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Rolling Stone Young Guns

Rolling Stone partnered with D’Addario to identify notable up-and-coming guitarists and feature them on the weekly Young Guns showcase.

Rolling Stone Young Guns
Matthew Machado

Since the first Young Gun was introduced in April 28, they now have 30 players on the list, with each one having a special weekly feature and profile at the Rolling Stone website.

Love em or hate em, Rolling Stone continues to be vocal about the artists that they like, and they want to let everybody know. They’ve had a number of best guitarists lists published, from the 10 greatest guitarists to a longer list of 100, so its not surprising for them to come up with something new, this time focusing on new talents that they consider to be future guitar legend material.

The top editors of Rolling Stone were tasked to come up with the list of Young Guns, and they introduced one of them on a weekly basis. Each of the 30 noteworthy guitarists were interviewed and profiled, and each one provided video and audio clip performances that showcase their talents

Of the 30 Young Guns, seven were selected to participate in the D’Addario-sponsored “Guitar Power” video, a video jam session and interview with guitarist Matt Sweeney. This special jam session is made available at the Young Guns hub. The seven guitarists that joined this jam session were Tosin Abasi, Kurt Vile, Dave Harrington, Theresa Wayman, Blake Mills, Steve Gunn, and Kerry McCoy.

D’Addario Global Artist Relations Director Jeffrey Kaye said, “To be able to highlight so many great young guitarists that might never have received such attention in Rolling Stone has been incredible. All of the artists have been extremely appreciative.

Here is the list of Rolling Stone Young Guns and the dates when they were featured:

  • April 28: Guthrie Trapp
  • May 5: Derek Miller (Sleigh Bells)
  • May 12: Adam Granduciel (The War on Drugs)
  • May 19: Jackie Greene
  • May 27: James Petralli (White Denim)
  • June 2: Marnie Stern
  • June 9: William Tyler
  • June 16: Chris Letchford (Scale the Summit)
  • June 23: Bombino
  • June 30: Gary Clark Jr.
  • July 7: Evan P. Donohue, Brent Toler, Evan Bird, and Emmett Miller (Diarrhea Planet)
  • July 14: Sean Kennedy (Blood Ceremony)
  • July 21: Tosin Abasi & Javier Reyes (Animals as Leaders)
  • July 28: Dave Harrington (Darkside)
  • August 4: Erik Nelson (Vektor)
  • August 11: Kurt Vile
  • August 18: Kevin Parker (Tame Impala)
  • August 25: Marissa Paternoster (Screaming Females)
  • September 2: Blake Mills
  • September 8: Jordan Cook (Reignwolf)
  • September 15: Angel Olsen
  • September 22: Misha Mansoor (Periphery)
  • September 29: Theresa Wayman (Warpaint)
  • October 6: Steve Gunn
  • October 14: Ty Segall
  • October 20: Mark McGuire
  • October 27: J.D. Simo
  • November 3: Johan Wieth (Iceage)
  • November 10: Kerry McCoy (Deafheaven)
  • December 9: Marcus Machado (The Next Young Gun Contest Winner)

In choosing the final Young Gun, Rolling Stone and D’Addario held the “Next Young Gun Contest” where guitarists from all over submitted videos of themselves playing their own original songs, licks, riffs, or solos. The company explained: “D’Addario and Rolling Stone chose eight finalists and opened online voting, in addition to the votes of a distinguished panel of musicians. The winner, Marcus Machado, was announced December 9th, and the grand prize includes a profile and coverage on RollingStone.com, a trip to Los Angeles to record at some of the country’s top studios (including Swing House and TRS West), a gig at an LA club, and a one-year supply of D’Addario strings!”

30 years old Marcus Machado won the competition, and his profile describes him as someone who has been playing guitar for virtually his entire life. He began playing professionally at the age of 10 and has since performed at various popular gig venues including the House of Blues. He was also featured on CNN and several TV and radio shows, and even appeared in the movie, Rosewood.

Jeffrey Kaye commented, “Marcus’s talent is undeniable. But, it’s the love and passion in his playing that got him the votes! We’re proud to call him a Young Gun and know that the best is yet to come!”

To check out the 30 Young Guns, you can visit Rolling Stone. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you feel that you or your favorite artists deserve to be featured on the list.

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