• 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

    Read more >>

Jim Stringer And The AM Band

It’s a slight generalization, but if you’re going to make a living playing music for any length of time, you pretty much have to do one of two things: concentrate on one thing…

The Eliminators

Eliminator Records

There are many veins of surf rock; traditional, punk, classic instro, fusion, and many more. The SoCal-based Eliminators fit comfortably into the traditional instro/surf sound, presenting a wall of Fender-fueled reverb that would…

Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass: A Compendium of the Rare, Iconic, and Weird

Nearly two years in the making, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass: A Compendium of the Rare, Iconic, and Weird features players and collectors discussing their connection to iconic instruments. Lee began…

Santana – Santana: Legacy Edition

Watching Santana’s incendiary performance in the concert film of Woodstock, it’s almost beyond comprehension to realize that this was a band that had yet to release its debut album. That wouldn’t happen until…

Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars 2nd Edition

You may need a bigger pocket for this ex-panded second edition of Gruhn’s Guide, but you’ll want to have one. The larger-format softcover edition adds over 200 pages with new sections on post-war…

Fleetwood Mac

Live Deluxe Edition

Like the Beatles, Eagles, and CSNY, Fleetwood Mac benefited greatly by having multiple singer/songwriters – one of which was Stevie Nicks. Fingerstyle ace Lindsey Buckingham and the meticulous rhythm section of John McVie…

Eric Clapton & Electric Light Orchestra

It’s become fashionable, especially among younger players, to diss Eric Clapton and write him off as a minor player who stood in Jimi Hendrix’s shadow. Of course, nothing could be further from the…

Kim Lenz – It’s All True

Describing Kim Lenz as a “female Elvis” is narrow-sighted, as there are few musical similarities between the two, particularly in the fact Lenz writes a good chunk of her own material and, more…

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…

Josh Preston – Exit Sounds

A few years ago, Josh Preston laid down his electric guitar for the life of singer/songwriter. Once past the slightly offensive notion that this move speaks of contempt for the music that changed…

Chuck Berry

Hip-O-Select

1964 was a good year for Chuck Berry. He hit number 10 on the pop charts with “No Particular Place To Go,” number 14 with “You Never Can Tell” and did pretty well…

A Song For Everyone: The Story of Creedence Clearwater Revival

John Lingan

Hailing this 368-page book on the front dust-jacket flap as the “definitive biography” of CCR – but lacking author interviews with John Fogerty – immediately raises an eyebrow. Still, relying on past published…

John Cipollina – Electric Guitarslinger

Electric Guitarslinger

John Cipollina was probably best-known as the lead guitarist for the Quicksilver Messenger Service. He was also a seminal figure in the San Francisco music scene. He died in 1989 at the age…

Mike Stern & Yellowjackets – Lifecycle

The Yellowjackets (Russell Ferrante, Jimmy Haslip, Bob Mintzer, and Marcus Baylor) are all great players in their own right, though they benefit from the occasional contributions of friends. On this disc, they’re joined…

The Beau Brummels

Turn Around: The Complete Recordings (1964-1970)

In the mid ’60s, this Bay Area band straddled British Invasion, garage rock, and emerging psychedelic sounds. More important, they cut some of the most sophisticated rock and roll of the time, thanks…

George Jones – The Hits…’Till Now

Unlike some country greats, George Jones is no au courant object of fashion, and he’s not part of today’s you-can-hardly-tell-it’s-country music. From his earliest hits, when he was basically imitating Hank Williams, until…

Foghat

Foghat Records

Foghat guitarists “Lonesome” Dave Peverett and Rod Price have both passed on, but the band’s blues-boogie legacy is being carried forward by drummer (and co-founder) Roger Earl and singer/ guitarist Charlie Huhn, who…

Hilton Valentine

Tatty

For players in their late 50s and early 60s, the Animals’ #1 “House Of The Rising Sun” is often cited as a benchmark, with guitarist Hilton Valentine’s arpeggiated intro as indelibly stamped as…

Walter Jr. – Back On the Bayou Road

In music and pop culture today, subtlety and taste are in very short supply. But this has both, in spades. Walter’s a Louisiana guy, and it shows on the opener, “Hot Louisiana Rock,”…

Brad Paisley

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…

Larry Coryell

He’s the godfather of fusion guitar, and don’t you forget it. Chico Hamilton, Gary Burton, the Eleventh House, Alphonse Mouzon, the Guitar Trio – Larry Coryell was melding jazz, rock, and Indian music…

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

The Good, The Bad, and The Troubling

Corb Lund

Songs my Friends Wrote

Prince

Revolutions

Mike Stern – Voices

Voices

This is jazz guitarist Mike Stern’s first album featuring vocalists, hence the title. Yet these are not songs of heartfelt, poetic lyrics. Rather, the voices are used as instruments, carrying the melody line,…

Z.Z. Top – Chrome, Smoke, and B. B. Q.

Chrome, Smoke, and B. B. Q.

Well, Z.Z. Top’s music has been released in a lot of forms on CD. I confess, I didn’t scarf up the other releases, even though I grew up on this stuff and love…

Rob Blaine

The liner notes for this are on-target when they say Rob Blaine yanks “big chunks” of music from his guitar. But that’s not the whole story. Yes, he can channel Freddie King, Jimi…

Sean Costello – Moanin’ For Molasses

Moanin' For Molasses

I really enjoyed Sean’s last album, Cuttin’ In, and this one is just as likeable. He’s young, but man, he knows the blues. Both his singing and his guitar playing reek of soul.…

The Dead Live On

Various Artists

The Grateful Dead just may be more popular now that the band is actually dead and gone. Their musical industrial complex keeps a steady stream of live recordings coming – and with some…

The Brakes – Tale of Two Cities

The Brakes are a Philadelphia rock/pop band that recorded live dates in both New York and Philly. From those shows, they got the 12 cuts here. The positive side of all this is…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Jethro Tull

The year 1971 marked one of those seismic shifts in rock and roll, when critical LPs by the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Yes, and others blew away ’60s psychedelia and established…

Robert Cray

Universal Music

 Made on the heels of Strong Persuader and the single “Smoking Gun,” Robert Cray and his band are superb during this live show, and Cray plays a lot of interesting, soulful guitar. Early…

The Hellenbacks

Vampires In The Desert

The Hellenbacks are defined by gritty guitars, huge sing-along choruses, and rock-and-roll swagger. Based in Las Vegas, their latest percolates with good ol’ American ’70s rock with a contemporary twist. Bassist Sean Koos,…