Suggested guitar music listening
(in general categories – no particular order)

Categories covered on this page:
Classic Rock
Pop - Rock
Rock Soloists
Blues
Finger-styleplayers
Country/Folk
Metal
Shred
Jazz
Classic Fusion ("jazz-rock")
Modern Fusion
90s/New Guitar Rock
Solo Classical Guitar
Classical Guitar Duos
Classical Guitar Quartets

Guitar teachers are often asked which artists are good to listen to, or they realize that a particular student doesn’t listen to any guitar music and has little idea of what is out there. The following lists are by no means definitive or exhaustive, and no doubt some sinful omissions have occurred, but they should serve as a good starting point for the novice or the player who wants to broaden their appreciation of guitar repertoire.

Classic Rock
Led Zepplin – Led Zepplin II (the one with Whole Lotta Love on it) or Led Zepplin IV are the biggies but don’t overlook Physical Graffiti – it’s a doozy! If you want a good taster try one of the ‘best of’ sets.

The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya Yas Out – yeh man! It is one of the classic ‘live’ LPs. They have put out many classic recordings over the past 40 years (or is that 400?). A ‘Greatest Hits’ set (there’s been several) is probably the best starting point for a band with so many well-known songs and riffs.

Deep Purple – Machine Head (yes it has got that song on it!)
Deep Purple In Rock and Stormbringer are also quite cool although the latter arguably falls into the Heavy Metal category. The classic stuff is the 1970 –74 period before Ritchie Blackmore split the scene.

Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland is the masterpiece but could be too intense for the uninitiated. A ‘Greatest Hits’ album (there’s a few around) will be a better starting point. Best of all however is to watch the live footage that is available. Charisma is an overused term these days; to see what it really looks (and sounds) like watch this man perform.     [back to top]

Cream (inc. Eric Clapton) – Wheels of Fire, Disraeli Gears, Best of Cream.

Queen – Brian May’s distinctive layered solos are just one of the reasons to get into this band; Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, We Will Rock You etc.

Chuck Berry – Pretty much the original rock guitar star. A ‘best of’ set should give you the handful of gems that his fame was built on (Jhonny B Good,e etc). The sound is corny by later standards and bands like the Beatles and the Stones did better covers but the original is fascinating to hear.

Elvis Presely/ Scotty Moore – Their early recordings set the style. Scotty Moore is the distinctive guitarist on Elvis’ famous early stuff and he’s influenced every rockabilly player since. Check out The Sun Sessions.

David Bowie/Mick Ronson – Bowie’s Aladdin Sane era included Mick Ronson on guitar. One of the most distinctive players in the 70s Glam-Rock scene. He played on most of Bowie’s big hits around that time. Also check out his work with Ian Hunter & Mott The Hoople. (Once Bitten Twice Shy) and on Lou Reed’s Transformer album.

Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall
If you don’t already know Dave Gilmour’s playing then you are just missing out big time. One of the most influential players of the 70s/80s era.
The Eagles – Hotel California – one of the best guitar albums of the 70s. Joe Walsh had recently joined the band and the result was electric!

Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way was one of the biggest Rock hits of all time and it has some great heavy slide playing and voice-box effects.

Boston – the self-titled debut album contains the hit-song More Than a Feeling which features one of the best lead-breaks of the 70s.

Santana – as in the band and the man. Hard to know what category to slot this guy into. The 70s albums are where you’ll find all the classics; tracks like Samba Pati, Black Magic Woman, Europa, Moonflower etc.

Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive – biggest ever selling live album. Not really widely known these days but this is a great guitar album made during the wah-wah and ‘voice-box’ era. Has plenty of great riffs and solos.

Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard – from back in the days when EC was a real rocker. It’s a goodie and was a big hit.
The Allman Brothers featured the short-lived Duane Allman (who features on the original version of Layla) and Dicky Betts. The early seventies material is the classic stuff, including the live material. The instrumental hit Jessica is a must have for electric slide players.

Steve Hunter & Dick Wagner – Who the ****? These guys worked as a pair of hired guns in the 1970s and provided some of the best classic rock guitar playing of the era to Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies, Go to Hell, Welcome to my Nightmare) and for Lou Reed’s Rock and Roll Animal (one of the best of the 70s live albums – awesome). So the thing is you wont find their names on the covers but anything from that era with Steve and/or Dick playing on it will be worth a listen.
Aerosmith – “She told me to Walk this way,…….and talk this way” – yeh!

Van Halen – The first album (self-titled) is a classic heavy rock album. It started the whole wammy-bar, dive-bombing, harmonic squeals & fret-tapping craze. Also try the 3rd & 4th albums.

Johnny Winter – Early albumsThe Progressive Blues Experiment, Second Winter were influential in the 70s. Heavy Rock-Blues.

