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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
Nickel Creek – Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek is a of (primarily) musical whiz kids. Three of its four members are under 23. Two are siblings, Sara Watkins (19) on fiddle and vocals, and Sean Watkins (22) on guitar,…
The Time Jumpers
Time Machine
The Time Jumpers formed in ’98 as a lark for a group of A-list Nashville sidemen who loved Western swing. Eighteen years later, they’ve become a local institution, energetically presenting the vintage music…
Arlen Roth – Tooling Around Woodstock
Roth’s “Hot Licks” instructional series has helped many a player. But he’s criminally overlooked to the general public. Toolin’ Around puts him in the limelight with wonderful songs that exhibit his mastery. Most…
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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,
Tommy Castro – Soul Shaker
It’s time to give Tommy Castro his due. And with this new record, he might actually get it. For years, he has played the blues circuit, doing his thing – singing about as…
Jackson County Line
Self-distributed
Led by acoustic guitarist/singer/ songwriter Kevin Jackson, Jackson County Line has a California countrysoul with elements of War and Santana and plenty of Buffalo Springfield with an emphasis on Neil Young. “Easy To…
Joshua Hedley
Neon Blue
Country tradition remains the center of Joshua Hedley’s universe. His 2018 debut, Mr. Jukebox, reflected his mastery of the ’50s and ’60s honky-tonk of Ray Price, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Faron Young,…
Jamey Johnson
Like earlier country outlaws, Jamey Johnson forges his own paths while never forgetting his forebears. One is singer-composer Hank Cochran, who died in 2010. A giant among Nashville writers, Cochran wrote many tunes…
Eric Gales – That’s What I Am
What happens when guitar prodigies grow up? They lapse into mediocrity, like everyone else. But not Eric Gales. After being signed by Elektra records at the tender age of 15, completing two LPs…
The Routes
Mesmerised
Color the Routes’ mastermind Chris Jack’s music how you like: vintage-y, psychedelia, joyfully and unapologetically garage. But be sure to color it outside the lines. Jack is a musical mad scientist. Each release…
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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
Ian Date & Robin Nolan – Go Ahead
Take an Aussie living in Ireland and a Londoner living in Amsterdam, stick them in a studio, and what do you get? Gypsy swing, of course. Date, the ex-Aussie, has played with George…
Nathan East
Nathan East’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing in 40 years. Offered gigs with Quincy Jones, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, and Daft Punk, he’s crisscrossed genres from pop to jazz. His smooth yet percolating…
Lucinda Williams
Ghost Stories
From Bobby Troup’s “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66” to Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” and more, the roads we’ve traveled have inspired our music. Enter U.S. Highway 20, stretching 1,500 miles across…
Long Train Runnin’: Our Story of the Doobie Brothers
Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Chris Epting
For 50 years, the Doobie Brothers’ feel-good hits have been radio staples. In these pages, vocalists/guitarists Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons share memories and insights such as how the much-hyped psychedelic band Moby…
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…
Buzzcocks
Late For The Train: Live & In Session (1989-2010)
On the punk-rock timeline, some bands haven’t quite received their just acknowledgment. Two Australian bands, The Saints and Radio Birdman, come to mind, as do groups like Flamin’ Groovies and Dr. Feelgood, which…
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
The Good, The Bad, and The Troubling
One of the greatest blues guitarists of any era, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s recorded output with his band, Double Trouble, consisted of only five albums (four studio, one live) during his lifetime. And though…
Florence Dore – Perfect City
Like her stablemates, the Star Room Boys, Florence Dore creates songs with a visceral organic link to traditional American music. Perfect City, Dore’s first release, displays the sort of literary verve you might…
Check This Action: Kathy Valentine: HoF Bassist
In the highly recommended documentary, 2020’s The Go-Go’s, Police drummer Stewart Copeland is incredulous to learn that the band had yet to be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “What…
Pat Metheny – Metheny with Mehldau
Guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau need little introduction, thus the near-cryptic titling of this new duet collection of jazz originals. The meeting of minds here brings back memories of guitarist Jim…
Black Sabbath
Live Evil 40th Anniversary
Four decades on, Ronnie James Dio’s stint in Black Sabbath is revered almost as much as the Ozzy epoch. This was their last Sab album before Dio went solo; now there’s a 2023…
Freddie King
Getting Ready/Texas Cannonball/Woman Across the River
A three-in-one reissue, this Freddie King package encompasses the LPs he recorded for Leon Russell’s Shelter label from 1971 to ’73. On Getting Ready, King dodges sugary arrangements to deliver smoldering licks on…
Peter Bardens
Long Ago, Far Away: The Recordings (1968-1971)
The Creation
Biff Bang Pow!
Hard as it seems to imagine, there are U.K. bands of the ’60s who’ve remained obscure and unsung despite increasingly enthusiastic digging into that era. Case in point: the Creation. Contemporaries of the…
Sir Clive and the Raging Cartographers – Guitar Safari
An aptly titled collection of songs, if any guitarist was indeed hunting guitar sounds and styles, finding something like this would indeed make for a successful safari. Composed, played, and recorded by VG…
Jo Buddy – Whole Lotta Things
Finnish guitarist/vocalist Jussi “Jo’ Buddy” Raulamo has garnered praise from such kindred blues spirits as Junior Watson, Kim Wilson, Doug McLeod, and Rick Holmstrom, and it’s easy to see why. His blues is…
Eric Clapton
If you read Eric Clapton’s recent autobiography, you know he is very content with his life and were he stands musically. This album conveys that same feeling – laid-back and intimate – though…
Billy Strings
Me/and/Dad
Grammy-winning flatpicking wizard Billy Strings was everywhere in 2022. Rightly seen as part of the vanguard of a new generation of Appalachian-inspired players rooted in the sounds of Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Clarence…
Richie Hart – Blues In the Alley
It’s become obvious to me that a certain style of jazz guitar will never go out of style. Blues-based jazz nuts who can really swing like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green will be…
Gary Clark Jr.
Postmodern Soul
If listeners haven’t figured out that Gary Clark Jr. is more than a blues revivalist, his second full-length studio album should provide a cold hard slap of reality. This disc shows fans –…
Marah – If You Didn’t Laugh… You’d Cry
Marah – If You Didn’t Laugh… You’d Cry The kids from Philly – Marah brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko – have left home for the big town, New York. And their new city…
Robben Ford – Soul On Ten
Back to the Juice
Robben Ford’s last live album included only acoustic guitar. So, given that eight of the 10 cuts on this new disc feature Ford cutting loose on electric and his choice of material is…
Sean Costello – Moanin’ For Molasses
Moanin' For Molasses
