Best Musicians

Who is the best performer you've seen on various instruments including vocals. The three that are clear choices for me are:

• Guitar: Richard Thompson
• Drums: Eddie Hartness
• Female Vocal: Annie Haslam

Nifty topic!

• Acoustic Guitar: Peter Mulvey
• Electric Guitar: Trey Anastasio
• Bass: Les Claypool
• Drums: Jon Fishman
• Keyboard: John Medeski
• Male Vox: Tie - Dave Matheson and Peter Mulvey
• Female Vox: Susan Werner

• keyboards: I'm seconding John Medeski
• piano: Carol Welsman
• male vocal: Martyn Joseph (for now)
• group vocal: Cultural Heritage Choir

it gets a lot harder from there, and even that's not easy.. I'll have to think about it some more.

 

Acoustic Guitar: Peter Mulvey
Electric Guitar: Trey Anastasio
Bass: Victor Wooten (Les is a close second)
Percussion: Eddie Hartness
Banjo: Bela Fleck
Harmonica: Howard Levy
Male Vox: Peter Mulvey or Tom Waits
Female Vox: Katharine Whalen

Cowbell: Gene Frenkle ;)

Oooh - toughie...

~ Acoustic guitar - Stephen Fearing
~ Electric guitar - (tossup) Danny Michel/Colin Linden
~ Bass - Maury Lafoy
~ Drums - Eddie Hartness
~ Banjo - Dave Matheson :)
~ Male vocal (this is the tough one) - Stephen Fearing/Danny Michel (tossup)
~ Female vocal - Katherine Wheatley

• Male Vocal: Billy Joel.  A tough call, seriously.
• Female Vocal: Julie Murphy Wells.  Without question
• Electric Guitar: John Petrucci of Dream Theater (Honorable mention: Dan Miller of TMBG)
• Acoustic Guitar: Robbie Schaefer
• Bass: John Myung of Dream Theater
• Drums:  Tie between Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater & Eddie Hartness.  Two completely different styles, so you can't compare them.
• Piano/Keyboards: Tie between Ben Folds and Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater.  Once again, two completely different styles.
• Harp: Mike Clem
• Mandolin: Nicklecreek
• Violin: Nicklecreek
• Songwriting: John Linnell
• Accordion: Weird Al Yankovic.
• Best showman on stage: Weird Al.  I'm completely serious folks.
• Banjo: Dave Matheson (I've only seen one band with a banjo!)
• Tin whistle: Jian Ghomeshi (same thing!)

of those I've seen live.....

Electric guitar: Pete Kennedy
Acoustic guitar: Robbie Schaefer
A cappella guitar: Bernie Muller-Thym
Bass guitar: Hal Cragin
Upright bass: Jim Creeggan
Piano: Ben Folds
Hand percussion: Brian Rosenworcel
Drum kit: Rachel Trachtenburg (ok, not really, but she will be eventually!)
Male vocal: Tory Cassis
Female vocal: Dar Williams

Rachel is certainly the cutest drummer :-)

Are you looking for best musicians or best performer?

Those are two WAY different things in my little black book!

~J~

These are who I can think of off the top of my head:

• Female Vocal: Susan Werner
• Drums: Eddie Hartness
• Bass: Gail Ann Dorsey
• Male Vocal: Christopher Williams
• Fiddle: Tracy Grammer
• Piano: (3-Way Tie) Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Tori Amos
• Melodica: Julie Wolff (then again, I've only seen one show with a Melodica in it)
• Singer/Songwriter: Dar Williams

Hmm...more to come...great topic, BTW.

 

I can't believe I didn't put in fiddle. It's a two way tie for me both from Cape Breton Island:

Ashley MacIsaac

Natalie MacMaster

Mark O'Conner gets an honorable mention

I haven't been to enough shows apparently. There are a lot of people I'd like to list but can't.

Female Vocals: PJ Harvey, Widow Jones, Christa Hughes
Drums: Meg White, Eddie Hartness
Male Vocals: Pinky Beecroft, Dave Dobbyn, Ben Harper, Robert Harvey, Perry Farrell
Songwriters: Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Dave Dobbyn
Stage show: Machine Gun Fellatio

best songwriters: Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
best guitarist: Stephen Fearing
Best Percussionist: Eddie Hartness
Best Male Voice: Josh Woodward
Best Female Voice: Sarah Slean
Best Shaker Egg Player: Gordondon :)

dood.

you -clearly- haven't seen MY shaker egg...............my friend once asked our artistic director if i could play 'first egg' in the pit orchestra for one of our musicals. :)

{plus remember the 'gordon has no rhythm' thing.....care...back me up here...'ho....hah!!' *g*}

though i'd hafta give grrrrrrrodan 'best kazoo'

and, of course carey 'best nose flute' :)

no, for best shaker egg, i've gotta go with the fans of jeff libman...jeff is a singer-songwriter here in chicago, and his fans all bring shaker eggs to accompany his songs. it reminded me of fruheads. *sniff* nostalgia...

Piano ~ Ben Folds

Yes! How could I have forgotten that. *shakes head*

Yeah! If you have the BFF Sessions @ West 54th DVD... I love the way he plays the piano with a "pick" during the song "Smoke"...

