Albert King, “The Velvet Bulldozer,” along with Gary Moore. Just a couple of years before Albert died.
It’s easy to get confused about the relative importance of musicians if you’re a regular ol’ consumer of music. Gary Moore could play Albert King better than Albert could. Lots of people could. Hendrix could. SRV and his brother could. So what? A minimum-wage worker can sit in a factory and make a light bulb better than Edison, or Swan, ever could.
Someone has to invent this stuff.
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Now, I actually rather like Gary Moore's playing, but notice the difference: Albert plays with a minimalist style, and less is definitely more; whereas Gary is a bit more the shredder here, and frankly except for a few moments does not come across nearly as well.
The great blues players were masters of understatement, and had a definite vocal component to their playing; today's technically impressive blues shredders pack far too many notes and use far too little space, and therefore pale by comparison with the great masters.
If you listen to the BBC recordings where Stevie Ray Vaughan plays with Albert, early in Stevie's career, it is apparent that his licks are nothing but a complete knockoff of Albert's, without the expression, feeling or variety. Later in his career Stevie developed his own style, and you can definitely hear Albert King's influences, but Stevie finally learned to "play the blues", rather than just run the scales.
So…..you didn't cut Mr. Anonymous's spam, Mr. Sippi. Not enough for ya, yet, I guess.