Olddog. Derek is fantastic. Best slide player to my ears. Like his regular guitar playing a lot but I would hesitate to put Derek ahead of players such as Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and several other technical wizards on regular guitar.

Blackey when you say technical ability are you referring to speed. The reason i ask is you always refer to speed guys when you use the term.

Either way, I don't understand the comparison. He has his own technique, but Derek is definitely not a super-technical, shred your way through a bunch of scales-type of guitar player like Vai or whoever.

No. I ask if you think Derek could have played Dickey's solo on Eat A Peach's One Way Out better? Or Duane's slide solos on the same song. I say no Derek could not. One Way Out on Eat A Peach is perfect and a masterpiece. Duane and Dickey and the other four including Gregg's vocals is as good as it gets by the ABB for that song. The high water mark.

Also Duane's solo on Liz Reed on Fillmore East is stella. No way Derek Trucks could touch it.

Steve Vai and Eric Johnson do much, much more than shredding and speed. Jimmy Herring or Derek Trucks cant match them technically. You guys better take a look at Steve Vai's videos on You Tube. Steve is not really may cup of tea but technically he is mind boggling. Let's see if Derek Trucks could match or top this.

I am a big Derek Trucks fan. But I must be missing something. To me his isn't technically the best around today and I submit Derek Trucks or Warren Haynes could not do versions of the live songs on Fillmore East and Eat A Peach better than Duane and Dickey did in 1971. So if it were Derek Trucks playing slide on Statesboro Blues on Fillmore East it would be better than what Duane did? No way.

[Edited on 2/19/2020 by blackey]

Only 2 people could play Soul Serenade,Duane and King Curtis. Although different insturments they both played with that same soulful southern inflection. If Duane and King swapped insturments I beleive they'd sound quite similar.

Zakk Wylde - He only needed one show and it just couldn't be beat. He absolutely loves the Allmans. Knows all the tunes. Gets a Dream Call that many here would love to get. "Can you save our ass in less than 24 hours and do a show with no rehearsal?" - Zakk says sure. Plays a dream gig and plays like.........Zakk Wylde and people hate him for Eternity. That is Impact and makes Zakk #1. It was also my most requested show in my trading days. Number 2 is not even close.

If you're gonna give Zakk credit for getting 24 hours notice, then at least give an honorable mention to Ron Holloway (yeah, not a guitar player) who was called to fill in for Warren Haynes the afternoon of a show at Penns Peak.

I think Jimmy Herring also only got a couple hours notice the day of 10/3/09 to fill in for Warren when Warren ran into plane trouble.

Both deserving of Honorable Mentions. But Zakk spits beer.

I will just toss this out there. It is quite possible for two people to prefer different guitarists and both are right.

We like what we like. It is not a competition. It is music. Otherwise i could list a dozen Classical players that none of the players mentioned could match. Yet many of those Classical players do not even attempt slide so Derek Etc are superior there.

Who cares? LOL

People that don't like fast players tend to lump them all in a big pile which is absolutely not the case. It would be like lumping all the ABB players mentioned here in a big pile and saying that they are all the same.

Eric Johnson besides being able to fly is an incredible guitar player who knows chords that maybe only Chet Atkins knew. Listen to his playing behind other peoples' solos. Amazing chords.

Satriani - same thing. I watched him backstage run through all the various chord inversions of each chord up and down the neck. He must have played each chord in 20-30 various ways. Who cares about his speed? It was incredible to witness.

Point is - you can like them all without comparing.

But WTF - Gary Moore kicked everyones' asses. LOL

Maybe so, maybe so, but all the guitar players mentioned in this thread COMBINED could not do what this kid does towards the end of this video. One can only guess at what he could do on say Blue Sky:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa7sl91w250

Zakk Wylde - He only needed one show and it just couldn't be beat. He absolutely loves the Allmans. Knows all the tunes. Gets a Dream Call that many here would love to get. "Can you save our ass in less than 24 hours and do a show with no rehearsal?" - Zakk says sure. Plays a dream gig and plays like.........Zakk Wylde and people hate him for Eternity. That is Impact and makes Zakk #1. It was also my most requested show in my trading days. Number 2 is not even close.

