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Posts Tagged The Best Guitarist In The World

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March 10, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Poem: Eddie Van Halen Was At One Time The Greatest Guitarist In The World But He Was Apparently A Bit Of A Prick

This one time I met a friend of  a friend – they were all ‘she’s great, she’s so into music’ or something like that. and so at some point we’re all at this restaurant and I can’t remember the story exactly – but it was about people that are good at things but are total arseholes, and the whole […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Eddie Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen Was At One Time The Greatest Guitarist In The World But He Was Apparently A Bit Of A Prick, Poem, Poem: Eddie Van Halen Was At One Time The Greatest Guitarist In The World But He Was Apparently A Bit Of A Prick, The Best Guitarist In The World, Van Halen ·

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April 4, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 13 – Bert Jansch

Bert Jansch died in October 2011. He was one of my favourite guitarists; one of my favourite acoustic players. He opened up a whole new world of music to me. Jansch was a leading figure in the British folk boom of the 1960s, a revivalist and innovator. He was a pioneer and a guitar prophet […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Acoustic, Bert and John, Bert Jansch, Folk, Guitar, Guitarist, Pentangle, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 13 – Bert Jansch ·

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May 11, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 698

Los Lobos, How Will The Wolf Survive? (1984) I was having the conversation I feel like I so often have – once again just recently – where I defend Los Lobos and point out they were (and still are) more than the La Bamba soundtrack (not that there was anything wrong with that). A friend asked […]
Posted in Blog, The Vinyl Countdown · Tagged 1984, David Hidalgo, HOw Will The Wolf Survive, I Got Loaded, La Bamba, Los Lobos, LP, Prince, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 10, The Vinyl Countdown # 698, Vinyl ·

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December 29, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

Off The Tracks’ (Belated) Christmas Message: Year in Review 2015

Last year I was a day late, even slacker this year, sorry… but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and thanks for reading Off The Tracks. Three full years we’ve been operating now – I say ‘we’ because it’s due to you and me. I had a week off in Hawke’s Bay where […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 2015, Albums, Blog On The Tracks, DJ, Films, Five Albums I'm Loving Right Now, Five Films That Stay With Me, Gigs, Guest Posts, Jon Mcleary, Michael Ross, Music, Off The Tracks, Off The Tracks’ (Belated) Christmas Message: Year in Review 2015, Off The Tracks’ Christmas Message: Year in Review 2015, Radio Nowhere, Reviewing, Reviews, Stuff.co.nz, Sweetman Podcast, Thank You, Thanks, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Ghost of Electricity, The Vinyl Countdown, Vinyl, War Stories, Writing, Xmas Message, Year in Review ·

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November 29, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

Steve Vai: Stillness in Motion – Vai Live in LA

Steve Vai Stillness in Motion: Vai Live in LA Legacy It’s a double-live album, a new release, but the show is from 2012. And that’s probably all you really need to know, you’re now at one end of the other: the very prospect of this is simply far too much Steve Vai for you to […]
Posted in Blog, Reviews · Tagged Album Review, Guitar, Live, Steve Vai, Stillness in Motion, Stillness in Motion: Vai Live in LA, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist In The World # 6, The Story of Light, Vai, Vai Live in LA ·

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August 6, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 12 – Stevie Ray Vaughan

We’re less than a month away from it being 25 years since Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed. But I’m talking to you about this now because, well, I wanted to include him in this series… It’s easy – now – to see Steve Ray Vaughan as some bogan rock-as-blues/blues-as-rock guy, because of the influence, his […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged 25 Years, Albert Collins, Albert King, Blog On The Tracks, David Bowie, Eulogy, Facebook, Guitar, Guitarist, Jimmie Vaughan, Midge Marsden, Phantom Billstickers, R.I.P., SRV, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stuff.co.nz, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist In The World # 12, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 12 – Stevie Ray Vaughan ·

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August 6, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham

