PTM,
I guess that you've gotta have a gal on your list:
Jonie Mitchell is a good choice for that role because she is considered the queen of alternate tunings. You can make a case that she was first on that bandwagon (Ritchie Havens might disagree). There is no doubt that she was deep into that approach very early on and -IMHO- that it was a significant contribution to the SOTA of pop/rock guitar.
Bonnie Raitt, Joan Jett, Susan Tedeschi, Joan Armatrading, and a few others probably fought it out with JM for the "distaff" spot on the list, but lost because they had no similar "signature" distinction.
Marty
I guess that you've gotta have a gal on your list:
Jonie Mitchell is a good choice for that role because she is considered the queen of alternate tunings. You can make a case that she was first on that bandwagon (Ritchie Havens might disagree). There is no doubt that she was deep into that approach very early on and -IMHO- that it was a significant contribution to the SOTA of pop/rock guitar.
Bonnie Raitt, Joan Jett, Susan Tedeschi, Joan Armatrading, and a few others probably fought it out with JM for the "distaff" spot on the list, but lost because they had no similar "signature" distinction.
Marty