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Music
Thin Lizzy
The Acoustic Sessions
Thin Lizzy’s first studio release in decades, this album reimagines tracks recorded 50+ years ago by the trio of vocalist/bassist Phil Lynott, guitarist Eric Bell, and drummer Brian Downey. The songs are from Lizzy’s first three albums – 1971’s Thin Lizzy, ’72’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage, and ’73’s Vagabonds of the Western World. Recently,…
Stéphane Grappelli
Frémeaux
Monsieur Grappelli had a knack for being in the right place at the right time in terms of finding the perfect guitarist foils. This two-CD collection showcases the best of those duets. It…
Jim Suhler
Dallas native Jim Suhler has been splitting his time between leading his own group, Monkey Beat, and, since 1999, playing lead and rhythm guitar with George Thorogood and the Destroyers. His latest release,…
Jeff Golub – Temptation
Lots of folks think Golub’s playing has grown a little too slick and “smooth” for its own good. You might agree, but to me, his playing has such a groove it’s impossible to…
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Eve Monsees and Mike Buck
& Their Groovy Orbit
This is not a solo album as much as an anthology of Austin artists and styles – from blues to country to ’60s garage and psych, demonstrating the versatility of singer/guitarist Monsees (Eve & the Exiles, Blue Bonnets) and her husband, drummer Buck (LeRoi Brothers), as producers/organizers. The tracks span three years, but the names…
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3Below
Live in Mérida
The members of 3Below mostly play in the bass clef. You may know names like fretless master Michael Manring (Michael Hedges) and “touch guitarist” Trey Gunn (King Crimson), but Mexican fusioneer Alonso Arreola is a wondrous addition. Together, they play world-inflected music rife with virtuosity, fresh sounds, and intoxicating results. Accompanied by Emmanuel Pina on…
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Genesis/Steve Hackett
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 50th/Live Magic at Trading Boundaries
One of those double-LP masterpieces of the ’70s, The Lamb was Peter Gabriel’s final achievement with Genesis, quitting immediately after the 1975 tour. The music (remastered here and also available in ATMOS and HD formats) remains brilliant – a rock opera featuring Tony Banks’ keyboards, Steve Hackett’s haunting guitar, and both bass and electric 12-string…
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
I Told You So
The funky organ group’s follow-up to 2016’s Close But No Cigar finds the band comfortably nestled in a bed of soul-jazz backbeats, Silvertone hollowbody goodness, and intoxicating Hammond B3. Rising from the smoldering…
Robert Hilburn
From Cash’s hard-scrabble childhood through his Air Force stint, Sun years, hazy ’60s, largely forgettable ’70s, ’80s relapse, and second redemption in the ’90s, former LA Times critic Hilburn scours the details of…
The Jayhawks
Recorded in January 2015, this digital-only live show captures the legendary Minneapolis alt-country outfit’s 1997 lineup running through chestnuts from throughout their catalog, including some of their more decidedly un-Americana tracks. Lead guitarist…
Tedeschi Trucks Band
The husband-wife team of singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi and slide savant Derek Trucks continue their gospel-inflected roots-meets-blues journey with Made Up My Mind. It’s their second studio album since 2011’s Revelator, and comes hot…
Sauce Boss – Sky Blues
Sky Blues
Bill Wharton, for those of you not familiar, is the Sauce Boss. He is the Sauce Boss because he cooks for his audience. Not just on guitar… he literally cooks. He prepares food…
Chip Taylor/Carrie Rodriguez – Ruhr
This live set features an especially outstanding back-up band. Festival curator and virtuoso jazz guitarist Bill Frisell joins Greg Leisz on steel guitar and mandolin, David Piltch on bass, and Kenny Wollesen on…
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B.B. King
In France
By 1977, when this French live album was recorded at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival, the “King of the Blues” had truly crossed over. He’d played Fillmores West and East and won a Grammy in 1970 for “The Thrill Is Gone.” In typical major-label fashion, subsequent albums saw him surrounded by rock stars and studio…
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Allen Hinds
The Good Fight
The latest from the Lord of Legato features compositions that blur the line between prog, fusion, and Americana. From the majestic to the bucolic, Hines leaves it all in the ring with epic tunes and sophisticated arrangements that grip the soul, the heart, and the mind. While songs like “Fearless” showcase his writing, use of…
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Check This Action: A Year In Their Life
Recently, I stumbled onto one of those “reaction” videos by a New Zealander named Courtney, who wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen footage of the Beatles or even heard their songs. This shouldn’t be surprising. The video she watches of the Fab Four, playing “All My Loving” on Ed Sullivan in 1964, was created probably…
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Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Live From the Ryman, Vol. 2
Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is a special venue for Isbell & the 400 Unit. As their stature has grown beyond roots music, they’ve performed on that vaunted stage more than 50 times in the past decade and recorded a previous album there. This new collection reprises material from their most-recent albums, Reunions and Weathervanes, with a…
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Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai
Bass Convergence
Recorded at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on their 2024 U.S. tour, G3 Reunion Live reunites the virtuosos who started it all. Three sets plus the encore jam capture the energy and passion of the performances, packaged here as two CDs, a 16-page photo booklet, four LPs, and a 64-page coffee table book. Set…
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The Fleshtones
It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)
Frontman Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng have led New York’s Fleshtones for nearly 50 years. Drummer Bill Milhizer joined in 1980, with “new bassist” Ken Fox in ’90. A 2007 biography declared them “America’s garage band,” and spawned the documentary Pardon Us For Living, But The Graveyard’s Full, and 23 bands cut Vindicated! A…
Sweet
Self-distributed
Sweet – the ’70s glam-pop act that’s almost as famous for its hairdos as its music – is today actually two bands touring under the name. The U.S. version that recorded this disc…
Brad Hoyt
The name of producer Gregg Miner’s label says it all: Harp Guitar Music. He is a leading practitioner and promoter of the multi-stringed beast and a big reason it’s currently enjoying such a…
Gretchen Menn
Magnum Opus
Gretchen Menn stands alone. One might argue that she’s the female counterpart to Steve Morse. Both are aviators, both play ungodly guitar, and both are ersed in the European traditions of the Classical…
John5 – Requiem
Adrenaline Records
His resume includes names like Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, but John 5 is not your typical shock-metal guitarist. In fact, much of his new DVD shows him running down country licks… in…
Rick Vito
Who Needs Frets?
