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Music
Smith/Kotzen
Black Light/White Noise
This is the third album from rock veterans Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) and Richie Kotzen (The Winery Dogs). The busy axeslingers – especially Kotzen, who is always involved in solo and band projects – released their full-length debut and an EP in 2021. Smith-Kotzen has happily blossomed into a going concern. What’s interesting about Smith/Kotzen’s
The Tube Amp Book – Deluxe Revised Edition
Tube amp connoisseurs, your cup runneth over! This new edition of the veritable Tube Amp work distills all the facts and schematics from the first four editions, marries them to a large hardcover…
Sacred Steel Convention – Train Don’t Leave Me
Train Don't Leave Me
When Arhoolie Records’ Chris Strachwitz stumbled onto Mance Lipscomb, the amazing 65-year-old Texas bluesman and songster who had never recorded, in 1960, it was a bit like an anthropologist coming across a saber-toothed…
Various Artists
Orchestral Maneuvers
Yes’ Chris Squire didn’t intend to make a masterpiece with 1975’s Fish Out of Water, but he inadvertently did – and knew it. For the ensuing 40 years, the late bassist never dared…
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Chris Walz
All I Got and Gone
This traditional folk singer/guitarist’s solo debut is impressive. He’s been an educator at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music for three decades, but his approach is by no means academic. He not only reveals the influence of folk and blues legends such as Doc and Merle Watson, Elizabeth Cotten, Etta Baker, Dave Van Ronk,
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Nels Cline
Consentrik Quartet
ls Cline long ago established a parallel career as an eclectic instrumentalist and contemporary jazz virtuoso. His fourth Blue Note album is an extended set that unveils Consentrik Quartet, his new band with acoustic bassist Chris Lightcap, drummer Tom Rainey, and tenor/soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Their concepts are ambitious and their sound is free, Cline
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Charlie Musselwhite
Lookout Highway
John Mayall is invariably cited for the succession of guitar greats who passed through his band. But Charlie Musselwhite just might be the American equivalent. In a 60-year career, his six-stringers have included Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Tim Kaihatsu, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, Johnny Heartsman, Junior Watson, Andrew “Jr. Boy” Jones, John Wedemeyer,
Yes
While Yes is still a working band, it’s mostly in name only. This three-CD set, taken from a 2004 Massachusetts concert, shows the classic mid-’70s lineup featuring guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire,…
Various Artists – Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash
Tribute records are a mixed bag by nature, but Anchored in Love is a wonderful collection of songs dedicated to June Carter Cash, several of them written by the country icon as well.…
Jeff Beck
Since the late ’90s, Jeff Beck has been fusing equal parts blues, jazz-rock, and heavy-duty electronica; this time he’s added spoken-word sections and vocals over the big, throbbing grooves, thanks to singer Rosie…
Alfred Wertheimer
The Man W ho Would Be King
In early 1956, soon after RCA Victor purchased the contract for a fledgling singer named Elvis Presley, a publicist hired photographer Alfred Wertheimer to follow the Mississippi boy on the road for a…
Vinicius Cantuaria & Bill Frisell
Entertainment One
It’s hard to say which event stirs more anticipation, a new Bill Frisell solo album or a new project featuring him in an accompanying role. The guitarist is in demand as much for…
Eric Lindell – Low On Cash, Rich In Love
Eric Lindell’s second album is full of great songs and inspired playing while his hipster feel and look match his guitar grooves. You get an idea with the opener, “Lay Back Down” –…
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Popa Chubby
I Love Freddie King
The latest from blues dynamo Popa Chubby is a star-studded tribute to the late great Freddie King. Produced by Mr. Chubby and Mike Zito, I Love Freddie King is a blues guitar love-fest covering some of King’s most potent and popular songs. With Popa fronting the band on guitar and vocals, guests include Eric Gales,
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Rush
Rush 50
The goal of any anthology is to capture the broad scope of an artist’s career. Rush 50 is a strong attempt, starting with their first singles (previously unreleased) all the way to their final live recordings in 2015. In between are reams of epic studio and stage recordings, summing up the band’s career in one
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Rik Emmett
Ten Telecaster Tales
At the risk of starting a brawl, Rik Emmett’s guitar work was arguably too good for Triumph. As evidence, his latest project centers on a custom-built Loucin that inspired both a book and accompanying music. “Magic Power” this is not. On Ten Telecaster Tunes, Emmett delivers 10 solo performances on the instrument he calls Babs,
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Check This Action: Up Jumped Elmore
When someone recently asked me to recommend the most essential Elmore James album, I answered, “Any and all.” I’ve never heard a bad Elmore cut, and I’ve heard nearly everything he recorded. Everybody knows that he set the standard for slide guitar in electric blues, but he was also a fantastic singer and wrote some
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Greg Koch
Blues
