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Music
Paul Johnson
The Hepcats Live at the Ajax Novelty Company
This isn’t live, there may not be an Ajax Novelty Company, and the three felines known as the Hepcats are actually the brainchild of Paul Johnson, whose Belairs were early-’60s pioneers of surf music. Suspend reality and dig how the “trio” expertly articulates layers of acoustic guitar. Across decades, Johnson has embraced folk-rock, psychedelia, and…
Tom Feldmann And Noah Levy
Brothers in the Mud
Spoiler alert: While it’s early in the year, this album is already a shoe-in as one of the best blues offerings of 2021. Tom Feldmann should need little introduction here, as VG called…
Nick Lowe – Dig My Mood
It’s extremely tempting to start this review with something like…”I knew Nick Lowe when he used to rock and roll…,” but I won’t because it might make you think I don’t like this…
Taj Mahal – Maestro
While not a great Taj Mahal album, this is a very nice tribute to a guy who’s been serving up great music for as long as most of us have been listening. The…
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Yes
Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition
Are you a high-fidelity audio geek? If the answer is, well, yes, this Rhino release brings together an HD experience of Close to the Edge in no fewer than four versions, plus rarities and a ’72 concert. For starters, the 2025 remaster sounds as close to the analog 1972 mix as you’re going to get…
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Pink Floyd
Have You Got It Yet? – The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
It’s understandable that fans warily approach the flood of pseudo-documentaries and biopics. Add the fact that the late Syd Barrett, Floyd’s original guitarist/leader, suffered from mental illness, and exploitation alarms are sure to go off. But this documentary handles the subject with dignity instead of sensationalism. Interviews by longtime Floyd cover artist Storm Thorgerson with…
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The Wildhearts
In the raging ’90s, The Wildhearts blasted out of Newcastle upon Tyne like some unholy melding of Guns ’N Roses, Cheap Trick, and The Replacements. Hard rock, power pop, and punk still make up their secret sauce, heard on this latest effort with original singer/guitarist Ginger Wildheart. Ben Marsden plays lead, while Kavus Torabi adds…
Albert King, Little Milton, and more
This 10-disc set covers the final three years of Stax singles, a period when the iconic Memphis-based label was under new management and trying to broaden and expand too many directions at once,…
Scorpions
Rock Believer
The 19th studio album by Germany’s metal titans reveals a re-energized band recording live in one room, like they did in the ’80s, and with no outside songwriters. Guitarists Rudolf Schenker and Matthias…
Rodney Jones – Soul Manifesto
Okay, it’s not like Rodney Jones doesn’t have the pedigree. He spent lots of time on the road with Maceo Parker, so it’s not like funk would be foreign to him. But on…
Mick Fleetwood & Friends
Celebrate the Music of Peter Green & Early Years of Fleetwood Mac
British blues icon Peter Green passed away July 25, 2020, at the age of 73. As one of the founding members of the original Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Green…
Bob Dylan – Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert
The history of rock and roll is marked by a handful of famous (or infamous) concerts that defined eras for better or worse. Among these landmark shows were the Beatles’ last U.S. tour,…
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…
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Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Honeysuckle
Resonator-slide specialist Reverend Peyton returns to his primary influences – early 20th-century African-American music – compelling him to shout from the hollers and the hills. Rootsy, acoustic, inter-war blues is the specific genre, and Peyton doesn’t hold back. With top-tier tutelage from the likes of David “Honeyboy” Edwards, T-Model Ford, and Robert Belfour, he masterfully…
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Mike Campbell with Ari Surdoval
Heartbreaker: A Memoir
In his autobiography, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Campbell admits he’s quiet and shy. Self-doubt plagued him his entire life, and when problems arose in the Heartbreakers, a lack of confidence had him blaming himself first, even when he wasn’t responsible. Perhaps his attitude was psychologically rooted in his impoverished childhood and coming from…
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Alan Gogoll
Lioness Lullabies
Venture online and watch a few videos by Tasmanian guitarist Alan Gogoll and you’ll see he’s nothing short of a phenomenon. On acoustic, he conjures artificial harmonics in a manner that almost defies gravity. Better still, he never shows off these chops – everything on Lioness Lullabies is in the service of the song and…
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Jimmy Vivino
Gonna Be 2 of Those Days
A veteran vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist and purveyor of blues, R&B, and rock’, Jimmy Vivino has an incredible résumé. A longtime fixture in Conan O’Brien’s house band, he has played on movie, radio, and Broadway projects and worked with Levon Helm, Hubert Sumlin, Al Kooper, Jimmie Vaughan, Donald Fagen, Warren Haynes, Laura Nyro, along with innumerable others. He’s…
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Thin Lizzy
The Acoustic Sessions
Thin Lizzy’s first studio release in decades, this album reimagines tracks recorded 50+ years ago by the trio of vocalist/bassist Phil Lynott, guitarist Eric Bell, and drummer Brian Downey. The songs are from Lizzy’s first three albums – 1971’s Thin Lizzy, ’72’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage, and ’73’s Vagabonds of the Western World. Recently,…
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Eve Monsees and Mike Buck
& Their Groovy Orbit
This is not a solo album as much as an anthology of Austin artists and styles – from blues to country to ’60s garage and psych, demonstrating the versatility of singer/guitarist Monsees (Eve & the Exiles, Blue Bonnets) and her husband, drummer Buck (LeRoi Brothers), as producers/organizers. The tracks span three years, but the names…
Royal Southern Brotherhood
Royal Southern Brotherhood has a different guitar lineup, but the sound of the band – which incorporates pretty much anything you can think of on the American music scene – still remains pretty…
Omar And The Howlers – Swingland
I first ran across Omar Dykes in the mid ’80s when I heard a bluesy radio-ready rock album called Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty. I liked it, and some quick research…
Coco Montoya – I Want It All Back
Ruf Records
Fans familiar with Coco Montoya’s blistering guitar work and gruff vocals are in for a surprise when they hear I Want It All Back, on which Montoya serves up music tilted to 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…
Slim Harpo
Baby Scratch My Back
Good times are rarely so good as when James Moore – a.k.a. Slim Harpo – is leading the proceedings. And this vinyl reissue of his 1966 Excello LP comes timed perfectly to lift…
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks – Tangled Tales
Surfdog
The hype around Tangled Tales screams “Dan Hicks is back!” Which was the same line when he released Beatin’ The Heat in 2000 and no doubt Selected Shorts four years later. Granted, Heat…
Carrie Rodriguez – Seven Angels on A Bicycle
Carrie Rodriguez has blossomed from a reluctant background singer to a confident lead vocalist in just four albums. Her first solo release demonstrates that she has the chops to lead her own band.…
Adrian Raso – Clean Up The Mess
Black Mamba Records
Adrian Raso understands that, just as a guitar solo is not just a place-holder between lyric lines, an instrumental is not just a bunch of notes that sound good together. Guitarists may have…
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…
Rolling Stones
Tattoo You 40th Anniversary
The last consequential Stones album, 1981’s Tattoo You wasn’t technically a new recording. While the band rehearsed for a U.S. tour, co-producer Chris Kimsey discovered semi-finished studio material going back as far as 1972,…
Tony Joe White – The Heroines
For his latest album, the “Swamp Fox” came up with a cool concept: half solo vocals, half duets with five of his favorite female singers, on a collection of new originals and collaborations,…
Various artists – Crossroads Guitar Festival
Talk about piquing one’s curiosity. The promos for the truncated pledge-drive version of the Crossroads Festival that aired on PBS in December began, “Sixty-five guitarists… 87 guitars … came to play with one…
Basily – Swing for the Gipsies
The Dutch Gypsy group Basily has been prolific in releasing recordings and playing concert dates on the Dutch scene, but remains virtually unknown in the rest of the world. This new album will…
Ruf Records 20 Years Anniversary
The guitar was once derided as a “woman’s instrument,” and in the early 20th century, blues was considered a woman artist’s medium. Things have changed over the intervening years – and perhaps too…
Dave Mason
Dave Mason isn’t exactly a spring chicken anymore, but the 68-year-old shows the same skill and fire on his latest that has been present ever since he manned the guitar for Traffic way…
Mike Mattison
Mike Mattison is a veteran of the music wars, having for the past decade or so been the lead singer with the Derek Trucks Band and then moving to backup vocals when Trucks…
The Beau Brummels
Turn Around: The Complete Recordings (1964-1970)
In the mid ’60s, this Bay Area band straddled British Invasion, garage rock, and emerging psychedelic sounds. More important, they cut some of the most sophisticated rock and roll of the time, thanks…
Play It Loud
By Brad Tolinski and Alan Di Perna
BOOK REVIEW 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…
Dave Hunter & Chuck Holley
A good guitar fits like a well-worn pair of sneakers. Players often christen them with names, mods, and wear and tear that’s carried like a badge of honor. These two new illustrated books…
Crowsong – Shelter
Crowsong offers a couple of atmospheric new records that feature founder Randy Clark’s guitar playing and interaction with bandmates Joshua Zucker (bass) and Vince Littleton (drums). Here, they use one disc to highlight…
Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters
On this latest album, Ronnie Earl and his band freely and unabashedly mourn and honor the late David Maxwell, the Broadcasters pianist who died in 2015 at age 71. While Earl and his…
