• 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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Rory Gallagher – Let’s Go To Work

Rory Gallagher’s mention brings a certain vision: denim jeans and a flannel shirt. An old Strat with very little finish left. High-spirited yet authentic blues and rock. Consummate musicianship. A CD box set…

Ian Cruickshank – Water Gypsy

Ian Cruickshank is known to Django fans for the many hats he wears. He has been prolific as a historian, guitarist, composer, bandleader, festival organizer, record producer, and the guiding light behind John…

Boom, Boom, Kuush!

Queen

Ready to set listeners flashing back to wide-leg corduroys and denim-covered Koss headphones, Hollywood Records’ News of The World 40th Anniversary Edition box set is a great excuse to revisit Queen’s 1977 landmark…

Shawn Camp – Live at the Station Inn

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Shawn Camp, but chances are you’ve heard his songs. He penned number one hits for Garth Brooks and Brooks and Dunn, and wrote songs for George Strait, Kenny…

George Lynch

Seamless

Seamless is George Lynch’s first instrumental album, which is especially surprising when you compare it to catalogs of ’80s shred contemporaries like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Here, Lynch breaks from perceptions of…

Cream – BBC Sessions

BBC Sessions

These cuts were recorded over a 15-month period from late 1966 to early ’68. They were cut for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Because of strict regulations on the number of phonograph records that…

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Rob Paparozzi and the Ed Palermo Big Band

Back to '67 Blues

Unreleased club recordings of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers from 1967, featuring lead guitarist Peter Green? This is, indeed, a major find. Tasked with replacing “God” (as Eric Clapton was proclaimed in graffiti around London),…

Lyle Workman 

Uncommon Measures

Both guitar wizard and Hollywood soundtrack composer (Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Workman brings those worlds together on this bold, visionary project. His accessible style blends progressive, fusion, and film tunes into music unlike…

The No Ones

My Evil Best Friend

This latest in decades of collaborations between R.E.M. guitar man Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey is the pair’s third collection with Norwegians Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen and Frode Strømstad. Listeners familiar with Buck and…

The George Benson Quartet – It’s Uptown and The George Benson Cookbook

It's Uptown and The George Benson Cookbook

George Benson was another of A&R legend John Hammond’s famous discoveries, alongside the likes of Count Basie, Charlie Christian, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen. This put Benson in a tough position…

Jellyroll – Hep Cats Holiday

Jump blues are like licorice: if you like it, you can’t get enough. Jellyroll satisfies the craving with a cool selection of 12 classic tunes, from “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t…

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…

Jason & the Scorchers – Halcyon Times

Playground Music

It’s an unlikely story that cow-punk pioneers Jason and the Scorchers would be releasing an album in 2010. It’s even more unlikely, so early in the year, to say it may end up…

Elvis Presley

Guitar Royalty

Should you ever forget why the King is the King, this ultimate boxed set of Elvis’ 57 albums and soundtracks, plus three CDs of rarities and outtakes, will set you straight all over…

Royal Trux

Drag City Records

>Royal Trux took the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” and made a career of it. The band was founded after the implosion of Washington, D.C. punkers Pussy Galore by guitarist Neil Hagerty and girlfriend Jennifer…

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow’s gone country. That’s the line on Feels Like Home, the popular singersongwriter’s eighth studio album. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Crow moved to Nashville a decade ago and now counts…

Long John Baldry – Remembering Leadbelly

The Brits, in at least as far as the blues is concerned, have always been our archivists. With a few exceptions in the ’60s, including John Hammond, Butterfield and Bloomfield, Taj Mahal, and…

James Brown – I Got the Feelin’

Shout Factory

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…

Chet Atkins – Ten Different CDs

This is the kind of thing that really excites me. One Way has taken 20 Chet Atkins albums from the early ’60s through the late ’70s and put them on 10 CDs. Two…

Pee Wee Crayton – Pee Wee’s Blues: The Complete Aladdin and Imperial

Pee Wee Crayton learned his lessons well. Moving from Texas to California during the Depression, he slaved away in Navy shipyards until some buddies dragged him along to a T-Bone Walker show. Pee…

Charles Lloyd

In 1965, when these previously unreleased tracks were recorded at two New York venues, saxophonist/flautist Charles Lloyd and guitarist Gabor Szabo had recently left drummer Chico Hamilton’s group – an incubator for numerous…

Tim Fitzgerald’s Full House

The Wes Montgomery Project

Guitarist Fitzgerald’s first major Montgomery effort was the book 625 Alive: The Wes Montgomery BBC-TV Performance Transcribed, which offered an annotated, curated exploration of the jazz icon’s legendary 1965 British TV performance. Full…

The Morells – The Morells

Now this is what I’m talkin’ about. These guys have been around for awhile in various forms, including as The Morells years ago. Some of you may know them as the Skeletons, who…

Denny Jiosa – Dreams Like This

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…

The Love Dogs – New Tricks

New Tricks

Loveable? I guess. Dogs? Maybe. They’ve got all the musical tricks new and old, and they’re not jumping through hoops to get their rootsy message across. Elegant arrangements, diverse tunes, strong presentation, and…

311

If you remember the ’90s, you probably weren’t there. But if you were there and had your thumb on the pulse of contemporary music, you remember 311. Songs like “All Mixed Up” and…

Patty Larkin – Watch the Sky

Patty Larkin is one of the finest acoustic guitarists in the world. On her 12th release, Watch The Sky, she focuses on her songwriting, singing, and multi-instrumental talents. The final results are as…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Robben Ford – The Art of Blues Rhythm

Robben Ford has been a prolific artist since the early ’70s and is as much a teacher as a recording artist. His impeccable soloing techniques, phrasing, and tone have been the subject of…

Vance Gilbert – Up On Rockfield

Vance Gilbert is a true student of the art of songwriting, and his latest CD demonstrates his fervor for composing is as powerful as a Colorado thunderstorm. Although Up On Rockfield isn’t a…

Yates McKendree

Buchanan Lane

A Grammy-winning engineer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, and already a veteran of some of Nashville’s most-storied stages, the release of 21-year-old Yates McKendree’s debut album mandates the addition of another accolade – top-shelf purveyor…


Peter Karp and Sue Foley

Blind Pig Records

Spirit

Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus