In the hands of someone who really knows how to use one, a guitar can sing, kiss, scream, groove or dream. Although Alabama’s better known for singers, the state’s also produced many a gifted six-stringer, from rock and metal to blues, country and R&B. Talents who were born, grew up, got their start or spent their prime in Alabama. Their playing has affected listeners well beyond the state. Below is a list of, in my opinion, Alabama’s 20 greatest guitarists of all-time.
20. HEATH FOGG AND BRITTANY HOWARD
As individual guitarists, neither Heath Fogg nor Brittany Howard are gonna cut heads. But together, in Athens-founded 2010s band Alabama Shakes, Howard and Fogg made for a soulful duo.
In 2015 when asked about guitar-tandem inspirations, Fogg said, “The Stones are always a big one for me. Even Motown had two guitars, things like that. When simple parts are played in interesting ways together it can be really powerful, and I think Brittany and I both like that approach. Just keep it simple and give each other room and space and when we lock in together it’ll be more powerful than something we could have done on our own.”
Key track: “Hearts Alive”
19. MAC MCANALLY
As AL.com’s Mary Colurso wrote in 2018, “Mac McAnally probably needs to buy a new trophy case.” McAnally has won a record-setting Country Music Association Musician of the Year awards. Best known as a member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, McAnally’s also an accomplished songwriter, with hits cut by the likes of Buffett, Alabama, Kenny Chesney and others. Early on, he was a successful solo artist, with singles like fingerpicked beauty “It’s a Crazy World.”
“I’m not a fancy guitar player,” McAnally says in his website’s bio. “I don’t take a lot of solos. Part of what’s allowed me to work so long in the business is that of all the bands I was in, I’ve never really wanted a solo. I would sit and play rhythm forever.”
Key track: “It’s a Crazy World”
18. BRENT HINDS
Pelham-born Brent Hinds is lead guitarist for one of the best metal bands to rise up this century, Mastodon. Hinds’ playing in that Grammy-winning Atlanta band draws from his banjo-playing youth, metal gods like Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and sludge icons The Melvins.
Key track: “Hearts Alive”
17. JOHNNY SHINES
Johnny Shines learned his magic from the man who got it from The Devil himself. In the 1930s, Shines befriended and traveled with Robert Johnson, the Mississippi bluesman said to have sold his soul for guitar prowess. Johnson’s songs and guitaring were huge influences on Cream, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and other top rock groups who’d cover and quote his material.
Shines heeded the master’s lessons well. The hard-living Johnson died in 1938 at age 27, becoming the founding member of music’s “27 Club,” with later members to include the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.
Shines carried on Johnson’s intricate country-blues style of acoustic playing. After bouncing from his native Memphis area to Chicago, Shines then relocated to Alabama in the late 1960s, where he lived during the most successful part of his career. In 1992, Shines was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the same year he died in Tuscaloosa, his longtime home.
Key track: “Travelling Back Home”
16. THOMAS MCCLARY
He’d be a legend just for that lyrical, bee-buzz guitar solo he played on “Easy.” But Thomas McClary has much more in his trick bag. The Florida native founded the Commodores while studying at Alabama’s Tuskegee University. Whether it’s “Brick House” chunk chords or sticky stuff on “Machine Gun,” McClary’s fingerprints are all over funk’s blueprint.
Key track: “Machine Gun”
15. KENNY BROWN
Selma-born Kenny Brown made a mark in Mississippi playing deadly slide-guitar with R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Those Hill Country legends’ raw rowdy ‘90s indie blues set the table for aughts garage-rockers like the White Stripes and Black Keys. Brown would later collaborate with artists from Black Keys to Cyndi Lauper, as well as playing guitar for Samuel L. Jackson/Christine Ricci film “Black Snake Moan.”
Key track: “Goin’ Down South” (by R.L. Burnside)
14. J.R. COBB
J.R. Cobb had a platinum touch for crafting guitar songs that connect. Born in Birmingham, Cobb struck first with his Florida band Classics IV known for groovy 1968 hit “Spooky.” Later, Cobb was a member of Atlanta Rhythm Section, the Georgia group with jazz-flecked tunes like “So in to You.” In ARS, Cobb and Barry Bailey made for one of Southern rock’s most underrated guitar tandems.
Key track: “Another Man’s Woman”
13. TRAVIS WAMMACK
As a guitarist and musician, Travis Wammack was ahead of his time. As a teenager he built a makeshift fuzz-box, before guitar effects-pedals were widely manufactured. Prior to mass-produced light-gauge guitar strings, he swapped out his G-string with an A-tenor banjo-string to facilitate bigger bends.
