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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
Mississippi John Hurt – Live
It still surprises me, but every once in a while I run into a neophyte who thinks the blues (all blues) is, by definition, depressing – as if there’s but one emotion conveyed…
Bob Seger – Face The Promise
Anyone who saw Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s Letterman appearance several weeks ago can attest that he’s lost none of his power or edge during his decade-long hiatus. But, as his…
Check This Action: The Swinging Steel of Bobby Black
Few instruments are as synonymous with a genre as pedal steel and country music. But for a seemingly conservative style as country, steel guitarists are some of the most-sophisticated, adventurous musicians on the…
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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,
Moondi & Gaudreau – 2:10 Train
Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein have been playing together for more than 10 years. They first met when T. Michael Coleman, Mike Auldridge, and Klein asked Gaudreau to join them in Chesapeake. When…
Yarn
UFO
On its third album, this Brooklynbased country/roots band pushes further into the darker side of Americana. Guitarist/lead vocalist Blake Christiana guides the band, with Trevor MacArthur on guitar and vocals, Andrew Hendryx on…
Eliza Gilkyson – Lost and Found
Lost and Found
Some great talents manage to operate for years just below the radar of the star-making machinery of the popular song. Eliza Gilkyson is a case in point. Lost and Found is her second…
Joseph Spence
Encore
Imagine you’re a zoologist who discovers a new animal species never known to exist. There have been rare musical discoveries that rivaled that. John Hurt played nothing like a Delta bluesman, even though…
Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind
Bob Dylan’s always been one of my favorite artists. But, while I liked his albums that covered folk songs the past few years, and I thought 1989’s No Mercy was a decent album,…
Stanley Clarke, Biréli Lagrène, Jean-Luc Ponty
As you’d hope from an album featuring three giants of jazz, this disc is full of passionate playing, technique that forces you to shake your head and smile at the same time, and…
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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
Mike Morgan & the Crawl – Stronger Every Day
Texas-born Mike Morgan returns with his 13th album of original songs, layering blues with a funky rhythm that captures the essence of Muscle Shoals and Beale Street all at once, and does a…
The Nels Cline 4
Currents, Constellations
Outtasight Known these days for his lead work in Wilco, Nels Cline is a true guitar polymath, equally conversant in influences from Roger McGuinn to D. Boon to Bill Frisell. Cline’s many side…
Lost Planet Airmen
Back from the Ozone
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were true country-rock and Americana pioneers. Their unique, uncompromising brew of rockabilly, R&B, honky-tonk, Western swing, and Bakersfield twang set them apart and even yielded a…
Mutlu – Livin’ It
Mutlu Onaral is a singer/songwriter from Philadelphia who mixes soul and folk into a sound that highlights the best of both. If it sounds familiar (a la Hall and Oates), it may be…
Rodney Crowell – Diamonds and Dirt
The new re-release of Diamonds and Dirt from Columbia’s Legacy division. This album was Crowell’s most successful commercial release; five cuts became number one singles. In ’88, Crowell was on top of the…
Lincoln Durham
Minimalist begins to describe Durham’s music and approach, but it doesn’t capture everything that is involved. All 11 of the songs here feature pretty much some form of guitar and percussion and not…
The Eliminators
Eliminator Records
There are many veins of surf rock; traditional, punk, classic instro, fusion, and many more. The SoCal-based Eliminators fit comfortably into the traditional instro/surf sound, presenting a wall of Fender-fueled reverb that would…
Montrose – The Very Best of Montrose
Ronnie Montrose is known less for his guitar capabilities than for fronting a mid-’70s hard rock band that featured an unknown lead singer named Sammy Hagar. Still, Montrose released a quartet of heavy…
Jim Weider and the Honky Tonk Gurus – Big Foot
Okay, the only words I can use to describe my reaction to this record are “blown away.” Weider, as some of you probably know, works as the guitarist in the current version of…
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…
Robert Cray
Soul Persuader
Robert Cray is a soul singin’, blues playin’ genius. You might want to believe he had a master plan to separate himself from the glut of “keeping the blues alive” flag wavers in…
Cash Box Kings
Oscar’s Motel
For two decades, the Cash Box Kings have stood apart from the multitudes of “blues bands” that focus on bar-band rock, not actual blues. Inspired by the 1940s-’60s Chicago sounds of Muddy Waters,…
Fareed Haque
For the most part, Fareed Haque’s new recording harkens back to the days when Blue Note Records ruled the jazz world. The songs are soulful, moody, and feature great playing by Haque and…
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes
MCA’s reissue of the Heartbreakers albums from ’79 to ’82 is a perfect chance to revisit this album. I’ve always felt this is arguably the best rock album of the past 25 years.…
Paul Gilbert
The Dio Album
It’s been almost 13 years since the passing of vocalist and metal visionary Ronnie James Dio, yet his essence looms large in the minds of fans and bands around the world, many of…
Dio
Metal fans are pretty much in agreement that the late Ronnie James Dio was the greatest metal vocalist of his generation – or any other, for that matter. His majestic yet theatrically masculine…
Captain Beefheart
Ahead of His – or Anyone’s – Time
“Lick My Decals Off, Baby,” “Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop,” “My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains.” That’s right – we’re talking about Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, and his Magic Band. Beefheart and…
Oli Brown
Guitarist Oli Brown is a bright light in the world of blues guitar. While plenty of youngsters are playing, not many in their mid 20s are carving a sound and feel of their…
Joel McIver and Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath gets the full coffee-table history treatment in this hardcover book by Joel McIver, providing excellent photos and recollections from the band. Most interesting is the early section on the quartet’s roots…
Michael Burks – Iron Man
Michael “Iron Man” Burks isn’t the first or last talented musician to have to work a straight gig for most of his adult life, delaying the doing of what he was obviously born…
Danny Gatton – Funhouse
Funhouse
This is incredible stuff. Hardly a scoop to guitar players. What surprises me is that there are tapes of Danny Gatton out there that sound this good, and we’ve never heard them. This…
