• 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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Eric Bibb

Kentuckian Wendell Berry is a 79-year- old farmer, activist, novelist, journalist, and poet. He has received numerous awards, but never anything like this tribute, which puts Berry’s words to music – in two…

Eric Clapton

Not Done Yet

  This new DVD featuring the highlights of Clapton’s tour through the Mid and Far East in ’14 offers some great music. But more importantly, it gives a glimpse into facets of the…

Sweet

Self-distributed

Sweet – the ’70s glam-pop act that’s almost as famous for its hairdos as its music – is today actually two bands touring under the name. The U.S. version that recorded this disc…

Milk Of The Tree

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,…

Nels Cline

Consentrik Quartet

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…

Otis Taylor

Otis Taylor has no concern for your discomfort with racial issues. It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times, and there’s plenty to reflect upon. He skips the antiquated blues coding about devils…

Indigenous

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,…

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,…

Robert Earl Keen

Happy Listeners

Robert Earl Keen is all about roots. He has mined his Texas upbringing to create a celebrated career playing Americana that’s ranged widely from folk to country and beyond. His latest foray steps…

Rick Holmstrom – Hydraulic Groove

I really like it when artists take left turns. You know, shake things up a little bit. Well, Rick Holmstrom takes a sharp left here. You might know him as a groove-oriented, traditional…

Larry McCray

Blues Without You

After 40 years of playing under the radar, Rust Belt bluesman Larry McCray finally gets his big break. On Blues Without You, McCray receives production magic from Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith for…

Vintage Guitar magazine presents greg Martin's Head shop Pet sounds Home Feature image

Pet Sounds and the Birth of Psychedelic Sunshine

Vintage Guitar magazine Presents Greg Martin's Head Shop

This is the first in a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online articles where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and other musical moments. Next to vintage guitars,…

Gurf Morlix

Rootball Records

Gurf Morlix’s latest effort is a tribute to his old buddy, Blaze Foley, a singer/ songwriter who was shot to death in 1989. Morlix has taken 15 of Foley’s songs and given them…

The Duhks – The Duhks

I despise most “multi-cultural” bands because they end up being musical jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none. The Duhks (pronounced like duck) manage to avoid this musical pitfall due to their enormous talents and…

Jimi Hendrix Experience

Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969

With endless Hendrix live albums available, you may be justly skeptical about this concert recording. However, one attraction is its modern remix, with a level of audio detail that lets us hear the…

The Explosives – Ka-Boom!

The Explosives were possibly the best of the punk/new wave bands that sprang up in Austin (centered around haunts like Club Foot, Raul’s, and the Continental Club), on the heels of the city’s…

Dierks Bentley

Capital Records

From the outside, one could easily judge Dierks Bentley’s music too slick, his status as merely a phenom on country radio. But Up On The Ridge might slap you up-side the head. Recorded…

The Hold Steady

You’re hearing it here first: The Hold Steady returns with its sixth studio album, and while the focus is usually on frontman Craig Finn and his idiosyncratic lyrics, this is one of the…

Check This Action: Walking In Memphis

I first visited Memphis in 1990, and it struck me that radio stations played loads of music from the area. Soul, rockabilly, blues, gospel, country, and jazz – if there was a Memphis…

Steve Vai

Inviolate

After decades of technical shred-dom, Vai returns to his musical mindset prior to David Lee Roth, composing soundtrack-scaled material that is powerful and dramatic. “Teeth of the Hydra” is a showpiece for a…

Larry Carlton/Steve Lukather – No Substitutions

I don’t really know what to say about this one. It’s just a good, old-fashioned jam by a couple of great guitarists. To no one’s surprise, they’re both up to the task. The…

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…

Father John Misty

Upping The Ante

In 2012, Josh Tillman, former drummer of the much-lauded Fleet Foxes, released his first album as Father John Misty. Presenting tales of Laurel Canyon excess, narcissism, and self-loathing, Fear Fun was itself a…

Homemade Jamz Blues Band – Pay Me No MInd

Two of pop music’s finest – Steve Winwood and Alex Chilton – hit the big time while still in their teens; Stevie Wonder even earlier, and Shuggie Otis and Kenny Wayne Shepherd were…

The Rolling Stones

Eagle Rock

Some people think Exile On Main Street is the best album the Rolling Stones ever recorded. Those people are wrong. And it’s certainly not “the rock and roll Bible,” as Sheryl Crow proclaims…

Soulfarm – Scream of the Crop

Scream of the Crop

Soulfarm is three fellas from New York who have put together a very cool album that’s pretty hard to pigeonhole. Noah Chase and C Lanzbom on vocals and guitar, and Mark Ambrosino on…

Tracy G Group

Tramp

Ronnie James Dio unleashed a slew of championship guitarists, but one notable who flew under the radar was Tracy Grijalva. An underrated genius, he contributed to some of the darkest and most terrifying…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Looking for the Magic: American Power Pop in the Seventies

Various artists

Power pop is a concoction of teen-themed vocals, a relentless beat, and wild, joyous guitars. With 74 tracks, this box has material from institutions like the Raspberries, Badfinger, the Knack, and the Cars…

Freddie King

Getting Ready/Texas Cannonball/Woman Across the River

A three-in-one reissue, this Freddie King package encompasses the LPs he recorded for Leon Russell’s Shelter label from 1971 to ’73. On Getting Ready, King dodges sugary arrangements to deliver smoldering licks on…

Riptones – Slant 6

Slant 6

You know, deep down, this is what it’s all about. The Riptones are, according to their press material, guys who, like most of us approaching middle age, still just love to get up…