-
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
Andreas Oberg – My Favorite Guitars
If you were to judge this disc by its cover, you might think something was fishy; a handsome Swedish guy with a leather jacket and t-shirt, guitar thrown over his shoulder… Yeah, right!…
Tom Waits- Mule Variations Remixed and Remastered; Real Gone Remixed and Remastered
Tom Waits once famously quipped that when he tells a session player, “Don’t forget to bring the Fender,” he’s talking about one from the old Dodge. While that might not be a promising…
Johnny Nicholas
Fresh Air
Central Texas folks might think of Johnny Nicholas as restaurateur; others know him as one of the most experienced, authentic, and versatile blues performers. Growing up in Connecticut, he migrated to Ann Arbor…
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
Rob Halford
Confess: The Autobiography
“Confess” is the right word: this Metal God’s life certainly warrants an autobiography. Halford recalls the gradual climb of Judas Priest – and his struggle to remain in the closet. If the vocalist’s…
Dave Alvin – Public Domain
Dave Alvin is one of those guys you have to love. He continuously makes great albums that encompass most of the genres that make up “American” music, and he does it without much…
Kenny Burrell – Lucky So and So
Here’s the latest from a true legend. Kenny’s been doing it for so long, and doing it as well as or better than everyone else, that it’s foolish to even think there’d be…
Joni Mitchell
Archives – Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)
A year ago, Mitchell unearthed a batch of rare ’60s recordings called Archives – Vol. 1 and, boxed separately, remasters of her early studio albums. Now we have Vol. 2, a mammoth set…
Dick Boak – Martin Guitar Masterpieces
Martin Guitar Masterpieces
Martin guitars are revered, collected, and played by performers, singers, songwriters and by legions of avid collectors and enthusiasts. If there has been a hallmark for Martin guitars over the years, it is…
Frank Frost with Sam Carr and Frank Frost – Keep Yourself Together and Jelly Roll Blues
X Frank Frost’s two recent CDs are time machines, transporting you to a hot, sweaty night in a Mississippi Delta juke joint. Frost is a true Mississippi Delta bluesman. Throughout his career playing…
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
-
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
-
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,
-
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
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…
Various Artists – Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash
Tribute records are a mixed bag by nature, but Anchored in Love is a wonderful collection of songs dedicated to June Carter Cash, several of them written by the country icon as well.…
Fu Manchu – Go For It… Live!
Britain’s NME magazine nailed Fu Manchu’s oeuvre when it dubbed them “damn near the most conceptually perfect rock band since the Ramones.” Now comes a damn near perfect double live album. Fu’s concept:…
Halford and the Healers – Broken Chord
Building on his last two records, Halford proves to be one of the strongest of a group of songwriters in the Bob Dylan mold. He doesn’t sound like Dylan, but his mix rock,…
Roine Stolt – Wall Street Voodoo
Roine Stolt – Wall Street Voodoo Roine Stolt is best known for fronting the acclaimed progressive band The Flower Kings. But in the back of his mind, the Swedish guitarist has long wanted…
Yankee Slickers – Yankee Slickers
Self-distributed
Brothers Jason and Paul Ivey propel this band using their guitars and voices to purvey well-written rock songs with thoughtful lyrics and fine playing. The Iveys’ guitars soar like they were brought up…
Robin Trower – Living Out of Time
Living Out of Time
Following up his last work, 2001’s Go My Way, could hardly be easy for Robin Trower. That effort was his best album in 20 years. On his latest, Trower ditched the band from…
The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo – Deluxe Edition
Sweetheart of the Rodeo – Deluxe Edition
With the exception of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper or Dylan’s’ Another Side of Bob Dylan, few albums were as influential to future trends in popular music as the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo.…
Rick Holmstrom
The late Cub Koda wrote that Rick Holmstrom’s “inventive ideas are topnotch,” comparing him to the great Earl Hooker. That was in reference to Holmstrom’s solo debut, released in ’96, when he was…
Gov’t Mule featuring John Scofield
Surprises
Fans have begged for this music to be released for a long time. For the most part, it’s two concerts recorded in September 1999 featuring the original Gov’t Mule lineup along with John…
Mike Bloomfield – I’m Cuttin’ Out
When the late Mike Bloomfield burst onto the guitar scene in 1965 – on the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s self-titled debut and Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan – it was like nothing…
John Lee Hooker, Jr.
It’s one thing to be the offspring of a famous performer, but quite another to share his name and still be able to forge your own identity. After a number of years in…
The Blasters – Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
The Sandro Albert Quartet
Daywood Drive Records
Played well, guitars and f lutes make an excellent combination. Such is the case in Sandro Albert’s quartet. Albert is a gifted guitarist whose soloing swings, and his knowledge of the harmonic structure…
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
I Told You So
The funky organ group’s follow-up to 2016’s Close But No Cigar finds the band comfortably nestled in a bed of soul-jazz backbeats, Silvertone hollowbody goodness, and intoxicating Hammond B3. Rising from the smoldering…
Darrin Stout & the Starlighters
Stout is an obvious devotee of a number of different ’50s roots musical styles. You hear country twang, but it was early Sun stylists who left the strongest mark on this West Coast…
Jean-Luc Katchoura with Michele Hyk-Farlow
A Bebop Guitar Masterpiece
Maybe it’s sour grapes, but it sometimes seems jazz guitarists – in comparison with pianists and horn players – never get the recognition they’re due among the music’s diehard cognoscenti. On the other…
Florence Dore – Perfect City
Like her stablemates, the Star Room Boys, Florence Dore creates songs with a visceral organic link to traditional American music. Perfect City, Dore’s first release, displays the sort of literary verve you might…
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…
Phil Upchurch – Tell the Truth
Tell the Truth
Phil Upchurch is no stranger. He’s been around a long time, playing sessions with everyone from Jimmy Reed to Cannonball Adderly to Sheena Easton. And he was the rhythm guitarist for George Benson’s…
Rick Holmstrom
Get It!
The veteran blues and gospel guitarist wanted to make an album “for good times; barbecues, car rides, pajama parties.” In doing so, he reinforces that good-time music and serious musicianship are not mutually…
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa has taken blues music out of the ebullient African American clubs that crisscrossed the country, and re-fashioned it into an epic theatrical presentation for the world’s most illustrious stages. With his…
Alex Woodard – Alex Woodard
Adrenaline Records
Eliza Gilkyson – Lost and Found
Lost and Found