• 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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Donna The Buffalo – Silverlined

Some still think Jethro Tull is the name of that band’s lead singer. So was it wise for a band, especially one with a female lead singer, to name itself Donna The Buffalo?…

Pete Levin – Deacon Blues

Levin is a keyboard specialist who for the past few decades has played with the best in the business, including Paul Simon, Miles Davis, John Scofield, Robbie Robertson, David Sanborn, and plenty of…

Tony Rice – Night Flyer

The title is a bit misleading. Tony Rice has penned music and lyrics for a few songs (including the one that leads off this album), but the title refers to his interpretations of…

Andy Poxon

A former teen phenom, Andy Poxon is just now hovering around the legal drinking age with enough footage on the internet to chronicle his musical growth and development over the last half dozen…

Graham Parker – Songs of No Consequence

Graham Parker – Songs of No Consequence Man, it’s good to hear Graham Parker, and to know that age hasn’t dulled his pen – his lyrics challenge anything and everything that bothers him.…

Deke Dickerson

We’ve all dreamed the dream. Dozens, if not hundreds, of times. It generally revolves around trolling yard sales or pawn shops where you excitedly uncover a rare, dusty gem patiently waiting for a…

Tom Principato – Anniversary DVD: Celebrating 40 Years

Anniversary DVD: Celebrating 40 Years

Tom Principato is one of those guitarists who has been around for a long time. He’s on the fringe of lots of stuff, has played with tons of great guitarists, and makes pretty…

Tony Bacon – 50 Years of Fender – Half a Century of the Greatest Electric Guitars

In 1950, Leo Fender began production of the first solidbody electric guitar, and music hasn’t been the same since. Celebrating the anniversary of the event, this book provides a year-by-year chronicle of the…

Slick SL-52 and SL-56

Budget Riff Rockers

Since 2004, Guitarfetish has been selling instruments, parts, pedals, and accessories online. Their Slick guitar line – designed and built with input from guitarist Earl Slick – includes the offset SL-56 and single-cut…

Russell Malone

MaxJazz

Triple Play is a trio record, with Russell Malone’s guitar being the only harmonic instrument. Many guitarists would shy from the challenge of keeping the harmony and melody while soloing. It’s not a…

Cage the Elephant – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked

Brothers Brad and Matt Schultz had a rough youth in small-town Kentucky, where music, money and hope were hard to find. Growing up in an eventually broken home with six people squeezed into…

David Michael Miller

The latest record from David Michael Miller is a mixture of soul, gospel, blues, pop, funk, and everything in between. Sometimes multiple styles of music come together in the same song, as in…

Rick McRae- Guitarland

The retitled version of Johnny Gimble’s “Fiddlin’ Around” (“Pickin’ Around”) is a clue, but just going by the repertoire here – encompassing Jobim, Bonfa, Villa Lobos, Cole Porter, and Charlie Parker – one…

Downchild – I Need A Hat

Linus Entertainment

Downchild is a Canadian blues band driven by blues maestro Donnie Walsh. Their new release is made up of originals written by Walsh that are tough and gritty in the best blues tradition,…

Ten Years After – The Anthology (1967-1971)

If you’re lucky enough to catch Ten Years After on classic rock radio these days, it’s likely the 1971 hit “I’d Love to Change the World.” As strong as that tune is, it…

Bob Dylan and the Band

  Fans file it under Bob 101. Hunkered in the Catskills in 1967 after reportedly cracking up his Triumph motorcycle a year earlier, Dylan invited the rockabilly musicians who backed him on his…

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…

James Armstrong – Dark Night

James Armstrong comes back from an intruder attack in his own home to serve up a record brimming with blues fire. He can’t play guitar like he did in the past because of…

The Gourds

In October 2013, a mere month after releasing their 10th LP (and 19 years after forming), the Gourds announced that they were taking a hiatus. With the Austin, Texas, alt-country quintet’s new album…

Ron Thompson

Ron Thompson has been a fixture in the San Francisco blues scene for more than 40 years. But rather than gaining visibility and rocketing to stardom like, say, Robben Ford, he patiently paid…

Nels Cline

Lovers

Nels Cline has quite the musical resumé, and yet has always been hard to pin down. Whether doing some form of fusion, manning the lead-guitar chair in Wilco, or serving up dissonance and…

Andy Timmons

Electric Truth

Is there life after success in a glam-metal band? Many guitarists were asking themselves that question after the scene fizzled in the ’90s. Most blamed grunge. Danger Danger’s Andy Timmons never had to…

Pink Floyd & The Dark Side of the Moon

Martin Popoff

This book marks the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s masterwork – composer/bassist Roger Waters’ meditation on madness set over angsty, slow-tempo rock. The narrative digs into the weeds of their 1973 breakthrough, accompanied…

Joe Bonamassa

From the opening notes of “Slow Train” to the echo of the last note of “Prisoner,” modern blues guitarslinger Joe Bonamassa’s Dust Bowl is a masterpiece. Bonamassa has released 11 previous solo albums…

Tom Walsh and John King

C.F. Martin’s ukuleles have long been the standard by which all others were judged. Though bookcases brim with books about Martin guitars, the merest mention of the company’s extraordinary ukes has been largely…

R.L. Burnside – Mr. Wizard & Acoustic Stories

R.L. Burnside plays guitar like the world is coming to an end. His electric sounds follow in the boogie-drone style of John Lee Hooker and Fred McDowell, but take the blues over the…

Wes Montgomery

There’s not a lot more that can be said about Wes Montgomery that hasn’t already been said. But new recordings keep surfacing, almost demanding more superlatives about his playing. Suffice it to say…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

The Rolling Stones

Chrome Dreams/MVD

Despite the title, the focus of this “unauthorized” Stones documentary is not directly on Mick Taylor nor his guitar playing, but a general analysis of the band’s heyday. That said, there’s a lot…

Newport Folk Festival – Best of Bluegrass 1959-1966

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 the all-star…

Alan Ravenscroft

This rockumentary delves into the career of the enigmatic Deep Purple guitar hero, from his early ’60s session work through Deep Purple, Rainbow, and recent work with Blackmore’s Night. Beer in hand, Ritchie…