• 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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Pete Anderson – Dogs in Heaven

Pete Anderson is no stranger to these pages, having been featured in an interview, performance review, and record review for his first release on Little Dog. This time around, Pete has come up…

The Band – The Last Waltz DVD and CD Boxed Set

If there were ever a group of musicians for whom the term “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” fit like a glove, it was The Band. Perhaps even more…

Victoria Vox

Obus Music

When one first hears an artist and album undeniably unique and idiosyncratic, they’re often reduced to describing it as a marriage of known quantities. So once again, here goes; think of Victoria Vox’s…

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…

Roy Roberts – Deeper Shade of Blue

North Carolina bluesman Roy Roberts is an original, and there’s no other blues singer or guitarist who can equal his blend of minor-key, soul-laced shuffles. Like the great Otis Rush, much of Roberts’…

Keb’ Mo’ – Peace… Back By Popular Demand

Keb’ Mo’ is swimming upstream, issuing a new CD with a picture of peace sign prominently displayed on the cover. Not that the disc largely consists of ’60s protest songs, but it comes…

Pat Metheny Group – The Way Up

Early press about this made a big deal about it being one big composition. But there’s so much variation that it works to the ear as separate pieces, too. And they all sound…

Johnny Cash

Bear’s Sonic Journals: At the Carousel Ballroom, April 24, 1968

Barely two weeks before the release of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the album that made him an institution, Cash, wife June Carter Cash, and the Tennessee Three performed for a crowd of…

Charlie Musselwhite – Sanctuary

Sanctuary

With his debut album in 1966, harmonica vanguard Charlie Musselwhite met and set the standard for authenticity and adventurism in blues. But in the past few years,

Joe Goldmark

Blue Steel

Along with his work with Jim Campilongo and others, San Francisco-based pedal steel guitarist Joe Goldmark has produced eight solo CDs (and three earlier vinyl albums) covering broad swaths of popular music, among…

Black Label Society

Doom Crew Inc.

BLS’ 11th album has Zakk Wylde sharing duties with guitarist Dario Lorina. Huge tones, harmonized lines, and blistering solos dwell in the realm of metal-infested stomp and fretboard intensity. Dedicated to their roadcrew…

Rob Blaine

The liner notes for this are on-target when they say Rob Blaine yanks “big chunks” of music from his guitar. But that’s not the whole story. Yes, he can channel Freddie King, Jimi…

Damn Straight We’ve Got the Blues

Various artists

This carefully curated 60-track, digital-only compilation draws deeply from the catalogs of New West and Antones Records as well as New West’s “Live from Austin” series. The focus? Blues numbers from a swath…

Taj Mahal – Sénor Blues

Taj Mahal is one of those guys you never think about until you hear another great album by him. Listen to this one and you’ll think about him a lot. The album is…

Peter Case – Leet Us Now Praise Sleepy John

Peter Case has typically been thought of as a folksinger, and this record showcases that side of his talents. Except for a few songs, it’s Case and a guitar. But some of these…

Patty Larkin – 25

Signature Sounds

When faced with the task of creating a retrospective album, Patty Larkin took a novel approach. Instead of creating a “best of” album, she re-recorded her favorite 25 love songs while enlisting 25…

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Reprise

Even though it culled three decades’ worth of performances, maybe assembling last year’s four-disc Live Anthology reignited the mojo for Petty and company – with covers of Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, and Booker…

Tim O’Brien – Two Journeys

In his recent VG interview, Tim O’Brien mentioned that his next release would be more of a “songwriter” CD. Instead, his latest, Two Journeys, is an extension of his album, The Crossing, which…

Nick Russo +11 – Ro

Nick Russo’s Ro is not an easy listen, but it sure is rewarding once you’re able to digest it. It’s somewhat indescribable; one could point out how it’s got hard-swinging post-bop, some free…

John Hiatt

New West

Hiatt is nothing if not prolific – not only releasing approximately 20 albums in 36 years, but writing virtually every song they included. There’ve been some twists and turns and ups and downs…

The Sadies – Favourite Colours

I love this band. Their ’02 record Stories Often Told was one of my favorites that year. Their latest will probably make the list for ’04. It’s hard to describe the band. See…

Paul Johnson

The Hepcats Live at the Ajax Novelty Company

Johnny Nicholas

Moon And The Stars: A Tribute to Moon Mullican

Mudhoney

Plastic Eternity

When it comes to writing music reviews, nothing’s more Lamesville than a critic swiping text from a label’s press release. But in the case of Mudhoney’s new full-length, one would be hard-pressed to…

Lonesome River Band

The Lonesome River Band has been around for 30 years. And while he wasn’t a founding member, banjo player Sammy Shelor is the de facto leader of the band by virtue of tenure.…

Birthright: A Black Roots Music Compendium

Various artists

This double-CD’s 40 tracks represent a wide swath of black roots music, from zydeco to gospel, from a Mississippi fife-and-drum crew to one-man band Jesse Fuller. If some of the cuts are familiar,…

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Live From the Ryman, Vol. 2

Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is a special venue for Isbell & the 400 Unit. As their stature has grown beyond roots music, they’ve performed on that vaunted stage more than 50 times in the…

Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back

Billed as her most personal statement, this may well be Mavis Staples’ finest solo effort to date. In 2004, the powerhouse lead singer of the famed Staple Singers released the rootsy Have A…

Cherryholmes – Black and White

Skaggs Family Records

From mandolin playing mom, Sandy, and bass player pop, Jere, to 14-year-old Molly, the six-person Cherryholmes family band picks and sings like they were born to it. Was it the air or water…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones

Reissues and new arrivals

The cup runneth over with Rolling Stones live discs, a heady mix of reissues and new arrivals. Ladies & Gentlemen… is the soundtrack to the concert film shot over four nights in the…

Marshall Crenshaw

The Wild, Exciting Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw

Marshall Crenshaw has worn so many musical hats. He authored a guide to rock and roll in the movies; portrayed John Lennon in the stage production Beatlemania; played Buddy Holly in the movie…

Preston Shannon – All In Time

I admit I’m a fool for soul music. Why? Because there is no such thing as a mediocre soul singer. They get weeded out immediately. There is lots of “half-steppin” in the blues…