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

Parts of Ted Drozdowski’s coal-mining family background are almost as hardscrabble and tragic as that of the people who created the blues music he champions so fiercely. That background is a factor in…
Dark Horse
After George Harrison played the simple hook to the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” on sitar, then studied with Ravi Shankar, Indian music became all the rage, with Shankar its rock star. Harrison signed Shankar…
Sugar Hill
Brian Wright draws on the stylistic legacies of an eclectic bunch of influences, some quite obvious. There’s no mistaking his debt to classic Velvet Underground in “Striking Matches,” but less obvious is the…
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,
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
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,
Moon And The Stars: A Tribute to Moon Mullican
Aubrey “Moon” Mullican (1909-1967) was “King of the Hillbilly Piano Players.” Playing and singing honky-tonk, Western swing, and boogie-woogie in the 1940s and ’50s, he influenced Jerry Lee Lewis and, later, Asleep At…
Electric Rajala
There’s eclecticism and there’s versatility. Having one doesn’t mean you have the other, but Finland’s Rajala has both – and more. A loose job description would be blues man, with homages to T-Bone…
Turning to Crime
As songwriting royalties wither in the streaming age, artists increasingly record covers, often songs influential to their musical development. The pandemic further helped Deep Purple find time to cut this album of high-volume…

The name of producer Gregg Miner’s label says it all: Harp Guitar Music. He is a leading practitioner and promoter of the multi-stringed beast and a big reason it’s currently enjoying such a…

Surely, Joe Rosen isn’t the first music photographer to snap a shot not of a performer’s face but of his or her hands. The difference is he continued the practice and, with a…

Hot-Picking Comfort Zone
Brad Paisley’s albums have followed a formula that began on his 2001 sophomore album Part II. Generously programmed with abundant cameos, they blend love songs with catchy numbers celebrating idealized small-town and rural…
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,
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
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,
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
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,
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
Ever since the first Farm Aid concert, musical extravaganzas for worthy causes have become standard fare. Concerts for a Landmine-Free World is different from the usual star-studded gangbang because it features roots-oriented artists.…
Ravel & Bartók
As producers and guitarists, Cameron Greider and Jack Petruzzelli come with impressive resumés. The former has played with Chris Cornell, Natalie Merchant, and Joan Baez; the latter has recorded with Joan Osborne, Patti…
Collector’s Choice Music
Part of a new series that gathers unreleased live stuff, we find the first-generation country-rock band in transition. Even amidst many personnel changes, Poco’s focus was on harmony vocals and the pedal steel…
The most guitar-heavy album yet from Wilco has Jeff Tweedy, Nels Cline, and Pat Sansone weaving parts like insane musical tailors. A perfect example is “Impossible Germany,” which starts with lovely guitar that…
I was extremely happy to see this on CD. I loved this album when it came out in ’86, and it still sounds wonderful. I guess you’d call this post-Cats/pre-swing Brian. Musically, it…
Schrapnel Records
Eric Gales has been cutting blues-rock records for 20 years, and here, he’s playing as well as ever. Lyrically, Transformation appears to address his effort at staying on the straight and narrow. But,…
Rhino Reissues
As huge a star as Emmylou Harris is, and as long and varied as her career has been, her achievements still don’t get their due, in my mind. Because virtually every article or…
Ryko
Doing an album of Robert Johnson songs may not be a particularly original idea, but it’s not a bad one. For this one, Todd Mohr and band have called upon veteran bluesmen to…
Jack is a unique figure. He plays bass with the Nashville String Machine, a group of studio musicians who have played with everyone from Donna Summer to Deana Carter to the Beach Boys.…

Rough Mix, Pete Townshend, Empty Glass
Two important Townshend solo albums have received their long-awaited vinyl reissue. Internal friction gnawed at the Who in the mid ’70s as they focused on outside projects; Pete Townshend was tapped to produce…
As a player, Duke Levine is unclassifiable. He calls his style “country-soul” guitar, and that’s fair. But what do you call a guy who opens his latest record with a twangy version of…
Ignition
Okay, I confess. Somehow this one slid in under the radar. Released in late summer, it features Setzer back in a trio setting, basically just cutting loose, guitar-wise and vocally. And let’s face…
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…

Mark Farner
Grand Funk Railroad, the hard-rock “people’s band,” earned little critical respect. But there’s no denying GFR’s massive influence – led primarily by Farner’s vocals and primal guitar – considering their level of early-’70s…

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…
When Yoakam put the twang back into country music in the mid ’80s, his mere existence was a tribute to his chief influence, Buck Owens. And in 1988 he brought the then-retired Owens…

Funk Soul Brother
Smart guitar players discover early on that if they want to control their musical destiny, it doesn’t hurt to learn how to sing. Even at the subterranean depths of the neighborhood blues jam…
The Beatles formative years playing the sleazy clubs of Hamburg was their time in the wilderness. They honed their skills as musicians – as well as with groupies and pill-popping. When they eventually…
Power Of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix
Only the second tribute album officially sanctioned by the Hendrix Estate, this joins 1993’s Stone Free as a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund scholarship that bears the guitar legend’s name. Of…

Afterglow is the third album by Black Country Communion, which features bassist Glenn Hughes, drummer Jason Bonham, keyboard player Derek Sherinian, and Joe Bonamassa on guitar. Their sound continues to fill the void…
From Cash’s hard-scrabble childhood through his Air Force stint, Sun years, hazy ’60s, largely forgettable ’70s, ’80s relapse, and second redemption in the ’90s, former LA Times critic Hilburn scours the details of…