This has been a very interesting thread for me because I spent the late 60's and all of the 70's living in Austin, most of the time working as a photographer covering music, so that I got to see most of the great blues guitarists performing during that time, many of them repeatedly. (Austin has always been more of a blues town than a country town, despite its association with Willie Nelson.) I wouldn't presume to judge who was best among them, I loved them all. The one thing that stands out for me, though, is the wonder of listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn dozens of times when he was playing lead for Paul Ray and the Cobras. He never played the same thing twice and every time he played a tune in a new way it was extraordinary. With all the other great players you knew pretty much what you were going to get when you heard a song begin, within a certain range, but with SRV you were always surprised, and amazed. It's too bad that as extraordinary as recorded music can be it's really just a snapshot of the landscape a great musician can create.
