement I would never have imagined back then. Let alone Steven Tyler providing the harp.”

Johnson added, “I had a ball with Slash in the studio, and I think we did this great old song justice.”

Not only is it set to be an all-star blues party, Orgy of the Damned is also positioned to be a celebration of the genre that has had a deeply influential impact on Slash’s own style.

Having been introduced to blues and British rock ‘n’ roll early on by his family, Slash immediately took to the music of B.B. King. Since then, the blues has had an informative presence on his playing.

“Orgy of the Damned showcases a lesser-heard aspect of Slash’s musical prowess,” a statement reads. “While he has always embraced a broad range of styles and genres, the album offers a rare opportunity to explore a unique side of his playing and bring to the forefront a rollicking journey through his strong, blues inspirations, that have long been in the background of his illustrious career.” 

As Slash himself has previously stated, “I'm a rock guitar player that's firmly rooted in blues. If you were to listen to anything that I do, you can see how big the blues influence is.”

Orgy of the Damned will see Slash tackle historic blues standards and some lesser-known cuts originally penned and performed by the likes of Robert Johnson, T. Bone Walker, Albert King, Willie Dixon, Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins and more.

There is also one new original track that has been composed by Slash for the record: Metal Chestnut.

A full tracklist can be found below.

1. Crossroad Blues feat. Gary Clark Jr. (written by Robert Johnson)
2. Hoochie Coochie Man feat. Billy F. Gibbons (written by Willie Dixon)
3. Oh Well feat. Chris Stapleton (written by Peter Green)
4. Key to the Highway feat. Dorothy (written by Charles Segar, William Broonzy)
5. Awful Dream feat. Iggy Pop (written by Sam (Lightnin’) Hopkins, Clarence Lewis, C Morgan Robinson)
6. Born Under a Bad Sign feat. Paul Rodgers (written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones)
7. Papa Was a Rolling Stone feat. Demi Lovato (written by Barrett Strong, Jesse Norman Whitfield)
8. Killing Floor feat. Brian Johnson (written by Howlin' Wolf)
9. Living for the City feat. Tash Neal (written by Stevie Wonder)
10. Stormy Monday feat. Beth Hart (written by T-Bone Walker)
11. Metal Chestnut (written by Slash)

• Orgy of the Damned is available to preorder now via Gibson Records ahead of its release on May 17.

Oh, hey. Nice of you to join us. You might remember we used to run a weekly track roundup around these parts – Essential Guitar Tracks, as it was known. Well, say your goodbyes, for EGT is no more.

Now dry those tears – preferably from the heat of some pre-warmed 6L6 tubes – and say hello to Guitar World Editors’ Picks, our brand-spanking-new, monthly guide to the songs our editors are digging very much indeed, yessir.

We’ll have a Spotify playlist for you to tuck into, and we’ll round up our favorites of the month in an article just like this – where our editors will wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that had their six-string senses a-tingling.

Make sense? It will do. Anyway, without further ado, let’s hand things over to our EIC MAB to get things started…

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Full disclosure: I went to NAMM, took a vacation, and I’ve been catching up on music (and emails… mostly emails) up until roughly 10:37 a.m. this morning. So forgive me if I allow one or two late-January releases into my picks of the musical litter.

My month has mostly been dominated by Radiohead offshoot The Smile’s sophomore effort. It’s the sound of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood finally shaking off the chains of expectation surrounding their best-known gig, and it’s all the better for it. Read the Room is an absolute jam, Greenwood’s angular riff snaking around your consciousness, before the trio go full Sonic Youth. Yes. Yes, please.

Then there’s the small matter of a new Pearl Jam single. Dark Matter fizzes with the energy emblematic of producer Andrew Watt’s latest efforts with the Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop. And dang, it’s good to hear Mike McCready dial up the fuzz for that pull-off-heavy solo. 

In fact, I’ve been struck by the quality of latter-day releases across the board: Kerry King’s long-awaited solo debut is pure kinetic freneticism, the returning Kittie sound as vital as ever; and Judas Priest have no right delivering riffs this lithe so many decades into their career.

My guitar highlight of the month, however, comes from nu metal survivors Alien Ant Farm, of all bands. I’ve long maintained the band’s first two records are criminally underrated, just for the tonal and technical diversity of guitarist Terry Corso alone.

Comeback single So Cold harks back to that era with its incisive riffs and heavily modulated extended chords, but it’s the triumphant ’80s-vibed solo – whammy wiggles! taps! legato! – that steals the song, and presents a kind of revisionist history where guitar solos were cool after all in the early noughties.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor 

First off, as a Radiohead fanboy for life, I’m with Mike – The Smile’s Wall of Eyes has some of the most agile, inscrutable riffs in Jonny Greenwood’s already lofty catalog, giving the album some of that Radiohead ‘x-factor’ we’ve been so sorely missing. Ok, fanboying over.

Though it comes from a genre that, admittedly, isn’t my usual bag, I found it impossible not to be awed by Felix Martin’s dizzying neoclassical tapping clinic, Thundertap. Having witnessed his double-neck wizardry in person at NAMM last year, Thundertap – which also features double-neck bass tapping, to boot – feels like the culmination of Martin’s development as a player and composer to date. 

On a very different note, Khruangbin keep going from strength to strength, as evidenced by their new tune, May Ninth. A perfect balm for a hard day, this easy-strolling song finds Mark Speer getting incredible melodic miles-per-gallon. Kept surprisingly low in the mix, his dreamy, movie score-like arpeggios and clipped single-note statements are colorful and integral to the song’s charm, but never once overshadow the band’s always air-tight rhythm section. 

What I’m most excited about as February comes to a close, though, is the return of Mdou Moctar, the Nigerien guitarist who took the world by storm with his breakthrough 2021 album, Afrique Victime – a thrilling record that mixed traditional assouf guitar music from West Africa with Western influences, particularly the flash and fire of Jimi Hendrix. 

Funeral for Justice – the lead single and title track from Moctar’s forthcoming album – takes things to another level, turning up the distortion and volume and adding a touch of meat-and-potatoes riffing, especially in the intro. Moctar’s Strat fingerpicking, though, remains the star attraction, and is as driving and hypnotic as ever. 

Matt Owen – Staff Writer

NAMM festivities aside, it’s been a very busy start to the year indeed – and as far as new music goes, I personally have been eating especially well in February. 

For starters, Julian Lage is one person who endlessly inspires me to continue exploring new ways of navigating the fretboard. The jazz extraordinaire’s latest slew of releases – culminating in Nothing Happens Here – have put a firm focus on his acoustic prowess, and in turn I have found myself picking up my own Fender Paramount over the past few weeks as I look to learn from Lage’s limitless creativity. 

To satiate my hunger for blues, soul and some more electric-leaning soundscapes, St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Marcus King have been on hand to deliver the goods, providing masterclasses in dynamics, feel, and phrasing with Broken Man, Along Together (feat. Keyon Harrold), and Mood Swings, respectively.

It’s also been a big month for indie rock. Social media sensation-turned-recording phenomenon Towa Bird put in an early claim for my highlight of the month with B.I.L.L.S – yet another home run from the D’Angelico-toting titan.

But it was the return of Catfish and the Bottlemen – one of the finest indie guitar acts of its type – for which I will be remembering February. The band, which unofficially disbanded a few years ago after some personnel departures, has been AWOL for the past few years, but returned this month with Showtime – their first new music in five years.

Who’s in the band now? Well, frontman Van McCann (the beating heart of the group) is back, but beyond that we’re not quite sure. What we are sure of, though, is that Catfish are here for round two, and – if the new track’s Springstreenian leanings are anything to go by – the album that follows their revival looks poised to be their best yet.

Matt Parker – Staff Writer

May I be the first second to say that the big news for me this month is the return of Mdou Moctar? 

God knows how many words I have read (and, yes, written) about the guitar heroes of yore – wielding blazing guitars in the face of (sometimes violent) authoritarianism and inspiring a counter-cultural movement that shredded the social fabric of the era. 

Well, Moctar does all of that – and, more importantly, he’s doing it right now. So if, like me, you’ve spent time staring at pictures of Hendrix and wondering what it’s like to see a living, breathing guitar hero who plays with wild abandon in the service of something much bigger – look to Niger and Moctar. 

Elsewhere, I’m currently cycling between the crushing brutality of Knocked Loose’s newbie Blinding Faith and Hermanos Gutiérrez’ sun-kissed psychedelic beauty Sonido Cósmico (which dropped a few weeks ago), both of which offer first tasters of forthcoming albums. 

The former is blowing out the winter cobwebs with some vicious near-percussive hardcore riffing and I love those blink-and-you-miss-them shreddy central licks. Points are also gained for the use of a wall of amps, matching guitar finishes and getting an Ibanez Iceman in the video. 

Hermanos Gutiérrez, meanwhile, are helping to reset the blood pressure after all of the above overexertions. I’m a massive fan of that country-inspired muted clean tic-tac tone and Sonido Cósmico is absolutely laced with it, albeit in the dreamy context of a sort of cosmic spaghetti western. It’s a stunning ride.

This column focuses on Texan blues guitarist, Gary Clark Jr, born in Austin, in 1984. Early on in his career Gary was seen primarily as a blues artist with some rock influences.

But over time, he has integrated diverse styles, from soul and R&B right up to hip-hop. A great example of the latter is his performance of This Land with The Roots at the 62nd annual Grammy awards. Gary employs a second guitarist when he plays live, so he can be free to sing and play fills without losing the groove.

Clark’s style has deep blues guitar roots regardless of the genre that he’s occupying. His Next Door Neighbor Blues has a great old-time feel, which calls to mind Robert Johnson and the best solo blues players. He’s also one of those rare guitarists that seems to sound pretty much the same regardless of the instrument he chooses. 

This is because the way he plays is so defined and the guitar is generally complemented by a great rhythm section. On top of this his records are very well produced and it’s easy to see why he is proving to be one of the most popular current blues artists. So much so that he’s worked with the late B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, and has also been invited to play at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival, and to open shows for Slowhand.

In our examples we’ll see a range of the techniques that Clark employs, put together in a final piece. Our first idea features a unison bend, a technique that Gary uses a lot and is often in no hurry to let the bend go. Another ear-catching ploy is to slowly bend from one note to another, bringing exciting tension to his solos.

While Clark is steeped in the styles of Albert King, Jimi Hendrix and the Delta blues players, he also has some modernistic traits. One of these is the repeated use of the 9th degree over minor 7th chords. 

This is common among the current crop of blues players and adds a slightly jazzier twist. Gary often adds this interval to the minor pentatonic scale. In fact, he probably uses the minor pentatonic with added 9th interval even more than he does the blues scale.

The chord progression for the final piece goes to the Vm rather than a V7, since Gary sometimes uses this device in his songs. But it’s the phrasing that’s key to understanding his style. His command of all the usual bluesy techniques goes without saying, but the pacing of his solos and how he shapes them, is one of the many reasons why Gary can hold a festival crowd in the palm of his hands. 

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 6, Bass 7, Middle 4, Treble 6, Reverb 4

Gary uses humbucker and single-coil pickup equipped guitars (often P-90s), so either will work fine here.

An American-style amp sound works best for this style – think Fender combo amps. Fuzz is also a huge part of Gary’s sound, but he also uses overdrive pedals and other assorted tone shapers. Reverb is essential, too, while delay adds welcome breadth to the tone.

Example 1

This idea starts with a unison bend, shortly followed by movement from the 9th (B) to the b3 (C) of Am7, which helps to state the harmony.

Example 2

This line features classic blues bends, and again we make use of the 9th degree. Phrasing is key here, as Gary plays lines that already sound like classics.

Example 3

For this minor pentatonic-based line, the first two beats of bar two are developed as a motif, and this sense of development adds cohesion to a solo.

Example 4

We start with a stinging jump from the b7 (D) down to the (B) 5th of Em7. You have to be quick with the position shift to the last note of bar two.

Example 5

This example starts with a classic Albert King/SRV-type idea. As with many A minor pentatonic-based lines, Gary might use the 9th (B) to spice up the sound.

Final solo

The solo combines four of the previous examples to follow the chord sequence, which is based on four bars of Am7 followed by four bars of Em7.

Eric Clapton and Gary Clark Jr.’s performance of Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers was undoubtedly the poison chalice of the evening when it came to the recent Jeff Beck tribute concerts. Now new footage shows the two players handled it in their stride.

A sizeable selection of electric guitar icons took to the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall across the two nights (May 22-23), including organiser Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Ronnie Wood, Kirk Hammett, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, John McLaughlin and more.

The setlist for the evening was massive, running to 26 tracks with rotating backing bands, moving between Clapton’s usual players and Jeff Beck’s own group. However, the daunting task of tackling Beck’s signature song, Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers, fell to Clapton and Clark on both nights.

The track was written by Stevie Wonder but became synonymous with Beck when the late guitar icon recorded a version for his second solo album, Blow By Blow, released in 1975. 

Beck’s masterful volume control and mournful bends on the track inspired many imitators – they also created something of a legacy that you can trace right through to Gary Moore and a legion of modern blues players.

Of course, nobody did it like Beck and, as such, even seasoned performers like Clapton and Clark must have felt the weight of expectation on their shoulders when it came to performing it onstage at the Albert Hall.

The footage above comes from the pair’s second and final show on the night of May 23 and shows Clark kicking things off – seemingly avoiding the volume-riding opening technique favored by Beck (see below) – and fair enough, if you ask us. 

Clark’s playing still does more than enough to tug at the heartstrings on the track, particularly in his latter sections – even if it can’t possibly replicate Beck’s sniper-like precision.

Around the three-minute mark, Clark hands over lead duties to Clapton, who (although known to do so) appears to be playing without a pick, which here feels like an appropriate tribute to Beck’s renowned finger tone. 

Meanwhile, watch out for Clapton’s guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, who also takes a lead section and sounds superb doing so – but that should be no surprise given his day job.

Watch the full clip above, which runs to an impressive nine minutes, and then check out the tribute show’s star-studded set closer Going Down  – a song that featured at Jeff Beck’s funeral. 

Yesterday (May 22), a huge ensemble of A-list electric guitar heroes converged on London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall for the first of two Jeff Beck tribute concerts.

As previously reported, the event was a who’s who of guitar talent, with the likes of Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, John McLaughlin and many more all coming together to pay tribute to the late guitar great, who passed away earlier this year.

The evening itself was filled with high-profile collaborations, but the biggest of all occurred right at the end of the night when everyone – yes, everyone – squeezed onto the historic stage for an eight-minute jam of Going Down.

If ever there was a competition for the most guitar stars to feature on the same stage, this lineup would stake a strong claim, with all those mentioned above performing alongside Ronnie Wood, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Depp, Doyle Bramhall II and Kirk Hammett, who made a surprise appearance with Greeny.

Outside the guitar department, Jeff Beck band members Rhonda Smith and Anike Niles lead the rhythm section, with Rod Stewart, Imelda May, Olivia Safe and Joss Stone all assuming vocal duties.

Having that many people on stage at once was always going to be a logistical challenge – a fact made clear by the drastic level differences between each player’s guitar.

Having said that, a guitar band of almost 20 players was never going to deliver a super-polished performance of Going Down, but that was never really the goal anyway.

Instead, the participants ensured their eight-minute rendition of Going Down turned out exactly as it should have: a gloriously improvised, larger-than-life guitar jam in honor of one of the most influential guitar players of all time. 

Clapton was the de facto conductor of the cover, kicking things off and then conceding the six-string spotlight to his fellow guitar-paying peers for a huge melting pot of solos.

Gary Clark Jr. – with his Gibson ES-335 in tow – took the first 12 bars, followed by a PRS-wielding John McLaughlin, and then a Telecaster-toting Depp, who spent much of last year touring and recording with Beck.

Two solos that especially cut through the mix were the closing efforts offered by Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. Trucks took the lead, utilizing his Gibson SG for yet another guitar slide masterclass, while Tedeschi went to town on her Tele for 12 bars of bend-heavy blues.

It proved to be a poignant ending to a marathon show, which had been prefaced by an emotional Clapton who told the crowd, “I wish he were here.”

The cover of Going Down was just one of numerous tracks performed by the assortment of guitar heroes in honor of Beck. 

Highlights from the setlist included McLaughlin joining Smith and Niles for a cover of You Know You Know – a Mahavishnu Orchestra track that Beck played live – Depp, Hammett and Gibbons teaming up to perform Isolation, and Clapton sharing the stage with Trucks and Tedeschi for The Sky is Crying.

The second and final Jeff Beck tribute show is set to take place tonight (May 23) at the Royal Albert Hall.

It’s been announced that Eric Clapton is set to team up with a huge array of artists and electric guitar stars for two upcoming tribute shows, which will be hosted in honor of the late Jeff Beck.

Set to take place on two dates at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall this May, the shows will see Slowhand team up with the likes of Gary Clark Jr. Doyle Bramhall II, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, as well as Billy Gibbons, John McLaughlin and Robert Randolph.

