10 Greatest Indie Guitar Heroes

7. PJ Harvey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cevC5Yb1Us The only woman to make the cut - the world of guitar players is very male dominated, no matter how fey they are. The contemporary world of female guitarists is sparse, yes, there's Haim (yawn...) but Anna Calvi is well worth seeking out (our new female guitar heroine - who is criminally ignored), hopefully that won't continue to be the case. PJ Harvey is such an unbelievable talent as a songwriter, singer, performer and most recently the host of The Today show that established her on the front pages of daily newspapers as a consummate leftie, that it's all too easy to forget what a formidable musician, and especially what a wonderful guitar player she is; one who can certainly give the boys here a run for their money. When she emerged from Somerset in the 90's, she seemingly had an agenda, which was 'anything the boys can do, I can do better, ' and once she proved that exemplary guitar playing wasn't exclusive to the males, she pretty much put it to one side. Sure, she played it on the records, but live, she wanted to bring the songs to life, and a guitar strap was a hindrance to that. Every PJ Harvey record is eagerly awaited and dissected, and whilst she has flirted with Zithers and keyboards, for me she's Bob Dylan's female equal, I'd love her to come back with a stripped down album featuring just her voice and acoustic guitar, which would be like a female Scott Walker with Bert Jansch on guitar, and how fantastic would that be?