• 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

    Read more >>

Dick Dale – Better Shred than Dead: The Dick Dale Anthology

Well, what needs to be said about this? The King of the Surf Guitar at his finest. This covers 1959 to 1996 and hits all the high points. All the tunes are here,…

Junior Wells – Keep On Steppin’: The Best of Junior Wells

The recent death of Junior Wells marked the end of an era, leaving behind his legacy and lots of great music. This “best of” CD draws from Wells’ four previous Telarc releases, all…

Kim Wilson – Smokin’ Joint

This CD, recorded over a two-year period, spotlights the world class work of the legendary T-Birds frontman, but of interest to the readers of this publication would be the four – count ’em,…

Lyle Brewer

Even when Lyle Brewer covers standards, he makes the song his own. His last couple albums have been filled with familiar songs given the Brewer treatment. With his latest, we get a record…

Gentle Giant

Alucard/EMI

Gentle Giant was one of the great, eccentric British bands of the ’70s. They blended FM rock with Elizabethan madrigals and baroque chamber music, plus generous dollops of Celtic folk and jazz-fusion. Apart…

Grateful Dead – Live at Cow Palace

The Grateful Dead was an electric jug band with more in common musically with Jim Kweskin than Jimi Hendrix. On this new three-CD set, you can hear this ultimate jam band at its…

Chris Duarte – Love Is Greater Than Me

Love Is Greater Than Me

Chris Duarte is a great guitarist. Of the current crop of players aspiring to the permanently vacated Texas chair, Chris’ stuff rises closest to the top. In concert, his chops are endless and…

Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters

Stony Plain Records

Starting like a number of instrumental albums Ronnie Earl has produced over the past 15 years, this one opens with a mid-tempo (Albert Collinspenned) track, then slows for some blues and a cool…

Brad Paisley – Play

Brad Paisley’s albums have been admirably consistent, emphasizing vocals, of course, but usually spiced by a couple great Telecaster workouts. In the case of Play, five of the 16 tracks are vocals, the…

The Highwaymen

Columbia/Legacy

The first group of Highwaymen was a folk ensemble that flourished in the early ’60s. The Highwaymen of this release were a Traveling-Wilburys-type aggregate of four of country music’s biggest stars and songwriters…

John Mellencamp – Freedom’s Road

This release was surrounded by a scary amount of hype. And the Chevy commercials on TV that forced “Our Country” down our throats seemed a harbinger of bad things. Mellencamp, of course, can…

Arlen Roth & Jerry Jemmott

Super Soul Session

Roth is well-known for his “Hot Licks” instructional videos and method books. But his career is far from academic, having toured and recorded with Bob Dylan, Duane Eddy, and John Sebastian, devoted albums…

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…

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…

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…

Guy Forsythe

Call this music “Americana,” if you have to put a label on it. The opener, “Red Dirt,” establishes straight away the muscular Midwestern quality that reflects Guy Forsythe’s musical coming of age in…

The Go-Go’s

Alison Ellwood (director)

When Police drummer Stewart Copeland discovers the Go-Go’s are not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he’s incredulous. “The most important aspect of musicianship is feel,” Copeland declares in this 90-minute…

Dutch Henry – All That Space

Dutch Henry writes the kind of soaring pop-rock that while never being completely out of fashion probably won’t be Top 40 any time soon. The title cut is a bouncy pop piece, much…

Play It Loud

This new history of the electric guitar should be required reading for all guitarists. And a joyful one at that. Subtitled “An Epic History of the Style, Sound, & Revolution of the Electric…

Steve Morse Band – Split Decision

Split Decision

It’s hard to believe that the Steve Morse Band is nearly 20 years old. Formed in the wake of the Dixie Dregs’ 1983 breakup, the SMB has long served as a forum for…

Joe Pass – Resonance

In the history of jazz there have no doubt been numerous creative rolls like the one the late Joe Pass experienced in the early 1970s. But in Pass’ case, his DiMaggio-like streak was…

Steve Smith, George Brooks, Prasanna

Abstract Logix

Before joining Journey in 1978, Steve Smith drummed on jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty’s Enigmatic Ocean, and before he left the band in ’83, he had already formed the fusion group Vital Information. The…

Duke Robillard – A Swing Lesson with Duke Robillard

Stony Plain

Duke continues his impressive output with a nod to his swing roots. Among guitarists, Robillard is known as a do-all, as he can be at home in almost any musical style, not only…

Eric Clapton

Still Slowhand

There’s a lot of looking back going on here. For his 23rd solo album, Eric Clapton reunites with producer Glyn Johns, who not only worked with the Rolling Stones on Sticky Fingers and…

Geoff Muldaur – The Guitar Artistry Of

Vestapol/Rounder

When an 18-year-old Geoff Muldaur cut his first album – 1963’s Sleepy Man Blues for Prestige – you could practically count on your fingers the number of white performers recording blues – Koerner,…

Daniel de Visé

King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King

Sixty years, 90 countries, 15,000 concerts – and that tally doesn’t include B.B. King’s early years of juke joints, radio broadcasts, and street-corner serenades. Over the years, Riley “Blues Boy” King became the…

Mark Chesnutt

Saguaro Road

In the ’90s, Mark Chesnutt had a string of 21 Top 10 singles, eight of them topping Billboard’s country chart. He played George Jones (hailing from the Possum’s hometown of Beaumont, Texas) on…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

The Routes

Mesmerised

Color the Routes’ mastermind Chris Jack’s music how you like: vintage-y, psychedelia, joyfully and unapologetically garage. But be sure to color it outside the lines. Jack is a musical mad scientist. Each release…

Eric Johnson

EMI/Vortexan

The notoriously slow-to-record Johnson follows up his 2005 set, Bloom, with a solid album that should please his guitar-loving fanbase. Where Bloom was an oddly diverse collection of FM rock and vintage soul,…

Allen Toussaint

Think of New Orleans rock and roll and R&B, and icons such as Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, the Meters, and the Neville Brothers come to mind. As songwriter, producer, arranger, or…