Beck’s close friend and guitar partner Johnny Depp will also make an appearance at the tribute concerts, as will some of Beck’s other close musical collaborators, such as Imelda May, Olivia Safe, Rod Stewart and Joss Stone.

Members of the Jeff Beck Band Rhonda Smith, Anika Nilles and Robert Stevenson are also slated to feature on the nights. Most of these guest musicians are expected to take part in both concerts.

As star-studded as the above list already is, even more musicians and guitarists will be confirmed for the show in due course, with the full guest list set to be finalized nearer the date of the performances.

According to a press release, surplus income from the shows will be donated to the Folly Wildlife Rescue, which is based in Kent, UK. Beck’s awareness for environmental activism was recently highlighted by Paul McCartney, who shared a previously unreleased track that featured the late guitar great.

Tickets for the Jeff Beck tribute concerts – which will take place on May 22 and 23 – are set to go on sale next Wednesday (March 15) over at Bookings Direct. Pre-sale will take place the day before, and registration for access is available at See Tickets.

Jeff Beck passed away earlier this year at the age of 78, prompting an outpouring of tributes from across the music world.

What guitarist hasn't stood in front of their bedroom mirror, imagining the unlikely scenario of playing onstage with their guitar heroes?

For most players, it's nothing more than a pipe dream, but some are lucky enough, be it by happenstance or careful planning – holding up a sign that reads, “can I play guitar with you?”, or giving a quick elevator pitch of their six-string abilities at a meet and greet – to get the chance to grace the stage with their idols.

And when they do make it to the stage, there's the small matter of making sure they seize the moment and nail the guitar part they've been invited to play. Fortunately, the fans in the following list were well-rehearsed by the time they answered the call.

Here are 10 times fans were invited to play guitar onstage and absolutely killed it.

1. Tom Morello lookalike plays Bulls on Parade with Prophets of Rage

Let’s be honest, if you’re someone who looks like Tom Morello at a Prophets of Rage gig, just stand reasonably close to the stage and you’re bound to be noticed by the band. That’s exactly what happened to Mike Svensson at the supergroup’s show in Stockholm, Sweden on June 26, 2018.

Towards the end of the set – which included a selection of Prophets of Rage originals and Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy covers – Morello sought to take a short break from performing to rest his hand, which was recovering from a fracture at the time.

Spotting his doppelganger, the guitarist plucked Svensson from the crowd, equipped him with his signature Arm The Homeless electric guitar, and invited him to play RATM classic Bulls on Parade with the band, where he nailed the Evil Empire cut note for note while busting some serious moves. We’re not quite sure how many hours Svensson spent in front of the mirror rehearsing that moment.

2. Fan brings the house down at a Steve Vai show

Back in July, Steve Vai played the final show of the European leg of his Inviolate World Tour at the Teatro Tivoli in Barcelona. Vai had planned to make his own way to the venue, but an “excited cab driver” spotted him and insisted on taking him there. When Vai was in his car, the cabbie took the opportunity to show him a clip on his phone of his son playing For the Love of God – from Vai’s 1990 album, Passion and Warfare.

Later that night, while Vai played the encore track of his set, Fire Garden Suite IV – Taurus Bulba, he noticed the taxi driver and his young son sitting in the audience. Assured by the prowess displayed in the video clip he had been shown just hours earlier, Vai walked into the crowd and handed the boy his guitar.

The kid subsequently brought the house down with his formidable shredding, and even ran to the stage to revel in the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I decided to make his day,” Vai said in a social media post, “and he certainly kicked some ass! It was a splendid way to cap off an outstanding tour.”

3. Kid joins Green Day for a stellar performance of Jesus of Suburbia

Green Day have brought fans onstage numerous times in the past, but few moments have been as killer as when Billie Joe Armstrong invited a young boy to play American Idiot epic Jesus of Suburbia with the band in Chicago in 2009.

Oftentimes, the authenticity of such interactions is thrown into question, with some accusing artists of planning them in advance. But this moment is certainly legit, as Armstrong can be seen in footage asking the boy to confirm the song’s key, to which he replies correctly: “C#”

After pulling the kid onto the stage, Armstrong seats him on a stage monitor, hands him his Gibson Les Paul Junior, and plucks out and discards his earplugs. “We want it loud,” he exclaims.

Armstrong then offers the boy some brief guidance, before realizing he needs no such help. The child plays the near-10-minute song all the way through with ease, at times taking a moment to look at the crowd and take in the once-in-a-lifetime moment.

4. 11-year-old plays Van Halen’s rendition of You Really Got Me with Steel Panther

11-year-old Aidan Fisher attended a Steel Panther show in 2013 at the Midland Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, and during the band’s set, held up a sign that said: “I challenge Satchel to a guitar solo.”

After spotting the young buck and his somewhat confrontational placard, Satchel granted him his wish and welcomed him to the stage, handing over his signature Kramer Pacer and inviting the boy to play a cover of Van Halen’s version of You Really Got Me.

But before launching into the track, the boy let loose with a face-melting solo loaded with precise alternate picking runs, insane two-handed tapping passages and whammy bar dives, prompting Satchel to retreat off stage in utter defeat.

5. Young boy plays Belief onstage with John Mayer

An adolescent John Mayer fan’s dreams came true when he was given the opportunity to play onstage with the guitar icon in 2010. Austin Christy’s night went exactly to plan, after standing in the crowd at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia near the stage holding a sign that read: “Can I please play Belief with you?”

After spotting the boy, Mayer chose to make his night – and quite possibly his entire life – by calling him up to the stage, saddling him up with his red Fender Stratocaster Plus and inviting him to play the 2006 Continuum cut.

Fan-shot footage from the event shows Mayer’s acoustic guitar strumming as a backdrop, while Christy nails the track’s smooth and subtle clean leads.

The interaction clearly lit a fire in the young Christy, who continues to make guitar-based music to this day.

6. Fan plays Catfish Blues with Gary Clark Jr.

Gary Clark Jr. has made a habit of inviting fans onstage to jam with him at his shows, but no such moment has been as memorable as when he played Catfish Blues with a young fan named Jeff at Philadelphia’s The Met in 2019.

After blazing through the likes of Bright Lights, Low Down Rolling Stone, When My Train Pulls In and This Land, the bluesman called the fan to the stage during the show for the most wholesome interaction.

In footage from the event, Jeff is seen shaking hands with every member of Clark Jr.’s backing band before strapping on a Gibson SG for a healthy dose of attitude-heavy blues. Expectedly, the crowd goes nuts.

7. Kid joins Foo Fighters onstage to jam Metallica classics

An exuberant youngster named Collier was welcomed to the stage during Foo Fighters October 12 set at Kansas City’s Sprint Center. After confidently announcing to the thousands of fans in attendance, “I know a lot of Metallica songs,” Dave Grohl handed him his Pelham Blue DG-335 signature model, whereafter the boy truly made the stage his own, launching into the main riff of Enter Sandman and bringing Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel along for the ride.

After showcasing more of his ‘Tallica riff knowledge – playing Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and Wherever I May Roam – Grohl capped off the boy’s experience by sending him back to his mother in the crowd, still with the DG-335 in his hands.

“If I see that shit on eBay next week I’m gonna find you,” Grohl told the boy, to the amusement of the crowd.

8. Metallica invite young band to play Seek & Destroy in Philadelphia

There must be something in the air at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia – now the Wells Fargo Center – as Metallica, like John Mayer, also made the dreams of young fans a reality at the venue.

In 2004, while the thrash titans were touring in support of their polarizing 2003 outing St. Anger, James Hetfield invited a young band called Break the Chair – its members aged between nine and 14 – to the stage to jam the intro section of Kill ‘Em All classic, Seek & Destroy.

Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Lars Ulrich all vacated their posts, allowing the fresh-faced troupe to showcase their musical chemistry and chops to the thousands in attendance.

Metallica took over shortly before the first chorus, but we’ll bet the kids left the stage with enough adrenaline to last a lifetime.

9. Fan kills the lead lines of Avenged Sevenfold's So Far Away

Avenged Sevenfold are another act who often relinquish musical duties to eager members of the crowd. There is no shortage of such clips on YouTube, including one where a fan plays drums to Second Heartbeat in Puerto Rico, and another in which an audience member replaces Synyster Gates to play the lead guitar of Unholy Confessions. 

But few moments match up to the time a fan jumped onstage in 2011 to play lead guitar for Nightmare ballad So Far Away.

In the footage above, the fan, armed with Gates’ pinstripe-finished Schecter signature model, plays the track’s emotive leads and textural clean chords with astonishing accuracy, and even takes the opportunity to stroll about the stage to get up close to his idols.

10. Fan nails the solo of Misery Business live with Paramore

One of the biggest songs in Paramore's catalog, Misery Business has been a staple of the band's setlist since its release on 2007's Riot! That is, with the exception of a period of several years starting in 2018 when the song was temporarily retired due to a few controversial lyrics.

And of the hundreds of times the track has been played, many have seen the band welcome audience members to the stage.

In 2010, after meeting Paramore at a meet and greet prior to a show – and telling Hayley Williams he could play “all of their songs on guitar” – one fan was summoned to the stage during Misery Business, where he was equipped with Josh Farro's guitar, before absolutely nailing the track's guitar solo.

Last Tuesday (July 12), Gary Clark Jr. continued to warm up for his upcoming 2022 headlining tour of the US with a performance at Budapest Park in Hungary, for which he recruited fellow blues guitar ace Samantha Fish as the support act.

The highlight of the night was its show-stopping finale, for which Fish returned to the stage to join Clark Jr. on regular set-closer When My Train Pulls In, 

The standout track from 2012's Black and Blu played host to some seriously sweet soloing, with Clark Jr. and the Gibson SG-wielding Fish taking turns on an extended performance spanning almost 14 minutes. 

Clark Jr. opened proceedings with some electric guitar improvisation, spending the first two and a half minutes of the track exploring the fretboard of his Bigsby-equipped Gibson ES-335. 

Once the main riff is introduced, it’s business as usual until Fish makes her way back on to the stage and Clark Jr.'s six-string lieutenant King Zapata keeps the jam going on his Fender Stratocaster.

The “guitar battle” gets under way at 7:30 mark. Fish is up first, delivering an array of pentatonic licks and searing bends, which Clark Jr. follows up with a biting lead exchange of his own.

What follows is pretty spectacular. Fair to say, Fish absolutely crushes it, stealing the show with a blinding collection of furious note flurries, rapid-fire scale runs and wailing high-end bends.

It’s not the first time Clark Jr. has invited one of his peers onstage to close out his set with a performance of When My Train Pulls In. Last year, Eric Gales turned in one of 2021’s most astonishing live guitar solos when he joined Clark Jr. for an 11-minute rendition of the track in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Gary Clark Jr. is set to kick off his headline tour of the US later this year. Commencing September 9 at the Avondale Brewery in Birmingham, Alabama, the trip around the country will see Clark Jr. visit Queens, Madison and Salt Lake City, before concluding the tour on October 9 at Hard Rock Live in Wheatland, California.

For a full list of dates, head over to Gary Clark Jr..

Forthcoming movie Minions: The Rise Of Gru is set to feature a soundtrack packed with electric guitar talent, including St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, Gary Clark Jr., H.E.R. and Tame Impala.

The soundtrack has been helmed by Bleachers man (and all-round savior of pop production) Jack Antonoff and sees an array of artists perform covers of ’70s classics, in keeping with the prequel’s timeline.

As such, St. Vincent covers Lipps Inc.’s iconic Funky Town, while Bridgers takes on The Carpenters hit Goodbye To Love and Gary Clark Jr. handles Vehicle, which was originally released by The Ides of March.

Elsewhere, Tierra Whack picks up Santana’s Black Magic Woman, Brittany Howard and Verdine White take on the latter’s Earth, Wind and Fire hit Shining Star, while Caroline Polachek covers Nancy Sinatra’s Bang Bang. We also particularly look forward to hearing Thundercat’s interpretation of the Steve Miller Band’s trippy trademark, Fly Like an Eagle.

In addition to the string of covers comes a new original track, Turn Up The Sunshine, which sees Tame Impala in an unlikely pairing with soul icon Diana Ross. 

It’s a line-up that could only have come together in this circumstance, with the combined pull of Hollywood commerce and the appeal of Antonoff’s involvement.

Music has long been a big feature of the enormously successfully Minions/Despicable Me franchise. The ’60s-set Minions featured songs from The Spencer Davis Group, The Kinks, The Who, Donovan and The Turtles, while Despicable Me 2 set the high-water mark when it launched Pharrell William’s giganto-hit Happy, which would top the charts in some 24 countries worldwide.

Minions: The Rise of Gru tracklist

1. Turn Up The Sunshine – Diana Ross ft. Tame Impala
2. Shining Star – Brittany Howard ft. Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire 1975)
3. Funkytown – St. Vincent (Lipps Inc in 1979)
4. Hollywood Swinging – BROCKHAMPTON (Kool & The Gang 1974)
5. Desafinado – Kali Uchis (Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto 1959)
6. Bang Bang – Caroline Polachek (Nancy Sinatra 1966)
7. Fly Like an Eagle – Thundercat (Steve Miller Band 1976)
8. Goodbye To Love – Phoebe Bridgers (The Carpenters 1972)
9. Instant Karma! – Bleachers (John Lennon 1970)
10. You’re No Good – Weyes Blood (Linda Ronstadt 1975)
11. Vehicle – Gary Clark Jr. (The Ides of March 1970)
12. Dance to the Music – H.E.R. (Sly and The Family Stone 1967)
13. Black Magic Woman – Tierra Whack (Santana 1970)
14. Cool – Verdine White   
15. Born To Be Alive – Jackson Wang (Patrick Hernandez 1979)
16. Cecilia – The Minions (Simon & Garfunkel 1970)
17. Bang Bang – G.E.M. (Nancy Sinatra 1966)
18. Kung Fu Suite – RZA
19. Minions: The Rise of Gru Score Suite – Heitor Pereira

Minions: The Rise Of Gru original motion picture soundtrack will be released along the film’s opening on July 1. Pre-save or pre-order your copy.

A few days ago, Budweiser unveiled its primetime advertisement for Super Bowl LVI, which is set to take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California this Sunday, February 13. 

Notably, the ad – directed by Chloé Zhao – is soundtracked by the electric guitar work of none other than Gary Clark Jr. You can take a look at the ad ahead of the big game below.

One of the beer giant's famous Clydesdale ads, the 60-second spot is set to a tapestry of Clark's guitar work, including a live version of his 2012 track, Numb, and his own, decidedly atmospheric version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

It brings to mind the slide-heavy version of the US national anthem that the blues guitar great performed at the 2014 NBA All-Star Game.

“To tell a story of perseverance, hope and friendship through the lens of the beloved Clydesdales really resonated with me," said Zhao – who won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for her 2020 film, Nomadland – of the ad in a statement.

Last year, Clark released Deep Soul Lowdown, an entry in Audible’s Words + Music series in which he discussed his journey and formative experiences with the guitar.

“When I got my guitar, school went out the window," Clark said in the audio production. "I was practicing all day long, all night long. I mean, I would do my homework in the morning, while I’m eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, in the car.

“I was that kind of student because I was up all night learning how to play Little Wing. I want to learn how to play Born Under A Bad Sign, I want to dial my tone in to sound like Albert King. I want to bend my notes like Albert King because I feel that expression. It makes me feel something, so I want to be able to feel that myself.”

To hear all of Deep Soul Lowdown, stop by Audible.

Best of 2021: Last night (October 27) Gary Clark Jr. took the stage at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Having run through a setlist boasting a dozen choice cuts from 2019's This Land, 2015's The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, 2012's Blak and Blu, and more, Clark invited fellow blues guitar hero Eric Gales onto the stage for a set-closing rendition of Clark's When My Train Pulls In.

What ensued is a jaw-dropping run of lead guitar playing that truly has to be seen to be believed. 

Gales patiently awaits his turn while Clark runs through the tune, focusing on supple rhythm work and textural flourishes, and even letting Clark's rhythm guitarist, King Zapata, take the first solo, which – contributing a biting piece of giddy high-gain glory to the proceedings – Zapata does with relish.

At about 5:30 though, Clark turns things over to his special guest, who – over the course of the next five minutes – puts on what can only be described as a one-man blues soloing clinic. Starting things off slow and jazzy, Gales works up an unstoppable head of steam, all but lighting the fretboard on fire by solo's end. 

It's the sort of legend-making performance you don't see every day, but perhaps – after his just-as-amazing viral demo of the MXR Raw Dawg pedal in June – it's the sort of unforgettable display of passion and technical skill we should be getting used to from the Memphis native. 

Gales' forthcoming Josh Smith and Joe Bonamassa-produced album, Crown, is set for a January 28 release via Provogue Records/Mascot Label Group. 

It was previewed last week with I Want My Crown, a hard-charging tune that doubled as a dazzling six-string heavyweight battle between Gales and Joe Bonamassa.

