Who or What Influenced Your Style?

[Oldrottenhead]

yup john peel right enuff. good call.

[Gritter]

For me it would have to be Keith Richards when I play guitar because I find it difficult to play the same riff exactly the same way twice and David Byrne when I sing because I try to play to the strengths of my odd voice and not try to sound like a singer (except for David Byrne of course) and Syd Barrett when I write lyrics because I enjoy a good sentence run on.

[bruno]

I am a child of Blackmore, guitar wise - he was my hero in my formative years, I always wanted to yield that strat - although I was listening to Floyd at age 10 - so Gilmore is a big influence also.

However the rest is a long journey - still love to see Lukather - he's such a brilliant player, and Toto still are awesome full pelt. The brilliant SRV, Sabbath, Richie Kotzen is an amazing player, Freak Kitchen's IA uses the guitar like nobody else, big fan of Enuff'z'Nuff for their song writing (although their singer takes some getting used to), Marc Jordan for being the best song writer of them all, John Wetton (I love his voice - have listened to him since UK), Glenn Hughes (the voice), Gary Moore for Coliseum 2, now that was a band!, Amanda Marshall for some of the best sounding music ever ... and lots more.

Oh and listen to this for a tune, Marc Jordan is not very well known as he writes for other people and has been very successful, I love this track http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5ROhf__yBo

[Blooby]

I listened to classic rock in my formative years, but that was also the height of the American singer/songwriter period (Eagles, Carole King, Simon, J. Browne, E. John).  I was hearing a lot of that out of the mono transistor radio.  Part of that 70's period included the height of prog as well, so Tull, Gentle Giant, and Yes were all being played in the house by older brothers.  The middle brother also had instrumental albums by The Dixie Dregs, Al DiMeola, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Return to Forever. By the time I left for college, I threw myself into jazz-rock and eventually more straight jazz.

When I hit 25 or so, I started listening to my classic rock more regularly once again, but my new-found love of the Allman Brothers (as well as my leanings toward jazz) led me to jamband and improvisational music. As much as I like Rush, I have no wish to see note-perfect performances of studio albums any longer.

As for guitar, I have only figured out one solo note-for-note that I can recall ("We're an American Band" by GFR), so I'm not sure where the influences come from other than listening.  The list is long and varied (off the top of my head): Page, Plant, Beck, Hendrix, Allman, Betts, Haynes, J. Pearson, D. Trucks, J. Herring, D. Grissom, SRV, Carlton, Will Ackerman, R. Ford, Michael Hedges, Townshend, A. King, F. King, B.B. King, S. Kimock, Pat Martino, Lenny Breau, Joe Pass, Shawn Lane, Tal Farlow, L. Coryell, C. Verheyen, E. Johnson, Grant Green, Eric Krasno, J. Taylor, K. Burrell, J. Renbourn, Don Ross, Ravi Shankar, D. Gilmour, C. Santana, John McLaughlin, Mike Keneally, Ali Akbar Khan, Ry Cooder, Pete Cosey, Reggis Lucas, Mike Stern, A. Belew, R. Fripp, G. Benson, Phil Keaggy, Sonny Landreth, Wes Montgomery, Brian May, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, R. Kotzen, Albert Lee, Wayne, Krantz, Chet Atkins, Brent Mason, Guthrie Trapp, P. Metheny, Doyle Dykes, Doyle Bramhall II, Lukather, Michael Landau, Scott Henderson, Will Bernard, Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Martin Barre, and Ian Anderson.

Blooby

[IanR]

I have been learning how to play guitar for a long time.  I feel like I should know how to do it by now but there is always more.  So, anyway, my songwriting is influenced on the stuff I'm learning at the time.  I try to incorporate it into my songs.  The fact that a lot of my songs sound the same indicates my slow progress   

Ian

[Rata-tat-tat]

I listened to classic rock in my formative years, but that was also the height of the American singer/songwriter period (Eagles, Carole King, Simon, J. Browne, E. John).  I was hearing a lot of that out of the mono transistor radio.  Part of that 70's period included the height of prog as well, so Tull, Gentle Giant, and Yes were all being played in the house by older brothers.  The middle brother also had instrumental albums by The Dixie Dregs, Al DiMeola, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Return to Forever. By the time I left for college, I threw myself into jazz-rock and eventually more straight jazz.

When I hit 25 or so, I started listening to my classic rock more regularly once again, but my new-found love of the Allman Brothers (as well as my leanings toward jazz) led me to jamband and improvisational music. As much as I like Rush, I have no wish to see note-perfect performances of studio albums any longer.

As for guitar, I have only figured out one solo note-for-note that I can recall ("We're an American Band" by GFR), so I'm not sure where the influences come from other than listening.  The list is long and varied (off the top of my head): Page, Plant, Beck, Hendrix, Allman, Betts, Haynes, J. Pearson, D. Trucks, J. Herring, D. Grissom, SRV, Carlton, Will Ackerman, R. Ford, Michael Hedges, Townshend, A. King, F. King, B.B. King, S. Kimock, Pat Martino, Lenny Breau, Joe Pass, Shawn Lane, Tal Farlow, L. Coryell, C. Verheyen, E. Johnson, Grant Green, Eric Krasno, J. Taylor, K. Burrell, J. Renbourn, Don Ross, Ravi Shankar, D. Gilmour, C. Santana, John McLaughlin, Mike Keneally, Ali Akbar Khan, Ry Cooder, Pete Cosey, Reggis Lucas, Mike Stern, A. Belew, R. Fripp, G. Benson, Phil Keaggy, Sonny Landreth, Wes Montgomery, Brian May, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, R. Kotzen, Albert Lee, Wayne, Krantz, Chet Atkins, Brent Mason, Guthrie Trapp, P. Metheny, Doyle Dykes, Doyle Bramhall II, Lukather, Michael Landau, Scott Henderson, Will Bernard, Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Martin Barre, and Ian Anderson.

Blooby

Blooby... If I ever make it to your neck of the woods.... I will definately have to stop by for a jam!!! Everything you've said here... I'm in agreeance with... especially the part about note perfect performances... It's great to honor the original artist... however I believe that artist would also appreciate a different take on their original... I've also noticed that most artists do not play their own material note perfect during their live performances... you must give the song some room to breathe... let it evolve "if you will".

[Greeny]

I had a Beatles-loving mum, and a Stones / Blues loving dad, which is a pretty good start. I had a lot of fun with those albums and a little Dansette record player. There was also a fair bit of Beach boys and Elton John played in the car, so all of those things laid the foundations for me.

It didn't take long before I started to appreciate good songwriting, and began to (try to!) deconstruct instruments and song structures in my head. I'm talking about classic 70's songwriting... stuff like Andrew Gold (Oh What a Lonely Boy), Eric Carmen (all by myself), Albert Hammond (It never rains...), Lindisfarne (Meet me at the corner), Harry Nilsson, The Eagles, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Glen Campbell, Elton John... and hundreds of others. For me, that era is still the golden age of crafted songwriting. And it was my own private little thing.

A very big influence though is ELO. Much derided in certain circles, I just loved Jeff Lynne's production and arrangements. Still do. And the whole orchestral element to the songs. Roxy Music are also a huge influence. Arty, edgy and diverse, but always stylish and crafted.

But it's still those 70's songwriters I aspire to.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyC7WnvLT4