Steve Howe
The guitar player with ten golden fingers and one dreadful singing voice
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Steve Howe is well known and loved for his versatile style with a unique mix of acoustic and electric fretted instruments. People are generally most familiar with his work in the rock band Yes, but his solo albums are also well worth listening to. Personally, I think his work in Asia and GTR is nowhere near as special.
Steve Howe's style of guitar playing is certainly an acquired taste. His electric solos often sound like an infant trying out the guitar for the first time, but at the same time are very tightly controlled. He is very good at playing patterns to accompany a singer in a band, like he did for years in Yes. And no matter what you think of his playing, it is almost always highly original and unconventional.
His acoustic work is very gentle and full of energy. Every time I hear him playing one of his acoustic pieces, my interest in and love for the guitar grows a bit more, and that's quite an achievement.
His singing, however, is an entirely different thing. In my opinion, it is so unbelievably bad that I just don't understand why no-one in the studio didn't take him aside to say something like "well Steve, maybe it's better not to include that crap on the record". It's even worse when he's singing live: it really has to be heard to be believed. Strange thing is, his singing generally makes me feel happy. It's almost endearing in some sick and twisted way.
I've seen Steve Howe on stage a couple of times, unfortunately only with Yes, as I missed out on his solo tour. He's very, very strange on stage. He plays very concentrated and appears to give his best, but in my opinion he completely fails to make contact with the audience. It's almost like he wishes they weren't there, and that is hopefully not his intension!
I've met Steve in person one time, which was very special. He was selling some of his guitars at a guitar market that I visited, so that was a perfect accasion to talk to him. You can read about this at the Steve Howe section on this site, which also contains an interactive (truly!) discography.
To sum it all up, Steve Howe has made an enormous impression on me as a guitar player and as a person, and I think no other player will ever be as important to me.