• 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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Bearfoot

The teenagers who began the Bearfoot Bluegrass Band in 2006 have matured into young adults. As they’ve matured, so has their music. Even their name has changed slightly; it’s been shortened to Bearfoot.…

Nashville Pussy

Nashville Pussy marks its territory of trailer-park Southern rock with lowbrow humor and infectious charisma. The band consists of the husband-and-wife team of Blaine Cartwright on vocals and guitar and Ruyter Suys on…

John Mayall and Friends – Along For the Ride

Along For the Ride

John Mayall (VG, July ’98, and look for a new talk next month) has been doing it for so long it seems he’s always been there. And he has. In a career that…

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…

Jason Jordan – Genuine Vinyl

It seems new really good Tele players keep poppin’ up. Here’s another one. Jason doesn’t waste any time, getting going with the opener, “Picky, Picky, Picky.” It’s a medium-tempo country tune with cool…

Nils Lofgren

Wags might be forgiven for calling Nils Lofgren the Forrest Gump of rock. The dude’s not only played with everyone, it seems, but he’s been a key guitar (and accordion) foil for some…

The Jelly Jam

The Jelly Jam’s forth album is a weighty recording that combines the best elements of modern prog and aspects of King’s X. Nobody does dark and moody like King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor.…

Thin Lizzy

The cool thing about the vinyl revolution is that strange and wonderful albums are being reissued by the score. Take Thin Lizzy’s 1971 debut, back when they were a power trio and five…

Check This Action: Monumental Treasures

One of my favorite gospel albums has the mouthful title An Evening With Rev. Louis Overstreet, His Guitar, His Four Sons, and The Congregation of St. Luke Powerhouse Church of God In Christ.…

Los Lonely Boys

Lonelytone Records

It’s easy to take for granted bands like Los Lonely Boys. The trio of brothers is adept at many kinds of music. Early in their career, guitarist Henry Garza proved that, like so…

Phil Collins, Billy Cobham

Great Guitar Albums From Non-Guitarists

Sometimes non-guitarists make great guitar albums. These expanded reissues from drummers Billy Cobham and Phil Collins are cases in point. After a blistering career in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham went solo and released…

Kenny Wayne Shepherd

The latest from Kenny Wayne Shepherd is an homage to players and songs that influenced him while he was coming up. For the most part, it’s a splendid collection with some of the…

Terry Callier – Timepeace

They don’t make many albums like this anymore, and that’s unfortunate. A heady mix of soul, R&B, jazz, and everything in-between, it’s the kind of thing you’d run into often in the late…

Jack Nitzsche – Hearing Is Believing

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…

Born in Chicago

Various artists

Tweaked and re-cut, this documentary charts the rise of America’s greatest urban blues and its gradual adaptation into rock. There are photos, interviews, and even footage of Maxwell Street, where bluesmen would perform…

Blues Unseen But Thriving

This is a fascinating, albeit incomplete, documentary about a segment of the blues seldom seen by devotees, let alone lay people. Director Daniel Cross uses Bobby Rush as his focal point and ad…

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…

Dave Mason with Chris Epting

Only You Know & I Know

Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Mason has endured the familiar rock-star highs and lows in his unusual career, and several unique experiences are covered in this autobiography. A founding member of the groundbreaking Traffic, Mason calls…

Vinnie Moore

Double Exposure

Neoclassical shredder Vinnie Moore’s latest features vocals for the first time. Double Exposure is a heavy-rock record saturated with funky overtones and a high degree of guitarmanship. Joined by vocalists Keith Slack, Ed…

Guy King

Blues veteran Guy King steps out with a full big band on his latest and proves up to the task of doing justice to various forms of American music – blues, funk, soul,…

Strolling Scones – Instrospective

The Strolling Scones recreate a ’60s vibe while writing songs that are fresh and new. For instance, if the 12-string on “Any Time She Passes By” doesn’t bring to mind the Byrds, you’ve…

Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass: A Compendium of the Rare, Iconic, and Weird

Nearly two years in the making, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass: A Compendium of the Rare, Iconic, and Weird features players and collectors discussing their connection to iconic instruments. Lee began…

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie

Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie

When Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, the group not only had three lead singers in its arsenal (with Christine McVie already onboard), it had three distinctive songwriters. But there was…

JJ Grey & Mofro – Country Ghetto

JJ Grey is not your classic bluesman, but he’s a genuine southern soul and roots talent who supplies guitars, keyboards, and amazing vocals to a set of songs that celebrate southern people and…

Pink Floyd in North America 1966-1983

Glenn Povey

David Gilmour playing a rare Stratocaster doubleneck? You’ll see that 1972 photo and others in this reference book documenting Floyd’s many North American tours (FYI, one Strat neck was set up for slide).…

Michael Burks – Iron Man

Michael “Iron Man” Burks isn’t the first or last talented musician to have to work a straight gig for most of his adult life, delaying the doing of what he was obviously born…

Walter Jr. – Back On the Bayou Road

In music and pop culture today, subtlety and taste are in very short supply. But this has both, in spades. Walter’s a Louisiana guy, and it shows on the opener, “Hot Louisiana Rock,”…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

The Routes

In This Perfect Hell

Think old-school Zombies crossed with new-thing Arctic Monkeys: the result may just be the Routes. The guitar-bass-drum trio is part classic Brit invasion rockers with period-perfect gear, part hypnotic proto psychedelia – yet…

Strange Angels: In Flight With Elmore James

Dusting Off Elmo

In an essay for Guitar Player magazine in 1977, Frank Zappa said of Elmore James, “Even though Elmore tended to play the same famous lick on every record, I got the feeling that…

King’s X

In the New Age: The Atlantic Recordings 1988-1995

Absurdly talented – and eternally misunderstood – King’s X was always on the cusp of stardom. This box set with bonus tracks deftly documents their blend of Beatlesque pop, Rush-like progressive, proto-grunge, and…