#music, My Top 10 Super Guitarists of Rock!

(«Hippies»/Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

Ok, I will start with my top 10 and then I’ll tell you why…

1) Jimmy Page

2) Duane Allman

3) Terry Kath

4) David Gilmore

5) Jerry Garcia

6) Eric Clapton

7) Mark Knopfler

8) Charlie Daniels

9) John Fogerty

10) Jimi Jendrix.

Reference Terry Kath (1946-1978): Jimi Hendrix once said that Kath was a much better guitarist than he was. Hendrix was so impressed (and totally intimidated) by Kath’s solo on «25 or 6 to 4«, where he did not repeat himself in a tour de force of rock-and-psychedelic jazz, that Jimi did not want to come onstage. Chicago Transit Authority was opening at that time for the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Philadelphia in 1968. Terry died too soon and soon forgotten to history (mostly) because of Chicago’s turn towards soft-rock in the 1980’s.

Jerry Garcia (1942-1995): Was the master of improvisation. He listened to the band and created solos that were in keeping with the structure of the music. He had the necessary knowledge of harmony and could work scales in any time signature with ease. Therefore, one of the greatest guitarists in rock.

Charlie Daniels (1936-2020): A master studio musician in Nashville who played not only the guitar as a master, but the bass and the fiddle. He played in many studio albums including one for Bob Dylan, and for Leonard Cohen, before he put on his cowboy hat and ventured out on his own.

Mark Knopfler (1949): Delicate finger-picking, a master of tone and control giving texture and emotion to his solos rather than just a bunch of distorted notes.

John Fogerty (1945): The undisputed king of «swamp rock». Fogerty is the master of musical economy. He created direct riffs, playing masterfully with three chords. He didn’t do eight minute solos but he did compose classics like «Green River», «Lodi» and «Proud Mary». To me Fogerty (and CCR) represented the proletariat class of rock.

Duane Allman (1946-1971): For sure the god of the slide guitar. His guitar duel with Clapton on «Layla«, and his performance at the Fillmore East, is legendary and created rock history. Duane’s lyrical phrasing, sounding almost like a blues singer would, has not been replicated by any guitarists in rock.

And if you notice that there are many representatives here of Southern Rock and Country. I’ll tell you why:

Today, the best musicians (onstage or as studio/session musicians) on Earth are in Nashville. While pop. mainstream rock and urban music depend on the Auto-Tune, and programmed bases that producers arrange in computers, Country music continues to make pure and real music created by talented musicians.

There is not trick recording allowed. If a musician wants to succeed in the Country music circuit (e.g. Chris Stapleton, Billy Strings with his acoustic guitar, or the studio musicians recording in studios in Nashville), you have to be a virtuoso. These musicians can play as easily onstage as in the recording studio and they can create a song on the first take perfectly. Their sense of rhythm, dynamics, harmony and meter is wild, and perfect. They are able to handle their instruments, i.e. guitars, fiddles, mandolins, keyboards, to professional perfection. Anywhere and any time.

Now, you tell me, who would you put in your top 10 guitarists of rock.

CHEERS

#art, «Art or Rubbish»

(«Criticón»/FBC/OCS Valencia/All Rights Reserved)

DISCOURSE AND EXPLANATIONS DO NOT EQUAL ART

These are some of the works that are being talked about – and probably just temporarily so – in the history of contemporary art. And not because they have any merit. What they do have is a lot of mindless, confusing and idle discourse surrounding them. They have no art.

Yoko Ono conned viewers into «witnessing» the gradual decay of an apple in Apple, (You can see she didn’t work too hard on the title) turning the passage of time into the central concept, according to her for all apples rot and decay, nothing artistic about it. Ai Weiwei «shocked» audiences by deliberately destroying a two-thousand-year-old ceramic vessel in Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. Another one who didn’t work too hard on the title. And he purchased and dropped two as this was done as a photographic documentation in 1995. Tracey Emin «exhibited» her own unmade bed in My Bed (another one who did not have to think much about the title) as an intimate self-portrait. A self-portrait? Of what? Detritus as art? And, of course the master con-artist Marcel Duchamp who «transformed» a urinal into Fountain, perhaps the most influential ready-made in history. Which he did not even do as the urinal was brought to New York by the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a Dada artist and poet who signed it «R. Mutt.»

So, as you can see, all lacked vision and imagination. None of them could even come up with a name that showed that they had actually put some thought into the «work». Weiwei was supposedly rebelling against the ancient ways of transmission of culture. But he purchased the two urns, therefore becoming an active participant in the system that he was «criticising» as an «artist-activist.» Major hypocrisy artistically contrived to fool the world. And many were/are fooled.

The same «conceptual» approach appears in works such as Dónde dormir by Eugenio Ampudia. Now this «conceptual» artist really amounts to practically nothing, I do not even know why I mention him. He has no ideas, no artistic sense and no originality. Comedian—the in-famous banana taped to a wall—by Maurizio Cattelan, and Vaso medio lleno (another thoughtless title) by Wilfredo Prieto, where the title and the accompanying explanation become inseparable from the object itself. He should have drank the whole glass of water then named the «work» Empty Glass. Oh, wait Empty Glass (1980) was an album by Pete Tonwshend, a real and true artist.

The culmination of this tendency may well be Salvatore Garau and his work Io sono: an «immaterial sculpture» consisting of empty space that was nevertheless sold as a work of art. Here, the physical work disappears entirely, leaving only the narrative that justifies its existence. You can fool some of the people some time, and all fools all the time. This one really went beyond the norm. The fact that Garau sold it is truly the work of art.

