14. Django Reinhardt (32)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QATIHWbN-sM In the summer of 2005 I had the great fortune to come across a book in the bargain bin of a store near our summer cottage. It was called Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend by Michael Dregni. Having read the name in guitar magazines over the years I decided to fork over 99 cents and give it a read. As an added bonus, the accompanying CD sampler of Reinhardts best known works was still in its sleeve inside the front cover. Djangos story is as incredible as his playing and while it may take a little genre bending on your part to go back and listen, its certainly worth the journey. 13. Slash (22)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R661981EWs Few songs are identifiable within two bars of beginning but G&R's "Sweet Child O' Mine" is one of them. Those iconic 8 notes are merely highlights of what is possibly the greatest debut album of all time. Stylistically, Slash was the antithesis to '80's metal shredders like Malmsteen and Vai. His virtuosity lay not in stunning sweep picking and tapping but in this: Slash took the blues based lead playing of Hendrix, Iommi and Page and turned up the intensity. The entirety of Appetite For Destruction should be a primer for every aspiring guitarist.
Reverend Rock
Contributor
Ross Ingall is a 52 year old ordained Canadian baptist minister who has been listening to hard rock and metal quite literally since each was invented. A second career pastor who attended seminary in his 40's, the Rev hosts Too Metal For Church on Metal Nation Radio. Writing both under his own name as well as the psuedonym/nickname Reverend Rock, Ross has been writing music articles on the web since 1999.
See more from
Reverend