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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
Peter Frampton
Universal Music
To some, Peter Frampton will always be the good-looking ’70s guitar guy with the live double-album. To others he is a dynamic guitarist, full of great licks that still, 35 years later, makes…
Molly Miller
St. George
Lyrical melodies, dreamy chord voicings, and spacious arrangements – Molly Miller’s latest is all that and more, employing guitar, bass, and drums. Tucked between bassist Jennifer Condos (Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks) and drummer…
Too Rolling Stoned
The Rolling Stones
Once reviled as a self-indulgent, drug-addled wreck, the Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request has been reconsidered in recent years and is now regarded as a one-off gem. Lodged between their early R&B-fueled hits…
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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,
Marcus King
Young Blood
Young gun Marcus King enlists Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys as producer on this latest project. Young Blood combines blues, rock, and a pervasive swampy feel with southern-fried vocals and mondo guitar…
Gov’t Mule
Peace… Like a Rive
It’s fortunate the world still has artists like Gov’t Mule to influence aspiring musicians and prove that it’s possible to have a long, fruitful career playing this kind of music. The creation of…
Rick Holmstrom
The late Cub Koda wrote that Rick Holmstrom’s “inventive ideas are topnotch,” comparing him to the great Earl Hooker. That was in reference to Holmstrom’s solo debut, released in ’96, when he was…
Buddy and Julie Miller
The family that sings together swings together. If that family is the Millers, they do more than just swing; they rock, shimmy, shake, frug, gyrate, and quiver. For readers unfamiliar with this dynamic…
Rusty Truck
Jakob Dylan, Gillian Welch, Lenny Kravitz, T-Bone Burnett, Willie Nelson, and even Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas all have a hand in producing, singing, and playing on this expanded edition of Rusty Truck’s debut.…
Anders Osborne
On his third full-length recording for Alligator, Osborne has hit the jackpot. While his songwriting has always been precise, soulful, and detailed, he nails every song here with a straightforwardness. Lyrically, the themes…
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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
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…
Neil Young
Chrome Dreams
After being shelved for more than 45 years, Neil Young’s long-lost 1977 album finally sees daylight. Nestled between an impressive run of comeback albums such as Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps, and…
Mick Ronson – Play Don’t Worry
I confess! When I was 15 years old, David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars seemed a little odd to me. When I got a little older, I realized what great rock and…
Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin
First off, neither of these excellent four-CD sets includes personnel listings in their skimpy liner booklets. This is simply unpardonable – especially considering how stylish, how influential, how downright phenomenal the backlines are…
Chris Knight – The Jealous Kind
Occasionally, I hear a disk that grabs me so hard during the first 10 seconds that it makes me stop whatever I’m doing and just plunk my scrawny butt down to listen. Chris…
Various Artists
It’s not unusual to see compilations defined by region or style; this one focuses on players who share the same brand of guitar: Hallmark. The Hallmark company was launched in 1966 by Joe…
Shooter Jennings & the Werewolves of Los Angeles
Do Zevon
He may not have found a home in a certain institution in Cleveland, despite overwhelming “fan votes,” but the late Warren Zevon was highly respected among fellow artists. Linda Ronstadt, Dwight Yoakam, the…
Charlie Daniels Band
Before he became a leader of the Southern Rock movement, Charlie Daniels was part of a new breed of Nashville studio musicians who came to prominence in the late ’60s. In that role,…
Peter Karp and Sue Foley
Blind Pig Records
Two respected artists turn simple correspondence into an album. And when you listen to the songs, it’s easy to hear the rapport. While at times the songs here are dominated by one artist…
Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous
Thin Lizzy was one of the most badass guitar bands of the ’70s. After a series of lineup changes early in the decade, the Irish-rooted group finally settled on the axe duo of…
Jimmie Vaughan
Shout Factory
Jimmie and brother Stevie Ray thankfully recorded a duo album before tragedy struck in the form of a helicopter accident that took SRV’s life in 1990. It was four years before the elder…
Kenny Burrell/Gil Evans – Guitar Forms
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times. One of the great things about CDs is great albums have become available at a cost you can afford. Here is an…
Keb’ Mo’ – Peace… Back By Popular Demand
Keb’ Mo’ is swimming upstream, issuing a new CD with a picture of peace sign prominently displayed on the cover. Not that the disc largely consists of ’60s protest songs, but it comes…
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…
Pokey LaFarge
Hamfats-Styled Hot Stuff
Pokey LaFarge’s Rounder Records debut continues his rich, well-established sound. Primarily acoustic, he offers another amalgam of jazz, blues, jug band, and Western swing. At different times, LaFarge and his expanded band conjure…
Gonzalo Bergara – Portena Soledad
For years, friends and fans have begged Gonzalo Bergara to record. Finally, he has a debut CD – and it’s been worth the wait. Bergara hails from Argentina but is based in California.…
The Holmes Brothers – State of Grace
It’s tough to write great songs and perform them well. But it’s another thing altogether to covergreat songwriters, make their songs your own, and do them well. And it’s an incredible feat when…
Wanda Jackson
Third Man/Nonesuch
If you listen to Wanda Jackson’s ’50s rockabilly and country recordings, you know she didn’t need Jack White. Cuts like “Let’s Have a Party” were shockers to mainstream decorum – especially when they…
Poco
Collector’s Choice Music
Part of a new series that gathers unreleased live stuff, we find the first-generation country-rock band in transition. Even amidst many personnel changes, Poco’s focus was on harmony vocals and the pedal steel…
J.W. Jones – Bluelisted
On his latest album, Jones proves a master of several styles of American music, and is joined by other impressive guitarists to purvey it. Jones goes toe-to-toe with Little Charlie Baty and Junior…
Jazz Pharaohs – Old Man Time
The Jazz Pharaohs jokingly refer to themselves as “Austin’s Best Wedding Band” – and they may well have fans crashing wedding parties just for the music. They’re a more traditional American jazz band,…
John Mayall
The Sun Is Shining Down
