• 2025 December Issue on Spotify

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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

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Check This Action: Jimmie’s Blues Box

Don’t think music can be life-changing? Try moving 1,700 miles. In 1987, I moved from Northern California to Austin, Texas, and music was the reason. Bands like the LeRoi Brothers, Tail Gators, and…

Cousin Harley

Blue Smoke: The Music Of Merle Travis

Canadian guitarslinger Paul Pigat has recorded under his own name (Boxcar Campfire) and with his wild, infectious rockabilly trio, Cousin Harley. The latter’s tribute to Merle Travis may be the group’s best effort…

Rene Mailhes Trio – Chtildo

René Mailhes is a holdout. On any night in Paris, you can hear young Gypsy tyros tearing up the fretboards playing hot Gypsy jazz in emulation of Django Reinhardt’s early classics. Mailhes, on…

Pine Mountain Railroad – Alone with Forever

In a world where everything is at our fingertips, anyone with access to the internet can instantly listen to original recordings by Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Stanley Brothers, Osborne Brothers, Red Foley,…

Tal Farlow – The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions

The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions

If Mosaic’s compilations haven’t yet appeared on your radar screen, let me enlighten you. Mosaic issues stunningly beautiful and often sprawling tributes to legendary jazz performers like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley,…

Emmylou Harris – All I Intended To Be

In a career spanning 30-plus years, Harris’ constants have been her high standard of quality (in her material, in her bandmates, in herself) and her unpredictability. That she has managed to remain popular…

Steve Hillage Band

VoicePrint

An icon of Britain’s famed “Canterbury Scene” of the late ’60s and ’70s, Steve Hillage made his mark mixing psychedelia, pop, and Hendrix-fueled guitar solos with thrilling abandon. Thirty years after his heyday,…

Cailyn

Cailyn Lloyd’s former life as a blues rocker of the Peter Green school gave her the stuff to put blood into the New Age music she has been making for the last few…

Dennis Jones

Soft Hard & Loud

On Soft Hard & Loud, Dennis Jones continues to push the boundaries of blues-rock guitar. With lyrics saturated by the cold, hard slap of reality and a love of black musical repertoire, Jones…

The Ford Brothers – Center Stage

Center Stage

The Ford Brothers are Robben on guitar and vocals, Patrick on drums, and Mark on harp and vocals. Robben, of course, has a solo career, but on occasion gets together with his brothers…

Nineteen Hand Horse

Revel

This Northern California unit, led by vocalist/songwriter Nathalie Archangel and husband, singer/guitarist Mark Montijo, both former pop-rockers, focus on twang-filled country with obvious pop overtones. Behind her smoky, aggressive voice and Montijo’s more-relaxed…

Black Sabbath

Heaven and Hell & Mob Rules Deluxe Editions

One of the most shocking events in metal history wasn’t Black Sabbath firing Ozzy Osbourne, but that it found a new front man who built his own legend. Ronnie James Dio’s two ’80s…

Flying Burrito Brothers – Sin City: The Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers

Sin City: The Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers

I confess. Sometimes I find it hard to separate the myth of Gram Parsons from the actual musician. I don’t think there’s any denying the talent of the man. A gifted songwriter to…

Stéphane Grappelli

Frémeaux

Monsieur Grappelli had a knack for being in the right place at the right time in terms of finding the perfect guitarist foils. This two-CD collection showcases the best of those duets. It…

Volto!

Guitarist extraordinaire John Ziegler has been laying down the law every Monday night at California’s San Fernando Valley Baked Potato jazz club for what seems like forever. Hosting a weekly jam playing everything…

West, Bruce, & Laing – Why Dontcha

When one third Cream and two thirds of Mountain joined to form West, Bruce & Laing in 1972, expectations were not exactly high. This, their first album, was a decent effort and enough…

Eric Clapton

Not Done Yet

  This new DVD featuring the highlights of Clapton’s tour through the Mid and Far East in ’14 offers some great music. But more importantly, it gives a glimpse into facets of the…

Tony Bacon – 50 Years of Fender

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…

Planet X – Quantum

The genetically superior team of drummer Virgil Donati and keyboardist Derek Sherinian return to continue the next chapter in their metal-fusion saga. It’s been five Earth years since the release of Moon Babies,…

Frank Frost with Sam Carr and Frank Frost – Keep Yourself Together and Jelly Roll Blues

X Frank Frost’s two recent CDs are time machines, transporting you to a hot, sweaty night in a Mississippi Delta juke joint. Frost is a true Mississippi Delta bluesman. Throughout his career playing…

Cesar Rosas – Soul Disguise

I’ve been of the opinion for a couple of years now that Los Lobos is one of the finest rock bands around. Rosas is one of the singer/guitarists in that band. This is…

Nels Cline

Blues Notes and So Much More

Nels Cline has quite the musical resumé, and yet has always been hard to pin down. Whether doing some form of fusion, manning the lead-guitar chair in Wilco, or serving up dissonance and…

Alex Woodard – Alex Woodard

When Alex Woodard was a kid, his sister spoonfed him the music of her favorite rocker, Tom Petty. Five albums later, the effect still holds. Woodard’s arrangements, phrasing, and even the timbre of…

A Tribute to Leslie West

Various artists

Here’s a much-deserved tribute to the Mountain guitarist who died in 2020, getting his due thanks to a procession of axe heroes. Zakk Wylde storms “Blood of the Sun,” letting every note ring…

The Move, Santana, Derringer

Under the Radar

Sometimes great bands and albums don’t bubble to the surface of fame, depriving fans of brilliant music. The Move is one of those acts and its wondrous pop is compiled in the 2-disc…

The Who – BBC Sessions

Let’s face it; The Who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with the Beatles and the Stones. Yes, you’ll like one more than the other, but Pete Townshend and company were…

Los Lobos

Shout! Factory

It’s been a few years since Los Lobos released original material, but Tin Can Trust is worth the wait. Its music is a mix of rock, R&B, soul, folk, and various Latin styles…

Richard Thompson

When you realize that Thompson’s  I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (with then-wife Linda and classics like “Calvary Cross”) was 40 years ago, you have to wonder if he’ll ever slump.…

Matt Rae – Twang!

Twang!

I’ve never been a Tele guy. I just have never found one I loved to play. However, every now and then a record comes along by a guy who just scorches the earth…

Eliza Gilkyson – Land of Milk and Honey

Ever since my freshman college film class, when I was forced to sit through Leni Reifenstal’s Triumph of the Will , the cinematic licking of Hitler’s jackboots, I’ve been painfully aware that art…