Legends - what would music be like today without them? Take another listen & figure out what makes them great, and what you can learn from them. Natural genious? Luck? Good promotion? or just hard work?

CHET ATKINS
During the '50s and '60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonks. And as a guitarist, he was without parallel. Atkins' style grew out of his admiration for Merle Travis, expanding Travis' signature syncopated thumb and fingers roll into new territory... http://www.guitarsite.com/ChetAtkins.htm

ERIC CLAPTON
http://www.guitarsite.com/clapton.htm

THE DOORS
http://www.guitarsite.com/doors.htm
http://www.guitarsite.com/JimMorrison.htm
http://www.guitarsite.com/doors.htm

JIMI HENDRIX
http://www.guitarsite.com/hendrix.htm

PHIL KEAGGY
He has over 30 releases, played on hundreds of sessions and is highly regarded not only as a top notch musician and humble guy, but also as a respected man of God. Who is this guy? Phil Keaggy. This Phil guy does more with 9 fingers than most guitarists can do with 10 (he is missing a middle finger on his right hand).
http://www.guitarsite.com/PhilKeaggy.htm

LED ZEPPELIN
http://www.guitarsite.com/LedZep.htm

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
Yngwie Malmsteen is arguably the most technically accomplished hard rock guitarist to emerge during the '80s. Combining a dazzling technique honed over years of obsessive practice with a love for such classical composers as Bach, Beethoven, and Paganini, Malmsteen's distinctively baroque, gothic compositional style and lightning-fast arpeggiated solos rewrote the book on heavy metal guitar.
http://www.guitarsite.com/Yngwie.htm

NIRVANA
Nirvana popularized punk, post-punk and indie-rock, unintentionally bringing it into the American mainstream like no other band before it. While its sound was equal parts Black Sabbath and Cheap Trick, Nirvana's aesthetics were strictly indie-rock.
http://www.guitarsite.com/nirvana.htm

PINK FLOYD
http://www.guitarsite.com/floyd.htm

REM
R.E.M., who are big fans of Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and numerous other modern groups, have reinvented their own sound, creating a mesmerizing roar of highly distorted guitar-based rock, with Stipe's vocals purposely mixed down low and dirty...
http://www.guitarsite.com/rem.htm

ROLLING STONES
With his preening machismo and latent maliciousness, Mick Jagger became the prototypical rock frontman, tempering his macho showmanship with a detached, campy irony, while Keith Richards and Brian Jones wrote the blueprint for sinewy, interlocking rhythm guitars. Backed by the strong, yet subtly swinging rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones became the breakout band of the British blues scene...
http://www.guitarsite.com/stones.htm

SMASHING PUMPKINS
http://www.guitarsite.com/pumpkins.htm

MERLE HAGGARD
As a performer and a songwriter, Merle Haggard was the most important country artist to emerge in the 1960s. Haggard became one of the leading figures of the Bakersfield country scene in the '60s. While his music remained hardcore country, he pushed the boundaries of the music quite far. Like his idol Bob Wills, his music was a melting pot that drew from all forms of traditional American music -- country, jazz, blues, and folk -- and in the process, developed a distinctive style of his own.
http://www.guitarsite.com/MerleHaggard.htm

HANK WILLIAMS
Hank Williams is the father of contemporary country music. Williams was a superstar by the age of 25; he was dead at the age of 29. In those four short years, he established the rules for all the country performers that followed him and, in the process, much of popular music.
http://www.guitarsite.com/HankWilliams.htm