Lyrical Soloing

[redbaron]

By chance I just came across a video showing Gary Moore´s solo on "Empty Rooms" from that live concert in Sweden, 1987 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=KFUW621lgXY

When I saw the video and this solo particularly back in 87, it literally brought me to tears. I thought it was the sweetest, most beautiful melody I had ever heard, for me it was like the song of the sirens in Homer´s "Odyssey" must have been. There´s one more solo that achieves the same for me: Dave Gilmour playing "On the turning away".

Now I´m genuinely wondering if there are any contemporary guitarists who can play this sort of lyrical, tasteful soloing at all? If so, I´d be extremely grateful if you guys could point some out for me....

[Muddhole]

Oh I love Dave Gilmour stuff, I feel it is some of the greatest stuff out to date. I happen to come across this on youtube and thought is was amazing to watch.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HjXN3OLgoqs

[fooks]

great question.
besides the usual suspects, satrianni, vai and he like, i have found a guy called magic red, and a band called electric outlet with a player named, marcus nepomuc deml.
both can be heard at guitar9.com or itunes.
electric outlet i think are from germany? so you may have heard of them or him. anyway, guitar9 is where i've found some great guitar music.
any decent player can play like that but prefer to record something other.

the intro solo to celluloid heros on a live lp from the kinks is killer from dave davies.
not sure of the lp name but you can't miss it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On5372UztI0

check this out. not alot of younger dudes play out like that anymore.

[meesh]

Cool Roy clip....same with the Moore and Jordan one's. All great.

Personally Knopfler and Gilmour are my faves for consistent "sweeping", lyrical like solo's.

Dude that blew me away the most is still Danny Gatton though. Not usually as simple sweet, but fast, furious and the most amazing solo phrasing I've ever heard. I don't have the ability to steal ANYTHING from him.

This is still one of my favorite little vids of him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS5XH84mmI4

[GuitarSlinger]

Jerry Donahue is so good it scares me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdUu5ohPAuA&feature=related

[meesh]

He is great. Best string bender. All those guys from the Hellcasters are friggin amazing.

You've seen/ heard Scotty Anderson too right?

[GuitarSlinger]

Have not heard much. A friend turned me on to the Hellecasters is how I heard of him. Good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcpofztr19E

[redbaron]

Thanks guys, that´s all amazing stuff. But in effect, what you´re saying is that you wouldn´t know of any NEW players in that Moore/Gilmour lyrical style either, would you?

Because Donahue, Buchanan and Stanley Jordan are more or less the same generation of players as Moore and Gilmour. The same applies to Steve Morse or Eric Johnson. Johnson or Vai are not what I´m looking for anyway, because one special feature I´m after is that a player can integrate his lyrical playing into actual SONGS. So pure guitar instrumentalists like Vai or Satriani need not apply.

To an extent, the same accounts for pure blues players. There are many great players who can make the guitar howl over a blues scheme - in fact, that´s something every guitarist out there does on a daily basis, don´t we? But those old Moore, Floyd and Knopfler tunes are no blues songs but pop or rock songs, and to come up with a solo that´s sweet and "cantabile" in a pop song is, I don´t know, something else...

I mean, did you read that one response to the Moore solo?

"jaefransverige (1 month ago)

Reply | Spam

I saw the whole live show where this clip came from in Stockholm, but the part i mostly remembered was this second solo.
I remembered, when Gary sings the last line before the solo, "to live, to live without love" that i thought he was the best emotional vocalist. I know everyone loves Gary, but in this song, he almost screams out loneliness.
And 00.03 -00.20, when he played that part, i recall that the 2 people in fromt of me in he crowd startetd to cry..."

[redbaron]

Of the Old Gods, one more guitarist who could play like this is Michael Schenker... but he too must be 100 now...

[strychninekid]

I know I'm late on this but my favorite instrumental guitarist is Neal Schon from Journey. If you haven't heard his solo stuff you guys are missing some great lyrical soloing and melody's I heard his first cd back in the 80's called Late Night and his stuff from there is just phenominal. If you ever run across the songs Late Night, the themee or Send me an Angel take a good listen. Lots of great hooks in those as well as the rest but those really stand out

Peace

Rich

[redbaron]

Glad to hear that Neal Schon is one of the young, new-generation players I was looking for - and not a guy born in '54

[pooterpatty]

actually I think he was born in '54 But even so, strychnine is right, his soloing is very lyrical, great hooks, and most people don't even know who he is, though everyone knows who Journey is. I just don't see where a guitar player's age has any bearing on his ability to play guitar. We've got 14 year old kids on Riffcaster who would smoke me any day, then you've got people like Bill who are older than dirt and have seen it all.

[redbaron]

I´m absolutely aware of Neal! And to throw in another name of that style - Dann Huff is a great master, too. But... where´s the fresh talent??

[Muddhole]

Fresh talent? I hate to say it, but about 90% of todays musicians suck. Partly due to the Nintendo era. Nobody wants to work on good music, they all want it quick and fast. Money being the number one motorvator of it all. You got pro tools who make drummers play in time with no mistakes using programs like Beat Detective. You can't tell who is who anymore. There was a time when you can hear a song and say, "yup, that's John Bonham alright." Today all drummers sound the same. There really isn't no "fresh talent" IMO.

I have a friend who rents out stage equipment to all kinds of artists and he and friends were at a party where the band Lit where as well. They invited the members of Lit to come up and play a song. All of them refused the offer, but the crowd kept applauding for them to take the stage. The bass player took the stage from Lit and kept mumbling something to my friend who was the drummer. He was saying "I can't really play the bass." My friend told me he thought he was joking so he began to play a beat. Well, he wasn't joking, the guy couldn't play a note if his life depended on it and the song they chose was a standard which I can't recall. Another Milly Vaniily?

Sad...

[blue4u]

I have to agree with a lot of what Muddhole is saying. The amazing musicians are there though. You just have to search them out in coffee houses, jazz clubs, etc. A lot of industry stars are just actors with the right look and the right drama to make a case out of. The end of an era. The good news is, live music has become every more important and relevant. An acoustic guitar and a great singing voice will win every time!

Peace,
Rich