Blues Guitarists TOP 10 7... Johnny Whitehill FINEST MOMENT? Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes??? Live At The 100 Club is quite a blast. The band have that same hard-edged rawness that de???ned the early Fabulous Thunderbirds, but it???s tinged with that unique British blues sensibility. Listen to Johnny???s own album Guitar Slinger, though, to really hear the man in overdrive M Photo: Geoff Marston/Stanley Blues Festival aybe it???s something in the water, but Newcastle blues is as hard as nails and twice as tough ??? and Johnny Whitehill is a case in point. Although voted Best British Blues Guitarist three years running in the annual British Blues Connection Awards, it???s a mystery why Johnny still remains one of the great unsung guitar heroes of British blues scene. Whitehill left the Tyne behind back in the mid ???80s, moving south to London to ???nd fame, if not fortune, with harmonica virtuoso Paul Lamb. With the formation of the Kingsnakes Johnny quickly became Paul???s right-hand man, ripping off stunning energetic solos that belied his quiet onstage persona ??? and invariably stole the show. A master of the slow blues, Johnny???s always had the rare ability to take things down to the merest whisper before cranking things up Gear Johnny???s guitars were stolen so often that he took to playing Epiphone Les Pauls and assorted Fender copies. However, he now plays a proper US Fender Strat through a Dean Markley combo into a blistering ???urries of notes and single-string runs up and down the frets; the mark of a true master. A few years back Johnny left the Kingsnakes and their relentless touring schedule to head back to Newcastle. He???s currently forming a new band; one which he says will play everything from southern soul to Texas blues. Watch this space. 6... Davy Graham W hen Davy Graham???s acoustic masterpiece Folk, Blues And Beyond was released in 1963, it hit the semicomatose English folk scene like a whirlwind. From the raga-like intro of his take on Leadbelly???s Leaving Blues he came on like an acoustic Hendrix, spitting out new ideas and licks. And yet, despite the incredible breadth of his in???uences ??? everything from Appalachian banjo tunes to jazz to the sounds of the Tangiers souk ??? at heart Davy Graham was always ???rst and foremost a bluesman. A close friend of Alexis Korner, he jammed with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers but never felt happy in a band context. Over the years he???s become an icon of the British folk scene, and there are as many myths about the man as there are about Robert Johnson. But if Davy Graham had done nothing more than invent DADGAD tuning, this sonic sorcerer???s place in musical history would still be assured. There can of course be only one; almost half a century on, Folk, Blues And Beyond has not lost its capacity to amaze. It???s a righteous mix of eclectic in???uences that were mindboggling at the time and still have the capacity to astound the listener FINEST MOMENT? Gear Back then he mostly played a Gibson J-50 with a DeArmond pickup, but recent sightings have seen him playing a Fylde and various nylonstrung Spanish guitars 38 March 07 - Guitar & Bass