A cadre of guitar heroes was on hand at the BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi, on Saturday (June 5) to help christen the center’s new 4,500-square-foot wing, and the first exhibits added to the museum since King passed away in 2015.

Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Gary Clark Jr. and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram headlined a tribute concert that followed the ceremony on Second Street in front of the complex, playing selections from King’s songbook to an estimated 1,500 attendees.

In the spirit of the dozens of free homecoming concerts King played in Indianola during his lifetime, the performance brought together musicians who played with and were influenced by King to perform a free show in his honor. 

Longtime King drummer Tony “TC” Coleman served as bandleader for a revolving cast of guest guitar players – most of whom used variations of the Gibson ES-335 and ES-355 models King himself played – including Mississippi bluesmen Ingram, Vasti Jackson and Mr. Sipp, as well as Lil’ Ray Neal and D.K. Harrell, who played in the house band.

The new expansion covers the final years of King’s life and tells the story of how he made his living on the road by averaging more than 300 concerts a year for three decades. Whereas other displays in the permanent collection show some of King’s tour ledgers and a mess kit that belonged to one of his band members (segregation forbade them from dining-in at many towns they played in the early days), now visitors can see a few of his actual rides for themselves. 

The collection includes his customized Rolls Royce and El Camino cars, as well as a tour bus he purchased new in 1987 and traveled more than 12 million miles in – enough for 25 round trips to the moon.

Here are five other cool things we saw in Indianola at the BB King Museum celebration.

1. BB King now rests in bronze

While his namesake museum tells his incredible life story and the shared experiences of many of his relatives and neighbors who lived in the Delta, his final resting place at the museum was simple and unadorned. No more, though. 

A pavilion and garden now surround his grave, with the names of his songs engraved into slats along the walls. The centerpiece – a life-size King rendered in bronze – keeps eternal watch from a nearby bench.

2. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram got personal with his fans

One of the best-known members of the Mississippi guitar contingent, 22-year-old Clarksdale native Christone "Kingfish" Ingram played a set of originals with his own band during the afternoon, then returned after nightfall to take on King’s 1953 single Woke Up This Morning (My Baby She Was Gone) with the all-star backing band. 

During his own set, though, Ingram hopped off the stage and brought his greasy Delta licks to the streets – and even serenaded one lucky young fan.

3. Gary Clark Jr. was as impressed with the band as they were with him

Gary Clark Jr. mingled with fans along Second Street during the casual afternoon sets, stopping to chat, pose for photos and even sign a young boy’s bottle-cap guitar replica. 

That goodwill followed him to the stage, inspiring a crowd chant [GAR-Y! GAR-Y!] after his rousing version of Whole Lotta Love. He followed with a slow-burning, 11-minute take on 3 O’Clock Blues, and gave the spotlight to house-band guitarists Lil’ Ray Neal and D.K. Harrell between his mesmerizing solos.

4. Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks brought down the house

After stepping onstage to a warm birthday greeting from the crowd, Trucks strapped on one of King’s personal Lucille guitars and joined Tedeschi, who was playing a borrowed Fender Stratocaster. 

The band tore right into You Don’t Know with support from a horn section and keys, plus a slide solo from Trucks. How Blue Can You Get also included Trucks, and featured an extended Tedeschi solo. 

5. 10 guitarists took part in the concert’s finale

Every guitarist returned to the stage for the final two songs. On Everybody Wants to Know Why I Sing the Blues, bassist Michael Doster, a 17-year veteran of King’s band, anchored the groove, while Coleman sang lead and played drums, giving the guitar players space to lay down their King-inspired licks. 

Tedeschi led the 'guit-army' through the finale, The Thrill is Gone – King’s 1970 Grammy Award-winning hit and his most enduring signature song.

Since bursting onto the six-string scene with his trademark blend of blues, soul, funk and R&B, Gary Clark Jr. has gone on to release five albums, win four Grammy awards and cement himself as one of the most formidable electric guitar stars in the industry today. 

Such is the caliber of his playing, it's easy to forget that, once upon a time, Clark Jr. was just like the rest of us – a young, keen guitarist, learning by listening to his favorite records and assimilating the tricks of his heroes into a style of playing that would one day emerge into the fierce sonic force it is today.

It is this backstory that forms the focus of Deep Soul Lowdown. Released today as part of Audible’s Words + Music series, Clark Jr.’s self-narrated audio production recounts his journey from a teenage phenomenon to the genre-bending torchbearer of the blues he is today.

In a Guitar World-exclusive clip taken from the Audible Original, the Grammy-winning titan goes back to where it all began, recalling how he discovered his love for the guitar.

“The guitar for me was something for me that, when I get my hands on it, I’m all in. I don’t know why I felt that way," recalls Clark Jr.

“I would hear these records, like the Van Halen solo on Beat It, you hear something like that, and then hear a Wes Montgomery song, and it’s like, ‘That’s the same instrument? You can express yourself like that? What?!’”

Of his early years as a young aspiring guitar player, Clark Jr. continued, “When I got my guitar, school went out the window. I was practicing all day long, all night long. I mean, I would do my homework in the morning, while I’m eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, in the car.

“I was that kind of student because I was up all night learning how to play Little Wing. I want to learn how to play Born Under A Bad Sign, I want to dial my tone in to sound like Albert King,” he continued. 

“I want to bend my notes like Albert King because I feel that expression. It makes me feel something, so I want to be able to feel that myself.”

Gary Clarke Jr.’s Deep Soul Lowdown is available now.

Here, we focus on how the blues lives on in today’s music, with the torch being carried by players such as Gary Clark Jr, whose track When My Train Pulls In was one of the main inspirations behind my solo. 

It’s not too hard to trace the blues lineage, with the riff-based beginning including some open strings for a particularly old-school/John Lee Hooker feel, leading to some melodic pentatonic phrasing. A notable feature here is the inclusion of notes from outside the usual pentatonic remit, something Gary is very fond of doing. 

Adding in the 9th (from the major or minor scale; it’s the same note) is a really effective way of adding some melody and drama, with a comparatively low risk of ‘playing yourself into a corner’, or sounding just plain wrong! In any case, the old jazz maxim of only ever being a semitone away from the right note is worth remembering here if you find yourself in difficulties.

I’ve used some of the pentatonic shapes, albeit in a less obvious way – the opening bars being pretty clearly shape 1 in the key of E minor, but around four bars in, shape 2 also starts to feature. I’ve also used a few ringing open strings and slides to hint at the A minor pentatonic but you’ll notice this isn’t a ‘pure’ A minor pentatonic; check out the transcription for more info. 

Next, we morph into a shape 4 E minor pentatonic then take advantage of the B minor pentatonic (shape 1) in the same position. We finish with a series of pentatonic shapes/phrases connected by sides.

The objective is not necessarily to be hyper-aware of what scale/position you are using while playing but to absorb the patterns into the subconscious on a longterm basis. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1

This introductory phrase looks to grab attention with the flamboyant slide down the low E followed by the open string itself. Many of the notes are deliberately allowed to ring together, giving a much more aggressive effect than if everything was carefully separated/muted. 

You’ll see this is mostly shape 1 E minor pentatonic but towards the end of the phrase we connect with some slides to shape 2. This isn’t particularly conscious – and that is our aim!

Example 2

Heading for the first chord change to A minor, I’ve exploited the common notes from the E minor pentatonic/open strings that fit, plus the pointed use of an F#, which is the 6th in A minor and the 9th over the rapidly approaching change back to E minor. 

This was as much a conscious move as it was a comfortable pattern of notes to play when experimenting with open strings and slides. Sometimes risks like this can pay off.

Example 3

You may have noticed the hint at shape 4 of the E minor pentatonic at the end of the last phrase. Well, here it becomes a bit more obvious, though the bend to F# (the 9th) works over the E minor to imply an Emin9, and quickly bends up a further semitone to G to give us the minor 3rd. 

Jeff Beck, David Gilmour and Slash are just three of the players who regularly employ this device. Watch for the sneaky change of scale at the end.

Example 4

Moving on to the B Minor pentatonic (shape 1), I changed to the neck pickup on a whim. This isn’t a super-high-gain sound and I didn’t want the higher notes I was working towards to sound shrill, as can sometimes happen. 

The position changes pick up speed here, using slides to work their way up to a shape 4 B minor pentatonic. To reiterate, these positions were not something I was consciously looking to demonstrate; they become second nature when you play them enough!

Hear it here

Gary Clark Jr. – Blak And Blu

While Gary is also a very capable vocalist, his playing speaks loud and clear on When My Train Pulls In, Bright Lights and Numb. All three songs display his love of rough-edged, ‘fuzz’-flavoured distortion and a keen ear for unusual twists on ‘roots’ pentatonic riffs, melodies and solos. Elsewhere, Gary gives us a modern take on Motown in Ain’t Messin’ ’Round and country‑tinged rock ’n’ roll in Travis County.

Jeff Beck – You Had It Coming

As a guitarist who came up through the classic era of the British Invasion, Jeff has continued to blaze a trail like no other into previously unheard territories, most of them acknowledging and building on his blues/rock ’n’ roll roots. Check out Roy’s Toy, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (featuring Imogen Heap on vocals), and his ridiculously inventive take on Swati Natekar’s vocal gymnastics on Nitin Sawhney’s Nadia.

Rory Gallagher – Against the Grain

Though it was recorded back in 1975, Rory is clearly redefining the blues here, with a rock, pop, sometimes even punky energy.

Check out Let Me In, Bought And Sold and At The Bottom to hear a broad stylistic mix, tied together by Rory’s fiery playing and vocals. Gallagher is one of the hardest players to pin down when analysing his style and was highly respected by none other than Jimi Hendrix among countless others.

Animals as Leaders guitarist Tosin Abasi has shared an Instagram snap of modern blues star Gary Clark Jr. wielding an Abasi Concepts Larada Space T electric guitar in a recent performance.

More recognizable with his trademark red Epiphone Casino – or occasionally, an Ibanez Blazer – slung round his shoulder, Clark is known for a blend of blues, rock, R&B and funk that treats listeners to soulful solos and colorful chord play.

The Space T therefore seems an unusual axe choice for Gary, given the Larada's ergonomics were conceptualized with modern metal guitar players – that Tosin Abasi champions – in mind.

Despite this, Clark does what he does, this time blurring the boundaries between classic and contemporary by swapping out his mainstays and taking the futuristic looking Space T for a spin during a performance for Joe Rogan.

Gary Clark Jr. joins a growing list of guitarists opting for Abasi's guitars, which includes Isaiah Sharkey and blues beast John Mayer, who took both the Space T and the 8-string Larada model for a ride last year. Fingerstyle blues on an 8-string, anyone?

The guitar itself – a product of Tosin Abasi's own guitar company – is pictured in a Cheddar finish and features a uniquely-shaped Okume body, roasted maple neck, Richlite fingerboard and is armed with Greg Koch's signature Fishman Fluence pickups.

Without any audio to go with the pic, we can merely agree with Tosin, who marvels at the sight of Gary playing a Space T, saying on Instagram, "That thing looks good on him." We bet it sounds good, too.

Visit Abasi Concepts to find out more about the Space T.

A new official Chuck Berry documentary, Chuck Berry: The Original King of Rock 'N' Roll, is coming to video-on-demand platforms, DVD and Blu-ray this month, and now the official trailer can be viewed online.

The film is directed by Jon Brewer, whose credits include B.B. King: The Life of Riley, Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story and Guns N’ Roses: The Most Dangerous Band in the World.

The new doc features fresh commentary about the electric guitar legend from the likes of Gene Simmons, George Thorogood, Alice Cooper, Nils Lofgren, Gary Clark Jr and Steven Van Zandt, as well as archival footage of Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bo Diddley, Little Richard and others testifying to Berry's greatness.

Brewer discussed Berry's impact as a guitarist in an interview with Below the Line, saying, “He was quite aggressive with his guitar. It was almost like a percussion instrument, the way he played it. It came over in a different way than a normal guitar player.

“It wasn’t the licks – there was some sort of kick in it that made you move. He had that tremendous get up and move accompaniment with the guitar.”

George Thorogood takes it further in the documentary, saying of Berry, “He is the most important guitarist in rock history.”

Or, as Gene Simmons puts it, “Chuck Berry was Chuck Berry. The definition of Chuck Berry is… Chuck Berry.”

You can watch the official trailer for Chuck Berry: The Original King of Rock 'N' Roll above, and for more information, head to Cardinal Releasing.

In this ever-more-unpredictable world we all live in, routines – ones that never change no matter what crazy stuff occurs outside your door – can be hard to come by, but are always nice to have.

That’s why we at GW love every week to search for the most exciting happenings in the guitar universe, and bring them right to your fingertips. 

This week, we’ve got a hemisphere and genre-traversing masterpiece from The Nels Cline Singers, an unrelenting volley of heavy riffing from Alter Bridge, a meeting of two groundbreaking rock guitar giants and a whole lot more.

So, take a breather, tune in and, perhaps, find a new favorite!

Alter Bridge – Last Rites

Alter Bridge are chameleons in the rock world, able to seamlessly shift from gorgeous acoustic arrangements to tracks that give any of the genre’s heavy titans a run for their money. The group’s latest release, Last Rites, falls firmly in the latter camp.

Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy deliver an unrelenting volley of huge-sounding mid-tempo guitar riffs throughout, solidifying once again why they are such a force within the guitar world. The lead guitar is somewhat subdued in this track, but in its absence it’s all about rhythm and groove, and the Florida rockers execute it spectacularly. (SR)

Tom Morello - Interstate 80 (Feat. Slash)

The Rage Against the Machine revolutionary surprised-released Comandante, an EP of all-new material, last week – and some of his best output in years. While the EP is awash with killer six-string moments, its centerpiece is this hard-rocker built around Hendrix's old fave, the 7#9 chord, featuring the talents of a certain Mr Saul Hudson.

Slash lends his skills throughout the track, interspersing his trademark burning pentatonic leads between Morello’s Whammy freak-outs, building to an incendiary face-off at the track’s climax, as the pair emulate their Guitar Hero avatars. (MAB)

The Nels Cline Singers – Segunda

Leave it to Nels Cline to traverse hemispheres and a multitude of musical styles that – in theory – shouldn’t have all that much to do with one another, in a single tune.

Such is the case on the hypnotically grooving cover of Caetano Veloso’s Segunda that he recorded with his group, The Nels Cline Singers, for their new album, Share The Wealth.

His love of free jazz shining brightly, Cline uses his ever-exploratory, fleet-fingered lead work to engage in a fascinating musical conversation with his group, particularly saxophonist Skerik, who wails away with thrilling abandon.

With his incredible skills as an improviser and musical interpreter, the punk attitude of the song’s fearless, politically charged lyrics, and Cline’s brilliant sense of melody all vividly on display in his six-string work, this is a musical melting pot that’ll hook you right in from the get-go. (JM)

Rob Zombie – The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition) 

Metal’s resident self-dubbed ‘Hellbilly’ returned right before Halloween with the characteristically and suitably horror-themed The Triumph of King Freak, ahead of his upcoming seventh studio album The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy.

Featuring Middle Eastern-influenced scale patterns combined with earthquake-inducing heavy metal instrumentation, this track holds all the riffs – most likely conceived by shred wizard John 5 – to keep any six-stringer satiated. (SR)

Indigo Sparke – Baby

The lead single from the up-and-coming Australian singer/songwriter’s debut album, Echo, Baby is a stunning statement of intent from Indigo Sparke.

Sparke’s vocals are otherworldly and beautiful enough to fill the massive desert landscape of Echo’s cover, but her urgent electric fingerpicking cuts right through that beautiful picture perfectly, giving the song a kind of intimacy that countless singer/songwriters attempt to achieve, but few genuinely capture.

Echo should be on everyone’s ‘must listen to in 2021’ list – it’ll definitely be on ours. (JM)

CATALAN! - Ungoogleable

Ungoogleable is taken from the Northern Irish protest-punk outfit’s debut album, Veritas, masterminded by Ewen Friers, the brother of And So I Watch You From Afar’s Rory, member of Axis Of, and touring crew member for the likes of Frank Iero, Laura Jane Grace and Thursday.

Fans of his sibling’s band will immediately dig Ewen’s hook-heavy guitar stylings, which meld the angularity of post-punk with math-rock buoyancy, but the stream-of-consciousness lyrical content takes CATALAN!’s output to a more existential plain. (MAB)

grandson – One Step Closer

Jordan Benjamin – better known as grandson – has carved a rock ‘n’ roll-leaning niche within the hip-hop world, and deploys this stylistic tendency to great effect in his often politically fueled original music.

His latest release, however, is a cover of Linkin Park’s One Step Closer, taken from the band’s 2000 album, Hybrid Theory. Apart from the obvious key change, the arrangement is largely the same, albeit with very grandson-esque electronic drums.

