The Latest Breaking News from Albert King

The night Stevie Ray Vaughan walked out of his own show to go watch his blues hero: “I got on the mic and said, ‘I’m gonna go see Albert King. If you got any brains, you will, too.’ And I picked up and went”

SRV was playing a ‘pass-the-hat’ gig at one of Austin’s most notorious dive bars – until he found out Albert King was playing across town

Guitar World · Aug 18

“It’s surprising to discover how much we rely on patterns and shapes – and this can be at the expense of thinking melodically or rhythmically”: Why four notes and the truth are all you need for a great slow blues solo

In this lesson, we are using just four notes to construct four blues examples that put expression first

Guitar World · Jul 16

“It’s not a guitar where you grab the strings and bend them, Albert King-style. I tried twice and broke two strings!” Derek Trucks on the challenge of playing Jerry Garcia’s Tiger

The 14lbs beast needed some taming, and it taught Trucks a valuable history lesson

Guitar World · May 28

“He snuck in without people realizing. The only giveaway was the white feather tail in his hat”: How Stevie Ray Vaughan gave Bernard Allison the surprise of his life at his 16th birthday gig

Allison thought he’d lost the chance to jam with his hero, then he noticed a tour bus passing the venue

Guitar World · Feb 4

“The night he died, I was at Buddy Guy’s club waiting for Buddy, Stevie and Clapton. Then we were told they’d all gone down”: Larry McCray on rubbing shoulders with blues royalty and playing through Joe Bonamassa’s epic rig

Living blues legend Larry McCray is keeping on keeping on and keeping the blues alive, and on his latest LP, Heartbreak City, he's taking his guitar to places his voice can't reach

Guitar World · Jan 20

“Albert King once advised Gary Moore to ‘play every other note’”: Why keeping it simple can improve your blues solos

Peter Green, George Harrison, Gary Moore, David Gilmour... These are just some of the players inspiring this lesson in stylistic restraint, all in the pursuit of the blues

Guitar World · Jan 7

“When Iheard that, my first thought was, ‘Well, you can’t do that on a piano!’” Jared James Nichols teaches an essential guitar playing skill – how to bend the strings expressively

A set of electric guitar strings is no match for the bicep-curling, iron-pumping purveyor of blues power. He shows us how he makes his guitar scream

Guitar World · Dec 23, 2025

“Iasked Eric, ‘Can I play them?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, ofcourse.’ So he went home and I had full licence to play his guitars”: Stephen Dale Petit on break-ups, cancer, Eric Clapton and why the original “blues hooligan” is no gun-for-hire

Grave illness and a broken heart have tested Stephen Dale Petit – but the bluesman tells us that completing his Clapton-bolstered masterpiece, Be The Love, is all that matters

Guitar World · Nov 20, 2025

"He made his point known in a way that scared this guy half to death": Eric Gales' new album pays tribute to the man whose music he grew up with - his brother

Blues star Eric Gales on his record for his late brother, cutting heads with Joe Bonamassa and surviving time behind bars

Louder · Nov 10, 2025

“He screams across from the bar, ‘What you doing, boy! Put that guitar down. Nobody knows my tuning!’” Journey’s Neal Schon on that one time he tried Albert King’s mythical Gibson Flying V

Schon cut his teeth playing the blues and jamming with some of the genre’s greats – including Albert King

Guitar World · Nov 5, 2025