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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
Sean Costello – Sean Costello
Sean Costello – Sean Costello This is Sean’s first work for Tone Cool/Artemis, and while his past work was very good, he has matured to become one of the major young talents in…
Mark Selby – Nine Pound Hammer
What may be Mark Selby’s best album earns the title in part because his guitar playing is more prominent than it was on his previous efforts. This is essentially a trio record, with…
Miles Davis
Columbia/Legacy
Debates will forever rage regarding the dawn of jazz-rock fusion – its birth attributed to everyone from vibraphonist Gary Burton (and/or his guitarist, Larry Coryell) to Cream. There were definitely examples prior to…
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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,
Allman Brothers Band – Live at the Atlanta International Pop Festival Jul
I’ve had the argument many times that the original version of the Allman Brothers Band was the best blues-rock band in the history of rock. Many insist it’s Led Zeppelin. Others have their…
Charles Shaar Murray – Boogie Man – The Adventures of John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” may well have been the first million-selling blues hit when it came out in 1948. It was a song unlike anything most folk had ever heard: the chanted…
Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Neil Young often does whatever he pleases. And now, at age 70, that’s truer than ever. This new album proves the point: It’s a thematic concert combining new takes on 13 previously released…
Eric Bibb
Kentuckian Wendell Berry is a 79-year- old farmer, activist, novelist, journalist, and poet. He has received numerous awards, but never anything like this tribute, which puts Berry’s words to music – in two…
Big Joe Williams
Southside Blues
Big Joe Williams’ headstone is undoubtedly the only one on the planet that reads “King Of The Nine-String Guitar.” Because it’s true – as is the rest of the epitaph: “Big Joe sustained…
Long John Baldry – Remembering Leadbelly
The Brits, in at least as far as the blues is concerned, have always been our archivists. With a few exceptions in the ’60s, including John Hammond, Butterfield and Bloomfield, Taj Mahal, 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
Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott
Playing seemingly anything with strings (including piano strings), the cumulative session credits of O’Brien and Scott include Suzy Boggus, Steve Earle, Trisha Yearwood, Mark Knopfler, Joan Baez, the Chieftains, and countless others. The…
Big Joe and the Dynaflows
Severn Records
Big Joe Maher’s latest showcases his bluesy, swinging vocal style and rocksolid drumming on a dozen tracks split evenly between originals and covers, including B.B. King’s “Bad Case of Love” to Billy Wright’s…
Moving Pictures: How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record
Will Romano
Rush’s Moving Pictures is often regarded as the band’s masterpiece, and this book unpacks the creative efforts of frontman/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart. Examining the 1981 album’s “filmic…
Kim Lenz – It’s All True
Describing Kim Lenz as a “female Elvis” is narrow-sighted, as there are few musical similarities between the two, particularly in the fact Lenz writes a good chunk of her own material and, more…
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…
Young Rascals – Collections
Originally released over a five-year period, these seven albums show a band that knew what would work on the radio, and also how to stretch things a bit. As you’d expect, the early…
Dave Hunter
Les Paul Praises
Here is a coffeetable book and then some! It’s a 224-page hardcover, with 400-plus exquisite photographs chronicling the rise and fall – and rise again – of the Gibson Les Paul. All its…
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…
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…
Steve Waksman – Instruments of Desire
This is a work of scholarly intent in which the author presents a treatise on the history and development of the electric guitar and how its subsequent use shaped the course of popular…
Daniel de Visé
King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
Sixty years, 90 countries, 15,000 concerts – and that tally doesn’t include B.B. King’s early years of juke joints, radio broadcasts, and street-corner serenades. Over the years, Riley “Blues Boy” King became the…
Ruth Moody
Red House Records
Founding member of the The Wailin’ Jennys, here, Ruth Moody asserts her musical individuality. Using a cast of 27 musicians, she embraces a breadth of musical genres – old timey, Celtic, and even…
Little Feat – Hotcakes and Outtakes
I’ve always been amazed that Little Feat wasn’t a huge band with many hits. They don’t come much snappier than “Dixie Chicken.” And especially in the ’70s heyday of FM radio, how could…
Whiskey Shivers
Some Part Of Something
Whiskey Shivers’ instrumentation, the basic construction of their songs, and lightning fast picking mean you could call this a bluegrass band. But the ensemble takes things one step beyond. “Like A Stone” ruminates…
Alan Jackson
Where Have You Gone
Few have so done more to maintain the sound and spirit of classic country in the face of ever-changing fads than Alan Jackson. Fiddles and pedal steel still frame his warm, earthy voice.…
The Del McCoury Band – Del and the Boys
Anyone who thinks bluegrass music is just about doing songs performed by dead guys – but doing 'em faster, hasn't heard the Del McCoury band. Their latest album on Ricky Skaggs' Celli Music…
The Little Willies
Essentially a super-group of players that just want to have some fun with the music they grew up with, Norah Jones, Jim Campilongo, Lee Alexander, Richard Julian, and Dan Rieser serve up lots…
Ed Gerhard – House of Guitars
House of Guitars
There are a number of us who find joy in collecting pawnshop guitars – you know the type, cheap, affordable, and ever so quirky. There’s a certain pleasure in having one of these…
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…
Khalif Wailin’ Walter
Phoenix Risin’
Spawned on the mean streets of Chicago but making his home in Essen, Germany, blues man Khalif Wailin’ Walter has kept the blues alive by barnstorming festivals all over Europe and releasing music…
Robben Ford – In Concert Revisited
The premise of the Autour Du Blues DVD was to stage a transatlantic blues summit for the 25th anniversary of Paris’ New Morning club in December ’06, teaming the group of France’s studio…
Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection
Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection
Tommy McLain
I Ran Down Every Dream