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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
Kid Andersen – Rock Awhile
You listen to music long enough, and you end up seeing the damnedest things. Take, for instance, this record. Who is Kid Andersen? Well, let’s see. He’s a Norwegian bluesman. No, really. He’s…
Jinx Jones
Home Brand Records
Jinx Jones long ago proved himself a fine player, and his latest disc reinforces that he is a major talent in the rockabilly, jazz, and country field. On occasion, a strong Brian Setzer…
Doc Watson – Best of Sugar Hill Years
Sugar Hill Records
Doc Watson is such an icon of American music and the country and bluegrass fields that it would be impossible to point to one recording and pin down his best work. This collection…
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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,
Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour
Friendlytown
From his earliest days in Memphis, Steve Cropper’s virtuosity stemmed from his powerful mastery of rhythm and flawless sense of economy. Those assets stood him in good stead through the glory days as…
Steve Lukather
Mascot
If you’re waiting for a full-blown Steve Lukather guitar album, this isn’t it (actually, it was 1982’s Baked Potato Super Live, but that’s another story). Instead, this record is very much in the…
Dierks Bentley
Capital Records
From the outside, one could easily judge Dierks Bentley’s music too slick, his status as merely a phenom on country radio. But Up On The Ridge might slap you up-side the head. Recorded…
Cadillac Sky – Gravity’s Our Enemy
Though they call their music “outlaw acoustic” and they include Radiohead and Gnarles Barkley along with Earl Scruggs and Alison Krauss as inspirations, Cadillac Sky’s music is far closer to roots bluegrass than…
Juicy Lucy
Juicy Lucy/Lie Back and Enjoy It/Get A Whiff A This
Any discussion of unsung guitar greats needs to include Glenn Ross Campbell. Thankfully, his work with Juicy Lucy is documented on this two-CD three-fer. Between Freddie Roulette playing Chicago blues on lap steel…
Trampled Under Foot
Every now and then a band comes along that after one listen you realize they really get it. This is the case with Trampled Under Foot, made up of the Schnebelen siblings: Danielle…
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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
Josh Preston – Exit Sounds
A few years ago, Josh Preston laid down his electric guitar for the life of singer/songwriter. Once past the slightly offensive notion that this move speaks of contempt for the music that changed…
Peter Frampton
Perhaps no rocker in history was ever punished as severely as Peter Frampton. In 1976, he was the celebrated king of pop-rock thanks to Frampton Comes Alive, but after a weak followup and…
Bill Frisell – Blues Dream
Blues Dream
In some ways, Blues Dream is a bit of an odd title for this new release by guitar soundpainter Bill Frisell. Like several of his recent releases, the music is definitely dreamlike, with…
Bruce Springsteen – Magic
Advance word on this album centered on its anti-war lyrics, but its true focus is on the return of the E Street Band and Springsteen’s classic signature sound. “In the Future” does discuss…
Chely Wright
Vanguard Records
Singer/songwriter Chely Wright’s seventh album is different in tone – less solicitous and more emotionally purgative. To enhance her already well-crafted material, Wright has an empathetic producer and collaborator in Rodney Crowell and…
Alter Bridge
Since 2013’s Fortress, Alter Bridge has lost no momentum. They’ve focused their talents to create a successful formula that highlights the strongest elements of its individual members. This latest is packed with high-altitude…
Life in the Fast Lane
Mick Wall
Despite personality conflicts and substances galore, The Eagles created impeccably crafted music. Mick Wall’s book explains how Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit…
Dave Alvin – West of the West
Dave Alvin is one of America’s best songwriters, and as such runs the risk of alienating casual fans when he does an album of covers. But then again, maybe not… The idea with…
Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, and Tony Rice – The Pizza Tapes
This material came from the first Tone Poems sessions at David Grisman’s studios, and its title came from the fact the master was allegedly stolen from Jerry Garcia’s kitchen table by a pizza…
Yes
Hunting Heads
The term “holy grail” is overused these days, but stop the presses anyway – this is the holy grail of Yes concert records. Composed of live tapes from the fall of ’72 and…
Spoon
Lucifer On The Sofa
Ten studio albums in, Spoon’s latest just may be its purest rock-and-roll record. What took so long? The band’s early albums verged on ragged-edge post-punk, while power-pop masterpieces like 2007’s Ga Ga Ga…
Grateful Dead
The triple-LP Europe ’72 is a highlight in the Dead’s extensive live catalog, and 40 years later Rhino is presenting a companion set of unreleased material for those who just can’t get enough.…
Hank Williams – The Unreleased Recordings
Time Life
For Hank Williams Sr. collectors who have all his studio material, the Holy Grail has been recordings of his live early morning radio shows, 15 minutes long, broadcast daily over Nashville’s WSM in…
Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection
Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection
The latest release from Experience Hendrix, Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection, is a two-CD set of the master at work. In his four-year career as a celebrity, Hendrix produced only three studio…
Steely Dan – Two Against Nature: Steeply Can’s Plush
Here’s a video that features a band recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Steely Dan. Two Against Nature features the current touring band doing new and olk tunes in…
Furry Lewis, Sleepy John Estes, Mud Boy and the Neutrons, and more
These days, Memphis’ Beale Street is a blues-lover’s Disneyland in all the worst ways. It’s been sanitized and sanctified, then thoroughly commercialized. Once upon a time, however, it was the “home of the…
John5 – Requiem
Adrenaline Records
His resume includes names like Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, but John 5 is not your typical shock-metal guitarist. In fact, much of his new DVD shows him running down country licks… in…
The Dead Live On
Various Artists
The Grateful Dead just may be more popular now that the band is actually dead and gone. Their musical industrial complex keeps a steady stream of live recordings coming – and with some…
Molly Maher and Her Band of Disbelievers
Molly Maher is blessed. She writes songs that ring true. Her singing is a fine balance of deep and soulful, somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris. And to top it all, she…
Experience Hendrix
Image Entertainment
Had fate and negligence not interfered, Jimi Hendrix would have turned 65 in 2008 – only five years older than Bruce Springsteen, four older than Carlos Santana, two older than John Fogerty, and…
Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey
Wilko Johnson was having quite a run. In 2009 he stole the show in Oil City Confidential, Julien Temple’s acclaimed rock doc about Johnson’s old band, Dr. Feelgood. In 2011 he began appearing…
Tal Farlow – The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions
The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions
Kim Simmonds – Blues Like Midnight
Blues Like Midnight