Bad Company featured the voice of Paul Rodgers who was also in Free. Some great Rock/Blues guitar work in amongst the short-lived careers of both these bands but both had some big 70s Rock hits that should be familiar.

Cold Chisel – Breakfast At Sweethearts, ‘best of’ or ‘live’ set.

Midnight Oil – 10 – 9 - 8, Red Sails In The Sunset, ‘live’ set from early 80s.

Tom Petty – features lots of good hooks and riffs (courtesy of Petty and Mike Campbell) Try the Greatest Hits compilation.

Thin Lizzy – Unfairly neglected 70s Rockers. Had the inimitable Gary Moore onboard until he jumped ship during a tour in the early 80s. Their ‘live’ album from the late 70s is regarded as one of the all-time best live Rock LPs. Singer/writer/bassist Phil Lynott (late) wrote many great songs, including some big hits, and TL were one of the very best of the 70s guitar bands.

AC/DC – Back In Black is a certified classic but really these guys present the same problem as the Rolling Stones; where do you start? One hasn’t got enough fingers to count the records they’ve made and every set contains at least a couple classic Rock tracks. A retrospective would be a goodie and their ‘live’ set from the late 70s (with the late Bon Scott) is a real corker!

Yes – Lots of classic ‘progressive rock’ stuff in the 70s featuring Steve Howe but some of it is quite esoteric. Especially good for guitarists however is the 1984 set 90125 which featured English guitarist Trevor Rabin. Super!

The Darkness – Permission To Land
Yes this band is very new but the moment you hear this album you’ll realize why they get instant ‘classic rock’ status. Mix together equal parts of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury, AC/DC, Foreigner and just a dash of Whitesnake and what do you get? The Darkness of course. The best thing about them is frontman/guitarist Justin Hawkins. This guy is unreconstructed British Rockgod. Oh yes and the music is great too with lots of good rock guitar riffs and solos. Yes the guitar solo is back. And so too is spandex and providing some genuine entertainment on stage. Take note flannelette brigade!

Frank Zappa (& The Mothers Of Invention)
“My guitar wants to kill your mama-“ Not for the faint-hearted but very groovy in a rather bent way!     [back to top]

Pop-Rock
The Beatles – Compared to later flashier players George Harrison is a little underrated these days but his early rockabilly/pop playing and his gorgeous slide playing set the style for so many who followed. Pretty much all of the Beatles recordings are worth knowing if you don’t already. If you are knew to them however try the following: Pop: Rubber Soul and Revolver
Heavier Rock/Pop: The Beatles (the “Double White” album) and Abbey Road.

The Shadows – ‘Greatest Hits’ – full of fabulously cheesy early 60s guitar instrumentals. Grab you surfboard!

The Church – One of the all-time classic guitar bands. Most significant stuff is from 80s to mid-90s. Try The Blurred Crusade, Heyday, Gold Afternoon Fix, Priest = Aura, or check out the Retrospective set.

The Byrds – the original 60s jingle-jangle pop-smiths. Try a Best Of set.

The Smiths – check out the early albums that feature guitarist Johnny Marr

The Police – Andy Summer’s guitar work just made so many of their hits. The first two albums are especially good for guitarists.

Billy Idol/ Stevie Stevens – Stevens is the guitarist on all of Idol’s 80s hits. Rebel Yell, White Wedding, Mony Mony. Also some good album tracks.

Brian Setzer & his Orchestra – put out a really fun big-band rockabilly album in the late 90s. Lots of great guitar lines and excellent production.

T Rex (Marc Bolan) – all of ‘em. Not fiery or flashy playing but great chord riffs and some of the most exciting glam-rock songs of the early 70s.

Neil Young – an amazing musician. Try Harvest. Rust Never Sleeps, in fact most of his 70s output. Also really cool is the solo electric guitar soundtrack he made for the bent western flick Dead Man starring Johnny Depp.

The Stone Roses – Their first album (was there any other!) contains some of the best pop guitar riffs of all time – the sort of riffs you wish you’d thought of yourself!

The Hoodoo Gurus – Stoneage Romeos or try a ‘best of’ set.

The Cruel Sea – The Honeymoon is Over – loads of cool riffs & solos.

U2 – War , Under A Blood Red Sky, Unforgettable Fire.

Suede – The first album Suede from 1993 features the wonderful Bernard Butler. This album has everything from spine-tingling ballads to huge power-chord anthems. The best of 90s Britpop guitar.

The Cure – not necessarily a name you’d think of first when talking guitar stuff but frontman Robert Smith is a great pop guitarist. Especially worth hearing is Japanese Whispers, Head On The Door and Kiss Me Kiss Me. Apart from the gorgeous guitar hooks these albums have some of the best-ever Pop bass guitar riffs. (Disintegration is also a great set for bass lines).

INXS – every album was full of great guitar hooks, especially some fine Pop rhythm riffs.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers – very groovy! Fans would say every album is great but for guitarists the one to have is definitely Blood Sugar Sex Magic.

