• “Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest  Timm Kummer

    Artists

    “Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest  Timm Kummer

    Season 03 Episode 08 In Episode 3.9 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Timm Kummer, a legendary figure in the world of collectible guitars with a passion for unearthing, restoring, and dealing in rare instruments. Over his 45 years in the industry, Timm has built a reputation for specializing in “true…

    Read more >>

Jim Kweskin

Where Jazz Meets Folk

Jim Kweskin grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1958 entered Boston University, placing him near coffee houses at the height of the Folk Boom. Mixing early jazz with folk,…

James Elkington

Windy City Diversity

James Elkington tweaked the paradigm when he began working at a luthier shop before hitting his stride as a guitarist. Born and raised in a small English village northwest of…

John5

Rocker’s new album not what you might think

Don’t let John5’s stage persona fool you. Underneath that peroxide-white hair, sinister colored contact lenses and high-priest-of-evil wardrobe breathes one impressive and versatile guitarist. True, the Michigan-born guitarist (real name…

Lightnin’ Malcolm’s One-Man Wizardry

First-Rate Blues with Juke Joint Swagger Lightnin’ Malcolm learned blues first-hand from legends of the genre, and it shows! Here, he plays “Jungle” from his new album, “Eye Of The…

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…

Frank Gambale

Thunder From Down Under

Frank Gambale is enjoying a busy life these days. He recently spent a week playing the Blue Note, in Las Vegas, with Vital Information in support of the recently released…

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…

Reunited

Bruce Forman Honors Barney Kessel

From 1957 to ’60, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Shelly Manne recorded four LPs for Contemporary Records as a group called Poll Winners, a byproduct of each…

Ralph Towner

Fifty Years and Counting

As a young musician, Ralph Towner wrote “Icarus,” a revolutionary jazz piece that became a crossover hit for the Paul Winter Consort. Later, the classically trained guitarist (also a fine…

Marian Hall

First Lady of the Steel Guitar

There are very few, If any, women mentioned amidst the often discussed legends of the steel guitar, but Marian Hall is one to remember. Marian was part of the West…

Leo Nocentelli

A Meter Keeps Running

The Meters are universally accepted as one of the great funk bands. Their rhythm section work is legendary for its ability to jump on a groove and stay put. One…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest  Timm Kummer

Season 03 Episode 08 In Episode 3.9 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Timm Kummer, a legendary figure in the world of collectible guitars with a…

Fretprints: Paul Simon

Postmodern Troubadour: The Simon & Garfunkel Years

Troubadours – poet/musicians active in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, played a defining role in Western civilization. The original singer/songwriters, their trade was telling stories of popular culture…

Reinier Voet’s double-up demo

Gypsy jazz, direct from Amsterdam Reinier Voet shows us bits of “Swing 49” and the solo-guitar piece “Bagatelle Nr1,” both from “Images,” the new album by the Reinier Voet Quartet.…

Ronnie Earl

Stratocaster Royalty

For someone who has been a professional musician for more than 30 years, Ronnie Earl is going through a remarkable production period in his career. In just the last three…

Trey Gunn

Touch-Guitar Tip of the Hat

When profiled by Vintage Guitar in 1992, Trey Gunn was playing a Chapman Stick alongside guitarist Robert Fripp in a band called Sunday All Over the World. Gunn’s two-handed tenacity…

Bob Page

Bob Page, co-founder of the vintage-instrument shop Buffalo Brothers, died December 24 after falling and suffering a head injury at his home in Faial, in the Portuguese Azores. He was…

Vahdah Olcott-Bickford and the Martin Style 00-44G

Special Signature

Of the nearly 200 artists who have been granted a “signature” Martin guitar, only one was given their own style number. It wasn’t Clapton. It wasn’t Cash. Rather, it’s Vahdah…

Jimmie Vaughan

Full Plate, New Strats

After trading football for guitar at age 13, Jimmie Vaughan forged a remarkable career as a blues-roots guitarist, first with The Fabulous Thunderbirds then with a string of solo records…

Mark Lettieri

Baritone Funk

Snarky Puppy’s Empire Central was recorded in front of a live audience and pays homage to the city of Dallas. Deep within the bowels of the band’s sophisticatedly funky 19-piece…

Pete Anderson

Disciple of the Hook

Detroit native Pete Anderson made a name for himself in the ’80s, playing a ton of twang while Dwight Yoakam sang. In the last 20 years, though, he has become…

Revealing Jesse Ed Davis

Douglas K. Miller

Jesse Ed Davis was an unsung guitar hero – unless you were a legend like Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Conway Twitty, Taj Mahal, Jackson…

Joel Shapira

Solo Flight

Guitarist Joel Shapira has released a string of fine recordings, but his latest, In Essence, is his first stab at solo guitar. While the concept has been percolating in his…

Joe Long’s “stack-knob” Fender Jazz Bass

If you’re a fan or aficionado of vintage instruments, odds are that any early-’60s Fender Jazz Bass catches your eye. And “lefty” versions are especially intriguing, given their rarity. The…

Seth Lover

Seth Lover

Humbuckers and Other Lover innovations

The history of the musical instrument business is full of stories, from the drab to the miraculous. Some bean counters will busily push their way to the forefront, grabbing for…

Ty Tabor

Digging Deep

King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor’s latest solo album is a guitar-centric meditation on mindfulness and the complexities of existence. With a break from touring, he had time to whip out…

Carl Verheyen

Well-rounded and busy

Carl Verheyen says it all came to him when he heard the Eagles’ album called The Long Run. At that point, he was heavily into jazz, and practicing eight hours…

Roman Bulakhov’s Radical Stew

Ukrainian guitarist fuses…. everything Inspired by Pat Metheny, Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan and others, guitarist Roman Bulakhov fuses rock, funk, jazz, hip-hop – and everything else into a radical, acrobatic…

Pop ’N Hiss: Led Zeppelin’s IV

Heaven Sent

It’s impossible to overstate the influence Led Zeppelin’s “untitled” fourth album – call it IV, ZoSo, Runes, Four Symbols, whatever – has had on musicians of all stripes. Released November…

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…