Guitar gods - Mark Knopfler

I watched Dire Straits Alchemy Live on Sky Arts 1HD yesterday. Sweet mother of Eric, Mark Knopfler was incredible then (and still is).

I can remember rushing home from the shops with my brand new copy of Brothers In Arms in May 1985, and listening to the whole thing end-to-end multiple times that afternoon until my Mum told me to play something else.  The introduction of Money For Nothing reminded me of Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

I'd been playing my brother's copies of Making Movies and Love Over Gold for months, astounded by the cinematic scale of the songs. Playing guitar for a couple of years I had gravitated towards Knopfler's fingerstyle to escape the NWOBHM on one side and hair rock on the other. He was like nothing else. I got to see Dire Straits three times on the Brothers In Arms tour and it was completely awesome.

One of Nick Hornsby's book dscribes Mr Knopfler's ability to make a guitar sing like an angel after a hard night out on the piss (or something like that). Exactly that.  Mixing rhythmn and blues, melodic pop, rock and somehow using lightning fast Chet Atkins picking licks to glue it all together. It shouldn't work. But then the gods make the rules.


My favourite tracks

• Telegraph Road
• Romeo and Juliet
• Sultans of Swing

Guitar Gods - Justin Sandercoe

I stumbled across www.justinguitar.com about five years ago. I was embarking on a regime of "learning to play properly" and "fixing my self-taught bad habits". Justin's videos were appearing on YouTube and that led me to the site and video lesson heaven.

Justin's teaching has a calm clarity to it, that, mixed with (un)common sense practical tips, humour and occasional dodgy vocals, just works. He is my first stop, default source of guitar wisdom.

I started with 'Master The Major Scale' and Practical Music Theory For Guitarists, and it was like a light switch.

The thing I find most inspirational about Justin is that he makes everything feel possible with the right kind of effort. He is the Burt Weedon of the 21st Century.

My favourite tracks

How to play Sultans Of Swing

Blues (Lead & Rhythmn)

More

www.justinguitar.com

Justin on YouTube

Guitar Gods - James Dean Bradfield

The first time I saw James Dean Bradfield was on Top Of The Pops on BBC1 a gazillion years ago. The Manic Street Preachers were playing Roses In The Hospital, and he must have had an fx pedal called RAGE. It was one of those red or blue pill moments for me - tune in or miss out. Since then I have heard plenty more rage, but also achingly delicate acoustic.

He seems to have a brain that allows his voice and his fingers to work entirely independently of each other on even the most complicated rhythmns.

My favourite tracks 

From Despair To Where (from Gold Against The Soul)

This Is Yesterday (from The Holy Bible)

She Is Suffering (from The Holy Bible)

Raindrops (from the Warchild album)

More

http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/uk/james-dean-bradfield

@MANICS

Guitar Gods - Adam Rafferty

Guitarist, composer, teacher and all-round guru - I came across Adam on YouTube about 6 years ago, playing an awesome acoustic groove of Stevie Wonder's Superstition .  And he has done track after track of amazing covers and original tunes, all with three voices soaring from his Maton.

Live, he can keep an audience captivated (enraptured?) all night and it is a rare solo performer that can do that. He's played with Tommy Emmanuel, Clive Carroll and loads more, and his arrangements have been covered by loads of people including Sungha Jung.  He is known for producing the definitive fingerstyle arrangements of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson tunes.

I stalked, pestered and nagged him for a while online and ended up booking him some gigs in the UK and putting together a small tour a few years ago.  People travelled hundreds of miles to see him play and at Oxford Jazz they had to lay on extra gigs for him to play.

My fee was guitar lessons while he was staying with me, and years later I'm still learning from what he showed me. And as a special treat he showed me how to play his arrangement of Billie Jean - well he let me video a personal lesson of it (all except the moonwalk).

So if you're one of the hundreds of people who ask him for tabs, I have it all on tape.....

Watching Adam and Clive warm up Minor Rag backstage at The Stables in Milton Keynes, is one of the highlights of my guitar-life.

Go see this man.

My Favourite Tracks

Superstition 

Chameleon

Rolling With The Ashes
(This was inspired by being stranded in the UK when the Icelandic volcano erupted, and the mad overnight dash by ferry and train to get from my house to Berlin for a gig the following evening).

More

http://www.adamrafferty.com/

Guitar Gods - Richard Thompson

Some of my best festival moments have happened while watching Richard Thompson at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival. I have gaped open-mouthed in wonder as he simultaneously teases bass, melody and harmony out of a single guitar using only five fingers on each hand.

His fingers move, at times, with the speed and precision of some kind of sci-fi android (think of the film AI) and yet they produce a music that caresses both ears and soul. And he sings while doing it.

There is no other explanation - this man must be cheating.

My favourite tracks

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Feels So Good (I'm Gonna Break Somebody's Heart Tonight)

More

http://richardthompson-music.com/

Guitar Gods - Paul Rose

Paul Rose takes blues-rock playing to new levels. He plays with jaw-dropping vibrato, tapping and that violin volume-swell technique you can do on strat.  But the thing that sets him apart is his FEEL. Check out the link to Summertime below to see what I mean.

He plays LsL Strats through a Hughes & Kettner amp and cabinet with NO effects, and creates a vast array of tones by using the volume, tone and pickup selector on the guitar.

Rory Gallagher described Paul as "a hot player with a hot future", and Seymour Duncan (yes THAT one) rates Paul in his top 5 players (between Jeff Beck #1 and Roy Buchanan #3).

I saw him a couple of days ago in a tiny venue with his 3-piece band (Kenny Huchison - bass, Ted McKenna - drums). It was spectacular. I was grinning all night. And I still am.

My favourite tracks

Summertime (click for youtube)

Get Carter (from the album Note To Self)

All Along The Watchtower. (The first time I heard this I was listening on headphones walking to pick the kids up from school. The second solo made me find a bench to sit down to listen again and again).

Home (from the album Note To Self)

More

www.paulrose.co.uk 

www.youtube.com/user/stratfanatic