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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
Tedeschi Trucks Band feat. Trey Anastasio
Layla Revisited
A live recording of Derek & the Dominos’ masterpiece? Featuring Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi – plus Doyle Bramhall, II and Trey Anastasio on guitars? Did Christmas come early? The answer is, resoundingly,…
Yes
Topographic/Drama Live
“Drama” is the perfect word to describe the 50-year history of Yes. They’ve had more personnel changes and internal strife than just about any band around. Yet as this live CD proves, they…
Merle Haggard
Vanguard Records
Haggard’s first album for Vanguard recalls the folk music featured on that label in the 1950s and ’60s. Marked by minimal percussion, resonator guitar, acoustic (or subdued electric) leads, Haggard’s unmatched sense of…
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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,
Jon Herington
Jon Herington, best known for his current work as Steely Dan’s lead guitarist, put out one of the decades’ great records with his last effort, Time On My Hands, back in 2012. This…
Joe Pass – The Best of Joe Pass
Here’s a set of music from the early ’60s from the brilliant Joe Pass. It starts with some tunes recorded with fellow musicians from the drug rehab center Synanon House and carries through…
Stephen Stills – Man Alive!
Stephen Stills – Man Alive! Stephen Stills hasn’t released a solo record since the early ’90s. He says it took so long for this one because he kept giving songs to Graham Nash…
Faces – Five Guys Walk Into A Bar…
I ran into a guitarist and fellow Faces fan recently and mentioned the new boxed set, and he marveled, “Isn’t Woody amazing on there?” I agreed. But if I’d run into a bassist,…
Swamp Rat – Swamp Rat
The cartoon rats on its cover are a humorous representation of the three guys in this band – Dan Cohen (guitar, banjo, vocals), James Cook (bass and vocals), and Derek Mixon (drums), and…
Julian Lage
View With a Room
One of today’s most-acclaimed players, Lage offers 10 original compositions of sumptuous guitar, along with the artistry of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King. As on 2021’s Squint, Lage explores his fascination…
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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
The Blasters – Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
Man, this one brought back memories. I was a DJ when the first Blasters album was released in the early ’80s. At that time, I was allowed to pick “night” cuts – stuff…
David Dondero
Ghostmeat
Folkie Dondero ranges from eclectic originals (“Not Everybody Loves Your Doggie Like You Do”) to uniquely interpreted covers including Lowell George’s hippie trucker ballad “Willin.’” Though it’s been done in just about every…
Phil Lee
There’s something special about a songwriter who can break your heart and make you come back for more. Phil Lee does it in style with “Cold Ground,” a song about unimaginable grief. Lines…
Yes
Topographic/Drama Live
“Drama” is the perfect word to describe the 50-year history of Yes. They’ve had more personnel changes and internal strife than just about any band around. Yet as this live CD proves, they…
Peter Ames Carlin
Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince
Chances are a significant chunk of your music collection is from artists on the Warner Brothers, Reprise, Atlantic, Elektra, Asylum, and Sire labels. Innovative executives and record producers like Mo Ostin, Joe Smith,…
The Wrecking Crew (soundtrack)
L.A.’s Red-Light Masters
The Wrecking Crew, the documentary about L.A.’s well-paid but largely anonymous session players ranks with the very best music documentaries. Director Denny Tedesco, son of legendary studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, did a fantastic…
Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison waxed optimistic about life and music on December 4, 1988, the day he played a concert near Cleveland and did a video interview discussing his dramatically revived career. Two days later,…
Devo
Devo is far from the only band that was years ahead of its time. The difference is that 40 years after its formation, the group’s music and videos are still ahead of their…
Justin Johnsoné
The Biscuit House
His online videos are hard to cruise past. There’s his wide stylistic range, but also the guitars he built out of cigar boxes, whiskey barrels, and shovels. It amounts to a cottage industry…
Pentangle
The Albums
Take Five When one thinks of bands with two (or more) lead guitarists, groups like the Eagles, Buffalo Springfield, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Wishbone Ash, the edition of Fleetwood Mac featuring Peter Green and…
Grateful Dead
Road Trips, Vol. 1 No.4: From Egypt With Love
In 1978, the Dead played a series of shows at a venue many Deadheads swear was just built for the band – The Great Pyramid of Giza. Still high from the shows, the…
The Yardbirds – Ultimate
The Yardbirds: Ultimate
Two fallacies that invariably arise in discussions of the Yardbirds: 1) declaring them the fathers of psychedelic music and/or heavy metal; 2) focusing on their colossal lead guitar lineage at the expense of…
Sacred Steel Convention – Train Don’t Leave Me
Train Don't Leave Me
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall Hendrix is undoubtedly the greatest rock guitarist who ever lived, and Experience Hendrix LLC is now releasing a vinyl version of this original 2000 collection. The original release consisted of studio…
Scott H. Biram
If you condensed Southern Culture on the Skids down to a one-man band, it would sound something like Scott Biram. Comparisons to C.C. Adcock, Rev. Freakchild, and Cub Koda’s rootsy solo albums also…
Alan Jackson
When Alan Jackson announced a bluegrass album produced by Alison Krauss in 2006, the result was Like Red On A Rose. On it, Jackson sang not straight-ahead bluegrass, but the sorts of dark…
Greg Skaff
The only thing traditional about the organ trio featuring guitarist Greg Skaff, organist Pat Bianchi, and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. is that there are three of them in the band. From there, they…
Tedeschi Trucks Band
All The Way Live
Live albums can be a remedy for contract disputes or a way to stall for time during a creative dry spell. For Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, it’s really the best way to…
Bucky Pizzarelli & Scott Hamilton – The Red Door & Bucky Pizzarelli Nirvana
The Red Door, Bucky Pizzarelli and Scott Hamilton’s tribute to sax god Zoot Sims, is an amazingly sublime album. Sims was a true sultan of swing, a classic golden-age jazzer of the ’30s…
Scott Henderson
The latest from Scott Henderson brings more of what we’ve come to expect from the Stratmaster – his usual liquid tone, great chops, and masterful writing are all on full display. Henderson showcases…
Blues Icon John Mayall
Check This Action
Few living blues artists could merit a package of 35 CDs. But what makes John Mayall: The First Generation most remarkable is that it only documents the British blues legend’s career up to…
Eric Clapton and Friends
After Midnight
Eric Clapton has worn many a hat during his career. English bluesman, psychedelic guitar god, downhome roots rocker, even ’80s big-suited popmeister. In recent decades, he’s added another chapeau to the curious collection:…