While the original is undeniably carved in nu-metal history, it is interesting to hear the composition with a more modern production style and with fatter-sounding guitars. We rate this cover highly. (SR)

Gustavo Santaolalla & Gary Clark Jr. – Valley of Last Resort

Written for the Hunter S. Thompson documentary, Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb, Valley of Last Resort is a lovely, remarkably self-assured meeting-of-the-musical-minds. 

Not only do Gustavo Santaolalla & Gary Clark Jr.’s voices work immaculately together, Santaolalla’s ronroco work is a wonderful backdrop for Clark’s Spaghetti Western-informed and bluesy lead stabs. 

Speaking to both the political unrest of Thompson’s time and our own, Valley of Last Resort is a compositional marvel that balances a number of musical traditions and influences with admirable ease. (JM)

The Anchoress – Show Your Face

Welsh multi-instrumentalist Catherine Anne Davies this week announced her second album, The Art of Losing, and with it, this lead-off single, a new wave-inflected retort to toxic masculinity.

Davies leans on a modified Fender Blacktop Telecaster for the track’s chunky chords, while Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield crops up to slash away at the track’s moody, chorus-drenched six-string counterpoints. (MAB)

GHØSTKID – YØU & I

While relatively new on the metalcore scene, GHØSTKID have quickly established themselves as a band to watch. Five tracks have been released thus far from their upcoming debut album (out November 13) – including two versions of THIS IS NØT HØLLYWØØD with Timi Hendrix and, ironically, Hollywood Undead’s Johnny 3 Tears, respectively.

The group’s latest single, likely to be the last before the full album is released, YØU & I showcases their digital-meets-metal style from the outset, and demonstrates their seasoned approach to melodic metalcore composition. Oh, and the guitars really slap, too. (SR)

It's been a pretty busy week for us at Guitar World – we've been on the lookout for the hottest deals on gear to be had over the course of Amazon Prime Day, but that doesn't mean we haven't kept our ears peeled for the hottest new guitar tracks, too!

This week, we've a got a new, not-so-Led Zeppelin-sounding track from Greta Van Fleet, a cross-cultural heavy metal offering from new duo act Amahiru, a humorously shreddy take on the world's political climate from everyone's favorite guitar-wielding comedienne Mrs. Smith, and loads more.

So get comfortable – it's that time for you to get inspired and spark your creativity, or  just sit back and digest some of the coolest new guitar music out there. It's your call.

Greta Van Fleet – My Way, Soon

This generation’s flag-bearing classic-rockers deploy all the tricks in their creative arsenal on My Way, Soon. Released ahead of the band’s second studio album, it boasts an upbeat and jubilant sound – perfect for these crazy times.

While it’s riffwork undoubtedly borrows influences from the ‘60s and ‘70s – namely from acts like Creedence Clearwater Revival and AC/DC – Josh Kiszka and co have clearly tried to steer away from the Led Zeppelin-style sound for which they’ve arguably become known.

We particularly love the chromatically seasoned guitar solo towards the end… (SR)

Kellindo – Long Gone

The Janelle Monáe guitarist graced our Essential Guitar Tracks not too long ago with the R&B superstar’s Turntables, but there’s no way we couldn’t include his latest solo effort, which is a veritable riot of six-string prowess.

Long Gone sees Kellindo channel Hendrixian flair – dig those 7#9 chords – and teams it with a big Lenny Kravitz chorus and Black Keys-esque guitar hooks. It feels instantly classic – in a very good way. (MAB)

Mrs. Smith – Antifa Niece

Mrs. Smith – the comedienne act of guitarist extraordinaire David Hanbury – delivers a welcome, humorous commentary on today’s times, or rather, the “piles of poop we call our collective moment”.

With countless references to the memes and political happenings of 2020, there’s plenty to digest in the track’s fast-paced accompanying music video. 

The guitarist also offers a fitting homage to the late, great Eddie Van Halen, with a blistering guitar solo wrought with two-handed tapping. (SR)

Amahiru – Hours

Meet Amahiru: a new guitar duo consisting of Frédéric Leclerc (Kreator, Sinsaenum, Ex-Dragonforce shredder) and SAKI of Mary’s Blood and NEMOPHILA. Blending aspects of traditional metal with traditional Japanese elements, the pair are set to release their self-titled debut album November 27.

It’s first single, Hours, demonstrates just what the band have to offer. How seamlessly the traditional instruments weave into its heavy metal arrangement is something to behold, as the track simultaneously blends delicacy with destruction. Oh, and buckle up – the guitar solo (that starts at 2:41) will surely melt your face. (SR)

Stevie Wonder – Where Is Our Love Song feat. Gary Clark Jr.

This week, the Motown icon announced his first full-length album since 2005, heralded with the arrival of two fresh tracks, one of which features a welcome guest spot from one of the most vital guitarists of the decade, Gary Clark Jr.

Rather than the fiery contemporary blues with which Clark has made his name, Where Is Our Love Song is a ballad in classic Wonder vein.

The guitarist lends his trademark touch to the electric and acoustic licks that break up the verse and chorus, and even duets with Stevie on one seriously infectious harmonica solo. Heartwarming stuff. (MAB)

Sharon Van Etten – Let Go

The star of any Sharon Van Etten track is generally her commanding voice, and her new single, Let Go, is no exception. The guitars propelling the musical backdrop of the track, however, are an interestingly eclectic bunch. 

Alternately folky, shoegazey and jangly – all with an air of authoritative but unpretentious arena-rock sheen – they ably color in the lines of this fascinating tune, a contribution to the soundtrack of the documentary Feels Good Man. (JM)

Pearl Jam – Get It Back

Get It Back is presumably an outtake from the Seattle alt-rock vets’ best album in a decade, Gigaton, and comes from their most underrated songwriter, drummer (and Soundgarden lynchpin) Matt Cameron.

Previously only available on the – deep breath – Good Music To Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy Pt 2 compilation, the track deploys a wealth of expansive chords and time signature shifts, before it goes up a gear with a climactic, delay-drenched solo from Mike McCready. Good to have you back, boys. (MAB)

Cloud Nothings – Am I Something

For their new album, The Shadow I Remember, Cloud Nothings have reunited with Steve Albini, the legendary punk producer who manned the boards on their phenomenal 2012 effort, Attack on Memory. 

Though the famously minimalist Albini ensures that the band's muscular dual-guitar attack sounds as visceral as ever on the album's terrific first single – the guitars bite, gnash and tear their way impatiently through frontman Dylan Baldi's always-on-the-money hooks – Am I Something is actually a pretty welcoming entry point to those unfamiliar with one of the most consistently great punk bands of the past decade. (JM)

It would be fair to say singer/guitarist and multiple Grammy winner Gary Clark Jr. has a complicated relationship with the blues. 

On one hand, he learned virtually everything he knows about music from growing up in Austin, Texas – starting with his experiences at the local Baptist church where he backed the choir and later at Antone’s, the club in which Stevie Ray Vaughan and his elder brother Jimmie had famously cut their teeth some decades prior.

These early years were pivotal in moulding Clark as one of the most commercially successful, critically revered and musically diverse guitar heroes of the modern age – a man who’s played with everyone from BB King and Jeff Beck to Alicia Keys and Foo Fighters and comfortably held his own...

“The first time I walked into Antone’s was kinda mind-blowing,” he told this writer around the release of his 2015 album, The Story of Sonny Boy Slim. “It was something I don’t really know how to describe, there was this feeling that brought depth to my life. Clifford Antone [now deceased] took me in and brought me under his wing. He introduced me to Jimmie Vaughan, Hubert Sumlin, Calvin ‘Fuzz’ Jones, Pinetop Perkins – all these greats that played with Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf.

“I learned a lot about history and a lot about myself as a black man in white culture. I don’t want to turn this into a race thing, but it got real for me, as far as understanding where things came from in terms of the evolution of guitar playing – it starting off as an accompanying instrument and ending up out front thanks to Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix.

“They’re the guys who started this whole thing. It was an eye-opener for me, a place where I got my education, more so than I did from going to grade school. Not to discredit school, it’s important for kids to stay in school! But for me, it was a great learning experience that shaped who I am today. I’m very grateful for it.”

Fast-forward a few years to the writing sessions for latest album This Land, however, and the notion of being any kind of modern blues saviour was not sitting well with him at all. 

Clark felt stuck creatively and typecast as a one-trick pony, unable to shake off the feeling that he was stagnating in a genre that’s often too guilty of sticking to tried-and-test formulas.

He’d won all kinds of awards, gotten his major label deal, played at the White House for former President Barack Obama and received a letter from Eric Clapton with an unforgettably powerful admission. “Thank you,” Clapton wrote. “You make me want to play again”.

But it just wasn’t enough. In order to move forward, Gary Clark Jr. had to rethink, re-evaluate and reinvent himself – and ultimately draw on his soul, funk and hip-hop influences more than ever before...

“The whole soul thing came from my parents,” he explained in a later interview with this writer. “My dad was like a soul brother and kinda funky. There are pictures of him with a big-ass fro and the bell-bottoms, and my mother was pretty righteous. They grew up in the era where it was all afros, shiny suits and disco lights. Bands like The Temptations, The Spinners, Parliament, Maze, Al Green, Marvin Gaye and The Jackson Five – all their classic records were playing in my house while I was growing up...

“I remember seeing Tito Jackson with the 335 and long hair and thinking he was pretty cool. Also Curtis Mayfield – man, those tones rang out and resonated with me. One of the songs I really loved as a kid, especially because of the guitar, was With A Child’s Heart, from one of Michael Jackson’s first solo albums. The guitar tone was really beautiful, with loads of subtle hammer-ons over these gorgeous chord changes. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Woah, I want to play guitar one day and sound like that.’”

As fate would have it, the young Texan’s hopes and dreams would eventually become reality, and – having just announced a 35-date North American tour as special guest to indie rock heavyweights The Black Keys – he stands today not only as one of the most important crossover artists to embrace and embody the blues, but also the musician best poised to propel it to new heights.

“You do things musically by reaching back and pulling from the foundation to push it all forward,” he explains to TG. “That’s how I am in life and how I am as a person. I grew up in a house where I was taught to respect your elders and where you come from – remember who you are – but also to look forward. Encourage yourself to push the limits and see how far you can go...”

US-based blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. has swept up three awards at the 62nd Annual Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. The guitarist was also nominated for Best Music Video, which went to rapper Lil Nas X and singer-songwriter Billy Ray Cyrus for their country-inspired hip-hop collaboration, Old Town Road.

Clark Jr. won the Best Contemporary Blues Album award for his latest record, This Land, and scooped the other two awards for the album's titular track.

The blues guitar legend beat several major names in the Best Rock Song category, including Tool with their epic album opener, Fear Inoculum and The 1975 with the electronic-infused Give Yourself A Try.

Tool did however win in the Best Metal Performance category with their 15 minute masterpiece, 7empest, edging out Killswitch Engage, I Prevail, Death Angel and Candlemass featuring Tony Iommi. Incidentally, 7empest also topped our reader-voted-for Best Riffs of the Decade.

Clark Jr. gave a blazing performance of This Land at the awards show, wielding a Gibson Flying V to deliver the track's catchy blues licks. In another monumental moment of the night, Aerosmith reunited with Run DMC for a highly energetic performance of Walk This Way.

Up against the likes of Rival Sons and Brittany Howard in the Best Rock Performance category, and Sugaray Rayford and Southern Avenue in the Best Contemporary Blues album category, it's clear that Gary Clark Jr. has firmly cemented his name as one of the most prominent in modern blues.

We recently asked you - our loyal readers - to vote for who you thought were the 20 best guitarists of the decade. What resulted was a truly eclectic round-up of the industry's most prominent six-string masters, including prog gurus John Petrucci and Guthrie Govan, modern-day blues legends Joe Bonamassa and Eric Gales, and metal shredders Synyster Gates and Jason Richardson, to name a few.

And we've decided to take it a step further, diving deep into the techniques and playing styles of your top four - Mark Tremonti, Tosin Abasi, Gary Clark Jr. and Nita Strauss.

Each of the four possess vastly different playing styles and gifts, from Tremonti's ability to nail just about everything - clean intros, pounding riffs and soaring solos - to Abasi's groundbreaking and genre-shaping eight-string mastery.

From Clark Jr.'s storytelling blues leads to Strauss' fretboard dominance, there's a wealth of knowledge to be gained from studying the techniques of these true masters of the guitar.

Mark Tremonti

Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti is a true modern guitar hero who not only shreds his ass off with the best of them, but also writes great rock riffs and song parts, from the gentle and elegantly majestic clean-tone intros to such hits and fan favorites as Blackbird, In Loving Memory, Broken Wings and Words Darker Than Their Wings, to the roaring, intense crunch riffs featured in songs like Metalingus and Wouldn’t You Rather.

Tremonti often employs non-standard tunings, mostly drop-D (low to high, D A D G B E) and its down-tuned equivalents, which he has used to craft many of his most powerful riffs, many of which incorporate quickly shifting one-finger power chords, strummed octaves and single-note melodies pitted against a ringing low pedal tone, as in such Alter Bridge songs as Open Your Eyes and Isolation.

The guitarist’s collaborative writing efforts with vocalist and guitarist Myles Kennedy have proven time and again to be very successful and prolific, and the latest Alter Bridge album, Walk the Sky, features lots of well-written songs, such as Dying Light and Take the Crown.

Tremonti is an accomplished guitarist, especially in regard to his fast, clean alternate picking and refined string bending and vibrato techniques, which are hallmarks of his exciting lead style.

When crafting his solos, Tremonti consistently strikes a tasteful balance between melody and flash, and his leads often bring to mind the soulful wailing of Slash and Jimmy Page and the ripping metal intensity of Dimebag Darrell and Zakk Wylde. 

The overdriven, bridge-humbucker-pickup tones that Tremonti dials in on his signature PRS SE guitar and MT 15 tube amps, for both his lead and heavy rhythm playing, are nicely balanced between a modern-metal djent edginess and a more traditional hard-rock fatness and crunch.

Tosin Abasi

Like Allan Holdsworth, Tosin Abasi is a true technical and creative guitar genius whose pioneering musical vision looks and ventures far beyond where most other players can see, hear or play. 

Armed with an Abasi eight-string electric guitar, which sports a low B string plus an octave-lower bass E, the Animals as Leaders founder and primary songwriter, whose style is rooted in progressive metal, embraces an inventively eclectic and sophisticated approach to composing that draws elements from other genres, such as jazz, funk and hip-hop.

Tosin has obviously put in the time to study, at a conservatory level, advanced guitar playing techniques, scales, arpeggios, intervals and chord voicings all over the fretboard, as well as music theory, and his mastery of his instrument and ability to control it - not to mention his musical inventions and arrangements - reflect all that, but never gratuitously.

Tosin’s playing and composing are inspired and inspiring to his peers, and his music reminds listeners, in an appealingly original and enlightening way, of what is possible, and that things like minor 9 and major 7#11 chords can be used tastefully in a prog metal context. 

Like jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, Abasi makes brilliant use of his instrument’s extended range to voice chords in interesting ways, combining upper-register tonal clusters with wide intervals between lower chord tones. And his keen sense of rhythm and penchant for writing riffs in unusual meters, such as 7/8, reflect a clever and sophisticated compositional approach.

Tosin’s lead playing is highly inventive and appealing, often characterized by an aggressive yet fluid touch and technical flair, coupled with sensitivity and soulfulness. His solos bring to mind the wailing of Holdsworth and John Petrucci. 

Abasi’s grasp of tone production and wide-ranging palette of timbres, ranging from pristine clean to super-saturated distortion with singing sustain, offer inspiration and guidance to players of all stripes.

Gary Clark Jr.

Steeped in the great blues-rock tradition of fat-sounding electric guitar tone and earthy, minor-pentatonic based riffs and soulful grooves, Gary Clark Jr.’s playing and songwriting offer the guitar community and rock world an important and welcomed breath of musical fresh air, in an age of increasingly processed-sounding rock music.

Songs like When My Train Pulls In and Bright Lights, while technically simple, in terms of harmonic structure and chord changes, offer Clark an open canvas upon which to express himself and build captivating, passionate and at times psychedelic guitar solos that bring to mind Jimi Hendrix’s inspired, open-ended improvisations on such rock classics as Who Knows and Voodoo Child (Slight Return).

Clark is also a socially conscious artist who isn’t afraid to use his music to express his feelings about troubling issues like racism that still pervade modern American society.

With songs like This Land, he has managed to effectively weaponize his guitar and voice and use them to enlighten listeners to serious issues, in a way that warms their hearts, similar to how a gospel choir can inspire a church congregation beyond what a preacher’s words can do.

While not a technical shredder, Gary’s guitar style is highly polished and musical, when it comes to things like string bending and vibrato, which recall the distinctively vocal-like lead guitar voices of Hendrix and Mountain man Leslie West. 

Clark’s playing is also noteworthy for his tonal sensitivity, nuanced touch, sense of dynamics and commanding mastery of the lost art of backing off the guitar’s volume control, in order to let it breathe.

