• 2025 December Issue on Spotify

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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

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Toulouse Engelhardt

Lost Grove Records

Acoustic-guitar pioneer John Fahey influenced a generation of fingerpickers, and none sound more like a genuine musical heir than Toulouse Engelhardt This is a solo guitar album, and its tunes, with titles such…

Jack Knife and the Sharps – Ace Cafe

Jack Knife and the Sharps are a staple on the bar scene in Minneapolis-St. Paul. They have a reputation of serving up good old-fashioned rock and roll spiced by rockabilly, country, and ’50s-style…

Pink Floyd and Australian Pink Floyd Show

It’s not easy being a Floyd fan in 2015. The band’s best work lies 40 years in the past, yet there are still choices to be made. First up is their latest –…

Burnin’ Mike Vernon’s 3 Balls Of Fire

Burnin’ & Churnin’ and Live! (featuring Nokie Edwards, George Tomsco, and Jerry Cole)

Of all the surf-instrumental revivalists, Vernon is one of the most prolific. Since forming Balls Of Fire in 1987, he has also dipped his toe into “crime jazz” and Hollywood soundtrack covers –…

Bryan Sutton

Bryan Sutton’s roots-music pedigree is flawless. His award-winning work as an accompanist and soloist spans bluegrass, Americana, and contemporary country, all proof of his versatility and virtuosity. A gifted guitar educator, he earned…

Yankee Slickers – Yankee Slickers

Self-distributed

Brothers Jason and Paul Ivey propel this band using their guitars and voices to purvey well-written rock songs with thoughtful lyrics and fine playing. The Iveys’ guitars soar like they were brought up…

Frank Zappa

Halloween 77

In late October 1977, Frank Zappa played six shows at the Palladium in New York City. Now you can hear the whole enchilada – more than 150 tracks of soundboard-quality audio – all…

Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey

Robert “Mack” McCormick

The legend of Robert Johnson looms large, from his music to the myth of the Faustian bargain made at the crossroads, and his death at 27, ostensibly murdered by poisoning. Author McCormick, who…

Laurie Lewis – Live

Bill Monroe never paid much attention to studio recording. He believed bluegrass music was created to be played live. On her latest release, entitled simply Live, Laurie Lewis treats us to a complete…

Windhand

The doom-rock scene is experiencing a resurgence, and there’s plenty of good ol’ Sabbath-begot heaviness around to jack up your big ’70s-styled headphones down in the basement. This Richmond, Virgina, five-piece does it…

Scotty Moore/D.J. Fontana – and Various Others

Here’s a CD featuring a couple of members of Elvis’ original band – the legendary Scotty Moore on guitar and drummer D.J. Fontana – along with guests like Levon Helm, the Mavericks, the…

Otis Redding

Otis Forever: The Albums & Singles (1968-1970)

Otis Redding’s death in a plane crash in late 1967 created a monumental task for producer and guitarist Steve Cropper – the posthumous presentation of Redding’s unreleased work. Ultimately, four collections were released,…

Steve Khan

Backlog

Steve Khan has spent the last few albums mixing Latin music and jazz. The project has worked beautifully, culminating in this effort that takes tunes from Thelonious Monk, Bobby Hutcherson, Ornette Coleman, Steve’s…

Kid Bangham and Amyl Justin – Pressure Cooker

Here’s a very cool guitar-based blues record that gets ya jumpin’ from the first cut, the straight-ahead blues/rock of “Close to the Danger Zone.” Bangham is a versatile and interesting guitarist who has…

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…

The Beatles – Rare and Unseen

Most unauthorized retrospectives of pop music are overly academic and usually a bit cynical – consisting of revisionist perspectives from people who weren’t there “at the time.” With the exception of a couple…

Rosie Flores

The first of Flores’ 11 solo albums came out in ’87, but by then she’d run the gamut from singer/songwriter (in sort of an L.A./Ronstadt mold) to punk (including a 1984 LP by…

Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Roadrunner Records

While we may wish he’d step further out of the shadows of his influences (especially Stevie Ray Vaughan), there’s no denying the guitar skills of one Kenny Wayne Shepherd. That said, his latest…

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…

Hacienda Bros. – Arizona Motel

Arizona Motel is the last album we will ever get from the Hacienda Brothers. The death of lead singer Chris Gaffney in April has ended the five-year run of the best country band…

Jim Suhler and Monkey Beat – Tijuana Bible

Full of Skill and Soul

On his latest effort, Jim Suhler and his band serve up 16 cuts of boogie, blues, and other nasty forms of roadhouse music, and do it with skill and soul. Suhler’s a man…

George Cotsirilos Trio

OA2 Records

Veteran jazz guitarist Cotsirilos’ latest record is a swinging set driven by his considerable chops and skill at composing and interpreting music. His bandmates, Robb Fisher (bass) and Ron Marabuto (drums), are the…

Dino Saluzzi – Responsorium

Responsorium

Argentine Dino Saluzzi is at the forefront of a new generation of bandonéonistas arriving on the scene since the overpowering force of Astor Piazzolla. Yet while many have remain trapped in the strands…

The Routes

Mesmerised

Color the Routes’ mastermind Chris Jack’s music how you like: vintage-y, psychedelia, joyfully and unapologetically garage. But be sure to color it outside the lines. Jack is a musical mad scientist. Each release…

Santana IV

Describing Carlos Santana’s guitar playing, Greg Rolie, the Santana band’s original keyboardist, declares, “It’s real music; it’s not just a bunch of notes put together.” Truer words were never spoken. They’re just part…

Tower Of Babel

Lake Of Fire

In case you forgot, Bach-tinged Euro metal is alive and well. And for those jonesing for a healthy dose of freshly cut, high-quality, Teutonic metal escapism, Tower Of Babel has a plethora of…

The Yardbirds – The Yardbirds: Ultimate

Two fallacies that invariably arise in discussions of the Yardbirds: 1) declaring them the fathers of psychedelic music and/or heavy metal; 2) focusing on their colossal lead guitar lineage at the expense of…

Loe & the Nastys – Loe & the Nastys

Loe and the Nastys deal in music that isn’t popular with young folks anymore; equal parts jazz, Jobim-influenced Latin music, and even a little Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, this quartet has…

Walter Trout

Walter Trout’s guitar skills are unquestioned. In fact, his playing often turns mediocre songs into decent songs. At times, though, his music has lacked urgency. That’s not the case with Common Ground, where…

Mark Erelli – Delivered

Fearing negative comparison, some singer/songwriters shy away from covering other writer’s material. Some, boring people by the dozens in coffeehouses across the country, feel it’s everyone else who comes up short. Mark Erelli…