Dire Straits (Mark Knopfler) – All albums are good and all were big sellers. One of the biggest bands in the world from late 70s to late 80s. Knoplfer’s fingerpicked Strat sound is highly distinctive. (Sultans of Swing etc.).

Fleetwood – Mac Not often mentioned in ‘great guitarist’ raves but the early incarnation of this band featured Peter Green (~ instrumental hit Albatross) and from about ’74 on Lyndsay Buckingham who’s fine pop guitar playing is a prime ingredient in Mac’s phenomenal success circa mid 70s.

Status Quo – Status who?! Well they were huge in the 70s ans whilst the original albums are not quite classics a ‘best of’ set would be lots of fun. They had a knack for unpretentious guitar driven party rock’n’roll.     [back to top]

Rock Soloists
Joe Satriani – Surfing With The Alien, Crystal Planet
Steve Vai – Passion & Warfare
Steve Morse – Coast to Coast, High Tension Wires
Eric Johnson – Ah Via Musicom
Carl Verheyen – Atlas Overload
Steve Lukather – Luke
Jeff Beck – Blow By Blow, Wired. Who Else
Tommy Emmanuel – any     [back to top]

Blues
Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood, Couldn’t Stand The Weather
Robben Ford – Handful Of Blues
Scott Henderson – Dog Party
BB King – Live At The Regal
Eric Clapton – Unplugged
Bonnie Rait – great slide player and a large output. Check her out.
Robert Johnson – his small output is all reissued and although the recordings are old and scratchy (c.1940s) they are powerful examples of the real thing. Some great earthy slide playing and classic blues intros and rhythms. Influenced all the important players in the Rock era.

Gary Moore – Still Got The Blues
Kenny Wayne Shepard –Trouble Is.

Mike Bloomfield – varied career. Check out The Paul Butterfield Blues Band album East West. Also played in The Electric Flag.

Elvyn Bishop – the other guitarist on East West. His own band ‘The Elvyn Bishop Band’ had a big hit in 1976 with Fooled Around and Fell in Love which features one of the most memorable blues guitar solos from any Top 40 hit.

Memphis Minnie – this gal was rockin’ before the term was even invented. Her recordings from the 1930s sound amazingly close to rockabilly – 20 years ahead of time. Old recordings aside these are a fascinating bit of history.

Ry Cooder – hard to know what category to put this guy in. Wonderful musician who has played with the who’s who. His solo albums are great.

Dave Lindley – similar to Ry Cooder (in fact they’ve worked together). His early 80s album El Rayo X is fun with lots of funky/reggae/blues guitar work.     [back to top]

Finger-style players
Marcel Dadi – all good
Stefan Grossman – great Country Blues
Tuck Andress – wonderful funky jazz feel
John Renbourn – great but how available?
Bert Jansch – ditto – both Bert and John played in Pentangle
Leo Kottke – especially the earlier LPs; wonderful 12-string playing
Ralph Towner – all good     [back to top]

Country/Folk
Alan Jackson – Who I Am
Brent Mason – Hot Wired
Danny Gatton – Cruisin Dueces
Albert Lee – Speechless, Gagged But Not Bound
Chet Atkins – Read My Licks
Hellecasters – Return Of The Hellecasters
Steve Wariner – No More Mr Nice Guy
Brad Paisley – Who Needs Pictures
Jerry Donahue – Telecasting
Tommy & Phil Emmanuel – Terra Firma (quite Rocky actually)
Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Jackie Blue     [back to top]

Metal
Metallica – any!
Iron maiden – Number of the Beast
Guns n Roses – Appetite For Destruction
Megadeth – Countdown To Extinction.

Black Sabbath – any! Guitarist Tommy Iommi created several archetypal heavy chord riffs way back before the tag ‘heavy metal’ came into mainstream parlance. He wasn’t big on solos but had a distinctive style and the early albums (up to about ’74) provided the template for the emerging Heavy Metal scene. Classic early metal tracks like Paranoid, War Pigs, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Hole in the Sky come from this era and inspired a whole generation that followed. Check ‘em out!

Living Colour – Vivid
Pantera – Far Beyond Driven
Ted Nugent – Cat Scratch Fever
Spinal tap – soundtrack
Slayer – Reign In Blood     [back to top]

Shred
Jason Becker – Perpetual Burn
Vinnie Moore – Meltdown
Greg Howe – Edge of Insanity
Michael Angelo – No Boundaries
Racer X – Street Lethal
Richie Kotzen – Electric Joy
Joe Satriani – Surfing with the Alien
Yngwie Malmsteen – any!
Steve Vai – Passion and Warfare
Brett Garsed and TJ Helmerich – Quid Pro Quo
Zakk Wylde – The Blessed Hellride     [back to top]