• Smith/Kotzen

    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

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Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters

On this latest album, Ronnie Earl and his band freely and unabashedly mourn and honor the late David Maxwell, the Broadcasters pianist who died in 2015 at age 71. While Earl and his…

Dave Specter

The latest from Dave Specter crosses genres and styles like a car with bad wheels crosses highway lines. But here, the outcome is a good thing. Whether it’s soul, blues, jazz, or rock…

Pieta Brown and Valerie June

Singer/songwriter Pieta Brown enlists talent – and lots of it – to back her ethereal songs and vocals on her latest. Calexico lends a hand with the opener “In The Light” while Mark…

Steve Earle – Townes

Of his mentor, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle has said he was “a real good teacher and a real bad role model.” Seems Earle got a good dose of both. With his new…

Jimmy McIntosh

While guitarists in high-profile bands get the lion’s of share of publicity, the working stiffs who slug it out on local stages get no love. Las Vegas sideman Jimmy McIntosh is one of…

The Derek Trucks Band – Soul Serenade

Though a step back chronologically – tracks for this album were recorded in late ’99 and early 2000, before the release of the band’s 2002 Joyful Noise album – Soul Serenade is several…

Michael Burks – Iron Man

Michael “Iron Man” Burks isn’t the first or last talented musician to have to work a straight gig for most of his adult life, delaying the doing of what he was obviously born…

Marc Ford – Weary And Wired

Shortly after announcing his retirement from the Black Crowes, the platinum-selling Southern-rockers he’d joined in 1992, Marc Ford reunited with bassist Mark “Muddy” Dutton and drummer Doni Gray, his late-80s bandmates from the…

Moby Grape

Sundazed

Most bands that comprised San Francisco’s psychedelic scene circa 1967’s Summer Of Love consisted of folkies gone electric (the Grateful Dead, Country Joe & The Fish, Jefferson Airplane). Moby Grape was one very…

Vandenberg’s Moonkings

He’s had a decade away from the spotlight, but former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg has returned with Vandenberg’s MoonKings. After a false start with the ill-fated Manic Eden starring Rudy Sarzo and Tommy…

Rich Kienzle

VG readers won’t be surprised to learn that contributor Rich Kienzle’s comprehensive bio of George Jones is a great read and a dispassionate chronicle of his drive-in movie of a life. While the…

Tommy Castro – Gratitude

Tommy Castro goes for the throat, emotionally, no matter if he’s playing straight blues, funk, or good old-fashioned rock and roll. This album is a good case in point. It’s set up as…

Various artists

Eagle Rock

Dubbed “The Best British Rock Concert of All Time,” the June, 1990, event featured most of the superstar U.K. acts of the day – Genesis, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Dire Straits,…

Dykes & Vaughan – On the Jimmy Reed Highway

Kent “Omar” Dykes is best known for fronting Omar and the Howlers, and though this disc was planned a solo effort paying homage to fellow Mississippi blues man Jimmy Reed, as word got…

Burnin’ Mike Vernon’s 3 Balls Of Fire

Burnin’ & Churnin’ and Live! (featuring Nokie Edwards, George Tomsco, and Jerry Cole)

Of all the surf-instrumental revivalists, Vernon is one of the most prolific. Since forming Balls Of Fire in 1987, he has also dipped his toe into “crime jazz” and Hollywood soundtrack covers –…

Earl Klugh

Thirty-seven years between his debut album and today, HandPicked, Klugh’s first new album since 2008’s The Spice Of Life, appears on his own label (distributed by Concord). Like his past few albums, Klugh…

Enrico Granafei

Miles High Records

On this truly phenomenal record, Granafei rolls through 10 cuts, most familiar, with just his voice, a nylon-string guitar, and a chromatic harmonica. There is no over-dubbing on this record, and Granafei’s performance…

Swervedriver

The shoegaze revival is peaking, so what better time for one of its leading lights to hop on the wagon while the hopping is hot, right? Not so fast. Swervedriver reunited seven years…

NRBQ

How many times and in how many ways can you call a band charming? Doesn’t matter who the players are, that word describes the ’Q to a T. This is the second record…

The Aristocrats

Duck

Featuring Guthrie Govan on guitar and Bryan Beller on bass plus über-drummer Marco Minnemann, this terrifying trio blows minds every other bar. Like a modern-day Dixie Dregs or fusiony Satch/Vai project, they attack…

Raul Malo

From the opening trumpet notes, you know Sinners and Saints won’t be your ordinary country CD. The title cut sounds like the end result of a Ventures meeting with Nino Rota at a…

Bobby Rush

Bobby Rush launched his career in Little Rock, singing and playing with Elmore James. He blossomed in Chicago in the ’50s, sharing gigs with Muddy, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and Jimmy Reed, and…

Various Artists

Orchestral Maneuvers

Yes’ Chris Squire didn’t intend to make a masterpiece with 1975’s Fish Out of Water, but he inadvertently did – and knew it. For the ensuing 40 years, the late bassist never dared…

Hadden Sayers Band – 12 Bars and the Naked Truth

12 Bars and the Naked Truth

There’s no question what you’re going to get when you hear one of Hadden Sayers’ records. It’s rock and roll, plain and simple. No pretense, he just plugs in and plays, and brings…

Robert Randolph & the Family Band

The latest album by sacred steel giant Randolph and his band is a non-stop, foot-stomping mix of R&B, soul, rock and roll, and gospel that is as invigorating as it is smart. Randolph’s…

Brian Setzer – The Knife Feels Like Justice

I was extremely happy to see this on CD. I loved this album when it came out in ’86, and it still sounds wonderful. I guess you’d call this post-Cats/pre-swing Brian. Musically, it…

California Transit Authority – Full Circle

CTA is California Transit Authority, a band led by Danny Seraphine, the original drummer for Chicago. Early Chicago records stood out thanks in large part to Seraphine’s drumming and Terry Kath’s incendiary guitar…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Clarence White – 33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals

33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals came from a cassette tape discovered in Clarence’s personal archives after his untimely death. These home recordings feature him playing lead guitar accompanied by Roger Bush on rhythm for…

Various Artists – Concert For George

Concert For George

On November 29, 2002, a year to the day after George Harrison’s death, an all-star cast took the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the music of the ex-Beatle and distinguished…

Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren gets the BBC archival treatment, and the results are fantastic. This three-disc, single-DVD set of radio and TV performances is a perfect showcase for the dichotomy that is Todd – pop…