Mike Keneally

Mike Keneally is a fantastic guitarist who cites Gentle Giant as a strong influence. He covered No God's a Man on the tribute album Giant Tracks.

Interview from Progressive Ears (excerpt)

Main article: http://www.progressiveears.com/library/MKeneally.asp

"From the time I got interested in music of any sort, from hearing things on AM radio in the sixties, I was always drawn to music which seemed unconventional in some way. [...] Gentle Giant demonstrated a million worthwhile arrangement strategies on every album they recorded, and I devoured each one gratefully. When I was sixteen I learned every Gary Green guitar part - by this point I'd begun to teach myself guitar - learning how the parts fit into the architecture of the whole was very essential to my development."

Random quote from a thread on Progressive Ears

"I love [Gentle Giant] so much. I've had the four-disc voyeur's delight "Scraping the Barrel" in the car constantly the last couple of weeks - there's nine hours of mp3 audio on the fourth disc which has had me salivating. Hearing all the isolated tracks, composition sessions, demos and rehearsals is total GG porn for me. And anyone who idolizes Kerry Minnear as I do will be delighted to hear his many early home studio efforts, dating from the mid to late Sixties. I think the box is still available from Alucard.

"To the original poster, I also encourage you to check out the two official GG DVDs (Giant on the Box, and GG at the GG) - if Playing The Fool is the album that hooked you, these DVDs will be among your new best friends [...] I think once you see how they deal with this material onstage, and also incorporate the unconventional instrumentation in a really appealing manner, your mind will be at least 70% blown.

"(When I was 16 I spent the summer learning every Gary Green guitar part [up until Giant for a Day which had just come out]. One of the most important learning disciplines I've ever undergone!)"