The results are in! Guitar Player asked readers to pick the top new blues guitarists, and your votes are revealed in the January 2023 issue.
This special issue features four different covers, each celebrating one of our top celebrants: Marcus King, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Larkin Poe’s Rebecca and Megan Lovell and GA-20’s Matt Stubbs and Pat Faherty. The features include deep interviews with each guitarist, including playing tips from Marcus and Kingfish, lap-steel tips from Megan, and a photo gallery of the vintage guitars and amps behind GA-20’s chart-topping blues albums.
In addition, we profile the entire field of entrants, including guitarists Ally Venable, Jared James Nichols, Tyler Bryant, Josh Smith, Artur Menezes, Erja Lyytinen and Martin Harley.
And that’s not the only blues-related content in this special issue: Slide virtuoso Sonny Landreth is also on hand to share his top 10 slide tips for everyone from beginners to pros. We also have an extended interview with blues great Chris Buck as he debuts the first album from his band, Cardinal Black.
Also in this issue, we speak with guitarist, producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Tashian about the three rules that governed the creation of his new album, ‘Night After Night.’ Daniel has made his mark as a writer and producer behind Kacey Musgraves’ Grammy-winning ‘Golden Hour’ album. On ‘Night After Night,’ he teams up with Americana legend Paul Kennerley to create a guitar-rocking album that every player needs to hear.
We also catch up celebrated American songwriter and guitarist Jim Lauderdale as he launches his 35th album, ‘Game Changer.’ Jim shares stories behind his evolution as a guitarist and reveals how, many years into his career, he’s working to continually improve his game.
As always, we have lessons, including a tutorial celebrating the metal mastery of Randy Rhoads 40 years after his tragic death. And we bring you reviews of the latest gear, including the new Epiphone Joe Bonamassa 1962 ES-335; Grez Guitars Mendocino DC; the PRS Horsemeat Transparent Overdrive, Mary Cries Optical Compressor and Wind Through The Trees Dual Analog Flanger; the Victory V1 Duchess and Jack Overdrive; the Boss Dual Cube LX, and more!