Originally Posted By: Ember - PG Music


What are your top five musical artists, and why?


Just picking five is so difficult but.... I love melodic music and harmonies and have always been attracted to those sorts of artists and writers. In no particular order, here are 5 of the most influential artists in my musical growth through the years.

The Beatles: Great songwriters and performers who were all about the music. They influenced me to want to play guitar and write music. Their music has a certain innocence that we don't see in today's music very often.

The Eagles: Extraordinary songwriters and amazing vocal work. They have always been one of my favorite bands for those reasons from their first album to them most recent work. Their harmony has always been amazingly good.

Neil Young: A prolific writer who loved harmony. He influenced me greatly in my early years of playing guitar and playing music. There was so much about him that I liked. Many of the early bands I played in covered his music. His unique style and approach to music stick with me to this day and influence how I look at music.

Deep Purple: The original hard rock band with Richie Blackmore on guitar is hard to beat. Again, great talent and guitarist as well as writing. And of course they rock hard and with so much energy. Loved their early stuff.... Smoke on the Water, Fireball, Highway Star and of course Lazy..... you owe it to yourself to listen to those songs if you don't know this band that was one of the founders of hard rock as we know it today. The Machine Head album is a classic especially considering how it was recorded and where.

Led Zepplin: Another rock band that wasn't content to just rock. Amazing songwriting ... listen to all their albums.... from the early blues to the Houses of the Holy...... and more. Of course their iconic rock ballad Stairway to Heaven still tops the lists they do yearly of the best rock songs of all times.

I could list many more but if I had to choose albums from only 5 artists to take with me to a desert island .... these would be the artists I'd have in the suitcase.

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