From big, warm, instrumental hugs to returning Aussie rock heroes: here are this week's essential guitar tracks

Angus Young
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

It’s been a devastating week, as Eddie Van Halen’s passing casts a shadow over the guitar world at large. But if there’s one thing Eddie would have wanted, it’s for guitarists to keep playing, and to stop at nothing to improve their abilities and further the instrument as a whole.

Those are exactly the kinds of artists we set out to share in our round-ups of Essential Guitar Tracks, and we’ll be doing the same this week.

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Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.