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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
Dustin Hofsess
After years of performing in myriad musical arrangements, Dustin Hofsess debuts his first solo album, offering a window into the mind of a very talented guitarist. With an assist from keyboardist Lovell Bradford,…
Happy Traum
Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop
Resurrected from Stefan Grossman’s Kicking Mule label of the ’70s (1977, to be exact), Stranger was the followup to Traum’s solo debut, Relax Your Mind. In lieu of beefing up the 30-minute set…
Dan Bern – New American Language
New American Language
Dan Bern must be prescient. The songs on his new CD elaborate on the new social American landscape post-September 11 with eerie accuracy. For instance, take “God Said No,” where he tells of…
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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,
Sue Foley
Pinky’s Blues
Sue Foley named her paisley Telecaster reissue “Pinky,” and her latest album celebrates the guitar she has played her whole career. Over the years, Foley moved from her native Canada to Austin, and…
Viva
Viva Viva DeConcini’s band plays cabarets in New York City and sounds like nothing else – and her guitar playing is as unique as her band, as evidenced by the nasty rock solo…
Boss Tweed – EP
Boss Tweed has taken rockabilly to the big city. The New York power trio was formed in 2004 with all the requisites: minimalistic drum kit, thumping bass, and a fire-engine-red Gretsch archtop. But…
Moving Pictures: How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record
Will Romano
Rush’s Moving Pictures is often regarded as the band’s masterpiece, and this book unpacks the creative efforts of frontman/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart. Examining the 1981 album’s “filmic…
Cactus
Guitarist Jim McCarty (not to be confused with the Yardbirds’ drummer of the same name) initially turned heads in the mid ’60s, as a member of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. He…
Looking for the Magic: American Power Pop in the Seventies
Various artists
Power pop is a concoction of teen-themed vocals, a relentless beat, and wild, joyous guitars. With 74 tracks, this box has material from institutions like the Raspberries, Badfinger, the Knack, and the Cars…
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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 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…
Kirk Fletcher
Blues gets a bad rap because of a preponderance of mediocre imposters who lack the magic. The great stuff will stir you and mesmerize. Two-time WC Handy Award nominee Kirk Fletcher has the…
Thin Lizzy
Ume
These two Thin Lizzy albums were originally released in 1976 and set the stage for the band’s astonishing run of hardrock masterpieces through the rest of the decade. Jailbreak contained Lizzy’s mega-hit “The…
Tommy Emmanuel – Endless Road
Anyone who had seen Emmanuel in concert or heard about his prodigious technique, then rushed out to buy his 2001 Favored Nations effort, Only, may have been a bit puzzled. Not that the…
Tom Jones
A Tom Jones gospel album? The image that first comes to mind is probably something like Elvis’ How Great Thou Art – big production, choirs – and Jones certainly has the lungs to…
Bruce Brown
Self-distributed
Bruce Brown, whose day job is filling the guitar chair for Charlie Daniels, offers up an eclectic mix of music on his new solo disc, Off the Edge. Immediately impressive is the taste…
Louise Kirchen
The Waiting Game
Fans who saw Louise sing harmony to husband Bill Kirchen on gigs or their charming “Cabin Fever Reliever” streams might have had an inkling. More-attentive listeners could have noticed her songwriting credits on…
Peter Frampton Band
Frampton Forgets the Words
Frampton is in a race against time. In 2019 he announced having a muscle disorder called inclusion body myositis and was recording as much music as he could. 2019’s All Blues was blues…
Rick Nelson – Legacy
Rick Nelson was blessed in many ways, but some of those blessings also could be a curse. I’m talking about his great looks and his luck of having a national showcase in television…
Jim Suhler
Dallas native Jim Suhler has been splitting his time between leading his own group, Monkey Beat, and, since 1999, playing lead and rhythm guitar with George Thorogood and the Destroyers. His latest release,…
Tedeschi Trucks Band
All The Way Live
Live albums can be a remedy for contract disputes or a way to stall for time during a creative dry spell. For Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, it’s really the best way to…
Ace Frehley
Ace is back – and he told you so! The former Kiss guitarist shares a buffet of the gems that influenced him – Hendrix, Clapton, Page, and the Rolling Stones, to name a…
Mick Fleetwood & Friends
Celebrate the Music of Peter Green & Early Years of Fleetwood Mac
British blues icon Peter Green passed away July 25, 2020, at the age of 73. As one of the founding members of the original Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Green…
Larry McCray
Blues Without You
After 40 years of playing under the radar, Rust Belt bluesman Larry McCray finally gets his big break. On Blues Without You, McCray receives production magic from Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith for…
The Clash – The Singles
Rarely in the history of music has so much been packaged so beautifully for so many. The Clash The Singles box is a glorious collection of the band’s original 19 singles, reissued on…
The Explosives – Ka-Boom!
The Explosives were possibly the best of the punk/new wave bands that sprang up in Austin (centered around haunts like Club Foot, Raul’s, and the Continental Club), on the heels of the city’s…
Jon Koonce
Self-distributed
The guiding force behind Johnny and the Distractions circa 1980, Jon Koonce’s new release looks back on that time and his upbringing in Portland, Oregon. Songs from the Little Village on the River…
Bernard Allison – Times Are Changing
The times certainly are a-changing. Luther Allison’s son, Bernard, is back, unleashing a tough brand of modern blues that will blow the dust out of your speaker cones. This is new blues by…
Marshall Chapman
TallGirl Records
Marshall Chapman wrote most of the songs here in tribute to friend (and former guitarist) Tim Krekel, who died of cancer in June of ’09. The result is at once beautiful and very…
Steve Vai
Steve Vai is the greatest rock guitarist of his generation. He’s the teenager who transcribed ridiculously complicated Frank Zappa tunes, and later toured as “The Little Italian Virtuoso.” Getting the Papal Blessing from…
Reverend Freakchild
Songs Of Beauty For Ashes Of Realization
Though its nine tracks revisit and rearrange originals from his 16 albums, the Reverend’s latest project is as ambitious as it is eclectic. While he typically performs solo (as he does on two…