If you're gonna give Zakk credit for getting 24 hours notice, then at least give an honorable mention to Ron Holloway (yeah, not a guitar player) who was called to fill in for Warren Haynes the afternoon of a show at Penns Peak.

I think Jimmy Herring also only got a couple hours notice the day of 10/3/09 to fill in for Warren when Warren ran into plane trouble.

Both deserving of Honorable Mentions. But Zakk spits beer.

I will just toss this out there. It is quite possible for two people to prefer different guitarists and both are right.

We like what we like. It is not a competition. It is music. Otherwise i could list a dozen Classical players that none of the players mentioned could match. Yet many of those Classical players do not even attempt slide so Derek Etc are superior there.

Who cares? LOL

People that don't like fast players tend to lump them all in a big pile which is absolutely not the case. It would be like lumping all the ABB players mentioned here in a big pile and saying that they are all the same.

Eric Johnson besides being able to fly is an incredible guitar player who knows chords that maybe only Chet Atkins knew. Listen to his playing behind other peoples' solos. Amazing chords.

Satriani - same thing. I watched him backstage run through all the various chord inversions of each chord up and down the neck. He must have played each chord in 20-30 various ways. Who cares about his speed? It was incredible to witness.

Point is - you can like them all without comparing.

But WTF - Gary Moore kicked everyones' asses. LOL

HA!!! Zakk spits beer that's awesome …… and true!! I about spit out my breakfast after reading that. Would not have been as cool as ZW though!!

Good points and I have thought this also : Otherwise i could list a dozen Classical players that none of the players mentioned could match. Yet many of those Classical players do not even attempt slide so Derek Etc are superior there.

Very true words. People might want to think about that.

Derek's slide playing can be other worldly at times and his tone with it, for me, does not get much better. His stylistic approach to playing slide ,IMHO, is much more different than what's commonly associated with it...blues based. What he does, nobody really else does. Does that make him superior? Nah. Just different ,unique and a heck of a lot of talent to boot.

Jerry Douglas is a great slide player and so is Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

I enjoy Warrens slide playing just as much as Dereks. I would not say ones better than the other though. That would be ignorant on my part for sure.

Someone mentioned Derek is a great player who can do anything

I would have to think on that one.

Only 2 people could play Soul Serenade,Duane and King Curtis. Although different insturments they both played with that same soulful southern inflection. If Duane and King swapped insturments I beleive they'd sound quite similar.

Actually, Derek soars on "Soul Serenade" as well. A fitting tribute to both KC and DA

Point is - you can like them all without comparing.

Exactly. Blackey, name your favorites, but "best" will always be subjective. Derek has blown me away on "Statesboro Blues" in person as often as I'm blown away by Duane through my speakers.

I ask if you think Derek could have played Dickey's solo on Eat A Peach's One Way Out better?

This is like asking if Rembrandt could have painted "Starry Night". Different styles, different approaches, both brilliant.

This is like asking if Rembrandt could have painted "Starry Night'

Exactly.

No. I ask if you think Derek could have played Dickey's solo on Eat A Peach's One Way Out better? Or Duane's slide solos on the same song.

I think Derek would have played those solos his way and Duane and Dickey played them their way. There's not much else you can say about it. It's not a contest even though you're kind of determined to try to make it one and then say Duane and Dickey won. And then something about technique.

One Way Out on Eat A Peach is perfect and a masterpiece. Duane and Dickey and the other four including Gregg's vocals is as good as it gets by the ABB for that song. The high water mark.

