I’ll do you one better. I’ll six degrees Bowie to Beyonce, stopping off through Willie Nelson:

David Bowie + Bono : Do They Know It’s Christmas
Bono + Willie Nelson : Slow Dancing
Willie Nelson + Michael Jackson : We are the World
Michael Jackson + Janet Jackson : Scream
Janet Jackson + Justin Timberlake : Superbowl XXXVIII
Justin Timberlake + Beyonce : Until the End of Time

I’m liking David Bowie as an option. He’s collaborated with tons of musicians like Bing Crosby, Brian Eno, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, Freddy Mercury, Trent Reznor, etc., etc.; crossing into all kinds of genres. Also he was in Band Aid, which included Bob Geldorf, who was also in We Are the World. So that’s pretty much a connection to every 70s and 80s musician. And that duet with Bing Crosby gets him connected to Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack and just about every pre-70s singer.

Hell, the dude himself has a Kevin Bacon number of 2. He was in The Hunger with Susan Sarandon who was in The Film Programme with Kevin Bacon.

As far as IMDB-like music databases go, AllMusic seems to be as good as it gets currently, AFAIK.

This guy has played with everyone from Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett to Eric Clapton and Tom Petty [full list].

i was thinking of nicky hopkins too - he played with quicksliver, the stones, the airplane, ringo starr and tons of studio recordings

I wish I had my copy of Deadbase handy. They list hundreds of people who have played with the band.

When you consider how many people have also played with the various members of the Dead while Jerry was alive and after his death the Baconness adds up. Phil Lesh alone has played with hundreds of musicians as part of his Phil Lesh and Friends group (including Trey Anastasio of Phish, Warren Haynes (who plays with his own band, plus the Allman Brothers))

Shit. I don’t have time to do all the research now. Trust me :)

Nicky Hopkins shows up all the frickin’ time too.

IMDB recently filed a trademark for a music site called SoundUnwound. Hopefully that will have similar features.

I am not a music guru nor a huge Willie Nelson fan, but it would be kind of cool to see if he has a connection to say, Beyonce.

A prime mover in “We Are The World”, plus all the other stuff and people he’s worked with: Eddie Van Halen, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Slash, Stevie Wonder and, most importantly, Rockwell.

So that leaves out a lot of the connections going through Bill Laswell, T-Bone Burnett, Steve Albini, Quincy Jones, and Mitchell Froom.

Jones was a session leader and sideman of note, so he still appears on a lot of records. Laswell’s got some kind of performance credit on nearly everything he’s produced, so they still go far. Burnett and Lanois, not so much.

Some people recorded prolifically with lots of sidemen, even if the count of their appearances on others’ recordings was fairly slim. Frank Sinatra counts in this category: He’s worked with hundreds or thousands of musicians, almost all of whom have worked for other people too. And that leads to my conclusion:

The American Music Recording nexus was one of the following:
A veteran of the CBS Orchestra from the 1950s through the 1970s, on-call for ten recording sessions a week while also gigging in house bands for radio and TV variety shows;
Or a guitar player in Nashville in a similar time frame.

The guys who worked with everybody you’ve heard of are not the guys you’ve heard of. They’re the ones in the satin tuxes on the bandstand under the colored lights.

Anybody want to go plumbing for liners?

Especially because he’s worked with John Zorn, who also seems to have worked with an infinite number of people, and Yamatsuka Eye, who likewise has worked with everyone.

In fact, I’d guess that with Mike Patton, most things just end with 5 degrees of separation: “Mike Patton - MusicianA - ProducerB - MusicianC - ProducerD - Target Musician”.