Conference napalm::guitar

    Brian,
    
    re Steve Swallow...
    
    I saw him with Gary Burton. Excellent bassist! He should
    at least be in the running. But then what do I know, I
    voted for Geddy Lee as Best Jazz Bassist. :-) Just KIDDING...
    
    -Tom

    >  And howcum Steve Morse always makes the top five in country guitar?
    
    Answer:
    
    	"General Lee"
    	"Pride of the Farm"
    	"The Bash"
    	"Refried Funky Chicken"
    	"Where's Dixie"
    
    Can you tell me that these aren't some of the finest examples of
    country guitar you've ever heard?
    
    	db

	yep...I dropped a jaw on Stu Hamm too....Jazz??? But then
again GP is not Down Beat either.... It always seemed like a 
popularity poll to me,so who got it for jazz guitar?...Wingnut
Malmsteen? :^) :^) :^)

						asbestos suit on!
						
							Rick

    
    Larry Carlton won the jazz section this year. Whatever. I also 
    saw that Al DiMeola won the jazz section five years in a row. 
    Strange, I've never heard Al play jazz...
    
    I'm a recent subscriber to this magazine, and I have strongly
    considered cancelling it. The ads are pretty funny though...
    

re:        <<< Note 1590.4 by POBOX::DAVIA "Drinkin' mash, talkin' trash" >>>

>    I'm a recent subscriber to this magazine, and I have strongly
>    considered cancelling it. The ads are pretty funny though...

    Do they still have the one for B.C. Rich with the woman standing behind
    the guitar and holding it in a "certain way"?  I've always wanted a 
    poster of that ad.  I think it was the original "Rich Bich" ad.
   'Course, the last time I saw it (or a copy of GP for that matter) was 
    about 10 years ago.

    "Here's a Company That's Out Standing in Their Field" was also a fave.

     -- Sam

    I gave up on GP ten years ago...I do wish I'd kept all the issues from
    year 2 on though...GP used to be about 3% ads and the rest was articles
    collums etc...and then one day like flicking a switch they became
    mostly ads, I unsubscribed...not to mention that lon g before that I
    had lost interest in how rockstar X sets the knobs on his stack...
    
    dbii
    

    I haven't checked lately, but Ry Cooder used to be the perennial
    winner in the "Acoustic Blues" category, despite his repeated
    assertions that he's played little or no acoustic for years.

    
    Re: .2
    
    Aw, c'mon Dave...
    
    I know and you know that those tunes are why Steve is in there but he
    just aint a country player and those aren't really country songs.  He
    *dabbles* in the music and he does know a lot of great country licks,
    but it's just one small facet of his music.  When he plays the Opry,
    then I won't mind him beating out the 10,0001 other Nashville cats.
    
    Might as well give him best classical player too by that logic.  
    Or Yngwie for that matter  8^)  8^)  8^)
     
    							Brian

    > Might as well give him best classical player too by that logic.
    
    Yeah, but Bri... think about it.
    
    By your logic he wouldn't be elegible for ANY category other than
    perhaps "Best Overall" (which he *IS* now ineligible for having
    won it 5 years in a row).
    
    I mean he "dabbles" in everything and specializes in nothing.
    
    Is he a rock guitarist?  I certainly don't think so.
    
    Jazz?  Only a small percentage of what he does.
    
    New Age?  Just started that with the new album.
    
    I have found Morse records at one time or another filed in all of
    the following record categories (bins at record stores):
    
    	o Rock
    	o Jazz
    	o Country
    	o Instrumental
    	o New Age
    
    Actually, I'd say country shows up as an influence in more of his tunes
    than any other likely category.
    
    	db

    C'mon guys,we all know the way these polls are conducted are a load of
    cr*p!!Obviously,the whole sheet has to be filled in for every
    category,so if Joe Bloggs is the only decent pan-pipe player you've
    ever heard play Bar Mitzvah music,you're gonna put him down in that
    section as first choice.
    	Because 5,000,000 Morsefites have heard his country stuff and ain't
    heard of Tony Rice,Dan Crary etc,and only maybe 10,000 have,doesn't
    mean he's a better COUNTRY guitarist than them.......
        Any more than in FRETS magazine polls(by more specialized readers
    who should've known better!) Roy Clark would often come out as top
    BANJO player...above guys like Bela Fleck,Tony Trischka who could whup
    his a** anytime. I rest my case.
    					Big Jim.
    

    Ooh, here's a new subject for me :-) :-):-) Luckily I don't have strong
    opinions about it.
    
    All these polls are just popularity contests--they might as well just
    list record sales. The GP one is particularly frustrating, in that
    there's some thinking that says "guitarists are more knowledgeable than
    ordinary folks when it comes to picking the best guitarists".  If you
    look at who the average GP reader is, you'd probably find a young, rock
    player, and so all the categories are skewed to what young, rock
    players like. Which would mean Hamm over Swallow, Carlton over Hall. I
    wish that when readers fill out their ballots, they would just leave
    blank the categories about which they know nothing.  
    
    Since Metheny and Scofield were #1 & 2 in the Downbeat reader's poll, I
    can't just blame it on GP--it's everywhere. I have to admit that I
    think these two play slightly more jazz than Carlton, but I was still
    discouraged by this poll..
    
    For the record, I'm a charter GP subscriber, and I've hardly spent 10
    minutes reading each of the last year's issues. What used to be a
    well-balanced magazine has shifted strongly towards the Guitar World
    school of "everything about guitar, as long as it's rock". I am also a
    GW charter sub, but I will probably cancel. With Frets gone too, GP is
    the only guitar rag I like, but it's hanging on by a thread. 
    
    
    Danny W.
     
    

	What I thought was interesting about the poll were the results in
	the new category "Slide guitar".  Ry Cooder of course took first
	place.  And Bonnie Raitt with a new album containing a couple of
	cuts with some good slide playing took second.  Then Johnny Winter
	in third place....well, I guess he used to play some good slide
	but most of his newer stuff has strayed away from it.  (I really
	gaven't checked out Winter of '88 though).  But the real interesting
	one was Scott Colby came in fourth.  Anybody but me ever hear of
	him?  I thought it was interesting that they had an article in
	the september (I believe issue) of GP and then he shows up in the
	polls.  His playing doesn't even really sound like slide.  What
	about folks like Roy Rogers, Sonny Landreth, Little Ed, etc. who
	have been doing some great stuff the last year or so for slide?

	Oh well....that's a popularity contest for you....

	Anyway, the reason that I've kept my subscription to GP is that
	it has turned me on to lots of good players who I may not have
	heard about otherwise.  I tend to skip most of the cover stories
	and check out some of the new stuff.  I probably wouldn't have
	found out about Sonny Landreth, Roy Rogers, Scott Colby and lots
	of others if I hadn't been reading GP.  I guess they could pare
	down their amount of HM coverage though.  

	_gary