The funny thing about your saying this is that there's a clear mistake in the performance. Berry comes in a couple of beats early just as Duane's solo gets going and the band gets briefly thrown off until they adjust. It's subtle and it's still a barnburner, and it's interesting to have it documented because these kinds of things happen in live performance. But they arguably played One Way Out better than this a bunch of times. The show this comes from was not their best, but it becomes the definitive one because we've heard it a million times.

Also Duane's solo on Liz Reed on Fillmore East is stella. No way Derek Trucks could touch it.

We all know how great that solo is. I've heard Derek do stellar things on Liz Reed lots of times.

Steve Vai and Eric Johnson do much, much more than shredding and speed. Jimmy Herring or Derek Trucks cant match them technically. You guys better take a look at Steve Vai's videos on You Tube. Steve is not really may cup of tea but technically he is mind boggling. Let's see if Derek Trucks could match or top this.

/blockquote>
I don't know what the point of all this 'technical' stuff is. If you don't like Derek's playing that much compared to the original lineup, it's fine and there's nothing to argue about. It's all just opinion. But I can't figure out what you're prove to do by dragging Eric Johnson or Steve Vai into the conversation. They're all different players who do different things. Derek and the guys in the ABB are more comparable and played the same songs, but the same thing is true for them.

I submit Derek Trucks or Warren Haynes could not do versions of the live songs on Fillmore East and Eat A Peach better than Duane and Dickey did in 1971. So if it were Derek Trucks playing slide on Statesboro Blues on Fillmore East it would be better than what Duane did? No way.

They played those songs tons of times. You either like them or you don't and your preference is whatever it is. At the end of the day, turning it into a contest instead of appreciating what makes different players and versions great or interesting is extremely boring.

 

Question to refresh my memory or to inform me.

When Jack and Jimmy played with the ABB, where they just more of a hired hand at that time, or were they actually "in the band"?

Question to refresh my memory or to inform me.

When Jack and Jimmy played with the ABB, where they just more of a hired hand at that time, or were they actually "in the band"?

Jack was a full-time member of the band, but Jimmy was a sub for the Summer 2000 tour. I believe he was invited to take the gig when Dickey sued them and made it clear he wasn't coming back, but Jimmy turned it down.

That is correct about Jimmy Herring. Butch was said to have told him Dickey's spot was his but he turned it down. Jimmy was an old Dickey fan and actually mentioned Dickey's solo and tone on One Way Out off Eat A Peach being long so special to Jimmy and nobody had ever replaced a living member of the ABB and he wasn't going to be the first one. Actually Jimmy was wrong. David Tolet replaced Jaimoe in late 1980 when the other 3 voted Jaimoe out.

Gregg, Dickey. Butch and Jaimoe owned the band. All other members after 1972 had contracts with the band and were basically employees.

I'm a huge fan of Derek Trucks. He is my favorite living slide player. And he can play what Duane played very well but not better. To me Duane was the player with the most fire and power. His solos on AFE and Eat A Peach prove it to my ears. Technically Duane was not the best.

I saw Derek Trucks Band at a bar in 1995 in North Carolina. Statesboro Blues was just like the ABB AFE version. Derek was, not rest of his band. He was channeling Duane on slide flawlessly.

Question to refresh my memory or to inform me.

When Jack and Jimmy played with the ABB, where they just more of a hired hand at that time, or were they actually "in the band"?

Jack was a full-time member of the band, but Jimmy was a sub for the Summer 2000 tour. I believe he was invited to take the gig when Dickey sued them and made it clear he wasn't coming back, but Jimmy turned it down.

Thanks! That's what I thought but could not remember for sure.

Not to make this too uncomplicated but ain't this just really about the feelings you experience when you hear music. And the degree to which you are moved then effects how much you might like/prefer one piece of music or its player to another. What always amazes me about these types of discussions is that somehow those that take a firm stance that something is best think that everyone hears/feels the some way as them. If you believe what you heard has moved you like none other than that is truly your experience but you can never assume it will be "exactly" the same as what some one else has heard or can be the same as the history of musical experiences another person has had.

