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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
Larry Coryell
The lastest from the godfather of fusion guitar harkens back to his ’71 album Barefoot Boy, revisiting the energy, philosophy, and spirit of that period. “Sanpaku” opens the set with Coryell’s take on…
The Hadden Sayers Band – Swingin’ From The Fabulous Satellite
If tasteful, solid, rock is your thing, this band is for you. Storming out of Texas and led by guitarist Hadden Sayers, they blend blues, classic rock, country, and good old-fashioned pop music…
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…
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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,
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Reprise
Even though it culled three decades’ worth of performances, maybe assembling last year’s four-disc Live Anthology reignited the mojo for Petty and company – with covers of Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, and Booker…
Jim Ed Brown
Jim Ed Brown was one third of the vocal trio The Browns with sisters Bonnie and Maxine, a popular act whose ’59 hit recording of “The Three Bells,” topped both country and pop…
Drive By Truckers – The Dirty South
The Dirty South
I confess, these good ol’ boys have become one of my favorite rock and roll bands. There double-disc opus, Southern Rock Opera, was one of my favorite records from the past couple of…
Johnny Irion – Extempore
On this new album, Johnny Irion unleashes an amazing blend of folk and country with lush pop/rock sounds that mix Neil Young with the Beatles and a million sounds in-between. The lyrics are…
Delirium Blues Project – Server or Suffer
This live CD begins by asking the musical question, “What Is Hip?” Singer Roseanna Vitro and her octet transform Tower Of Power’s dexterous funk anthem into a cool, would-be jazz standard – thus,…
Guitarslinging Hat Acts
The world boasts a wealth of modern-country hat acts these days, but real country songwriters/guitarslingers with a hat and something to say? Not so much. Enter John Moreland, whose latest album is released…
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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
Bill Frisell
Few jazz guitarists combine versatility, originality, and eclecticism like 59-yearold Bill Frisell. He’s such a unique guitar voice, “jazz” seems too confining a category. And thanks to his open-mindedness, he’s as likely to…
The Libertines
Up The Bracket 20th Anniversary Edition
This Super Deluxe Edition arrives smack dab on time – 20 years to the day after the original album’s 2002 debut and spot on for the nostalgia wave. Following on from the Sex…
Tommy “CGP” Emmanuel and David “Dawg” Grisman
Certifiable Pickin’
Tommy Emmanuel is one of just five pickers hailed by his mentor Chet Atkins as a “certified guitar player,” or CGP. On two new albums, Emmanuel provides proof with every passage. Australia-born Emmanuel…
Pete Anderson
The Burbank Moose Lodge doesn’t seem a likely place for electrifying guitar performances, but Pete Anderson and band spent three days in December 2014 dazzling the crowds that showed up there to see…
Making “Old-Timey” New
There are myriad ways to interpret “old-timey” music. In broad strokes, you can go the traditional route or be iconoclastic. These two albums illustrate that there’s lot of gray area in between. The…
Kentucky Colonels
1966
Clarence White is best known as the B-bendin’ Telecaster pioneer with the Byrds – and his tragic 1973 death. But he’s also admired for his groundbreaking flatpicking with the Kentucky Colonels. This set,…
Delirium Blues Project – Server or Suffer
This live CD begins by asking the musical question, “What Is Hip?” Singer Roseanna Vitro and her octet transform Tower Of Power’s dexterous funk anthem into a cool, would-be jazz standard – thus,…
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…
Flamin’ Groovies
Live 1971 San Francisco
Flamin’ Groovies are best known for the ’76 power-pop gem “Shake Some Action,” but this show – recorded five years earlier at the final Fillmore West concerts – couldn’t be more different. It’s…
Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments In Rock And Roll
Lenny Kaye
Kaye’s standing among record collectors was cemented in 1972, when he compiled the Nuggets double-album of ’60s garage and psychedelia. Also co-author of Waylon Jennings’ biography, here he takes on the role of…
The Anderson Ponty Band
It took 30 years but Jon Anderson of Yes and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty have finally cleared their schedules long enough to work on an album together. This collection fuses Anderson’s vocal style with…
Deke Dickerson and the Eco-Fonics – Number One Hit Record
Number One Hit Record
Walk the dog, son…walk the dog! I love this CD. Deke covers the roots bases, from rockabilly to country swing to surf and everything in between. And he looks the part with his…
Various artists
Think I’m Going Weird: Original Artefacts from the British Psychedelic Scene 1966-68
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969
Ray Mason Band – Three Dollar Man
Three Dollar Man
Pentagram
If you want to explore the roots of metal, check out Pentagram, an obscure Virginia band that started recording in 1971. Unlike the technically proficient metal of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, this…
The Clutter Family
(Self-distributed)
Whatever else happens to The Clutters, they will never be invited to Sarah Palin’s house for Thanksgiving dinner – the name of their song about her can’t even be printed. But they are…
Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker’s latest covers a lot of ground and proves once again that he can’t be pigeonholed like some of the straight blues players of his generation. The title cut kicks things…
The Strypes
Here’s rock and roll like it used to be – ageless, timeless, and ready to count off again. The Strypes are a quartet from Ireland, all just 15 to 17 years old, running…
Laurie Morvan – Cures What Ails Ya
Few standard blues records by non-major artists offer any surprises. But Laurie Morvan adds a bit to the blues genre. Her songs aren’t all that different, but the playing is unique enough to…
Gil Parris – Live at the Next Door Café
A live setting is the perfect place for Parris to show his stuff. A versatile and unique guitarist, he has been around and done some major-label work in the past. Now releasing his…
Rick Nelson – Legacy
Rick Nelson was blessed in many ways, but some of those blessings also could be a curse. I’m talking about his great looks and his luck of having a national showcase in television…
Woodstock 1969
Ten Years After
Though he was a multifaceted guitarist, Ten Years After’s Alvin Lee had a reputation as a speed demon – not something he tried to dissuade. Never was it on display more than at…
Kenny Burrell – The Best Of Kenny Burrell
The good thing about compiling a Kenny Burrell “best of” is, since his 1956 solo debut, it’s hard to find any clinkers; the hard part is knowing where to begin and when to…
