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EXPLAINED: Albert collins | Rare Historical Photos

“If James Burton recorded that song one more time, it would not have sounded the same. They caught lightning in a bottle”: An all-star guitar panel choose their Telecaster Mount Rushmore – its greatest players, their greatest tracks

Pros pick their favorite Tele riffs and solos and decide who should be carved into that massive “Telecaster Mount Rushmore” that exists only in our deranged minds

Guitar World

When a 12-year-old Joe Bonamassa played with his blues hero: “He pointed his Telecaster at me. It was his way of saying, ‘Welcome to the big leagues kid. I’m testing you to see if you have it’”

A young Bonamassa got the chance to sit in with Albert Collins and it was a trial by fire

Guitar World

“They didn’t call him the Iceman for nothing. I mean, I was on the receiving end when I was a kid”: Joe Bonamassa on how Albert Collins taught him to wield his guitar as “a weapon” – and jamming with him was the ultimate test of his “intestinal fortitude”

Bonamassa was just a young kid with great chops who had impressed Danny Gatton. Up onstage with the Iceman taught him how you could pin the audience to their seat with one note

MusicRadar

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“Clapton in Crossroads, Gilmour in Comfortably Numb and Peter Green in Black Magic Woman… all have their own take on how they approach rhythms in the phrasing”: The secret to great guitar solos isn’t technique – it’s rhythm

All the greats put themselves into their phrasing, and that identity was not only note choice but rhythm. Here are four ways you can add rhythmic interest to great effect

Guitar World

“I think it’s hard for blues artists to get endorsement deals… but hey, if someone at Guild is reading this, give me a call!” Larry McCray on his Albert King-inspired Flying V, touring with Gary Moore and his life in three guitars

The blues comeback king tells his life story via the medium of three guitars that he can’t live without

Guitar World

“The promoter was panicking and asked me to headline. I didn't have a band with me. And I didn't have any solo material prepared”: Paul Gilbert’s completely unplanned Jimi Hendrix tribute set for first-ever digital release

After a collab with Albert Collins fell through at the last minute, Gilbert had just hours to come up with an alternative set

Guitar World

“The night he died, I was at Buddy Guy’s club waiting for Buddy, Stevie and Clapton. Then we were told they’d all gone down”: Larry McCray on rubbing shoulders with blues royalty and playing through Joe Bonamassa’s epic rig

Living blues legend Larry McCray is keeping on keeping on and keeping the blues alive, and on his latest LP, Heartbreak City, he's taking his guitar to places his voice can't reach

Guitar World

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“I could never play a Strat – with Stevie Ray Vaughan being my first influence, every time I play one it’s like I’m 13 again, hacking through Pride And Joy”: Joanne Shaw Taylor on how the blues helped her find her voice, and why she'll always choose Teles

Having embarked on a journey from classical guitar to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins, Taylor is determined to keep the blues alive... until she can open that dog shelter

Guitar World

“When I was 15, I was hustling it out in the juke joint clubs – and then along came Mr. Buddy Guy…” From teenage prodigy to modern guitar royalty, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is ushering in a new era for blues guitar

Hard Road is the sound of an artist maturing, dealing with tragedy, life, and new ideas for putting a fresh twist on one of electric guitar's foundational sounds

Guitar World

“I went back to Joe and I said, ‘It’s my dream guitar but I don’t have $5,000’”: Joanne Shaw Taylor on how Joe Bonamassa’s haggling skills helped her land a signed signature model of her favorite player

Taylor recalls how Bonamassa put his negotiation skills to good use to help her acquire her dream guitar… before keeping it for himself

Guitar World

“In all the years I’d played with Albert, I’d always wanted to hear him play something in a minor key – and he smoked it!”: Robert Cray tells the story behind the greatest all-star blues team-up of the ‘80s

In 1985, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Robert Cray got together for Showdown! – a bona-fide blues classic, and, as Cray tells us, a real fun time, too