Blackey, I have a ton of similar feelings like you do towards the particular Duane era specific songs and solos that you mention. Yep, some are the best (for me) of all the ABB stuff I have ever heard but I could never argue that it must also be recognized as the absolute best by every one. Always nice when some one tells me that they also heard something special and were blown away by it, but to then expect that it is also "the best ever" of a particular type is kind of silly and unfair to the other person's listening experience.

And regarding technique, that seems to be related to musical knowledge and physical skills related to the particular instrument. I am not much of a musician so I leave it up to other musicians to judge this but what some musicians say in just a few notes has moved me much more than what I've heard in another's, more technically sophisticated, "masterwork".

In the end isn't music something that we all individually enjoy yet then find out that we have done so in a shared way? Just my opinion about musical opinions.

[Edited on 2/19/2020 by dzobo]

[Edited on 2/19/2020 by dzobo]

A point of order - something that inevitably gets said in these threads is that there's no way to judge "who is better - it's all subjective" and that's true to some extent. But we can say for sure Hendrix is better than me (trust me, I'm not better than Hendrix) - and yes the margin is narrower among true professionals and individual taste enters into it - but still guys are better than other guys. Nobody has yet said Danny Toler is a better player than either Duane Allman or Derek Trucks for example - like we statistically get there's a tiny minority of listeners who prefer Toler, but those are outliers - we can collectively as Allman obsessives say he's just not as good as most of the other guys that have been in this band.

To get to my point, if we can rank some players, we can rank them all. The new guys have been able to study 50 years of electric guitar progress, they've mastered the stuff Duane and Dickey did and ramped it up. Derek does stuff that is off the charts. They stand on the shoulders of giants for sure, but they are clearly better players. Much like athletics - everyone now is better, stronger, faster, more skilled, smarter - it's true in music too. I know this will be roundly dismissed, Jack and Derek are a lot better than Duane Allman. They lived way past 24, had the benefit of many more years studying the instrument, and had the benefit of years of progression on the instrument for them to learn from.

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by slothrop8]

Yes I'll dismiss that myself. Jack and Derek aren't better playing Allman Brothers songs than Duane Allman. And Jack and Derek don't bring as much energy and power to their playing as Duane Allman did. Duane's solo on Liz Reed on AFE has not been topped by Jack or Derek or Warren or Dickey or Dan or Jimmy. That solo absolutely smokes!!

Dan Toler could light up a solo real good. But in the ABB he didn't have is own style and voice. He sounded too much like Dickey Betts, Toy Caldwell and a touch of Clapton and Terry Kath of Chicago.

Duane Allman could rock out better than any guitarist in the ABB. Technically other players in the ABB may have an edge on Duane including Dickey. But not slide. The best slide player in the ABB is Duane Allman!! Derek Trucks or Jack Pearson may be more advanced technically but they can't top what Duane does did such as Statesboro Blues. Duane on Statesboro Blues and Done Somebody Wrong and Trouble No More and One Way Out is perfect. Outstanding slide playing and the energy is incredible. Absolutely left a trail of SMOKE on stage that Derek Trucks couldn't top.

Listen to Trouble No More or One Way Out on Eat A Peach slothrop8. Jack Pearson and Derek Trucks can't top what Duane and Dickey play. I challenge you to link a version of Trouble No More, Statesboro Blues, Liz Reed, One Way Out and You Don't Love Me by with Jack or Warren or Derek Trucks and it tops what Duane and Dickey do on EAP and AFE. I have the Fox Box and the live album by the last line up titled One Way Out and there isn't any versions of the old songs that tops what Duane and Dickey did. Blue Sky live on Stonybrook is better than Blue Sky live by the last lineup.

Link me ABB songs from the Duane era played by Jack and Derek or Warren that top what Duane and Dickey did. I'm ready.

