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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
Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Luther Dickinson, and others
Falling Out And Hollerin’
Blind Willie Johnson – the Texas preacher, slide guitarist, and gospel singer – may seem a tough artist to pay homage to in a tribute album. His music is so singular, so extraordinary…
Various Artists – Best of Outlaw Country
The kind of disc essential to party DJs, Outlaw Country contains many cuts fans of this subgenre will already have. But it’s still worth a nod. Hearing Waylon Jennings’ “Are You Sure Hank…
The Rolling Stones
Eagle Rock
Some people think Exile On Main Street is the best album the Rolling Stones ever recorded. Those people are wrong. And it’s certainly not “the rock and roll Bible,” as Sheryl Crow proclaims…
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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,
Electric Prunes – Release of an Oath
Collector's Choice Music
The ’60s produced some mighty weird bands, perhaps none odder than the Electric Prunes. The group is primarily known for its 1967 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” and the…
Mark Knopfler
The Mellow Master
You have to hand it Mark Knopfler. Not only has he launched a successful solo career, but it’s one that’s wholly apart from his Dire Straits superstardom. As opposed to that band’s snappy…
The Band – The Last Waltz DVD and CD Boxed Set
If there were ever a group of musicians for whom the term “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” fit like a glove, it was The Band. Perhaps even more…
“Rockabill-Lee”
England’s Albert Lee provided one of Woodstock’s highpoints, with his band Ten Years After’s frenetic version of “I’m Going Home,” and Lee got caught up in the faster-is-better era. But as his sophisticated…
Chris Duarte – Romp
Chris Duarte is a unique voice in a batch of blues-rock guitarists who hail from down Texas way. His playing, while rooted in many of the same influences the other fellas have, is…
Neil Young
Chrome Dreams
After being shelved for more than 45 years, Neil Young’s long-lost 1977 album finally sees daylight. Nestled between an impressive run of comeback albums such as Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps, and…
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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
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,…
Pink Floyd
All The Songs
At nearly 600 pages, this massive coffee-table book will send Floydians into paroxysms of pleasure. Authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon craft encyclopedic entries on every single Pink Floyd song, including personnel, tracking…
Dave Hunter
Les Paul Praises
Here is a coffeetable book and then some! It’s a 224-page hardcover, with 400-plus exquisite photographs chronicling the rise and fall – and rise again – of the Gibson Les Paul. All its…
Little Charlie and the Nightcats – That’s Big
That's Big
Charlie Baty and company come through again. If you’re not familiar with Charlie and the boys, where you been? Since the late ’80s, they’ve put out a batch of excellent blues records that…
Lee Roy Parnell- Midnight Believer
Remember the days when Lee Roy Parnell was seen as a country artist? His last album – 11 years ago! – was a blues-based affair. This latest puts him squarely in the corner…
Kenny Burrell
HighNote
Jazzman Kenny Burrell boasts some 40 records to his name as a leader and dozens more as the consummate sideman. Amazingly, he still has much more to say and, on this new solo…
Mark Doyle – Guitar Noir
I love this. Doyle has been in the music biz for some time. His first band, Jukin’ Bone, made a couple of obscure albums for RCA in the early ’70s and in the…
John Cowan – New Tattoo
John Cowan – New Tattoo John Cowan is one of modern bluegrass’ most influential innovators. On his latest release, he explores the more “popgrass” side of his musical personality. The opening/title track uses…
Genesis/Steve Hackett
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 50th/Live Magic at Trading Boundaries
One of those double-LP masterpieces of the ’70s, The Lamb was Peter Gabriel’s final achievement with Genesis, quitting immediately after the 1975 tour. The music (remastered here and also available in ATMOS and…
Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
Various artists
You may think you know Stax, but this seven-CD set of 146 tracks (140 never before released) proves again how much creative genius was contained in that old Memphis theater turned recording studio.…
Medeski, Scofield, Martin, & Wood
John Scofield long ago proved he can handle pretty much any musical situation he’s put in. The times he’s been thrown together with this funky trio have shown to be wonderful sessions brimming…
Nokie Edwards – Carvin’ It Out
I shouldn’t have to introduce you to Nokie. He was a member of the Ventures and is well-known in guitar circles. Knowing that and nothing else about him will leave you very surprised…
Tower Of Babel
Lake Of Fire
In case you forgot, Bach-tinged Euro metal is alive and well. And for those jonesing for a healthy dose of freshly cut, high-quality, Teutonic metal escapism, Tower Of Babel has a plethora of…
Dave Alvin – Public Domain
Dave Alvin is one of those guys you have to love. He continuously makes great albums that encompass most of the genres that make up “American” music, and he does it without much…
The Lovin’ Spoonful
In their short existence from 1965 to ’67, the original Lovin’ Spoonful – singer-guitarist John Sebastian, guitarist Zal Yanovsky, bassist Steve Boone, and drummer-vocalist Joe Butler – parlayed the acoustic jug band music…
Tony Furtado
Funzalo Records
If you had picked up Golden without hearing one of Tony Furtado’s previous 14 albums, you’d never guess he was once a banjo prodigy. After winning the National Bluegrass Banjo competition at 19,…
Chet Atkins: Me and My Guitars – Chet Atkins and Russ Cochran
Chet Atkins has a deserved reputation as a great guitar player and all-around nice guy. So it’s a pleasure to see a book that is part biography and part history of his personal…
Cage the Elephant – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked
Brothers Brad and Matt Schultz had a rough youth in small-town Kentucky, where music, money and hope were hard to find. Growing up in an eventually broken home with six people squeezed into…
Jackson Browne
Eagle Rock
Part documentary, part performance (then-current and archival), this reissue of the 1999 portrait of the singer/songwriter reveals his sense of humor, commitment to social causes, and, most of all, talent. There is no…
Donal Clancy – Close to Home
Donal Clancy continues the tradition of the Clancy Brothers, demonstrating that contemporary Celtic music is as vibrant as any musical genre. Clancy grew up surrounded by traditional Irish music, and all 12 cuts…
Peter Ames Carlin
Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince
Pete Anderson – Daredevil
Daredevil