Who's your guitar daddy now?

Out of all these responses no one mentioned Roy Buchanan?

I saw him warm up for Robin Trower @ the Capital theater in Passaic NJ in the mid 80's and he blew Trower off the stage! It was the best guitar show I have ever seen and likely ever will.

I just posted an amazing Buchanan clip.

Completely different genre from anyone mentioned so far, and maybe not to everyone's taste, but for both technical virtuosity and emotionality it's hard to beat Paco De Lucía. His album 'Siroco' is a great place to start.

To those who noted Mayer is young and has great potential once he finds his own voice ...

Completely agreed.

I also agree that he is a suprisingly charismatic kid.

Marty

Rock and roll-Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton are way up there
Flamenco- Paco de Lucia, John Mcgloughlin, Al Dimeola, in that order
Blues-Buddy Guy...and there are others
Classical-John Williams solo, Sergio and Odaair Assad duo
New promising rock/pop/blues guitarist-John Mayer