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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
Ronnie Hawkins – Mojo Man
To call these two early records by Ronnie Hawkins “historic guitar recordings” is a genuine understatement. In fact, they’re revolutionary. But first, who is Ronnie Hawkins? The Hawk was a rock shouter from…
Big Bill Broonzy
Live In Amsterdam, 1953
Perhaps because he died just prior to the Folk Boom and a few years before the Blues Revival, Bill Broonzy doesn’t get proper credit. Besides being the first American bluesman to tour England,…
Joshua Hedley
Neon Blue
Country tradition remains the center of Joshua Hedley’s universe. His 2018 debut, Mr. Jukebox, reflected his mastery of the ’50s and ’60s honky-tonk of Ray Price, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Faron Young,…
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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,
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band – Spiritual Boy: An Appreciation Of Ronnie Lane
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band – Spiritual Boy: An Appreciation Of Ronnie Lane Bassist/vocalist/songwriter Ronnie Lane was one-fourth of the Small Faces, and stayed onboard as they morphed into the Faces, fronted…
Lexie Roth – One Long Blink
Roth was 17 when she started recording this project, 19 when she finished, and it’s testament to her talent and maturity that you can’t tell where the performances fell chronologically. Her six originals…
Pokey LaFarge
Hamfats-Styled Hot Stuff
Pokey LaFarge’s Rounder Records debut continues his rich, well-established sound. Primarily acoustic, he offers another amalgam of jazz, blues, jug band, and Western swing. At different times, LaFarge and his expanded band conjure…
Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm – Ike’s Instrumentals
Ike's Instrumentals
If it’s true that one’s personality is revealed through one’s music, then Ike Turner is probably every bit the lowdown, badass motor-scooter his reputation implies. And on this collection of rockin’ blues instrumentals…
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…
David Bromberg – Demon in Disguise
Not to be confused with a live DVD of the same name, which was released in 2008 and quickly vanished, this is part of Stefan Grossman’s “Guitar Artistry Of” series. Playing only his…
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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
Steve Herberman Trio – Ideals
Reach Music
Herberman is known as an educator/player, and with each release, his skills become more and more evident. He plays a seven-string guitar and mixes jazz standards with originals such that every song sounds…
Al Stewart
Year of the Cat 45th Anniversary
You couldn’t have planned a ’70s smash any better. For superior sonics, Stewart collaborated with producer Alan Parsons, famed for his work with the Beatles and Pink Floyd. The music also tapped into…
Dave Alvin – West of the West
The Great American Music Galaxy
Dave Alvin is one of America’s best songwriters, and as such runs the risk of alienating casual fans when he does an album of covers. But then again, maybe not… The idea with…
Big Joe Williams
Southside Blues
Big Joe Williams’ headstone is undoubtedly the only one on the planet that reads “King Of The Nine-String Guitar.” Because it’s true – as is the rest of the epitaph: “Big Joe sustained…
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Mercury
BTO holds an interesting spot in rock history, in essence serving as hard rock’s ambassadors to AM pop radio. Their reign was brief, but from 1973 to ’76, music fans could barely turn…
Carrie Elkin
Red House Records
How many versions of the song “If That Mocking Bird Don’t Sing” have you heard? I’ve listened to more than I can count on all my digits. So when I heard Carrie Elkin…
Sweet
Self-distributed
Sweet – the ’70s glam-pop act that’s almost as famous for its hairdos as its music – is today actually two bands touring under the name. The U.S. version that recorded this disc…
Eric Gales Trio
Eric Gales is arguably the most underrated guitarist of his generation. Emerging in the early ’90s with a post-Hendrix blueprint that combined a fusion of blues, rock, and gospel, he never sustained the…
Guy Forsythe
Call this music “Americana,” if you have to put a label on it. The opener, “Red Dirt,” establishes straight away the muscular Midwestern quality that reflects Guy Forsythe’s musical coming of age in…
Devo
Devo is far from the only band that was years ahead of its time. The difference is that 40 years after its formation, the group’s music and videos are still ahead of their…
Kenny Burrell/Gil Evans – Guitar Forms
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times. One of the great things about CDs is great albums have become available at a cost you can afford. Here is an…
Lawson Rollins – Infinita
Fusions of classical and flamenco guitar with rock and jazz have yielded interesting permutations for years – from Strunz & Farah to Ottmar Liebert to Rodrigo y Gabriela. Lawson Rollins’ first solo effort,…
Jason Jordan – Genuine Vinyl
It seems new really good Tele players keep poppin’ up. Here’s another one. Jason doesn’t waste any time, getting going with the opener, “Picky, Picky, Picky.” It’s a medium-tempo country tune with cool…
Rick Holmstrom
Get It!
The veteran blues and gospel guitarist wanted to make an album “for good times; barbecues, car rides, pajama parties.” In doing so, he reinforces that good-time music and serious musicianship are not mutually…
Bob Dylan – Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert
The history of rock and roll is marked by a handful of famous (or infamous) concerts that defined eras for better or worse. Among these landmark shows were the Beatles’ last U.S. tour,…
Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez – The Deep End
Horizon Music Group
The beehive-haired soul diva of the “Saturday Night Live” band offers a collection of mostly original soul and country songs (often mixed together, as in “Girl Growing Up”) that hit the sweet spot,…
Forrest Lee, Jr. and Friends
Forrest Lee, Sr. was a country music legend most folks have likely never heard tell of. So why should they care about a tribute to the man and his gospel music? Because his…
Rick Holmstrom – Hydraulic Groove
I really like it when artists take left turns. You know, shake things up a little bit. Well, Rick Holmstrom takes a sharp left here. You might know him as a groove-oriented, traditional…
Burke Long
This infectious record has the homemade feel of mom’s Sunday dinner. North Carolina boy Burke Long evokes writing models like Rodney Crowell and Gene Clark for the almost California country of “About Love,”…
Pan-Americans
Flat Fish
If you’re a member of Pan-Americans, “among others” is part of your resume – in terms of bands you belong to as well as instruments (and roles) played in them. The band’s ad…
The Grateful Dead
Every true Deadhead had the bootleg tape: a cassette too many generations removed from the original recording, notated innocently enough as “Kesey’s Ranch ’72.” That show – played as a benefit for author…
