-
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
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp’s latest effort fits its title and is a perfect companion to the recent box set that showcases his songwriting. In fact, the songs here are some of the finest he’s ever…
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.…
Drew Zingg
Best known for stints with Steely Dan, Donald Fagen’s New York Rock and Soul Revue, and Boz Scaggs, Drew Zingg is a complete guitarist. And he has gone a unique route with this…
-
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,
David Bowie
Reinventing Bowie
Shedding his Ziggy Stardust glam persona, David Bowie took a hard turn in the mid ’70s and embraced European minimalism and electronica, covered here across nine CDs. The resulting “Berlin Trilogy” of Heroes,…
Steel Master
Jerry Byrd
Before and even after pedal-steel guitars began showing up on country records, Jerry Byrd (1920-2005) and his lap steel remained a gold standard. Whether soloing or accompanying, his distinctive, easy-flowing, undulating lines, flawless…
Greg Koch Trio
ZYX Music
Milwaukee’s finest serves up another batch of songs showcasing his monster guitar chops and huge sense of humor. On this new disc, Koch is once again a tour de force of the six-string,…
Joni Mitchell
Archives – Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)
A year ago, Mitchell unearthed a batch of rare ’60s recordings called Archives – Vol. 1 and, boxed separately, remasters of her early studio albums. Now we have Vol. 2, a mammoth set…
Suzi Quatro
The Devil In Me
Why didn’t Suzi Quatro become a star in America? The ahead-of-her-time Detroit native, now 71, had a distinctive voice, catchy glam/hard-rock songs, media attention, and played bass. TV appearances on “Happy Days” and…
-
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
Marcus King
Young Blood
Young gun Marcus King enlists Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys as producer on this latest project. Young Blood combines blues, rock, and a pervasive swampy feel with southern-fried vocals and mondo guitar…
Daniel de Visé
King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
Sixty years, 90 countries, 15,000 concerts – and that tally doesn’t include B.B. King’s early years of juke joints, radio broadcasts, and street-corner serenades. Over the years, Riley “Blues Boy” King became the…
Steve Herberman – Thoughtlines
As I struggle to make it through even one version of a standard without screwing up the chords, it never ceases to amaze me how many really good traditional jazz guitarists are out…
Andy Brown
Chicago-based Andy Brown is 40 years old – meaning that some of the songs here were popular decades before he was born, as well as illustrating his maturity, along with the fact that…
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…
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…
Drive-By Truckers
The DBT tell great stories. That continues to be true on their latest album as well. From the workingman’s stomp of “Sh*t Shots Count” that opens the record to the melancholy but majestic…
Eric Gales Trio
Eric Gales is arguably the most underrated guitarist of his generation. Emerging in the early ’90s with a post-Hendrix blueprint that combined a fusion of blues, rock, and gospel, he never sustained the…
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…
Play It Loud
By Brad Tolinski and Alan Di Perna
BOOK REVIEW This new history of the electric guitar should be required reading for all guitarists. And a joyful one at that. Subtitled “An Epic History of the Style, Sound, & Revolution of…
Doug Sahm – San Antonio Rock
It’s no big secret that rock and roll lost one of its real deals when Doug Sahm passed away. His history was long and varied, and he hadn’t had a rock hit in…
The Jayhawks – Sound of Lies
Everyone assumed with the departure of Mark Olson the Jayhawks would fold up their tent and go their own ways. Well, this terrific CD takes care of any such rumor. The band carries…
Mike + Ruthy
Humble Abode Music
Ike & Tina Turner – Sing the Blues
The late Ike Turner, due to ex-wife Tina’s revelations of his various abuses, has been dismissed as a marginally talented manipulator who rode his wife’s coat-tails to success. Ike has only himself and…
The Space Age Travelers
Satellite Shuffle
Though their name tosses them into the surf/space pond, this instrumental trio defies pigeonholing. It’s an eclectic set – no wonder, considering guitarist/composer/producer B.J. Baartmans’ influences; he lists a few as Cliff Gallup,…
Kentucky Headhunters – Soul
Yes, it’s true, this one came out some time ago, but it has occupied space on my listening stack for a long time. The Headhunters have been “popular” for more than 15 years,…
Kirk Fletcher
Blues gets a bad rap because of a preponderance of mediocre imposters who lack the magic. The great stuff will stir you and mesmerize. Two-time WC Handy Award nominee Kirk Fletcher has the…
Jimmie Vaughan Trio
Live at C-Boy’s
Jimmie Vaughan just may be the guitar hero’s guitar hero. His kid bro, SRV, became the vaunted, face-contorting, barn-burning blues hero who everyone plays air guitar along with. JLV, meanwhile, was the epitome…
John Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli knows lyricist Johnny Mercer’s timeless compositions inside out. He’s recorded them on various albums and was a cast member of the 1997 Broadway musical Dream, which saluted Mercer’s music. Mercer Street,…
Mark Cook – An Evening With The Blues
An Evening With The Blues
It’s obvious this Terre Haute-based guitarist is a talented individual. He’s got the chops and did all the writing and arranging on this disc. Not only the instrumental portions, but the vocal melodies,…
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…
Jimmy LaFave – Cimaron Manifesto
Jimmy La Fave joins other Texas singer/songwriters such as Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Townes Van Zandt in his ability to evoke the feelings and images of America hidden behind superhighways and…
