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Music
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,
Deep Purple
=1
Fifty-seven years after its debut, Deep Purple keeps on rollin’. The hard-rock pioneers’ 23rd studio album, =1, is the first with new guitarist Simon McBride, who replaced Steve Morse. To hone their chops,…
Black Sabbath
Cynicism wouldn’t be out of place on your first listen to Sabbath’s first album with Ozzy Osbourne in 35 years. Before you even spin it, you can bet that the band won’t stray…
Swervedriver
The shoegaze revival is peaking, so what better time for one of its leading lights to hop on the wagon while the hopping is hot, right? Not so fast. Swervedriver reunited seven years…
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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
Jamnesia – Jamnesia
Feenix Finale
This CD can’t help but grab any guitarist’s attention, with its clever cover collage, depicting Robert Johnson playing Clapton’s famous psychedelic “Fool” Les Paul/SG. If you check out what’s inside the package before…
Lissa Schneckenburger – Song
Lissa Schneckenburger plays “progressive” New England/Celtic music that combines equal parts traditional harmonic textures with a modern acoustic sensibility. Her voice has a pristine directness that perfectly suits these traditional tunes. Song is…
The Kentucky Colonels – Legendary Live Recordings
The Kentucky Colonels Living in the Past: Legendary Live Recordings is made up of tapes from seven different shows in 1961, ’63, ’64, and ’65. Material is from performances at venues in California…
Sonny Landreth
Sonny Landreth is arguably the finest living slide-guitar player on the planet – and one of the few not ransacking Duane Allman’s lick library. On his latest, he paints upon a blues canvas…
Swamp Cabbage – Honk
Swamp Cabbage – Honk Swamp Cabbage is a trio led by guitarist/vocalist Walter Parks. Walter has been around, and is best known as the guitarist for Richie Havens. If that fact would have…
Montrose – The Very Best of Montrose
Ronnie Montrose is known less for his guitar capabilities than for fronting a mid-’70s hard rock band that featured an unknown lead singer named Sammy Hagar. Still, Montrose released a quartet of heavy…
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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
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Paul Johnson
The Hepcats Live at the Ajax Novelty Company
This isn’t live, there may not be an Ajax Novelty Company, and the three felines known as the Hepcats are actually the brainchild of Paul Johnson, whose Belairs were early-’60s pioneers of surf music. Suspend reality and dig how the “trio” expertly articulates layers of acoustic guitar. Across decades, Johnson has embraced folk-rock, psychedelia, and
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Yes
Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition
Are you a high-fidelity audio geek? If the answer is, well, yes, this Rhino release brings together an HD experience of Close to the Edge in no fewer than four versions, plus rarities and a ’72 concert. For starters, the 2025 remaster sounds as close to the analog 1972 mix as you’re going to get
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Pink Floyd
Have You Got It Yet? – The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
It’s understandable that fans warily approach the flood of pseudo-documentaries and biopics. Add the fact that the late Syd Barrett, Floyd’s original guitarist/leader, suffered from mental illness, and exploitation alarms are sure to go off. But this documentary handles the subject with dignity instead of sensationalism. Interviews by longtime Floyd cover artist Storm Thorgerson with
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The Wildhearts
In the raging ’90s, The Wildhearts blasted out of Newcastle upon Tyne like some unholy melding of Guns ’N Roses, Cheap Trick, and The Replacements. Hard rock, power pop, and punk still make up their secret sauce, heard on this latest effort with original singer/guitarist Ginger Wildheart. Ben Marsden plays lead, while Kavus Torabi adds
Bill Frisell – East/West
It’s almost ridiculous to review Bill Frisell’s stuff. It’s undeniable that he has one of the most unique takes on music today. While he’s called jazz, he encompasses pretty much any kind of…
Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous
Thin Lizzy was one of the most badass guitar bands of the ’70s. After a series of lineup changes early in the decade, the Irish-rooted group finally settled on the axe duo of…
Michael Angelo Batio
MAB ignores the critics and pushes his art forward with prodigious talent and inspired business savvy. He borrows here from the model used on Santana’s hit album Supernatural to bring together some of…
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…
Gary Clark Jr.
Postmodern Soul
If listeners haven’t figured out that Gary Clark Jr. is more than a blues revivalist, his second full-length studio album should provide a cold hard slap of reality. This disc shows fans –…
Dave Hole – Outside Looking In
Dave Hole’s new album is a firebreathing slide extravaganza. Armed with a ’72 Gibson ES-345, Hole returns to his fat, bluesy guitar tone. Backed by bass, keyboards and drums, Hole sings lead on…
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…
Denny Jiosa – Dreams Like This
Sonic Canvas Records
Denny Jiosa is a player of immense chops and fire, and while jazz dominates this album, Jiosa is also at home with R&B and pop, and cuts like “Forward Motion” give him the…
Judas Priest
50 Heavy Metal Years of Music
With 42 CDs containing every studio and live album by the British colossus – including 13 discs of unreleased material – this is the metal motherlode. The opener, 1974’s “One for the Road,”…
Bill Kirchen – Tied to the Wheel
Bill’s no stranger to country music, having anchored the lead guitar slot in Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen way back when. Since the break-up of that band, he’s been around plenty too, and…
Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stax Records
Every blues fan – and especially every Stevie Ray Vaughan fan – knows of this famous studio summit, which has long been available in various audio formats. Now, with a DVD, the package…
Steel Master
Jerry Byrd
Before and even after pedal-steel guitars began showing up on country records, Jerry Byrd (1920-2005) and his lap steel remained a gold standard. Whether soloing or accompanying, his distinctive, easy-flowing, undulating lines, flawless…
Drive By Truckers – The Dirty South
The Dirty South
Sloan – Parallel Play
Beyond "Just" Hooks
Steve Gunn
Drawing inspiration from a decade on the road, guitarist-singer-songwriter Steve Gunn’s debut for Matador Records chugs along like a handsome old train, ending up in a spot perhaps best described as an Americana…
Rodolphe Raffalli
Frémeaux
A hero of today’s Parisian jazz guitar scene, Rodolphe Raffalli is renowned for his virtuosity and glorious melodic sense. It’s a rare blend; he’s a true master who can still keep his music…
The Band, Robbie Robertson
The Waltz Goes On
By now the story of the Band’s epic Thanksgiving 1976 swan song is as well-known as the music itself – how the final show by the group formerly known as the Hawks snowballed…
Mississippi John Hurt – Memorial Anthology
John Hurt played a different breed of blues from Delta stalwarts like Son House and Robert Johnson. Hurt was an all-around songster, and his simple guitar and downhome voice were infectious. This two-CD…
The Yardbirds – Ultimate
The Yardbirds: Ultimate
Two fallacies that invariably arise in discussions of the Yardbirds: 1) declaring them the fathers of psychedelic music and/or heavy metal; 2) focusing on their colossal lead guitar lineage at the expense of…
David Clayton and Todd K. Smith – 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…
Tav Falco & the Unapproachable Panther Burns
Conjurations: Seance for Deranged Lovers
“Unapproachable” is right. “Indescribable” may also be justified. Just like the myriad musics of Memphis, from where Tav Falco hails, his longtime band Panther Burns remains a fascinating and ongoing conundrum. The band…
Eric Clapton
The Definitive 24 Nights
This box set heavily expands Slowhand’s 24 Nights, the live album and video of Eric Clapton’s 1990-’91 residencies at London’s Royal Albert Hall. It includes six hours of music, including 35 previously unreleased…
John Scofield – This Meets That
It’s never good to expect anything from John Scofield because he likes to throw a curve. With his latest release, he mixes great originals with surprising covers on a trio record… sort of.…
