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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
Joe Goldmark – Strong Like Bull… But Sensitive Like Squirrel
God, you’ve got to love Joe Goldmark. A pedal steel player who is willing to tackle pretty much any style of music, and not only tackle it, but do a bang-up job on…
Waters, Winter & Cotton – Breakin’ It Up & Breakin’ It Down
Even though Waters was undoubtedly the most important blues artist in Chess Records’ stable (indeed, the most influential bluesman of his generation), when you look back on his discography, most of his albums…
Howard Alden – Take Your Pick
Here’s a good-old-fashioned jazz guitar album from one of Concord’s young lions. Alden’s work always sounds great, whether he’s swinging with single-note runs (“The Gig”), playing chord solos (“I Concentrate on You”), or…
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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,
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Box Set
This four-CD box set illustrates again how the seed planted by Hendrix created a whole tree of rock guitar that still flourishes, although not at the level of creativity it did with Jimi.…
Steve Morse Band – Split Decision
Split Decision
It’s hard to believe that the Steve Morse Band is nearly 20 years old. Formed in the wake of the Dixie Dregs’ 1983 breakup, the SMB has long served as a forum for…
Mavis Staples
Faced with the formidable task of following her own recent successes, the queen of gospel music teamed with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and scored another artistic bull’s eye. Producer Tweedy wisely used the trio…
Jimi Hendrix
Experience Hendrix/Legacy
To overlook Hendrix’ blues roots would be as misguided as to categorize him (as some do) as simply “a blues guitarist.” If that were the case, there’d no doubt be more than 11…
Darrell Scott – The Invisible Man
On his latest solo release, Darrell Scott delivers 12 reasons why he’s one of the most outstanding and underrated songwriters/performers in the U.S. today. Compared with his past efforts, The Invisible Man has…
The Jelly Jam
The Jelly Jam’s forth album is a weighty recording that combines the best elements of modern prog and aspects of King’s X. Nobody does dark and moody like King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor.…
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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 Jimmy Bruno Group – Midnight Blue
I dunno… sometimes it seems silly to review things like this. Everyone who follows jazz guitar knows Jimmy Bruno is a knock-down monster player with both chops and soul. In fact, technically, he’s…
Hacienda Bros. – Arizona Motel
Arizona Motel is the last album we will ever get from the Hacienda Brothers. The death of lead singer Chris Gaffney in April has ended the five-year run of the best country band…
The Twangbangers – 26 Days on the Road
Pretty hard to screw up this one. You’ve got Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert on guitar, Joe Goldmark on pedal steel, and Dallas Wayne on vocals, along with the killer rhythm section of…
The Mike Eldred Trio
The Mike Eldred Trio’s latest was recorded at Memphis’ hallowed Sun Studios, but the deep blues are straight outta the Delta. Eldred needs little introduction here. The former Fender Custom Shop manager, he’s…
Freddie Steady 5
Tex Pop
Austin’s Freddie Krc has worn many hats – singer/songwriter, producer, drummer, label head, guitarist, harmonica hyperventilator – with Jerry Jeff Walker, Roky Erickson, Sal Valentino, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Carole King, and the many…
Cream – BBC Sessions
BBC Sessions
These cuts were recorded over a 15-month period from late 1966 to early ’68. They were cut for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Because of strict regulations on the number of phonograph records that…
Frank Moriarty – Seventies Rock: A Decade of Creative Chaos
Seventies Rock: A Decade of Creative Chaos
It’s the music many of us grew up on. But it was different from the ’60s. The Beatles were over, Jimi and Janis were dead, and the feel-good ethos of Woodstock had given…
Tommy Castro and the Painkillers
Stompin’ Ground
Veteran Tommy Castro feels right at home here as he takes his band and some pretty special guests through songs that, for the most part, harken back to his days growing up in…
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa has taken blues music out of the ebullient African American clubs that crisscrossed the country, and re-fashioned it into an epic theatrical presentation for the world’s most illustrious stages. With his…
Greg V – Tailgate Troubadour
Greg V has played and toured with acts like Double Trouble and Buddy Miles. But that won’t prepare you for this album of instrumentals that contains more tasty, atmospheric guitars than you’re likely…
Gary Moore: The Official Biography
Harry Shapiro
The ultimate unsung hero, Moore made a seismic impact on heavy guitarists, without being a huge star himself. That’s the thesis of this well-researched biography, describing a virtuoso with high standards, a fiery…
Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc.Etc.: Deluxe Edition
When this album was released in 1986, country music had become stale. But its no-holds-barred step back to the great Bakersfield sound, wonderfully original songs, killer covers, and Yoakam’s wholly original style had…
Denise Franke – Gulf Coast Blues
Texas songwriter Denice Franke’s fourth solo disc sounds as though its inspiration could have come from nowhere but that mystical area the title references, where cowboy country meets the ocean; where “big” gives…
Amy Black
Reuben Records
There’s a solid old-school thump to Amy Black’s modern, acoustic-guitarbased blues. Sometimes (as on “Stay”), she leavens her music with a rockabilly flavor with the help of fiddler Dan Kellar, who gets some…
Pink Floyd and Australian Pink Floyd Show
It’s not easy being a Floyd fan in 2015. The band’s best work lies 40 years in the past, yet there are still choices to be made. First up is their latest –…
Kirk Fletcher
Heartache by the Pound
Blues guitar master Kirk Fletcher returns with an album that mixes soul, R&B, blues, funk, and phenomenal guitar playing. Fletcher tricks the listener into thinking they’ll be hearing a pious ’60s soul record.…
Lost Planet Airmen
Back from the Ozone
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were true country-rock and Americana pioneers. Their unique, uncompromising brew of rockabilly, R&B, honky-tonk, Western swing, and Bakersfield twang set them apart and even yielded a…
The Rolling Stones
Amidst the late-’70s rise of punk and new wave, the Stones felt irrelevant; they were still a mammoth touring entity, but their brightest days seemed behind them. Released at last, these secret gigs…
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…
Jim Campilongo
Jim Campilongo’s tenth album is a stark and intimate portrait of an artist at the peak of his powers. Augmented by two acoustic tracks (“Suppose” and “One Mean Eye”), Dream Dictionary is a…
Eric Gales Trio
Eric Gales is arguably the most underrated guitarist of his generation. Emerging in the early ’90s with a post-Hendrix blueprint that combined a fusion of blues, rock, and gospel, he never sustained the…
