I see several players plowing completely new ground including Tom Morello who does things I just don't understand. I love EVH's playing and I love Joe Satch as well. I can listen to Warren Haynes and Derrick Trucks all day, together or separate and just about anybody playing Blues. To me what is called "Alternative Rock" that seems to not feature lead guitar is uninspiring and uninteresting and I can only listen to a few songs like that in a row before I start craving some shredding.

A friend in STL whose daughter has become probably the most popular female radio DJ in the city on the alternative station sent me a link to a local group she's associated with and they are no doubt quite good. He asked me to comment and I'm withholding my input because I'm just pain not interested in that style of music. I never say one style or another sucks simply because it doesn't appeal to me. After all, legions of people go nuts over Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga and I have yet to listen to one of their songs all the way through. There's just no appeal to me. Same with Classic Punk. It just strikes me as dull and lifeless without the fretwork. John Kuthe tried in vain to get me to like the stuff, even loaned me his copy of "Please Kill Me" the memoir of Legs McNiel, and as much as I love history and biography, even that was as dull and lifeless as I find the music.

I don't insist that people like what I like, that's absurd, and I try not to be critical of other people's musical tastes. If someone introduces me to a song that I don't find myself particularly fond of I usually ask what they see in it. I often find things I've missed by doing that. It probably won't change my mind, but at least I get a feel for what appeals to other people.

I do love a lot of different kinds of music though. Some people here think I only like Jimmy Buffett for some reason. I do like Buffett, but I like so much more as well. I used to play guitar for an 11 piece Swing band and loved every minute of it playing old 30s and 40s standards. If somebody held a gun to my head and ordered me to declare my all-time favorite song it would be Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" by a long margin. But my favorite overall genre would be Electric Blues from the Masters back to Django Reinhardt through B. B. King to Johnny Lang and Joe Bonamassa today. The most important thing to me is the fretsmanship, all else is to support that.