Who is your favorite slide Guitarist?

[0SubSeanik0]

"When I die they'll say, 'he couldn't play sh*t but he sure made it sound good.'"
-- Hound Dog Taylor

Probably not the best, but far and away my favorite (as evidenced by my avatar).

 

[Rowdyman]

Best - Trucks, Cooder, Haynes, Winter,,,,,

Favorite - The Hound!

 

[bottlenecker]

I can't pick a favorite. On my list of bottleneck (non-steel) players I love listening to would be Fred McDowell, Ry Cooder, Hound Dog Taylor, Elmore James, and many more.

But,
I can tell you that Derek Trucks might be the most capable slide player I know of right now. I don't have his records or listen to his stuff much. I don't care for the style of the musical context he plays in, and that's always more important to me than how well someone plays. Maybe it'll grab me different some day, but it's too jam rock sounding for me...
But,
that guy's control and intonation are just beyond. I've seen Sonny Landreth a couple times and haven't heard him do anything to compare to Derek playing eastern scale licks. As far as I'm concerned, playing slide is about microtonalism and escaping the 12 tone prison. Derek sounds like he was born free of it.

 

[darkwaters]

"When I die they'll say, 'he couldn't play sh*t but he sure made it sound good.'"
-- Hound Dog Taylor

Probably not the best, but far and away my favorite (as evidenced by my avatar).

I first heard The Dog in the early 80s through a friend and was immediately blown away. If you’re looking for finesse , look elsewhere, but if you like your slide played with an aggressive punk attitude, look no further.

Cave Canem!

 

[Crashbelt]

Ry Cooder

 

[jhundt]

Captain Twang

 

[Billy3]

Electric, Trucks and Duane and Jr Brown. Acoustic, Leo Kottke. Square neck, Jerry Douglas.

 

[gitold]

Muddy Waters.

 

[bumnote]

No one played with more wild abandonment than Hound Dog Taylor...



Are there better...absolutely. But his style of playing took balls.

 

[black_doug]

I can’t choose just one so I’ll say my top three.

Muddy Waters
Eric Clapton
Ry Cooder

 

[Ed Driscoll]

George Harrison; with Brian Jones in second; even as he was descending into dissipation, Jones was capable of parts like this:

 

[Boreas]

I kind of took him to mean other-than pedal steel, but . Nothing against Gilmour, for sure.

Gilmour often played ON a PS, but usually just used it as a big lap steel. He seemed to prefer the PS for recording and the LS for live stuff. Probably a tone thing. I rarely have seen him use the pedals. He often tunes them for a particular song/solo and often not standard tunings. Some of his LS is played in typical guitar tuning, as he is usually just playing single-note solos on them. But it is his FEEL and STYLE that makes his slide playing unique and recognizeable, not the instrument.

 

[David Barnett]

Who played on the old Hank Williams records? That guy was a MF-er.

 

[teleman1]

George Harrison; with Brian Jones in second; even as he was descending into dissipation, Jones was capable of parts like this:

Are you sure that is Brian Jones?. The slide makes the song.

 

[Timbresmith1]

I slice ‘em like I sees ‘em.

 

[Timbresmith1]

Who played on the old Hank Williams records? That guy was a MF-er.

Curly Chalker

 

[Flaneur]

Covering the Hound's tunes- or playing in his style......it's a workout.

 

[Timbresmith1]

Curly Chalker

Oops. Don Helms.

 

[stantheman]

Luther Allison & Muddy Waters & Johnny Winter & Jerry Douglas.

 

[Guzzie]

Listen to Joey Landreth great slide player