Steve Miller

The Life of Stevie Ray Vaughan This paper is about how a small time boy from Oak Cliff, Texas with a dream, revolutionized the way blues guitar was played. By 17 he new what he wanted to do with his life, thus dropping out of school to become a blues guitarist. All throughout Stevie's career he was loved and adored for his gentle touch and majestic rhythmic guitar playing. Throughout his life he led three bands to hitting it big, released five albums with "Double Trouble". Most importantly, Stevie became sober.

He first learned how to play guitar and harmonica, deciding to start a band called the Golden Chords in high school. After graduating in 1959, Bob Dylan would go on to study art at University of Minnesota. It would be his time at college when would start to perform folk music at coffee houses under the name, Bob Dylan. He drew his inspiration and even last name from poet Dylan Thomas. Blues musicians like Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie would influence Dylan’s music.

On November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington a later-to-be-known legend was born as James Marshall. This future guitar master went by the name of Jimi, Jimi Hendrix. His childhood was not very fortunate, however, he did indulge himself in one particular way: Jimi loved to play the guitar. Jimi could never afford to take lessons so he taught himself. At first he played an old acoustic guitar, and later a cheap Silvertone electric.

The people around him instilled the love of music in Eric throughout his childhood years. For one of his birthdays, he asked for a guitar. His love for guitar playing caused him to give up on a formal education (college). He loved Rock and Blues music, and that was his focus when he started playing music. Throughout his music career, Eric joined a band called the Yardbirds.

I switched to the Leonard Davis Center of Performing Arts at the college I was attending (C.C.N.Y). The big change was when I enrolled at The Guitar Study Center, a school run by Paul Simon's brother, Eddie Simon. The instructors were all working musicians - they were playing on Broadway or with well established artists-during down time they taught. I cut my "guitar teeth" there. It was an amazing time for me.

Bob started writing poems at around the age of ten and soon also taught himself to play the piano and guitar. His musical inspirations were stars like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. After he graduated high school, he was soon off to the University of Minnesota in early 1959. Here in University is where the thought and drive of becoming of musical artist formed. Dylan had begun to listen to folk and rock music.

The band consisted of many different members with different musical backgrounds. Ron McKernan was an organist who loved the blues where Phil Lesh had very formal training in classical music. Bill Kreutzmann, the drummer for the Dead, had a history of playing R&B and jazz. Though the band continues to influence artists to this day, other bands helped shape and inspire their sound. The Grateful Dead first decided to go electric and create a rawer sound after seeing the Lovin’ Spoonful live in New York.

Elvis was born to Gladys and Vernon Presley, a farming family in Mississippi, on January 8, 1935. Originally Elvis Aron Presley was a twin, however, his brother Jesse died after birth (Austin 1994). A close knit family, Elvis and his family attended the Assembly of God Church where his love of music started to blossom (EPE 2014). Growing up his family had many financial struggles. Despite this, at age eleven, Elvis received his first instrument, a guitar.

Carlos Santana Carlos Augusto Alves Santana aka Carlos Santana was born July 20 1947 in Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico with a father of musical arts. When at the age of five he took up the violin which then developed his interested in music. Years later after his family moved to Tijuana it was then he began to play with the guitar, the instrument that would lead to his greatness. He was fascinated and surpassed his guitar heroes; they were John Lee Hooker, T. Bone Walker, and B.B. King.

He pestered the local record store for the newest singles from Hank Williams, Chuck Barry, Howlin' Wolf , and John Lee Hooker, just to name a few. These early influences played, and still play, a big role in Dylan’s unique musical style. Somewhere around the age of ten, Dylan realized that he wanted to be a guitarist and a singer. Soon he formed his own bands, The Golden Chords, The Shadow Blasters, and Elston Gunn & The Rock Boppers. His fellow students were shocked to hear such a voice come from the small kid, when he sang at a high school talent show.