Who are your favorite rhythm players?

[bopplayer]

Tell me who you like...

[renico00]

Buzz Feiten

[bjjp2]

Pete Townshend

[Keyser Soze]

Pete Townshend

Well, between the lead singer, the lead bassist, and the lead drummer he really didn't have a lot of room to maneuver.

[GenoVox]

Lennon!!

[hunter]

Sorry to mention him yet again but...

Robben Ford is a damn fine rhythm guitar player. I respect his rhythm work better than his solo work and he plays the hell out of a solo.

hunter

[PAF]

Malcolm Young

[todd richman]

Keith Richards
Rich Robinson

[mrbungel]

Tom Petty
Keef
George Harrison
The late, great Tom Fogerty

[James]

Brett Hartenbach

[TD Moyer]

Curtis Mayfield (& Hendrix evolution of that style)
EVH (brutha had some serious swing!)
Keef
Pagey (esp. his open tunings)

[Red Suede]

Bruce Conte, anyone in James Brown's band, Eddie Van Halen, Malcom Young, anyone in Parlament/Funkadelic, anyone in Earth Wind and Fire, Nile Rogers, Davey Johnstone, John Sykes, Lee Ritenour, Andy Summers, The Edge, James Taylor.....

[Pa'ani]

Paul Jackson Jr.
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Dean Parks
Al McKay (EWF)
Eddie Van Halen

[eliot1025]

Well, between the lead singer, the lead bassist, and the lead drummer he really didn't have a lot of room to maneuver.

Yet Townshend is still inventive, precise, tasteful, technically advanced, unique, powerful with a consistantly great electric guitar tone. (He has also become an underrated soloist.)

[eliot1025]

Ry Cooder
Leo Nocentelli
Jimi Hendrix
Pete Townshend
Keith Richards
Paul Jackson Jr.
Jimmy Page
David Lindley

[goodtone]

Jimi Hendrix, Lennon & Harrison, & Townsend.

[Mark C]

Malcolm Young, Billy Gibbons, Jimmy Nolen, Keith Richards, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, David Grissom, Brent Mason.....

Lots of great rhythm players, some of them are also great lead players.

[bopplayer]

What couple albums is Pete Townsend laying down good rhythm?

[bopplayer]

I've just been thinking lately how i've focused on lead so much that I need to improve my rhythm playing.

[Kaji13]

You can't beat Johnny Marr.

[musicman10_1]

I love EVH's rhythm playing and i think two guys that expanded on that style of rhythm guitar were Nuno Bettencourt and Vito Bratta.

[troykennedy]

EVH
The Edge
Alex Lifeson
Andy Summers
Matt Bellamy

[blakegrif]

+1 Rich Robinson!

[Darkburst]

Keith Richards

Malcolm Young

Izzy Stradlin

[The Last Rebel]

James Hetfield is my personal favorite, but Rich Robinson is a very close second.

[Guitar55]

Bob Weir!

[pula58]

Bob Weir !

[Dave]

Another vote for Pete Townshend.

[Steve73]

Gonna be some repeats here but how can you not:

Keith Richards
Rich Robinson
Leo Nocentelli
Jimi Hendrix
Curtis Mayfield
Malcolm Young
Jimmy Page
Pete Anderson
John Fogerty
Steve Cropper
Jimmy Nolan

[mikefair]

Hank Williams
Buck Owens
Phil Everly

[kriko71]

Pete Townshend
+ 1

[Chrome Dinette]

Nile Rodgers

[Nick67]

Al Anderson
D.Boon
Bob Mould
Keith Richards
Ronnie Wood
Chris Dreja
Pete Townshend
Malcolm Young
Paul Westerberg

[TwoTubMan]

Steve Cropper, Marc Bolan, Chris Spedding.

Creedence's rhythm has pretty much fused with my DNA over the years.

[Chrome Dinette]

Curtis Mayfield

[jazzandmetal?]

Nuno Bettencourt

[bluesbreaker59]

Keef
"Little" Charlie Baty
Hollywood Fats
Jimmie Vaughan
Eldon Shamblin
Bo Ramsey
Gurf Morlix
Tab Benoit
Steve Cropper
Pete Anderson
Scotty Moore
Luther Perkins
Brian Setzer
James Burton
Billy Gibbons
Don Rich
Maybelle Carter
Johnny Cash

[54GT]

Keith
Steve Cropper
Jimi

[tokiswartooth]

James Hetfield- greatest right hand ever, practically invented that style of palm muting, and played the guitar like a percussive instrument. Amazing. Too bad he sucks now. : (

Meshuggah, both are from another planet, polyrhythym to the extreme.

Jimi Hendrix - He was guitar and seemless in his rhythym and lead. Still the greatest.

Billy Gibbons - Just got paid Today may be my favorite Rhythym Guitar of all time.

[Strung Up]

Mmmm . . . not so much. He's more relentlessly OBVIOUS on the downbeats w/ his rhythm work than w/ his soloing. Listen to him playing rhythm on 'Nickel And A Nail' on Ruthie Foster's "Truth", compared to Roy Buchanan's playing on the same cut on "When A Guitar Plays The Blues" (a favorite song, and the only good cut on THAT Roy CD, IMO). R.F. sounds kinda ham-fisted and unimaginative in comparison.

So . . . I'll throw in a couple of his Tele brethren: Cropper (duh!), and Roy.

Sorry to mention him yet again but...

Robben Ford is a damn fine rhythm guitar player. I respect his rhythm work better than his solo work and he plays the hell out of a solo.

hunter

[Steve_2020]

Everyone on the thrread.

I'll add Andy Summers.

[GCDEF]

SRV

[Kooshball]

James Hetfield- greatest right hand ever, practically invented that style of palm muting, and played the guitar like a percussive instrument. Amazing. Too bad he sucks now. : (

Meshuggah, both are from another planet, polyrhythym to the extreme.

Jimi Hendrix - He was guitar and seemless in his rhythym and lead. Still the greatest.

Billy Gibbons - Just got paid Today may be my favorite Rhythym Guitar of all time.

too bad he sucks now? please clarify

[Dickie Fredericks]

Rudy Schenker

[duckbunny]

I'll go with:

-Freddie Green
-Curtis Mayfield
-Eldon Shamblin
-Lenny Breau
-Danny Gatton
-Steve Cropper
-Nile Rodgers
-Al McKay
-Bugs Henderson
-Andy Summers


-db

[dumbell78]

Malcolm Young is my current fav.

[PedalFreak]

Dave Matthews & Jimi Hendrix

[Broken Cord]

Andrew Latimer
Mark Knopfler
Neil Schon
Brian Setzer
Jimi
Danny Gatton
Dave Mustaine

[anxiousmofo]

Bob Weir
Keef
Bill Million

[hammersig]

Cantrell, Hetfield, Townshend, Van Halen, Gorham, Dan Hawkins, Grohl

[jkemmery]

Joan Jett
Malcolm Young
Joe Strummer

[jpervin]

Jimmy Reed

[Jahn]

Steve Cropper.

[sabby]

I think I'm original on the first three. Those notwithstanding, if I didn't read this thread I would have forgotten all of them but for Cropper and Weir. Still, here it goes.

Blind Blake
Mississippi John Hurt
Brownie McGee
Keith Richards
Steve Cropper
Curtis Mayfield
Leo Nocentelli
Bob Weir

[Chrome Dinette]

Carlos Alomar
Andy Taylor

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

EVH

[HHB]

Charlie Hunter should be named

[droptrd]

Cantrel
EVH
Mustain
Malcom Young
Scott Ian

[Wagster]

Curtis Mayfield
Niles Rogers
Randy Jacobs
Jimi Hendrix
Prince

[Cymbaline]

James Hetfield
Jon Schaffer
Malcolm Young
Pete Townshend
Keith Richards

[TravisE]

Keith Richards
Steve Cropper
(Ranger) Doug Green
Rich Robinson
John Lennon
Tom Bukovac

[brothertupelo]

elliott smith
jimi hendrix
richie havens
ani difranco
jimmy page
dave matthews
john lee hooker

[pedalcr8z]

Interesting............Keef is the hands down winner so far in this poll however I would have thought that Ron Wood is the Stones rhythm player and Keef the lead?

[roomservice]

Carlos Alomar!!!!!!!!

[Steve_2020]

Interesting............Keef is the hands down winner so far in this poll however I would have thought that Ron Wood is the Stones rhythm player and Keef the lead?

No. Keef was one of the great rock rhythm players and riff/songwriters. He was an ok lead player for their early and mid 60s stuff. leaning thngs towards his hero Chuck Berry (also a great rhythm player and rhythmic lead player)...also some simple chicago blues things.. Over in the Beatles early on, George Harrsion was leaning things towards His hero Carl Perkins (and thus Chet) and some of the rockabilly guys..

In the mid-70s Ronnie replaced the Stones' (imo) best ever lead player, Mick Taylor. Not taking anything away from Keith or his great rock and roll guitar playing. Literally: no Keith, no Stones.

