• 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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Joseph Spence

Encore

Imagine you’re a zoologist who discovers a new animal species never known to exist. There have been rare musical discoveries that rivaled that. John Hurt played nothing like a Delta bluesman, even though…

Sly and the Family Stone

Groovalicious Glory

Long before short attention spans and the need to record an experience on your iPhone became more important than the experience itself, there was Sly and the Family Stone. It was a time…

Carole King and James Taylor

Hear Music/Concord

There have always been singer/songwriters in rock (from Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry to the Beatles and Bob Dylan), but from 1968 to ’75, L.A.’s Troubadour helped launch the “singer/songwriter” as an entity,…

Kelly Joe Phelps

Heartfelt personal developments inspired Phelps to write 11 of these 12 biblically themed gospel/blues songs. Accompanied only by his brilliantly played slide acoustic, he helps expand appreciation of blues styles other than vintage…

Tav Falco & the Unapproachable Panther Burns

Conjurations: Seance for Deranged Lovers

“Unapproachable” is right. “Indescribable” may also be justified. Just like the myriad musics of Memphis, from where Tav Falco hails, his longtime band Panther Burns remains a fascinating and ongoing conundrum. The band…

Port City Prophets

The Prophets are a blues-rock bar band that brings around a lot of people to music they might not otherwise have heard. The PCPs will remind you of both Grand Funk and ZZ…

The Slambovian Circus of Dreams

Here is a “best of” album by a band that’s not exactly a household name, nor does it have any hit songs. But don’t let that dissuade you. They’re a tight ensemble that…

Chuck Berry

Live from Blueberry Hill

If you saw a Chuck Berry performance during the final 20 years of his life, it was likely at a club called Blueberry Hill, in his native St. Louis, where he played more…

Kenny Olson Cartel

Think Detroit rock and roll – the MC5 and Iggy by way of Ted Nugent and Kid Rock: gear-grinding rock with plenty of volume and aggression. Throw in some Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses,…

Kim Simmonds – Blues Like Midnight

Blues Like Midnight

While the press release promotes this CD as a departure for Kim Simmonds, to this writer it would seem one more facet of this veteran guitarist’s musical personality. On Blues Like Midnight, Simmonds…

Pat Conte – Gravest Hits

Long Island’s Pat Conte is a rarity among record and instrument collectors in that he can really play. Actually, that’s an understatement. One of the foremost experts on “world music,” Conte compiled and…

Coal Men – Beauty of the Moment

With the addition of Chris Frame (Sun Volt) on guitar and Jen Gunderman (The Jayhawks) on keyboards, the Coal Men have gone from trio to quintet and their second full-length release, Beauty Is…

Various Artists

Homegrown Heroes

Subtitled “1950s & 1960s Oddball Labels,” these three boxed sets collect nuggets from dozens of independent record labels that popped up across post-Elvis America then faded away as the British Invasion and the…

Otis Spann

Otis Spann is The Blues

Otis Spann was the greatest Chicago blues pianist, from his long stint with Muddy Waters to his late-’60s recordings backed by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. In 1960, esteemed journalist Nat Hentoff produced Spann’s…

Little Walter – The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967)

Hip-O Select/Geffen

Someday someone will make a great movie about rock and roll, maybe even blues. Until then, we’re stuck with crap like Cadillac Records, which takes more than “artistic license” in telling the story…

North Mississippi Allstars and Anders Osborne

Singer-songwriter Anders Osborne joins Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson, and Chris Chew of the North Mississippi Allstars to create a rich Southern tapestry of blues, folk, vintage country, and rock. New Orleans grooves and…

Patty Larkin – Watch the Sky

Patty Larkin is one of the finest acoustic guitarists in the world. On her 12th release, Watch The Sky, she focuses on her songwriting, singing, and multi-instrumental talents. The final results are as…

John Davis – John Davis

John Davis was a member of Superdrag, which gained some notoriety in its 10-year run. They were a mix of influences including punk, early British rock and roll, and pop. Davis left the…

Jellyroll – Hep Cats Holiday

Jump blues are like licorice: if you like it, you can’t get enough. Jellyroll satisfies the craving with a cool selection of 12 classic tunes, from “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t…

Fleetwood Mac – Tusk

Considering Fleetwood Mac’s enormous popularity in the 1970s, which can be traced to the moment Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the waning band, Buckingham would have to rank as one of the…

Kenny “Blue” Ray – Git It!

I’ve lost count! I believe this is Kenny’s sixth self-produced CD. And, as have its predecessors, Git It, his most recent effort, again illustrates Blue Ray’s dedication to the blues craft. Rumor has…

The Rolling Stones

Dead Flowers Bloom Again

If you ever forget how good the Rolling Stones really were back in their heyday, the new edition of Sticky Fingers with outtakes and live recordings and this live shot from the Marquee…

Hot Club of Cowtown

Proper Records

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli’s Hot Club both blended early 20th century blues and jazz with the folk music of their culture. Both featured hot-shot fiddlers…

Elvis Presley

Back in Nashville

Buoyed by a triumphant return to the Las Vegas stage and a string of recent hits, Elvis Presley returned to RCA’s Nashville studios in the early ’70s with new lead guitarist James Burton…

Various Artists

Orchestral Maneuvers

Yes’ Chris Squire didn’t intend to make a masterpiece with 1975’s Fish Out of Water, but he inadvertently did – and knew it. For the ensuing 40 years, the late bassist never dared…

Dan Summer & Kathryn Hobgood Ray l

Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer

Legend has it that Ed “Snoozer” Quinn could shake your hand while playing guitar – and never miss a beat. A pioneering fingerstyle-jazz picker, he was famous in the late 1920s and ’30s,…

Charlie Haden and Jim Hall

In the past year, the jazz world lost two giants in guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Charlie Haden. All the more reason to celebrate this previously unreleased recording of the pair performing as…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Bruce Forman

Following up 2012’s Formanism, West Coast jazzer Bruce Forman delivers another set of dazzling guitar-trio bop, harkening back to the postwar era of Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, Herb Ellis, and Jimmy Wyble. If…

Tommy “CGP” Emmanuel and David “Dawg” Grisman

Certifiable Pickin’

Tommy Emmanuel is one of just five pickers hailed by his mentor Chet Atkins as a “certified guitar player,” or CGP. On two new albums, Emmanuel provides proof with every passage. Australia-born Emmanuel…

Stan Martin: Long Nights

You’d think guitar man Kenny Vaughan had been playing with this combo for years. He has musical history with the rhythm section of drummer Dave Roe and bassist Jerry Roe. But it’s a…