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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
Hot Strings – Delicatessen
The opening song on this new album from the venerable Swiss group Hot Strings says a lot about this band and the sense of humor of its leader, guitarist Fere Scheidegger: Delicatessen kicks…
Barney Kessel with Shelly Manne & Ray Brown
The Poll Winners
Kessel, bassist Brown, and drummer Manne – pillars of West Coast jazz – had already topped reader polls in Playboy and two jazz publications before teaming for this 1957 collaboration. Using the rarely-employed…
The No Ones
My Evil Best Friend
This latest in decades of collaborations between R.E.M. guitar man Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey is the pair’s third collection with Norwegians Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen and Frode Strømstad. Listeners familiar with Buck and…
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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,
Smooth Shred
Greg Howe
After Greg Howe’s epiphany to distinguish himself from the glut of arpeggio-sweeping classical-music pirates, his career took the kind of turns you would never imagine – especially with contemporaries like Jason Becker, Vinnie…
Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant – Swingin’ On The Strings, Volume 2
This is a followup to the fine Stratosphere Boogie collection from ’95, and like that one, it defies description. I can’t imagine listeners reactions to this stuff when they first heard it back…
Howard Glazer
Detroit’s rich musical heritage includes a blues scene that has thrived in the bars along the Detroit River and on the city’s East Side. The MC5, Iggy Pop, and Bob “Catfish” Hodge sweated…
Terry Burrows
Two boards, three pickups, some hardware, and various electric bits and pieces: Stratocasters are simple creations at heart. But setting one up perfectly, repairing it – especially stageside in the heat of a…
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…
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,…
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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
Jimmie Vaughan Trio
Live at C-Boy’s
Jimmie Vaughan just may be the guitar hero’s guitar hero. His kid bro, SRV, became the vaunted, face-contorting, barn-burning blues hero who everyone plays air guitar along with. JLV, meanwhile, was the epitome…
Drew Zingg
Best known for stints with Steely Dan, Donald Fagen’s New York Rock and Soul Revue, and Boz Scaggs, Drew Zingg is a complete guitarist. And he has gone a unique route with this…
Hellecasters – Live…Raw…In Germany On…The Filter
Yikes! Here’s a truly awe-inspiring display of guitar playing. Recorded live on German television, Jerry Donahue, John Jorgenson, and Will Ray take you on a roller-coaster ride that will leave you sitting on…
Albert Collins – Live at Montreux
The justifiably nicknamed “Master Of The Telecaster” was one of the great blues guitarists of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, at age 61, he had exerted a major…
Robert Cray Band
On the heels of the live release from a 1987 concert, this is a fascinating study that shows how Robert Cray has grown as an artist, working up soul/pop tunes the likes of…
Dave Alvin – Public Domain
Dave Alvin is one of those guys you have to love. He continuously makes great albums that encompass most of the genres that make up “American” music, and he does it without much…
Peter Rowan
Carter Stanley’s Eyes
Peter Rowan spent 1963 through ’67 as lead singer/guitarist with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys before his own solo albums, his work with progressive bluegrass bands like Jerry Garcia’s Old and…
George Barnes
Country Jazz
When Chet Atkins arrived in Chicago for his first RCA recording session in August 1947, he was astounded to meet George Barnes, who’d been hired to play rhythm guitar. To Chet and others,…
Mississippi John Hurt – Live
It still surprises me, but every once in a while I run into a neophyte who thinks the blues (all blues) is, by definition, depressing – as if there’s but one emotion conveyed…
Chris Cain
Raisin’ Cain
Chris Cain returns with his 15th solo album, and it’s marvelous. Joining forces with Alligator Records, Cain continues his musical path with troubled stories and a guitar style that combines Albert King with…
Hank Williams
I’m Gonna Sing: The Mother’s Best Gospel Radio Recordings
Hank Williams, like other Grand Ole Opry stars, also hosted his own live shows over Nashville’s WSM. These 15-minute programs sponsored by Mother’s Best Flour featured him and his Drifting Cowboys, and each…
Freddy Cole
HighNote
Asked what younger jazz guitarists stood out to him, in his March ’10 VG interview, George Benson listed Norman Brown, Mark Whitfield, Russell Malone, and “the guitar player who’s playing with Freddy Cole.”…
La Pingo’s Orquesta/Todd Clouser
Midwest/Bajío
Danny Gatton – Funhouse
Funhouse
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…
Paul Gilbert
The Dio Album
It’s been almost 13 years since the passing of vocalist and metal visionary Ronnie James Dio, yet his essence looms large in the minds of fans and bands around the world, many of…
Joanna Connor
4801 South Indiana Avenue
Blues-rock queen Joanna Connor’s latest release finds her receiving branding advice from none other than Joe Bonamassa. Impressed by her viral Youtube slide performances, Bonamassa put his money where his mouth is and…
The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones
Lesley-Ann Jones
Six decades is a long time to cover, especially for a band with a history as volatile as the Rolling Stones, but British author Jones brings a befitting wit, sarcasm, and snark. While…
Sonny Landreth – Levee Town
Let’s just say it. Sonny Landreth is one of the best slide guitarists in the history of rock and roll. The title cut, which opens the album, is proof of that. After a…
BR549 – This Is BR549
On their sixth disc, the boys in BR549 have a bit of a change cooked up for you. One, their name has dropped the dash. Two, they’ve switched labels to Sony’s new Lucky…
Nils Lofgren
Wags might be forgiven for calling Nils Lofgren the Forrest Gump of rock. The dude’s not only played with everyone, it seems, but he’s been a key guitar (and accordion) foil for some…
Charles Lloyd & the Marvels
Tone Poem
Since 1967’s Forest Flower and other late-’60s albums popularized tenor saxophonist/flautist Charles Lloyd with both jazz and progressive-rock audiences, he has routinely embraced the unconventional. In 2016, Lloyd began working with the Marvels –…
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…
