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Music
2026 February Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Tinsley Wllis, Jimmy Aaughan, Duke Levine, Joshua Hedley, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Pink Floyd, Coyote Motel, Julian Lage, Jocelyn Gould, 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 the complete
Rory Block – I’m Every Woman
I’ve always thought of Rory Block as a modern country-blues, acoustic-slide playing, soulful singer. Here, she changes the program a bit. The emphasis here is on soul music. Not the stuff of Robert…
The Holmes Brothers
This album’s chock full of solid musicianship, including stylish guitar from co-producer Chris Bruce. Yet the story here, as it is on all Holmes Brothers records, is the vocals and the songs. Sherman…
The Highwaymen
Country’s first supergroup emerged from a 1984 Johnny Cash Christmas special taped in Switzerland. Along with Marty Stuart, the guests were longtime Cash pals friends Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. The…
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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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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
Craig Chaquico – Shadow and Light
Shadow and Light
Most guitarists know Craig’s story. He was the young hotshot guitarist with the Jefferson Starship in the ’70s and ’80s. After that, he started making atmospheric acoustic records for Higher Octave. On his…
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…
Jake Shimabukuro – Live
In his introduction to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Shimabukuro explains how a video of him playing the George Harrison classic in Central Park, for New York’s Midnight Ukulele Disco, “changed my life.”…
Connie Smith
Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches
Connie Smith’s career began with her ebullient 1964 hit “Once a Day,” now part of the Library of Congress’ prestigious National Recording Registry. Marty Stuart, Smith’s husband and producer since ’97, shaped her…
Tracy G Group
Tramp
Ronnie James Dio unleashed a slew of championship guitarists, but one notable who flew under the radar was Tracy Grijalva. An underrated genius, he contributed to some of the darkest and most terrifying…
Blues Traveler
With this new outing, Blues Traveler breaks from the familiarity of the band’s past work by collaborating with outside songwriters. JC Chasez, 3OH!3, Secondhand Serenade, Hanson, Plain White T’s, Jewel, Thompson Square, Bowling…
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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,
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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,
Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez – The Deep End
Horizon Music Group
The beehive-haired soul diva of the “Saturday Night Live” band offers a collection of mostly original soul and country songs (often mixed together, as in “Girl Growing Up”) that hit the sweet spot,…
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,…
Check This Action: Monumental Treasures
One of my favorite gospel albums has the mouthful title An Evening With Rev. Louis Overstreet, His Guitar, His Four Sons, and The Congregation of St. Luke Powerhouse Church of God In Christ.…
Keith Richards
Still Happy
The old pirate may have just turned 72, but that doesn’t seem to have slowed him down. Welcome to Keith Richards’ third solo album – and his first in 23 years. The album…
Trikuti – Trikuti
Trikuti is a unique band that goes from jazz to metal and back, not in a song-to-song pattern, but in the space of a few bars. The opener here, “2012,” is a perfect…
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…
Graham Parker – Don’t Tell Columbus
Graham Parker has stepped it up a notch in recent years. Always a fine songwriter and singer, he hit a lull in the late ’80s and most of the ’90s. This is his…
The Allman Brothers Band
Rocking The Fox
What an embarrassment of riches this boxed set offers. Recorded on three nights in September 2004 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, it showcases a band that surely will be remembered as one…
David Michael Miller
The latest record from David Michael Miller is a mixture of soul, gospel, blues, pop, funk, and everything in between. Sometimes multiple styles of music come together in the same song, as in…
Fareed Haque
For the most part, Fareed Haque’s new recording harkens back to the days when Blue Note Records ruled the jazz world. The songs are soulful, moody, and feature great playing by Haque and…
Marshall Crenshaw
The Wild, Exciting Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw has worn so many musical hats. He authored a guide to rock and roll in the movies; portrayed John Lennon in the stage production Beatlemania; played Buddy Holly in the movie…
Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton’s roots-music pedigree is flawless. His award-winning work as an accompanist and soloist spans bluegrass, Americana, and contemporary country, all proof of his versatility and virtuosity. A gifted guitar educator, he earned…
Churchwood
Hex City
It’s not every band that has a lead singer who has published three books of poetry and whose literary criticism has appeared in The Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. In addition,…
Steve Herberman Trio – Ideals
Reach Music
Herberman is known as an educator/player, and with each release, his skills become more and more evident. He plays a seven-string guitar and mixes jazz standards with originals such that every song sounds…
David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band
Live at the Capitol Theatre
Once, there was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; decades later came Crosby, Stevens, Willis & League – better known as The Lighthouse Band – to light a fire under David Crosby’s tail and…
Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind
Bob Dylan’s always been one of my favorite artists. But, while I liked his albums that covered folk songs the past few years, and I thought 1989’s No Mercy was a decent album,…
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Zuzu Bollin – Boogie Uproar: Texas Blues and R&B 1947-1954
The history of early Texas jump blues is often summed up in one name – T-Bone Walker. While Walker’s pioneering guitarwork, great original songs, and landmark recordings are justly famous, his star quality…
Samantha Fish
Faster
Samantha Fish’s latest continues an artful trajectory combining pop and gritty blues; Faster seduces the listener as it showcases empowerment, self-reflection, and taking control of one’s destiny. Under the watchful eye of producer…
Bruce Cockburn
True North
In more ways than one, American audiences are still catching up with this Canadian singer/songwriter. In fact, that tag illustrates how those of us south of the border are largely familiar with only…
Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver – Hard Game of Love
Hard Game of Love
For the last six years, if you wanted to hear Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver do secular bluegrass, you had to attend a live concert, since gospel material has been all they’ve recorded. With…
Canned Heat – Live at Montreux
The story of Canned Heat has more twists and turns than Spinal Tap’s evolution from the Thamesmen to Spinal Tap, Mark II. Which is why some of the dramatic, lofty claims in the…
