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Music
Paul Johnson
The Hepcats Live at the Ajax Novelty Company
This isn’t live, there may not be an Ajax Novelty Company, and the three felines known as the Hepcats are actually the brainchild of Paul Johnson, whose Belairs were early-’60s pioneers of surf music. Suspend reality and dig how the “trio” expertly articulates layers of acoustic guitar. Across decades, Johnson has embraced folk-rock, psychedelia, and…
Taj Mahal – Sénor Blues
Taj Mahal is one of those guys you never think about until you hear another great album by him. Listen to this one and you’ll think about him a lot. The album is…
Red Fang
Throughout 10 pummeling tracks, the Portland, Oregon-based Red Fang demonstrates everything that is right with heavy metal today, displaying an excellent array of influences, from Black Sabbath to Alice In Chains to Metallica.…
The Sender
All Killer No Filler (1977-2001)
The PR for this double-LP (and CD) casts the Senders as “punk,” concentrating on seven live tracks featuring guitarist Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls, Heartbreakers). But 24 other cuts reveal the New York…
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Yes
Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition
Are you a high-fidelity audio geek? If the answer is, well, yes, this Rhino release brings together an HD experience of Close to the Edge in no fewer than four versions, plus rarities and a ’72 concert. For starters, the 2025 remaster sounds as close to the analog 1972 mix as you’re going to get…
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Pink Floyd
Have You Got It Yet? – The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
It’s understandable that fans warily approach the flood of pseudo-documentaries and biopics. Add the fact that the late Syd Barrett, Floyd’s original guitarist/leader, suffered from mental illness, and exploitation alarms are sure to go off. But this documentary handles the subject with dignity instead of sensationalism. Interviews by longtime Floyd cover artist Storm Thorgerson with…
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The Wildhearts
In the raging ’90s, The Wildhearts blasted out of Newcastle upon Tyne like some unholy melding of Guns ’N Roses, Cheap Trick, and The Replacements. Hard rock, power pop, and punk still make up their secret sauce, heard on this latest effort with original singer/guitarist Ginger Wildheart. Ben Marsden plays lead, while Kavus Torabi adds…
Alvin Youngblood Hart – Down in the Alley
Down in the Alley
I wasn’t prepared for how good this disc is. Hart’s mostly known for his work in country blues. Here, he does a program of good, old-fashioned country blues. And this Mississippi-Delta songfest is…
My Years With UFO
Michael Schenker
One of the most-underrated rock guitarists in history, it’s about time homage was paid to the master of the Flying V. My Years With UFO is a tribute to the cherry years of…
Peter Case – Who’s Gonna Go Your Crooked Mile? Selected Tracks
Peter Case is one of those “folky” types who deserve more than a trite description. Yes, he plays acoustic guitar, occasional harmonica, and writes great songs. But he shows a background that encompasses…
Don Rich and the Buckeroos – Country Pickin’: The Don Rich Anthology
The Don Rich collection is a 24-song retrospective featuring songs recorded when the late guitarist/fiddler was the instrumental hero of Buck Owens’ band. There’s lots of stuff here you’d expect. Killer instrumentals like…
John Cowan
E1 Entertainment
John Cowan’s latest is taken from sessions recorded four years ago by George Massenburg. Cowan’s music combines traditional bluegrass with rock-influenced players and the songs here show Cowan’s talents as a singer and…
Ernie Hawkins – Bluesified
Bluesified
Ernie Hawkins hails from Pittsburgh. Not exactly a hotbed of acoustic blues, but Hawkins is one of the best. I’ve not run across any of his other work, although his bio says he’s…
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Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Honeysuckle
Resonator-slide specialist Reverend Peyton returns to his primary influences – early 20th-century African-American music – compelling him to shout from the hollers and the hills. Rootsy, acoustic, inter-war blues is the specific genre, and Peyton doesn’t hold back. With top-tier tutelage from the likes of David “Honeyboy” Edwards, T-Model Ford, and Robert Belfour, he masterfully…
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Mike Campbell with Ari Surdoval
Heartbreaker: A Memoir
In his autobiography, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Campbell admits he’s quiet and shy. Self-doubt plagued him his entire life, and when problems arose in the Heartbreakers, a lack of confidence had him blaming himself first, even when he wasn’t responsible. Perhaps his attitude was psychologically rooted in his impoverished childhood and coming from…
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Alan Gogoll
Lioness Lullabies
Venture online and watch a few videos by Tasmanian guitarist Alan Gogoll and you’ll see he’s nothing short of a phenomenon. On acoustic, he conjures artificial harmonics in a manner that almost defies gravity. Better still, he never shows off these chops – everything on Lioness Lullabies is in the service of the song and…
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Jimmy Vivino
Gonna Be 2 of Those Days
