•  Joey Molland

    Artists

     Joey Molland

    The word “underrated” is belabored in music journalism, but Joey Molland was just that. As co-guitarist in Badfinger, he was part of a quartet signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, yielding glorious AM hits like “Come and Get It,” “Day After Day,” and “No Matter What.” The foursome fell into obscurity and tragedy a few

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Rob Fleming

From Bowie to KillerStar

KillerStar is no David Bowie cover band. Instead, it’s an uncanny project from U.K. guitarist Rob Fleming and drummer James Sedge, who brought in musicians from many of Bowie’s bands…

Freddie Green

Artistry in Rhythm

Fellow musicians called him “Pep” or “Pepperhead.” He was also known as “Mr. Rhythm,” and he could drive a band like no other guitarist. His was a subtle yet unmistakable…

Richard Williams

Kansas’ Team Player

Unleashing pent-up creativity is a gratifying experience for a band, as Kansas guitarist Richard Williams can attest. The band known for the prog-/hard-rock hybrid exemplified by “Carry On Wayward Son”…

Jesse Johnson

Jesse Johnson

Quad City Funk

In the early 1980s, Jesse Johnson traveled from Rock Island, Illinois, to Minneapolis and found fame with The Time and Prince to help define the sound of a generation. Since…

Kelly Joe Phelps

Kelly Joe Phelps, blues guitarist/singer/songwriter, passed away May 31. He was 62. Phelps grew up in a Washington farming town, hearing country and folk songs. As a youngster in a…

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…

George Lynch

New Roads

A lynch pin is a narrow shaft of metal that keeps a wheel from falling off – without it, the whole thing collapses. Same holds true for George Lynch, the…

Rick Derringer

Six-String Knight

Photos courtesy Rick Derringer. Rick Derringer’s latest record, Knighted by the Blues, is an amazingly varied album from a guitarist who has been in the music industry for more than…

Duane Betts

Father to Son

It’s understandable if you detect a certain Southern-rock flare in the music of singer/guitarist Duane Betts. After all, his father is longtime Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts and he shares…

Geezer Butler

Sab Aside

Known for holding down the low-end for Black Sabbath, Terence “Geezer” Butler is usually busy with his band GZR whenever the Sabs go into stasis. A quartet with a sound…

Jim McCarty

Detroit Rock Royalty

Playing Detroit in 2013, Joe Bonamassa had a special treat in store for the crowd. “The best, most badass guitar legend that ever came out of this town,” he declared.…

Classics: June 2022

David Hood’s Alembic Bass

Like the engineers and musicians who, in the ’60s and ’70s, helped create legendary songs at FAME Studios and its offshoot, Muscle Shoals Sound, Frank Manno is a diehard music…

Howard Roberts

Howard Roberts and the Black Guitar

Webster’s Dictionary defines genius as “…a person gifted with extraordinary powers of intellect, imagination or invention.” The definition could as easily be applied to describe Howard Roberts – virtuoso guitarist,…

Jon Butcher

Back to Barefootin'

Photos courtesy Jon Butcher. A little more than a decade ago, guitarist/vocalist Jon Butcher described his affiliation with the then-new quartet Barefoot Servants as, “The best thing I ever did.”…

Chris Poland

Metal Fusion Equinox

Chris Poland’s signature legato was born from tragedy. As a teen, his left hand accidentally punched through a plate-glass window and cut tendons in his fingers. He lost the ability…

Dave Mustainen

Alive and Shredding

One of the most rugged, resilient rock musicians ever, Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine is a thrash-metal pioneer who has weathered band turnover, addiction, and throat cancer. Megadeth’s new studio album,…

Andy Powell

The Wishbone Forges on

Wishbone Ash guitarist Andy Powell isn’t caught in a time warp. True, he’s the sole remaining member of the English foursome that proffered a twin-lead guitar sound that took the…

Jeff Hanna

Decades of Dirt

One’s taste in music usually starts in the home, where immersion can fuel the subconscious. Jeff Hanna’s parents loved Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, which helped embed great music deep…

Ace Frehley dies at 74

As Kiss reached its apex in the mid/late ’70s, “Space Ace” Frehley became the quintessential guitar hero. Supremely influential to a generation of rock players who followed, he died unexpectedly…

Blackberry Smoke Unplugs

Ds and LGs

By sound and association, Blackberry Smoke walks a fine stylistic line. A good ol’ rock band when it started rollin’ in Atlanta 15 years ago, its following has more recently…

GA-20 blends R&B, Blues, Hendrix, and much more

VG Exclusive “Dry Run” GA-20 blends influences from Hendrix to the guitar Kings to East Coast Family cassettes. Here, Matt Stubbs and Pat Faherty do an exclusive take on “Dry…

Jock Bartley

The Return of Firefall

If you listened to pop radio in the late ’70s, it was hard to miss Firefall, whose soft-rock hits were plastered all over AM airwaves, notably “You Are the Woman,”…

Heaven and Hell

Neon Knights Reunite

                            In 1979, Black Sabbath was at a crossroads after the departure of original frontman Ozzy Osbourne.…

Don Leady’s Stylish Instro!

Roots-rock doyen does “Blue Cumbia 3” LeRoi Brothers co-founder (and Tail Gators head honcho) Don Leady used his real-deal vintage Danelectro U-2 to accompany himself oh-so-stylishly for this exclusive take…

Steve Hill

One-Man Band

Canadian guitarist Steve Hill is a flat-out rocker, smashing blues into rock and roll with terrifying force, as heard on his latest, Dear Illusion. Often playing as a genuine one-man…

Zac Sokolow

LA LA Land

LA LOM rekindles of the sound of “psychedelic chicha” – a south-of-the-border reaction to the electrified 1960s. Picture the Ventures or Belairs with the hippest Latin percussion known to mankind.…

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…

Collection of Jonathan Kellerman

Talent for mysteries, passion for guitars, best-selling Novelist Jonathan Kellerman is a lifelong lover of the guitar. A player for 46 years, to him, the guitar is not only a…

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…

Bill Kirchen

Seeds, Stems, and a Tele-fied Legacy

There’s ample revisiting in Seeds and Stems, Telecaster slinger Bill Kirchen’s third album for Proper America. Five of the 13 songs hearken back to his late-’60s/mid-’70s days with pioneer country-rockers…