• 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

    Read more >>

Mark Newton – Hillbilly Hemingway

At first listen, you’d call Mark Newton’s music bluegrass, but it’s not just bluegrass. Sure, the affects are slathered on, but the drums give away the game – this is really honkytonk roots…

BR549 – This Is BR549

On their sixth disc, the boys in BR549 have a bit of a change cooked up for you. One, their name has dropped the dash. Two, they’ve switched labels to Sony’s new Lucky…

The Jim Campilongo Trio

Jazz Hoedown

Jim Campilongo’s records have always shown his country and jazz influences while offering his own twist. On this latest live record he and his trio, with a couple of guest shots from like-minded…

Robin Trower

No More Worlds to Conquer

You can depend on the prolific Robin Trower dropping a new album every year or two. Here, his blues-drenched vibrato and Strat-through-Marshall tone are front and center, peppered with an array of Fulltone…

Duke Robillard Band

They Called it Rhythm & Blues

Robillard, his guitar, and band preside over a celebration of classic R&B and blues made up of 18 familiar and obscure numbers aided by heavy-hitting guests. Instrumentally, he remains a model of brevity…

Keith Cameron

The Year (or so) of Mudhoney rolls on. The long-running Seattle foursome has experienced a resurgence of interest lately. The latest example: this well-researched and crisply written biography from rock journalist Keith Cameron,…

Jerry Reed – Pickin’

This album was released last year, but I like it a lot and haven’t seen much written about it, so we’ll tell you a bit about it. It’s a pretty much what you’d…

Nili Brosh

Nili Brosh takes the phrase “playing like a girl” and turns it on its ear. This new album weaves the kind of muscular soloing, graceful melodies, and strenuous time signatures that would send…

Stephen Bruton – Spirit World

A CD of personal or autobiographical songs can be tricky. The music can wind up meaning far more to its creator than it does to its audience. That’s bad. Luckily for everyone, Stephen…

Ry Cooder et. al. – Buena Vista Social Club

Ry Cooder has big ears. He hears music from far away, music that most of us never even sense. And he brings it to us. Spreading the gospel, as it were. Through his…

Kombo – Cookin’ Out

Kombo is Ron Pedley on keyboards, and Jon Pondel on guitars. They’ve got lots of great help too, with guys like Steve Ferrone, Matt Bissonette, and Sharon Hendrix. The music is the same…

The Mike Eldred Trio

The Mike Eldred Trio’s latest was recorded at Memphis’ hallowed Sun Studios, but the deep blues are straight outta the Delta. Eldred needs little introduction here. The former Fender Custom Shop manager, he’s…

Bill Frisell

Few jazz guitarists combine versatility, originality, and eclecticism like 59-yearold Bill Frisell. He’s such a unique guitar voice, “jazz” seems too confining a category. And thanks to his open-mindedness, he’s as likely to…

Kate Rusby – The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly

When you listen to Kate Rusby, you hear the very essence of Celtic music. Her voice soars over the top of a song without the gross limitations of a human form. Kate Rusby…

The Doors with Albert King

DMC/Rhino

Speaking of his work on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Steve Ray Vaughan once admitted that he wanted to see just how many places Albert King’s licks would work. “You know, they always fit,”…

Chuck Berry – The Millennium Collection

MCA has released a treasure trove of “millennium collection” greatest hits discs just in time for the new century. This guitar hero gets his due recognition with single-CD package that do justice in…

Enrico Granafei

Miles High Records

On this truly phenomenal record, Granafei rolls through 10 cuts, most familiar, with just his voice, a nylon-string guitar, and a chromatic harmonica. There is no over-dubbing on this record, and Granafei’s performance…

Guy King

Blues veteran Guy King steps out with a full big band on his latest and proves up to the task of doing justice to various forms of American music – blues, funk, soul,…

Joe Bonamassa

Achievement Blues

On disc 2 of Joe Bonamassa’s latest, there’s an interview with Howlin’ Wolf: “I’m gonna tell you what the blues is,” the Wolf says. “A lot of people holler about, ‘I don’t like…

Jimmy Johnson – Pepper’s Hangout

Pepper's Hangout

Let’s word it this way: few if any blues artists can pump life into a overwrought classic like Tommy Tucker’s 1964 hit “High Heeled Sneakers.” Jimmy Johnson can, and does. Granted, this set…

Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through The Grunge Explosion

Steve Turner with Adem Tepedelen

Mudhoney never really cashed in on the early-’90s grunge sweepstakes. In fact, its members have largely eschewed the G word. Until now. Lead guitarist and cofounder Steve Turner chronicles Mudhoney’s formation and career…

Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane

Rough Mix, Pete Townshend, Empty Glass

Nels Cline

Blues Notes and So Much More

Jeff Richman

Nefer Records

Gov’t Mule featuring John Scofield

Gov’t Mule featuring John Scofield

Surprises

Fans have begged for this music to be released for a long time. For the most part, it’s two concerts recorded in September 1999 featuring the original Gov’t Mule lineup along with John…

Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Age of Miracles

Zoe/Rounder

Mary Chapin Carpenter’s music is like a security blanket – warm, familiar, and homey. On The Age of Miracles, she distills her music into an even more comforting package. The album was produced…

Donald Fagen – Morph the Cat

Donald Fagen – Morph the Cat Of all the records associated with Steely Dan, Walter Becker, and Donald Fagen, this may be the best since “the comeback.” And that’s something coming from someone…

J.J. Cale – Live

Live

J.J. Cale is one of rock’s greatest guitarists, and would probably be recognized as such if his six-string abilities weren’t so overshadowed by his songwriting. “After Midnight,” “Cocaine,” “Call Me The Breeze” and…

Ronnie Wood

Eagle Records

This is Wood’s first solo album since 2001, which isn’t surprising, seeing as it’s only his seventh studio album in 36 years – his solo output usually dictated by his schedule with his…

The Misunderstood, Fat Mattress, and others

The 1972 Lenny Kaye-compiled Elektra double-LP Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 spawned the Pebbles series, Rhino’s various regional Nuggets volumes, and eventually 2001’s Nuggets, Vol. 2: Original Artyfacts From…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

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,…

Eric Gales

Crown

Hearing Eric “Raw Dawg” Gales sing about his turbulent past is nothing new. On Crown, Gales continues the narrative, but basks in the glory of his accomplishments, shoots down detractors, and revels in…

Gretchen Menn

Magnum Opus

Gretchen Menn stands alone. One might argue that she’s the female counterpart to Steve Morse. Both are aviators, both play ungodly guitar, and both are ersed in the European traditions of the Classical…