10 Greatest Blues Rock Guitarists
3. BB King
When you think of blues rock, the image of BB King springs to mind almost instantaneously. The silhouette of King in a chair hunched over his trademark guitar Lucille has become an iconic image for any music fan. Over time, King used his guitar talent to become the master of refined minimalism when it came to playing the blues.
If you listen to King's tracks, there is very little adornment to what he is playing, with intense elongated notes. For most music fans, the idea of having long solos with just a few notes sounds like musical torture, but King's tasteful touch on his guitar made a barrage of intense fretwork seem unnecessary.
With just a few strokes, the guitar was able to tap into all the pain King had experienced in his life and deliver it to the audience. King's fantastic use of vibrato also gave his guitar tone an even greater melancholy as the six-string weeps for mercy throughout each of his tracks. Yeah sure there's not a ton of material there, but what is present is some of the highest quality blues you will ever find on this Earth.