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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
Lissa Schneckenburger
Footprint Records
Lissa Schneckenburger plays “progressive” New England/Celtic music that combines equal parts traditional harmonic textures with a modern acoustic sensibility. Her voice has a pristine directness that perfectly suits these traditional tunes. Song is…
Taj Mahal – Sénor Blues
Taj Mahal is one of those guys you never think about until you hear another great album by him. Listen to this one and you’ll think about him a lot. The album is…
Paul Priest – The Keeley Effect
The title references the “impact” of the guitar effects pedals made by Robert Keeley in making the album. That’s all fine and good, but more important is the fine music, propelled by the…
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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,
Neil Young
Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition
Young’s 1972 smash delivered on the promise of CSNY, offering California rock rife with acoustic guitars, piercing lyrics, and cozy West Coast production. “Heart of Gold” was the blockbuster, yet only one of…
Ron Thompson
Ron Thompson has been a fixture in the San Francisco blues scene for more than 40 years. But rather than gaining visibility and rocketing to stardom like, say, Robben Ford, he patiently paid…
Ronnie James Dio, with Mick Wall & Wendy Dio
Rainbow in the Dark
When Dio died of stomach cancer in 2010, he was arguably metal’s greatest-ever singer and had worked with two of the most enigmatic guitar heroes in rock history – Ritchie Blackmore and Tony…
James Brown – I Got the Feelin’
Shout Factory
While a generation may remember James Brown as a soul star who fell on hard times, or as a man whose death has led to a tabloid-ready story of a fight for his…
Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen
In a way, it’s a shame Hillman and Pedersen didn’t record this live album as a duo, as they often appear in concert. Because seeing two voices, an acoustic guitar, and a mandolin…
My Life in Dire Straits
John Illsley
Illsley’s story is unusual in that the bassist and co-founder of Dire Straits survived rock superstardom better than most. John grew up in a conservative post-war English home, and eventually discovered boredom-killing rock…
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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
Dan Erlewine – How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great
Dan Erlewine has been a Guitar Player magazine columnist since 1985 and is a well-known guitar builder and repairman. His book The Guitar Player Repair Guide has sold nearly 100,000 copies and his…
Holden
Think of Holden as the Velvet Underground with a French accent. This noise-pop duo differs, however, in chronicling not the wild side of the ’60s, but the existential estrangement of modern-day life –…
Drive By Truckers – The Dirty South
The Dirty South
I confess, these good ol’ boys have become one of my favorite rock and roll bands. There double-disc opus, Southern Rock Opera, was one of my favorite records from the past couple of…
Crooked Still – Still Crooked
When a founding member of a band departs, the other members face a difficult choice. Do they find someone who merely “fits in,” or do they add personnel who might change the ensemble’s…
Shannon McNally
The Waylon Sessions
Does the world really, truly need yet another tribute to quintessential country outlaw Waylon Jennings? Yes – especially when it’s overflowing with hot country guitar, honky-tonk piano, and sizzling vocals. Shannon McNally has…
The Yardbirds
Yardbirds ’68
This two-CD set captures a 1968 concert taped at the Anderson Theater in New York City, roughly three months before the Yardbirds folded. This show was briefly released as an LP in 1971,…
Check This Action: Folk Festival of Blues
I heard blues records earlier than I can remember. My dad had Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee albums, and a family friend had records by Lead Belly and Jesse Fuller. It was the…
Brian May
Back to the Light
After frontman Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, Queen seemed done and gone. But the following year, their resident guitar hero bounced back with this solo U.K. hit, now expanded into a two-CD set.…
Robben Ford
Night In The City
A live recording can be a snapshot in time or the accumulated powers of an artist’s lifelong passion. Robben Ford applies both with his latest, which showcased his catalog live at City Winery,…
The Byrds – The Byrds Play Bob Dylan
If it wasn’t for the Byrds, Bob Dylan might never have become the musical icon he is. They were the earliest to re-cast his material into raucous rock and roll. From the opening…
Donna The Buffalo
Sugar Hill Records
Some still think Jethro Tull is the name of that band’s lead singer. So was it wise for a band, especially one with a female lead singer, to name itself Donna The Buffalo?…
Bob Dylan
Triplicate
This new collection extends Dylan’s venture into the Great American Songbook, a journey he began with 2015’s Shadows In The Night, this time offering three discs of material beyond the Frank Sinatra catalog.…
Larry Sparks – 40
After doing one thing for 40 years, you either get really good or you die. Larry Sparks refers to himself as “The youngest of the old-timers,” and on his latest, he delivers bluegrass…
The Lucky Tomblin Band – In a Honky-Tonk Mood
Sometimes, a record is just meant to be fun. Nothing more, nothing less. Welcome to In a Honky-Tonk Mood. Of course, it’s easy to have fun with the likes of this band. There…
Jackie Greene
429 Records
Jackie Greene’s music is hypnotic in the way of all good pop-rock. Its strongpoint is finely crafted interplay between guitars and keyboards. His new album is replete with gorgeous layered vocals, and while…
Freakwater
That title – copped from the name of the storytelling gal in Arabian Nights – begs some pithy comparison between Scheherazade’s beguiling tales and the manner in which Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge…
Carl Bradychok and Don Leady
Roots Rock Generations
Those once considered the young guns of roots rock (Deke Dickerson, Dave Biller, Joel Paterson) are now “middle-aged.” So it’s encouraging to know that there’s a new generation of roots revivalists coming up…
CCR – Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival Bayou Country Green River Willy And The Poor Boys Cosmo’s Factory Pendulum It’s hard to imagine that anyone isn’t intimately familiar with Creedence’s catalog of seven albums, but that string…
Big Dez – You Can Smile
For decades, France has welcomed expatriate American blues and jazz artists. It was inevitable that seeds would be sown; the results in jazz music going back at least as far as the 1930s,…
Tomo Fujito
Self-distributed
Berklee guitar instructor Tomo Fujita returns with memorable tunes that highlight his affinity for melody and “the funk.” Fujita brought in players who know how to do it; Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie, and…
Jorge Garcia
Crossover