Mick Taylor could play larger than life world class Big Blues Rock Guitar through stacks....in a time when not that many guys could. He'd been through the John Mayall school of excellent blues guitar and was brought in at a critical time to "heavy up" the stones live sound. They needed MIck's guitar punch so they would could rock in concert as well and as Big as the other superstar bands who'd come out in the late 60s: Cream, Hendrix, Jeff Beck Group....Led Zep had just hit the scene too.

It worked. After a 2 or 3 year hiatus from performing (due to drug busts and general messing around) the stones 1969 tour established them as a live force to be reckoned with.

After their 1972 tour, some folks- and Rolling Stone magazine- were calling them the Stones the "best live rock and roll band in the world." I always liked Charlie Watts response to that somewhat overblown hype: " Well, we might be the best Short rock band in the world..." :)

When Mick Taylor quit in 1974 or so, the stones audtioned a ton of hot lead players but didn't pick another blues rock virtuoso like Mick. They decided on Ronnie, who's playing they thought would be a good compliment to Keith's always rocking, mostly rhythm and riffs playing. Ronnie had proven he could rock big crowds with Rod and the Faces. They also thought Ronnie could hang in for the long haul as he fit their vibe.

They were right.

imo. just the way I remember it etc. ymmv

[Marty s Horne]

Buzz Feiten, John Hall, Hugh McCracken, Al Ferrante.

[zombywoof]

Got to go with John Lennon & Keef

[Jim Jones]

Faces-era Ron Wood...and Steve Marriott! How in the hell could I forget about Steve Marriott!?

[Prairie Belt]

Tony Rice in addition to everyone else mentioned on this thread.

[stratology]

Joao Bosco

[blhm84]

Charlier Hunter lays downs some great rhythm lines.

[Wagster]

Keith Richards
Steve Cropper
(Ranger) Doug Green
Rich Robinson
John Lennon
Tom Bukovac I should of thought of Tom. Great rhythm player.

[musichead1956]

Michael Schenker (UFO/MSG) (superb lead player also)
Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople, Bad Company)
Michael Bruce (Alice Cooper)
Brad Whitford (Aerosmith)
Terry Kath (Chicago)
Lonesome Dave Peverett (Foghat)
Mark Farner (GFR)
Jimi Hendrix
Paul Kossoff (Free)
Keith Richards (The Stones)
Malcom Young (AC/DC)
Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes)
Pete Townsend (The Who)
Dickie Betts (ABB)

These to name a few. Some of these were great lead players in their own right as well. It's nice to have that driving rhythm behind that lead line and not everyone is cut out for it.....or good at it!

[razeregal]

John Lennon
Carlos Alomar
Johnny Ramone
Bob Weir
Eddie Van Halen
Archer Prewitt(The Sea and Cake)
Alasdair Maclean(The Clientele)
Neil Young
Steve Cropper
Sterling Morrison(The Velvet Underground)
Johnny Marr
Catfish Collins(The JB'S/Parliament/Funkadelic)
Hendrix
Curtis Mayfield
David Crosby(on the Byrds records)
Roger McGuinn
Hamish Stuart(Average White Band)
Brian James(The Damned)
Andy Gill(Gang of Four)
Keith Levene(P.I.L)
Joe Strummer

[KBR]

Robert Johnson
Robert Jr./Luther Tucker
Jimmie/Stevie Vaughan
Anson Funderburgh
Curtis Mayfield/Jimi Hendrix
Steve Cropper/ Don Covay
Hollywood Fats/Kid Ramos
Jimmy Reed/Eddie Taylor

[MisterMitch]

Wilko Johnson !!!

[Binaural]

Jimi Hendrix
Keith Richards
Brad Whitford
Stone Gossard
Dave Matthews

[Bo Faulkner]

Guitar George... because he know all the chords.

[roomservice]

Guitar George... because he know all the chords.


ha ha winner!

[sabby]

How could I forget ...

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_p6nmrE1Fl9M/RnuwlX1JOoI/AAAAAAAAAe4/uzWBLNDQf94/s512/jose-feliciano-1973.jpg

... Jose Feliciano?

[mad dog]

So many. Kid Ramos, Rick Holmstrom come to mind right off.

[Adel2]

Beleive it or not, I think that Brian May had a great flowing rhythm. Check out any live version of Brighton rock as well as some of his acoustic work.

[Scottone]

Most of my favs have already been mentioned numerous times on the thread, so I'll just mention Rick Derringer. His playing on "Back in the USA" off Edgar Winter's Roadwork album is one of my benchmarks for a great rock rhythm part.

[taco-man]

I'm kind of a Heart fan-boy, so I'll nominate Nancy Wilson.