• 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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Michael Schenker’s Temple of Rock

Despite Michael Schenker’s infamy as a member of the Scorpions, UFO, and MSG, he seems to have put his demons behind him. On this new album, Schenker is a clean, mean, guitar-playing machine.…

B.B. King: From Indianola to Icon

Charles Sawyer

Author/photographer Charles Sawyer’s association with B.B. King began in 1968 and led to his authorized 1980 biography The Arrival of B.B. King. This coffee-table production is no sequel, but a lavishly illustrated memoir…

The Joanna Connor Band

After listening to this album several times, I’m still left with a feeling of not being able to pinpoint where this accomplished slide guitarist is coming from. Her past efforts have vacillated from…

Barrence Whitfield and the Savages

There are rock reunions, and then there are rock reunions. Some shine (the Zombies, the Rascals), others tarnish (Police, the post-Morrison, Densmore-less Doors). But blink and you might have missed one of the…

Steve Hillage Band

VoicePrint

An icon of Britain’s famed “Canterbury Scene” of the late ’60s and ’70s, Steve Hillage made his mark mixing psychedelia, pop, and Hendrix-fueled guitar solos with thrilling abandon. Thirty years after his heyday,…

Hot Club of Cowtown

Proper Records

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli’s Hot Club both blended early 20th century blues and jazz with the folk music of their culture. Both featured hot-shot fiddlers…

Steve Smith, George Brooks, Prasanna

Abstract Logix

Before joining Journey in 1978, Steve Smith drummed on jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty’s Enigmatic Ocean, and before he left the band in ’83, he had already formed the fusion group Vital Information. The…

Chris Duarte

Ain’t Giving Up

After Stevie Ray Vaughan’s death in 1990, an army of Strat cats rushed into the breach, vying to be the next blues god. One of the first through was Chris Duarte, who understood…

Luther Allison- A Legend Never Dies: Essential Recordings 1976-1997

Soul-Fixin’ Man

Even among blues musicians, Luther Allison’s story was unique.  Born into sharecropping in Arkansas, the 14th of 15 children, he learned to sing gospel and play guitar. After the family moved their roots…

Willie Nelson

That’s Life

My Way, Willie’s 2018 Grammy-winning Frank Sinatra homage, clearly didn’t satiate his desire to explore songs by the vocalist whose style profoundly influenced his own. With the same co-producers (Buddy Cannon and keyboardist…

Duke Robillard – A Swing Lesson with Duke Robillard

Stony Plain

Duke continues his impressive output with a nod to his swing roots. Among guitarists, Robillard is known as a do-all, as he can be at home in almost any musical style, not only…

Duke Robillard and Scott Hamilton

Swingin’ Again

The association of blues guitar great Robillard and jazz sax champ Hamilton goes back to ’69, before Duke formed the horn-led Roomful Of Blues and Scott was hailed as a swing-jazz savior. Years…

Iron Maiden

Senjutsu

Now in their mid 60s, the lads of Iron Maiden are still plenty heavy, but don’t always revert to patented galloping rhythms, C-D-Em progressions, and piercing vocals. Over 40 years on, this venerable…

Johnny “Guitar” Watson – The Essential

A lot of folks first ran into Johnny “Guitar” Watson with a batch of very hip, funky records that came out in the ’70s that had very odd covers with scantily clad women…

Newport Folk Festival

Bluegrass/Blues Elementals Before Farm Aid, Telluride, or even Woodstock, there was the Newport Folk Festival. Begun in the late ’50s, this yearly gathering molded and defined a generation’s tastes in music. It was…

Vince Seneri – The Prince’s Groove

Few sounds match that of a B-3 combined with a six-string, and the latest from organist Vince Seneri gives Paul Bollenback, one of today’s best jazz guitarists, a chance to shine. Musically, there…

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,…

Mark Doyle – Guitar Noir

I love this. Doyle has been in the music biz for some time. His first band, Jukin’ Bone, made a couple of obscure albums for RCA in the early ’70s and in the…

Andy Taylor

Man’s a Wolf to Man

The former Duran Duran guitarist’s third solo album is his first of new material in 37 years, and it’s lucky to have been completed. Taylor announced in ’22 he had stage-four prostate cancer…

The Bridge – Blind Man’s Hill

Singer/guitarist Cris Jacobs and singer/mandolinist Kenny Liner co-write the music for this Baltimore-based band. Jacobs writes songs with inherent soul. Whether slinky funk (like the opener, “Honey Bee”) or blues/rock with a ragtime…

Last In Line

This album reunites Mark 1 of the late Ronnie James Dio’s solo band, including Vinny Appice, the late Jimmy Bain, and Vivian Campbell. With the group’s name taken from Dio’s second album released…

Judas Priest

50 Heavy Metal Years of Music

With 42 CDs containing every studio and live album by the British colossus – including 13 discs of unreleased material – this is the metal motherlode. The opener, 1974’s “One for the Road,”…

Frank Vignola – Blues for a Gypsy

Frank Vignola needs no introduction to most American fans of Django Reinhardt. He has released several albums of swing influenced in part by the Gypsy guitarist and formed Hot Club USA to release…

Steve Hunter

Picking a highlight of Steve Hunter’s latest is a tough chore, as there’s many tracks to recommend. Top of the list may be his lovely interpretation of the Marvin Gaye classic “What’s Goin’…

Greg Koch – 4 Days in the South

Greg Koch is one of those players with chops to spare. But he’s also got a wonderful sense of humor and despite his talent, doesn’t take himself too seriously. Examples of his attitude…

Mark Knoll – High Time

High Time

Great guitar sounds and a musical mix of blues, rock, and pop highlight this disc. The opener, “Gotta Give It Up” hints at what’s in store – big, bold guitar with a great…

Franck L. Goldwasser

Who Needs This Mess?

After moving from his native France to Oakland in ’83, Franck Goldwasser haunted blues clubs, quickly earning the nickname “Paris Slim.” The list of blues luminaries and lesser-knowns he played with is too…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Peter Green – Man Of The World: The Anthology, 1968-1988

It’s difficult to write about Peter Green without accidentally lapsing into past tense, as though the founder of the original Fleetwood Mac were no longer here. He is, of course, very much in…

Rick Holmstrom

The late Cub Koda wrote that Rick Holmstrom’s “inventive ideas are topnotch,” comparing him to the great Earl Hooker. That was in reference to Holmstrom’s solo debut, released in ’96, when he was…

Tennesee Ernie Ford – 6000 Sunset Boulevard

As if his comedic talents weren’t enough (from his early days as a disc-jockey to hosting his own TV show to guesting on “I Love Lucy”), Tennessee Ernie Ford was one of the…