Nita Strauss

Until recently best known as touring lead guitarist for Alice Cooper and her previous stint with the Iron Maidens, Nita Strauss has, with the release of her 2018 solo album, Controlled Chaos, which features the virtuosic shred instrumentals Pandemonium, Mariana Trench and The Quest, established herself as one of the most celebrated metal guitarists and shredders on the world stage.

The highly talented young axe slinger has obviously put in the time and effort to learn how to manipulate and control her instrument and develop her musicianship to a level approaching that of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Randy Rhoads and John Petrucci.

Strauss’s lead playing tastefully showcases her disciplined mastery of several essential areas of rock lead guitar study, such as scales and modes and their overlapping three-notes-per string patterns, which she commandingly uses to create fluid legato licks and fierce alternate-picked runs all over the fretboard.

Strauss is also well-versed in arpeggios, which she employs for neoclassical-flavored sweeps and slinky Van Halen-esque tapping passages, and palm muting and noise suppression, as evidenced in her clean, precise execution of classically flavored melodic inventions.

Strauss’s rhythm playing is rock-solid, too, and you can hear her embrace of stylistic elements from several generations and genres, from modern metal chugging and pinch harmonic squeals to ringing open chords and arpeggiated figures rooted in classic rock.

We know, we know - you’re sick of polls. And they’re all rigged anyway, right? Wrong! In fact, we take them pretty damn seriously, and, well, this one is particularly important. Maybe the most important GW poll ever. Because we’re not only poised at the end of another year, but also the end of a decade. 

With that in mind, GW put out the call to find out who you - our readers - consider the Guitarist of the Decade, and we received a lot of responses. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Tens of thousands of them. Dozens of thousands of them. Seriously. All told, it was nearly 50,000 votes!

Of course, we decided we wanted to weigh in as well, so we put together a panel of 30 trusted guitar folk, including the entire Guitar World editorial staff; editors from our sister music magazines, including Guitarist, Total Guitar, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock; plus a legion of GW contributors. And then we got to work!

What were we looking for? That’s where things get a little tricky - because the past decade was an era of major activity and advances in the six-string, seven-string, eight-string, and even 18-string (we’re lookin’ at you, Jared Dines) worlds. 

A little over 10 years ago guitarists weren’t djenting or thumping (or, at least, they weren’t calling it that), and in terms of gear - especially that of the signature and modeling variety - the twenty-teens coughed up a motherload of incredible stuff.

We considered - and asked our readers to consider - players who have chops. But there were several other factors, including their influence on the next generation of guitarists, their overall impact on our guitar scene, their level of success, if they pushed the guitar farther - either via stretching the instrument’s boundaries or spreading “the gospel of guitar” to the uninitiated - not to mention their cultural relevance, visibility and more. 

In the end, we wound up with a list - informed by your votes and ours - that’s bulging with avant-gardists, bluesheads, melodic pop-rockers, jammy improvisors, riff-lords, proggers and, of course, shredders. On that note, Guitar World presents our 20 guitarists of the decade.

• The 100 greatest guitarists of all time

1. Mark Tremonti

Mark Tremonti’s Track record as a songwriter is close to unmatched in modern heavy music - the Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist, who we’ll call Captain Riff, has sold more than 50 million records over his career. 

But perhaps one of the worst-kept secrets in rock is that even while Tremonti, who wields a signature PRS SE guitar and MT 15 amp, is known for writing a heavy-hitting hard rock anthem or 10, this insanely prolific dude can seriously shred. 

And if this isn’t immediately evident from his song-oriented output, it’s clear in everything else he does, from his onstage performances to his recorded work with his thrashy side band, Tremonti, to his mega-popular guitar clinics. “He’s a player who works at his craft tirelessly, and constantly listens and learns from others to enhance his own approach,” says Total Guitar’s Rob Laing.

Indeed, as Tremonti himself tells us, “I always put songwriting before my actual guitar playing. But I love guitar playing. The joy of tackling some new technique or style is something that never gets old. When you finally get it, it’s like a magic trick.”

And, as he mentioned 10 years ago, “It’s the only thing I ever cared about. I played soccer as a kid and really enjoyed it, but once I hit college I got sidetracked and just chased down music. I’ve always had odd jobs, and every time I’d have a bad day cooking or at the car wash, or wherever it was, I’d always say, ‘One day I’m going to get to play guitar for a living.'"

Above, we - in passing - called Tremonti “insanely prolific," but let’s actually take a minute here to consider his official studio releases of the past decade, starting with Alter Bridge’s AB III [2010], Fortress [2013], The Last Hero [2016] and Walk the Sky [2019]… 

And moving right along to Tremonti’s All I Was [2012], Cauterize [2015], Dust [2016] and A Dying Machine [2018]. And that’s not even counting compilation albums, live discs and concert films. That’s almost as intense as putting out 13 issues of GW every year!

2. Tosin Abasi

“There’s so much beauty in what I would call ‘foundational’ playing, like becoming a better blues guitarist,” Tosin Abasi tells Guitar World. “But then there’s another part of me that’s interested in that unique contribution that I can make to the instrument…”

Let it be said that since debuting with Animals as Leaders a decade ago, Abasi, the eight-string-playing extended ranger, has been making that unique contribution - and then some. 

From tapping, sweeping, “thumping,” fingerpicking or just plain shredding on his custom eight-string, to creating high-minded prog-metal-funk-fusion-classical-electro-rock with AAL, to standing toe-to-toe with shred forebears like Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen on the Generation Axe tour, Abasi consistently carves out a singular space in the guitar realm.

He takes everything we think we know and understand about the instrument (including, with his gear company Abasi Concepts, the instrument itself ) and twists it into something dizzyingly new. “I love advanced technique, but my approach is to use those techniques in new contexts,” he says. Former GW editor-in-chief Brad Tolinski adds , “For dexterity, originality and innovation, nobody comes close.”

All of the above makes it not very surprising that Abasi is known for spending a lot of time practicing. Back in 2012, when we semi-jokingly asked him if/why he practiced 15 hours a day, he - very memorably - replied, “Yes, for the same reason Steve [Vai] describes, which is really crazy. 

"What happens is there’s this revelation that if you put in work on something you can’t do at first, eventually you can do it. And the first time that happens it is kind of like an addiction. You want it to happen again. And the more it happens, the more you’re confident that it can happen. So you start chasing your potential. 

"You realize, yeah, eventually I might get as good as I try to get. It feeds itself. So it’s not like you’re locked in a room practicing under obligation. You’re concerned with your potential. You’re like, I’m full of potential and I’ve already started to unlock it. And I could spend the rest of my life doing it.”

3. Gary Clark Jr.

Gary Clark Jr. emerged on the scene with a breakout performance at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival, and ever since he’s been hailed as the new face of the blues. 

But, he tells GW, “Once you start talking about this 'blues’ thing, people think, old guy with a straw in his mouth sitting on a porch and picking," which is most definitely not Clark. 

He might have an old bluesman living somewhere within him - he honed his chops on the Austin blues circuit, and there’s also the fact that almost immediately upon his mainstream emergence he was being lauded as the successor to Clapton, Hendrix, SRV and other legends - but there’s a lot more to the 35-year-old guitarist: Call him Mr. Everything.

Indeed, Clark fuses traditional blues, r&b, soul, rock, hip-hop, funk, reggae and more in his music, and imbues it all with the sort of incendiary, hot-wire (and often heavily fuzz-toned) playing that can stop a listener dead in his tracks. 

He’s made fans of Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Keith Richards and even former president Barack Obama, and has collaborated with everyone from Alicia Keys to Childish Gambino to the Foo Fighters (whose Pat Smear turned him onto one of his main axes, a ’61 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard Reissue). 

And whether on record, onstage, or cutting heads next to Clapton, Gibbons, Buddy Guy or Jeff Beck, Clark always manages to not only shine - but also surprise.

“The guitar is an instrument you can do anything on, so why would I stay in one place if there are so many options?” Clark says. “I think Van Halen is one of the greatest of all time. I love Eric Johnson and Steve Vai and Django Reinhardt. I want to be able to play like all those guys and do all those things. I’m into all of it and I do all of it.”

4. Nita Strauss

Far be it to say that anyone can upstage Alice Cooper on his own stage, but the shock-rock legend may have met his match in current guitar foil Nita Strauss, whose ability to tear it up on the fretboard is matched only by her consummate showmanship and unabashed love of performing - she’s the Flash, in every stylistic sense of the word. 

She’s a proud disciple of instrumental shred monsters like Vai and Satch (like both of them, she too has a signature Ibanez, the JIVA10 - the first for a female - and a signature DiMarzio pickup, the Pandemonium) and telegraphs that love of the form through everything she does, be it her 2018 rollercoaster of an instrumental solo debut, Controlled Chaos, or the clinics and workshops she conducts to jam-packed audiences all over the world in between tour dates.

Indeed, in Strauss’ very capable hands, shred has become cool and fun for the first time since maybe its Eighties heyday.

“I love guitar the way some people love birthday cake or fast cars,” she says. “And if I can pass that enthusiasm on to the sometimes jaded guitar community, that makes me really happy.”

“That girl is going to have a long career,” Cooper told us as part of our Holiday 2018 cover story. “She’s got a great personality, and has a lot of pride in her work without all the ego. I always tell my people, Look, ego is great onstage. I want you to have all the ego in the world onstage, because that’s what the audience wants. 

They want to see a great performer. But offstage, I don’t want to see any of that nonsense. Ego doesn’t work offstage, it works onstage. Nita is an incredible guitarist and a solid person.”

5. John Petrucci

For going on three decades now, John Petrucci has been “the most celebrated and popular guitarist in the world of progressive metal,” in the words of GW senior music editor Jimmy Brown. And he didn’t show any signs of letting up over this most recent decade.

He’s still arguably the most versatile and proficient player in his realm, with a highly developed melodic sense and an alternate picking technique that is virtually untouchable as far as speed and precision.

And he continues to be a gear trailblazer, developing new amps, pickups, pedals and other accessories and consistently updating his Ernie Ball Music Man guitar, which was recently cited in Forbes as being the best-selling signature model behind the Les Paul. 

As for what fuels him? “It comes from a very humble place where you’re just trying to do things that makes sense to you,” Petrucci tells GW. “I’m just a student of the guitar. There’s still that sense of wonder, and that’s what keeps it fresh.”

6. Joe Bonamassa

Had Joe Bonamassa done nothing over the past decade other than function as the 21st century six-stringer most responsible for keeping the blues alive (he even has his own annual cruise named exactly that), it’d be enough to land him on this list. 

But beyond the actual playing, which fuses a mastery of blues tradition with a no-holds-barred, rip-a-million-notes-as-fast-as-you-can exuberance, there’s also his guitar-intensive Instagram account, which has become the de facto gathering spot for gearheads, and, well, the incredible, drool-worthy gear itself.

Suffice it to say, JoBo’s massive collection has been well chronicled in these pages. But he’s also sharing the wealth - this year alone he collaborated with Fender to produce the ’59 Twin Amp JB Edition and hinted that a Custom Shop replica of his ’51 Nocaster is on the way.

“He’s immensely popular and has a new piece of signature gear every 3.6666667 hours,” says Guitar World editor-in-chief Damian Fanelli. “That’s the dream of every guitarist - young, old, up-and-coming, down-and-going, YouTube-based or London Tube station-based.”

7. Guthrie Govan

Known to avid Guitar World readers as “Professor Shred,” Guthrie Govan is one of the most mind-blowing and versatile players on the scene today, with a ridiculously fast and fluid technique that zigzags seamlessly between high-concept prog-rock, full-on shred, jazz-fusion, blues, jam, slide, funk, heavily effected bizarre excursions, and pretty much every other style known to man and beast.

And he does it all - whether with his instrumental trio the Aristocrats, as a solo act or guest artist or even while conducting one of his globetrotting guitar masterclasses - with an unparalleled technical mastery and idiosyncratic whimsiness that recalls Vai at his Zappa-iest. A unique, and largely unequalled, talent.

8. Polyphia

Polyphia are quite possibly the most controversial act in modern shred, which is hardly surprising given the fact that, alongside devastating guitar chops, they boast boy-band good looks, a jokey (or is it?) arrogance and a serious pop music jones.

But love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t deny that the Dallas-based four piece has turned the genre on its ear. Guitarists Tim Henson and Scott LePage use their Ibanez THBB10 and SLM10 signature six-strings (respectively) to fuse ridiculous technique with EDM, funk, hip-hop and other sounds, and in the process, um, shred apart the very idea of what constitutes rock guitar in the 21st century. 

As LePage explained to us, “The only way to keep shred alive was to kill it and bring it back to life our own way.”

“If I were a kid, we would be my favorite band. That’s how cool our music is," Henson adds

9. Mateus Asato

Over the past few years, Mateus Asato has become one of the most talked-about young guitarists on the scene - which is saying a lot, given that the Brazilian-born, L.A.-based wunderkind has yet to officially release an album. 

He is, however, a social media master, with an Instagram follower count that makes him something of the Kim Kardashian of instrumental guitar.

How does he do it? By consistently posting short, engrossing videos displaying his dazzling technique in a variety of styles, from funk to fingerpicking to full-on shred. He also tours on his own and as a member of pop artist Tori Kelly’s band, and even has his own Suhr signature guitar (“the pink [model] is the one that sells the most,” he tells us). 

And he has fans in high places - among them John Mayer, who said of Asato, “he’s one of the best guitar players around and his stage is Instagram.” And how do we know Mayer said this? We watched it on Asato’s Instagram, of course.

10. John Mayer

Ten years ago, John Mayer seemed comfortably ensconced in pop-music pinup territory. But the singer-songwriter and guitarist spent much of the past decade reasserting his quite prodigious six-string chops, both on his own records and, most prominently, as head noodler with Dead & Company, where he’s maybe the best Jerry Garcia since Jerry himself - no small compliment for a role that has also been filled by Trey Anastasio and Warren Haynes.

What’s more, he’s a major presence in the gear world, in particular with his highly controversial (but overall spectacular) PRS Silver Sky signature guitar, and also causing a recent stir just by weighing in on the relative pros and cons of modern digital modeling technology.

In short, the guy is full of surprises, even if, as he told us, “my path is straight - bone straight. I’m not going to worry if my ‘radio transmission’ gets misinterpreted as much as I need to worry about my path being correct.”

11. Jason Richardson

Jason Richardson is representative of the new generation of shredders - players who are as comfortable on seven and eight strings as they are on six, who are as respected for their YouTube videos as for their recorded music, and who are rooted in metal but, having grown up in a streaming world, are not bound to any one genre.

What makes Richardson stand out among his peers is that, well, he just does it all a little bit better. The 27-year-old solo artist and All That Remains guitarist plays insanely technical and blindingly fast runs with a precision and cleanliness that is practically superhuman, and he now does it on his own Ernie Ball Music Man Cutlass seven-string, putting him in a stable of signature artists alongside his biggest influence, John Petrucci.

Best of all, says GW tech editor Paul Riario, “he’s actually musical when playing at breakneck speeds. For a young gun, and for those who dig instrumental guitar, he’s the guy to aspire to.”

12. St. Vincent

As St. Vincent, Annie Clark conjures some of modern music’s most extreme and unearthly sounds out of a guitar - even if, half the time, it’s hard to tell if what we’re hearing is a guitar at all. 

In Clark’s hands, the instrument yelps, roars, writhes, growls, warbles, squeals and rumbles; it erupts in shards of spiky dissonance one moment and folds in on itself in modulated agony (or ecstasy?) the next. That otherworldliness extends to her instrument — the unusually shaped and uniquely appointed Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent Signature.

Like Clark, the guitar was initially regarded as a curiosity but now commands a legion of admirers. Indeed, though pop and avant-garde would seem to be styles at cross-purposes, Clark appears to be leading the way toward the future of both. “I think we’re wide-open for art right now,” she told us. “Things are wide-open for players, too.”

13. Synyster Gates

Synyster Gates is about as metal as they come - he does, after all, call himself Synyster Gates and play a somewhat evil-looking Schecter Synyster Custom guitar. But while the Avenged Sevenfold axeman shreds with deadly speed and constructs dizzying sweeps and dual harmony lines, he’s hardly your average metal player.

 He has a lifelong love for, and seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of, jazz and fusion styles (“When I was 18 and wanting to play shit way over everybody’s head, [Barney] Kessel was my guy,” he once told GW), and also a fearlessness when it comes to pushing the limits of his style - he defined A7X’s most recent album, The Stage, as “Star Wars on metal steroids.”

More recently, he has discussed working on his rasgueado technique and said that he’ll one day record a jazz solo album. Pushing the guitar envelope, he told us, is “literally everything to me now. If I’ve done it before, it doesn’t interest me.”

14. Kiko Loureiro

Megadeth’s most recent album, Dystopia, was, from a guitar standpoint, their best and most thrilling effort in at least a decade… and maybe even two. 

And this was due in no small part to the addition of lead shredder Kiko Louriero, who brought an energized and utterly unique approach - precision-picked, incredibly fast and fluid licks studded with unusual phrasings, exotic scales and expressive note bends - to the legendary thrash band’s sound.