A veteran vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist and purveyor of blues, R&B, and rock’, Jimmy Vivino has an incredible résumé. A longtime fixture in Conan O’Brien’s house band, he has played on movie, radio, and Broadway projects and worked with Levon Helm, Hubert Sumlin, Al Kooper, Jimmie Vaughan, Donald Fagen, Warren Haynes, Laura Nyro, along with innumerable others. He’s…
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Thin Lizzy
The Acoustic Sessions
Thin Lizzy’s first studio release in decades, this album reimagines tracks recorded 50+ years ago by the trio of vocalist/bassist Phil Lynott, guitarist Eric Bell, and drummer Brian Downey. The songs are from Lizzy’s first three albums – 1971’s Thin Lizzy, ’72’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage, and ’73’s Vagabonds of the Western World. Recently,…
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Eve Monsees and Mike Buck
& Their Groovy Orbit
This is not a solo album as much as an anthology of Austin artists and styles – from blues to country to ’60s garage and psych, demonstrating the versatility of singer/guitarist Monsees (Eve & the Exiles, Blue Bonnets) and her husband, drummer Buck (LeRoi Brothers), as producers/organizers. The tracks span three years, but the names…
Charlie Musselwhite – Sanctuary
Sanctuary
With his debut album in 1966, harmonica vanguard Charlie Musselwhite met and set the standard for authenticity and adventurism in blues. But in the past few years,
CCR – Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival Bayou Country Green River Willy And The Poor Boys Cosmo’s Factory Pendulum It’s hard to imagine that anyone isn’t intimately familiar with Creedence’s catalog of seven albums, but that string…
Richard Thompson
Shout Factory
Richard Thompson is one of the most prolific songwriters pop music has ever seen. Of course, being prolific is meaningless if one just churns out pap. But the quality of Thompson’s output is…
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…
Ann McCue
Fans of Anne McCue’s past records may be a little surprised at what they hear on her latest. While she’s always been an accomplished guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, the emphasis has mostly been…
The Little Willies
Essentially a super-group of players that just want to have some fun with the music they grew up with, Norah Jones, Jim Campilongo, Lee Alexander, Richard Julian, and Dan Rieser serve up lots…
Summer of Soul
Various artists
Buried for 50 years, the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is now recognized as an historic concert series, thanks to the recent film, which won the Grammy for Best Music Film and Oscar for…
The Warren Hood Band
Not one but two royal bloodlines of Texas music flow through the Warren Hood Band. Violinist Hood’s father, the late Champ Hood, was one-third of Uncle Walt’s Band, along with David Ball and…
Andy Timmons Band
To translate one of the touchstones of popular music is not something most guitarists would attempt, but Timmons and his trio take the Beatles’ classic and turn it into an instrumental rock album…
Steve Khan
After a career of close to 40 years, Steve Khan now delivers Subtext, a mesmerizing Latin-jazz offering. But don’t assume that this is just another retro-Bossa album. The compositions, chord work, and improvisations…
Gurf Morlix
Rootball Records
Gurf Morlix’s latest effort is a tribute to his old buddy, Blaze Foley, a singer/ songwriter who was shot to death in 1989. Morlix has taken 15 of Foley’s songs and given them…
Lake Street Dive
It doesn’t get much more wonderfully pop than Lake Street Dive. And with the band’s latest, they’ve produced their best – so far. The quartet was founded by Minneapolis guitarist Michael “McDuck” Olson…
Stephane Grappelli & Bucky Pizzarelli – Duet: The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions
At the end of the ’60s, two French enthusiasts sought out the last living classic jazz musicians and urged them out of retirement to come to France to record. These sessions, along with…
Andy Brown Quartet and Brian Bromberg
Two of the Best in Jazz
Not every jazz guitarist who plays solo can also blow in a group context, and vice versa. Some adept at both include Tuck Andress, Joe Pass, Johnny Smith, George Van Eps, and Earl…
Rock Candy Funk Party
Funk means many things to many people, and while religious funkaholics place Sly and the Family Stone, the Ohio Players, and Parliament Funkadelic high on the alter, heretics differ. Rock Candy Funk Party’s…
Neal Schon
In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Santana alumnus Neal Schon was not only known for his blazing guitar solos, he was equally famous for his ability to play with taste and restraint.…
Davie Allan & the Arrows – Moving Along
Davie Allan came along when, by all rights, instrumental rock should have been long past rigor mortis and decomposing, after the British Invasion nailed instro surf’s coffin shut. But, against all odds, as…
The Clash – The Singles
Rarely in the history of music has so much been packaged so beautifully for so many. The Clash The Singles box is a glorious collection of the band’s original 19 singles, reissued on…
David Clayton and Todd K. Smith – Free: Heavy Load
This epic chronicles the story of the seminal British blues/rock band Free. Leaving no stone unturned, and with the help of more than 400 photos, authors David Clayton and Todd K. Smith have…
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…
Tennesee Ernie Ford – 6000 Sunset Boulevard
As if his comedic talents weren’t enough (from his early days as a disc-jockey to hosting his own TV show to guesting on “I Love Lucy”), Tennessee Ernie Ford was one of the…
