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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
Nick Curran and the Nitelifes – Doctor Velvet
You know how some records just ooze fun? That’d be this one. Nick and his group mix jump blues, boogie, and greasy rock and roll into a perfect stew. And throughout the affair,…
Various artists
Eagle Records
These two CDs almost couldn’t help but be hodgepodges, since they’re compilations culled from compilations – the tribute albums Rattlesnake Guitar (from 1995, dedicated to Peter Green) and 2002’s From Clarksdale To Heaven…
Richie Kotzen
Nomad
More than 30 years into a wildly eclectic career (hey, the guy played with Poison and bass god Stanley Clarke), Richie Kotzen is no longer that pre-grunge shredder. With Nomad, he again proves…
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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,
Brian Wright
Sugar Hill Records
Off kilter, warped, but addictive, Brian Wright’s music grabs your attention. He describes it as, “…situated somewhere between Woody Guthrie and The Velvet Underground.” Where exactly, depends on the song. Beyond writing the…
Canned Heat – Live At Montreux
The story of Canned Heat has more twists and turns than Spinal Tap’s evolution from the Thamesmen to Spinal Tap, Mark II. Which is why some of the dramatic, lofty claims in the…
Emmylou Harris – Red Dirt Girl
Emmylou Harris seems to have finally found her freedom. It’s rare to follow an artist who, after almost three decades of recording, still has something new and fresh to say – and who…
Ian and Silvia – The Complete Vanguard Studio Recordings
The Complete Vanguard Studio Recordings
I suppose some husband-and-wife singing duos were more influential than Ian and Silvia, but I’m hard-pressed to think of any. Their combined voices have a power and energy that is unique: instead of…
Wanda Jackson
Encore
The girl with a big guitar, big hair, a short dress, and a rockabilly howl, she first shook up the music world in 1954, pre-Elvis. Wanda Jackson went on to score rock and…
Terry Burrows
Two boards, three pickups, some hardware, and various electric bits and pieces: Stratocasters are simple creations at heart. But setting one up perfectly, repairing it – especially stageside in the heat of a…
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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
Al Di Meola – Consequence of Chaos
Al Di Meola – Consequence of Chaos Though sometimes lumped in with Carlos Santana, Latin guitarist Al Di Meola is almost his complete musical opposite. Where Carlos plays easy-going, accessible Latin rock, Di…
George Van Eps and Marty Grosz Meets the Fat Babies
Great Acoustic Jazz
Marty Grosz is surely one of the last of a breed – a jazz guitarist who plays strictly rhythm and chord-style solos and strictly acoustic. He’s also a fine singer and scholar of…
Shawn Lane – All For Today
All For Today
Being part of a successful band can be a mixed blessing. You work regularly and play your music for a large audience, but because it is a band, you can only stray so…
Rob McNelley – On
On
I love it when this happens. Totally out of the blue comes a CD, by an artist I am unfamiliar with, and it blows my socks off. Rob McNelley has been kicking around…
Check This Action: The Salad Days of British Blues
What springs to mind when you hear the term “British blues movement”? Is it covers of Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker songs by the early Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, Yardbirds,…
Gregg Wright
Big Dawg Barkin’
Gregg Wright’s pandemic-fueled album displays the pent-up intensity of a virtuoso guitarist unleashed – the former Jacksons’ guitarist and bluesman comes fully loaded with pyrotechnics and sweet runs galore. Tempered by ’70s tours…
Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
Living in a Song
Resonator-guitar whiz Ickes and singer/guitarist Hensley blend traditional and outside elements, sometimes on bare-bones acoustic. On others, they create an amalgam of bluegrass and the classic country of the ’80s and ’90s enhanced…
Elana James
For her second solo effort, Elana James, fiddler-vocalist for the western-swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown, ventures afield into other genres. This shouldn’t be surprising, given her 2006 touring work as part of…
Danny Caron – How Sweet It Is
Danny Caron is a veteran guitarist whose playing with the late Charles Brown helped keep the tradition of the “uptown” guitarist alive and well. Brown, a pianist, featured Caron whenever possible, and with…
Bob Dylan
Triplicate
This new collection extends Dylan’s venture into the Great American Songbook, a journey he began with 2015’s Shadows In The Night, this time offering three discs of material beyond the Frank Sinatra catalog.…
Albert Lee – Heartbreak Hill
Heartbreak Hill
Being an Albert Lee fan can be as frustrating as it is rewarding. Because, even though he’s invariably busy, touring behind somebody or playing on someone’s record, his jam-packed schedule doesn’t allow much…
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…
My Life in Dire Straits
John Illsley
Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra – Jools Holland’s Big Band Rhythm & Blues
If the term “big band,” especially tied to a pop star, conjures the dreaded image of one of those zoot-suited groups with the word “Daddy” in its name, fear not. Ex-Squeeze keyboardist Holland’s…
Joanna Connor
Best Of Me
With a decades-long career and a boatload of albums to her credit, slide queen Joanna Connor is no stranger to blues, rock, pop, soul, and the acoustic-folk tradition. On her new album, fans…
John McLaughlin
Live At Ronnie Scott’s
John McLaughlin is one of those guitarists whose career converges with great milestones in jazz and rock. Yes, he has stories; given his collaborations with artists like Jimi Hendrix, Jaco Pastorius, Carlos Santana,…
Peter Frampton Band
Frampton Forgets the Words
Frampton is in a race against time. In 2019 he announced having a muscle disorder called inclusion body myositis and was recording as much music as he could. 2019’s All Blues was blues…
The Clutter Family
A line in Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” goes, “If my thought dreams could be seen, they’d probably put my head in a guillotine.” Lyrics to Clutter Family songs like…
Chris Duarte – Love Is Greater Than Me
Love Is Greater Than Me
Chris Duarte is a great guitarist. Of the current crop of players aspiring to the permanently vacated Texas chair, Chris’ stuff rises closest to the top. In concert, his chops are endless and…
Lionize
Maryland’s Lionize has concocted an appealing blend of Deep Purple-style heavy rock, reggae, and sci-fi imagery. With a musical vision that began on 2005’s Danger My Dear and reaching a creative peak on…
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,…
Magic Sam’s Blues Band
Delmark
Magic Sam’s debut album had an immediate impact when it was released in late ’67 and has stood the test of time – cited as a seminal influence by such formidable guitarists as…
Doug Brod
They Just Seem a Little Weird: How Kiss, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz Remade Rock and Roll
