• 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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Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters

Ronnie Earl’s playing hasn’t changed a lot over the years, but listening to a new record by him is always a pleasant surprise. It’s rare to hear a guitarist who can take his…

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.…

Pete Anderson

The Burbank Moose Lodge doesn’t seem a likely place for electrifying guitar performances, but Pete Anderson and band spent three days in December 2014 dazzling the crowds that showed up there to see…

Kentucky Headhunters – Soul

Yes, it’s true, this one came out some time ago, but it has occupied space on my listening stack for a long time. The Headhunters have been “popular” for more than 15 years,…

BR5-49

Honky Tonkin’

In the mid ’80s, bands like Jason and the Scorchers, Webb Wilder and (originally) the Beatnecks, and – well, not many others – chose Nashville to make their mark on roots rock. And…

Monte Montgomery

That guitar players will ever stop reinterpreting Jimi Hendrix’ “Little Wing” is neither likely nor necessary. The song is so rich and inviting, so mesmerizing to play, its beautiful chord structure and melody…

Tony Bacon – 50 Years of Fender – Half a Century of the Greatest Electric Guitars

In 1950, Leo Fender began production of the first solidbody electric guitar, and music hasn’t been the same since. Celebrating the anniversary of the event, this book provides a year-by-year chronicle of the…

Charles Lloyd and the Marvels

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that adding Bill Frisell to a project will yield great results. But teaming him with jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd was a master stroke, in large part…

Robert Hilburn

From Cash’s hard-scrabble childhood through his Air Force stint, Sun years, hazy ’60s, largely forgettable ’70s, ’80s relapse, and second redemption in the ’90s, former LA Times critic Hilburn scours the details of…

Little Charlie and the Organ Grinder Swing

Any fan of the original Little Charlie and the Nightcats knows Charlie Baty can swing; he always had one foot in the jazz world while playing the band’s brand of blues. Here, on…

Warren Haynes

Million Voices Whisper

Warren Haynes’ first solo album since 2011 is an uplifting set that reflects am optimistic spirit of change and hope. With Haynes at the height of his superpowers on guitar and vocals, he…

Laurence Juber with Marshall Terrill

This coffeetable book mixes Juber’s personal story with his time as Paul McCartney’s guitarist in the last version of Wings from 1978 to 1981. As he puts it in his foreword, Juber basically…

Donald Fagen – Nightfly Trilogy

For music lovers and techno geeks, this seven-disc set by the Steely Dan front man is a match made in heaven. It includes CDs of all three Fagen solo albums, The Nightfly, Kamakiriad,…

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Epic/Legacy

It’s hard to understate how important Stevie Ray Vaughan was to the guitar. He emerged when the guitar had all but ceased to exist on pop/rock radio. Even hitmakers who played guitar, i.e.…

Bob Dunn

Origin Jazz Library

Bob Dunn was the amplified steel guitar’s first stylist. More than 75 years after his first appearances on record, Dunn still amazes those who have never heard early music on electric-steel guitar. This…

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…

Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen

Texas-born singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen has influenced a passel of younger performers during his 30-year career. On Undone, we have an opportunity to hear how these young’uns interpret his material. Recorded live, the…

Davie Allan & the Arrows – Apache ’65, Blues Theme, & Cycle-Delic Sounds

Arriving just after instrumental surf music was dealt a knockout punch by the British Invasion, Davie Allan survived against all odds, providing numerous soundtracks to biker and teen exploitation movies and hitting the…

Harry Taussig – Fate Is Only Once

In his liner notes to this extremely rare 1965 album, Harry Taussig lists Woody Guthrie, Jesse Fuller, Mance Lipscomb, Scrapper Blackwell, Libba Cotton, Mississippi John Hurt, John Fahey, Ravi Shankar, and koto master…

Deke Dickerson – King of the Whole Wide World

Roots-rocker Dickerson has cranked out solo albums (along with his Dave & Deke Combo output prior to that, not to mention his recordings with Untamed Youth in his teen years) with such frequency…

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…

Waters, Winter & Cotton – Breakin’ It Up & Breakin’ It Down

Even though Waters was undoubtedly the most important blues artist in Chess Records’ stable (indeed, the most influential bluesman of his generation), when you look back on his discography, most of his albums…

Rick Vito – Complete Guide to Slide Guitar

The guy who played the slide part in Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock” and played in Fleetwood Mac lends insight on improving your slide playing. He covers a range of topics including setting…

Country Joe and the Fish

Country Joe and The Fish were one of the most original, eclectic, and just plain good San Francisco bands of the mid to late ’60s. Joe McDonald, in particular, wrote songs that were…

Jeff Golub – Temptation

Lots of folks think Golub’s playing has grown a little too slick and “smooth” for its own good. You might agree, but to me, his playing has such a groove it’s impossible to…

Jeff Golub – Do It Again

I can hear the naysayers already. They’ll call this album a boring, derivative, smooth jazz standerbearer. That’s fine. Listen closely, though, and you’ll hear a soulful guitarist doing heartfelt covers of some of…

Larry McCray

Blues Without You

After 40 years of playing under the radar, Rust Belt bluesman Larry McCray finally gets his big break. On Blues Without You, McCray receives production magic from Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith for…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Joe Goldmark

Blue Steel

Along with his work with Jim Campilongo and others, San Francisco-based pedal steel guitarist Joe Goldmark has produced eight solo CDs (and three earlier vinyl albums) covering broad swaths of popular music, among…

Various Artists

Guitarists John Primer and Billy Flynn, bassist Felton Lewis, and drummer Kenny “Beady Eyes” Smith are part of an aggregation that’s long worked for the preservation and perpetuation of Chicago blues. That core…

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…