• Ally Venable

    Artists

    Ally Venable

    Connection

    On Money & Power, Ally Venable wields the power of wisdom and emotional connection. It’s an album about empowerment and comeuppance, but there’s plenty of playtime with guest stars Shemekia Copeland and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. An audio bluesfest, it’s songwriting brings substance carried by guitarists swinging for the fences. What does the albums title represent?What

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Joe Ely

Digging Through The Vaults

Joe Ely’s new record, Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch, is full of just what you’ve come to expect from the Texas singer-songwriter. • His classic mix of country, rock, and…

Michael Bruce

Eighteen Again

Before there was an Alice Cooper, man and solo artist, there was the band called Alice Cooper. From 1969 to ’74, it cranked out seven influential albums with the dual-guitar…

Robert Cray

Looking Forward (in a Loose Sort of Way)

Vintage Guitar first interviewed guitarist Robert Cray in 1997, and since then he has maintained a consistent pace in recording and performing. His albums in the interim include Take Your…

Pop ’N Hiss: Marshall Crenshaw’s Field Day

Jangle All the Way

Marshall Crenshaw’s brief chart run remains a bright spot of 1980s rock – effectively, the final blast of New Wave before the genre was buried by Thriller, Purple Rain, and…

Chris Dreja

Yardbird Recall

Chris Dreja had a front-row seat to rock-and-roll history, playing rhythm guitar and bass in the Yardbirds behind Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Today, Dreja still plays with…

Rick Vito

Disciples Of Greeny

A Grammy-nominated guitarist with an enviable career, Rick Vito has played with everyone from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall and appeared on hundreds of recordings. He even did a stint…

J.D. Simo

Psychedelia and Satan

Psychedelic bluesman J.D. Simo deploys impressive wah skill, blistering fuzz tones, and hypnotic grooves that will expand your consciousness. His latest album, Mind Control, is the perfect retro, echo-drenched, escapist…

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 Alex Aguilar’s Master-Volume Les Paul Some might think it sacrilege, but in his March “Guitar Rx” column, Dan Erlewine adds a Master Volume control to a Gibson Les Paul.…

Mike Keneally Makes the Gravy

Dig his Meaty “Celery” The track is called “Celery,” but Mike Keneally sure makes it meaty! With a splash of distortion, chorus, and delay courtesy of plug-ins (“No actual amps…

Fretprints: Dave Grohl

Beyond Grunge

“Alternative rock” – more descriptor than genre – was a reaction to hair bands, technical excess, and pop-metal formulae. It was the sound of the pendulum swinging the other way.…

Carl Verheyen

Carl Verheyen

On <em>Mustang Run</em> and Making a CD that Lasts

Fresh off a 42-show/13-country European tour with his own band, Supertramp guitarist and L.A. studio ace Carl Verheyen has just released his 12th studio CD, Mustang Run. Following 2010’s live…

Al Stewart

Cat’s Meow

Year of the Cat, singer/songwriter/guitarist Al Stewart’s 1976 smash, is being celebrated with a 45th anniversary three-CD/DVD box set. The album has been remastered by producer Alan Parsons, and the…

Jerron Paxton

Country-Blues Scholar

Hailing from Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton is a remarkable bluesman, able to conjure sounds of the rural, interwar South through his voice and fingerstyle guitar, as well as banjo, harp,…

Bruce Kulick

Transorming to Solo artist

Bruce Kulick gained his reputation as a top-notch axeman working with a variety of major artists such as Kiss, Meatloaf, Michael Bolton, Billy Squier, as well as his own band,…

Matteo Mancuso

Journey Into the Future

Emerging as a social-media sensation several years ago, Matteo Mancuso is changing the way we see and hear guitar. Using a radical fingerstyle attack, the Italian ace handles his electric…

Remembering Jeff Beck

The Guitar Hero, Defined

Jeff Beck, the guitarist who pushed the ’60s British Invasion band the Yardbirds from its electric-blues roots to a contemporary rock-and-roll sound before becoming one of the most-influential musicians of…

Guy Pratt

Rickenbackers and a Resistance

Guy Pratt has been the bass player for Pink Floyd since signing on for the tour to support 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. With the gig came a rapid…

Pop ’N Hiss: Dio’s Holy Diver

Divine Metal

Vocalist Ronnie James Dio was on a roll as he formed the band that would record his 1983 album Holy Diver. Coming off a successful run in Rainbow and an…

Dominic Miller

Team Player, Solo Turn

A longtime member of Sting’s band, Dominic Miller is the quintessential team player, even on his own solo albums. His latest release is Vagabond, a melding of jazz, world music,…

Martin Turner

Low-End Unorthodoxy

When he transitioned from playing guitar, former Wishbone Ash bassist Martin Turner kept a pick in his right hand and developed a style that combined fluid, melodic lines with an…

Jim Campilongo & Steve Cardenas

Mutual Musical Idiosyncrasies

Steve Cardenas and Jim Campilongo have been playing guitar together for a long time, though the constellations only recently aligned so they could record. Captured on three nights in September…

Fretprints: Walter Becker

Steely Dan’s Unsung Guitar Great

Steely Dan to this day occupies a unique place in music history. Laying claim to an unexplored intersection of jazz, R&B, pop, rock, blues, and world sounds, they redefined fusion…

Vivian Campbell

Back In Line

When singer Ronnie James Dio chose Belfast native Vivian Campbell to form Dio in 1982, the young guitarist was filling big shoes in the eyes of his new boss, who’d…

Buddy Guy

Legend Steeped in the Blues

Buddy Guy, Bayfront Blues Festival, 1997. Photo by Ward Meeker. When referring to the all-time great legends of the blues and the guitar, the formidable Buddy Guy comes to mind…

Jesse Ed Davis

Guitar Hero's Guitar Hero

Photo: Neil Zlozower. The term “musician’s musician” gets bandied about a lot, but in the case of the late Jesse Ed Davis, “guitar hero’s guitar hero” might be more accurate.…

Taj Mahal

Eighth Wonder of the Music World

  “I’ve never heard anybody come up and tell me that the music I’m playing don’t feel good,” says Taj Mahal. And it’s hard to imagine he ever will. Whether…

Jimmy Thackery

Heavens to Mergatroid!

Few guitarists working the blues circuit today can boast a signature sound as unique as Jimmy Thackery’s. As far from an SRV clone as one can be while still playing…

Janne Haavisto

Finnish Instro Auteur

There’s a long history of instro and surf-rock from Scandinavia, perhaps none deeper than that of Janne Haavisto, formerly with Laika & the Cosmonauts. Based in Helsinki, Haavisto is a…

Burton, Garrett, Lee, and Wilcox Join Forces

Burton, Garrett, Lee, and Wilcox Join Forces

Telecaster Summit

For guitar lovers and roots-music fans, the place to be in July ’13 was British Columbia. The Vancouver Island MusicFest held a true summit meeting of masters of the Telecaster…

Jake Shimabukuro

Ukulele Hero

It’s one of the most unlikely success stories in music. Armed with a four-string tenor ukulele, a young Hawaiian videos himself playing solo in Central Park. His dynamic instrumental arrangement…