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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
Evie Ladin
Self-distributed
“Old-timey” music used to be the province of grizzled dudes with tobacco-juice stains running down the front of their shirts. But in the last couple of years, younger female musicians have embraced the…
Guy King
Two words describe these two records from Chicago guitarist Guy King: mature and eclectic. That holds especially true for the double record, I Am Who I Am And It Is What It Is.…
Yates McKendree
Buchanan Lane
A Grammy-winning engineer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, and already a veteran of some of Nashville’s most-storied stages, the release of 21-year-old Yates McKendree’s debut album mandates the addition of another accolade – top-shelf purveyor…
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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 only reveals the influence of folk and blues legends such as Doc and Merle Watson, Elizabeth Cotten, Etta Baker, Dave Van Ronk,
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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 acoustic bassist Chris Lightcap, drummer Tom Rainey, and tenor/soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Their concepts are ambitious and their sound is free, Cline
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Charlie Musselwhite
Lookout Highway
John Mayall is invariably cited for the succession of guitar greats who passed through his band. But Charlie Musselwhite just might be the American equivalent. In a 60-year career, his six-stringers have included Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Tim Kaihatsu, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, Johnny Heartsman, Junior Watson, Andrew “Jr. Boy” Jones, John Wedemeyer,
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…
Billy Strings
Live, Volume 1
Billy Strings has travelled far from his days as bluegrass flatpicking prodigy, though that style remains a linchpin of his sound as he’s kept moving, developing greater depth and range. Strings’ ability to…
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…
JD McPherson
On A Roll
JD McPherson was a middle-school teacher in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, with a rock and roll band on the side. Then he lost his job and decided to make a record. He cut Signs…
The Hadden Sayers Band – Swingin’ From The Fabulous Satellite
If tasteful, solid, rock is your thing, this band is for you. Storming out of Texas and led by guitarist Hadden Sayers, they blend blues, classic rock, country, and good old-fashioned pop music…
Doc Watson – Best of Sugar Hill Years
Sugar Hill Records
Doc Watson is such an icon of American music and the country and bluegrass fields that it would be impossible to point to one recording and pin down his best work. This collection…
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Popa Chubby
I Love Freddie King
The latest from blues dynamo Popa Chubby is a star-studded tribute to the late great Freddie King. Produced by Mr. Chubby and Mike Zito, I Love Freddie King is a blues guitar love-fest covering some of King’s most potent and popular songs. With Popa fronting the band on guitar and vocals, guests include Eric Gales,
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Rush
Rush 50
The goal of any anthology is to capture the broad scope of an artist’s career. Rush 50 is a strong attempt, starting with their first singles (previously unreleased) all the way to their final live recordings in 2015. In between are reams of epic studio and stage recordings, summing up the band’s career in one
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Rik Emmett
Ten Telecaster Tales
At the risk of starting a brawl, Rik Emmett’s guitar work was arguably too good for Triumph. As evidence, his latest project centers on a custom-built Loucin that inspired both a book and accompanying music. “Magic Power” this is not. On Ten Telecaster Tunes, Emmett delivers 10 solo performances on the instrument he calls Babs,
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Check This Action: Up Jumped Elmore
When someone recently asked me to recommend the most essential Elmore James album, I answered, “Any and all.” I’ve never heard a bad Elmore cut, and I’ve heard nearly everything he recorded. Everybody knows that he set the standard for slide guitar in electric blues, but he was also a fantastic singer and wrote some
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Greg Koch
Blues
The Gristle Master returns with scintillating blues and the influences that made him the six-string slayer he is today. On this live recording, Koch uses an array of guitars including his signature Reverend, a Deluxe Tele, Custom Shop Les Paul, and a Custom Shop Strat while sharing stages with Larry McCray, Jimmy Hall, Malford Milligan,
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2025 December Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Rick Derringer, Kid Ramos, Booker T and The M.G.’s, Steve Stevens, Phil Manzanera, Doug Aldrich, Kenny Burrell, Eric Johanson, Gary Moore, and more! Spotify is free or available without ads via a paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account Listen to
