-
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
The Peacemakers
The Peacemakers
Mike Keller has played lead with, among others, the post-SRV Double Trouble, Doyle Bramhall, Sr., Marcia Ball, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds – in other words, the elite of the Austin blues scene. He…
Guthrie Trapp
Life After Dark
Guthrie Trapp has spent the last couple decades in Nashville, supporting major acts in the studio and on the road. His second solo album shows he’s learned plenty of lessons, because while this…
Grant Gordy
Self-distributed
Grant Gordy’s thing is acoustic jazz. But unlike most jazz guitarists, his axe of choice isn’t a big ol’ carved archtop, but a dreadnaught-sized flat-top. Gordy still plays with the David Grisman Quartet…
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
Neil Young
Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition
Young’s 1972 smash delivered on the promise of CSNY, offering California rock rife with acoustic guitars, piercing lyrics, and cozy West Coast production. “Heart of Gold” was the blockbuster, yet only one of…
Emmylou Harris – Songbird
Emmylou Harris’ latest box set, Songbird, occupies a unique place among deluxe anthologies. Instead of being merely another greatest hits or an unreleased versions set, it’s a collection of personally important musical moments.…
Carolyn Sills Combo
On the Draw
Listening to the Carolyn Sills Combo, you might do a double-take: Is this newly fashioned country music, or a long-lost 1950s or ’60s band coming out of the ether? The combo is indeed…
Little Feat
By 1976, Little Feat had become a well-oiled live machine, its intoxicating polyglot gumbo of American music truly thriving on the stage. This new DVD and companion CD offers fans a peek at…
Mike Stern
Trip
Mike Stern’s latest speaks to the triumph of his spirit and twisted sense of humor. In a freak accident while waiting for a cab, he tripped and broke both arms. This left him…
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969
With endless Hendrix live albums available, you may be justly skeptical about this concert recording. However, one attraction is its modern remix, with a level of audio detail that lets us hear the…
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
-
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
Tommy McLain
I Ran Down Every Dream
Louisiana is all about food and music, sporting New Orleans jazz, zydeco, and Cajun music. But another indigenous style combines R&B, country, and rock and roll. It’s called swamp pop, and Tommy McLain…
Indigenous
Vanguard Records
Indigenous is a highenergy blues-rock band fronted by Mato Nanji, disciple of Vaughan and Hendrix; its sound is defined by the chugging rhythms and fat tones squeezed from his Stratocaster. For this album,…
Johnny Cash – Personal File and American V: A Hundred Highways
Johnny Cash – Personal File and American V: A Hundred Highways It’s deliciously ironic that, in promoting the newly discovered archives of Johnny Cash’s solo acoustic recordings, logged in tape boxes as Personal…
Jethro Tull
Masterwork Revisited
Jethro Tull’s 1975 masterwork gets the deluxe box-set treatment with all the trimmings. Packaged in a hardbound book cover, the set includes remastered tracks (with that classic “green” Chrysalis label); a fresh live…
Tremonti
Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti is at it again, this time enlisting the help of guitarist Eric “Erock” Friedman, drummer Garrett Whitlock, and bassist Wolfgang Van Halen. Following up his first…
The Replacements – Reissues
They came, they saw, they conquered… sort of. Minneapolis’ Replacements were one of the great rock and roll bands that never quite was. And happily so. In the 1980s, after punk fizzled and…
Jimmie Vaughan
Shout Factory
Jimmie and brother Stevie Ray thankfully recorded a duo album before tragedy struck in the form of a helicopter accident that took SRV’s life in 1990. It was four years before the elder…
Big Star
Shining Even Brighter
Big Star’s star shone only briefly. The band formed in Memphis in 1971 around guitarists-songwriters Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, and then blazed out by ’74 despite rave critical reviews and two stellar…
Ian Cruickshank – Water Gypsy
Ian Cruickshank is known to Django fans for the many hats he wears. He has been prolific as a historian, guitarist, composer, bandleader, festival organizer, record producer, and the guiding light behind John…
Tim Fitzgerald’s Full House
The Wes Montgomery Project
Guitarist Fitzgerald’s first major Montgomery effort was the book 625 Alive: The Wes Montgomery BBC-TV Performance Transcribed, which offered an annotated, curated exploration of the jazz icon’s legendary 1965 British TV performance. Full…
Dex Romweber Duo
Dex Romweber and his trusty Silvertone have been kicking over the gnarly dustbins of American music since he was a teenager. (The uninitiated are advised to seek out a mini-documentary that aired on…
John Abercrombie – Open Land
Guitarist John Abercrombie is one of the creators of the ECM Sound, and his new album is quintessential Abercrombie/ECM. If you arrived late, ECM Records was sparked by Manfred Eichner in Germany and…
Jo’ Buddy
To celebrate 30 years on the road, this Finnish bluesman gathered up the various aggregations he’s toured and recorded with, along with some special guests, to deliver a dozen originals – each screaming…
Nick Moss – Privileged
Blue Bella Records
Along with the Kilborn Alley Blues Band, Gerry Hundt, and others on his Blue Bella label, Nick Moss is one of the most consistent current blues/blues-influenced artists from Chicago. Moss’ music is not…
Albert Ray
The Drifter Comes Back To Town
You might think Southern rockabilly would be the last style that could be co-opted by artists beyond America’s borders. But Italy’s Renzo Alberti, a.k.a. Albert Ray, has not only assimilated the genre, he’s…
Dustin Hofsess
After years of performing in myriad musical arrangements, Dustin Hofsess debuts his first solo album, offering a window into the mind of a very talented guitarist. With an assist from keyboardist Lovell Bradford,…
Eric Johnson
When Eric Johnson came to prominence, he sounded like nothing anyone had ever heard before. He made a Strat sound like a violin, and transformed the Fuzz Face into an instrument of highbrow…
Herb Ellis – Ellis In Wonderland
For his 1956 debut as a leader, jazz guitarist Herb Ellis enlisted pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown, drummer Alvin Stoller, trumpeter Sweets Edison, and saxophonists Jimmy Giuffre and Charlie Mariano. Too bad…
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…
Stephane Grappelli & Bucky Pizzarelli – Duet: The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions
At the end of the ’60s, two French enthusiasts sought out the last living classic jazz musicians and urged them out of retirement to come to France to record. These sessions, along with…
Check This Action: “Pipeline” and Beyond
When a friend introduced me to Bob Spickard and Brian Carman of the Chantays about 40 years ago, I immediately pumped them with questions: Who played lead and who played rhythm on their…
