Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and his 10 favourite guitarists ever: “The model guitarist for me”
If there’s a quick and easy one-word description of the legendary Jerry Garcia, the magical founding member of the Grateful Dead, then ‘mercurial’ does a fairly robust job of covering the truly inspirational attitude he applied to music. Garcia was never happy to stand still and considered himself a student of his craft throughout his life, it means his work is littered with moments of transcendetal bliss, where music overcomes the very fabric of nature to captivate its audience and deliver a trip that few could imagine.
It’ a testament to the man himself that his style is so enigmatic that it almost entirely defines definition. However, like all six-string maestros, Garcia certainly had favourites and a collection of players who inspired him. But who were Garcia’s favourite guitarists, the players who inspired him to become a legend himself?
Below, we’ve pulled together a list of some of Garcia’s most beloved axemen, the players who gave him chills. While we would never go as far as to say this is a definitive list, we can be safe knowing that Garcia was a fan of all of the guitarists mentioned below, often citing them not only as people he loved but also that they were players everyone should love too.
Garcia’s record collection is that of legend. Having boasted a shelf-swelling collection of thousands of discs, the guitarist made it a habit to broaden his horizons whenever he could. Consistently pushing himself to listen to old and new records, Garcia took on the role of the old sage by the time of his tragic death—a role he was born to play with a deft hand.
His penchant for experimenting with music (among other things), has always led Garcia to have a truly captivating list of favourites. Whether it was his favourite Grateful Dead song or indeed ten records which you could note down as his favourite albums, his broad taste in music always lands as a refreshing moment.
Below, we’ve tried to honour that freshness by not only bringing you the list of his favourite guitarists but a perfect playlist too to help educate the masses on the greats.
It’s a list that would not have been possible without the incredible Grateful Dead fanbase, the Deadheads, and more importantly, ‘Light into Ashes’ who compiled this truly wondrous and widespread essay on all of Garcia’s favourite things in music; it is certainly one of the most expansive lists we’ve found and acts as a lasting tribute to just how influential the Dead were on their fanbase and just how unstoppable devoted that fanbase was because of it. Within that essay, a compilation of interviews from across the ages, and a few others, Garcia has picked out some of his favourite guitarists.
One artist that Garcia consistently aligned himself with was the jazz guitarist, the incredible Django Reinhardt, about whom Garcia said in 1977, “Well, Django Reinhardt is like the model guitarist for me. There is so much passion in his playing, both in terms of invention and expressiveness, and you can feel his attitude, his emotion, in his playing.”
One other classic guitarist Garcia was known to have truly liked was Carlos Santana, to whom Garcia played the role of mentor and friend. Santana wrote in a piece for Rolling Stone about the late, great Garcia when he said, “Jerry was the Sun of the Grateful Dead – the music they played was like planets orbiting around him,” it may feel a touch cosmic, but it does seem to hold up. “He wasn’t a superficial guy at all. It was a lot of fun to play with him because he was very accommodating. He’d go up and down; I’d go left and right. And I could tell he enjoyed it because the Dead always invited me back.” It goes a long way to see how many of the truly gifted guitarists cited Garcia’s unique way of playing as inspirational to their own work.
Another entry on the list that may play more heavily into his songmanship than his virtuoso guitar playing is The Band’s Robbie Robertson, who had also shared the stage with Garcia on occasion. Speaking in 1971, Garcia said of Robertson’s unique and powerful playing style, “The kinda stuff he plays and the music is like punctuation, and structural. He’s an extremely subtle and refined guitar player, that’s the way I think of him. I really admire him.”
Reinhardt, Robertson, and Santana may well be among the more well-known names on this list, which is otherwise filled with comparative obscurities. It is only fitting that for many people, Garcia’s list should be indecipherable. After all, his band was the ultimate group that rewarded a sense of curious endeavour. One such obscurity is Roy Buchanan.
Garcia was clearly a fan after appearing on the documentary The World’s Greatest Unknown Guitar Player from 1971, saying: “He’s probably just the most original country-style rock and roll guitar player, a Fender guitar player. He has the nicest tone, the most amazing chops technically, super fast. And much neglected.” Another “unknown” guitarist Garcia loved is widely known to be Steve Kimock, a blues musician and a friend of Garcia’s and the band.
During an interview with the great Elvis Costello, Garcia also shared his love for both Don Rich and Merle Haggard’s guitarist, Roy Nichols. Speaking with Costello, Garcia said, “Both of them are important influences for me. I heard them both live lots of times. And Don Rich’s attitude was always so cool. His fiddle playing was great, too.”
Another obscure lesson in guitar comes from Richard Thompson, a known favourite of Garcia’s, who worked within the Fairport Convention. The British band had seen the explosion of R&B influencing their peers and decided that instead of heading across the pond for their inspiration they would find it in the British Isles. It led to them, and Thompson, exploring the indigenous techniques of instrumentation. It’s the kind of far-out thematics we know Garcia would have devoured.
The final two picks from Garcia’s extensive list of favourites are two from the depths of the instrument’s early moments. Picking out Charlie Christian, the man credited with being the first guitarist to actually hang in with the horn section, Garcia is full of praise.
To Garcia, Christian had, “an incredible mind…a relentless flow of ideas that are just bam, pouring out. It has this intensity that’s really incredible. And he has also a tone that I think is very hip. It sounds very modern to me; his whole playing, to my ear, sounds very modern.”
Of course, for most modern rockers, even back when Garcia was starting out, there was only one foundational guitarist you needed to hear—Robert Johnson. After being confronted with the question of how good Johnson really was, Garcia sums it up perfectly without the need for the fuss of hyperbole, simply stating: “He was a primitive genius.”
There you have it, a list of Jerry Garcia’s ten favourite guitarists of all time. If you have some spare moments, make sure you check out our playlist and get an education in guitar, the kind of education that comes with a real vibe.
Jerry Garcia’s favourite guitarists:
- Richard Thompson
- Django Reinhardt
- Roy Buchanan
- Don Rich
- Steve Kimock
- Carlos Santana
- Roy Nichols
- Robbie Robertson
- Charlie Christian
- Robert Johnson
