• 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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John Mayall

The Sun Is Shining Down

British blues icon John Mayall – now 88 years old and in his twilight – announced his retirement from touring late last year. His exit from the road, however, doesn’t necessarily mean his…

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…

Bob Weir

Ace: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

When is a Grateful Dead album not a Dead album? When it’s Bob Weir’s solo debut from 1972, also featuring members of the fabled jam institution. Now remastered, the disc is a longtime…

Sonny Landreth – Levee Town

Let’s just say it. Sonny Landreth is one of the best slide guitarists in the history of rock and roll. The title cut, which opens the album, is proof of that. After a…

Chris Thile – Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Even young prodigies eventually grow up. Mandolin whiz Chris Thile has reached the ripe old age of 20, and shows no signs of narrowing his ever-expanding musical horizons. His latest, Not All Those…

Brad Hoyt

The name of producer Gregg Miner’s label says it all: Harp Guitar Music. He is a leading practitioner and promoter of the multi-stringed beast and a big reason it’s currently enjoying such a…

Allman Brothers Band

Final Concert 10-28-14

It’s been a decade since the final ABB show at The Beacon Theatre and it’s now available via CD or digital format. No surprise, Final Concert is a guitar fest with Warren Haynes…

Frank Moriarty – Seventies Rock: A Decade of Creative Chaos

Seventies Rock: A Decade of Creative Chaos

It’s the music many of us grew up on. But it was different from the ’60s. The Beatles were over, Jimi and Janis were dead, and the feel-good ethos of Woodstock had given…

Charles Sawtelle – Music from Rancho DeVille

Music from Rancho DeVille

Music from Rancho DeVille is a loveletter from across the grave. Charles Sawtelle passed away Mach 21, 1999, of complications from leukemia. The last several years of his life were spent recuperating from…

Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison waxed optimistic about life and music on December 4, 1988, the day he played a concert near Cleveland and did a video interview discussing his dramatically revived career. Two days later,…

Kim Lenz – It’s All True

Describing Kim Lenz as a “female Elvis” is narrow-sighted, as there are few musical similarities between the two, particularly in the fact Lenz writes a good chunk of her own material and, more…

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Magnificent Criminals

  The difference between Ben Harper and other contemporary blues-based artists is that Harper’s blues reflects the reality of his surroundings. If one chooses to use the blues as a canvas for personal…

Larry Coryell – Tricycles

Tricycles

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…

Teeny Tucker

TeBo Records

The daughter of Tommy Tucker (of “Hi-Heel Sneakers” fame) has been playing the blues circuit for years. As a vocalist, she has made a name for herself with her brassy delivery and original…

Kenny Burrell

Consistency has always been one of Kenny Burrell’s hallmarks – as in consistently great. Ironically, he’s almost taken for granted because of it. He was Duke Ellington’s favorite guitarist, cut his first session…

Charlie Hunter

Self-distributed

The title of Charlie Hunter’s latest lends a hint that all 11 songs on it are culled from some old songbook. And indeed, all were chosen by Hunter’s 99-year-old grandfather! While on the…

Christopher Hjort and Doug Hinman – Jeff’s Book: A Chronology of Jeff Beck’s Career

It would be accurate to condense this review into one simple sentence: here’s everything you could possibly want to know about Jeff Beck, and then some. To take the example further, if one…

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…

Lucky Peterson

Plain and simple, this is a monster album. Lucky Peterson sings, plays great guitar, a lot of keyboards, and covers a lot of great songs. The rockin’ wah-drenched cover of Ernie Isley’s “Deal…

Doug Sahm – San Antonio Rock

It’s no big secret that rock and roll lost one of its real deals when Doug Sahm passed away. His history was long and varied, and he hadn’t had a rock hit in…

Mike Zito – Today

Eclectogroove

Mike Zito’s debut disc is brimming with Texas-style fire and soul, even though he’s from St. Louis! Zito uses a variety of Strat tones and employs chops chock full of soul. His vocals…

Fareed Haque

For the most part, Fareed Haque’s new recording harkens back to the days when Blue Note Records ruled the jazz world. The songs are soulful, moody, and feature great playing by Haque and…

Sugarcane Jane

There are enough examples of married-couple acts imploding or having one spouse drag the other down that there probably ought to be a warning sign, if not a law. But the debut duo…

Kilborn Alley – Tear Chicago Down

Blues Bella Records

There may not have been a blues bandleader since at least the mid ’60s who has not turned to his rhythm section and asked, accusingly; “Do you guys even know how to play…

Urge Overkill

Oui

Though Urge Overkill’s Saturation was one of the great major-label debuts of the ’90s, just as much ink was spilled on the group’s rock and roll lifestyle, matching velour jackets, and cover of…

Paul McCartney & Wings

As clearly as the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” adage has been demonstrated by numerous great bands, it will never keep critics from harping on how each of the…

Nick Curran and the Nitelifes – Doctor Velvet

You know how some records just ooze fun? That’d be this one. Nick and his group mix jump blues, boogie, and greasy rock and roll into a perfect stew. And throughout the affair,…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Chris Robinson Brotherhood

If you’ve lost touch with Chris Robinson since the Black Crowes’ slow down, his latest effort with the CRB is an opportune time to catch up on what’s become a most satisfying second…

Motorhead – Hammered

In these uncertain times, thank goodness for reassuring constants: mom’s home-cooked meals warming the belly, the Red Sox not winning a World Series… and Motorhead frying eardrums. Like the Ramones, Motorhead does one…

Reverend Horton Heat

Jim Heath, the fleet-fingered and irrepressible godfather of psychobilly, is back, leading his trio, Reverend Horton Heat, through their first new long-player since 2009. And while some are hailing it as a return…


Black Sabbath

Heaven and Hell & Mob Rules Deluxe Editions

Suzi Quatro

The Devil In Me

Corb Lund

Songs my Friends Wrote