The Best Blues Rock Singers Of All Time Ranked
Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes with keyboards and harmonica). From its beginnings in the early to mid-1960s, blues rock has gone through several stylistic shifts and along the way it inspired and influenced hard rock, Southern rock, and early heavy metal. Blues rock started with rock musicians in the United Kingdom and the United States performing American blues songs. They typically recreated electric Chicago blues songs, such as those by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed, at faster tempos and with a more aggressive sound common to rock. In the UK, the style was popularized by groups such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Animals, who put several blues songs into the pop charts. In the US, Lonnie Mack, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Canned Heat were among the earliest exponents. Some of these bands also played long, involved improvisations as were then commonplace on jazz records. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the style became more hard rock-oriented. In the US, Johnny Winter, the early Allman Brothers Band, and ZZ Top represented a hard rock trend, along with Ten Years After, Savoy Brown, and Foghat in the UK. Here are all of the best Blues Rock Singers of all time ranked.
See more: The Best Punk Guitarists Of All Time Ranked
See more: The Best Punk Singers Of All Time Ranked
20. Joanne Shaw Taylor
“She is a British Blues Rock musician. If you don’t know of her or have never heard of her, may I suggest you acquaint yourself with her, ASAP! She is amazing! Great powerful voice and one hell of a guitar player. The British music publication Blues Matters! called Taylor “the new face of the blues”.
19. Jimi Hendrix
“Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music”. Hendrix is consistently ranked on lists of musicians who died too soon.”
18. The Moody Blues
“The Moody Blues are an English rock band. They first came to prominence playing rhythm and blues music, but their second album, Days of Future Passed, which was released in 1967, was a fusion of rock with classical music and established them as pioneers in the development of art rock and progressive rock.”
17. Jack Bruce
“John Symon Asher “Jack” Bruce was a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter known primarily for his contributions to the British supergroup Cream, which also included guitarist-singer Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker.”
16. The Band
“The Band was a Canadian-American roots rock group formed in 1965 . Which originally consisting of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, vocals), Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboards, saxophones, trumpet), Richard Manuel (piano, drums, vocals) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, percussion, vocals) .”
15. Joe Bonamassa
“Joe Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. When he was only 12 years old, Bonamassa opened for B.B. King. He was born 8th May 1977. He is known to be one of the greatest blues guitarists ever.”
`14. Van Morrison
“Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE is a Northern Irish singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and record producer. In 2016, he was knighted for services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland. Listen to the Irish Blues band, “Them” from the sixties. Listen to his collaborations with John Lee Hooker on “Too Long in Exile”.”
13. Janis Joplin
“Janis Joplin (1943-1970) was an American singer who rose to fame as the main singer of acid band Big Brother and the Holding Company. She was known for her eccentric hippie style and psychedelic rock music.”
12. Keith Relf
“Keith Relf was an English musician, well known as the lead singer for the psychedelic band The Yardbirds. As lead singer of the Yardbirds, he was the frontman for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, which is some pretty strong blues rock street cred.
11. Eric Burdon
“Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was previously the vocalist of rock band The Animals and funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion’s most distinct singers with his deep, powerful blues-rock voice. Eric really deserves the first spot in this list. Eric is the voice of blues rock; he got the range, rawness, power; everything.”
10. Gary Moore
“Robert William Gary Moore was a Northern Irish musician, most widely recognised as a singer, songwriter, and virtuoso rock and blues guitarist. Best thing he ever did was going on the blues tour. Great player with really raw and noisy sound.”
9. ZZ Top
“ZZ Top is an American rock band that formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band is composed of bassist and lead vocalist Dusty Hill, guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons, and drummer Frank Beard. They’re possibly my favorite band of all time. No, not possibly. Definitely.”
8. John Mayall
“John Mayall is an English blues singer, guitarist, organist and songwriter, whose musical career spans over fifty years. Perhaps the most annoying, grating voice in modern music history. Sounds like a Muppet.”
7. The Rolling Stones
“The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The first settled line-up consisted of Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar), Bill Wyman (bass) and Charlie Watts (drums). Their best works include songs like Paint it Black, Sympathy for the Devil, Satisfication (Which ranked no. 2 in The Rolling Stones Magazine’s best songs of all time list).”
6. Stevie Ray Vaughan
“Stevie is simply too good. I have been listening to JethroTull, Pink Floyd, deep purple, AC-DC, Doors, Iron Maiden, BJ Harvest, America, Judas Priest, Eric Clapton, Santana, Frank Zappa, Dire Striats and some more music for many years. Just started exploring the internet to find good music, I came across this Stevie without even know who he is. Stevie is simple amazing. Stevie and Jeff Beck’s Fire meets the Fury and Stevie and Albert King with Stevie are some of the best albums on blues.”
5. John Mayer
“John Clayton Mayer is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but disenrolled and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with Clay Cook. Together, they formed a short-lived two-man band called Lo-Fi Masters.”
4. Jim Morrison
“James Douglas “Jim” Morrison was an American singer, songwriter, and poet best remembered as the lead singer of the Doors. He’s usually more associated with psych rock than blues rock, but he still did some good blues rock things in The Doors.”
3. Led Zeppelin
“Led Zeppelin was an English hard rock band formed in London in 1968 as the New Yardbirds. The group consisted of Robert Plant (Vocal), Jimmy Page (Guitar), John Paul Jones (Bass, Keyboard) and John Bonham (Drums) and was very much the child of Jimmy Page who even financed their first tour. He had tasted some previous success with The [original] Yardbirds and was friendly with some big names in rock.”
2. Robert Plant
“As the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant seemed invincible, a “Golden God” in the words of journalist/filmmaker Cameron Crowe. Plant may have embraced rock stardom during Zeppelin’s zenith in the mid-’70s, but the singer has spent the decades following the band’s 1980 dissolution exploring the road less-traveled”
1. Eric Clapton
“Clapton is just the master of the blues. Listen to any of his works with the Bluesbreakers or some of his solo works like Slowhand. This guy is so versatile and could own any genre, be it reggae, blues, or psychedelia. But he will always be known as one of the blues greats of all time.”