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by blackey]

Derek and Jack and Warren can't play this better than Dickey and Duane. Otiel isn't better than Berry Oakley and Matt Abts isn't better than Butch or Jaimoe and Warren can't sing it better than Gregg. This is a 10 plus. As good as it gets. This is Allman Brothers at it's best!!

Okay no links. Maybe you all are mad at me. Just trying to get it stirred up a little. I'm not dissing Jack or Derek or Warren. I'm a big fan of all three. And I know from their interviews they not only love and respect the original lineup, they acknowledge that is the classic Allman Brothers sound.

All I'm saying is Jack and Derek and Warren can't play those Duane era songs better than Duane and Dickey. Different perhaps but not better. Take Statesboro Blues from AFE for example. What could any musician do to make it better?? Nothing. It is a masterpiece just as it is and defines the Allman Brothers sound. It is how the ABB sounds when firing on all cylinders.

Take Statesboro Blues from AFE for example. What could any musician do to make it better?? Nothing.

They did it themselves with the version on Ludlow.

I absolutely lost track of how many ABB shows that I have from ALL eras and I can easily say that Duane and Dickey never played it exactly like that night either. I prefer some other versions that Duane/Dickey did over the AFE album. What does it all mean? Nothing. Just your opinion and mine.

If they never played it the same twice then were they a different version nightly?You only use that version because it was the one released 50 years ago. If the Ludlow Version had come out originally then you would be referring to that one.

Now here is a situation - I much prefer Duane's playing on the Ludlow version but I prefer Dickey's playing on AFE. So I need a blended mix. Duane is on fire on the Ludlow version which is why they add an entire 3rd solo section just because Duane wasn't going to stop.

Top be completely honest, there is nothing really difficult about Statesboro and I think on some nights when the crowd was right, the mood was on and I was in a Zone then I give them a run for their money. I know that there are many guitarists that frequent here that could say the same.

I can not tell you to enjoy another version more. Just as you can not tell someone that prefers a version with Derek more that they are wrong. There is no Judge or Jury to Guitar Hero Land.

I can tell you one thing. If Duane had never died then he would be asking Gregg for a loan. Dickey and Warren would be the Wealthiest Two Guitar Players of the ABB. Duane didn't write and even though his playing on peoples' songs was pure genius. There is no Royalty for Genius.

A point of order - something that inevitably gets said in these threads is that there's no way to judge "who is better - it's all subjective" and that's true to some extent. But we can say for sure Hendrix is better than me (trust me, I'm not better than Hendrix) - and yes the margin is narrower among true professionals and individual taste enters into it - but still guys are better than other guys. Nobody has yet said Danny Toler is a better player than either Duane Allman or Derek Trucks for example - like we statistically get there's a tiny minority of listeners who prefer Toler, but those are outliers - we can collectively as Allman obsessives say he's just not as good as most of the other guys that have been in this band.

To get to my point, if we can rank some players, we can rank them all. The new guys have been able to study 50 years of electric guitar progress, they've mastered the stuff Duane and Dickey did and ramped it up. Derek does stuff that is off the charts. They stand on the shoulders of giants for sure, but they are clearly better players. Much like athletics - everyone now is better, stronger, faster, more skilled, smarter - it's true in music too. I know this will be roundly dismissed, Jack and Derek are a lot better than Duane Allman. They lived way past 24, had the benefit of many more years studying the instrument, and had the benefit of years of progression on the instrument for them to learn from.

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by slothrop8]

Great post, especially your point about Duane's early death being the reason that Derek (etc) should be "better" players.

