• 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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Dave Specter – Live In Chicago

For some time, Dave Specter has made great music that covers a broad spectrum of genres. Known as a blues guitarist, he has never shied from jazz or soul, and this live record…

Rush

Moving Pictures 40th Anniversary

If “The Spirit of Radio” helped Rush kick open the door to FM radio, its 1981 follow-up elevated them to blockbuster status. To mark the occasion, this 40th-anniversary Moving Pictures comes in tantalizing…

Rodolphe Raffalli

Frémeaux

A hero of today’s Parisian jazz guitar scene, Rodolphe Raffalli is renowned for his virtuosity and glorious melodic sense. It’s a rare blend; he’s a true master who can still keep his music…

Eric Johnson and Alien Love Child – Live and Beyond

This fifth effort from the Austin guitar legend imparts more of Johnson’s uncompromising, daring eclectic odysseys. His three-decade career never ceases to amaze, showcasing an informed ability to evolve, divining fiery passionate rock,…

George Barnes

Country Jazz

When Chet Atkins arrived in Chicago for his first RCA recording session in August 1947, he was astounded to meet George Barnes, who’d been hired to play rhythm guitar. To Chet and others,…

Tal Farlow – The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions

The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions

If Mosaic’s compilations haven’t yet appeared on your radar screen, let me enlighten you. Mosaic issues stunningly beautiful and often sprawling tributes to legendary jazz performers like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley,…

Tommy Castro and the Painkillers

Stompin’ Ground

Veteran Tommy Castro feels right at home here as he takes his band and some pretty special guests through songs that, for the most part, harken back to his days growing up in…

Stephen Bruton – Nothing But The Truth

I love when records like this happen. I loved this when I first heard it, and subsequent listens revealed more great things. Bruton is well-known as a guitarist and ace producer from Austin.…

The Warren Hood Band

Not one but two royal bloodlines of Texas music flow through the Warren Hood Band. Violinist Hood’s father, the late Champ Hood, was one-third of Uncle Walt’s Band, along with David Ball and…

Sonny Landreth – Levee Town

Let’s just say it. Sonny Landreth is one of the best slide guitarists in the history of rock and roll. The title cut, which opens the album, is proof of that. After a…

Larry Coryell

He’s the godfather of fusion guitar, and don’t you forget it. Chico Hamilton, Gary Burton, the Eleventh House, Alphonse Mouzon, the Guitar Trio – Larry Coryell was melding jazz, rock, and Indian music…

Merle Haggard

Vanguard Records

Haggard’s first album for Vanguard recalls the folk music featured on that label in the 1950s and ’60s. Marked by minimal percussion, resonator guitar, acoustic (or subdued electric) leads, Haggard’s unmatched sense of…

The Best of Sessions at West 54th – Volume 1 (DVD)

Although this DVD is over two years old, I think it’s still the best live performance music DVD out there. What makes it so good? Not only are the production values top-notch, but…

Rosie Flores – Speed Of Sound

With her seventh solo release – having tried Bakersfield country, rockabilly bop, L.A. troubador, and even cowpunk – Rosie Flores has finally found an identity that was always there; the extraneous trappings just…

Deb Callahan

Live shows from Callahan and band have been knocking out East Coast crowds for some time. The group also knows how to work it in a recording studio where some of the best…

Keith Cameron

The Year (or so) of Mudhoney rolls on. The long-running Seattle foursome has experienced a resurgence of interest lately. The latest example: this well-researched and crisply written biography from rock journalist Keith Cameron,…

Joanna Connor

4801 South Indiana Avenue

Blues-rock queen Joanna Connor’s latest release finds her receiving branding advice from none other than Joe Bonamassa. Impressed by her viral Youtube slide performances, Bonamassa put his money where his mouth is and…

Jeffrey P. Ross – My Pleasure

My Pleasure

You gotta love this kind of record. Ross has been around awhile, and probably isn’t real well-known to most folks. And it’s a blues album (for the most part anyway) from a guy…

Kim Wilson – Lookin’ For Trouble

Lookin' For Trouble

What can you add to the legacy of one of the greatest harmonica players of all time? Perhaps a second legacy of developing a generation of great unknown guitarists within the confines of…

Fletcher Bright and Bill Evans with Norman and Nancy Blake

  This jam session recorded in veteran fiddler Fletcher Bright’s living room in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, exudes a warmth, passion, and joyfulness that’s right in line with the old-time music, fiddle tunes, and…

La Pingo’s Orquesta/Todd Clouser

Midwest/Bajío

While terms like “uncategorizable” are overused and cliche to the point of being meaningless, this soundtrack in search of a movie is altogether original and fresh. Clouser, an American living in Mexico, keeps…

Art Tatum

Jewels In The Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings

The Amazing Rhythm Aces

These two wonderful albums have been released on CD in the past, but this new combo package trumps all those editions. The sound is brilliantly clean, there are liner notes to supply some…

Jim Lauderdale – Honey Songs

Yep Roc Records

When Gram Parsons, Mike Nesmith, and Gene Clark were making their best music, major country radio stations ignored them. It wasn’t much of a jump from Hank Williams Jr. and Charlie Daniels to…

The Marcus King Band

It’s easy to see why Warren Haynes has so much respect for young Marcus King. The 20-year-old guitarist, vocalist, and bandleader shows on his second record a command of pretty much all the…

Luther Allison – Reckless

Luther Allison is the hottest thing going today in the world of the blues, and this, his third release on Alligator, keeps his tradition burning strong. Reckless is classic Luther Allison. It is…

Albert Collins – Live at Montreux

The justifiably nicknamed “Master Of The Telecaster” was one of the great blues guitarists of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, at age 61, he had exerted a major…

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…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Phil Keaggy – Zion

Phil Keaggy doesn’t always get his due. Those of you familiar with his work know what I mean. He’s a marvelous singer and guitarist who’s been around awhile, but because he records mostly…

Check This Action: Back Aboard

Despite (or because of) the huge Folk Boom of the late ’50s and early ’60s, these days “folk” is almost a dirty word in some circles. It’s replaced with “singer/songwriter,” as if that’s…

Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang – Dislocation Blues

Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang – Dislocation Blues Chris Whitley died from lung cancer in November, 2005. In his last years, he recorded more exceptional music than many musicians do in a lifetime.…