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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
Anders Osborne
Alligator Records
Anders Osborne’s first effort for Alligator has a “tougher” feel. In the past, one may have mistaken him for a white soul singer, but here he looks (with beard and long hair) and…
Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra – Jools Holland’s Big Band Rhythm & Blues
If the term “big band,” especially tied to a pop star, conjures the dreaded image of one of those zoot-suited groups with the word “Daddy” in its name, fear not. Ex-Squeeze keyboardist Holland’s…
Chris Whitley – War Crime Blues
Chris Whitley caught my attention back in ’91 with a brilliant album called Living With the Law. He’s done a lot of things since. His sound has definitely gotten rougher, with stops at…
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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,
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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
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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,
Iggy and the Stooges and Special Guests
The Stooges’ influence on ’80s and early ’90s indie scenesters is unimpeachable. For more than a quarter-century, cognoscenti have clamored to comprehend the quartet’s long shadow, more often than not dubbing frontman Iggy…
American Epic
Truly Epic
This three-part documentary chronicles the early days of modern electrical recording in the 1920s and 1930s. Many seminal rural blues, country, Cajun, Hawaiian, norteño, and gospel acts were first recorded during this era…
Enrico Granafei – In Search of the Third Dimension
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…
Danny Marks
John Lennon once said that, with the exception of Chuck Berry’s “Rock And Roll Music,” songs about rock and roll are never successful. And it’s hard to write a song about the blues…
Ed DeGenaro – Dog House
Ed DeGenaro is a Seattle-based session cat and bonafide guitar monster with great ideas and chops. His music is a fusion of musical styles and influences that often intermingle within the same composition.…
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Dirt on My Diamonds, Vol. 1
It’s easy to summarize Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s raw-yet-modern blues approach. Joined by co-vocalist Noah Hunt, Shepherd delivers a lyric straight up. His remarkable guitar chops allow him to create riveting instrumental interludes that…
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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,
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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
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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,
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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
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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,
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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
Rick Vito
Who Needs Frets?
Rick Vito is one of the few guitarists who didn’t just put his name on a guitar as an endorser; as his own guitar designer, he came up with the art deco Streamliner,…
Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Neil Young often does whatever he pleases. And now, at age 70, that’s truer than ever. This new album proves the point: It’s a thematic concert combining new takes on 13 previously released…
St. Vitus
Drug addiction has a new soundtrack, thanks to this brutal and excellent reunion album by Doom rock pioneers St. Vitus. Lillie: F-65 (named after a barbiturate the band once struggled with) is a…
Tab Benoit – Fever For the Bayou
Benoit has a feel and authenticity to his playing. His records always bring a smile of familiarity to my face when I first hear them, like an old coat that you haven’t worn…
Trevor McShane
By day, Neville Johnson is an attorney who was voted by Hollywood Reporter as one of the Top 100 Power Lawyers, seven years running. By night he assumes the alter ego of singer-songwriter…
Chris Duarte – Love Is Greater Than Me
Love Is Greater Than Me
Chris Duarte is a great guitarist. Of the current crop of players aspiring to the permanently vacated Texas chair, Chris’ stuff rises closest to the top. In concert, his chops are endless and…
The Blue Shadows
Bumstead Records
Led by Bill Cowsill and Canadian guitarist Jeffrey Hatcher, the guitar-strong rockabilly-oriented Blue Shadows made two fine albums in the ’90s, but neither was released in the U.S. and they weren’t able to…
Flatt & Scruggs and Earl Scruggs – Foggy Mountain Jamboree, Gospel and I Saw The Light
Flatt & Scruggs and Earl Scruggs – Foggy Mountain Jamboree, Gospel and I Saw The Ligh It’s surprising that Legacy didn’t issue this bluegrass treasure trove closer to the heels of O Brother,…
Bob Dylan
Judas!
Breaking out of the box and kicking down barriers seems the first item on the daily to-do list for many Nobel laureates, but it’s probably fair to say only Bob Dylan was booed…
Carole King – Tapestry
Tapestry is one of those albums that pushes everyone’s nostalgia button. Released in 1971, it became such a monster hit (six million copies sold, four Grammys, and six years on the Billboard Pop…
Country Roads
It’s a fine time to be an old-school country music fan, what with the current crop of albums featuring classic songwriting and downhome hot picking. Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s duet proves…
Paul Brown
A lot of people paint the smooth jazz world with a broad brush that sometimes ignores the players who play with soul, intensity, and smartness. Paul Brown would be one such player. While…
Son Volt
The 20-year nostalgia arc rewards alt-country fans with a glorious expanded (37 more tracks!) reissue of what remains one of the subgenre’s quintessential releases. In ’95, Jay Farrar formed Son Volt following the…
Elana James
For her second solo effort, Elana James, fiddler-vocalist for the western-swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown, ventures afield into other genres. This shouldn’t be surprising, given her 2006 touring work as part of…
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…
Jimmy Bruno – Maplewood Avenue
Jimmy Bruno is one of the best traditional jazz-guitar players around, constantly proving he intimately understands the instrument and idiom. Maplewood Avenue is the latest testament to his greatness. Bruno sets it up…
Chris Whitley – War Crime Blues
Chris Whitley caught my attention back in ’91 with a brilliant album called Living With the Law. He’s done a lot of things since. His sound has definitely gotten rougher, with stops at…
Steely Dan – Steely Dan, AJA
The Classic Albums video is a treat for Dan fans too. It features current interviews with Fagen and Becker and some great talk with players on this 1976 classic. You get to hear…
The Band – Rock of Ages and Islands
Rock of Ages and Islands
These two late albums by The Band need little introduction. By the time they were originally released – Rock of Ages in ’72 and Islands in ’76 – The Band had made its…
B.B. King & Friends – 80
B.B. King & Friends – 80 To mark his 80th birthday, the King of the Blues has cut an album of duets with friends old and new. The gimmick is nothing new, but…
Greg Koch – Radio Free Gristle
Radio Free Gristle
Ya gotta love this stuff! Greg Koch, for those of you who haven’t run across him, is one of those guitarists who spark awe in other players. His chops are impeccable, and his…
Hank Williams
I’m Gonna Sing: The Mother’s Best Gospel Radio Recordings
Muddy Waters
The Montreux Years