Good better best doesn’t apply to music - it’s all in how billions of many and varied listeners hear it
Nothing for me tops FE/Peach
However 😮
Am in same ABB bliss as that during 7/17/71 Atlanta Liz Reed
8/17/71 Boston YDLM & BO stage banter
7/26/70 Stonybrook Mtn Jam - Dickey passes on his solo, it goes from organ>drums - then his rhythm player later in the song.....great

The shorter AFE ones like SBlues, OWO, TNMore, DSW etc - when Capt Skipper remastered 9/16/71 Warehouse - those ones seemed to benefit in sound the most I thought - it turned a decent-sounding tape of a killer show, into the GEM we have today
And there are others too,
Point of all the babbling, FE/Peach may not be “better than” these ones to some listeners
Still doesn’t change them tho as my all time go-to listens - familiarity does not breed contempt when it comes to these albums 😮 😮 - awesome they had Dowd & the pro recording equipment there when they were killin it like that

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by Stephen]

:DThanks for the Trouble No More blackey! Wore Out side III of EAP back in the day

Think that it is interesting that no one yet has listed any particular performance by a post-Duane lineup as better than the original, particularly as related to the Duane guitar solos that Blackey mentioned. Does that mean that everyone who is fully aware of all the eras is in agreement? I've got to admit I don't have anything even though I thoroughly enjoy stuff from all the eras.

One performance that Blackey did not focus on was the Hot 'Lanta from AFE. I have not heard any recorded performance of the song that ever matched the drive, energy and musical tightness of this one. For me the only better one was the encore of the 1971 early show at Stony Brook. What a way to finish a set. Sadly it somehow never made it to the tapes that were used for the release.

But we can say for sure Hendrix is better than me (trust me, I'm not better than Hendrix) - and yes the margin is narrower among true professionals and individual taste enters into it - but still guys are better than other guys. [...] The new guys have been able to study 50 years of electric guitar progress, they've mastered the stuff Duane and Dickey did and ramped it up. Derek does stuff that is off the charts. They stand on the shoulders of giants for sure, but they are clearly better players. Much like athletics - everyone now is better, stronger, faster, more skilled, smarter - it's true in music too. I know this will be roundly dismissed, Jack and Derek are a lot better than Duane Allman. They lived way past 24, had the benefit of many more years studying the instrument, and had the benefit of years of progression on the instrument for them to learn from.

That newer guys have built on previous players is inarguably true. So is the fact that the 'next generation' guys in this example had much longer to practice their craft as musicians and that counts for something. The part that makes this hard is defining "better." Some people use it to mean music that they prefer and has more emotional meaning for them, for reasons related to music or to lots of other life things, while others are using it to say something about the ability of the players - their ability to either play something powerful or to make something they find meaningful as listeners. And if they don't play things we find meaningful we tend to treat that as a failing by the musician instead of an example of what moves us or doesn't. It's hard to separate all those things when you're listening, at least after a guitarist has reached a level of skill where he/she can play what she intends to play. After that it's just about how much obvious complexity you can hear in their playing.

Think that it is interesting that no one yet has listed any particular performance by a post-Duane lineup as better than the original, particularly as related to the Duane guitar solos that Blackey mentioned. Does that mean that everyone who is fully aware of all the eras is in agreement?

I think it means it's hard to pick a specific one, and we've all heard the Fillmore East version scads of times more than we've heard any particular later take on the song. I'd have to scan through my computer to see which versions I've listened to the most.

1) Duane
1a) Dickey
and then a wide gap to
2) Derek
3) Jack
4) Warren
5) Dan

I think when ranking players people confuse technical ability with musicianship. Duane and Dickey are by far the best because they created the most memorable and iconic music (solos and otherwise) in the history of the ABB.
Even non-ABB fans can hum the solos from Blue Sky or instantly recognize Duane's slide in Statesboro Blues.
Name a solo(s) that the others did that is so iconic that 50 years later players will still be breaking them down and trying to learn them? If it was all about technical ability there would be thousands of blues players better than BB King - yet we all know better.
Sure, we can rank players but what are the criteria that determine the ranking? For me it's about the music that MOVES me the most. Duane and Dickey moved me to the point that I HAD to learn how to play guitar. That's powerful.