For his 1964 instrumental single “Scratchy,” Wammack recorded a backwards vocal, before The Beatles popularized that studio trick. His speedy licks on that single’s B-side, “Fire Fly,” mixed chicken-pickin’, surf-rock and teenager braggadocio. A precursor to guitar-hero shredding.
Mississippi-born, Memphis-honed and later Tuscumbia-based, Wammack played on an array of Muscle Shoals hits, including Clarence Carter’s “Patches” and Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy.” Later, Wammack spent more than a decade as rock pioneer Little Richard’s bandleader and collaborator.
Key track: “Greenwood, Mississippi” (by Little Richard)
12. LARRY BYROM
By age 20, Larry Byrom was already playing guitar for huge crowds on tour, after joining quintessential ‘60s band Steppenwolf. A Huntsville native, Byrom became a part of Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon hippie Shangri La.
Onstage and on 1970 concert LP “Steppenwolf Live,” Byrom performed Steppenwolf’s early hits like “Born to Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride.” He also helped add to the band’s legacy, by cowriting and recording new hits with them, including “Hey Lawdy Mama,” a sauntering 1970 single Byrom played bass and organ on as well as guitar.
After leaving Steppenwolf in 1972, Byrom became a session musician in Muscle Shoals, performing on records by everyone from Wilson Pickett to Wayne Newton.
Next, Byrom moved to Nashville, becoming a first-call session player for a slew of country stars including Faith Hill, Randy Travis, Dolly Parton and George Strait. He wrote hits for artists like Tanya Tucker and Alison Krauss. He also was in Steve Winwood’s touring band.
After Byrom retired, he moved back to the Shoals. In our 2020 interview, he reflected on his memoir-worthy career. “There’s an old thing that I believe in: If you put things out in the universe, they’ll come back to you. I believe in that wholeheartedly. And that’s just nothing more than positive thinking, and that if you’ve put your thoughts in that one direction, eventually it will come true.”
Key tracks: “Hey Lawdy Mama”
11. RICK HIRSCH
Rick Hirsch’s rock and roll fuse was lit, like many musicians from his era, by watching The Beatles perform live on TV’s “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
Hirsch’s eloquent, slippery guitar helped define the sound of Wet Willie. The Mobile-founded band was way funkier than most ‘70s southern rock outfits. In addition to cowriting signature hit “Keep On Smilin’,” Hirsch peppered Wet Willie recordings with tasteful guitar solos. Check out his greasy grooves and hummable soloing on studio tracks “Everything That ‘Cha Do.” He could burn it down too, as heard on live cut “Macon Georgia Hambone Blues.”
After departing Wet Willie, which relocated to Macon, Georgia early on, Hirsch moved to Los Angeles. He played on the unjustly maligned “Allman and Woman,” the 1977 album Gregg Allman made with then-wife Cher. Hirsch is all over Allman’s ‘77 solo album “Playin’ Up a Storm,” too, including lovely guitar harmonies played along with John Hugg on closing track “One More Try.”
Hirsch discography also includes work with English songstress Joan Armatrading. He’s on studio EP “How Cruel” and live album “Steppin’ Out,” both from 1979. Some of Hirsch most stirring playing can be heard on the song “Tall in the Saddle,” off the latter. “She’s brilliant, a word highly reserved,” Hirsch told me recently, of Armatrading’s artistry. The same could be said of Hirsch’s guitar playing.
Key track: “Tall in the Saddle” (with Joan Armatrading)
10. JASON ISBELL
Jason Isbell, the Grammy-winning Green Hill native and former Muscle Shoals resident, is famous for his brilliance as a lyricist. But as Isbell’s more-informed fans know, he’s also a fantastic guitarist.
This is most evident onstage whenever Isbell sets down his acoustic and plays one of the electric guitars from his drool-inducing collection. He can shift from searing slide to country twang to alt-rock textures. A natural born, six-string killer.
Isbell got his start with Drive-By Truckers. That politically-minded band’s had its share of worthy guitarists, including Shoals natives Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Rob Malone, ranging from raucous to dexterous.
Key track: “This Ain’t It”
9. DAMON JOHNSON
Damon Johnson grew up in Monroeville and Geraldine, before launching hard-rock band Brother Cane, known for hits like “Got No Shame” and “And Fools Shine On,” in Birmingham around 1993. Drawing from heroes like Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash and Ed King, Johnson’s explosive, nimble guitar-playing was the straw that stirred the drink.
Brother Cane became the go-to support act on tours by legends like Aerosmith, Van Halen and Robert Plant. After Brother Cane parted ways in the late ‘90s, Johnson became the go-to gun-for-hire for legends like Alice Cooper and Thin Lizzy.
