Christian guitarists that raise the bar!

[stephen]

I was reading in a thread about Phil Keagy and it mentioned something about Chritian guitarists that raise the bar musically like an EVH, Hendrix, or SRV.

So here is an entry from me:

Lincoln Brewster. This gunslinger has blues chops galore, and a real shredder too! He's done studio work, with the most notable being with Steve Perry.

I'll add others later in this thread, but I figure this would be a good one to kick this thread off.

[MrMike]

From the other thread, I'll mention Rex Carroll, formerly (and apparently again) of Whitecross. He can shred with the best. He did a solo project, however, that was a total shock. It was very R&B and blues influenced, with no shredding at all. Very tasty playing. He's certainly not a one-trick pony.

[stephen]

..............., I'll mention Rex Carroll, formerly (and apparently again) of Whitecross. ................. It was very R&B and blues influenced, with no shredding at all. Very tasty playing. He's certainly not a one-trick pony.

Oooooh, I'm gonna have to check that one out! Do you recall the title of that cd?

[Teleguy]

Hadley Hockingsmith (sic)?

Played on Bill Gaither records, long ago.

Also Mike Deasy:
Played on a lot of hit records in the 60's as a first call studio guitarist (before Tommy Tedesco's reign). You've heard him, probably on Barry McGuire's Christian material (if you're old enough)!

Has a teenagers outreach ministry now. Uses guitar to reach 'em.

[MrMike]

..............., I'll mention Rex Carroll, formerly (and apparently again) of Whitecross. ................. It was very R&B and blues influenced, with no shredding at all. Very tasty playing. He's certainly not a one-trick pony.

Oooooh, I'm gonna have to check that one out! Do you recall the title of that cd?

It's called "The Rex Carroll Sessions". (Clever, huh?) There's all sorts of guests on it. Phil Keaggy, Todd and Nicole Smith (pre-Selah) Aaron Benward, Ashley Cleveland, and a bunch of others. I love it. Might be hard to find. I got it on cassette for 99 cents about 8 or 9 years ago.

[MrMike]

I did a quick search on ebay and found one. Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4712286487&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[refin]

Hadley Hockingsmith (sic)?

Played on Bill Gaither records, long ago.

Also Mike Deasy:
Played on a lot of hit records in the 60's as a first call studio guitarist (before Tommy Tedesco's reign). You've heard him, probably on Barry McGuire's Christian material (if you're old enough)!

Has a teenagers outreach ministry now. Uses guitar to reach 'em.


Hadley Hockensmith is a great player............he is the master of choice notes and tone.Haven't heard much of him in the past few years.He played on the Keith Green albums (come to think of it,the whole Koinonia band was Keith's studio band).

[Old Believer]

Gotta mention Doyle Dykes. The guy smokes on that acoustic. I saw him at Greg Laurie's Harvest Christian Fellowship about eight years ago. The guy is a monster.

[SAguitar]

One of my current favorites is Tommy Walker. The guy is just annointed. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a Master's Degree in Jazz/Fusion Music either.

[seagullplayer]

I'm not sure how many of us are into Bluegrass, but there is many a Gospel Bluegrass player out there that sets a bar or two.
To gain respect for a bluegrass player, all ya gota do is try and play it...

[prscustom24]

To gain respect for a bluegrass player, all ya gota do is try and play it...

Too bad you have to hear it. Five minutes' worth per decade is the maximum adult dose, I'm told :-)

Always admire the flatpickers, just never been inspired, by their output, to want to be better at it.

[Crunchyriff]

Five minutes' worth per decade is the maximum adult dose, I'm told

:ROFL :ROFL :ROFL

Yep. Now, where's my hounds?? Them were all under da porch out 'yonder....git my banjo, mama, kuz I fil lack gittin some o dem muzical type thangs thar goin on....

If yer gonna water the grass, don't ferget to fill the buckets full, FERST!

[MrMike]

Keep your eyes open on PBS for Nickel Creek. It's pretty humbling to see them. I'd consider it "bluegrass for shredders".

[kewlpack]

OH ya - I think I remember Nickel Creek - they have a great sound... I've only heard one or two of their songs (trio right?)... great harmony and melodic phrasing.

[MrMike]

And positively terrifying chops.

[jazzrat]

I'm not big fan of the Bill Monroe "High Lonely" sound, but the pregressive stuff like Nickel Creek, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice and others...I like a lot!
...can't play it...but I like it.

[seagullplayer]

I'm not big fan of the Bill Monroe "High Lonely" sound, but the pregressive stuff like Nickel Creek, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice and others...I like a lot!
...can't play it...but I like it.

I think they call that "NewGrass", and it's not very popular with the "traditional" crowd, I'm told. :???:
I like everything I've heard from Nickel Creek and a friend of mine at work gave me a copy of Tony Rice to give a listen, good stuff. I like Union Station for that matter.
But of course like any music, it's best when done to give glory to the Lord. :angel

And many of them can play anything with strings, alot of gifts in that crowd.

[MrMike]

Not Christian music, but another cool one to check out if you can find it is "Strength in Numbers". It's some of the NewGrass guys; Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O'Connor, Edgar Meyer and Jerry Douglas. There's one song called "Lochs of Dread" that has a cool Bluegrass/Celtic/Reggae feel, if you can imagine it. Cool stuff.

[jazzrat]

I've enjoyed the progressive stuff for years. I have the record(yes actual vinyl) of Mark O'Connor's first guitar album with guests Tony Rice and David Grisman.
Mark O'Connor played with Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs for a while on guitar and violin. He can play with anybody.

