The Other Guitar Heroes featurettes

The Other Guitar Heroes

When folks hear me play, they get very, very confused: the standard idioms aren’t there. I got no clue how to play Eruption or Sweet Child of Mine or Sultans of Swing. I don’t want to know, I don’t care. That shit’s been done before. 

Now I ain’t that special of a player. I hit strings and make noise. I am musically illiterate: I can’t read tab. I’m one of those cats who gets lost in bar 3 when the music’s ready to change the page. (It’s never right anyways, so why bother) I know about as much theory as anyone playing for decades, maybe a tad more, but that’s something I stumbled upon during endless noodling session. (I understood modes and how to use them 15 years before I learnt they were called modes). 

I don’t bow to the “Guitar Gods” that the guitar media drone on about. Sure, I name drop Iommi, Gatton, and Reinhardt (incessantly raving about Django). But most of the folks that influence me are off the beaten track, away from the realm that guitar teachers and guitar media talk about. And I believe they deserve to be celebrated.

So on these pages, I gonna run a series of op-ed pieces about guitarists you may not have heard about. Some are no longer with us, some are brand new. Some you’ve heard of, some you’ve overlooked. Just me trying to give some notices to some musical brilliance, and trying to persuade you to ignore the New White Blues Wunderkind.

I ain’t giving background on these fine men and women: if you look up, there’s probably someplace to type search terms in your browser. Just my opinions, some examples, and mainly, some good good pickin’.

Just one thing: to quote on of my favourite players from one of these Other Guitar Heroes, Richard Thompson: “Wear your influences lightly."