Best blues guitarist, Clapton or Green

B.B. King is THE MAN. Even in his later years, the music is still there. Otis Rush and Duke Robillard, for different reasons, are up there too. I don't necessarily agree that Clapton is God. SRV and Roy Buchanan are, unfortunately, no longer with us (such a polite expression...), but are certainly in the list of gone but not forgotten. No women in the list, to rectify that I would have to add Joanna Connor, nice to see and hear a Les Paul well played, it's a change from all the Strats.

It's good to see that as this thread progressed some real players got mentioned. At first the SRV, Buddy Guy thing (and all the vaunabees out there..man i'm sick of the texas shuffle), had me agreeing with sdcambell that ya'll need to get out more. I'll admit though I did see buddy with james cotton at Antones in about 1989 where he just killed but them days seem to be gone. Green gets hyped all the time in guitar player mag and elsewhere but while i agree he can play i just don't get where he is so great..maybe its that early influence thing. Clapton i never got. HDM mentioned thackery but never seen him live...been there about 4 or 5 times and i've seen him morph into hendrix, not just a lick copier but pour'n it out with the same feel and heart that Jimi had and what a killer tone. Coco Montoya, taught buitar by albert collins and nurtured by John Mayhall, is another killer player though his later discs are weak song wise. Another guy you must check out is Gatemouth Brown, he swings his a** off. Little Charlie from the Nightcats nails the west coast jump blues thing. John Mooney whips up a Delta/New Orleans tinged slide brew that will knock you socks off. Already mentioned guys who can smoke clapton or green: Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl (though the live show i saw was pretty weak), and Robben Ford (the one true guitar god IMO, who cites Bloomfield as a big influence). Then there is BB. I've seen a lot of the famous blues players over the last 15 years and while others may out play the King Ive never felt more of a presence come off of a stage than seeing BB from about 10 ft away at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in the late 80's. WOW! The truely best player? The one that gets YOU in that happy place with the ole feet jus tappin away. If you can't dig the blues you got a hole in your soul! peace.

Piezo,
I saw B.B. King last summer at the Molson Centre here in Montreal. He has to do his show sitting down now, but, believe me, there is still magic there. A so called music critic in "La Presse", a French daily here, harpooned him. He had no idea who B.B. King is, and what the blues are, kept referring to him as "pappy" (French from the other side of the pond for "grandpa") and was amazed that the crowd was ecstatic. That tells you something about what a person needs to know to be a music critic, at least in Québec. I couldn't find time to write a "shocked and appalled" letter to the editor, I guess that's why I'm going on about this now. How could I forget Gatemouth Brown. I saw him in a local club two or three winters ago. Still an amazing musician at his age. There are so many blues guitarists out there, it's sort of like writing in a way, just about everyone can write, very few are Hemingway or Steinbeck though. In my mind, it takes more than dexterity (read blinding speed) and tone to be a blues guitarist, it takes a whole lot of soul. Regards.

Pbb, I fully, wholeheartedly, subscribe to your last sentence.
Great blues guitarists manage to communicate playing even a single note on the guitar...

You saw G. Brown live -- lucky devil!

Playing blues is very easy, making it sound "real" is very difficult. It's about touch and feel. Peter Green sweats these qualities and caresses every note with them. This is why he is so well respected by other guitarist. It's not flashy, but it's shot full of soul.

Not to sound flippant, but you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a great player and they should all be appreciated for their individual talent.

BTW, back in 1977-78 I lived across the street from Duke Robbilard in Providence. He was fronting Roomful Of Blues and he was heavily into T-Bone. It's was so cool to listen to this talented person practice. Even his mistakes sounded good.