• 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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Ralph Heibutzki – Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny G

If it’s true that an artist suffers for his music, then some guitar players suffer more than others. We can never know exactly what demons torment some of our favorite players, or why…

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Experience Hendrix/Legacy

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Sam Baker – Pretty World

It’s hard to classify Austin’s Sam Baker as a singer/songwriter. Not because his songs are well-written – they’re often brilliant, invariably memorable. But Baker’s raspy, barking delivery barely qualifies as singing. It may…

Neil Barnes, Ron Thompson, and others and Bettye LaVette

This Blues Has Soul

Blues harpist Neil Barnes is one of the greater San Francisco area’s best-kept secrets. His 2007 CD, This Was Then, Now, is a compilation of a 45 and an EP he released in…

Justin Golden

Hard Times and a Woman

The word “blues” pops up in Justin Golden’s bio, but “African-Americana” might be a more apt term. The Virginian’s 12 originals make for an extremely impressive debut, as comfortable leaning toward country on…

Jinx Jones

Home Brand Records

Jinx Jones long ago proved himself a fine player, and his latest disc reinforces that he is a major talent in the rockabilly, jazz, and country field. On occasion, a strong Brian Setzer…

Jody Williams – Return of a Legend

Return of a Legend

Rarely has an album been more aptly named. Williams was one of the key Chicago sessionmen in the ’50s and ’60s, the musically sophisticated guitarist who added the licks and solos to Chess,…

Graham Parker – Don’t Tell Columbus

Graham Parker has stepped it up a notch in recent years. Always a fine songwriter and singer, he hit a lull in the late ’80s and most of the ’90s. This is his…

Gary Clark Jr.

Bright Lights, Big Fuzz

When Gary Clark, Jr. appeared on the national scene, music fans on the Internet suddenly became blues experts. Opinions burst like flak guns on D-Day with everything from shortsighted Jimi Hendrix comparisons to…

Matt Rae – High Strung

Matt Rae’s new record stretches beyond the Telecaster playing for which he is so well-known to include old-fashioned music a la Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West. In fact, the jazzy swing of “Happy…

Sahara Smith

Playing In Traffic

At 15, this Austinite placed second in a contest for young songwriters on “A Prairie Home Companion.” Now 21, her debut consists of 12 originals, as impressive as they are mature in terms…

Mick Fleetwood & Friends

Celebrate the Music of Peter Green & Early Years of Fleetwood Mac

British blues icon Peter Green passed away July 25, 2020, at the age of 73. As one of the founding members of the original Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Green…

Various artists – Crossroads Guitar Festival

Talk about piquing one’s curiosity. The promos for the truncated pledge-drive version of the Crossroads Festival that aired on PBS in December began, “Sixty-five guitarists… 87 guitars … came to play with one…

Cash Box Kings

Oscar’s Motel

For two decades, the Cash Box Kings have stood apart from the multitudes of “blues bands” that focus on bar-band rock, not actual blues. Inspired by the 1940s-’60s Chicago sounds of Muddy Waters,…

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…

JD McPherson

On A Roll

JD McPherson was a middle-school teacher in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, with a rock and roll band on the side. Then he lost his job and decided to make a record. He cut Signs…

B.B. King

In France

By 1977, when this French live album was recorded at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival, the “King of the Blues” had truly crossed over. He’d played Fillmores West and East and won a…

Molly Miller

St. George

Lyrical melodies, dreamy chord voicings, and spacious arrangements – Molly Miller’s latest is all that and more, employing guitar, bass, and drums. Tucked between bassist Jennifer Condos (Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks) and drummer…

Andy Cohen

Earwig

In his liner notes, William Lee Ellis (a formidable folk-blues performer in his own right) calls Cohen “the bestkept secret in folk music.” Indeed, two or three songs into this collection should be…

Pat Martino – Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

Pat Martino – Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery This is not the first time legendary guitarist Martino has paid tribute to the man credited with driving jazz guitar to its current heights.…

Pasquale Grasso

Be-Bop!

A genuine six-string phenomenon, Pasquale Grasso (VG, November ’21) is redefining jazz guitar with a radical approach, making one instrument sound like two. Your ears may hear a duo at the opening of…

The George Benson Quartet – It’s Uptown, The George Benson Cookbook

George Benson was another of A&R legend John Hammond’s famous discoveries, alongside the likes of Count Basie, Charlie Christian, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen. This put Benson in a tough position…

Joseph Spence

Encore

Imagine you’re a zoologist who discovers a new animal species never known to exist. There have been rare musical discoveries that rivaled that. John Hurt played nothing like a Delta bluesman, even though…

Paul McCartney & Wings

Band on the Run 50th Anniversary

McCartney’s 1973 classic is a post-Beatles favorite for its title cut (a #1 U.S. single) and rockin’ singles “Jet” and “Helen Wheels.” The new mixes are a departure from that condensed analog sound…

Mudhoney

Plastic Eternity

When it comes to writing music reviews, nothing’s more Lamesville than a critic swiping text from a label’s press release. But in the case of Mudhoney’s new full-length, one would be hard-pressed to…

Willie Nelson – Naked Willie

The forced, intrusive background vocals on the “definitive” versions of “Funny How Time Slips Away” or “Crazy” (from The Essential Willie Nelson) are argument enough in favor of this project. The songs on…

Yes

Yes fans have long been waiting for the legendary prog band to deliver a comeback album. Rest assured, this is not it. Even with platinum producer Roy Thomas Baker and a Jon Anderson…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

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…

Southern Culture On the Skids – Countrypolitan Favorites

Once again, Southern Culture On The Skids proves itself the ultimate party band with the ultimate party record. In other hands, the concept behind Countrypolitan Favorites (Yep Roc) might come off as sheer…

The Immediate Family

The Immediate Family

The Immediate Family consists of bassist Leland Sklar, drummer Russ Kunkel, guitarists Steve Postell, Waddy Wachtel, and Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar. In the ’70s, these iconic sidemen were called the Section and their resumes…