John Cipollina – Electric Guitarslinger
Electric Guitarslinger
John Cipollina was probably best-known as the lead guitarist for the Quicksilver Messenger Service. He was also a seminal figure in the San Francisco music scene. He died in 1989 at the age…
The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight – Self Titled
Black Sabbath’s jamming with Deep Purple, but Ian Gillian and Ozzy are nowhere in sight (probably getting smashed at the bar), it’s 1972 New Orleans and swampy voodoo’s going down. Captain America and…
Phil Lee
There’s something special about a songwriter who can break your heart and make you come back for more. Phil Lee does it in style with “Cold Ground,” a song about unimaginable grief. Lines…
Vince Gill & Paul Franklin
Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys
Ray Price (1926-2013) created a distinctive hard-country sound in the ’50s, combining his powerful vocals with the iconic Cherokee Cowboys, a fiddle/pedal-steel band echoing the honky-tonk and Western swing of Price’s native Texas.…
Hank Williams – Alone with His Guitar
Alone with His Guitar
Ever since Hank Williams died on December 31, 1952, his fans have had to make do with commercial recordings, which have been almost continuously re-mixed, re-mastered, and repackaged by MGM and Mercury. But…
M. Taylor, M. Simpson, M. Carthy, J. Martin – The Valley & Martins 4
M. Taylor, M. Simpson, M. Carthy, J. Martin – The Valley & Martins 4 The London Times called Martin Taylor “the finest British guitarist of his generation” – which is, if anything, an…
Various Artists – Stax anniversary
This two-disc set has 50 songs, many of which are classics of the soul genre that burst out of Memphis and the Stax label throughout the 1960s and ’70s. The guitar was an…
Steep Canyon Rangers – Lovin’ Pretty Women
The Steep Canyon Rangers are part of a new wave of young bluegrass bands that turn the energy past hot to fricassee. In 2006, they won the International Bluegrass Musician’s Association’s “Emerging Artist”…
Trio Garcia
Translated, the title of this album reads “Swing From The Heart Of Paris.” But that only begins to sum up Rocky and Mundine Garcia and their musical home. The Garcias are stalwarts of…
David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band
Live at the Capitol Theatre
Once, there was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; decades later came Crosby, Stevens, Willis & League – better known as The Lighthouse Band – to light a fire under David Crosby’s tail and…
Warner E. Hodges
Fans of no-frills rock and roll and guitar playing will be thrilled with this new outing from Warner Hodges, the lead guitarist in Jason and the Scorchers. With the help of his bandmates…
Joe Pass – The Best of Joe Pass
Here’s a set of music from the early ’60s from the brilliant Joe Pass. It starts with some tunes recorded with fellow musicians from the drug rehab center Synanon House and carries through…
Jas Obrecht
Blues Primordial
When did blues guitar begin? Many people think of Charley Patton, but in this book historian Jas Obrecht teaches us the idiom began long before that Delta legend – back to the turn…
Jimi Hendrix – Live at Monterey
Experience Hendrix/Geffen/Ume
Forty years after the fact, some people (people who weren’t around at the time) might say that Jimi Hendrix wasn’t all that revolutionary. These people would be wrong. There had been sonic experimentation…
The Band
50th Anniversary
Released in 1971, Cahoots wasn’t a major hit, but it reaffirmed The Band’s songwriting prowess and gifted vocalists, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel. Fifty years later, guitarist Robbie Robertson asked legendary…
Shakti
This Moment
Now a half-century since their earliest adventures, Shakti is back with age-defying guitarist John McLaughlin (who’s now 81) and tabla master Zakir Hussain, plus a new violinist and vocalist. The results are brimming…
The Rolling Stones
Chrome Dreams/MVD
Despite the title, the focus of this “unauthorized” Stones documentary is not directly on Mick Taylor nor his guitar playing, but a general analysis of the band’s heyday. That said, there’s a lot…
The Steepwater Band – Grace and Melody
It’s easy to dig the Steepwater Band, and on this, their fourth studio record, the Chicago trio steps it up a notch with the help of producer Marc Ford, whose tenure with the…
Various Artists – Christmas Grass Too
It’s the time of year when you may be looking to make a few additions to your collection of Christmas records. Any record that starts with a Dolly Parton version of the wonderful…
Toronzo Cannon
In Chicago’s blues community, everybody knows Toronzo Cannon, although outside of the Windy City his name is less recognized. For years he battled it out on Chi-town’s fiercely competitive circuit. Having paid his…
Seth Walker
Seth Walker has issued a string of fine records that come together in his latest. Walker and Dave Gross man the six-strings on a collection of strong cuts, and while the approach offers…
The Yardbirds – Birdland
Birdland
