Yeah, Dog certainly King Leo always reigns in my books.  But I was referring to the 2 handed spanking the guitar, etc...which probably began with Michael Hedges, then Preston...then Presto...now there's many thousands of tappers, two handed etc...there's even some guy who plays 3 at once (he sits 2 on his lap and does the 2 handed tap/pull-off thing, and yep..there's one on the ground which he taps with his foot...that whole thing is too vaudeville for me).

As far as bringing open/altered tunings and great fingerstyle to the forefront, Leo all the way, but he had his mentors also.  Can't forget John Fahey and as plaintive as some of his stuff was, it was in many ways more powerful at least to my ears than many of the new whiz kids.  Then there's Libba Cotten.....If you want to hear a great recording, Mike Seeger has some of her music archived and released it a few years back, well worth it.   She does a nice version of Freight Train on that one.

Oh yeah, Libby Cotten...bring it on!   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cotten