I love reading people’s lists of best whatever. Best guitarists, best harmonica, best songs, best albums/CDs, whatever.
I disagree with most lists.

That’s what makes it fun.


The thing is — there is no definitive list, no definitive best,
I think it is funny that Jimi Hendrix is often quoted as saying (some guitarist that he just watched) he’s the best guitarist. Here is the list of guitarists that Jimi said were the best (or at least better then him)

Albert King
BB King
Elmore James
Albert Collins
Muddy Waters
Steve Cropper (Stax -house band guitarist)
Otis Rush
Eric Clapton
Terry Kath (Chicago)
Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)
Phil Keaggy
Rory Gallagher (Taste)
Lolly Vegas (Redbone)
and probably a lot of other guitarists

It boils down to what you think about what you are listening to.
Lenny and I once got into a music listening trade off — we could only play what was on our computers (no online streaming) and we took turns basically trying to play great songs that the other hadn’t heard before. This lasted for hours and hours and bottles of wine. There were some stunned onlookers drinking with us, but we were on a roll.
The fact is all the music was great — whether I had heard it before or it was brand new.
The best is whatever is in my head this week. Only to be replaced by some other best later on.
What I like about lists is that it gets you talking about what you like and why some guitarist is underrated or overrated or whatever.
Lists get people talking and I like that.
And if you listen, you will hear about music that you should listen to 🙂