Bonamassa's coming to Boston in 2 days... but I'm not paying $70 to see him.

He plays with his fingers, no pick. Used to be that Mark Knopfler was the only rock guitarist I'd think of who played without a pick. Now there's Bonamassa, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, and Jonny Lang. Most guys still use a pick, but is this a trend?

I hate picks. Never use them.

Joe does play with fingers sometimes and I have seen him doing some serious hybrid countrypicking, but he still uses a pick 90% of the time.

Nice that you said this, I was confused when Mutthound said this about Joe and fingers, because by the sound of his playing, I'd say he definitely uses a pick.
P. S. Knopfler is still the most unique fingerstyle electric guitarist I know.

seriously ? i mean hes definitely one of my absolute faves, but surely even from the mainstream guys, you have Derek Trucks which rivals him in that aspect ?

None more unique than Jeff Beck

I based that comment on the more recent videos that I've seen, including the one at the front of this thread, which I would've thought was played with a pick if it was audio only. "Electric lead fingerstyle" seems to be a pretty versatile method. If I was teaching a beginner I might suggest that they try it vs the dogma that you have to use a pick to play rock music. I also thought it was interesting that two of the top "young guns" of blues-rock, Bonamassa and Trucks (who for some reason seem intrinsically linked, at least in my mind) happen to play that way.

Speaking of Knopfler, "Sultans of Swing" is one of my all time favorite solos.

Heres a pro shot of Joe doing Sloe Gin from his DVD live at Albert Hall

During the intro and 1st verse he switches from Fingers to Pick and back several times. He tends to do this in a lot in intro's, palming the pick in the crook of his 1st finger.

He's playing his signature Gibson Les Paul and its bloody brilliant !!



Check this out for some ace hybrid picking



..

The local PBS station here in Phoenix played Joe's Royal Albert Hall DVD during a pledge drive a couple of months ago. The announcer, who had obviously never heard of him before, referred to Joe as a child prodigy, a 20-year pro who had been on the scene since age 12, and a fresh new up and coming talent, practically all in the same breath. That shit drives me crazy.

I first heard of him through Walter Trout around 10 years ago. Joe's fans started coming onto Walters site and dissing Walter and it turned into a bit of a flame war. But Joe and Walter became firm friends and have played together a lot and Joe played on Walters 'Full Circle album'. I liked what I saw and of course opening for BB King and playing with Danny Gatton when you are 12 pretty well makes you a prodigy.

My only concern at the moment is burnout - He's playing a huge amount shows a year with himself and BCC. Theres at lease one solo album every year and 2 BCC in the last year. Theres the beautiful album he's made with Beth Hart. Hes laid downtracks on Don Airey, Leslie West and Derek Sherinian's solo albums and played on Lee Ritenours 6-string theory album. Its a shed load of work !!

I didn't mean that his playing in general is by far the most unique, just that his style of fingerpicking with thumb, index and middle finger is never seen before or after him.

I didn't know about the Beth Hart album. Listening to it now. I saw her in a small club about 10 years ago. Quite a show. She's got baggage that matches her talent. She seemed to be on the verge of big success but then kind of disappeared. It's good to hear something from her.

beth hart?? i know nothing about her except i she was jeff beck's singer when he was touring about 3 years ago and she has crazy pipes. though considering her joplin-like stage presence/persona, i'm not surprised to hear she has baggage.

Her between song banter included some pretty harrowing tales of her past. I imagine she wouldn't lay it out like that as the singer in someone else's band. She probably kept her top on too.