Dust My Lick

Gibson’s 10 Iconic Blues Riffs & Melodies is focused on playing – maybe fooling around and coming up with your own riffs.  But it could just as easily be called The Best Blues Songs of All Time.

Yeah, I know, there are a few thousand tunes competing for that honour, but it’s a pretty impressive list.  Songs written by giants like Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson, and played by the masters:  Sumlin, B.B., Buddy Guy, Elmore James, Albert King, Clapton, Hendrix and Johnny Winter.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

But the article’s main point is a good one:  mess around with something you already know and it might take you somewhere new.  I’m sure that’s how most songs are written.

Walking Along A Dusty Road

The death last year of Hubert Sumlin makes Gibson's 10 Great Journeymen Guitarists all the more interesting. Here's the list:

Hubert Sumlin, Corey Harris, Eric Bibb, Guy Davis, Duke Robillard, J.J. Cale, Roy Book Binder, John Hammond, Johnny Winter, Keb' Mo'.

Gibson's reference point seems to be the itinerant bluesman, the Robert Johnson standing at the crossroads thing, which explains why it's a collection of blues guys. Works for me.

I have to confess I haven't heard of all of these guys, and for sure I'm going to check up on at least one of them. I mean, how cool is a name like Roy Book Binder? Well, trippy anyway.

Of the ones I know, the other thing they all have in common (other than their constant touring and hard work) is they are/were under-appreciated. Keb' Mo' would be my prime example. He's a gem.

Curious how Johnny Winter slipped from guitar god status down to this list, though. There was a time when he competed with the likes of Hendrix, Clapton and Page for the best guitarist title. Were Rory Gallagher still alive, it would be interesting to see if he would have been on the list too, because he also was an under-rated-journey-man kinda guy.

It might be a lonely road, but it's a crowded world for great guitarists.