Here I would like to list a couple of musicians who I think are greatly underrated and underappreciated: (These are in no particular order)

1.Clem Burke-Blondie (Drums)-Yup, of course I put him in here. After all, he is the origin of my name! Clem Burke is so talented, but no one really knew of him except Blondie fans. He also played with several other bands, including The Eurythmics and The Ramones. Clem Burke is a master when it comes to cymbal work. He does amazing things, especially on "I Know But I Don't Know" and the version of "One Way Or Another" on the Picture This Live CD. He also uses his Toms heavily, which is personally my favorite sound. I would definately rank Clem Burke up with John Bonham and Keith Moon (who, incidentally, is his drumming "hero" so to speak.)

2.Tom Verlaine-Television (Guitar)-An incredible guitarist who never achieved very much success or fame with his band Television. Tom Verlaine was a master when it came to guitar solos, including the five minute one from "Marquee Moon", off of the album with the same title.

3.Keith Strickland-The B-52's (Various)-Keith Strickland is an amazing musician, but very few people realize it, because when they think of The B-52's, they only think "Love Shack." Keith started out on drums and percussion, but later moved on to play Bass, Guitar, Marimba, Keyboards and Synthesizers and even Sitar. After lead guitarist Ricky Wilson died in 1985 of AIDS complications, Keith moved to full time Guitar and Keyboards. One of the most unique things about Keith and Ricky's playing were that they used only four and five string guitars and used range tunings (and by that I mean not the regular ones.)

4.Chris Stein-Blondie, Deborah Harry Solo (Guitar)-Chris Stein is a great guitarist, both six and twelve string, who also played Bass and Vibes occasionally for the band Blondie. Chris also played Timponi on the song "Europa," and was one of the first to use the e-bow on his song "Youth Nabbed As Sniper." He later used the e-bow on other songs, including "Fade Away And Radiate" and "Dreaming." One of my favorite things about Chris is the fact that he can write such a huge variety of music. His compositions range from hard rocking punk songs (Detroit 442, Rip Her To Shreds) to Orchestral Ballads (Europa).

5.Ani DiFranco (Mostly Guitar)-Ani DiFranco is a very talented musician who doesn't get enough attention paid to her music. Most of the attention she does get is in the form of people talking about her image. ("And people talk, about my image, like I come in two dimensions...") She is an amazingly prolific songwriter as she has put out ten albums in the past (ten, I think) years. She might even be the next Bob Dylan. She also can play the guitar quite well (My friend once said that she just strums it really hardly with absolutely no talent-that was before I liked her and realized how wrong he really was :)). Ani DiFranco also plays bass, hammond organ, bongoes, drums, programming, keyboards and several other instruments, many of them on her album Dilate.

6.Jimmy Destri-Blondie (Keyed Instruments)-Jimmy Destri is both an immensely talented songwriter and musician. He wrote many of Blondie's songs and was one of the original members of the group. Along with keyboards, Jimmy played Farfisa Organ, Moog synthesizer, other synthesizers, grand piano and sang backing vocals on many songs. Some of my favorite solos by him are on "Bermuda Triangle Blues," "11:59," and "Man Overboard."

7.Aimee Mann (Various)-Aimee Mann started off playing bass with the band 'Til Tuesday. On their third album, she moved to also play acoustic guitar. When the band broke up in the late eighties, Aimee started a solo career, where she once again added many instruments to her reportaire. She started to play electric guitar, percussion, drums, keyed instruments and various other weird things :). In my opinion her best bass album is Everything's Different Now by 'Til Tuesday, and her best guitar album is her second solo album I'm With Stupid. Aimee is also a great songwriter.

8.Jon Brion-Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Sam Phillips and others (Various)-Jon Brion is probably one of the few people who can say, when named any instrument, "Yup, I can play that." When I started looking at the things that he played it amazed me how much he did. On the various albums he's played on, his instruments include: Guitar (All different types as well, including Nylon and Turtle), Bass, Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Chamberlin, Harmonium, Harmonica, Harp, Mellotron, Optigan, Celeste, Piano and many, many others I can't think of. The amazing thing is that he actually plays all of these really well.

9.Jennifer Trynin (Guitar)-Jennifer Trynin is a little known Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist from Boston who has put out two albums. On both of them she plays all guitars and does a great job. She mentioned that she listens to very little rock music, and it shows in her music since a lot of things that she does are very original.