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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
Dave Specter – Live In Chicago
For some time, Dave Specter has made great music that covers a broad spectrum of genres. Known as a blues guitarist, he has never shied from jazz or soul, and this live record…
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…
Rodolphe Raffalli
Frémeaux
A hero of today’s Parisian jazz guitar scene, Rodolphe Raffalli is renowned for his virtuosity and glorious melodic sense. It’s a rare blend; he’s a true master who can still keep his music…
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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,
Eric Johnson and Alien Love Child – Live and Beyond
This fifth effort from the Austin guitar legend imparts more of Johnson’s uncompromising, daring eclectic odysseys. His three-decade career never ceases to amaze, showcasing an informed ability to evolve, divining fiery passionate rock,…
George Barnes
Country Jazz
When Chet Atkins arrived in Chicago for his first RCA recording session in August 1947, he was astounded to meet George Barnes, who’d been hired to play rhythm guitar. To Chet and others,…
Tal Farlow – The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions
The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions
If Mosaic’s compilations haven’t yet appeared on your radar screen, let me enlighten you. Mosaic issues stunningly beautiful and often sprawling tributes to legendary jazz performers like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley,…
Tommy Castro and the Painkillers
Stompin’ Ground
Veteran Tommy Castro feels right at home here as he takes his band and some pretty special guests through songs that, for the most part, harken back to his days growing up in…
Stephen Bruton – Nothing But The Truth
I love when records like this happen. I loved this when I first heard it, and subsequent listens revealed more great things. Bruton is well-known as a guitarist and ace producer from Austin.…
The Warren Hood Band
Not one but two royal bloodlines of Texas music flow through the Warren Hood Band. Violinist Hood’s father, the late Champ Hood, was one-third of Uncle Walt’s Band, along with David Ball 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
Sonny Landreth – Levee Town
Let’s just say it. Sonny Landreth is one of the best slide guitarists in the history of rock and roll. The title cut, which opens the album, is proof of that. After a…
Larry Coryell
He’s the godfather of fusion guitar, and don’t you forget it. Chico Hamilton, Gary Burton, the Eleventh House, Alphonse Mouzon, the Guitar Trio – Larry Coryell was melding jazz, rock, and Indian music…
Merle Haggard
Vanguard Records
Haggard’s first album for Vanguard recalls the folk music featured on that label in the 1950s and ’60s. Marked by minimal percussion, resonator guitar, acoustic (or subdued electric) leads, Haggard’s unmatched sense of…
The Best of Sessions at West 54th – Volume 1 (DVD)
Although this DVD is over two years old, I think it’s still the best live performance music DVD out there. What makes it so good? Not only are the production values top-notch, but…
Rosie Flores – Speed Of Sound
With her seventh solo release – having tried Bakersfield country, rockabilly bop, L.A. troubador, and even cowpunk – Rosie Flores has finally found an identity that was always there; the extraneous trappings just…
Deb Callahan
Live shows from Callahan and band have been knocking out East Coast crowds for some time. The group also knows how to work it in a recording studio where some of the best…
Keith Cameron
The Year (or so) of Mudhoney rolls on. The long-running Seattle foursome has experienced a resurgence of interest lately. The latest example: this well-researched and crisply written biography from rock journalist Keith Cameron,…
Joanna Connor
4801 South Indiana Avenue
Blues-rock queen Joanna Connor’s latest release finds her receiving branding advice from none other than Joe Bonamassa. Impressed by her viral Youtube slide performances, Bonamassa put his money where his mouth is and…
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…
Kim Wilson – Lookin’ For Trouble
Lookin' For Trouble
What can you add to the legacy of one of the greatest harmonica players of all time? Perhaps a second legacy of developing a generation of great unknown guitarists within the confines of…
Fletcher Bright and Bill Evans with Norman and Nancy Blake
This jam session recorded in veteran fiddler Fletcher Bright’s living room in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, exudes a warmth, passion, and joyfulness that’s right in line with the old-time music, fiddle tunes, and…
La Pingo’s Orquesta/Todd Clouser
Midwest/Bajío
While terms like “uncategorizable” are overused and cliche to the point of being meaningless, this soundtrack in search of a movie is altogether original and fresh. Clouser, an American living in Mexico, keeps…
The Amazing Rhythm Aces
These two wonderful albums have been released on CD in the past, but this new combo package trumps all those editions. The sound is brilliantly clean, there are liner notes to supply some…
Jim Lauderdale – Honey Songs
Yep Roc Records
When Gram Parsons, Mike Nesmith, and Gene Clark were making their best music, major country radio stations ignored them. It wasn’t much of a jump from Hank Williams Jr. and Charlie Daniels to…
The Marcus King Band
It’s easy to see why Warren Haynes has so much respect for young Marcus King. The 20-year-old guitarist, vocalist, and bandleader shows on his second record a command of pretty much all the…
Luther Allison – Reckless
Luther Allison is the hottest thing going today in the world of the blues, and this, his third release on Alligator, keeps his tradition burning strong. Reckless is classic Luther Allison. It is…
Albert Collins – Live at Montreux
The justifiably nicknamed “Master Of The Telecaster” was one of the great blues guitarists of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, at age 61, he had exerted a major…
Jimi Hendrix – Live at Monterey
Experience Hendrix/Geffen/Ume
Forty years after the fact, some people (people who weren’t around at the time) might say that Jimi Hendrix wasn’t all that revolutionary. These people would be wrong. There had been sonic experimentation…
Phil Keaggy – Zion
Phil Keaggy doesn’t always get his due. Those of you familiar with his work know what I mean. He’s a marvelous singer and guitarist who’s been around awhile, but because he records mostly…
Check This Action: Back Aboard
Despite (or because of) the huge Folk Boom of the late ’50s and early ’60s, these days “folk” is almost a dirty word in some circles. It’s replaced with “singer/songwriter,” as if that’s…
Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang – Dislocation Blues
Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang – Dislocation Blues Chris Whitley died from lung cancer in November, 2005. In his last years, he recorded more exceptional music than many musicians do in a lifetime.…
