• Smith/Kotzen

    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

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Eddy

If you’re a blues fan and left-handed guitarist Eddie Clearwater’s name has remained unfamiliar over the course of his six-decade career, now’s the time to rectify that grievous error. If you’re looking for…

Chicago

It’s simplistic to say, but as these two box-sets of 10 discs apiece show, Chicago’s history really consists of two bands: one with Terry Kath as lead guitarist, one of the vocalists, a…

Jeff Ray – The Walk-Up

Jeff Ray is pretty much an unknown, to me anyway, but his playing brings to mind a veteran of the music scene who feels comfortable with what’s out there, but still forges his…

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal plays all sorts of folk, keyboard, and percussion instruments – and just about anything with strings. His deceptively easygoing approach to music – a trot rather than a frenzied gallop –…

Jonny Lang

Jonny Lang’s career has taken a turn that should befuddle the folks who saw him as a pretender to the Blues King throne. He started young, playing biting lead guitar and spitting gravelly…

Andy Brown

Chicago-based Andy Brown is 40 years old – meaning that some of the songs here were popular decades before he was born, as well as illustrating his maturity, along with the fact that…

Josh Smith

Bird Of Passage

Between playing guitar on the road and producing blues artists with Joe Bonamassa, Josh Smith found time to get in the studio for himself. Bird Of Passage is Smith’s dream of composing for,…

The Fleshtones

It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)

Frontman Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng have led New York’s Fleshtones for nearly 50 years. Drummer Bill Milhizer joined in 1980, with “new bassist” Ken Fox in ’90. A 2007 biography declared…

Skunk Baxter

Speed of Heat

In no apparent hurry, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter just released his first solo album – at age 73. The guitar flash from Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers brings his six-stringing to the fore,…

Vintage Guitar magazine presents greg Martin's Head shop Pet sounds Home Feature image

Pet Sounds and the Birth of Psychedelic Sunshine

Vintage Guitar magazine Presents Greg Martin's Head Shop

This is the first in a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online articles where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and other musical moments. Next to vintage guitars,…

Dio

Holy Diver Super Deluxe Edition

After Rainbow and Black Sabbath, vocalist Ronnie James Dio assembled his own band with previous accomplices Jimmy Bain (bass) and Vinny Appice (drums), then recruited unknown Irish wunderkind Vivian Campbell. In 1983, they…

Mike Stern

Echoes and Other Songs

Mike Stern’s smokin’ new album is the last with longtime keyboardist and producer Jim Beard (Steely Dan), who died in March. Thus, Echoes becomes the capstone to a near-40-year collaboration. Then there’s the…

Billy Strings

Turmoil & Tinfoil

An online video of Billy Strings has him looking like he just came from soccer practice, picking with his father and singing a jarringly authentic rendition of “Little Cabin Home On The Hill.”…

Neal Schon

In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Santana alumnus Neal Schon was not only known for his blazing guitar solos, he was equally famous for his ability to play with taste and restraint.…

Yotam

The music of Brazil has always had a strong pull on jazz musicians, and Israeli guitarist Yotam, who has spent the last couple of years establishing himself on the New York jazz scene,…

Jerry Douglas – Glide

Fans may argue whether Jerry Douglas is the greatest dobro player of all time, but few will dispute that he’s the finest player of his generation. Pioneers such as Bashful Brother Oswald and…

Billy Burnette

Crazy Like Me

Billy Burnette was born to rock and roll. His bass-playing father Dorsey Burnette was one third of the great trifecta of rockabilly, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio. And Billy himself…

Joanne Shaw Taylor

Nobody’s Fool

Combining her love of blues and accessible pop, Nobody’s Fool finds Joanne Shaw Taylor leaning into songcraft and transforming life lessons into fine music. Co-produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, Taylor’s eighth…

Peter Ames Carlin

Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince

Chances are a significant chunk of your music collection is from artists on the Warner Brothers, Reprise, Atlantic, Elektra, Asylum, and Sire labels. Innovative executives and record producers like Mo Ostin, Joe Smith,…

Willie G. Moseley

Bakersfield Guitars: The Illustrated History

No, this is not a history of Joe Maphis, Don Rich, Buck Owens, Roy Nichols, Merle Haggard, and the other pickers who created the Bakersfield Sound. Rather, it’s the tale of the luthiers…

Black Sabbath

MVD

Released in the fall of 1970, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid was the shot heard ’round the world. As Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler ref lects, it’s been 40 years since the LP’s release, and metal…

Various artists

Think I’m Going Weird: Original Artefacts from the British Psychedelic Scene 1966-68

Do you crave fuzzed-out guitars, trippy pop, and all things Carnaby Street? If so, this five-CD/book set is a magical mystery tour of British psychedelia. You’ll hear groovy singles from The Who and…

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 Alvin – West of the West

The Great American Music Galaxy

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…

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…

Darrell Webb Band

Darrell Webb’s career began with a stint with the Lonesome River Band, followed by time in J.D. Crowe’s group. He also played on two of Dolly Parton’s bluegrass albums. In the last several…

Betty Davis and Mahalia Barnes

Nasty Girl

Betty Mabry was known far and wide by the sobriquet of the Nasty Girl. She earned the moniker for being too wild for her men to handle – and among her men were…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Harvey Mandel and Dennis Coffey

Two Instrumental Masters

If it’s possible to be both unsung and an icon, then guitarists Dennis Coffey and Harvey Mandel would fit the description. Mandel is one of those rare examples of a guitarist who’s not…

Black John – The Soul of John Black

Black John is actually John Bigham, who some music listeners may know from his days with Fishbone or as a percussionist with Miles Davis. Bigham’s latest effort is a powerful mix of soul,…

The Northstar Session

Sometimes it’s jaw-dropping incredible how some ensembles can make music together so well. Witness the acoustic guitar-and-piano trio of guitarists Matt Szlachetka and Kane McGee and keyboard man Dave Basaraba, who offer this…