• 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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Shawn Mullins – Honeydew

Vanguard Records

Shawn Mullins hit the big time in the ’90s with the sleepy folk tune “Lullaby.” Since then he has jumped around a bit and now finds himself recording for Vanguard, which has a…

Rival Sons

Bands that sound like they just walked out of a recording studio 40 years ago are practically a genre nowadays. While it can be argued that the Black Crowes have been doing this…

Marc Antoine – Cruisin’

Cruisin'

Antoine is a fine acoustic guitarist who has developed a style rooted in smooth jazz, but is always pretty interesting. In fact, Antoine, and his fellows, on this one, do work that could…

Tom Jones

Sir Tom Jones’ career was far from hurting , but 2010’s Praise & Blame earned him a new audience in unexpected circles. Those who begrudgingly allowed that he had a great voice “for…

Greg Nagy

Blues rocker Greg Nagy makes the Northern industrial equivalent to Southern country of the 1950s and ’60s. He melds ’70s West Coast R&B, British blues rock, Albert King tones, dollops of Steely Dan,…

The Hula Hawaiians – Hilo March

Imagine the year is 1946 and you live in Europe. You’re a steel guitarist and, naturally, you’re really interested in Hawaiian music. You don’t want to play this music all by yourself, so…

David Clayton and Todd K. Smith – Free: Heavy Load

Free: Heavy Load

This epic chronicles the story of the seminal British blues/rock band Free. Leaving no stone unturned, and with the help of more than 400 photos, authors David Clayton and Todd K. Smith have…

Paul Priest

Self-distributed

The title references the “impact” of the guitar effects pedals made by Robert Keeley in making the album. That’s all fine and good, but more important is the fine music, propelled by the…

Rock Candy Funk Party

Funk means many things to many people, and while religious funkaholics place Sly and the Family Stone, the Ohio Players, and Parliament Funkadelic high on the alter, heretics differ. Rock Candy Funk Party’s…

Various Artists – Stax anniversary

This two-disc set has 50 songs, many of which are classics of the soul genre that burst out of Memphis and the Stax label throughout the 1960s and ’70s. The guitar was an…

Chris Stapleton

Higher

 Chris Stapleton’s distinctive style – blending elements of Outlaw country with high-caliber original songs, powerful vocals, and a minimalist, edgy sound – proves Nashville artists can prosper without mindless “bro-country” formulas. Stapleton has…

Kim Simmonds – Blues Like Midnight

Blues Like Midnight

While the press release promotes this CD as a departure for Kim Simmonds, to this writer it would seem one more facet of this veteran guitarist’s musical personality. On Blues Like Midnight, Simmonds…

John Munnerlyn & Lee Jeffries

Old-Pro Records

For savvy record collectors, this CD should jump off the rack, with its cover homage to The Swinging Guitar Of Tal Farlow – not to mention Munnerlyn’s National California archtop (a ’53) and…

Claude Hay

Australian Claude Hay is an intensely spirited one-man band. He works himself into such a frenzy performing his multi-layered songs (“How Can You Live Without Yourself”) they become improvisation-like outpourings of a man…

David Gilmour – On An Island

This is an expanded edition of Gilmour’s 2006 DVD of material from a live AOL session. The DVD is a bit sterile, done in a studio with no audience, but the playing is…

Rolling Stones

Tattoo You 40th Anniversary

The last consequential Stones album, 1981’s Tattoo You wasn’t technically a new recording. While the band rehearsed for a U.S. tour, co-producer Chris Kimsey discovered semi-finished studio material going back as far as 1972,…

The Jim Campilongo Trio

Jazz Hoedown

Jim Campilongo’s records have always shown his country and jazz influences while offering his own twist. On this latest live record he and his trio, with a couple of guest shots from like-minded…

Ed DeGenaro – Dog House

Ed DeGenaro is a Seattle-based session cat and bonafide guitar monster with great ideas and chops. His music is a fusion of musical styles and influences that often intermingle within the same composition.…

Connie Smith

The Cry of the Heart

Connie Smith was an unknown in 1964 when her debut single “Once a Day” flew to the top of the country charts. In an era when slicker, less twangy Nashville Sound recordings were…

Shawn Mullins – Honeydew

Vanguard Records

Shawn Mullins hit the big time in the ’90s with the sleepy folk tune “Lullaby.” Since then he has jumped around a bit and now finds himself recording for Vanguard, which has a…

Monster Mike Welch – Ax To Grind…

As a parent of a 15-year-old boy, I would hope that “Monster” Mike’s music packs a message that belies his 17 years. Perhaps he has a ghost writer lurking nearby with 40 years…

Jack White

Willie Wonka Rocks

Nobuki Takamen

Summit Records

Dan Summer & Kathryn Hobgood Ray l

Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer

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…

The Jimi Hendrix Experience/Jimi Hendrix

Despite the ongoing effort to strap the name Jimi Hendrix to everything from vodka to golf balls, his story remains a great American saga. Like Robert Johnson and Charlie Christian before him, he…

INXS – Shine Like It Does: The Anthology 1979-1997

A completely beautiful package for a band that really deserves the recognition. In the 1980s and ’90s, these Australian rockers made perfect pop/rock records that were laced with funk, soul, and R&B. They…

Jake Andrews

Train Back Home

In his early 40s now, for some folks around Austin, he’ll always be “Guitar Jake.” When Andrews was eight years old, he sat in with an impressed Albert King at Antone’s blues club,…

Jack Bruce and the hr-Bigband

A Bass Legend And Much More

Jack Bruce was one of the most fascinating figures in rock and roll – although he preferred to be known as a jazz musician. As one-third of Cream (with Eric Clapton and Ginger…

B.B. King & Friends – 80

B.B. King & Friends – 80 To mark his 80th birthday, the King of the Blues has cut an album of duets with friends old and new. The gimmick is nothing new, but…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Jackson Browne

Eagle Rock

Part documentary, part performance (then-current and archival), this reissue of the 1999 portrait of the singer/songwriter reveals his sense of humor, commitment to social causes, and, most of all, talent. There is no…

Rodney Jones – Soul Manifesto

Okay, it’s not like Rodney Jones doesn’t have the pedigree. He spent lots of time on the road with Maceo Parker, so it’s not like funk would be foreign to him. But on…

Norman Blake – Old Ties

Old Ties

Rounder’s Heritage series specializes in new anthologies of previously released work – the musical equivalent of old wine in new bottles. Norman Blake’s Old Ties features selections that span from 1971 to 1990.…