Rick Vito is one of the few guitarists who didn’t just put his name on a guitar as an endorser; as his own guitar designer, he came up with the art deco Streamliner,…
The Misunderstood, Fat Mattress, and others
The 1972 Lenny Kaye-compiled Elektra double-LP Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 spawned the Pebbles series, Rhino’s various regional Nuggets volumes, and eventually 2001’s Nuggets, Vol. 2: Original Artyfacts From…
Evan Johns and The Hillbilly Soul Surfers – Moontan
Moontan
Roots rock wild man Evan Johns returns with a taut but tasty trick bag that should fire the faithful, and make a few new friends, too. The sensibility that infused “Ugly Man” is…
Eric Clapton
Crossroads Festival 2019
Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival has become the guitar event since its inception in 1999. With a diverse cast of the greatest pickers in the world, the event is a fundraiser for Clapton’s drug…
Various Artists – The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute
The likes of Dylan, Mellencamp, Van Morrison, Dwight Yoakam, and many more cover the songs of one of country music’s pioneers. The covers mostly work. There are a few clinkers, but cuts like…
Faces
At the BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings, 1970-1973
Rod Stewart & Faces were sloppy and raucous enough to make the Rolling Stones look like Air Supply. Okay, not really, but Stewart himself called them, “Five drunks who got away with murder…
Mike Morgan & the Crawl – Stronger Every Day
Texas-born Mike Morgan returns with his 13th album of original songs, layering blues with a funky rhythm that captures the essence of Muscle Shoals and Beale Street all at once, and does a…
Swississippi Chris Harp
Swississippi Records
It’s not often the man who starts a record label is featured on one of its first releases, but that’s the case with Chris Harper. And when you’re backed by players like Jimmy…
The Blues Will Set You Free
We’ve all heard of blues in bars, but what about blues behind bars? That’s what Paul Oscher had in mind in the late ’80s, when he brought a world-class blues band to play…
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…
Dave Mason with Chris Epting
Only You Know & I Know
Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Mason has endured the familiar rock-star highs and lows in his unusual career, and several unique experiences are covered in this autobiography. A founding member of the groundbreaking Traffic, Mason calls…
Jake Shimabukuro
The Hendrix of the ukulele proves he’s worthy of his title, jamming here with a power trio made up of bassist Nolan Verner and drummer Evan Hutchings. Jake Shimabukuro says he went into…
Trampled Under Foot
Every now and then a band comes along that after one listen you realize they really get it. This is the case with Trampled Under Foot, made up of the Schnebelen siblings: Danielle…
AC/DC
With the sad news that rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young is battling dementia and will never play again, the future of AC/DC lingered in doubt. But, on Rock Or Bust, Angus Young and his…
Fabulous Thunderbirds – Live
Live
Greasy vocals and harp, on-the-money blues guitar, great tunes, and an audience just waiting to be entertained. That’s what this CD is. Put it in the player and try not to move around.…
Lamar Sorrento
As the title of his latest might just hint, Lamar Sorrento isn’t expecting to break into the big time or sweep the Grammys with this disc. That’s OK, because it’s all too good…
Jeff Beck
Since the late ’90s, Jeff Beck has been fusing equal parts blues, jazz-rock, and heavy-duty electronica; this time he’s added spoken-word sections and vocals over the big, throbbing grooves, thanks to singer Rosie…
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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo – Live!
Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman with Marty Stuart
Emmylou Harris – Rhino Reissues
Rhino Reissues
Summers, Delaney & Sharp – Tonight Only
Tonight Only
Jason & the Scorchers – Halcyon Times
Playground Music