The Gristle Master returns with scintillating blues and the influences that made him the six-string slayer he is today. On this live recording, Koch uses an array of guitars including his signature Reverend, a Deluxe Tele, Custom Shop Les Paul, and a Custom Shop Strat while sharing stages with Larry McCray, Jimmy Hall, Malford Milligan,
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2025 December Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Rick Derringer, Kid Ramos, Booker T and The M.G.’s, Steve Stevens, Phil Manzanera, Doug Aldrich, Kenny Burrell, Eric Johanson, Gary Moore, and more! Spotify is free or available without ads via a paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account Listen to
John Pizzarelli – With A Song In My Heart
Not every artist could get away with releasing a series of tribute albums. John Pizzarelli can. This one features 12 tunes by Richard Rodgers and all seem very heartfelt; for example, the title/opening…
Arty Hill
Self-distributed
Good musicians just might outnumber good songwriters, but don’t tell Arty Hill. This album of 11 originals out of 12 cuts sports snappy country swing and blues numbers like the energetic “Mae Dawn”…
Bucho – Omit the Harsh
Bucho is a pretty amazing little band. They mix different music into what one would have to call “modern soul.” If you like funk, you’ll find lots of it here. If you like…
Jellyfish
Jellyfish was only around for these two records, but these reissues reinforce the belief that they were as good a band as you could find in the ’90s. The songs are brilliantly written…
San Francisco String Trio
May I Introduce to You
As the title may tell, here’s yet another collection of Beatles tunes – this one entirely from Sgt. Pepper – done mostly in the form of jazz instrumentals. The trio is Mimi Fox…
Hot Tuna – Live In Japan, Sweetwater, and Sweetwater Two
Hot Tuna – Live In Japan, Sweetwater, and Sweetwater Two A feast of Hot Tuna! Extra helpings! Tuna leftovers! These guys are making our job too easy – reissuing three CDs (yes, remastered…
Brian Wright
Sugar Hill Records
Off kilter, warped, but addictive, Brian Wright’s music grabs your attention. He describes it as, “…situated somewhere between Woody Guthrie and The Velvet Underground.” Where exactly, depends on the song. Beyond writing the…
Heart
Heart is beating hard again. It’s been four years since Ann and Nancy Wilson’s last release, but the sisters are back – and with a vengeance. Along with Heart’s 16th album, Ann has…
Tom Principato – House on Fire
Tom Principato is probably familiar to many VG readers. A fine player in his own right, he’s also responsible for some fine books that teach about guitar, and he’s also been known lately…
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and John McEuen
The Dirt Band celebrates five decades in style with a host of new releases. The ensemble’s Ryman Auditorium all-star show from March 2016 originally aired on PBS TV, lending the DVD and separate…
Spirit of Django
The Guitar Label
This Brit’s career has been nothing if not varied. He has backed vocalists from Teresa Brewer to Alison Burns (as the latter’s sole accompaniment on 1 AM); recorded small-group bebop (Freternity), “new acoustic”/Dawg…
Muddy Waters & Big Bill Morganfield – Rollin’ Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection &
These two CDs mark two generations of bluesmen covering the roots and the future of the blues. McKinley Morganfield, better known by his grandmother’s nickname for him as Muddy Waters, is the father…
Mark Pickerel – Cody’s Dream
This is the second solo album by the former Screaming Trees drummer turned singer/songwriter/front man, who went on to record with Neko Case, Jim Carroll, and Nirvana. There’s a cinematic vibe to the…
Peter Bardens
Long Ago, Far Away: The Recordings (1968-1971)
Following a sort of carousel-calliope intro, with one unmistakable bend, Peter Green enters “The Answer” and quickly transforms the proceedings. Keyboardist Peter Bardens released an album of the same name in 1970, featuring…
Sevendust
Atlanta, Georgia’s Sevendust’s 11th album of head-butting alternative metal spotlights guitarists John Connolly and Clint Lowery serving up a fierce barrage of pummeling guitar arrangements, jam-packed with hellacious riffs and memorable hooks. The…
Julian Lage
View With a Room
One of today’s most-acclaimed players, Lage offers 10 original compositions of sumptuous guitar, along with the artistry of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King. As on 2021’s Squint, Lage explores his fascination…
Big Bill Morganfield – Born Lover
Talent isn’t always inherited. And when it is, the ability to develop it doesn’t always come along with it. Big Bill Morganfield inherited a healthy slice of talent from his father, Muddy Waters.…
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The album opens with static. The distortion bleeds into a sonic maelstrom of competing radio signals before a backbeat of drums launches the first song, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.” Welcome…
David Reinhardt, Levis Adel-Reinhardt & various artists
Label Ouest
In honor of the centenary of Django Reinhardt’s 1910 birth, the tribute albums are being released as quickly as Django ever played a two-fingered arpeggio. This one from France may be the most…
Elvin Bishop
Fun is the key word here. It’s amazing how Elvin Bishop has managed to keep things interesting in a career that now spans more than 50 years. The trio is Bishop on guitar…
The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones
Lesley-Ann Jones
Six decades is a long time to cover, especially for a band with a history as volatile as the Rolling Stones, but British author Jones brings a befitting wit, sarcasm, and snark. While…