In 2021, Johnson began filling-in with Lynyrd Skynyrd for Gary Rossington, who was dealing with health issues. After Rossington died in 2023 at age 71, Johnson officially joined Skynyrd’s lineup.
Of joining Lynyrd Skynyrd, one of classic rock’s ultimate guitar bands, Johnson said “For a kid from DeKalb County, Alabama, to grow up on that music as if it were gospel music, to be playing those songs and playing with these great musicians, it’s kind of hard to describe.”
Key track: “Got No Shame”
8. TOMMY SHAW
Tommy Shaw is a rock and roll triple-threat. A talented singer, songwriter and guitarist, he got his start with popular Montgomery band Harvest. In 1975, Shaw got the call to audition for Styx, the prog-tinged arena rockers from Chicago, then known for their power-ballad “Lady.”
After Shaw joined, Styx accelerated. They piled on the hits, like “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” “Crystal Ball,” “Come Sail Away,” “Babe” and “Too Much Time on My Hands.”
In the early ‘90s, Shaw teamed with Ted Nugent and Night Ranger’s Jack Blades in the supergroup Damn Yankees. At the dawn of the grunge era, hits like “High Enough” and “Coming of Age” proved anthemic rock remained potent.
Key track: “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)”
7. JEFF COOK
Which brings us to the late, great Jeff Cook. Whether playing his double-neck guitars, singing backing vocals or picking up a fiddle, Cook was vital to the success of country band Alabama. The group’s sold more than 73 million album. Notched over 40 country number-one hits too, including “Mountain Music,” “40 Hour Week,” “Dixieland Delight” and “Song of the South.”
In a 2015 interview, I asked Cook about his classic guitar solo on 1979 hit “My Home’s In Alabama,” “That’s just one of those things that just came as I played it,” Cook said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever played it the same way twice [onstage].”
Cook drew early guitar inspiration from James Burton, known for his picking with the likes of Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley and Gram Parsons. Cook got the idea to incorporate a double-neck guitar, with 12- and 6-strings. from early country musicians Joe Maphis and Red Foley.
As a member of Alabama, Cook is a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee. The Fort Payne High School grad is also a member of the Musicians Hall of Fame and Fiddlers Hall of Fame and a Gibson’s Guitarist of the Year honoree.
When Cook died in 2022 at age 73, it shook the country music community and beyond. In our 2024 interview, Teddy Gentry, Alabama’s bassist said, “It takes about three people to reproduce [onstage now] what Jeff left behind. But Jeff will never be replaced.”
Key track: “My Home’s In Alabama”
6. WAYNE PERKINS
If Wayne Perkins had been born in Birmingham, England, instead of Birmingham, Alabama, he might have become a Rolling Stone, after gifted soloist Mick Taylor quit the band in late-1974. He still came damn close.
“We liked Perkins a lot,” Stones guitarist Keith Richards wrote in his memoir. “He was a lovely player, same style, which wouldn’t have ricocheted against what Mick Taylor was doing, very melodic, very well-played stuff.”
In the end, Ronnie Wood, from English band the Faces, won out. Still, Perkins played memorable lead guitar on some of the best tracks from The Stones’ 1975 album “Black and Blue”: “Hand of Fate,” “Fool To Cry” and “Memory Motel.” Additionally, “Worried About You” originally tracked during “Black and Blue” sessions and eventually released on 1981 Stones LP “Tattoo You,” boasts another Perkins solo..”
Perkins began etching his legend before his Stones chapter. On Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 1973 “Catch a Fire” album, his overdubbed lead guitar helped that Jamaican reggae act connect with rock audiences worldwide. He played the slow-motion wah-wah on “Stir It Up,” sky-kissing lines for “Concrete Jungle” and smoky slide on “Baby We’ve Got a Date.”
Perkins also contributed to folk goddess Joni Mitchell’s ‘74 LP “Court and Spark” LP. That’s his slide guitar on Mitchell’s song “Car On a Hill.”
As a go-to session musician at Sheffield’s Muscle Shoals Sound, Perkins played on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Muscle Shoals demos and came close to joining that band. He cut studio tracks with John Prine, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker and other big acts.
“I’ve been fortunate in my career,” Perkins said in 2017, “to be in the right place and the right time and get involved with some good people and leave a bit of a footprint.”
Key track: “Hand of Fate”
5. CHALMERS EDWARD “SPANKY” ALFORD
If you’ve ever wondered what guitarist could fit on both Bee Gees and Tupac Shakur tracks, the answer’s Spanky Alford. Stars like Al Green and John Mayer revere him.
