Lonnie Mack

Guitar great, and blue-eyed soul pioneer and master -- via Alligator. AKA Lonnie McIntosh. A musical genius who chose to stay out of the spotlight, Mack is one of those great hybrid figures in American musical history like Ray Charles, Doc Pomus, and Mose Allison. He could see -- and made us hear -- the connections between "white" and "black" roots music, revealing that they were really the same thing. He could play like no one else, fast and fluid and expressive in all manner of styles -- bluegrass, country, rock, blues. A major architect of the rock guitar solo, combining fingerpicking and slamming, crisp power chords.

He sang his heart out; listen to his screaming gospel-style solo on "Why."



A model for everyone who came after him. So smooth he seemed to channel the music -- which takes alot of work to pull off. "So I'll just keep playing the songs I love to play/That's all that matters anyway."