• Popa Chubby

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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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Charles Sawtelle – Music from Rancho DeVille

Music from Rancho DeVille

Music from Rancho DeVille is a loveletter from across the grave. Charles Sawtelle passed away Mach 21, 1999, of complications from leukemia. The last several years of his life were spent recuperating from…

Ari Eisinger

Ari Eisinger doesn’t look like your typical bluesman. A science teacher, maybe, but not a blues singer/guitarist. Which proves Willie Dixon’s line – “You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover.”…

Pollo Del Mar – The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

If you’re excessively monolingual, you might not know that Pollo del Mar translates to “chicken of the sea.” I like it just for that. But I like it for other reasons, too. The…

Larry McCray

Blues Without You

After 40 years of playing under the radar, Rust Belt bluesman Larry McCray finally gets his big break. On Blues Without You, McCray receives production magic from Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith for…

Craig Chaquico – Shadow and Light

Shadow and Light

Most guitarists know Craig’s story. He was the young hotshot guitarist with the Jefferson Starship in the ’70s and ’80s. After that, he started making atmospheric acoustic records for Higher Octave. On his…

Check This Action: The Salad Days of British Blues

What springs to mind when you hear the term “British blues movement”? Is it covers of Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker songs by the early Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, Yardbirds,…

Pops Staples

Roebuck “Pops” Staples learned his chops at the elbows of Son House and Robert Johnson. When he passed away in 2000, American culture lost perhaps the last direct link to rock and roll’s…

Larry Coryell

The lastest from the godfather of fusion guitar harkens back to his ’71 album Barefoot Boy, revisiting the energy, philosophy, and spirit of that period. “Sanpaku” opens the set with Coryell’s take on…

Robben Ford – Keep On Running

If there’s a guitarist working right now who I like more than Robben Ford, I’m not sure who it’d be. He’s done so many interesting projects in the past six or seven years…

Ray Mason – Old School

Ray Mason – Old School Ray Mason’s music, while being full of wonderful chord changes, quiet vocals, and lyrics with discreet meaning, is also quirky and hard to define. On this disc, the…

Keith Richards

Still Happy

The old pirate may have just turned 72, but that doesn’t seem to have slowed him down. Welcome to Keith Richards’ third solo album – and his first in 23 years. The album…

Dwight Twilley – 47 Moons

Dwight Twilley is like that cousin who used to pop in once in a blue moon and was great fun to be with and around. The last run-in I had with him was…

Jeff Beck

Portait of the Guitarist As A(n Older) Man

After years of on and off seclusion, Jeff Beck miraculously morphed into a road warrior this past decade. His tour with ZZ Top last year provided the raw material for this new live…

Hot Tuna

Live at Sweetwater / Live in Japan

Jorma Kaukonen, who started as an acoustic folk-blues guitarist, returned to that style in 1969 when he and bassist Jack Casady formed Hot Tuna. Recordings from their early gigs at Bay Area clubs…

J.D. Simo

Mind Control

The topic is psychedelic blues, and J.D. Simo is the man with the brown acid. Hypnotic wah, talking hollowbody guitars, and trippy drum patterns permeate an album that will change the equilibrium of…

Gore Gore Girls – Get The Gore

Formed in Detroit in 1997, the all-female Gore Gore Girls have undergone personnel changes with each of their CDs, with singer/guitarist Amy Gore the only constant. On this, the group’s fourth release, she…

Steely Dan – Two Against Nature (video)

Two Against Nature features the current touring band doing new and old tunes in concert in a nice intimate setting that highlights the band’s sound perfectly. Fagen and Becker lead a group featuring…

Blind Pig Records – 20th Anniversary Collection

It’s been 20 years since Blind Pig Records got its start in the humble Blind Pig Café in a basement in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the years, the label has released records by…

Too Rolling Stoned

The Rolling Stones

Once reviled as a self-indulgent, drug-addled wreck, the Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request has been reconsidered in recent years and is now regarded as a one-off gem. Lodged between their early R&B-fueled hits…

Calvin Keys

To some, Calvin Keys is already a legend; to far too many, he’s an unsung hero or, worse, an unknown. In addition to being honored with Pat Metheny’s tribute “Calvin’s Keys,” on the…

Jeff Beck – Truth and Beck-ola

Truth and Beck-ola

Okay, reviewing these is a no-brainer. Any guitarist of my generation knows these well. The 1968 and ’69 releases helped establish Beck, and essentially paved the way for Led Zeppelin. Beck is a…

Richard Thompson

Shout Factory

Richard Thompson is one of the most prolific songwriters pop music has ever seen. Of course, being prolific is meaningless if one just churns out pap. But the quality of Thompson’s output is…

Santana – Santana: Legacy Edition

Watching Santana’s incendiary performance in the concert film of Woodstock, it’s almost beyond comprehension to realize that this was a band that had yet to release its debut album. That wouldn’t happen until…

Stew Cutler

Cutler’s latest release perfectly navigates that land between jazz and blues that puts it firmly in both camps. It’s an organ-trio record for the most part, with Cutler’s lead and rhythm guitar parts…

Nashville Pussy

For heavy-rock fans complaining that nobody makes good music anymore, meet Nashville Pussy. This Atlanta-based band has been kicking ass since ’97. Creating a white-trash blend of AC/DC meets Lynyrd Skynyrd with a…

Deborah Coleman – Livin’ On Love

Groovy is the word for Deborah Coleman. She’s got the hip sensibility of Joan Armatrading blended with the blues groove of B.B. King. The result is music that moves you. When Coleman released…

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…

Jefferson Airplane – The Essential Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane released eight studio albums between 1966 and ’72, then culled a live curtain call from its final tour before morphing into Jefferson Starship. Since then, there have been at least twice…

Dave Hunter

The title of this new book is not hyperbole. The book truly covers not only the origin and history of the iconic guitar, but also includes short features on guitar players who make…

Bill Frisell

Few jazz guitarists combine versatility, originality, and eclecticism like 59-yearold Bill Frisell. He’s such a unique guitar voice, “jazz” seems too confining a category. And thanks to his open-mindedness, he’s as likely to…