Guitar World

“Freddie King would ask me why I never tried using thumbpicks... I really like digging in with my fingers”: He replaced Jimi Hendrix in Little Richard's band, was idolized by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is one of the most underrated Tele slingers of all time

Extracting inimitable, stinging tone from his Tele with just his fingers, Albert Collins carved a hugely influential sonic path for himself, though he's still often left out of discussions of the greatest blues guitarists of all time

Guitar World

“There are so many sounds tobe discovered when you get away from using a pick”: Jared James Nichols shows you how to add “snap, crackle and pop” to your playing with banjo rolls and string snaps

Here's a blues power-up for your fingerstyle technique, as the big man combines chicken pickin' with snappy pops on the strings

Guitar World

“Freddie King would ask me why I never tried using thumbpicks – I just couldn't play with one”: He took Jimi Hendrix's place in Little Richard's band, was idolized by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is one of the most overlooked Telecaster slingers of all time

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“Your picking hand is where you control your tone. It’s surprising to me that so few people really talk about it”: Sue Foley explains why your picking hand is the key to great guitar tone

Decent equipment helps – but, according to Foley, the picking hand is the crux of achieving a great guitar tone

Guitar World

From “vicious” lines inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan to ice-cold leads in the style of Albert Collins, Philip Sayce channels the blues licks of the greats – and his masterclass will supercharge your pentatonic solos

The Canadian maestro is your instructor today, and for this lesson you're going to be digging deep for some Texas sizzle and red-hot pentatonic turnarounds

Guitar World

What do the finest blues guitarists of the past 60 years have in common? From B.B. King to Eric Gales, these are the technique secrets behind 30 of the most iconic players

Starting from ’50s electric blues pioneers, we're bending the blues scale into different shapes, with 30 licks taking us up to the present day as the art form continues to evolve and thrive

Guitar World

10 legendary blues guitars, from Lucille to Lucy and the ‘Loch Ness Monster of Les Pauls’ – a priceless Gibson that has been missing for more than 50 years

Named and famed! Behind every great blues player is a great guitar, and they don’t come more iconic than this...

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Guitar World

“So well-versed in the art of blues that B.B. King said ‘he was like another one of my sons’”: 12 blues guitar albums that chart the genre – and the instrument’s – evolution

From Son House to Eric Gales, John Lee Hooker to Albert Collins, these classics highlight how blues guitar has changed over the years – its stories, tones and techniques all passed down and reinvented

Guitar World

Albert Collins wasn’t just the ‘Master of the Telecaster’. His ferocious attack and tone also earned him the nickname ‘The Iceman’ – and with licks like this, it’s not hard to see why

Put a cold shot into your playing with the ultra-cool licks from the one of the most vital guitarists in blues history

Louder

"I came home from school and learned all the sounds, and learned all the songs note for note. I could just relate to it somehow": How the blues galvanised Gary Moore

Heavily influenced by the 60s boom, Thin Lizzy’s perennially under-rated guitarist Gary Moore would take blues rock to the next level and beyond

Guitar World

“Those were some deep demons that were trying to exorcise themselves. He played with such bad intention. Even when he was playing the quiet stuff”: Joe Bonamassa on what made Gary Moore a guitar legend – and how he got him hooked on Les Pauls

JoBo explains why Moore could play through anything and make it sound good, and how when you hear Sloe Gin at a Bonamassa show you're hearing the influence of blues guitar's Belfast boy

Guitar World

Stevie Ray Vaughan virtually defined the art of the Texas shuffle – learn the playing style that shaped the sound of blues to come

The late, great Stratocaster master’s techniques will add some Texas heat to your blues playing, guaranteed

Guitar World

Watch Lonnie Mack, one of the original Flying V masters, trade licks with Tele titans Albert Collins and Roy Buchanan

The three six-string aces came together for the aptly named American Guitar Heroes concert at Carnegie Hall in 1985

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