Author Archives: baldpomegranatenixon

Celebrating Philip Kunia “Gabby” Pahinui (April 22, 1921 – October 13, 1980), a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music.

Celebrating Janice Lynn “Jan” Kuehnemund (November 18, 1961 – October 10, 2013), an American lead guitarist who founded the all-female hard rock/glam metal band Vixen in St. Paul in 1971.

Celebrating Polly Jean Harvey, MBE (born October 9, 1969) known as PJ Harvey, an English guitarist, singer-songwriter, writer, poet and composer. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automatic Dlamini as a vocalist, guitarist and saxophone player.

Celebrating Peter Palus Cosey (October 9, 1943 – May 30, 2012), an American guitarist from Chicago who played blues and R&B sessions, and experimental jazz with Miles Davis’ band between 1973 and 1975. His fiercely flanged and distorted guitar invited comparisons to Jimi Hendrix.

Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973), an American guitarist from Cotton Plant, AR who made gospel recordings in the 1930s and 1940s that were a precursor of rock and roll. She was among the first popular recording artists to use distortion on her electric guitar.

Celebrating Herbert “Bert” Jansch (November 3, 1943 – October 5, 2011) a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist.

Celebrating Daniel Wood “Danny” Gatton Jr. (September 4, 1945 – October 4, 1994), known by the nickname “The Humbler”, an American guitarist from Washington, D.C. who fused blues, rockabilly, jazz, and country to create a musical style called “redneck jazz”.

Celebrating Deborah Coleman (October 3, 1956 – April 12, 2018), an American blues musician from Portsmouth, VA who won the Orville Gibson Award for “Best Blues Guitarist, Female” in 2001, and was nominated for a W.C. Handy Blues Music Award nine times.

Celebrating Koo Nimo (born Kwabena Boa-Amponsem on October 3, 1934), a leading folk musician of Highlife music from Ghana.

Celebrating Stephen “Stevie” Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990), a Texan born in Dallas, and one of the most influential guitarists in the revival of Blues in the 1980s.