• 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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Luther Allison – Reckless

Luther Allison is the hottest thing going today in the world of the blues, and this, his third release on Alligator, keeps his tradition burning strong. Reckless is classic Luther Allison. It is…

Bob Dylan

Recharging their batteries, staving off writer’s block, getting back to their roots – countless musicians have an album of covers in their catalogs. Hardly controversial, unless it’s Bob Dylan. When he released 1970’s…

James Brown – I Got the Feellin’

While a generation may remember James Brown as a soul star who fell on hard times, or as a man whose death has led to a tabloid-ready story of a fight for his…

Henry Gross – I’m Hearing Things

Wow! That was my first reaction to this one. Gross, as some of you may remember was noted for one hit back in the ’70s. That song – “Shannon” – was not exactly…

Sunny War

Anarchist Gospel

Sunny War’s latest record blurs stylistic boundaries, rejecting fatuous labeling. Instead, it’s a document of the human experience – a hypnotic montage of black folk, acoustic blues, country, urban, and avant-garde. It’s lived…

Neil Young

Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition

Young’s 1972 smash delivered on the promise of CSNY, offering California rock rife with acoustic guitars, piercing lyrics, and cozy West Coast production. “Heart of Gold” was the blockbuster, yet only one of…

Megan Slankard

(Self-distributed)

Megan Slankard is difficult to pigeonhole. Equal parts country soul, folk, pop, and alt rock, though still in her early 20s, Token of the Wreckage is her third disc, and amply demonstrates why…

Jim Lauderdale

Hope

Inspired by the pandemic, veteran singer/songwriter Lauderdale stresses resiliency and renewal on these 13 originals, enhanced along the way by several of Nashville’s finest guitarists. Chris Scruggs stands out on several tracks; his…

George Barnes

Country Jazz

When Chet Atkins arrived in Chicago for his first RCA recording session in August 1947, he was astounded to meet George Barnes, who’d been hired to play rhythm guitar. To Chet and others,…

The Clash – Live At Shea Stadium

If the Rolling Stones were the “World’s greatest rock and roll band” from 1968 to ’72, then 10 years later, that appellation could safely be conferred on the Clash. In that late ’70s/early…

Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver – Hard Game of Love

Hard Game of Love

For the last six years, if you wanted to hear Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver do secular bluegrass, you had to attend a live concert, since gospel material has been all they’ve recorded. With…

D.A.D. – No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims

On their first major label release, the band formerly known as Disneyland After Dark (changed after a threatened lawsuit by the Disney Co.) was poised for a breakthrough in the U.S. with backing…

Various Artists – Christmas Grass Too

It’s the time of year when you may be looking to make a few additions to your collection of Christmas records. Any record that starts with a Dolly Parton version of the wonderful…

NRBQ

New Rhythm And Blues

This five-disc retrospective captures the essence of what is one of America’s best, if not best-known, bands from the past half century. To describe NRBQ to someone who has never heard them is…

Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen

In a way, it’s a shame Hillman and Pedersen didn’t record this live album as a duo, as they often appear in concert. Because seeing two voices, an acoustic guitar, and a mandolin…

The Surf Box – Cowabunga!

Here it is, the history of surf music on four hot CDs that no self-respecting rocker could live without. Starting with 1960s sides by The Fireballs, The Gamblers, and, of course, Dick Dale…

Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez – The Trouble With Humans

The Trouble With Humans

Some famous musical duos originate in the womb, like The Louvin or Everly brothers. Others are created by love, like Ian and Silvia, Richard and Mimi Farina, and Buddy and Julie Miller. Finally…

Steve Howe

A Virtuoso Career

A few years back, Steve Howe released the highly recommended Anthology, covering much of his solo career. This second anthology is a sprawling, three-CD set that aims to fill in the gaps, covering…

B.B. King

In France

By 1977, when this French live album was recorded at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival, the “King of the Blues” had truly crossed over. He’d played Fillmores West and East and won a…

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…

Enrico Granafei – In Search of the Third Dimension

On this truly phenomenal record, Granafei rolls through 10 cuts, most familiar, with just his voice, a nylon-string guitar, and a chromatic harmonica. There is no over-dubbing on this record, and Granafei’s performance…

Grateful Dead

The triple-LP Europe ’72 is a highlight in the Dead’s extensive live catalog, and 40 years later Rhino is presenting a companion set of unreleased material for those who just can’t get enough.…

Robin Trower – Living Out of Time

Living Out of Time

Following up his last work, 2001’s Go My Way, could hardly be easy for Robin Trower. That effort was his best album in 20 years. On his latest, Trower ditched the band from…

Jimi Hendrix Experience – Paris 1967/San Francisco 1968

Paris 1967/San Francisco 1968

Got to hand it to the folks at Experience Hendrix, who keep coming up with good Hendrix music and packaging it in fine releases. This new work, on its Dagger Records subsidiary label,…

Elvin Bishop

Delta Groove

Bishop’s 2008 album, The Blues Roll On, was a landmark of sorts, as he surrounded himself with elder statesmen like B.B. King and James Cotton, as well as young guns like Derek Trucks…

Lexie Roth – One Long Blink

Roth was 17 when she started recording this project, 19 when she finished, and it’s testament to her talent and maturity that you can’t tell where the performances fell chronologically. Her six originals…

Pieta Brown and Valerie June

Singer/songwriter Pieta Brown enlists talent – and lots of it – to back her ethereal songs and vocals on her latest. Calexico lends a hand with the opener “In The Light” while Mark…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Shout Factory

Coinciding with ELP’s recent reunion show is this quadruple-CD box set containing 40 years of unreleased live tracks. The anthology is nicely arranged and annotated with one distinct era per disc – early-’70s,…

Albert Collins – Live at Montreux

The justifiably nicknamed “Master Of The Telecaster” was one of the great blues guitarists of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, at age 61, he had exerted a major…

Juicy Lucy

Juicy Lucy/Lie Back and Enjoy It/Get A Whiff A This

Any discussion of unsung guitar greats needs to include Glenn Ross Campbell. Thankfully, his work with Juicy Lucy is documented on this two-CD three-fer. Between Freddie Roulette playing Chicago blues on lap steel…