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
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…
Vanguard Records
Indigenous is a highenergy blues-rock band fronted by Mato Nanji, disciple of Vaughan and Hendrix; its sound is defined by the chugging rhythms and fat tones squeezed from his Stratocaster. For this album,…
While not a great Taj Mahal album, this is a very nice tribute to a guy who’s been serving up great music for as long as most of us have been listening. The…
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,
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
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,
Neon Blue
Country tradition remains the center of Joshua Hedley’s universe. His 2018 debut, Mr. Jukebox, reflected his mastery of the ’50s and ’60s honky-tonk of Ray Price, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Faron Young,…
Eric Clapton Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Recorded following the demise of Blind Faith, Clapton’s 1970 debut found the 24-year-old guitarist discovering his own voice as he morphed into a solo artist. We also witness Slowhand’s conversion to Fender; the…

Hollywood Bowl: August 18, 1967
Imagine a Jimi Hendrix Experience concert where the audience actually disliked the band. That’s the scenario here, a secretly recorded gig opening for The Mamas & the Papas, a week before the U.S.…
With a repertoire so extensive and wide-ranging, it would be impossible to track down, let alone list, all the session players backing this country icon on this two-disc retrospective. The Mottola/Caiola crew played…

Metal fans are pretty much in agreement that the late Ronnie James Dio was the greatest metal vocalist of his generation – or any other, for that matter. His majestic yet theatrically masculine…

Blues Notes and So Much More
Nels Cline has quite the musical resumé, and yet has always been hard to pin down. Whether doing some form of fusion, manning the lead-guitar chair in Wilco, or serving up dissonance and…
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,
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
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,
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
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,
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

An Anthology Of Female Vocal Folk & Singer Songwriters, 1966-73
Ignore the cumbersome title. Simply put, this is a boxed set of vintage folk-rock featuring women singers. The singer/songwriter era combined layers of acoustic and electric guitars, with stellar voices like Buffy Sainte-Marie,…
It still surprises me, but every once in a while I run into a neophyte who thinks the blues (all blues) is, by definition, depressing – as if there’s but one emotion conveyed…
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…
Henry Gross’ 2001 release, I’m Hearing Things, was one of the most pleasant musical surprises of the past 10 years. Now he’s back with a set of songs from a one-man show that…

Picture yourself in a smoky cowboy-jazz joint around 1952, and you’ll get the picture on where Cow Bop is coming from. The combo’s music is tantalizing postwar bop, but with ample heaps of…
The press material with this CD says Sayers has been a fixture on the Houston rock scene for some time. One quick listen and it’s not hard to figure out why. Very tight…
It may have only reached number 39 on Billboard‘s Pop Singles chart in 1963, but “The Lonely Surfer” is as perfect as any 21/2 minutes in rock history. Bill Pittman’s Danelectro six-string bass…
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…

Cradle To The Grave
When a heard-it-all music critic stumbles onto a “new artist,” only to discover a back catalog and lifetime achievement award, then immediately orders three prior CDs, you know something’s up. A Crow tribal…

Sweet Soul Music
Robert Cray’s new album with producer-drummer Steve Jordan and the Hi Rhythm section is a no-brainer slam-dunk – and a brilliant collaboration. Together with Cray’s indelible hybrid of R&B, blues, and soul-drenched vocals…
Oh Boy
John Prine almost single-handedly defined the term “Americana,” but he’s really a country-music artist – a bastard son of Merle Haggard in a genre so often wrongfully and automatically dismissed as simplistic that…
Nickel Creek is a of (primarily) musical whiz kids. Three of its four members are under 23. Two are siblings, Sara Watkins (19) on fiddle and vocals, and Sean Watkins (22) on guitar,…
Austrian by way of Venezuela, Alfredo Garcianavas appears intent on learning every style of music. Garcianavas is more than at home on fusion pieces like “Piazzo Tango” and “Pektopakt.” Growing up in Venezuela,…
Guitarist John Abercrombie is one of the creators of the ECM Sound, and his new album is quintessential Abercrombie/ECM. If you arrived late, ECM Records was sparked by Manfred Eichner in Germany and…
Beyond the tabloids, “TMZ,” and his celebrity girlfriends, John Mayer is a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist who ranks among the best in modern pop. And this disc shows all of his strengths. Kicking…
I have a new favorite band. They’re called the Gourds. Imagine a countrified fire-breathing mandolin-driven version of Los Lobos and you have a vague inkling of what The Gourds are like. Shinebox has…
Anyone remember when Larry Coryell was one of the youngbloods of jazz guitar? Sheesh, I must be getting a bit “advanced” in age, eh? Through the years, there’s never been a doubt in…
What may be Mark Selby’s best album earns the title in part because his guitar playing is more prominent than it was on his previous efforts. This is essentially a trio record, with…
There’s an anachronism at the heart of this excellent, engrossing documentary. Few people will argue The Ramones’ influence on punk and post-punk rock, and the footage here from their heyday at CBGB and…

There’s no city like Memphis when it comes to music. And thankfully, there’s Robert Gordon to chronicle its story. Gordon has written books and helmed documentaries about Muddy Waters, Stax Records, and, of…

Sloppy Rock, The Way God Intended
When singer/guitarist Steve Marriott left England’s Small Faces at the end of ’68, to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, the band replaced him with two émigrés from the Jeff Beck Group –…