Best blues guitarist, Clapton or Green

There never really is a best of anything, but if forced to choice I'd say Albert King is the master.

I have scene and heard most of the greats mentioned here .... and they all have their individual strengths. hendrix for the looseness of his interpretation, clapton for his technical, finely polished genre-bending skills and buddy guy for the sheer dedication and soulfullness in regards to the blues. However, the most engaging electric blues that I have ever experienced took place at a Johnny Winter show in Toronto about twelve years ago. It was held outside at a partially covered venue. Mid-way through the show a violent thunderstorm from Lake Ontario (30 yards away) suddenly bore down on us. We all rushed toward the stage for cover. Instantly, there was an incredible energy in the air. Johnny kicked things into very high gear and drove home the some rockin' blues which had to be experienced to be believed. That evening still echoes in my mind as one of the greatest unexpected music experiences that I have had the pleasure to been part of.

the late great johnnie copeland---when he went back to playing a les paul and not pevey---he was at durham bull blues festival in 89 or 90 and lonnie brooks and his son (dont know his name) played--but copeland was just dead on --if you can dig up a live cd or tape he was great for this one show--it was as good as freddie or bb he just had the tone that night

In my younger concert going days, I had the opportunity to see Hendrix four times, Clapton with Cream several times, as well as with Derek and the Dominos, Delanie and Bonnie and Friends, and Blind Faith, as well as some really great blues-based guitarists such as Albert King, Freddie King, Mike Bloomfield, and Duane Allman.

Who was the best guitarist I ever saw live? Without a doubt, Johnnie Winter. I saw him at the Fillmore west when he was with Rick Derringer in his Johnny Winter And tour and he not only blasted my ear drums away (they rang for hours), but he played with such unabandoned fire and passion that it left me floored. Unfortunately, I just missed a chance to see him in the Sacramento area when he appeared recently, but he was/is an amazing guitarist.

The most influential white/bluesman guitarist is someone you never heard of.... Well that's probably not true here since this is a "hip room" judging from the all the previous knowledgable postings (over 2+ years!!!).
Anyway it's a guy called Dave van Ronk. Seriously. Even those of you that know of him probably don't feel he belongs here, but his invaluable contribution, even besides his superb guitar playing (finger-picked acoustic heavily influenced by Rev. Gary Davis) is that he was the FIRST white person, at least not born in a southern milieu & perhaps even including that as far as I know, to perform the blues in the exact same style & intensity as the black bluesmen, starting in the '50s. No namby-pamby vocals or smoothing out jagged rythyms or substituting "nice" lyrics for the Eisenhower era audience. He wasn't mimicing the black style either, he was respectful but a pretty funky & earthy guy. A wheezy voice not unlike Joe Cocker. He hollered & swore & sweated & had a remarkably intricate country blues picking style. No compromise blues. He taught guitar to many of the folkies, later rockers, who came out of Greenwich Village in the 60s. His albums were known in England's folk & blues circles in the pre-Beatles 60's. The arrangement of House of the Rising Sun on Dylan's first album was literally stolen from Dave's act, causing the dissolution of their friendship. The BEST guitarist...maybe not, but I felt his passing last year went just as unnoticed as his key contribution to popular music has. Perhaps some of the young players here might run across some of his early bluesy LPs sometime & give a listen.

As for Clapton being tired, maybe. But you have to realize when that first album came out in, oh 1964, nobody was playing like that. Nobody outside of the clubs in the southside of Chicago that is & most of America was utterly oblivious to that. We were being force fed pop acts and even those r&b acts & bluesy rockers like the Stones, Kinks & Animals that broke through had nothing that compared to EC's sound -sustain & distortion- as well as his speed, accuracy and feeling. It was stunning at the time, and that stuff all through the 60's & early 70's still stands up today. Beck & Hendrix & all the rest followed EC and stood on his shoulders, just as he admits he stands on the shoulders of Muddy, Freddy, BB and all the other, up to then, ignored greats.