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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
Evan Johns & The H-Bombs with Danny Gatton – Showdown At The Hoedown
One of many reunions that took place over the years, after a teenaged Evan Johns provided vocals and rhythm guitar on Danny Gatton’s legendary Redneck Jazz album in 1978. This was recorded live…
Lee Ritenour
In honor of his 40th year of recording, Lee Ritenour blended a bit of new material with journeys in time, revisiting tunes he’d recorded starting with First Course, his 1975 debut. He kicks…
Ernie Hawkins
Corona Records
Ernie Hawkins is a genius of the acoustic guitar who has mastered the country-blues stylings in the vein of Reverend Gary Davis. On Whinin’ Boy, he finds himself in a band setting more…
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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,
Jamie Kime
When Jamie Kime isn’t intimidating guitarists at his Monday-night gig co-hosting the jam at the Baked Potato in Studio City, California, he’s a sideman for Jewel, Michelle Branch, Zappa Plays Zappa, and Banned…
Various artists
With recent crossover success of gospel icons Mavis Staples and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, along with the sacred steel school of slide guitar coming out of the shadows, this four-CD package…
The Beach Boys – Singles Collection
At this point, there are far more retrospectives of the Beach Boys than original albums. Their catalog has been recycled in every way imaginable. Or so one would have thought. Any new wrinkle…
Al Di Meola
Throughout his 40-year career, Al Di Meola has worked in several different styles, the common denominator being Latin music. On this new album, he delves into what might be termed his “World Sinfonia”…
The Surf Box – Cowabunga!
Here it is, the history of surf music on four hot CDs that no self-respecting rocker could live without. Starting with 1960s sides by The Fireballs, The Gamblers, and, of course, Dick Dale…
Shawn Pittman – Full Circle
I enjoyed Shawn’s last record, with its killer mix of rock and roll and blues. This new release takes things a step further, and really satisfies. Shawn spent time playing with Buddy Guy…
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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
Sons of Adam
Saturday’s Sons: The Complete Recordings, 1964-1966
Whatever claim to fame the Sons of Adam have is thanks to guitarist Randy Holden, who later joined Blue Cheer (replacing Leigh Stephens) after a stop with the under-recorded Other Half. The Sons…
Little Milton – Think of Me
Little Milton is a stone-cold legend of black music. He’s called a blues singer and guitarist, but has always seemed to be more. Here, a bit older and longer of tooth, we get…
ZZ Top – Tres Hombres & Fandango
Amazingly, in its 36-year existence, ZZ Top has released only 14 albums. But what’s more amazing is how well all of them still hold up. No less than seven “best of” reconfigurations have…
Newport Folk Festival – Best of Bluegrass 1959-1966
Before Farm Aid, Telluride, or even Woodstock, there was the Newport Folk Festival. Begun in the late ’50s, this yearly gathering molded and defined a generation’s tastes in music. It was the all-star…
Jeff Beck – Truth and Beck-ola
Truth and Beck-ola
Okay, reviewing these is a no-brainer. Any guitarist of my generation knows these well. The 1968 and ’69 releases helped establish Beck, and essentially paved the way for Led Zeppelin. Beck is a…
Mick Ronson – Play Don’t Worry
I confess! When I was 15 years old, David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars seemed a little odd to me. When I got a little older, I realized what great rock and…
Seks Bomba – Somewhere In This Town
This is one of the most fun, most clever, and downright best CDs I’ve heard in a long time. I can’t even begin to describe what this Boston band does. Let’s say you…
Wes Montgomery- In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording
Wes is Back!
In broad strokes, jazz guitar can be split into two schools, deriving from arguably the greatest guitarists in the genre’s history: Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. But if there’s a third fork in…
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…
Various Artists
You can thank Randy Rhoads for rescuing Ozzy Osborne from obscurity to become a wealthy reality television star and household name. Recruiting the indispensible songwriting skills of bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee…
Jimi Hendrix – Live at Monterey
Experience Hendrix/Geffen/Ume
Forty years after the fact, some people (people who weren’t around at the time) might say that Jimi Hendrix wasn’t all that revolutionary. These people would be wrong. There had been sonic experimentation…
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…
Backyard Tire Fire – The Places We Lived
Backyard Tire Fire can be called “tasteful,” “workmanlike” (in the best sense of the word), and “tough.” Many of the songs are about uneasy situations. “Everybody’s Down” and “Welcome to the Factory” are…
Pete Anderson
How to Produce a Record: A Player’s Philosophy for Making a Great Recording
Known as longtime musical partner and guitar ace with country singer Dwight Yoakam. But, his real claim to fame might be that as a bona fide roots-music mechanic – a guy who has…
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.…
Lucinda Williams
Exile On A Gravel Road
There’s that old saw about a good double album being a better single album if it wasn’t for an artist’s hubris. But Lucinda Williams’ first doubleheader doesn’t fit that bill. If anything, it’s…
Mimi Fox – Perpetually Hip
The first thing you notice about Mimi Fox when she begins the single-note original melody of the title track (the first cut of this double-CD) is her bell-like tone (more highs than the…
Greg “Freddy” Camalier
To the rest of the world, the Swampers are best known from the cryptic verse in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” And while they might have picked up Mr. Van Zant when he…
Kiss
Destroyer 45
Following their Alive! breakout, Kiss hired producer to the superstars Bob Ezrin and cut what became their first platinum album, expanded here into a four CD/Blu-Ray box. The 1976 LP also launched the…
Jimmie Rodgers, Tommy Johnson, and Various Artists
The Roots of Popular Music: The Ralph S. Peer Story
Producer, A&R man, and music publisher Ralph Peer was a critical figure in launching the modern recording industry. He pioneered field recordings after World War I, cut the first blues record (Mamie Smith’s…
Barney Kessel
Stompin’
A year after Barney Kessel began recording his now-landmark material for Contemporary Records, he performed at Phoenix’s Jazz Mill backed by the house band, the Jazz Millers. The event was captured on a…
