-
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
ZZ Top
This is ZZ’s first studio effort since 2003’s Mescalero, and the band’s first album not produced by Billy Gibbons and/or longtime manager Bill Ham, the band having severed ties with him in ’06.…
Eric Gales
This is the kind of album only Eric Gales could make. It’s full of fiery lines and repentant testimonials about rebirth and sobriety. He forsakes his adventurous rock personality in favor of the…
Z.Z. Top – Chrome, Smoke, and B. B. Q.
Chrome, Smoke, and B. B. Q.
Well, Z.Z. Top’s music has been released in a lot of forms on CD. I confess, I didn’t scarf up the other releases, even though I grew up on this stuff and love…
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
Frank Zappa
Zappa Records
When I had occasion to visit Lancaster, California, in 1996, I was shocked to discover that there wasn’t a single thing in the town to acknowledge the fact that Frank Zappa had spent…
Jimmy McIntosh
While guitarists in high-profile bands get the lion’s of share of publicity, the working stiffs who slug it out on local stages get no love. Las Vegas sideman Jimmy McIntosh is one of…
Jon Herington
Jon Herington, best known for his current work as Steely Dan’s lead guitarist, put out one of the decades’ great records with his last effort, Time On My Hands, back in 2012. This…
Keb’ Mo’ – Peace… Back By Popular Demand
Keb’ Mo’ is swimming upstream, issuing a new CD with a picture of peace sign prominently displayed on the cover. Not that the disc largely consists of ’60s protest songs, but it comes…
Duke Levine – Beneath the Blue
As a player, Duke Levine is unclassifiable. He calls his style “country-soul” guitar, and that’s fair. But what do you call a guy who opens his latest record with a twangy version of…
Ruth Moody
Red House Records
Founding member of the The Wailin’ Jennys, here, Ruth Moody asserts her musical individuality. Using a cast of 27 musicians, she embraces a breadth of musical genres – old timey, Celtic, and even…
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
-
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
Howard and the White Boys – Made In Chicago
The Howard who hangs here with the White Boys is Howard McCullum, bassist and vocalist extraordinaire. The White Boys are a fine bunch of players that include Rocco Calipari and Pete Galanis on…
Willie Nelson
That’s Life
My Way, Willie’s 2018 Grammy-winning Frank Sinatra homage, clearly didn’t satiate his desire to explore songs by the vocalist whose style profoundly influenced his own. With the same co-producers (Buddy Cannon and keyboardist…
The Jelly Jam
The Jelly Jam’s forth album is a weighty recording that combines the best elements of modern prog and aspects of King’s X. Nobody does dark and moody like King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor.…
Rodrigo y Gabriela
This is Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero’s first album of new material in five years. It comes two years after the duo’s big collaborative effort, Area 52, and marks a return to the…
Luther Allison – Where Have You Been?
The title of this disc echoes the question many blues fans ask when they first hear Luther Allison’s amazing Alligator releases, Soul Fixin’ Man and Blue Streak, and learn that he walked away…
David Crosby
If I Could Only Remember My Name 50th Anniversary Edition
Upon its 1971 release, Crosby’s free-spirited debut was thoroughly bashed by critics – today, it’s a revered piece of Laurel Canyon post-psychedelia. Now on two CDs, it’s been expanded and sonically improved. First,…
Them Vibes
Electric Fever
Nashville band Them Vibes latest recalls rock’s past without sounding dated or cliché. Much of the reason for that is the guitar work of Alex Haddad and Kyle Lewis. There’s no in-your-face playing,…
Morphine
No Guitar, No Problem
They were a band like no other – either before or since. That was the inevitable description of the rock trio Morphine, from critics to TV hosts to fellow musicians like Henry Rollins…
Dennis Jones
Dennis Jones’ fifth album elevates his craft to new heights as he juxtaposes an arsenal of blues, rock, and funk with visceral production values. The genre is contemporary blues, and Jones plays serious…
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…
Replacements – Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?
Shakespeare would have labeled them a tragicomedy. Rock and roll called them business as usual. The Replacements were a quintessential rock and roll band – a lot of attitude, a lot of talent,…
Easton Corbin
Florida native Easton Corbin earned justified acclaim for his 2009 debut album Roll With It, revealing his twangy traditional voice and obvious debts to George Jones, Merle Haggard, and the late Keith Whitley.…
Queensrÿche
Operation: Mindcrime and Empire Deluxe Editions
Tedeschi Trucks Band
The husband-wife team of singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi and slide savant Derek Trucks continue their gospel-inflected roots-meets-blues journey with Made Up My Mind. It’s their second studio album since 2011’s Revelator, and comes hot…
Cherryholmes – Black and White
Skaggs Family Records
From mandolin playing mom, Sandy, and bass player pop, Jere, to 14-year-old Molly, the six-person Cherryholmes family band picks and sings like they were born to it. Was it the air or water…
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Rob Paparozzi and the Ed Palermo Big Band
Back to '67 Blues
Unreleased club recordings of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers from 1967, featuring lead guitarist Peter Green? This is, indeed, a major find. Tasked with replacing “God” (as Eric Clapton was proclaimed in graffiti around London),…
Hayes Carll
You Get It All
Over nearly two decades, Hayes Carll established himself with an astute amalgam of original material reflecting humor, heart, and an independent spirit befitting his Texas roots. His flair for blending the grittier side…
Walter Jr. – Back On the Bayou Road
In music and pop culture today, subtlety and taste are in very short supply. But this has both, in spades. Walter’s a Louisiana guy, and it shows on the opener, “Hot Louisiana Rock,”…
Marty Stuart, Doyle Lawson, Vince Gill, and more
Back to the Beginning
The sessions produced by Ralph S. Peer over 12 days in July and August of 1927 in a makeshift Bristol, Tennessee, studio featuring Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and others are often termed…
M. Taylor, M. Simpson, M. Carthy, J. Martin – The Valley & Martins 4
M. Taylor, M. Simpson, M. Carthy, J. Martin – The Valley & Martins 4 The London Times called Martin Taylor “the finest British guitarist of his generation” – which is, if anything, an…
Roy Orbison
Unequivocally Essential
When Roy Orbison walked onstage, the black Gibson ES-335 around his neck wasn’t just for show. Orbison was a pretty good picker, and he holds down a good portion of the guitar on…
Old Crow Medicine Show
The Show is back!After a hiatus starting in August 2011, with old band members leaving and new ones joining, this album was much anticipated by fans. Never fear. It’s every bit worth the…