Alford’s tasteful funk, gospel and soul techniques grace D’Angelo’s iconic baby-making album “Voodoo.” Alford’s guitar appears on tracks including “Send It On,” “Africa” and, most notably, slow-jam smash “Untitled (How Does It Feel).”
Tribe Called Quest hip-hop track “4 Moms” Alford’s on that, too. Green’s R&B comeback disc “Lay It Down” and Mayer Trio’s blues-rock LP “Try!” too. He’s also on TLC, Whitney Houston and Babyface cuts.
Born in Philadelphia and a latter-day Huntsville resident, Alford made his name playing traditional gospel quartet music with groups like Mighty Clouds of Joy. He developed a style enabling him to play chords and melodies simultaneously. He also built up a hard drive’s worth of chord inversions in his head and hands.
Bassist Pino Palladino, known for his long stint with The Who, worked with Alford on D’Angelo and Mayer recordings, and toured with Alford when they were both members of D’Angelo’s band.
While on the road touring in support of “Voodoo,” it wasn’t uncommon for Palladino to hear a knock on his hotel room door, answer it to see it was Alford, a guitar slung around neck and playing. “He,” Palladino told me in 2019, “literally lived for the guitar.”
Key track: “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”
4. DON HELMS
Don Helms was a steel guitar wizard. The New Brockton native’s evocative lines are on more than a hundred Hank Williams cuts, including “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” “Cold, Cold Heart” and “You Win Again.” Helms elevated many other country classics, including Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
Key track: “Hey, Good Lookin’”
3. PETE CARR
When Pete Carr died in 2020 at age 70, he left behind a career most musicians can only dream of. As a Muscle Shoals session ace, Carr’s lead guitar on 1976 Bob Seger hit “Mainstreet” is his masterwork Not a lot of notes. But all of them take you somewhere. A melody like a memory, perfect for Seger’s nostalgic ballad about an exotic dancer.
In ‘76, Carr’s six-string stung Rod Stewart’s hit “Tonight’s the Night.” Willie Nelson’s 1974 LP “Phases & Stages” also benefited from Carr guitar.Carr’s acoustic playing graces Paul Simon’s pop-folk classic “Kodachrome.” Simon and Art Garfunkel tabbed Carr to play guitar on their 1980 reunion tour, including a massive Central Park concert in New York later turned into a hit live album.
Carr was a recording artist, too. He was in LeBlanc & Carr, which also featured Lenny LeBlanc, a southern-pop duo who made an appearance on TV’s “American Bandstand,” performing their single “Falling.” The duo was also the support act on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 tour, which ended with the tragic plane crash that killed Skynyrd musicians and crew.
Pete Carr was born in Daytona Beach and died in Florence. Between, he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, and made music that will outlive us all.
Key track: “Mainstreet”
2. JIMMY JOHNSON
Shoals native Jimmy Johnson’s work with “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin alone is towering. Johnson played guitar on essential Aretha songs including “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Baby I Love You,” “Think,” “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You),” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.” And that’s just the hits.
He laid down guitar tracks on all-time cuts by Etta James (“Tell Mama”), Wilson Pickett (“Mustang Sally,” “Land of a 1000 Dances”), Staple Singers (“I’ll Take You There,” “Respect Yourself”), Jimmy Cliff (“The Harder They Come”) and on and on.
Johnson’s session musician career first took off in the mid-60s at FAME Recording Studios, where he worked for producer Rick Hall, the architect of Muscle Shoals’ country-funk sound.
After Johnson’s 2019 passing at age 76, Swampers bassist and Muscle Shoals Sound cofounder David Hood said, “It’s a big loss to me, but the music world has lost somebody who was very, very special.”
Key track: “Chain of Fools”
1. DUANE ALLMAN
One of the most brilliant guitarists to ever live, Duane Allman found an early toehold at Muscle Shoals’ FAME Studios. In the late ‘60s, he was so determined to get session work he slept in a tent outside FAME, in a grassy area now a parking lot.
During Allman’s Muscle Shoals period, Allman played on sessions for artists ranging from Otis Rush to Boz Scaggs to Wilson Pickett. Traveling to New York for an Aretha Franklin session, Allman displayed his gift for slide guitar on a cover of The Band’s song “The Weight.” Inside FAME’s Studio B, a high-ceilinged 40-foot-long space with green carpet, is where Duane and brother Gregg Allman hit on the blues explorations they’d chase further soon with the Allman Brothers Band. Duane was born in Nashville and rose to fame while based in Macon, Georgia. But Duane Allman became “Duane Allman” during his Muscle Shoals era.
Key track: “Loan Me a Dime” (by Boz Scaggs)
