Guitar Player magazine’s 2010 (yes, the ballot paper did say 2009) Readers’ Poll.

Tricky one, this. In spending time thinking about it, whilst simultaneously compiling a list for one of next week’s topics in addition to a Favourite 50 Liverpool Goals countdown (the latter for personal amusement, although it did start as a kind of therapy), and unfortunately not knowing when the voting would cease, I’m now mentioning it too late to positively affect the votes. Unless you follow the comments and tweets, that is. I’m sorry.

To make matters worse, I’m none the wiser for the time spent pondering and have given up trying to confidently produce a completed form.

So I leave it to the experts to enlighten, secure in the knowledge that there are plenty of you who know much more about Country and Jazz guitarists than I ever will or indeed would care to admit. I look forward to your commendations, particularly if you could suggest a song or two to go with the name.

Now that this is just for fun and the nominations cannot be transferred to the voting form irrespective of Guitar Player’s far stricter rules, your choices do not have to exclusively reflect recent activity, either on the road or in the studio, so you need not limit yourself to the creative outpourings of the last year, nor to the 36 days of this one. I trust that makes it much easier.

Best guitarists in as many of the following fields as you can muster, please (I know, Best again; should be Most Popular or at least Most Respected): Acoustic, Blues, Classical, Country, Jazz, Metal, Rock, Slide, World.

Told you it was tricky, but remember: it’s good for the brain to strain and stretch for those names, faces, riffs and melodies that are so often tantalisingly out of reach. And far less monotonous than Sudoku, I like to think.

Joe Bonamassa has been claiming the Best Blues Guitarist accolade in recent years – I think it’s four in a row for him now.

Other 2009 winners include Eric Clapton, Kirk Hammett, Fareed Haque, Warren Haynes, Pat Metheny, Brad Paisley and Derek Trucks.

Who do you predict will be triumphant in 2010?

If you really know your stuff, there were also categories for Best New (Guitar) Talent, Best Outsider/Experimental Guitarist, and Best Overall Guitarist.

It’s Graham’s birthday today, so what better excuse could you possibly need to play all your favourites as written and sung throughout a distinguished career; first with The Hollies, then with Crosby, Stills & Nash and later with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as solo (five solo albums to date and counting, not including last year’s three-disc career retrospective, Reflections, which boasts over 30 previously unreleased tracks), and not forgetting session work (On an Island being one such case you can all recall without even trying)?

Best known for helping to create the most flawless of harmonies and for penning deeply meaningful lyrics, as well as for all those much-loved pop classics of the early Sixties, Graham, of resolute social conscience, has also been a loyal campaigner for issues that mean most to him, such as environmental causes (establishing NukeFree.org, for example).

He also gave his support – and song – to help Gary McKinnon’s campaign to challenge his extradition on charges of computer hacking. If you missed it or just want to enjoy it again, you can find ‘Chicago (Change the World)’ featuring David, Chrissie Hynde and Bob Geldof, with all-important download links, here.

Did you know that Graham is also a keen photographer and collector of photographs? If you share a passion for photography, have a look and perhaps, in addition to sharing which of Graham’s songs you like best, you can also comment on his diverse collection – there’s plenty to listen to whilst you browse.

Aside from the obvious (‘Just One Look’*, ‘Carrie Anne’, ‘Dear Eloise’, ‘King Midas in Reverse’, ‘Teach Your Children’, ‘Marrakesh Express’), a selection of my favourites would have to include ‘Postcard’, ‘Southbound Train’, ‘Helplessly Hoping’, ‘Liar’s Nightmare’, ‘Military Madness’ and this one, ‘On the Line’.

As a life-long Hollies fan, I’m really pleased to say that they will – finally! – be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month in a ceremony at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria. It’s about bloody time, too.

Congratulations, and Happy Birthday, Graham.

* ‘Just One Look’, you may not know, was co-written by one Doris Troy/Payne, probably best remembered ’round these parts for being one of the acclaimed female backing vocalists on The Dark Side of the Moon. Here’s her 1963 original.

I thought this rather interesting when I belatedly stumbled across it today: the shortlist for the BRIT Awards’ ‘Best Album of 30 Years’ accolade, representing the finest of 30 years of previous BRIT Award-winning albums.

