• Smith/Kotzen

    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

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Rick Vito

Who Needs Frets?

Rick Vito is one of the few guitarists who didn’t just put his name on a guitar as an endorser; as his own guitar designer, he came up with the art deco Streamliner,…

Mike Mattison

Mike Mattison is a veteran of the music wars, having for the past decade or so been the lead singer with the Derek Trucks Band and then moving to backup vocals when Trucks…

Beauty and the Bastards

This album is a set of songs beautifully assembled by guitarist Danny Mangold. He recruits various friends, including his former Minneapolis–St. Paul buddy Charlie Bingham on guitar. Bingham was the lead guitarist in…

Steve Vai

Modern Primitive

Steve Vai’s quirky artistry has evolved light years beyond David Lee Roth’s first post-Van-Halen band. From his tenure with Frank Zappa to a stint in Whitesnake, Vai has continually expanded his melodic sensibility…

Barry Waldrep & Friends

Celebrate Tony Rice

Tony Rice’s death on Christmas 2020, following years of ill health, was certain to inspire tribute efforts. Guitarist-banjoist Barry Waldrep, producer of nearly two dozen bluegrass homages to artists ranging from Phish to…

Tyler Morris

It seems like everybody loves a guitar prodigy, and 16-year-old Tyler Morris has been thrust into the spotlight. Since the age of 12, Morris has been entertaining audiences with his fleet-fingered dexterity and…

Lonesome River Band

The Lonesome River Band has been around for 30 years. And while he wasn’t a founding member, banjo player Sammy Shelor is the de facto leader of the band by virtue of tenure.…

Joel McIver and Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath gets the full coffee-table history treatment in this hardcover book by Joel McIver, providing excellent photos and recollections from the band. Most interesting is the early section on the quartet’s roots…

Al Di Meola – Anthology

Al Di Meola needs no introduction, and most of the music on this fine two-CD collection will be familiar to most guitarists as well. The only question is What’s new? The 20 tracks…

Amazing Rhythm Aces – Stacked Deck and Too Stuffed to Jump

A couple of issues back, I reviewed re-releases of these two albums that I said were long overdue for a number of reasons. I also complained about the poor packaging. Well, that’s been…

Hot Club of Hulaville

Hulaville Recordings

When they hand out the Grammys for CD packaging, the Hot Club of Hulaville should have their acceptance speech ready. The deluxe edition comes in an air-mail-styled folder with separate replica Django Reinhardt…

Cheap Trick

The Epic Archive, Vol. 1 (1975-79)

Most successful bands have an early period when members labor to figure out their special sound. This fun disc captures that moment, combining early tracks with live material. The 1975 Memphis demos show…

John Lee Hooker, Jr.

It’s one thing to be the offspring of a famous performer, but quite another to share his name and still be able to forge your own identity. After a number of years in…

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…

Duke Robillard – Blue Mood

An album like this should come as no surprise. Duke Robillard paying tribute to T-Bone Walker is about as natural as it gets. Anyone familiar with Duke’s background knows that T-Bone’s music is…

Pierre Bensusan – Intuite

There are guitarists, and then there are guitarists’ guitarists. Pierre Benusan is the sort of musician who inspires awe among even other musical luminaries. Leo Kotke admits that, “Pierre’s music gives me the…

The Kinks

After Lennon-McCartney, the most prolific and interesting songwriter of the British Invasion was the Kinks’ Ray Davies. The only other writer in the running, Pete Townshend, has acknowledged Davies’ clearly evident influence. The…

Chuck Berry

Hip-O-Select

1964 was a good year for Chuck Berry. He hit number 10 on the pop charts with “No Particular Place To Go,” number 14 with “You Never Can Tell” and did pretty well…

Albert King

Stax/Concord

Two CDs of Albert King – 34 songs, approaching two hours of material from his Stax period – has to be good news. It’s when companies label things as “best” or “essential” or…

Duke Robillard – A Swing Lesson with Duke Robillard

Duke continues his impressive output with a nod to his swing roots. Among guitarists, Robillard is known as a do-all, as he can be at home in almost any musical style, not only…

Sea Level

By today’s standards, Sea Level was a “jam band,” but 35 years ago, they were an eclectic group variously labeled as Southern rock, jazz-fusion, or West Coast funkpop. An offshoot of the Allman…

The Everly Brothers

If you’re weary of rock concert DVDs with critical commentary, typically unauthorized and of varying quality, this Everly Brothers retrospective is highly recommended. Authorized, with participation of Don Everly and a 2010 interview…

Claude Hay

Australian Claude Hay is an intensely spirited one-man band. He works himself into such a frenzy performing his multi-layered songs (“How Can You Live Without Yourself”) they become improvisation-like outpourings of a man…

Gene Clark – Silverado ’75

In a band that at various times included Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman and David Crosby, Gene Clark wasn’t overshadowed. He wrote some of the group’s most recognized songs, including…

Pink Floyd in North America 1966-1983

Glenn Povey

David Gilmour playing a rare Stratocaster doubleneck? You’ll see that 1972 photo and others in this reference book documenting Floyd’s many North American tours (FYI, one Strat neck was set up for slide).…

Marty Robbins – The Essential Mary Robbins

With a repertoire so extensive and wide-ranging, it would be impossible to track down, let alone list, all the session players backing this country icon on this two-disc retrospective. The Mottola/Caiola crew played…

Selwyn Birchwood

Living In a Burning House

Selwyn Birchwood’s third album for Chicago-based Alligator Records represents new creative frontiers for the 36-year-old Florida native. The robust use of keyboards and baritone sax makes it his most sonically expansive effort to…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Grateful Dead

Road Trips, Vol. 1 No.4: From Egypt With Love

In 1978, the Dead played a series of shows at a venue many Deadheads swear was just built for the band – The Great Pyramid of Giza. Still high from the shows, the…

Annie Ross

Although she has released 20 solo albums, Ross is best known for her tenure in the vocal trio of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, from ’57 to ’62. But she’s also been a nightclub…

Grateful Dead

The triple-LP Europe ’72 is a highlight in the Dead’s extensive live catalog, and 40 years later Rhino is presenting a companion set of unreleased material for those who just can’t get enough.…