You never even used to see this guy considered for The Best Guitarist lists…and, actually, maybe you still don’t, come to think of it…but I reckon something changed when the core version of Fleetwood Mac, the classic FM-music version of the group, reformed for Bill Clinton’s inauguration and started a victory-lap tour of sorts. (One […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Best Guitarist, Bob Welch, Facebook, Fleetwood Mac, FM, Go Insane, Guitar, Gypsy, Law & Order, Lindsey Buckingham, Mirage, Peter Green, Phantom Billstickers, Rumours, Stevie Nicks, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 11, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham, Trouble, Tusk, Wilco ·

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August 5, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 10 – David Hidalgo

A few years ago I was interviewing Mitchell Froom. In the 1990s Froom was one of those Everywhere Producers. He was married to Suzanne Vega and helped with her records, he produced Crowded House – and played the beautiful organ solo for Don’t Dream It’s Over. He had mega-hits with The Corrs and Sheryl Crow […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Blog On The Tracks, Bob Dylan, Crowded House, David Hidalgo, Facebook, Guitar, Guitarist, Houndog, La Bamba, Mitchell Froom, Neil Finn, On Song, Phantom Billstickers, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 10, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 10 – David Hidalgo, The Latin Playboys, The Wolves, Tom Waits ·

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August 4, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 9 – Django Reinhardt

He died right around the time my mother was born – and I read all about him in a guitar magazine when I was 13. He was my hero. I bought tapes and listened to anything I could find – it was Django Reinhardt in between Beastie Boys and Deep Purple and Dire Straits and […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Best Guitar, Django Reinhardt, Facebook, Guitar, Jazz, Phantom Billstickers, Stephane Grappelli, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 9, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 9 – Django Reinhardt, Woody Allen ·

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August 3, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler

I remember one time at school some guy told me “the best guitarist in the world is Mark Knopfler”. I laughed at him. Not entirely sure why – I’ve always been a fan. But it just didn’t sit with me – and to give this full context, this was way back – mid-80s, when Knopfler […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Aztec Camera, Best Guitarist, Bob Dylan, Cal, Dire Straits, Emmylou Harris, Facebook, Guitar, Guitarist, Last Exit To Brooklyn, Local Hero, Mark Knopfler, Phantom Billstickers, Randy Newman, Scott Walker, Soundtrack Composer, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 8, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler, The Princess Bride, Willy DeVille ·

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August 2, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World: # 7 – Duane Allman

When I was about 14 – and at the peak of my guitar-loving “discovery” years, a devotee of Guitar Player magazine, as open to (and obsessed with) Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson – I remember watching a History of Rock doc which had a featurette around rock’n’roll guitar […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Aretha Franklin, At Fillmore, At Fillmore East, Best Guitarist, Boz Scaggs, Derek and The Dominos, Dickey Betts, Duane Allman, Eat A Peach, Eric Clapton, Facebook, Gregg Allman, Guitar, Hey Jude, Layla, Phantom Billstickers, Sessions, Skydog, Statesboro Blues, The Allman Brothers, The Allman Brothers Band, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 7, The Best Guitarist in The World: # 7 – Duane Allman, Whipping Post, Wilson Pickett ·

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August 2, 2015 by Simon Sweetman

The Best Guitarist in The World # 6 – Steve Vai

No, no, hear me out – Steve Vai is one of the very few from the “Shred Shed” that transcends that silly notion. For a start, he knows when he’s being a ham. I don’t think Joe Satriani has that awareness. The movie Crossroads was so important to me growing up. Not the Britney Spears […]
Posted in Blog, Miscellany · Tagged Best Guitar, Blog On The Tracks, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Facebook, Frank Zappa, G3, Guitar, Interview, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Phantom Billstickers, Steve Vai, Stuff.co.nz, The Best Guitarist In The World, The Best Guitarist in The World # 6 – Steve Vai, The Guest Guitarist in the World # 6, Vai, Whitesnake ·
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