• Smith/Kotzen

    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

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Tedeschi Trucks Band feat. Trey Anastasio

Layla Revisited

A live recording of Derek & the Dominos’ masterpiece? Featuring Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi – plus Doyle Bramhall, II and Trey Anastasio on guitars? Did Christmas come early? The answer is, resoundingly,…

Yes

Topographic/Drama Live

“Drama” is the perfect word to describe the 50-year history of Yes. They’ve had more personnel changes and internal strife than just about any band around. Yet as this live CD proves, they…

Merle Haggard

Vanguard Records

Haggard’s first album for Vanguard recalls the folk music featured on that label in the 1950s and ’60s. Marked by minimal percussion, resonator guitar, acoustic (or subdued electric) leads, Haggard’s unmatched sense of…

Jon Herington

Jon Herington, best known for his current work as Steely Dan’s lead guitarist, put out one of the decades’ great records with his last effort, Time On My Hands, back in 2012. This…

Joe Pass – The Best of Joe Pass

Here’s a set of music from the early ’60s from the brilliant Joe Pass. It starts with some tunes recorded with fellow musicians from the drug rehab center Synanon House and carries through…

Stephen Stills – Man Alive!

Stephen Stills – Man Alive! Stephen Stills hasn’t released a solo record since the early ’90s. He says it took so long for this one because he kept giving songs to Graham Nash…

Faces – Five Guys Walk Into A Bar…

I ran into a guitarist and fellow Faces fan recently and mentioned the new boxed set, and he marveled, “Isn’t Woody amazing on there?” I agreed. But if I’d run into a bassist,…

Swamp Rat – Swamp Rat

The cartoon rats on its cover are a humorous representation of the three guys in this band – Dan Cohen (guitar, banjo, vocals), James Cook (bass and vocals), and Derek Mixon (drums), and…

Julian Lage

View With a Room

One of today’s most-acclaimed players, Lage offers 10 original compositions of sumptuous guitar, along with the artistry of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King. As on 2021’s Squint, Lage explores his fascination…

The Blasters – Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings

Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings

Man, this one brought back memories. I was a DJ when the first Blasters album was released in the early ’80s. At that time, I was allowed to pick “night” cuts – stuff…

David Dondero

Ghostmeat

Folkie Dondero ranges from eclectic originals (“Not Everybody Loves Your Doggie Like You Do”) to uniquely interpreted covers including Lowell George’s hippie trucker ballad “Willin.’” Though it’s been done in just about every…

Phil Lee

There’s something special about a songwriter who can break your heart and make you come back for more. Phil Lee does it in style with “Cold Ground,” a song about unimaginable grief. Lines…

Yes

Topographic/Drama Live

“Drama” is the perfect word to describe the 50-year history of Yes. They’ve had more personnel changes and internal strife than just about any band around. Yet as this live CD proves, they…

Peter Ames Carlin

Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince

Chances are a significant chunk of your music collection is from artists on the Warner Brothers, Reprise, Atlantic, Elektra, Asylum, and Sire labels. Innovative executives and record producers like Mo Ostin, Joe Smith,…

The Wrecking Crew (soundtrack)

L.A.’s Red-Light Masters

The Wrecking Crew, the documentary about L.A.’s well-paid but largely anonymous session players ranks with the very best music documentaries. Director Denny Tedesco, son of legendary studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, did a fantastic…

Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison waxed optimistic about life and music on December 4, 1988, the day he played a concert near Cleveland and did a video interview discussing his dramatically revived career. Two days later,…

Devo

Devo is far from the only band that was years ahead of its time. The difference is that 40 years after its formation, the group’s music and videos are still ahead of their…

Justin Johnsoné

The Biscuit House

His online videos are hard to cruise past. There’s his wide stylistic range, but also the guitars he built out of cigar boxes, whiskey barrels, and shovels. It amounts to a cottage industry…

Pentangle

The Albums

Take Five When one thinks of bands with two (or more) lead guitarists, groups like the Eagles, Buffalo Springfield, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Wishbone Ash, the edition of Fleetwood Mac featuring Peter Green and…

Grateful Dead

Road Trips, Vol. 1 No.4: From Egypt With Love

In 1978, the Dead played a series of shows at a venue many Deadheads swear was just built for the band – The Great Pyramid of Giza. Still high from the shows, the…

The Yardbirds – Ultimate

The Yardbirds: Ultimate

Two fallacies that invariably arise in discussions of the Yardbirds: 1) declaring them the fathers of psychedelic music and/or heavy metal; 2) focusing on their colossal lead guitar lineage at the expense of…

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Hendrix is undoubtedly the greatest rock guitarist who ever lived, and Experience Hendrix LLC is now releasing a vinyl version of this original 2000 collection. The original release consisted of studio…

Scott H. Biram

If you condensed Southern Culture on the Skids down to a one-man band, it would sound something like Scott Biram. Comparisons to C.C. Adcock, Rev. Freakchild, and Cub Koda’s rootsy solo albums also…

Alan Jackson

When Alan Jackson announced a bluegrass album produced by Alison Krauss in 2006, the result was Like Red On A Rose. On it, Jackson sang not straight-ahead bluegrass, but the sorts of dark…

Greg Skaff

The only thing traditional about the organ trio featuring guitarist Greg Skaff, organist Pat Bianchi, and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. is that there are three of them in the band. From there, they…

Tedeschi Trucks Band

All The Way Live

Live albums can be a remedy for contract disputes or a way to stall for time during a creative dry spell. For Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, it’s really the best way to…

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…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Scott Henderson

The latest from Scott Henderson brings more of what we’ve come to expect from the Stratmaster – his usual liquid tone, great chops, and masterful writing are all on full display. Henderson showcases…

Blues Icon John Mayall

Check This Action

Few living blues artists could merit a package of 35 CDs. But what makes John Mayall: The First Generation most remarkable is that it only documents the British blues legend’s career up to…

Eric Clapton and Friends

After Midnight

Eric Clapton has worn many a hat during his career. English bluesman, psychedelic guitar god, downhome roots rocker, even ’80s big-suited popmeister. In recent decades, he’s added another chapeau to the curious collection:…