I know many critics, curators and collectors defend these works as milestones in conceptual art. I do not respect that position, I laugh at it. For me, these pieces are not art. They are rubbish. They may provoque, and aspire to be social experiments or think they are philosophical statements, but they do not achieve any of that in the least bit. They are tricks and lies to fool the gullible public and the «elite» that then proclaim this «stuff» as art.

Art can—and often should—be provocative, revolutionary, uncomfortable and deeply critical. But none of those qualities, by themselves, are enough. And none of the «works» mentioned in this article do any of that. A work of art must possess a value that transcends the explanatory text hanging beside it. If the discourse is removed and all that remains is an ordinary object—or nothing at all—then, in my view, it is the explanation that is being admired, not the artwork. We must all trust our instincts, our taste and our knowledge and not let the new «gurus» of the art world decide that rubbish is «art».

(I will not put images of these «works» as I do not consider them worthy to be reproduced. I only mention them to bring forth my premise that «Art is the search» and not the «ready made».

(All you have to do is give it a like, a comment and a share. It is FREE and it helps our channel)

CHEERS

#art, «Art or Rubbish»

(«Criticón»/FBC/OCS Valencia/All Rights Reserved)

DISCOURSE AND EXPLANATIONS DO NOT EQUAL ART

These are some of the works that are being talked about – and probably just temporarily so – in the history of contemporary art. And not because they have any merit. What they do have is a lot of mindless, confusing and idle discourse surrounding them. They have no art.

Yoko Ono conned viewers into «witnessing» the gradual decay of an apple in Apple, (You can see she didn’t work too hard on the title) turning the passage of time into the central concept, according to her for all apples rot and decay, nothing artistic about it. Ai Weiwei «shocked» audiences by deliberately destroying a two-thousand-year-old ceramic vessel in Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. Another one who didn’t work too hard on the title. And he purchased and dropped two as this was done as a photographic documentation in 1995. Tracey Emin «exhibited» her own unmade bed in My Bed (another one who did not have to think much about the title) as an intimate self-portrait. A self-portrait? Of what? Detritus as art? And, of course the master con-artist Marcel Duchamp who «transformed» a urinal into Fountain, perhaps the most influential ready-made in history. Which he did not even do as the urinal was brought to New York by the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a Dada artist and poet who signed it «R. Mutt.»

So, as you can see, all lacked vision and imagination. None of them could even come up with a name that showed that they had actually put some thought into the «work». Weiwei was supposedly rebelling against the ancient ways of transmission of culture. But he purchased the two urns, therefore becoming an active participant in the system that he was «criticising» as an «artist-activist.» Major hypocrisy artistically contrived to fool the world. And many were/are fooled.

The same «conceptual» approach appears in works such as Dónde dormir by Eugenio Ampudia. Now this «conceptual» artist really amounts to practically nothing, I do not even know why I mention him. He has no ideas, no artistic sense and no originality. Comedian—the in-famous banana taped to a wall—by Maurizio Cattelan, and Vaso medio lleno (another thoughtless title) by Wilfredo Prieto, where the title and the accompanying explanation become inseparable from the object itself. He should have drank the whole glass of water then named the «work» Empty Glass. Oh, wait Empty Glass (1980) was an album by Pete Tonwshend, a real and true artist.

The culmination of this tendency may well be Salvatore Garau and his work Io sono: an «immaterial sculpture» consisting of empty space that was nevertheless sold as a work of art. Here, the physical work disappears entirely, leaving only the narrative that justifies its existence. You can fool some of the people some time, and all fools all the time. This one really went beyond the norm. The fact that Garau sold it is truly the work of art.

I know many critics, curators and collectors defend these works as milestones in conceptual art. I do not respect that position, I laugh at it. For me, these pieces are not art. They are rubbish. They may provoque, and aspire to be social experiments or think they are philosophical statements, but they do not achieve any of that in the least bit. They are tricks and lies to fool the gullible public and the «elite» that then proclaim this «stuff» as art.

Art can—and often should—be provocative, revolutionary, uncomfortable and deeply critical. But none of those qualities, by themselves, are enough. And none of the «works» mentioned in this article do any of that. A work of art must possess a value that transcends the explanatory text hanging beside it. If the discourse is removed and all that remains is an ordinary object—or nothing at all—then, in my view, it is the explanation that is being admired, not the artwork. We must all trust our instincts, our taste and our knowledge and not let the new «gurus» of the art world decide that rubbish is «art».

(I will not put images of these «works» as I do not consider them worthy to be reproduced. I only mention them to bring forth my premise that «Art is the search» and not the «ready made».

(All you have to do is give it a like, a comment and a share. It is FREE and it helps our channel)

CHEERS

Good Morning!

(Photo: Aya Markella/Chios, Greece/FBC/OCS Valencia/All Rights Reserved)

“A day to be grateful and to praise God is a good day.”

#art, OCS Valencia 2026 In Review…

(Photo of Miami Beach by FBC/OCS Valencia/All Rights Reserved)

Well we here at Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, at about this time of the year, usually take a look to see how we are doing with sales. Well, this year we are happy because we are slightly ahead of the curve. So, we got so exited that we made a short video of the paintings sold so far this year. Hope you enjoy it. And if you missed them, and you do not own any of them for your personal collection, not to worry, there are still six more months of 2026 creativity.

(Come on folks, all you have to do is like, and it’s free)

CHEERS