Don't have enough time to go through everyone, but...

Mandolin: David Goodrich (Goody)

Hmm.. tough one.

Bluegrass Mandolin: Nickelcreek
All Other Mandolin: David Goodrich (Goody)

I can do favorite, if not best. Some wouldn't be characterized as "best" by most but are to me.

Acoustic Guitar: Peter Mulvey, helloooo!
Electric Guitar: Eric Johnson
Bass: Les Claypool
Piano: Ben Folds (to my taste, anyway, he may not be THAT good for all I know.)
Drums: Eddie Hartness
Male Voice: Peter Mulvey. I can't help it!
Female Voice: Susan Werner, though it probably changes daily. :)

I agree with Mulvey bigtime on acoustic.  And Wooten and Claypool on bass

Acoustic flamenco: Andreas Kapsalis

Banjo jazz- Bela Fleck- banjo pop- Dave-o

Electric guitar: my roommate John... Matthew Sweet-- or, every lead guitarist that tours with him... my dear friend Dave Smith and his brother Chris. 

Mandolin:  Sam Bush, Goody; rock mandolin Dan Myers from Down the Line

Alt Country Keyboard- Steve Dawson from Dolly Varden

Drums: Noah Levy from the Honeydogs, Golden Smog, Mason Jennings' band.  HUGE sound!

Best Hyperactivity: Weird Al, Mike Ford

Best hippy-hippy shake: Jian, DUH! (note these completely arbitrary categories I'm adding)

Vocals:  solo, Andy Stochansky *gaaaah*  Duo: Lowen & Navarro *gaaaaah*  3 part vocals, Down the Line *GAAAAH*  4 part vocals, Jellyfish *wowowGAAAH*

 

 

 

I wish I knew his name but the guy I always think of in terms of "wow! Banjo!" was the guy who played banjo with Violent Femmes the night Fruvous opened for them. It's one of my treasured memories, watching Dave across the balcony watching this banjo player in absolute awe and respect. Any musician that blows *Dave* away is phenomenal in my book. :)

• slide guitar: rachelle van zanten
• acoustic guitar: bill bourne

 

it's all very subjective based on our realities, but i'll throw a few cents in:

6-string bass: les claypool
4-string bass: jaco pastorious
stand-up bass: john pattatucci
prog drums: mike portnoy
jazz/fusion drums: dave weckl
acoustic guitar: peter mulvey
electric guitar: john petrucci
modern keyboards: jordan rudess
fusion keyboards: chick corea
male vocal: david harrington/joe connelly
group vocal: swingle singers
quartet vocal: platinum

that's all i can think of off the top of my head.  mostly because it's late. (:

 -= george =-

Swingle Singers BEFORE the last five years or so, right? Their last few efforts have been kinda disappointing, I don't think Ward is actually working with them anymore. :(

Which is too bad, because Ward Swingle is one of the most amazing directors I've ever worked with.

word on ward swingle. i worked with him about 10 years ago or so, and he's amazing. i think he's retired since then, tho.

It was less than three years ago that I worked with him,so I'm not sure whether he's retired or not. Too bad, if he did. :(

As George said, very subjective...

Best director/arranger I ever worked with was Kirby Shaw. He was much fun.

Vocal group: I prefer the Singers Unlimited to Swingles (because of Gene Puerling's arrangements. Also really like Manhattan Transfer

Drummer: Dave Garabaldi (from Tower of Power)

Piano: Bill Evans (his solo piano stuff is an education in voicing chords)

Female vocals: so many.....what style? Holly Cole, Jann Arden, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James

Male Vocals: again, so many. Bobby McFerrin, Aaron Neville, Tory Cassis, Mel Torme

Guitar: Robert Cray, Jesse Cook

So many others........so hard to choose

 

Matt Rollings (Lyle Lovett band)

Acoustic Guitar: Paul Simon

Rock Drums: Tyler Stewart RunnersUp: Abe Laboriel, Jr., Liberty DeVitto

Electric Guitar: Chris Stamey

Double Bass: Jim Creeggan

Electric Bass: Paul McCartney RunnersUp: Robert Sledge, Gene Holder (dB's)

Harp: Ben Darvill

Male Vocal: John Lennon RunnersUp: David Matheson, Paul McCartney

Female Vocal: Kate Pierson

Bad Jokes: Michael Clem

Political Tangents: Jian Ghomeshi

Band of Dans member: Dan Miller

Band of Daves member: Dave Chalfant

yeah, I was just about to mention Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson for female vocals (B-52's at House of Blues Chicago July 31st!!!!)... good on ya for the Robert Sledge mention, yum.... and for the male cherub-crossed-with-bad@ss voice I forgot to mention Marty Sexton... duh...

i cannot -be-LIEVE- that barry dove didn't even get a nomination for best percussion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*g*

{yes, that's right......sometimes the jokes are not for you :)}

Didn't we have a barry dove song?

See sometimes they are for me :-)

{well, it -was- for you and care, you batnose!!!

i meant...-them- *g*}

barry dove rocks the house! even if he isn't a very good date band, and he never closes with the drinking song. :)

oh, and gordon: oOi can't believe someone i love actually is a resident of the place where i saw barry dove, the land of 1000 nuns!Oo