Bonnie Raitt is a respected slide player, so doesn’t count.
I seem to recall reading that Susan Tedeschi was debating about whether to present herself as a singer or as a singer/player. She can really play, but tends to focus on rhythm.
Sheryl Crow is a brilliant musician - keys, bass, guitar, vocals. I am sure she can play fine lead guitar if she chose.
Peter Frampton is an excellent guitarist and a decent front man.
This starts to get tough because eventually if they are good enough the singer becomes as well known for their guitar as their singing.
Glenn Campbell was a very good singer and guitar player. He was an ex studio musician.
He’s an example of a guitar player that sings.
Johnny Cash was just the opposite. He was a singer that could play guitar. But only basic chords. He never used barre chords. He’s joking with Willie Nelson in this video that he can’t play a F# minor barre chord. But he really couldn’t play that chord.
Rik Emmett, sole guitarist and lead vocalist for Triumph (a.k.a. the other late-70s-to-late-80s Canadian power trio), was (is?) a master at singing beautifully while playing great guitar. Naturally, he plays “rhythm” when singing (strummed or arpegiatted chords), and “lead” during guitar solo passages.
My sister and I saw country singer John Michael Montgomery live, many years back. Like most solo country singers, he strummed an acoustic guitar while another guy in his backup band handled all of the lead guitar work.
For his encore, however, he strapped on a Strat and performed a cover of Sweet Home Alabama, and played an excellent, 10-minute-long guitar solo in the middle of it. I was like, “Holy crap, why doesn’t he play lead on every song? He’s good!”
Tom Petty almost never plays lead guitar. As far as I know, the only song on which he does (at least for the solos) is “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”. From what I understood even this required a lot of encouragement by his long-time collaborator and lead guitarist, Mike Campbell.
I recently discovered this soundboard recording of Courtney Love’s guitar and vocals at a 2010 live performance. The guitar-playing is shockingly bad. The description of that YouTube video links to a similarly bad performance on another date of the same tour, but I don’t think these are necessarily indicative of her overall skill level.
One of my favourite bands is Monster Magnet. The lead singer and songwriter, Dave Wyndorf, usually uses a guitar when playing live, though I have to wonder if it’s much more than a stage prop. I have no doubt that the guy can play rhythm guitar in the studio, but I’ve never been able to make out his part when the band is playing live.
Well sure but lead doesn’t mean better, just different. Keith Richards doesn’t play lead either. It is just a different role in the band. Great rhythm players do more than strum chords, they create the drive and texture and often lead the dynamics of the band.
Steve Miller is a surprisingly good guitarist in live shows - better than I expected, since the guitar in his songs is pretty basic.
Buck Dharma, of Blue Oyster Cult, plays lead guitar and sings probably about half their songs, and he’s pretty great at both.
Jorma and Jerry shut up onstage when they got down to their serious guitar work.
Isn’t that common in general? Who wants to play a guitar solo while there’s singing going on?
Question: Who does play lead guitar and sing simultaneously? It’s not common. Hendrix might have done it a little.
Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend plays a lot of lead work while singing at the same time. Hard to do!
Without reading the thread:
You must be joking! Watch Springsteen live. He’s a damn good guitarist.
I’ve seen him live dozens of times, and he never fails to wring every ounce of passion from his guitar solos.
I didn’t mean to imply that Petty was a poor guitarist; only that he was clearly uncomfortable playing lead rather than rhythm. I just dug out the liner notes for the Playback boxed set and here’s what he had to say about “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”:
I think Anders Osborne is and has been doing a phenomenal job on the road lately. Very soulful voice combined with some of the most unique guitar playing I have seen recently. Also he’s a very entertaining showman
I tried to think of rock lead singers who are also lead guitarists (besides those already mentioned) that I could find video footage of. I came up with Justin Heyward of the Moody Blues and Mike Roe of the 77s. Both do sing and play at the same time, though I didn’t really see them singing and playing anything very complicated at the same time (though here’s a better example of Roe singing and playing simultaneously).
It looks like Justin is playing rhythm while singing, then taking a lead.
Roe looks to be playing rhythm and then fingerpicking a little while singing. His left hand doesn’t do much articulation while singing. Robyn Hitchcock does that a lot.
I’m gonna say that if someone can do it it’s real parlor trick. If they do and it’s not some unison melody line, then I think we would have heard of them. One song you can do it with a little is “Movin Out” by Aerosmith, in the beginning.
Probably not what the OP is looking for, but it bugs me, so I’m gonna mention it so’s it will bug you, too:
George Benson sings (actually, scats) in unison over top of some of his lead guitar runs, “On Broadway,” in particular.
Jack White’s singing is an acquired taste for some, but for me it fits the material and complements his guitar-playing beautifully: The White Stripes cover of Jolene is a good example, where he just howls it out while he lays fire and waste to the chords. Spine-tingling stuff.
A couple of years ago, I caught a concert on Palladia (now MTV Live), The Strat Pack, which was a 2004 all-star tribute for the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster.
In it, I was stunned to see Winehouse – this was a couple of years before her breakout album, “Back to Black”, and she wasn’t yet wearing the extreme make-up or beehive hairstyle. And, she really could play. 