• 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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Ally Venable

Real Gone

Ally Venable has deep roots in blues-rock, but it’s easy to picture her as a festival headliner. A legitimate triple threat – the writer of original songs, a powerhouse vocalist and a tough,…

João Erbetta and Pete Curry

Los Angeles

Guitarist Erbetta has composed and produced film scores in his native Brazil, while Angelino Pete Curry plays bass with Los Straitjackets and was the surf-rock Halibuts’ lead guitarist. The two previously spearheaded the…

Roy Buchanan and Tom Principato

Masters of the Telecaster

In 1972, Roy Buchanan shook up the guitar world with his self-titled debut album. The tones he extracted from his ’53 Tele, his facility with eclectic repertoire and techniques, from country to blues…

Jinx Jones – Live in Finland

San Francisco’s Jinx Jones teams with two terrific Finnish musicians for the making of this fine live record. Henry Valanne (drums) and Ari Sjöblom (bass) are both adept at the various forms of…

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…

Duke Robillard – A Swing Lesson with Duke Robillard

Stony Plain

Duke continues his impressive output with a nod to his swing roots. Among guitarists, Robillard is known as a do-all, as he can be at home in almost any musical style, not only…

Ernie Hawkins

Corona Records

Ernie Hawkins is a genius of the acoustic guitar who has mastered the country-blues stylings in the vein of Reverend Gary Davis. On Whinin’ Boy, he finds himself in a band setting more…

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…

Check This Action: “Pipeline” and Beyond

When a friend introduced me to Bob Spickard and Brian Carman of the Chantays about 40 years ago, I immediately pumped them with questions: Who played lead and who played rhythm on their…

Muddy Waters – The Blues: Rolling Stone 1941-1950

The Blues: Rolling Stone 1941-1950

This new collection chronicles the rise of Muddy Waters from tractor driver to the king of the blues. It presents 36 of his formative first recordings on two CDs covering his debut years…

Lee Ritenour

In honor of his 40th year of recording, Lee Ritenour blended a bit of new material with journeys in time, revisiting tunes he’d recorded starting with First Course, his 1975 debut. He kicks…

Bola Sete

Samba In Seattle

The uninitiated will wonder why they’re just now hearing such a guitar genius, while aficionados bemoan the fact Bola Sete isn’t a household name. Previously unreleased, this triple-CD, subtitled Live At The Penthouse…

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

Honeysuckle

Resonator-slide specialist Reverend Peyton returns to his primary influences – early 20th-century African-American music – compelling him to shout from the hollers and the hills. Rootsy, acoustic, inter-war blues is the specific genre,…

James Burton and Ralph Mooney – Corn Pickin’ And Slick Slidin’

The first domestic CD release of this pickin’ fest from 1968 is cause for celebration. This all-instrumental outing featuring two of country’s greatest stylists – Tele maestro James Burton in his post-Ricky Nelson/pre-Elvis…

Mike Zito

Resurrection

The very title of bluesman Mike Zito’s new album – and the fact it’s the follow-up to 2020’s Quarantine Blues – strongly suggests the arrival of songs celebrating post-pandemic life. There’s indeed a…

Prasanna

The highly decorated Prasanna embellishes his artistry with a style that fuses elements of jazz and Indian music. The ancient Indian art of Carnatic music weaves throughout, bringing much-needed pizazz, panache, and fearless…

Phil Collins, Billy Cobham

Great Guitar Albums From Non-Guitarists

Sometimes non-guitarists make great guitar albums. These expanded reissues from drummers Billy Cobham and Phil Collins are cases in point. After a blistering career in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham went solo and released…

Moreland & Arbuckle

Aaron Moreland on guitars and Dustin Arbuckle on vocals and harmonica have been doing their thing for almost a decade now and every album has been a winner. This latest is no exception:…

The Beau Brummels

Turn Around: The Complete Recordings (1964-1970)

In the mid ’60s, this Bay Area band straddled British Invasion, garage rock, and emerging psychedelic sounds. More important, they cut some of the most sophisticated rock and roll of the time, thanks…

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…

Josh Smith

Bird Of Passage

Between playing guitar on the road and producing blues artists with Joe Bonamassa, Josh Smith found time to get in the studio for himself. Bird Of Passage is Smith’s dream of composing for,…

Happy Traum

There’s a Bright Side Somewhere

Traum is known to some as founder of the expansive Homespun Tapes instructional series, but there’s nothing academic about this baker’s dozen. From the powerful intricacies of “Santa Cruz Blues,” an improvisation named…

Jonathan Kreisberg

New For Now Music

There’s a whole new generation of jazz guitarists very conversant in the traditional language of the form, but with their own other influences. Jonathan Kreisberg is at the top of that list. On…

George Harrison – Brainwashed

It’s become cliché to say a particular guitarist is recognizable after just one note, but in the case of George Harrison, it’s true. Because along with his many hats and talents – singer,…

Otis Taylor

Anyone familiar with Otis Taylor’s work won’t be surprised by the hypnotic nature of his new record, featuring vocal numbers and instrumental interludes that all are seemingly connected. The classic title cut gets…

Darren Jay and the Delta Souls

Darren Jay may not be in Gregg Allman’s class as a singer, but he’s still effective. As a guitar player and arranger, though, he can stand with many, and he leads this big…

Greg Nagy

Blues rocker Greg Nagy makes the Northern industrial equivalent to Southern country of the 1950s and ’60s. He melds ’70s West Coast R&B, British blues rock, Albert King tones, dollops of Steely Dan,…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Toots and the Maytals – Light Your Light

News flash: Toots is sporting dreads! Since the dawn of his career in the mid 1960s, Frederick “Toots” Hibbert has sworn by a close-shaven head. And his music has remained close to its…

Robert Cray – Twenty

Once every couple of years, Cray puts out a well-crafted record with fine writing, guitar solos that ooze soul, and vocals that rank with the best. No change here. Twenty should make plenty…

The Rolling Stones

Eagle Rock

Some people think Exile On Main Street is the best album the Rolling Stones ever recorded. Those people are wrong. And it’s certainly not “the rock and roll Bible,” as Sheryl Crow proclaims…