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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
The Dig 3
The Dig 3
If you’re drowning in a sea of “blooz” mediocrity, you need to check out the Dig 3. The Chicago-based trio delivers no-nonsense blues free of affectation. Though this is the group’s debut album,…
Black Country Communion
Afterglow is the third album by Black Country Communion, which features bassist Glenn Hughes, drummer Jason Bonham, keyboard player Derek Sherinian, and Joe Bonamassa on guitar. Their sound continues to fill the void…
Sean McGowan
On previous releases, Denver-based McGowan has interpreted tunes by such heavyweights as Oliver Nelson, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Van Heusen, Charlie Parker, and Rodgers and Hart. He also dedicated his Sphere album…
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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,
Justin Currie
The creative team of bassist Justin Currie and guitarist Iain Harvie led the band Del Amitri through several personnel changes over the years. The group was similar to the tough, passionate bantam British…
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Live From the Ryman, Vol. 2
Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is a special venue for Isbell & the 400 Unit. As their stature has grown beyond roots music, they’ve performed on that vaunted stage more than 50 times in the…
Living Colour
Black-Rock Renaissance
Beating the odds with the Grammy-approved album Vivid in 1988, Living Colour ascended victoriously amidst a heaping handful of black rock bands sent packing by record companies for not playing blues, dance music,…
Bad Company
Thanks to advances in audio tweaking, studio engineers can now take 40-year-old concert tapes and make them sound thrilling. Case in point, Bad Company’s first-ever live album, culled from a few late ’70s…
Anthony Wilson – Adult Themes
Here’s the third album from guitarist, arranger, and leader of his own big band, Anthony Wilson. He’s young, but he definitely can look backward to the likes of his father, Gerald, and other…
Kelly Richey – Carry the Light
Kelly Richey’s live shows are full-tilt affairs where Richey wrenches blistering lines from her Stratocaster, occasionally using a beer bottle as a slide. At the end, everyone is sweaty and satisfied. That’s the…
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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
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…
Charles Lloyd and the Marvels
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that adding Bill Frisell to a project will yield great results. But teaming him with jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd was a master stroke, in large part…
Lawson Rollins – Infinita
Fusions of classical and flamenco guitar with rock and jazz have yielded interesting permutations for years – from Strunz & Farah to Ottmar Liebert to Rodrigo y Gabriela. Lawson Rollins’ first solo effort,…
Graham Dechter
It’s always a treat when a young player arrives on the scene with an understanding of what came before him. Dechter is a traditional jazz player who lets us know right off the…
Jake Shimabukuro
Nashville Sessions
The Hendrix of the ukulele proves he’s worthy of his title, jamming here with a power trio made up of bassist Nolan Verner and drummer Evan Hutchings. Jake Shimabukuro says he went into…
Pete Levin
As with his last record, keyboard whiz Levin concentrates on the organ and invites outstanding guitarists to join him. Among those taking part here are John Cariddi, Mike DeMicco, Jesse Gress, and the…
Chuck Berry – The Millennium Collection
MCA has released a treasure trove of “millennium collection” greatest hits discs just in time for the new century. This guitar hero gets his due recognition with single-CD package that do justice in…
Little Charlie and the Organ Grinder Swing
Any fan of the original Little Charlie and the Nightcats knows Charlie Baty can swing; he always had one foot in the jazz world while playing the band’s brand of blues. Here, on…
Various Artists – All My Loving
“All My Loving” was a 1967 TV special on the BBC that scared some people – and it’s easy to see why. For older folks tuned in, video of musical acts and other…
Various Artists
Bear Family Records
Richard Weize and his Bear Family Records are based in Germany, but few have done more to preserve American roots and other world music. Weize is dedicated to seeking out and reissuing the…
Alan Gogoll
Lioness Lullabies
Venture online and watch a few videos by Tasmanian guitarist Alan Gogoll and you’ll see he’s nothing short of a phenomenon. On acoustic, he conjures artificial harmonics in a manner that almost defies…
Bucky Pizzarelli & Scott Hamilton – The Red Door & Bucky Pizzarelli Nirvana
The Red Door, Bucky Pizzarelli and Scott Hamilton’s tribute to sax god Zoot Sims, is an amazingly sublime album. Sims was a true sultan of swing, a classic golden-age jazzer of the ’30s…
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Live at the Fillmore (1997)
Expanded from its origins as a radio broadcast, Live at the Fillmore captures Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in transition, retreating from large arenas, music videos, and record-making in favor of a 20-show…
Tony Bacon – Willie G. Moseley
Into The Spotlight
Whatever were they thinking? In hindsight, it’s tough to fathom how Gibson could scrap the Les Paul Standard at the end of 1960 and replace it in ’61 with a new design, the…
Check This Action: A Mess of Blues
It doesn’t happen often, but I still encounter people who think the blues is strictly sad music. I tell them to listen to Hound Dog Taylor’s joyful “house-rockin’” blues. Or when guitar players…
Elvin Bishop
Fun is the key word here. It’s amazing how Elvin Bishop has managed to keep things interesting in a career that now spans more than 50 years. The trio is Bishop on guitar…
Kenny Burrell – Lucky So and So
Here’s the latest from a true legend. Kenny’s been doing it for so long, and doing it as well as or better than everyone else, that it’s foolish to even think there’d be…
The Pinecaster: Early Electric Guitars 1920-1955
Nacho Baños and Lynn Wheelwright
Four volumes, 960 pages, more than 1,000 photos and historical documents – The Pinecaster is heavier than the heaviest 1958 ’burst. Plus, an accompanying app has more of everything, including guitar demos from…
Tony Joe White – Snakey
Snakey
The title track that opens the Swamp Fox’s latest offering sounds almost like a variation on his bluesy “As A Crow Flies,” from 1972’s The Train I’m On. Hallelujah! At this point in…
Twang Dragons – Love Junkie
Twang Dragons Love Junkie Self-distributed It’s hard not to love a record that starts with guitars twangin’ and slidin’ and the line, “I’ve got an ass pocket full of whiskey.” Not only that,…
Kenny Burrell/Gil Evans – Guitar Forms
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times. One of the great things about CDs is great albums have become available at a cost you can afford. Here is an…
