ok I guess there is no such thing as a "favorite musician" because we all just can't narrow it down to one person,but I just finished watching Niel Young's heart of gold movie and remembered why I loved listening and playing his songs so much as a kid.The man is not the greatest guitar p_layer_ in the world but he plays with so much passion and writes songs that are so timeless I don't think we'll ever see someone like him again. Also I still can't explain that voice of his,just unbelievable

Great post! Neil Young is a great example of someone who found their own niche and followed it. Like you said, he is not one of the greatest guitar p_layer_s of all time, but it would also take a bit of time to work on some of his stuff for the acoustic guitar. And the vocals unexplainable. They work for Neil Young. Kind of how Jimi Hendrix's voice worked for him. Both Neil Young and Jimi Hendrix would be cut from American Idol in the first round because of their voices. I will not venture any further into that topic though. Some others who created that perfect type of sound without the extreme prodigy element might be Tom Petty, Bob Dylan (I like the early stuff, and his latest was actually decent), and even BB King. I don't think that BB King is by any means a top notch guitar p_layer_. He is good though, and when you hear him sing a song and then pick some notes on Lucille you know it is him and it is the blues, and he is good at the delivery. This list could go on and on.

Now back to the favorite musician...

The more I play and the more I understand about the inner and outer workings of music, the more I realize that I have become my own favorite p_layer_. In a way this has become my inspiration because It helps me to continue to develop that sweet spot that I have encountered in my playing. Kind of like how Neil Young and others have found what works for them. Of course I have influences that I still listen to. When my sound begins to come too close to a sound of one of my influences I have to eventually listen to the influence less and less because I don't want to sound like someone else. For me this happened with the Grateful Dead and some Phish. I can still get into a song by one of them every once in a while, but they had to be subtracted from my daily play list because they had already become part of my playing. There is no moving forward when the same sounds keep entering your head and you already know how to create it. This may explain my love for jazz. It is such a broad area of music and the little nuances of p_layer_s really get to me. I love how Charlie Parker plays over some changes at warp speed or how Bill Frisell can take a ballad and create this wacky yet coherent world out of it. In the end I guess I might say that the question of the favorite musician may have to be asked on more than one occasion. 5 years ago I would have said Phish. Today I might say Wayne Krantz. But his sound is starting to show up in mine which means that soon enough I will have to except what I have learned from him musically and move onto something else. This could mean listening to him a lot less or not listening to him at all. Maybe you could ask this again in a few months.

Jeremy Laursen