• 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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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Alan Greenwood

Season 02 Episode 1 VG’s “Buy That Guitar” podcast opens its second season with host Ram Tuli joined by Alan Greenwood, founder and publisher of Vintage Guitar. They discuss the…

Grace Bowers

Truth of Youth

The word “prodigy” is overused in the music biz, but Grace Bowers is a real-deal young funkster. Just 18 years old, she melds R&B, feisty blues-rock, and gospel flavors on…

P.K. Dwyer

Doing something different

P.K. Dwyer didn’t take the normal route to the blues. It wasn’t until he was in his late 40s that his obsession started. “I was looking for a Jimmy Reed…

Mick Taylor’s ’58 Les Paul Standard

The Ya Ya’s Out!

Hard-edged face of the British Invasion, the Rolling Stones introduced the world to the implements, trappings, and accessories of rock-and-roll superstardom. With help from radio, television, and teen ’zines, the…

Molly Miller

Dr. J(azz)

Molly Miller is on a quest to bring instrumental music back to storytelling. Her new album, St. George, fuses jazz, rock and roll, and echoes of tantalizing guitar film music…

Marc Ford

Tone King Flies Solo

Marc Ford: Matt Wignall. Whenever Marc Ford has held down the guitar chair in a band, whether it’s with the Black Crowes, Ben Harper, or Blue Floyd, people talk about…

Fretprints: Tony Rice

Newgrass Fusion Master

The world lost one of its most innovative and defining guitar voices on December 25, 2020. Bluegrass maestro Tony Rice – singer, composer, supremely accomplished sideman, solo artist, and flatpicking…

Dudley Taft

Dudley Taft

Raucous, Righteous Blues

With the recent release of his third solo album, Screamin’ in the Wind, guitarist Dudley Taft is serving notice that for all of his years of experience, his guitar playing…

Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka

Heavy Steps : Road Ready

“Rock and roll is a young man’s game.” Once upon a time, it was the genre’s calling card. A half-century later, though, young bands playing bombastic guitar rock often trod…

Dave Haskell

Wings and Strings

Plenty of improbable stories involve guitarists making first records amid peculiar circumstances. But few match Dave Haskell’s journey to Pivot Point. A retired airline pilot who dallied in music professionally…

Bill Kirchen

Tele Twang, Straight Up!

Bill Kirchen has had the good fortune to be associated with classic songs (“Hot Rod Lincoln”) and impressive sidekicks (Commander Cody, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Danny Gatton, etc.). Amongst guitarists,…

Mark Knoll

It's about Time

Despite spending three-quarters of his life as a professional musician, singing and playing blistering lead guitar in various groups, until very recently Mark Knoll hadn’t done a record full of…

Bruce Kulick

Wielding Power On BK3

With his new album, BK3, Bruce Kulick brings out the big guns on what he calls his “…strongest solo disc ever.” Collaborating with friends old and new, he infused their…

Chris Bergson: Heartfelt Pandemic Picking

Chris Bergson: Heartfelt Pandemic Picking Chris Bergson used his ’60s Teisco to play a bit of his tune, “Hector and Donna,” one of the tracks from his new lockdown-inspired album,…

Albert Lee

English Country Gentleman

Photo courtesy of Ernie Ball. Admittedly, Albert Lee doesn’t play a Gretsch Country Gent, but a more appropriate description of the veteran guitarist might be hard to formulate. Lee has…

Philip Sayce’s Guitar Meditation

Exploring, Expanding Absorbing and exuding great vibes from his living room, Philip Sayce and his PRS Silver Sky (plugged into a ’68 Super Reverb) play “Lady Love Divine,” one of…

Scott T. Jones

Midwest Fusion Ace

A lot of guitarists aspire to play jazz-rock, but it’s a high bar. Based in St. Louis, Scott T. Jones hits the mark – and then some, heard on his…

Have Guitar Will Travel 093 – Martin Simpson

Features In this episode, host James Patrick Regan speaks with Martin Simpson, discussing his new duet record with Thomm Jutz, “Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and…

Alex Skolnick

Bit of Metal, Bit of Jazz

The worlds of metal and jazz guitar couldn’t be more opposite – one specializes in volume and riffing, the other on restraint and strumming. As guitarist for thrash metallists Testament…

Ty Tabor

On A Roll

King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor is on a roll. Despite the band being on hiatus due to bassist Dug Pinnick’s health issues, Tabor stays busy with side projects like Jelly…

Butch Walker

Butch Walker

Hummingbirds and Ghosts

Butch Walker readily admits that when it comes to his life as a musician, performer, and producer, he has some decidedly “first-world problems,” like when a guitar he’d like to…

David Lindley

String Theory

If David Lindley played just one of the stringed instruments in his arsenal, and concentrated on just one of the styles he has mastered and/or mutated, he would doubtless be…

Michael Gregory Jackson inspires on “Meditation in E

Classic ’70s Bluesy-Jazz Flavor Jazz guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson changes it up by using a classic (and seldom-seen) ’59 SG Special running through a Polytone Mini Brute with an Eminence…

Vinnie Moore’s Pandemic Musical Inspiration

Instrumental Whiz Adds Vocalists Neoclassical/metal guitarist Vinnie Moore’s latest music features vocals for the first time. Here, though, he sticks to hard-rock instrumental funkiness mingled with melodicism in a passage…

Grant Geissman

Still Feeling Good

Admired for the iconic phase-shifter solo on Chuck Mangione’s 1978 smash “Feels So Good,” Grant Geissman can today look back on a successful career as a solo artist and sideman.…

Toronzo Cannon

Blues The Chicago Way

“I’m not trying to be a starving artist at 48 years old,” says blues man Toronzo Cannon when asked if he’d consider playing blues full-time. A bus driver for the…

Bryan Beller

Bass Aristocracy

If you love daredevil musicians, you’ll dig The Aristocrats. A contemporary-fusion trio, the band includes guitar monster Guthrie Govan (VG, September ’21), drummer Marco Minnemann, and Bryan Beller, a wizard…

Zac Schulze gets straight to it!

If you’re a fan of Cream, Zeppelin, and Rory Gallagher (who isn’t?), you’ll dig Zac Schulze Gang, a British power trio that’s carrying the torch with both hands; they’ve played…

John 5 - Telewiedler

John 5

Telewielder

Since ditching his spot backing alternative-metal singer Marilyn Manson 10 years ago, superhuman guitarist John 5 has used his skills to spread the gospel of guitar far and wide while…

Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton

Alt-Blues Summit

Blues is a language of many dialects, and when regionalisms collide, sparks fly. So it has been since Texas six-stringer Jesse Dayton joined Kansas City’s slide maven Samantha Fish for…