Loureiro, who’s adept at acoustic and nylon-string playing, and dabbles in jazz, bossa nova, samba and other music styles, had been doing this sort of thing for decades with Brazilian metal act Angra. But it took his joining up with Dave Mustaine and co. to make the guitar world at large stand up and take notice of his work, which, as Mustaine told us, “is the kind of stuff that makes guitar players weep.”

15. Misha Mansoor

Misha Mansoor is such a fixture on the shred scene that it’s hard to believe Periphery’s debut album only came out a decade ago. 

Since then, the guitarist-songwriter-producer-programmer-gearhead (he currently has signature Jackson guitars and Bare Knuckle pickups, as well as his own company, Horizon Devices) has played a major role in shaping the sound of modern progressive metal. 

If you hear a band playing techy, heavily processed shred that is alternately thrashy, glitchy, poppy and atmospheric, and doing it on seven and eight-string guitars, chances are they’ve cued up a Periphery record at one time or another.

And then there’s that whole “djent” thing. Mansoor insists he didn’t coin the phrase - and he may just be telling the truth - but it’s quite likely that without him, the style probably wouldn’t exist. And when was the last time you created an entire genre of music?

16. Derek Trucks

Trey Anastasio recently called Derek Trucks the “best guitar player on earth right now,” and many people would likely agree. He’s a peerless performer and improviser, and his stunning slide playing, full of wailing vocalisms and exotic micro-tonalities, is unlike anything else in modern music, rooted in blues and rock players like Elmore James and Duane Allman while also incorporating jazz, soul, Latin, Indian classical, sacred steel, qawwali and other far-reaching styles.

While Trucks has been playing professionally for a good quarter-century (even if he’s only 40), his work over the past decade has seen him come into his own, wrapping up his tenure with the Allman Brothers and launching the stylistically adventurous Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, singer Susan Tedeschi. 

“I think people are really craving to hear someone swinging for the fences,” he told GW earlier this year. “They want to hear people just going for it, dedicating their lives to their art and trying to do something great.”

17. Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani has been such a consistent and constant presence in the rock guitar world for the past 35 years that we almost take him for granted at this point. But his output over the last decade has been, like the rest of his career, extraordinary and envelope-pushing - from the brain-twisting, alien-like Shockwave Supernova to the more earthy and groove-heavy What Happens Next.

Then there’s the Experience Hendrix tours, the G3 outings and G4 Experience camps, as well as the myriad signature gear, which continues to push out into new realms (the single-coil DiMarzio Satch Track, for one).

To be sure, wherever Satch goes, melody and a bit of madness is sure to follow. He might be an elder shred statesman but, as he told us, “I’m astonished at the brilliance coming from the new generation of guitarists all around the world. Even so, I’m still going to push that envelope every day!”

18. Eric Gales

If you were a GW fan way back in the early Nineties, you might have recalled reading about a young lefty blues phenom named Eric Gales… and then didn’t hear or see much about him for a long time.

But in the last few years Gales, who experienced a run of professional and personal hardship, came back in a big, big way. Artists ranging from Dave Navarro to Joe Bonamassa (who has an album with Gales in the works) to Mark Tremonti have used phrases like “the best guitarist in blues rock” and “the ultimate head-cutter” to describe him. 

Gales’ playing onstage and on recordings like the recent The Bookends bears this out, mixing blues, rock, soul, r&b, hip hop and funk together in an impassioned, incendiary and incredibly raw style. “When I’m playing, it’s a vast emotion of everything - of shit that I’ve been through, of shit I’ve overcome,” Gales has said. “It’s power that’s coming through me.”

19. Trey Anastasio

The legend of Trey Anastasio has been rock-solid for decades now, but since Phish reunited roughly 10 years ago, it has, just like the band’s rabid audiences, only grown in size. 

Phish’s past decade has seen Anastasio, ever-present Languedoc in hand, playing some of the most inventive, elastic and boundary-pushing improvisatory guitar of his long career, and that’s in addition to his stellar work with his own Trey Anastasio Band, the recent Ghosts of the Forest project and with the Grateful Dead for their monumental Fare Thee Well 50th anniversary shows.

For Anastasio, the key to what GW contributor Alan Paul calls his “restless creativity” on the guitar is simple: “The more you play, the better you are,” Trey told us. “The best players play all the time, because it goes away so fast.”

20. Steve Vai

Even though Vai released only one official studio album this past decade, he was still (is he ever not?) a dominant presence on the guitar landscape.

In addition to his own mind-bogglingly absurdist and accomplished live performing, there was, among much, much more, his ongoing Vai Academy camps, his digital library cataloging every single guitar he has ever owned (including a plethora of Ibanez Jems and “pre-Jems”), his music theory book, Vaideology, and his spearheading of the awesome Generation Axe tour, which, thanks to Vai, made it possible for us mere mortals to witness Steve, Yngwie, Nuno, Zakk and Tosin stand toe-to-toe and shred through a Boston song.

We’d say that’s every guitar fan’s dream, but, really, who would have ever even dreamed of such a thing? Vai, of course. “I’m serious about what I do,” he explained to Guitar World. “But believe me, I love to have fun, except I do it a little differently than most people.”

Best of 2019: Sure, 'Blues the vote!' doesn’t have quite the same ring as 'Rock the vote!' But that didn’t keep GuitarWorld.com readers from voicing their valuable opinions in one of our most popular electric guitar polls in recent history - best blues guitarist - which ruled the site in June and early July.

In fact, it racked up more than 60,000 votes (60,429, to be exact) from readers around the world. The results are in, and the winner, as you probably know by now, is the one, the only Joe Bonamassa, who bested the rest of the top five - Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Buddy Guy and John Mayer - to land at the top of Bluesville.

Below, we’ll shine a light on some of the guitarists who scored handsomely in our Top 30 (yes, we’re listing only the top 30 here), including Bonamassa, Buddy Guy, Samantha Fish and newcomer Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram.

The poll included a whopping 73 choices, and readers also were encouraged to suggest their own candidates (and they pretty much only voted for guitarists who have been dead for several decades - but thanks anyway, gang!).

With that in mind, we encourage you to explore the work of the top vote-getters (Eric Gales, anyone?), including guitarists who didn’t make the top 30, such as Ronnie Earl, Ana Popovic, Chris Duarte, Kirk Fletcher, Sue Foley, Tommy Castro, Duke Robillard and Junior Watson.

So, without further ado, we present the best blues guitarists in the world today, according to you...

1. Joe Bonamassa

The world’s most high-profile blues guitarist has spent 2019 packing out pretty much every large, red-plush seated theater he can find in support of last year’s masterly Redemption. It’s little wonder his chops are always on-point.

But it’s not just his performances that make him so influential; his championing of his fellow blues players elevate the genre, bringing a little more light and heat to the fast-rising blues cats such as Eric Gales (his number one blues-rock player in the world, and your number 12).

Other highlights include jamming with Journey at Caesar’s Palace and returning the favor to Neal Schon, and, as an inveterate gear collector, taking receipt of a see-through Lucite Fender Twin and a pristine 1958 Gibson Flying V, aka “Donnie J.” has to be up there, too.

2. Eric Clapton

For a player who made his bones in the ‘60s with Cream and Blind Faith, back when the color TV was still novel, Slowhand made a respectable attempt at breaking the internet when he played While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Peter Frampton at this year’s Crossroads Guitar Festival. It brought the house down.

It remains to be seen if we will see a follow-up to 2018’s Happy Xmas. But with super-limited custom shop models from Fender, Gibson and Martin minted in his name to coincide with the Crossroads festival, he remains the lodestar for contemporary blues culture.

Pointless trivia: as a child Clapton had an imaginary pet horse nicknamed Bush Branch. Less pointless: GW’s lesson in Clapton’s jaw-dropping off-the-cuff phrasing. He was the master. He is the master.

3. Derek Trucks

Is there a better slide player in the world right now? Trucks is the highest slide specialist in our voters’ list, and perhaps that is because his sensibility is such that he never overpowers the jam, often positioning his Gibson Artist Series Dickey Betts SG somewhere in the uncharted frequencies shared by vocals and guitar, and as an enigmatic counterpoint to his wife Susan Tedeschi’s Strat or Les Paul.

Of course, when absolutely necessary, he can pin the audience to the floor, dialing in more bite on his volume control to hit the front end of his Alessandro custom head harder. The Tedeschi Trucks Band’s latest album, Signs, is poignant, life-affirming, and full of soul. Blues for our times.

4. Buddy Guy

Profiled in the New Yorker as “the last of the bluesmen,” Buddy Guy might be 83 years young but he has more than plenty sap in the tree, and can presently be found, Strat in hand, at venues up and down the length and breadth of the United States.

Whether he’s playing his cover of Willie Dixon’s I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man or Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, Buddy’s playing is still off-the-charts, hold-the-bus genius - as his showmanship, gleaned from one of his all-time heroes Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones).

5. John Mayer

That Mayer can still be pocketed in the blues tradition says much for his chameleon style. If ever there was a contemporary player who could shift through genre and feel without causing a ripple, it’s Mayer.

His tone, subject of several terabytes of online discussion and out-of-focus images of his pedalboard and backline from live shows, is just so dynamic. Lush but lithe and spanky, and perfect for his pop sensibility, which never quite seems at odds with the blues. It’s quite the sleight of hand Mayer’s performing with that PRS Silver Sky of his.

6. Kenny Wayne Shepherd

As a disciple of SRV, KWS shares that unpredictable quality to his phrasing, where he will be playing something traditional, say, in-the-pocket Albert King, before flipping the script on it and taking it some place new.

He released The Traveler in May, and of course the songwriting is super-tight, but the playing is unimpeachable, always inventive.

• Got the blues? Check out the best blues guitars 

7. Samantha Fish

Fish is taking the blues forward, where it needs to go, and her latest album, Kill or Be Kind, has moments when octave, pitch shifters, fuzz and delay pedals take blues guitar tone into another dimension.

All the while Fish retains the blues’ storytelling power, rooting her sound in the blues tradition while imagining it anew.

8. Gary Clark Jr.

Gary Clark Jr. is another player who incorporates ostensibly alien elements into the mix and yet it’s still the blues.

This Land, his third studio album, is a work of searing passion and righteous indignation, its title track appropriating some of Guthrie’s original composition and transforming it out of sight.

But hip-hop, rock, whatever; when it spills out of Clark it goes all the way back to Johnson, Walker, et al.

9. Tab Benoit

The Louisiana Delta blues maestro is a man of simple pleasures, namely a ’72 Fender Thinline Telecaster that he bought for less than half a grand when cutting his debut in the ‘90s, and Category 5 amps.

And when you find something that works for you like that, well, it becomes an extension of the self, and the sky’s the limit. This year saw Benoit inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center Hall of Master Folk Artists, and launch his own label, Whiskey Bayou Records.

10. Billy Gibbons

The bearded bastion of boogie’s most intriguing moment of the year came when Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme invited him out to perform on his Desert Sessions Vol.11/12 recording, with Gibbons opening proceedings in half falsetto on Move Together.

But those looking for something to put some Texas heat into their drive time commute would have found this year’s Goin’ 50 compilation a worthy reminder of ZZ Top’s inimitable style.

11. Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram

The Clarksdale, Mississippi, phenom is only 20 years old but already has a sense for feel, phrasing and vibrato that helps him shake the very soul out of his instrument.

This year saw the release of his debut, Kingfish, and having already played in the company of Eric Gales and Buddy Guy, the best is yet to come. This here is the future.

12. Eric Gales

The comparisons to Jimi Hendrix don’t begin and end with Gales’ preference for the right-handed Fender used southpaw, but perhaps there’s some SRV in there, too, especially in that super-juicy tone.

But the Raw Dawg’s cover of Little Wing is proof positive he can stamp his identity on anyone’s material - on the blues itself. Check out Resolution from his latest album, Bookends, for a novel blues-rock application of the DigiTech Whammy pedal.

13. Warren Haynes

Founding member of Gov’t Mule and with a long association with the Allman Brothers, Haynes has a spent much of 2019 on tour, and is currently in the bus with John Medeski, Lukas Nelson and others on The Last Waltz Tour 2019, playing a mammoth set each night in tribute to the Band’s 1976 farewell concert.

He remains one of guitar’s most improvisational mavericks, whose solos are essential material on any blues syllabus.

14. Erja Lyytinen

Finnish singer-songwriter Erja Lyytinen is one of Europe’s leading blues players and her latest album, Another World, features guest spots from Jennifer Batten and Sonny Landreth, in what is another showcase for her awesome voice and ear for progressive, melodic rock.

Not to mention the eminently vocal qualities of her immaculate slide playing.

15. Chris Buck

There are all kinds of floral endorsements we could make to this prodigious south Wales talent, about a melodic sensibility that’s write large through Buck & Evans’ work, and how their latest, Write a Better Day, was recorded live to retain that spontaneous feel that keeps Buck’s on the right side of his instincts.

Or we could co-sign Slash’s thoughts, who, upon jamming on a number of occasions with Buck describes him as “a fucking amazing guitar player.” Right on, Slash!

16. Josh Smith

Smith started playing at six, an age where he, like many others, might have struggled to tie his shoelaces, yet nonetheless he developed a preternatural disposition for the blues.

His 2019 has been spent on the road in support of last year’s Born to Grow, which, well check out the talky guitar that moves around the vocal line in That for You Too for an example of how good Smith’s phrasing is.

17. Dan Patlansky

The South African player will see out the year touring his home country as the run for Perfection Kills comes to an end. Expect some new music next year.

Don’t expect Patlansky to go easy on his gear, though, for he likes to play hard, boost his signal and drive the tubes has hard as possible.

18. Marcus King

This will be the last time you see this name so far down a list like this. King’s tone is so hot that you could cook a 12oz steak just by waving it in front of his speaker cabinet.

King’s played all kinds of stages this year, his set at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival a particular highlight, and we eagerly await his debut solo album, out February 2020, which was produced by Dan Auerbach.

It’s not just his tone, though. King has a novelist’s sensibility for story in song. He’s got a signature Gibson ES-345 incoming, too.

19. Walter Trout

Trout got the idea for Survivor Blues while driving around and listening to blues on FM radio. Why didn’t he just take on a dozen classic or slept-on tracks and put his own stamp on them?

That’s exactly what he did, heading on down to Los Angeles to track the album at the Doors guitarist’s Robby Krieger’s private studio.

“It’s songs that haven’t been covered much but are worthy of attention and worthy of being heard,” says Trout. Too right. Check out Trout’s take on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Going Down to the River, featuring Krieger.

20. Robert Cray

One of only a few players to be name-checked by Buddy Guy in his New Yorker article (Trucks, Clark Jr., Kingfish, and Keb’ Mo’ also got props), Robert Cray is a blues institution in his own right.

His 2019 is much like that of any other, heavy schedules, sold out shows, and repeat. The blues don’t quit. Not does his tone, which, via his Strat through a Matchless Clubman 35 and Fender Vibro King has never sounded better.

21. Jared James Nichols

The most muscular style in the blues’ contemporary canon, Nichols excels whenever given a Les Paul and a tube amp pushed to the limit. His signature Epiphone Les Paul is a straight-up rock machine.

Nichols scores highly for blues face, too, which, on the anguish scale, sits somewhere between passing kidney stones and stubbed pinky toe.

22. Robben Ford

Ford can do it all and has played with everyone. George Harrison, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan... Miles Davis!

This year has been spent touring in support of 2018’s Purple House, an album that sees Robben play infectious blues-rock such as the sour strut of Somebody’s Fool, but also take some chances and roll the dice with acoustic-led compositions such as Break in the Chain and the experimental balladry of Empty Handed.

23. Peter Green

Green hasn’t released any new music but you can be sure he remains on heavy rotation on record decks and phones worldwide.

Mick Fleetwood has just announced a concert in tribute to the Green and the early days of Fleetwood Mac, which will take place in February 2020 at the London Palladium, and see performances from the likes of Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Jonny Lang, John Mayall, Christine McVie, Zak Starkey, Steven Tyler and Bill Wyman.

24. Jimmie Vaughan

The Texas blues shuffle remains strong in Jimmie Vaughan, and it will never leave him. Baby, Please Come Home is one of the year’s strongest blues releases and sees Vaughan take on old blues standards, tracks that need only a few bars before rolling the clock back to an era when the internet would be sci-fi and you’d have to get up off your chair every 20-odd minutes to turn the record over.

As with Trout, a blues legend tackling overlooked tracks is always essential listening, and an education.

25. Robin Trower

Trower might have a formidable back catalog but his appetite to create shows no signs of slowing.

At 74, if anything, Trower is accelerating. Coming Closer to The Day is a masterclass of tone and restraint, and sees Trower in a wry, philosophical mood, with tracks such as Lonesome Road coming to terms with ageing and the fact that one day the curtain falls for good.

