Guitarists

Joe Satriani

Joe's my favorite artist and guitar player because his music inspired me to try to create my own music. Basketball players want to be like Mike. Well I want to be like Joe. I played guitar for many years before hearing about Satriani. Led Zeppelin was probably the biggest influence during my high school days and then Santana. But I mainly played for fun and wanting to be able to play songs like the artists. Then in, I'd say in 1988, I heard KLOS (the home of Mark & Brian) playing this great guitar instrumental. At the time, I had know idea who the artist was. It turned out that it was Joe Satriani and his song "Crushing Day" was the song that blew me away. Later the same week I went out and got his CD "Surfing with the Alien" and I was hooked. Here are some of my favorites:

cover Surfing With the Alien - (Click here to buy it from Amazon.com)

This whole CD is great to listen to, but my favorite tracks are:

	Crushing Day
	Always With Me, Always With You
	Circles
	Echo

I think "Always With Me, Always With You" is a great song to learn to play. It has a great rhythm part to sharpen up your arpeggio skills and the lead is within reach for most guitar players. If you would like to get the tablature book for "Surfing With the Alien" you can buy it online at Sunhawk.com. They have tablature for most artists including downloadable sheet music. Click here to see a list of Joe Satriani's available sheet music.

Here are some other great CD's by Joe Satriani and some song listening suggestions:

Flying in a Blue Dream

	Back to Shalla-Bal (One of my favorites)
	Day at the Beach (This song Joe performs using only finger tapping)
	The Forgotten Part I and II

Crystal Planet [US]

	Crystal Planet
	Lights of Heaven
	Pieces of Liquid (This is a great mellow song that almost has a new age kind of feel)

Engines of Creation

	Clouds Race Across the Sky (Another mellow side of Joe. I love these type of songs because it shows Joe playing with a lot of emotion)
	Until We Say Goodbye (Another great ballad)

Extremist

I love this whole CD, but my favorite tracks are:

	Summer Song
	Cryin'

Time Machine

This CD has both live and studio tracks

Joe Satriani

G3: Live in Concert

This CD also features Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. You might want to get the DVD so you can see them perform: G3 - Live in Concert

Not of This Earth

This is Joe's first release that includes the ballad "Rubina." I got to see Joe perform this song with Steve Vai and Steve Lukather at the Wiltern Theater. It was one of the most memorable performances.

Live in San Francisco

Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco