Vocalist who are lead guitarists

Cafe Society
#1

I was thinking about Dire Straits the other day and realized something odd- Mark Knopfler was both the singer and the lead guitarist. This seems unusual to me; except for three-piece bands I can’t think of any other notable group in which the lead singer also played lead guitar (that is, full-time, so excluding artists like Prince who often doesn’t even have a guitar in his songs).

Nearly always it seems that the lead vocalist plays rhythm guitar (see Metallica), or even bass (Cream). Even Dave Mustaine, who was a lead guitarist in Metallica, became a rhythm guitarist when he formed Megadeth.

Am I overlooking someone? Lots of someones?

#2

Jimi
Stevie Ray
Robert Cray
Johnny Lang
Pete Townsend, sometimes

#3

Jerry Garcia, who sang half of the Grateful Dead’s lead vocals, and all the vocals in his own solo group, the Jerry Garcia Band…

Pete Townshend also sings a fair amount of the Who’s material, in addition to his guitar playing.

#4

Eric Clapton
Chuck Berry
John Mayer
Junior Brown
I used to do both when I was gigging.

#5

Todd Rundgren (he shares lead duty with Jesse Gress onstage).

#6

Just off the top of my head:

Peter Green w/ Fleetwood Mac
Peter Frampton
Lindsey Buckingham
Alvin Lee w/ Ten Years After

I’m sure others will come to me

#7

Er… David Gilmour out of wossname, Pink something?

Frank Zappa
Paul Weller (post Jam)

#8

Did George Harrison keep playing lead guitar when singing lead vocals?

#9

Glenn Tillbrook of Squeeze.

#10

Ted Nugent
B.B. King
George Throrogood

#11

Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra

#12

Bob Mould
D. Boon

#13

Jim James: My Morning Jacket

#14

I was going to cite Mould, but both Husker Du and Sugar were three-piece bands. I dunno how many band members he has for his solo work, though.

#15

Was going to post him. :slight_smile: Just to note that they were a four-member band (guitar, bass, keyboards, drums), plus a string section of various sizes for most of their run.

#16

Generally 4, though one is a keyboard player, so it’s still just 1 guitar.

#17

Claudio Sanchez of Coheed & Cambria kind of shares lead duties with guitarist Travis Stever.

#18

Bruce Springsteen when he chooses to play lead vs. Nils or Steve Van Zandt…

#19

Pink Floyd – Syd Barrett, then David Gilmour
Be Bop Deluxe – Bill Nelson
Mothers of Invention – Frank Zappa (whether he was the lead singer is debatable; I would say he was the lead singer in the later incarnations)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Emerson, Lake & Palmer

#20

Well, if bands with only 1 guitarist don’t count, I’ll go with Mick Jones from The Clash (though he only sang lead rarely).