26. Jonny Lang

Whether he is shouldering his Fender Custom Thinline Tele, complete with Bill Lawrence blade humbuckers, or a Gibson ’58 Les Paul Reissue, Lang’s tone is always heavy on the hot sauce.

We will be hoping a follow-up to 2017’s superlative riff-heavy Signs in 2020, but Lang’s 2019 highlights were earned on stages across the world delivering sets such as his jaw-dropping performance at the Holland International Blues Festival.

27. Anthony Gomes

Gomes is another power player who is at his best when his gear is in the scorched earth between blues and rock. After all, it’s the electric guitar; sometimes tickling it is not enough.

Gomes is still touring on the back of Peace, Love & Loud Guitars - words we can all live by - and shall be right through into 2020. No rest for the wicked.

28. Keb’ Mo’

Oklahoma was another album that confirmed Keb’ Mo’ as a blues player who can trace its lineage all the way back to the Delta and then revitalize it for the ages. As Keb’ Mo’ sees it, the blues is folk, the folk is blues, and he’s using it all to tell his stories about America’s dark history and difficult present.

29. Buddy Whittington

Anyone who caught the Texan six-string Svengali live this year will be able to attest to his undiminished ability to wring the most soulful and improvisational licks from his instrument. And, crucially, he keeps it playful.

Sure, all great players can tell a story within the blues scale, but Whittington tells those stories with no shortage of wit.

30. Matt Schofield

Schofield’s iconoclastic sound sees him loosen up that right hand on command for funk and play with the precision that jazz demands.

You can hear the Robben Ford influence, for sure, but Schofield has a sound of his own design, and a lyrical melodic sensibility that works gangbusters when playing off organist Jonny Henderson.

Dunlop introduced a slew of new effect pedals at summer NAMM 2019, and among them was the sharp-looking Gary Clark Jr. Cry Baby Wah.

Now, Dunlop has shared a video of Clark discussing the signature pedal, which features a lower frequency range and a tighter sweep, the latter ideal for, as Clark puts it, “percussive situations.”

Elsewhere in the video, Clark discusses being introduced to the wah pedal through hearing Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child. “My mind was just blown,” he says.

He also talks about the first time he ever played a wah, as well as acquiring his first Cry Baby.

As for what he likes about the wah?

“To me it’s a lot more vocal than just the electric guitar, straight up,” he says. 

“For example, when I play it on my song When My Train Pulls In, there’s a sense of confusion, angst, sorrow, determination and hope and I think using the wah in certain ways helps to express that sentiment along with the note.”

For more information on the Gary Clark Jr. Cry Baby Wah, which is finished in a custom brushed copper designed to patina over time, head to Dunlop. 

As Gary himself asks, “Who doesn’t want their name on one of these beautiful things?”

Summer NAMM 2019: Dunlop has unveiled a slew of new pedals for Summer NAMM, headlined by four Authentic Hendrix mini pedals that pack the legendary guitarist’s Fuzz Face, Octavio, Uni-Vibe and Band Of Gypsys Fuzz tones into smaller enclosures that feature psychedelic art by U.K.-based designed crew ILOVEDUST.

Additionally, the company has debuted a Gary Clark Jr. wah, as well as a new iteration of its popular Dimebag from Hell wah.

The six pedals will be available beginning in September. 

For more information, head over to JimDunlop.com.

You can check out all the new gear below.

Authentic Hendrix ’69 Psych Series Fuzz Face Distortion (JHW1)

From Dunlop: This pedal combines the two different flavors of Fuzz Face Distortion tones—aggressive silicon-based crunch and smooth germanium-based saturation—that Jimi Hendrix used throughout his career, all in a mini MXR housing modern appointments such as a status LED, true-bypass switching and a 9-volt power jack.

Authentic Hendrix ’69 Psych Series Octavio Fuzz (JHW2)

This classic effect has been updated with a switch to toggle between the iconic octave-up sound that Jimi Hendrix made famous and super snarling silicon saturation. It all comes in an MXR mini housing with modern features such as a status LED, true-bypass switching and a 9-volt power jack.

Authentic Hendrix ’69 Psych Series Uni-Vibe Chorus/Vibrato (JHW3)

This pedal delivers the classic chorusy, Leslie-sounding goodness used by Jimi Hendrix in an MXR mini housing with modern features such as a status LED, true-bypass switching and a 9-volt power jack.

Authentic Hendrix ’69 Psych Series Band Of Gypsys Fuzz (JHW4)

Get the unique and bitingly aggressive Band of Gypsys fuzz sound in an MXR mini housing with a Tone control for sonic fine-tuning. Equipped with modern features such as a status LED, true-bypass switching and a 9-volt power jack.

Dimebag Cry Baby From Hell Wah (DB01B)

The most versatile wah in the Dunlop line up, this pedal was designed for players who need options on stage, featuring an extended sweep range, a 6-way frequency selector, a switchable boost, LEDs to indicate wah and boost status, and more.

Gary Clark Jr. Cry Baby Wah (GCJ95)

This wah has been modified for a lower frequency range and a tighter sweep to complement the emotional depth and percussive grooves that infuse Gary Clark Jr.'s masterfully crafted tunes.  

Like most overnight success stories, Gary Clark Jr. is anything but an overnight success. Born and bred in Austin, Texas, he performed for years in relative obscurity before local kingmaker Clifford Antone gave him a regular slot at the famed blues venue that bears his surname. A couple of self-financed and indie releases spread Clark’s name to the blues cognoscenti, but that big break into the mainstream proved elusive. And then in 2010, two seismic events swept the 26-year-old picker into the national spotlight: Eric Clapton asked him to perform at his Crossroads Guitar Festival at Madison Square Garden, and Warner Bros. signed him to a multi-album deal.

All at once, the hype machine cranked into overdrive. Even before the release of Clark’s major-label debut, The Bright Lights EP, critics churned out huzzahs and encomiums heralding the arrival of a new blues superstar, comparing the young guitarist to Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The hoopla could have overwhelmed him, but the laid-back Clark had other things on his mind — like per diems.

“Nobody told me about that before — it’s like you get a daily allowance to go out on tour,” he says. “I would pull up to do a show and get some hot food. To me, that was amazing. I just didn’t concern myself with all the industry noise. There was nothing I could do about it, so why get upset? People were going to say whatever they wanted, no matter what I did.” He pauses, then adds, “To be honest, I was just happy that anybody was paying attention.”

Clark kept his head down and did the work, issuing two finely crafted albums (2012’s Blak and Blu and 2015’s The Story of Sonny Boy Slim) that neatly mixed elements of traditional blues and R&B with splashes of rock, hip-hop and funk. Although both records featured boatloads of tasteful — and at times, uproarious — six-string work, Clark’s soloing never dominated his songs, and some early boosters wondered if the guitarist was veering too far from the blues path. “I think some people would have been happy if I just wrote a bunch of jams and blazed,” he says. “That wasn’t where I was at. I got a chance to be creative, and with that came great responsibility.”

The guitarist’s new album, This Land, isn’t only his best effort yet, but it’s one on which he gathers all of his diverse stylistic influences and arrives at a gloriously sustained single vision in a way that feels epic. Guitar hero-wise, Clark comes out full bore on the explosive title track, an in-your-face indictment of Trump-era race relations, with blowtorch soloing that matches the song’s blistering lyrical sentiments. On the hallucinogenic funk stomper “I Walk Alone,” he creates a colossal wall of sound from competing guitar treatments — one is all fuzzed-out power chords, the other a bell-like glaze of tremolo-bathed lines — that serve as a disquieting counterpoint to his blissed-out falsetto. “Gotta Get into Something” is a rough-and-rowdy punk rave-up that sees him emulating Chuck Berry with some wildcat double-stop licks. And while giving thanks to his mother on the unabashedly sentimental “Pearl Cadillac,” he uncorks an extended solo that is by turns swooningly beautiful and almost achingly sad.

More than his previous releases, much of This Land is bathed in the sounds and textures of Seventies soul music, and for Clark, who coproduced the album with Austin friend Jacob Sciba and worked with a tight-knit group of players (drummers J.J. Johnson and Brannen Temple, percussionist Sheila E, bassist Mike Elizondo and keyboardist Jon Deas), the overarching goal was to create a sort of connective tissue between the records he grew up on and the production techniques of today.

“If you were to tell me, ‘This record sounds like it could have been made 45 years ago,’ I’d consider that a huge compliment,” Clark says. “As a music fan, I try to gather everything I’ve heard and reinterpret it in a way that tells a new story. So yeah, I’m hearing Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, but I’m sitting with Jacob Sciba and we’re listening to Bruno Mars and Adele. We have conversations about how we can combine the eras and put it all together in a way that sounds fresh.” He lets out a chuckle and adds, “Sometimes it feels like you’re standing on a cliff, like, ‘I don’t know… Should we try this?’ But that’s the creative risk you’ve got to take, and the result is always worth it.”

The blues are a big part of your roots, but you’re no purist. A lot of folks in Austin would probably have preferred you to stay in the blues lane.

Like you said, the blues are where I came from, but that doesn’t define me. I listen to all kinds of stuff, but I’m not just one thing. For instance, I hit a point when I was maybe 22 — I had dreadlocks, I was listening to Bob Marley, and I walked around barefoot. And I was like, “You know what? As much as I love this music, I love other music, too.” I feel the same way about blues: I’m a blues guy, but I’m an everything guy. Soul, rock, reggae — it’s all in me. You know what I mean? I don’t want to become a caricature to anybody. I’m a human being.

What about how the blues relates to soul? On this album, I hear a direct line that connects Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix to Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.

Sure, they’re all on board. That comes from what I heard as a kid. When you’re a child and you depend on your parents or caretakers to look after you, you’re forced to listen to what they listen to. You’re not allowed to touch the record player — know what I mean? [laughs] So when I was a kid, it was like, “OK, we’re gonna listen to these records.” It was a lot of Chi-Lites, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes. There was Dionne Warwick, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield — it was all of that. It got into my bloodstream.

Unlike some artists who take those elements and do a retro thing, you present those sounds authentically. Your songs aren’t pastiche.

It’s authentic if you feel it. See, when I got my first guitar, that’s what I played. The first guitar sound that got me going was “My Girl” by the Temptations. That stood out. When I heard that, I was like, “What is that?” That sound and those subtle little R&B chord progressions really got into my ear.

Same with Curtis Mayfield. He had such a vibe, you know? It’s like, you felt his whole person, and his humanity come through in his playing. But I loved the chord progressions. When I was learning the blues and playing in a blues band, I really appreciated his chord changes and these little hammer-on things he did. He would do these little transitional phrases that fit inside the chords, and they didn’t sound like the typical I-IV-V things I heard from a lot of blues guys. He would kind of answer his vocal lines on the guitar.

Do you feel any kind of duty to address racial issues? On the title song, you talk about feeling “paranoid and pissed off among the neighbors who think I’m up to something.”

For me, that song was a very personal thing. I was watching the news and stuff was in my head. You know, I’m a father now, and these things affect me. Then, in the fall of 2017, I had a little situation with somebody in my neighborhood, and my kid was asking me what was going on. He was 3 years old, so I didn’t want to have to explain the issue to him. But he kept asking me what was wrong, and I was like, “You know what? It’s cool, buddy. The guy’s just angry.”

But still, the whole thing was in my head. It was really messing with my mood, and I was sort of wondering if I should address it in a song. I had the music sitting there for a while, and I just got on the mic and thought, “You know what? Fuck it. This is bothering me, and this is how I feel.” You know, I can’t sing love songs all day. I had to get my feelings out and deal with them in some way. So there it was.

As a guitarist, do you woodshed before going in to make a record, kind of how an athlete gets in shape for a big game?

That was the plan — I wanted to get myself in shape. Unfortunately, I injured myself right before doing the record. I broke my hand and had to do a good chunk of the album with my hand in a cast.

You’re kidding! Which hand?

My right hand, the picking hand. I had to adjust, and it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. My whole approach was different because I had this big clanky cast on my hand. I had to turn my hand in a certain way, and that really changed the way I picked notes. I don’t recommend it to anybody.

There doesn’t seem to be a digital element to your distorted sound. The screaming sustain I hear in “Feeling Like a Million” sounds like an amp just ready to blow.

That’s the deal. We put a Cesar Diaz 100-watt head into a Marshall cabinet, and we basically turned the whole thing up to 10 and let it loose. We ran for our lives back into the control room, man. [laughs] When you want to get some real amp sustain and distortion, there’s no substitute for the real thing.

The way you dip into some reggae on that song recalls the Clash. Did you listen to them much?

Honestly, not really. I appreciate them, but I never studied their catalog or anything. But through listening to [band bassist] Johnny Bradley, he’s a big Clash fan, so I sort of absorbed their whole thing. Just by being around him and jamming with him, I’ve gotten familiar with that vibe. It’s really cool.

You do some beautiful slide playing on “What About Us?” You shake each note for all it’s worth. Did your right-hand injury make you concentrate on your fretting hand a little more?

Oh, yeah. Doing the vibrato on that song was probably easier than anything else on the whole record. It was a relief, actually. [laughs] I use open tunings for slide, so I just kind of grooved. I love the sounds of Elmore James’ slide playing, and I thought I would try to channel his deal over a heavy rock-funk groove. It turned out pretty cool.

What guitar-and-amp combo are you using on “Gotta Get into Something”? You get a real rough-and-rowdy sound on that one.

That sound comes from the combo of my SG and a Fender Vibro-King. The SG has those three P-90s, and it sounds great through the Vibro-King. That song was me and J.J. Johnson in a room, and we just made it happen. Oh, but we had one little accident with that one…

What happened?

I broke my guitar. I was feeling loose, and I was trying to reach over for a bottle of whisky. I put my guitar down, but my big dumb boot was wrapped up in the lead cable. The guitar came crashing down in slow motion, and the neck just snapped. That was unexpected.

Breaking hands, breaking guitars! oh, goodness!

Yeah, there was a little bit of damage going on making this record. [laughs]

There’s a Chuck Berry vibe on that song, but it’s also pretty punk. Where did that come from?

I never really got into punk per se; I never listened to it at home or anything. But I had a lot of friends who were into the guitar, and when I went over to their houses we would be listening to that stuff — early punk and the Clash and all that. I couldn’t name the records, but I was hanging out with kids who were into ska and punk. This was in the late Nineties, early 2000s. The vibe was cool. I guess I just soaked that up subconsciously.

You use tremolo on “I Walk Alone,” and on “When I’m Gone” you play a cool bass-note guitar riff that’s bathed in the effect. Nobody seems to go near tremolo anymore.

Huh, I guess so. I never really noticed that before, but I guess that’s true — it’s not out there the way it used to be. I think I did it because it’s in the music I listen to. People used tremolo in their guitar sounds. I dig it. In those songs, it just felt appropriate. For me, it’s a no-brainer. You turn it on and there’s the part — it stands out. You’re like, “Yeah, that’s cool.”

You mentioned your SG, which I assume is your signature model. What other guitars did you use on the record?

On this one it was pretty much all SGs. I played a ’60s Fender Custom Shop Strat on “When I’m Gone,” but other than that it was SGs. The whole thing was simple, man. The amp was that Cesar Diaz 100-watt situation. When I put that through the 4x12 Marshall, that was it — it changed my life.

How about your pedals?

Same things that I’ve used for years: Fulltone Octofuzz, [Hermida Audio] Zendrive boost, Strymon Flint tremolo and reverb — that’s all.

No amp modeling for you, huh?

[laughs] Man, I wouldn’t even know how to start doing that! I’m a simple man. That’s how I like it.

Eric Clapton has announced the fifth installment of his Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Set to take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas from September 20-21, the festival will gather together a jaw-dropping list of blues-guitar greats for two nights of music. All proceeds from the event will go towards The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a substance-abuse rehabilitation facility founded by Clapton.

In addition to the concerts, the Guitar Center Festival Village will be featured on Victory Plaza adjacent to the arena. Ernie Ball, Fender, Gibson, Martin, PRS and more will host interactive exhibits where electric guitar enthusiasts can plug in and play new products and classic favorites. In addition, the Guitar Center Festival Village Stage Presented by Ernie Ball will host master guitar clinics and solo performances by main stage artists, next generation guitar virtuosos and special surprise guests. The Guitar Center Festival Village will be open from 12pm to 8pm each day and is free to all ticket holders.

This year's installment is the fifth for the festival, following those in 2004, 2007, 2010 and the most recent edition in 2013. You can check out the full lineup below. 

For more info on the festival, head on over to crossroadsguitarfestival.com.

2019 Crossroads Festival lineup (in alphabetical order):

Alan Darby, Albert Lee, Andy Fairweather Low, Billy Gibbons, Bonnie Raitt, Bradley Walker, Buddy Guy Band, Daniel Santiago, Derek Trucks, Doyle Bramhall II, Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Gustavo Santaolalla, James Bay, Jeff Beck, Jerry Douglas, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Walsh, Jonny Lang, Keb Mo, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Los Lobos, Pedro Martins, Peter Frampton, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Sheryl Crow, Sonny Landreth, Susan Tedeschi, Tom Misch, Vince Gill

As milestones go, the 50-year mark is a pretty big one.

