Nobody ever plays like Albert King and Albert Collins

Curtis Mayfield, Pops Staples, Lenny Breau, Tuck Andress, Alan Holdsworth, John Cippolina,
Sonny Landreth, Pat Martino and John Scofield are all singular players, IMO.

 

I would say also Curtis Mayfield due to hus weird open tunings and magic touch and Robert Ward which has a unique style of playing blues mixed with some deep african rythmn

 

There's plenty more. Can you name anyone who can sound like Gatemouth, Jeff Beck, Joe Walsh, Terry Kath, or Johnny Winter, to name but a few?

 

Here's a few more- Django, Joe Pass, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Clarence White, George Harrison.

 

I have to say...Stevie Ray Vaughan did a very convincing imitation of Albert King—both in style and in tone...but you’re 100% right about Mr. Collins...

 

Eric Gales' style is pretty unique. And Jeff Healey was too.

 

You are mentioning 2 one of a kind players, so it is obvious to me why few play like them. Collins, in particular, I have mixed monitors for on 3 occasions, so got to see it all up close. He had these incredibly long fingers (same as Gatemouth) that seemed to have a life of their own when he played, axe slung on his right shoulder, and that capo was all over the place. His style of playing was not one that anyone I knew was willing to try emulate. He always had a smokin'-hot band.

 

I'm glad you brought up Jeff Healey. Everytime I watch Road House I tell myself I'm gonna check out more of his stuff but always forget. Love the throwback bar band blues stuff he plays in the movie.

 

SRV seems like a direct lift of Albert King's playing in a lot of ways.

It's like the same guitar playing, in a different decade.

So everyone ripping off SRV is really ripping off Albert King. I doubt SRV would even deny that.

The Sky is Crying is even one of SRV's best known songs. No secret who his influences were.

 

I've heard a few Telecaster players who sometimes cop an Albert Collins feel but Collins was unique in his tone and attack. Add his unique open tuning and the capo and good luck with emulating that!

Albert King was similarly quite unique. SRV got close but did his own thang with it.

All the good players have their own unique flair that other players may get close to but never quite replicate. I once heard Mike Bloomfield say that he wished he could play exactly like B.B. King yet had to settle for what he could and couldn't do on the guitar -- and look what he could do himself!

 

SRV was the first one, in numerous interviews, to credit Albert King, Freddie King and Buddie Guy, to name just a few, as people who he "borrowed" from.

 

Yep. He was an honest man. There hasn't been much totally original in the blues, in probably 50 years or more.

 

I feel like lots of people cop Albert King licks, but not Albert Collins.

 

This session must have been a a big deal for SRV.

 

His playing style is probably a branch from Hendrix but Robin Trower... Not so much that he has one signature thing that he does but just the overall soul, spaciness, and feel I've never heard emulated. His playing is such a product of the 70's though and wasn't very transferable to the 80's mainstream like Clapton.

 

I absolutely love Albert Collins. The Ice Breakers were always solid but my favorite lineup was with Marvin Jackson, Casey Jones, AC Reed, and Johnny B. Gayden.

 

Jesse Ed Davis with Taj Mahal...

 

Jerry Garcia. People can get close to his sound but once it comes to improvising they all get left behind in the dust.