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by philipag]

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by philipag]

1) Duane
1a) Dickey
and then a wide gap to
2) Derek
3) Jack
4) Warren
5) Dan

I think when ranking players people confuse technical ability with musicianship. Duane and Dickey are by far the best because they created the most memorable and iconic music (solos and otherwise) in the history of the ABB.
Even non-ABB fans can hum the solos from Blue Sky or instantly recognize Duane's slide in Statesboro Blues.
Name a solo(s) that the others did that is so iconic that 50 years later players will still be breaking them down and trying to learn them? If it was all about technical ability there would be thousands of blues players better than BB King - yet we all know better.
Sure, we can rank players but what are the criteria that determine the ranking? For me it's about the music that MOVES me the most. Duane and Dickey moved me to the point that I HAD to learn how to play guitar. That's powerful.

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by philipag]

[Edited on 2/21/2020 by philipag]

That's it!!!

Duane and Dickey are by far the best because they created the most memorable and iconic music (solos and otherwise) in the history of the ABB.

Dickey did.

Duane didn't write. I am the first person to say that Gregg being the sole writer on those old tunes is insane. bUt that is how it went down.

Duane did amazing things on other peoples' songs.

I prefer a clean slide player which Derek is not. Derek always uses what I call the "whoosh" in between his phrases. Where he just runs the slide either up/down the neck causing the "whoosh". He is at the point where I doubt that he could not do it.

I love Derek and he always kicks my ass but he doesn't do for me what he does for some others which is cool.

Solely on slide - Jack would easily get my vote. Followed by Duane and Warren then Derek. But I will also say that Derek based his complete style on slide from a very early age and has done things that perhaps the others have not.

But Jack is on a different level to me.

Duane and Dickey are by far the best because they created the most memorable and iconic music (solos and otherwise) in the history of the ABB.

Dickey did.

Duane didn't write. I am the first person to say that Gregg being the sole writer on those old tunes is insane. bUt that is how it went down.

Duane did amazing things on other peoples' songs.

I prefer a clean slide player which Derek is not. Derek always uses what I call the "whoosh" in between his phrases. Where he just runs the slide either up/down the neck causing the "whoosh". He is at the point where I doubt that he could not do it.

I love Derek and he always kicks my ass but he doesn't do for me what he does for some others which is cool.

Solely on slide - Jack would easily get my vote. Followed by Duane and Warren then Derek. But I will also say that Derek based his complete style on slide from a very early age and has done things that perhaps the others have not.

But Jack is on a different level to me.

I think Jack is probably the most underrated of them all. He's a fantastic player, but as far as the ABB I can't say his contribution compares because his time was short and he didn't get to make a record with the band.

To me it hardly matters that Duane only got writing credit for Little Martha and partly Hot Lanta. It's like Coltrane playing My Favorite Things. Does anyone care that he didn't write it? Duane's incredible improvisation and his ability to create harmonies on the fly were clearly a huge reason why the songs became the iconic masterpieces we know them as now. What's Dreams without Duane's beautiful solo, for example.
I don't think it's a coincidence that most all of the great ABB songs were created while Duane was in the band or shortly thereafter.

5. JIMMY HERRING
He pushed the band's music to new places when it was in mothballs. Those 2000 shows are interesting curios, but I never thought Jimmy's style completely sounded like the ABB

I saw the band the one year Herring toured with them, 2000. It was Jimmy and Derek on guitar. If I'm not mistaken those two had musical history together. Was it Aquarium Rescue Unit?

That 2000 show was at Konocti Harbor at Clear Lake, an outdoor venue in N. California, and it was COLD that night. But let me tell you, Jimmy and Derek WARMED THE PLACE UP!!!

Another standout memory that night: Gregg at the organ singing Loan Me A Dime. Damn, he OWNED IT.....
Had to have meant something to him too, Duane having played on the Boz Scaggs version.

[Edited on 2/22/2020 by robslob]