They are as follows:

- Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
- Dido, No Angel
- Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
- Duffy, Rockferry
- Keane, Hopes & Fears
- Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
- Phil Collins, No Jacket Required
- Sade, Diamond Life
- The Verve, Urban Hymns
- Travis, The Man Who

The thing is, the BRITs being the music industry’s own awards, to be eligible you had to have already won a BRIT Award – in the Best British Album category – and you win this in the first place based on sales figures.

So, I had a look and found the other past winners… and realised that the shortlist probably is as good as it can get, although I would definitely substitute the two Manic Street Preachers albums at the expense of pretty much any of them bar Brothers in Arms and Urban Hymns. I would also like to see Annie Lennox (Union Jack-et negotiable) win a BRIT each year, even though she has seven already.

Do you favour any of these over the actual nominees? If, as many believe, Britannia ruled the (air)waves in the ’60s and ’70s, are these award-winning albums conclusive proof that things have gone downhill dramatically ever since?

- Adam and the Ants, Kings Of the Wild Frontier
- Blur, Parklife (Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell had been nominated)
- Coldplay, Parachutes and X&Y
- The Darkness, Permission to Land
- Fairground Attraction, First Of a Million Kisses
- Fine Young Cannibals, The Raw and the Cooked
- Annie Lennox, Diva
- Manic Street Preachers, Everything Must Go and This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
- George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice
- Seal, Seal
- Stereo MCs, Connected
- Sting, Nothing Like the Sun

If, like me, you initially find the idea of the ten albums in contention representing the pinnacle of 30 years of British music as depressing as a bowl of cold porridge on a wet winter’s morn (and the use of ‘Best’ as contentious as, well, the last equivalent survey we discussed), you might find this stirs you from your malaise.

Ten ‘better’ albums, even if they weren’t as commercially-successful – from 1980 onwards, please. From UK artists only, don’t forget. (The Division Bell… Hello?)

Should you care to vote, voting closes at 9pm (UK) tomorrow – Thursday 28 January. The winning album will be the one with the most votes when voting ends.

You have to register to vote and the registration form asks for everything other than your shoe size, which may prove off-putting to some. (Slight exaggeration there, but why should one’s date of birth, not to mention telephone number, be required? Presumably the only advantage to registering is being able to cast a vote and leave a comment, not buy cigarettes, and nobody should expect a ring-back.)

The 2010 BRIT Awards will take place on 16 February. Will you be watching?

As tonight is Burns Night, a celebration of Scotland’s national bard (Robert Burns: the man responsible for, amongst others, ‘Auld Lang Syne’*) and good excuse to eat, drink and be merry, here’s a chance to commemorate a nation of modest size and the myriad life-changing contributions its sparse population has made to the arts and sciences, and all that falls somewhere in-between, through the ages.

Scots can be proud that their land nurtured, for example, the discoverer of penicillin (Alexander Fleming); the inventor of the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell) and the television (John Logie Baird); the writers of ‘Treasure Island’ (Robert Louis Stevenson) and ‘The Wind in the Willows’ (Kenneth Grahame). Not forgetting one of the greatest sportsmen: the King, Kenny Dalglish. (And could he play!)

In music, there’s Annie Lennox, Rod Stewart (you have by now heard ‘In a Broken Dream’ with David on guitar, haven’t you?) and the late John Martyn.

You might care to browse Scotland’s 100 best rock and pop albums, as compiled by The Scotsman in 2003. Thoughts?

The following are my most highly-regarded Scottish inspirations, anyway:

- Rory Bremner (comedian, impressionist and political satirist)
- James Keir Hardie (pacifist founder of the British Labour Party)
- John Muir (environmental activist and conservationist)
- Bill Shankly (irrepressible footballing icon)
- Samuel Smiles (writer and social reformer)

So, anything that is in some way Scottish and makes you feel good today, please; a theme that will continue into the chatroom when it opens on Wednesday for a cyber-supper of the Burnsian variety. Haggis optional.

*One of Robert Burns’ most well-known and -loved poems is ‘To a Mouse’, written in 1785. In it he apologises for the destructive and careless behaviour of mankind, which may resonate with some of you. Here’s a verse or listen to it all here:

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow mortal.