• 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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Jake Andrews

In The Shadows

Twenty-three years ago, a guitarist who shall remain nameless was booked to play SXSW only to discover his slot was right after Jake Andrews, better known as 13-year-old “Guitar Jake” at the time.…

Alex Woodard – Alex Woodard

Adrenaline Records

When Alex Woodard was a kid, his sister spoonfed him the music of her favorite rocker, Tom Petty. Five albums later, the effect still holds. Woodard’s arrangements, phrasing, and even the timbre of…

Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band – Rendevous with the Blues

Rendevous with the Blues

This is Melvin’s fourth record for the Evidence label, and like the rest, it’s a showcase of his dazzling technique and deep soul. This guy is a treasure. Perhaps it’s because he’s hard…

Stan Martin

Stan Martin is a keeper of the traditional country music flame. He’s a Don Rich/Danny Gatton-schooled Telecaster-loving guitar picker, a virtuoso who is not a showoff. And he’s a skilled writer and musician…

Steve Howe

It’s been 45 years since Steve Howe joined Yes, but in 1975, he launched a parallel solo career that’s still going strong. For this collection, Howe has picked 33 of his favorite solo…

Willie Nelson – Naked Willie

The forced, intrusive background vocals on the “definitive” versions of “Funny How Time Slips Away” or “Crazy” (from The Essential Willie Nelson) are argument enough in favor of this project. The songs on…

Bearfoot Bluegrass – Follow Me

Glacier Records

Bluegrass bands are often male-only affairs. But the women in Bearfoot Bluegrass are in a majority position. Annalisa Tornfelt plays fiddle, sings lead, and is responsible for seven of the songs. Kate Hamre…

Waylon Jennings

Waylon was one of the first country music “outlaws” to rebel against the Nashville machine, and one of the ways it showed was that he never abandoned his guitar onstage – unlike many…

David Gilmour – On An Island

This is an expanded edition of Gilmour’s 2006 DVD of material from a live AOL session. The DVD is a bit sterile, done in a studio with no audience, but the playing is…

Blood, Sweat & Tears

What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?

In 1970, Blood, Sweat & Tears was one of the most popular bands on Earth. The Woodstock headliner’s second album was doing serious business with three hit singles in the top five, which…

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Epic/Legacy

It’s hard to understate how important Stevie Ray Vaughan was to the guitar. He emerged when the guitar had all but ceased to exist on pop/rock radio. Even hitmakers who played guitar, i.e.…

James Armstrong – Dark Night

James Armstrong comes back from an intruder attack in his own home to serve up a record brimming with blues fire. He can’t play guitar like he did in the past because of…

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…

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…

Michael Bloomfield – If You Love These Blues, Play ‘Em As You Please

I’ve had more than one conversation with a colleague when The Paul Butterfield Blues Band album came up, and we said in unison, “That album changed my life.” A big reason for the…

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Friends

Years ago, in a BBC documentary about his former bandleader, bassist Noel Redding held up all the albums that Jimi Hendrix released during his lifetime (five, not counting Cry Of Love, which he…

Jack Nitzsche – Hearing Is Believing

It may have only reached number 39 on Billboard‘s Pop Singles chart in 1963, but “The Lonely Surfer” is as perfect as any 21/2 minutes in rock history. Bill Pittman’s Danelectro six-string bass…

Eric Bibb – Diamond Days

Bibb is a fine guitarist and singer, and here proves a very capable songwriter. It’s hard to pin him down – you could call him a folk singer, but his blues and pop…

Michael Bloomfield – If You Love These Blues, Play ‘Em As You Please

I’ve had more than one conversation with a colleague when The Paul Butterfield Blues Band album came up, and we said in unison, “That album changed my life.” A big reason for the…

Paul Curreri – The Spirit of the Staircase

I was a big fan of Curreri’s Songs for Devon Sproule. That record, produced by guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps, was a solo acoustic country-blues effort that took the form places it hadn’t yet…

Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre

Heirs of the Dog: A Tribute to Nazareth

Nazareth rarely gets credit as an influential hard-rock band, though original guitarist Manny Charlton laid down killer riffs. This tribute features the loose collective Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre – led by…

Tom Principato – Not One Word

Not One Word

Tom’s put out some stuff on record before, and it’s been pretty good. This one’s a little bit different. As the title says, there’s not one word. It’s all instrumental, and Tom does…

Richie Kotzen

Nomad

More than 30 years into a wildly eclectic career (hey, the guy played with Poison and bass god Stanley Clarke), Richie Kotzen is no longer that pre-grunge shredder. With Nomad, he again proves…

Los Lobos – El Cancionero – Mas y Mas

There’s a new four-CD retrospective containing 86 tracks, clocking in at five hours, spanning a dozen albums by one of the greatest bands in rock history. These guys reveal deep roots without pickling…

Alan Jackson

Where Have You Gone

Few have so done more to maintain the sound and spirit of classic country in the face of ever-changing fads than Alan Jackson. Fiddles and pedal steel still frame his warm, earthy voice.…

Greg Howe – Sound Proof

Tone Center Records

Greg Howe’s incredible chops often override the musical aspect of songs. At least that’s the common wisdom. But that doesn’t happen on this collection of songs that show off his rock, jazz, and…

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…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Kris Kristofferson

Nearly a half century ago, a longhaired former Army chopper pilot named Kris Kristofferson was Nashville’s hottest new songwriter. Today, after decades of success, the 80-year-old singer/songwriter and actor is a member of…

Terry Dolan

44 Years Later

The market is flooded with previously unreleased albums and reissue CDs containing alternate takes. It must be simple to get something like that released, right? Guess again. It’s hard to imagine, but a…

Grateful Dead

The triple-LP Europe ’72 is a highlight in the Dead’s extensive live catalog, and 40 years later Rhino is presenting a companion set of unreleased material for those who just can’t get enough.…


Dumpstaphunk

Where Do We Go From Here

Cheap Trick

The Epic Archive, Vol. 1 (1975-79)