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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
Check This Action: Where’s Eric?
Eric Clapton and London’s Royal Albert Hall are virtually synonymous. In various contexts he has played the storied venue more than 200 times – first with the Yardbirds in 1964, but mainly as…
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…
Chris O’Connell
Finally! At last! Considering that she made her recording debut in 1973 with Asleep at the Wheel’s maiden voyage, it’s amazing that it’s taken nearly 40 years for Chris O’Connell to release her…
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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,
John Fogerty – The Long Road Home
Since Creedence Clearwater Revival disbanded 33 years ago, its catalog has been anthologized in every conceivable way, culminating with a six-disc boxed set of every track the band ever laid down, including its…
Long Train Runnin’: Our Story of the Doobie Brothers
Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Chris Epting
For 50 years, the Doobie Brothers’ feel-good hits have been radio staples. In these pages, vocalists/guitarists Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons share memories and insights such as how the much-hyped psychedelic band Moby…
Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra – Jools Holland’s Big Band Rhythm & Blues
If the term “big band,” especially tied to a pop star, conjures the dreaded image of one of those zoot-suited groups with the word “Daddy” in its name, fear not. Ex-Squeeze keyboardist Holland’s…
Jorge Garcia
Crossover
Jazz covers of FM rock can be cringeworthy unless you do it right – and Jorge Garcia does it right. His take on Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” recalls the groove of ’70s releases…
Rory Block – I’m Every Woman
I’ve always thought of Rory Block as a modern country-blues, acoustic-slide playing, soulful singer. Here, she changes the program a bit. The emphasis here is on soul music. Not the stuff of Robert…
Wayne Kramer – LLMF
The Wayne Kramer story has been documented pretty well. A member of the MC5, time in prison due to drug charges, several very good albums on Epitaph the past few years, and now…
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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
Jeff Barone – Open Up
What happens when a classical guitar player goes jazz? If it’s Jeff Barone, the answer is he brings a classical sensibility to the jazz and creates one of the most listenable and accessible…
A Nod to Bob – An Artists Tribute to Bob Dylan on his 60th Bday
We are all getting older, except of course, for those of us who’ve already died. Bob Dylan is still among the living, although judging from the most recent Academy Awards broadcast, he’s threatening…
The Replacements – Reissues
They came, they saw, they conquered… sort of. Minneapolis’ Replacements were one of the great rock and roll bands that never quite was. And happily so. In the 1980s, after punk fizzled and…
Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis & Dusty in London
Ironically enough, these showed up in my mailbox on the day Dusty succumbed to breast cancer. Certainly one of the best pop/soul singers of the past 30 years, she has remained criminally underexposed.…
Black Sabbath
MVD
Released in the fall of 1970, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid was the shot heard ’round the world. As Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler ref lects, it’s been 40 years since the LP’s release, and metal…
The Robin Nolan Trio – Swings & Roundabouts
If you like gypsy jazz and you haven’t heard The Robin Nolan Trio, you should. Solo guitarist Nolan is joined by rhythm guitarist Jan P. Brouwer and bassist Paul Meader on Swings &…
Dave Specter
The latest from Dave Specter crosses genres and styles like a car with bad wheels crosses highway lines. But here, the outcome is a good thing. Whether it’s soul, blues, jazz, or rock…
Canned Heat – Live at Montreux
The story of Canned Heat has more twists and turns than Spinal Tap’s evolution from the Thamesmen to Spinal Tap, Mark II. Which is why some of the dramatic, lofty claims in the…
Slim Harpo
Baby Scratch My Back
Good times are rarely so good as when James Moore – a.k.a. Slim Harpo – is leading the proceedings. And this vinyl reissue of his 1966 Excello LP comes timed perfectly to lift…
Cesar Rosas – Soul Disguise
I’ve been of the opinion for a couple of years now that Los Lobos is one of the finest rock bands around. Rosas is one of the singer/guitarists in that band. This is…
Walter Trout – Deep Trout
Walter Trout has had not one, but two, successful recording careers. There are the 10 discs he has released in the U.S., but like many American musical artists including Luther Allison, he is…
Tim Mahoney
Self-distributed
Tim Mahoney’s latest work combines elements of heavy-metal power pop with ethereal folk ballads, and his mix of guitar raunch and lyricism makes for an addictive musical cocktail. Musically, Mahoney is something of…
Magic Sam’s Blues Band
Delmark
Magic Sam’s debut album had an immediate impact when it was released in late ’67 and has stood the test of time – cited as a seminal influence by such formidable guitarists as…
Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real
Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real
Lukas Nelson and his band have been around for several years, but they have really hit their stride with their latest release. Nelson is Willie’s son and played with dad plenty, but here…
Petra van Nuis & Andy Brown
String Damper Records
There’s not a lot of precedent for albums featuring nothing but a female voice and a jazz guitar, but those that come to mind set a high bar. There was Al Viola with…
Neal Schon
In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Santana alumnus Neal Schon was not only known for his blazing guitar solos, he was equally famous for his ability to play with taste and restraint.…
Lloyd Jones – Trouble Monkey
The first lesson to learn from this CD is that looks can be deceiving. Jones' picture on the cover looks like the guy next door, with a Strat across his shoulder. But the…
Black Valley Moon
Songs from the Black Valley
If you think you know surf music, the monster-movie themes of Black Valley Moon will surprise and thrill you. Using Reverend planks, guitarist Sam Williams delivers garage-rock goods on “Proxima Centauri Calling,” which…
Billy Burnette
Crazy Like Me
Billy Burnette was born to rock and roll. His bass-playing father Dorsey Burnette was one third of the great trifecta of rockabilly, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio. And Billy himself…
The John Henrys
9lb Records
The John Henrys would be the last to deny the inf luence of Tom Petty’s music on their work – the clipped vocal phrasing of the opener, “Little One,” (a la Petty’s “The…
Neil Young
Chrome Dreams
After being shelved for more than 45 years, Neil Young’s long-lost 1977 album finally sees daylight. Nestled between an impressive run of comeback albums such as Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps, and…
Martin Taylor – In Concert
In Concert
Various Artists – Power Of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix
Power Of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix
Los Lobos – Good Morning Aztlan
Good Morning Aztlan