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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
Little Milton – Think of Me
Little Milton is a stone-cold legend of black music. He’s called a blues singer and guitarist, but has always seemed to be more. Here, a bit older and longer of tooth, we get…
D.A.D. – No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims
Wounded Bird Records
On their first major label release, the band formerly known as Disneyland After Dark (changed after a threatened lawsuit by the Disney Co.) was poised for a breakthrough in the U.S. with backing…
Kombo – Cookin’ Out
Kombo is Ron Pedley on keyboards, and Jon Pondel on guitars. They’ve got lots of great help too, with guys like Steve Ferrone, Matt Bissonette, and Sharon Hendrix. The music is the same…
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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,
Jackson Browne & David Lindley
Inside Recordings
In his 40-year recording career, Jackson Browne has used a battalion of guitar greats, from Clarence White to Mark Goldenberg. But from ’71 to ’81, his guitarist (and fiddler and steel player and,…
Summers, Delaney & Sharp – Tonight Only
Tonight Only
One good thing to emerge from the recently deceased swing “renaissance” was the collective desire by many 20 and 30-something aficionados to find out from whence this music came. It’s one thing to…
Howard Glazer
Detroit’s rich musical heritage includes a blues scene that has thrived in the bars along the Detroit River and on the city’s East Side. The MC5, Iggy Pop, and Bob “Catfish” Hodge sweated…
Brian Setzer – 13
Brian Setzer – 13 Brian Setzer is an amazing guitar player who has always played what he wanted, whether it was popular or not – from rockabilly to big-band. But some fans have…
Chris Whitley – Dirt Floor
Dirt Floor
Chris Whitley’s music is primal. On his amazing debut album, Living With the Law, and the followup limited-run live promotional EP, Poison Girl, he created a desolate landscape of ghosts rising out of…
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…
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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
Jimi
Janie Hendrix and John McDermott
Jimi Hendrix would now be 80 years old and remains at the top of the “What if they’d lived?” list of musicians. This lavish book by Jimi’s stepsister, Janie, and McDermott (who oversee…
Black River Delta
Swedish disciples of pre-World War II blues Erik Jacobs, Erik Nilsson, and Pontus Ohlsson, hauled a bunch of gear up to a remote cabin and got down to business. The result is an…
Blues Unseen But Thriving
This is a fascinating, albeit incomplete, documentary about a segment of the blues seldom seen by devotees, let alone lay people. Director Daniel Cross uses Bobby Rush as his focal point and ad…
Tony Furtado
Funzalo Records
If you had picked up Golden without hearing one of Tony Furtado’s previous 14 albums, you’d never guess he was once a banjo prodigy. After winning the National Bluegrass Banjo competition at 19,…
Bill Frisell
Four
Over the course of 40-plus solo albums and countless collaborations, Frisell has established himself as one of the most original and adventurous jazz guitarists. On 10 new originals and three revisited from Good…
Tommy Castro and the Painkillers
Stompin’ Ground
Veteran Tommy Castro feels right at home here as he takes his band and some pretty special guests through songs that, for the most part, harken back to his days growing up in…
Frank Meyers
Impossibly Cool Guitars
Frank Meyers’ first axe was a ’63 Fujigen EJ2 – a cheap-o, two-pickup solidbody like so many Japanese electrics used by beginner guitarists the world over. Though unremarkable, it spurred in him a…
Luther Allison – Luther’s Blues
Originally released by Motown in 1973, Luther’s Blues was not a big seller. Not that it’s not a great album. It is. But maybe Motown at that time wasn’t the best place to…
Eric Bibb and J.J. Milteau
Lead Belly Lives!
The September ’15 “Check This Action” column was devoted to an impressive box-set the Smithsonian Folkways label dedicated to Lead Belly, whom Eric Bibb and J.J. Milteau honored with this CD. Lead Belly’s…
Buck Owens
Buck Owens never minced words. I know. I interviewed him and others in his inner circle in 1992, while annotating Rhino’s Buck Owens Collection box set. Detailing his scorn for Nashville’s music industry,…
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…
The Jimmy Bruno Group – Midnight Blue
I dunno… sometimes it seems silly to review things like this. Everyone who follows jazz guitar knows Jimmy Bruno is a knock-down monster player with both chops and soul. In fact, technically, he’s…
John Basile
By many standards, this shouldn’t work: a group of songs by the Beatles done in jazz arrangements. Not only that, it’s one guitarist, using MIDI technology, playing all the parts – guitar, drums,…
Stamey & Holsapple – Mavericks
It’s nice to see this 1991 classic re-released, hopefully to a bigger audience than it did on its original release. In the 1980s, Holsapple and Stamey were charter members of the db’s, which…
Spirit of Django
The Guitar Label
This Brit’s career has been nothing if not varied. He has backed vocalists from Teresa Brewer to Alison Burns (as the latter’s sole accompaniment on 1 AM); recorded small-group bebop (Freternity), “new acoustic”/Dawg…
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…
Greg V – Tailgate Troubadour
Greg V has played and toured with acts like Double Trouble and Buddy Miles. But that won’t prepare you for this album of instrumentals that contains more tasty, atmospheric guitars than you’re likely…
Gretchen Menn
Magnum Opus
Gretchen Menn stands alone. One might argue that she’s the female counterpart to Steve Morse. Both are aviators, both play ungodly guitar, and both are ersed in the European traditions of the Classical…
Elvin Bishop and Little Smoky Smothers – That’s My Partner
Elvin Bishop should receive some sort of award. How many years now has he been serving up killer blues-rock and having more fun that any one person should be allowed to have? Here…
Bootzilla
Bootsy Collins
Bootsy Collins’ first album in six years continues the tradition of 2011’s Tha Funk Capital Of The World by enlisting special guests to extend his funkalicious reach. Proselytizing the holy gospel of uncut…
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Dirt on My Diamonds, Vol. 1
It’s easy to summarize Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s raw-yet-modern blues approach. Joined by co-vocalist Noah Hunt, Shepherd delivers a lyric straight up. His remarkable guitar chops allow him to create riveting instrumental interludes that…
