1. Jimi Hendrix

What can I say? For me, it all started with Jimi. When I was 13 years old my friend Shane brought a Hendrix album over and played Hey Joe. I was hooked. I forced my dad to show me Purple Haze and I practiced non-stop until I got it. At one point in my sophomore years I began to laugh Jimi off as a sloppy blues player who played the same 10 licks over and over, but then later I came to appreciate his music on a new level as I do today. The more you know, the less you know, I guess.

2. Eric Johnson

I grew up in Austin, TX where 90% of the male population plays guitar, and in Austin, Eric Johnson is a legend. Before any of his studio releases came out (before Tones), my dad had somehow heard of him and took me to a guitar clinic at Lightning, Music, and Sound. I sat five feet away from Eric in a room full of only 20 guitarists or so and heard things that I’d never heard before. Later when Tones came out I learned every song on the album note for note. In fact, people would make fun of my high school band for playing Zap over and over. (We won the senior talent show, so nya!).

3. Wes Montgomery

The first time I heard Wes Montgomery (playing Airegin by Sonny Rollins) was a real lightbulb moment for me. I had been playing nothing but blues and rock for 3 or 4 years and all of a sudden there were all these beautiful mysterious notes going by at the speed of light, and this kicked off my love for jazz. Soon after I enrolled in guitar school and learned all about modes and II-V-Is. Well, quite not all about them :-)

4. Stevie Ray Vaughan

Eric Johnson was a legend in Austin, but Stevie is the legend. When I was in high school me and my friend Ian Moore (a well known guitarist himself) would do nothing but go to Antone’s and try to learn SRV licks. One thing I really appreciate in a guitarist (any musician, really) is rhythm. SRV has some seriously amazing rhythm.

5. Jimmy Herring

Somehow this guy has managed to stay under the radar, but I really think he’s one of the best playing out today. He has this amazing style of soloing where he’ll go out into atonal never never land and then winds his way back in, usually ending up at some blistering blues lick. He plays with jam bands such as Project Z, Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Jazz is Dead. Check out his website, and if he happens to play in your town, check him out.

6. Al DiMeola

I have an Al DiMeola instructional guitar video where Al says

You should really never pull off or hammer on your notes. Picking every note is the more correct way to play.

What a bozo! But, the man can pick, and he writes some interesting music. I’ve also learned quite a bit about rhythm from him.

7. Mitch Watkins

Here’s another guitarist that you may not have heard from. He’s also from Austin, but even in Austin not all that well known. However IMHO he’s one of the best in the world. He can play pretty melodies on acoustic and amazingly fast runs on electric all in the same song and make it fit. His album Strings With Wings is one of my all time favorite guitar albums. Sadly, this is a very difficult album to find. Amazon does have some available used. (Unfortunately, I can’t recommend the Bob Schneider collaboration that’s on iTunes.)

8. Trey Anastasio

When me and my friend/roommate/drummer Brooks Gray drove across the country visiting with friends and playing our newly recorded Zzyzywuzsky album (more on that name another time), one of them commented that we sounded a lot like the band Phish, whom I had never heard of. She put on Picture of Nectar and here was this band that had crystallized so many ideas I had been having about music up to that point. Mixing styles, making humor with music, playing music for music’s sake basically. I stopped liking Phish shortly after their next album, but I learned a lot from Trey.

9. Fareed Haque

Fareed Haque plays with the band Garaj Mahal, who you should check out right now. Seriously, stop reading this and go listen to some of their stuff. ……Pretty awesome, huh?! Fareed is just a master of all things guitar. (In fact, he’s a guitar professor at the Northern Illinois University.) He has this textbook perfect technique and plays very unusual patterns, rhythms, and scales, often drawing from Indian modes and scales.

10. Bela Fleck

Huh? He plays banjo, not guitar. I know, I know, but I’ve learned as much from him as any other guitar player. I once transcribed “Sunset Road” for guitar and it’s one of my favorite pieces to play on steel string. I like to study his multi-string picking patterns, which are evidently pretty effortless on banjo (since he plays them at 100 mph) and try to recreate them on guitar using cross picking techniques.

11. John Scalo, Sr.
A.K.A. Dad— An incredible guitar player (as well as piano) and a patient teacher, I was incredibly lucky to grow up with a full-time live-in guitar tutor. I could quickly learn any song I wanted, from Stairway to Heaven to Funeral March of the Marionette, at any time thanks to my dad. Thanks dad!

What do you think? Who would you list? Feel free to chime in.