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Music
2026 February Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Tinsley Wllis, Jimmy Aaughan, Duke Levine, Joshua Hedley, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Pink Floyd, Coyote Motel, Julian Lage, Jocelyn Gould, 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 the complete
Lee Rocker – Black Cat Bone
On his second record for Alligator, former Stray Cats bassist Lee Rocker continues to show just how vital he was to that band’s sound, and that he can write and interpret songs as…
Mark Doyle – Guitar Noir
I love this. Doyle has been in the music biz for some time. His first band, Jukin’ Bone, made a couple of obscure albums for RCA in the early ’70s and in the…
Pete Levin – Deacon Blues
Levin is a keyboard specialist who for the past few decades has played with the best in the business, including Paul Simon, Miles Davis, John Scofield, Robbie Robertson, David Sanborn, and plenty of…
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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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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
Steve Gunn
Drawing inspiration from a decade on the road, guitarist-singer-songwriter Steve Gunn’s debut for Matador Records chugs along like a handsome old train, ending up in a spot perhaps best described as an Americana…
Shawn Mullins – Honeydew
Vanguard Records
Shawn Mullins hit the big time in the ’90s with the sleepy folk tune “Lullaby.” Since then he has jumped around a bit and now finds himself recording for Vanguard, which has a…
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…
Bob Dylan
Shadows In The Night, Dylan’s 2015 nod to Frank Sinatra, surprised those unaware of his love for the Great American Songbook. Using Sinatra’s original arrangements as a guide, he drew heavily from the…
Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver – Hard Game of Love
Hard Game of Love
For the last six years, if you wanted to hear Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver do secular bluegrass, you had to attend a live concert, since gospel material has been all they’ve recorded. With…
Various Artists – Stax anniversary
This two-disc set has 50 songs, many of which are classics of the soul genre that burst out of Memphis and the Stax label throughout the 1960s and ’70s. The guitar was an…
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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,
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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,
Stephen Bruton – Spirit World
A CD of personal or autobiographical songs can be tricky. The music can wind up meaning far more to its creator than it does to its audience. That’s bad. Luckily for everyone, Stephen…
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…
Paul Johnson
The Hepcats Live at the Ajax Novelty Company
This isn’t live, there may not be an Ajax Novelty Company, and the three felines known as the Hepcats are actually the brainchild of Paul Johnson, whose Belairs were early-’60s pioneers of surf…
Electric Prunes – Release of an Oath
The ’60s produced some mighty weird bands, perhaps none odder than the Electric Prunes. The group is primarily known for its 1967 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” and the…
Ralph Towner, John Abercrombie Quartet, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Dewa Budjana
Fusion Heros
The ECM label is renowned for its brand of atmospheric jazz-fusion highlighted by gorgeous audio quality. Two of its guitar masters – Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie – have released new albums. An…
Johnny “Guitar” Watson – The Essential
A lot of folks first ran into Johnny “Guitar” Watson with a batch of very hip, funky records that came out in the ’70s that had very odd covers with scantily clad women…
Carsie Blanton
Love & Rage
Carsie Blanton is a stick of dynamite disguised as a firecracker. Her website applies terms like anthems, moxie, and mischief – and they fit. In 2020, Blanton’s online rent parties became monthly events…
Dion
Dion DiMucci, the Bronx doo-wop singer who became immortal in 1961 with Dion and the Belmonts (“Teenager In Love”), and on solo rock hits like “The Wanderer” re-invented himself as a folk-blues singer…
Christian Scott
If you’ve been waiting for the future of jazz to arrive, this may well be it. The young trumpeter is creating a beguiling blend of post-bop, dark rock, and hip-hop – try to…
Motorhead – Stone Deaf Forever (Box Set)
If bands got paychecks for being influential, Motorhead would buy your town. And then, of course, all the lawns would up and die. Founded in the mid 1970s by steel-wool throated bassist Lemmy…
The Mavericks
Lightning In A New Bottle
After their acclaimed 2014 comeback album In Time and a successful tour, the Mavericks wasted no time creating a followup effort continuing the eclectic sounds, original material, and powerful performances that began in…
Dwight Twilley
Big Oak Records
Dwight Twilley writes perfect power pop songs with hints of the Beatles and other ’60s rock bands. He also has a knack for writing lyrical hooks – try to sing his ’70s hit…
Songcatcher – Music from the Motion Picture
Music from the Motion Picture
Compiled by Ben Valkoff – Eyewitness: The Illustrated Jimi Hendrix Concerts
The second volume reviewing Hendrix concerts, this one covering the tumultuous period of ’68, when Hendrix worked through a relentless schedule of touring and recording. As noted in our review of the first…
Bob Dylan
Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985)
Bobby Zimmerman’s famed Bootleg Series has been of prime interest for alternate takes, outtakes, rehearsals, and never-released tunes giving a glimpse behind the mask. That’s all present in spades in this collection, covering…
Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters
Stony Plain Records
Starting like a number of instrumental albums Ronnie Earl has produced over the past 15 years, this one opens with a mid-tempo (Albert Collinspenned) track, then slows for some blues and a cool…
Albert Collins – Live at Montreux 1992
Eagle Rock Entertainment
The justifiably nicknamed “Master Of The Telecaster” was one of the great blues guitarists of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, at age 61, he had exerted a major…
Deep Purple
=1
Fifty-seven years after its debut, Deep Purple keeps on rollin’. The hard-rock pioneers’ 23rd studio album, =1, is the first with new guitarist Simon McBride, who replaced Steve Morse. To hone their chops,…
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…
Murry Hammond – I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I’m On My Way
As a solo artist, Murry Hammond is a blend of Leonard Cohen and Jimmie Rogers. The acoustic-based songs on this album aren’t as lively as his work with his former band, Old 97s,…
Joey DeFrancesco with Larry Coryell and Jimmy Cobb
Wonderful is right! This organ trio, featuring guitarist Larry Coryell, is pure joy with its bright and lively charge through a songlist of jazz classics and originals. The ensemble is led by Joey…
Joan Osborne – Breakfast in Bed
In other hands, Osborne’s penchant for jumping from genre to genre could peg her as a dilettante. But she’s just so good at everything she tackles – her 2006 Nashville CD, Pretty Little…
