I was reading a debate on a guitar forum about who the “best” guitar player of our generation is—which in guitar-forum speak means who is the best blues guitarist. This is pretty standard fodder for guitar forums and comes up at least once every few days. As usual there was a lot of trash talk from the pro- and anti- John Mayer, Joe Bonamossa, Jack White, and Gary Clark Jr. camps. What else is new? Then someone quietly chimed in with Davy Knowles. Someone else quickly seconded. A third person added in a “YES! Davy Knowles!” And then another. Who the hell was this Davy Knowles?

As it turns out Davy Knowles is a 24 year old blues guitarist and singer-songwriter from the Isle of Man near Great Britain. What kind of blues-chops can a 24 year old have? Enough to impress guitar greats Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and Joe Satriani with whom Knowles toured in 2009 at the ripe age of 22. Since then he has toured the country as Davy Knowles and the Back Door Slam.

Check him out.

There’s something to be said for doing things your own way or so it would seem based on Akron, Ohio’s two man blues duo, The Black Keys. In an era of digital production, the band has shied away from big name studios and producers in favor of a do-it-yourself recording style—their critically acclaimed debut album Thickfreakness was recorded in 14 hours in a basement using an old 8-track recorder—a trend carried through to their latest album, 2010’s Brothers.

While some fans and critics bash the lo-fi production sound that such recording offers, you’ve got to be doing something right when you can count Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, and ZZ Top’s legendary guitarist Billy Gibbons among your most avid and outspoken fans. You can catch the duo live through 2011 on their US and European tour.