So as the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show approached in 2014, organizers put together a celebration to herald the moment that presented the Beatles to America.

Called The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles, the tribute was a celebration of both the Beatles’ impact on music and their debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The tribute was filmed on January 27, 2014, at the Los Angeles Convention Center and first broadcast on February 9, 2014, 50 years to the day the Beatles first appeared on Sullivan’s show.

Featuring a house band that included Steve Lukather and Peter Frampton on guitars and Don Was on bass, the show offered musical tributes from Stevie Wonder, Maroon 5, John Mayer and Keith Urban, as well as performances from former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The broadcast also featured clips of the Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show and an interview with McCartney and Starr by David Letterman in Studio 50, the Ed Sullivan Theater.

• The standout moment for many was the evening’s performance of the George Harrison song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which featured Joe Walsh and Gary Clark Jr. on guitars and Dave Grohl on drums. Both Walsh and Clark turn in some fiery guitar work, while Grohl rocks the drum kit as if he’s playing a Nirvana tribute. (Mute the sound and you just might think he is.)
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Gary Clark Jr. has unveiled a new song and video, “This Land,” the first single from his upcoming album of the same name. The clip was directed by filmmaker Savanah Leaf, and was shot in Clark’s hometown of Austin, Texas.

The roiling, bluesy “This Land” is a furious condemnation of racism in America, with Clark singing, “Paranoid and pissed off / Now that I got the money / Fifty acres and a model A / Right in the middle of Trump country.”

“I think it’s only right at this point in time, if you have a microphone louder than others, to speak out about that anger,” Clark told Rolling Stone. He continued: “I haven’t been through shit compared to my people. But if I can do anything with my opportunity, and say thank you to Dr. Martin Luther King for sacrificing your life so that I can have a microphone, that’s the least I can do.”

This Land will be released on March 1 via Warner Bros. and is available for pre-order here.

Clark will also be launching a U.S. tour in support of the new album beginning March 9 in Miami. You can check out the full itinerary below. 

For more information, head over to GaryClarkJr.com.

03/09 – Miami, FL @ Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater

03/10 – Tampa, FL @ Gasparilla Music Festival

03/13 – Springfield, MO @ Gillioz Theatre

03/15 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre

03/16 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre

03/18 – Indianapolis, IN @ Old National Centre – Murat Theatre

03/20 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Benendum Center

03/21 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre

03/22 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre

03/23 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre

03/26 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues

03/27 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues

03/29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Met Opera House

03/30 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem

03/31 – Richmond, VA @ The National

04/02 – Durham, NC @ Durham PAC

04/03 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte

04/05 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

04/06 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

04/07 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

05/04 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Music Festival

05/25 - Napa, CA @ BottleRock Music Festival

While Gary Clark Jr.’s main intentions were to showcase his versatility as a songwriter and singer on his major-label debut album, Blak and Blu, he still couldn’t resist providing more than a handful of virtuoso guitar performances as well, helping him earn status as of one of the most promising up-and-coming guitarists of the new millennium.

Clark previously recorded a live solo version of “When My Train Pulls In” for The Bright Lights EP, but when recording the studio version of the song for Blak and Blu, he dramatically increased the intensity with a fuzz-driven main riff and two incendiary extended solos. From the blazing tones emanating from Clark’s guitar to his inventive, melodic lines, “When My Train Pulls In” made a bold statement that a new guitar hero had arrived.

Clark’s guitar tone progressed significantly during the year between the release of The Bright Lights EP and Blak and Blu, and Clark attributed most of that to his newly discovered love of overdrive and fuzz pedals. His main tone on “When My Train Pulls In” is a prime example of that, as he layers Analog Man Astro Tone fuzz and Analog Man King of Tone overdrive pedals together to create a massive tone with distinctive distortion that sounds like speakers on the verge of blowing up yet with expressive midrange and clarity.

The key to this sound is using both pedals sparingly, with the Astro Tone set to only a moderate level of fuzz. Clark’s amp—a Fender Vibro-King—also helps maintain clarity with its stellar clean tone characterized by rich midrange and smooth treble.

The layered fuzz and overdrive pedals remain the core of Clark’s tone throughout the main riff and solos, although occasionally he bypasses the fuzz for a few brief sparkling fills and disengages both pedals for some brief funky rhythm parts. However, for the closing solo he goes balls out, with a wah pedal adding further texture to the layered fuzz and overdrive tone.

ORIGINAL GEAR

GUITAR: Mid-Sixties Epiphone Casino with two P90 single-coil pickups. Bridge pickup, volume: 5–10, tone: 10
AMP: Fender 20th Anniversary Vibro-King combo with three Jensen 25-watt, 8-ohm P-10R-F alnico speakers (Input: 1, Dwell: 4, Mix: 2, Tone: 3, Fat switch up, Volume: 6, Treble: 6, Bass: 3, Mid: 5, Speed: 1, Intensity: 1)
EFFECTS: Analog Man Astro Tone fuzz (Volume: 8, Fuzz: 2.5, Tone: 6), Analog Man King of Tone overdrive (left/channel 1 only in Normal Overdrive mode, Volume 1: 7, Drive 1: 6, Tone 1: 6), Teese Real McCoy Custom wah (second solo only starting at 4:40)

• Epiphone Casino
• Fender Hot Rod Series Blues Junior IV
• Electro-Harmonix East River Drive Overdrive
• TC Electronic Rusty Fuzz
• Dunlop Original Cry Baby Wah

TONE TIP: When layering fuzz and overdrive together, moderation is the key. Place the fuzz pedal before the overdrive in the signal chain and turn the fuzz control up only slightly. A clean or slightly overdriven tone from the amp helps maintain clarity.

Gary Clark Jr. has announced a series of North American dates, including a four-night stand at the Fillmore in San Francisco this October.

Clark initially had scheduled his Fillmore shows for June 19-22, a week before the start of the rest of the tour, but was forced to postpone the dates. All original tickets will be honored on their corresponding rescheduled date. Refunds are available at point of purchase.

You can check out all of Clark's upcoming dates below.

"I like to get out and run around and see people moving and making noise," he told Guitar World in an interview last May. "I spent a good 10 years playing four or five times a week around Texas and Louisiana, usually for two, three, four hours a night. There was something different every single night, and that's part of the fun of it and the excitement of the music I play. It comes from sitting in those smoky blues bars or those low-down dive bars. It’s kind of a must-do."

For tickets and more info, head on over to garyclarkjr.com.

Gary Clark Jr. tour dates:

June 24 Pasadena, CA Arroyo Secco Weekend

July 29 Newport, RI Newport Folk Festival

July 30 Northampton, MA Pines Theatre

Aug 01 Baldwinsville, NY Paper Mill Island

Aug 02 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom

Aug 06 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall

Aug 07 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall

Sep 02 Snowmass Village, CO Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience

Sep 04 Salt Lake City, UT Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre

Sept 05 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheater

Oct 09 San Francisco, CA Fillmore

Oct 10 San Francisco, CA Fillmore

Oct 11 San Francisco, CA Fillmore

Oct 12 San Francisco, CA Fillmore

Last week, Keith Richards, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Mavis Staples, Lucinda Williams and Norah Jones headlined the second annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert at the Beacon Theatre. During his performance, Richards teamed up with fellow blues guitar great Gary Clark Jr. for a spirited rendition of the Rolling Stones classic, "Happy." You can watch the performance above.

For his set, Richards was joined by longtime collaborator Steve Jordan, plus Ivan Neville and Hi-Rhythm. The show also featured sets from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Ann Wilson, Emmylou Harris, Ziggy Marley and Trombone Shorty.

The concert was held to raise money for God's Love We Deliver, an organization that provides meals and nutrition counseling for New York metropolitan area residents living with severe illnesses.

Eric Clapton has announced two shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. The concerts—set for October 6 and October 7—are the first North American shows Clapton has announced for 2018.

For the concerts—which will feature guest appearances by Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan—Clapton will be joined by bassist Nathan East, drummer Sonny Emory, guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, keyboardist Chris Stainton, Paul Carrack on organ and keyboards and Sharon White and Sharlotte Gibson on vocals.

This will be Clapton's third two-night stand at the famed New York City arena in two years. The guitarist did two two-night stands at the venue in 2017—one in March and another in September.

Back in January, Clapton revealed on an interview with the BBC Radio 2 program Steve Wright in the Afternoon that he is going deaf, saying—in response to a question about his plans for 2018—"The only thing I'm concerned with now is being in my seventies and being able to be proficient." The guitarist also said in the program of his 70th-birthday tour (2015) that he would be retiring soon, writing, "I swear this is it, no more.”

Tickets for Clapton's Madison Square Garden performances are set to go on sale this Friday, March 16.

For tickets and more information, head on over to ericclapton.com.

Back in 2012, a group of blues and rock legends assembled at the White House for a special concert honoring the American Songbook.

One of the highlights of the night was a performance of "Five Long Years" featuring Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy and Gary Clark Jr. You can watch a video of this remarkable performance above.

"Five Long Years" is a post-war blues tune written by American pianist Eddie Boyd in 1952. Eric Clapton covered it on his 1994 album, From the Cradle.

Gary Clark Jr. has released the music video for his heavy, appropriately bluesy version of The Beatles' "Come Together."

The song—Clark's contribution to the soundtrack of the upcoming DC/Warner Bros. film, Justice League—was produced by Junkie XL, Mike Elizondo and Sam de Jong and recorded at The Village Recorders in Los Angeles.

You can see the action-packed video for yourself below.

Speaking to Guitar World back in May about his evolution in the studio, Clark said "I’m getting more comfortable in that environment. I’m beginning to enjoy the process of having an idea and letting it develop and evolve organically."

"I’ve really started acquiring the strength to follow my own instincts, rather than being persuaded or tempted to listen to outside opinions," he continued. "I’m more confident and less prone to go down that rabbit hole of darkness and doubt, which has happened to me multiple times."

"Wonderful Woman," a rocking new song by the late Chuck Berry, was posted to the guitar legend's official Vevo page last night. It's the second song to be issued from Berry's new album, Chuck, which is expected to be released this summer. You can hear the first song, "Big Boys," right here.

"Wonderful Woman," which you can hear below, features guitar work by Gary Clark Jr.—plus contributions from Berry's son, Charles Jr., and grandson, Charles III.

"When [Berry's] manager called me up and asked me to play on Chuck, I was really honored," Clark Jr. told Rolling Stone. "… He was playing incredible still and singing amazing. I'm looking forward to this record."

Comprised of 10 new recordings, eight of which were written by Berry, Chuck is his first new album since 1979’s Rock It.

It was recorded and produced by Berry in various studios around St. Louis and features his longtime hometown backing group, including Ingrid Berry (vocals, harmonica), Jimmy Marsala (Berry’s bassist for 40 years), Robert Lohr (piano) and Keith Robinson (drums)—which supported him for nearly two decades on over 200 residency shows at the famed Blueberry Hill club.

Stay tuned for more information—and be sure to tell us what you think of the new song.

Back in the early Sixties, the brilliantly eccentric jazz pianist Thelonious Monk created a list of what he thought every musician should know about gigging. It included often-amusing hints like, “You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?” and my favorite, “Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.”

But among the whimsical bits of advice was something quite profound. Monk said, “A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world. It depends on your imagination.” When he spoke those words, the pianist knew damn well he wasn’t offering guidance—he was throwing down the gauntlet. It’s a challenge that stalks Gary Clark Jr.’s second concert album, Live North America 2016.

Of all the major fourth generation blues shredders like Joe Bonamassa, Derek Trucks or John Mayer, Clark Jr. is the most preoccupied with getting down to the essentials. With each album he gets a little more economical and precise, often building solos to a climactic single note that he makes “as big as the world.”

Like Albert King, or even Kurt Cobain (who Clark Jr. surprisingly lists as an influence), the guitarist stays focused on the emotional impact of each note. While he is certainly capable of pouring on the flash, as exemplified by the album’s mesmerizing centerpiece, “When My Train Pulls In,” it’s the rawness of songs like “The Healing” and “Grinder” and “Our Love” that makes him an important musician.

We caught up with the Texan shortly before the release of his new live album, which will coincide with another career milestone. Clark Jr. was tapped to play with Eric Clapton on the guitar legend’s upcoming 50th anniversary tour.

“When I found out, I actually wrote Eric,” says Clark Jr. “I had met him before and I wanted to apologize for being a bit standoffish. I told him I hope he didn’t take any offense, and the reason I wasn’t being friendlier was because he scared the hell out of me and I didn’t want to say anything dumb! Being the gentlemen he is, he told me it was all cool.”

Below, you'll find an excerpt of our new interview. For the full read, check out the all-new May 2017 issue of Guitar World.

This is your second live album. Are recording studio albums and live albums two different art forms?
Yeah, they’re definitely two different worlds. On studio albums, I’m completely involved, but live albums sorta freak me out. I haven’t even listened to the album yet! I find it very difficult to critique or listen to a performance that I can’t change. I just let my manager, Scooter, and my sound guy, Mark Corbin, pick what they thought was best.

It would seem like a live album would be liberating. The studio tends to make people more self-conscious.
It’s true, but in the studio you can put something down and take it away if you don’t like it. A live recording is permanent and less forgiving. The studio is a real sensitive place, too, but I’m getting more comfortable in that environment. I’m beginning to enjoy the process of having an idea and letting it develop and evolve organically. I’ve really started acquiring the strength to follow my own instincts, rather than being persuaded or tempted to listen to outside opinions. I’m more confident and less prone to go down that rabbit hole of darkness and doubt, which has happened to me multiple times.

But this is your second live album, so you must find value in it.
Definitely. I have nothing against them. Songs evolve and take on a different life when you play them over a period of time, and the reaction from the audience causes you to play in different ways. It’s important to have a record of that. I just have a hard time being objective about my performances, so I let others choose. Truth is, I need both environments. I couldn’t be just a live musician, and I don’t think I could live in the studio. I like to get out and run around and see people moving and making noise. I spent a good 10 years playing four or five times a week around Texas and Louisiana, usually for two, three, four hours a night. There was something different every single night, and that's part of the fun of it and the excitement of the music I play. It comes from sitting in those smoky blues bars or those low-down dive bars. It’s kind of a must-do.

Is there a live album by another artist you admire or hold up as an ideal?
One of my favorite live albums is Marvin Gaye’s Live at the London Palladium. It’s as beautiful as any symphony, and it’s arranged, executed and engineered to perfection. There are also loads of great live blues albums. Anything by Magic Sam or Jimi Hendrix is great. For every great studio blues record that I own, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to T-Bone Walker, I gotta have my live versions of their songs, which is probably another reason I feel compelled to release live albums. Different layers…different layers.

The first time I saw you play was at a small club in New York. Since then you’ve performed on some of the biggest stages in the world. How has that affected you as a player?
I've realized that louder is not always better in big rooms. It’s really tempting to crank it up because there’s so much space to fill and it’s fun to play loud. But when everyone in the band is at 10, all the definition gets lost. I might just use one amp or turn my volume down significantly. I find that my fuzz doesn't necessarily carry when I play too loud, so it helps when I draw back a little bit, otherwise you can’t hear each note. It just turns to mush. But we've got a great sound guy, and he helps me navigate those waters.

It takes more of a team in bigger rooms. I also have discovered I have to pay attention to the band a little more in those situations. If you aren’t careful, you can think you’re playing with the drummer, but instead you’re playing to what is bouncing off the wall. There have been times when we’ve been completely out of time with each other.

I’ve also noticed you can get too carried away because of the adrenaline or the energy of the crowd. When I’m playing too much it stops being musical. I’m more aware of that in a smaller room and the sound is a bit tighter. I might play heavy for a minute and then back off. Like, alright guys, let’s play attention here. Let’s tighten up a little bit.

It’s interesting to hear you say that, because your playing seems to be more economical on this album. Some of the more powerful moments come when you really lay into a single note and bend and milk it for all it’s worth.
Yeah, making less more, and digging in deeper. That comes with experience and watching great musicians. We’ve been fortunate enough to go out with some amazing players, and I’ve been trying to take some notes.

For the rest of this interview and much more, pick up the all-new May 2017 issue of Guitar World, which is available now.

Gary Clark Jr., Guitar World's current cover star, has issued a music video for “Our Love,” a track featured on his recently released live album, Live North America 2016.

“Our Love” first appeared on The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, Clark’s 2015 studio album.

This is the third live clip he’s released from Live North America 2016. He previously issued the live version of “The Healing” on February 14 and “My Baby’s Gone” on March 3. Live North America 2016 was released on March 17 via Warner Bros. Records.

Clark recently drew standing ovations for his electric performances at the 2017 Grammy Awards and 2017 MusiCares event honoring Tom Petty.

He heads out on tour on May 2. Visit GaryClarkJr.com for tour dates and locations.