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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
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…
Robbie Robertson
429 Records
It’s been more than a decade since Robbie Robertson has issued a solo record, and closer to two since he offered a pop/rock disc. How to Become Clairvoyant is unique in the Robertson…
The Yardbirds
Sundazed
The Yardbirds issued only three truly distinct albums – Five Live (with Eric Clapton), The Yardbirds (a.k.a. “Roger The Engineer,” with Jeff Beck), and Little Games (featuring their final lineup of Jimmy Page,…
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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,
Brian May
Back to the Light
After frontman Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, Queen seemed done and gone. But the following year, their resident guitar hero bounced back with this solo U.K. hit, now expanded into a two-CD set.…
Jimi Hendrix
Experience Hendrix is the gatekeeper to the legacy of Jimi Hendrix, and thankfully so. In addition to protecting the music of the greatest rock guitarist of the ’60s from unscrupulous opportunists, they’ve released…
Val Bonetti
Baraban Records
A first listen to guitarist Val Bonetti’s Wait makes one respect his playing. Subsequent listens make you appreciate his music, too. This is simply Bonetti and his acoustic, focusing on jazz but employing…
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
The Good, The Bad, and The Troubling
One of the greatest blues guitarists of any era, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s recorded output with his band, Double Trouble, consisted of only five albums (four studio, one live) during his lifetime. And though…
Easton Corbin
Florida native Easton Corbin earned justified acclaim for his 2009 debut album Roll With It, revealing his twangy traditional voice and obvious debts to George Jones, Merle Haggard, and the late Keith Whitley.…
Tony Bacon – Willie G. Moseley
Into The Spotlight
Whatever were they thinking? In hindsight, it’s tough to fathom how Gibson could scrap the Les Paul Standard at the end of 1960 and replace it in ’61 with a new design, the…
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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
Lissa Schneckenburger
Footprint Records
Lissa Schneckenburger plays “progressive” New England/Celtic music that combines equal parts traditional harmonic textures with a modern acoustic sensibility. Her voice has a pristine directness that perfectly suits these traditional tunes. Song is…
C’mon Sheryl Crow – America 2003(DVD), Best of (CD)
The latest releases from Sheryl Crow help affirm something I’ve thought for a long time… that she is a “keeper of the flame” for the kind of rock and roll a lot of…
Jake Shimabukuro – Live
In his introduction to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Shimabukuro explains how a video of him playing the George Harrison classic in Central Park, for New York’s Midnight Ukulele Disco, “changed my life.”…
Maps and Legends: The Story of R.E.M.
John Hunter
Any balanced rock-and-roll bio scrutinizes a band’s more-unsavory side. And scrutinize is exactly what John Hunter does in this unauthorized bio of ’80s indie darlings turned ’90s megastars R.E.M. The band’s more-egregious tendencies…
Chris Thomas King – Me, My Guitar and the Blues
Chris Thomas King is the real deal: a modern-day blues revivalist with one foot firmly in the past and the other keeping time in the present. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, King grew…
The Soul of John Black
John Bigham, aka John Black, has worked with Fishbone, Joshua Redman, Everlast, and Miles Davis. For the past decade, he’s produced a handful of recordings mixing jazz, R&B, rock, and gutbucket blues. Like…
Mark Knoll – High Time
High Time
Great guitar sounds and a musical mix of blues, rock, and pop highlight this disc. The opener, “Gotta Give It Up” hints at what’s in store – big, bold guitar with a great…
Foghat
Road Fever: The Complete Bearsville Recordings 1972-1975
By the time British blues-and-boogie quartet Foghat struck gold in 1975, it already had a solid catalog under its belt. This box explores its first five studio albums. While many early-’70s LPs lacked…
Rob McNelley – On
On
I love it when this happens. Totally out of the blue comes a CD, by an artist I am unfamiliar with, and it blows my socks off. Rob McNelley has been kicking around…
Kurt Rosenwinkel – The Enemies of Energy
Rosenwinkel is a jazz guitarist. That said, this CD proves he’s willing to go anywhere for his musical muse. There’s not much of a chance to pigeonhole him. From killer bop on the…
Bob Schneider – I’m Good Now
I'm Good Now
Singer/songwriter whose subject matter spans love to hate, happiness to abject despair. While not exactly lighthearted, anyone who likes their music with a bit of meat on it will find plenty to chew…
Paul “Mayo” Mayasich
The latest from guitarist Paul Mayasich and his band of buddies is an eclectic mix of American music. You get blues of all kinds, country, folk, and lots more – all of it…
John Fogerty – Déja vu All Over Again
Much of what is written about this record will have to do with the subject matter of the title cut – an anti-war song where Fogerty compares the Iraq situation to Vietnam, and…
Robert Cray – Twenty
Once every couple of years, Cray puts out a well-crafted record with fine writing, guitar solos that ooze soul, and vocals that rank with the best. No change here. Twenty should make plenty…
Mark Hummel – Golden State Blues
A great album by a harp virtuoso sums this one up. Mark Hummel is part of that West Coast batch of guys who just have their pulse on the jump-blues and shuffles of…
Wes Montgomery/Wynton Kelly Trio
Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings
Historically, there’ve been two camps of jazz guitar: acoustic Gypsy Django Reinhardt and electric pioneer Charlie Christian. But the swing and hard bop of Wes Montgomery required a third path, and 55 years…
Anthony Wilson – Adult Themes
Here’s the third album from guitarist, arranger, and leader of his own big band, Anthony Wilson. He’s young, but he definitely can look backward to the likes of his father, Gerald, and other…
The Anthony Wilson Trio – Our Gang
This is a little different thing for Anthony. His past few albums have been him leading a big band, doing marvelous arrangements and playing guitar to die for. Here, it’s just him, Joe…
Big Bill Morganfield – Born Lover
Talent isn’t always inherited. And when it is, the ability to develop it doesn’t always come along with it. Big Bill Morganfield inherited a healthy slice of talent from his father, Muddy Waters.…
A Nod to Bob – An Artists Tribute to Bob Dylan on his 60th Bday
We are all getting older, except of course, for those of us who’ve already died. Bob Dylan is still among the living, although judging from the most recent Academy Awards broadcast, he’s threatening…
Andy Taylor
Man’s a Wolf to Man
The former Duran Duran guitarist’s third solo album is his first of new material in 37 years, and it’s lucky to have been completed. Taylor announced in ’22 he had stage-four prostate cancer…
Norman Blake – Old Ties
Old Ties
Dan Summer & Kathryn Hobgood Ray l
Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer