Photo by Tina Hanagan
You can’t be an “underrated” guitar player if everyone who hears you play is blown away.
Paul Size might be underground, but he is never underrated.
The mighty Rev. Billy F. Gibbons again touts The Red Devils’ guitarist, this time in a Music Radar story, “The 10 Guitarists Who Blew My Mind”:
8. Paul Size: “This next block I’d like to give to the guitar players from a band called The Red Devils. Paul ‘The Kid’ Size on guitar, he had this real angry Strat, Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of tone. He would do this thing where he’d play a blues lick at speed and then all of sudden quicken the pace before anyone could see it coming.
“Then there was Dave Lee Bartel, a wonderful rhythm player, and Mike Flanigin who despite being known for the Hammond, started off as a guitarist! A lot of people have underrated his guitar work because he’s become so accomplished on the Hammond B3. That’s the sound of Texas meeting California.
Gibbons rounds out his Devils love with a shout-out to former James Harman Band guitarist Hollywood Fats.
Here is his full top 10:
- Van Wilks
- Jimmie Vaughan
- Jimmy Page
- Jeff Beck
- Hubert Sumlin
- Eric Johnson
- Andres Segovia
- Paul Size
- Jimi Hendrix
- Mystery No. 10
Last summer, Gibbons gifted The Red Devils’ guitarists with custom-made Devil guitars that the boys used all summer as the opening act on ZZ Top’s European “Tonnage” tour.
Size recently posted on his Facebook (since deleted) that he was entertaining offers for this rare guitar — commissioned by one of the greats, played by one of the greats on an earth-shaking reunion tour.
Interested? Reach out to Paul Size on Facebook.