Teleguy mentioned Hadley Hockinsmith. I remember his playing with Paul Clarke and Friends. Really great tone and nice lines.
How about behind the scenes guys like Dann Huff, Jerry McPherson
both studio giants with a Christian testimony.
Always the right note at the right time. Gotta admire that.

[txspreacher]

Long as we're talking about bluegrass, how 'bout the amazing Ricky Skaggs? He pretty much sticks to mandolin anymore, but can pick a guitar and saw a fiddle fair to middlin' as well.

Another good Christian guitarist (well, he's a guitarist who's a Christian, and done a few Christian CDs) is Charlie Daniels. He's known mostly as a fiddle player, but he can make a Les Paul talk pretty good, too.

[kewlpack]

I see there are many good musicians being mentioned. I would agree these guys are very skillful. Though I'm not sure they fall into what I was thinking of.

My original post in the other thread was really about looking for guitarists who are redefining the music you can get out of the instrument. That is, not only do they "raise the bar" - they introduce a completely new bar altogether. They don't reinvent guitar, per se... but they bring in a new way of playing or a new angle on a genre... they change the landscape for "the rest of us". They play things we've not heard before (or perhaps just not "that way", like SRV for example).

Modern Examples:
Hendrix
Clapton
SRV
Vai
Satriani
Petrucci (though I don't listen to Dream Theater, the guy is amazing)
Gambale (fusion jazz)
Keaggy

Past Examples:
TBone Walker
John Lee Hooker
Muddy Waters
Beatles (well they did help introduce ROCK, sorta)
Chuck Berry

Of course, it is rare to notice the innovative musicians when they are your contemporaries. Their wizardry doesn't dawn on us until after the fact, or after several years go by... The thing that most of the guys above did that we don't see much of in the Christian music realm is innovative, new styles that push musicians everywhere to a higher level.

The great guitarists you've mentioned are definitely good! I don't wanna minimize that at all. I can't hold a candle to the least of them (or to the least of you and your skills! :innocent ). That brother and I were just thinking out loud that there has yet to be a true innovator within the Christian music scene (Keaggy notwithstanding - he's definitely doing something special).

Anyway it was just something that came up and made me think "hmm, where are the visionary players today?" They are few and far between even in worldly music - that level of truly great skill and creative ingenuity are naturally uncommon.

Of course, what greater skill could a guitarist have than to be able to successfully win souls for Jesus and introduce them to the Body?! :angel Now that is MADSKILLZ!

I only wanted to clarify what I was getting at when I brought it up. Keep the list growing! :popcorn

[MrMike]

Jerry McPherson did all of the guitar parts on the CD by the artist that I play for. He's a really tasty player. Dann Huff is awesome.

[jazzrat]

I guess this discussion begs the question....where else can guitar go?
Is there any way to build on Django, and Christian and Clapton and Hendrix. Is there any way to play more expressively, we certainly don't need to play any faster. Does the guitar have inherrant limits mechanically? (sure does for me personally)
The players that interest me lately are 'painting with the instrument'. They use it to color within the framework of good songwriting. David Gilmore,
Adrian Belew to name a couple.
That fact that all of us are falling short of answering Kewlpack's question makes me wonder if his list of players will grow from what it is now.

[kewlpack]

...where else can guitar go?

Excellent question! That was my gut reaction when that brother asked me the original question... "where else can it go man?"

But then again:
If Hendrix had never asked that question and stopped back then...

...or if Eddie Van Halen had never noodled around with two hand tapping and just stuck to old classic rock paradigms...

...or if Randy Rhodes & Yngwie Malmsteen had just stuck to their classical staves and not fused those amazing chops with high gain amps! :shock

...then we wouldn't be having this fun discussion! ;)

I believe it is very hard to truly "think outside the box" with just about anything we try in life (even in the Church) - because it takes some sort of "happy accident" to take us down unfamiliar paths where constructive innovations are found.

It's just food for thought I suppose. Perhaps one of us here will usher in a new genre of guitar playing or some wild mix of Bluegrass/Funk/Goth Metal!!! :shock :shock :shock

Don't worry about "my list"... those were a handful of examples. There are more, to be sure. Those were just off the top of my head here at work. But you are right, jazzrat. As with most areas of life, there are only a few who are born, once in awhile, who really cause catchy new changes.

[Ravindave_3600]

GP magazine lists the greatest moments in guitar history. They include the arrival of Nirvana with this line - "Proved you don't have to have chops to make a statement with a guitar".

Yeah. Whatever. If I wanted to hear bad guitar playing I'd listen to myself. :oops:

But for people who've done something new and fresh I can't forget Mark Knopfler fingerpicking on the strat. When Sultans of Swing came out it sounded like nothing else ever heard on rock radio.

[jazzrat]

+1 Dave,
Dire Straights made a huge impact on me. Knopfler is still one of my favorites.

[prscustom24]

GP magazine lists the greatest moments in guitar history. They include the arrival of Nirvana with this line - "Proved you don't have to have chops to make a statement with a guitar".

Yeah. Whatever. If I wanted to hear bad guitar playing I'd listen to myself. :oops:

But for people who've done something new and fresh I can't forget Mark Knopfler fingerpicking on the strat. When Sultans of Swing came out it sounded like nothing else ever heard on rock radio.

Another vote for Knopfler. Ten years after, I finally had the chops to play Sultans note for note.