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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
Redd Volkaert – No Stranger to a Tele
Anybody who’s paid any attention to guitarists in the past decade or so won’t be too surprised when I say what a nice album this is. Redd, as many of you probably already…
Tab Benoit – The Sea Saint Sessions
The Sea Saint Sessions
Tab Benoit is one of those guys whose recordings get into my head, and I can’t get them out. It started in the early ’90s with a wonderful song called “Nice and Warm.”…
Graham Dechter
It’s always a treat when a young player arrives on the scene with an understanding of what came before him. Dechter is a traditional jazz player who lets us know right off the…
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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,
The Clash – Live At Shea Stadium
If the Rolling Stones were the “World’s greatest rock and roll band” from 1968 to ’72, then 10 years later, that appellation could safely be conferred on the Clash. In that late ’70s/early…
R.L. Burnside – Well… Well… Well
If you’ve ever heard R.L. Burnside play, you’ll know the significance of this album’s title; “Well… well… well” is one of his pet phrases, a constant punctuation to his conversation. Burnside is a…
Check This Action: England’s Renaissance Bluesman
Last month, I focused on the blues box Shake ’Em On Down, which included a couple of songs by London-born Dave Peabody. The guitarist/bandleader has covered a lot of ground and worn many…
Cheap Trick
In Another World
Ever since the Rock Hall of Famers’ debut in 1977, the quartet has been non-stop road warriors supporting albums that varied in quality. Beginning with 2006’s Rockford, their studio mojo has stayed. CT’s…
Alan Parsons
For the recording enthusiast, Alan Parsons talking about recording techniques is cherry stuff. Parsons of course was the assistant engineer on The Beatles’ Let It Be and Abbey Road, and the engineer on…
Jellyroll – Hep Cats Holiday
Jump blues are like licorice: if you like it, you can’t get enough. Jellyroll satisfies the craving with a cool selection of 12 classic tunes, from “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t…
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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
Van Morrison – Under Review
A documentary on Van Morrison’s most fruitful years including live concert footage would be welcomed by fans everywhere. Yet the academic subtitle here says all too much about this British film on Van…
Diunna Greenleaf
Texas blues singer Greenleaf has gathered a host of noteworthy guest guitarists to help highlight her considerable virtues and versatility as a writer and singer. Three of the tunes here – “The Beautiful…
John 5 – The Devil Knows My Name
The third solo album from the guy with the Tele, platinum hair, and heavy makeup, best known for his work with Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth, Rob Halford, and Rob Zombie. Several of…
Bo Diddley – A Man Amongst Men
A Man Amongst Men
Okay, it seems kind of weird to write a review of a guy who’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but this is such a good album that I had to.…
Mark Knopfler
The Studio Albums, 2009-2018
It’s not a sin to prefer Mark Knopfler’s solo albums to his mega-band, Dire Straits. While the latter grew into a stadium-filling phenomenon, Knopfler’s solo records are more-intimate affairs, blending Celtic folk,…
Julius Pittman & the Revival
JPR
Southern soul singer Julius Pittman, whose smooth vocal style brings to mind Al Green or Teddy Pendergrass, is a key performer, songwriter, and vocalist for the band that features Randy Moss on guitar.…
Eric Clapton – Me & Mr. Johnson
I’ve never quite understood those who would bash Eric Clapton. Yes, he’s done stuff that maybe wasn’t what I wanted to hear. But anyone who’s been around for 40 years has done that,…
John McLaughlin
The Montreux Years
This retrospective from the Swiss jazz festival spans 28 years, covering miles of jazz-rock territory. In 1984, McLaughlin formed a new Mahavishnu lineup, heard in “Radio Activity.” McLaughlin’s solo opens with a hammer-on…
Ronnie Lane
Anymore for Anymore
In 1974, Faces bassist Lane left the rat race of arena rock for the Welsh countryside and recorded his magnum opus. Remastered at Abbey Road and now reissued on vinyl with download codes,…
Santana – Moonflower
Moonflower
I was never able to latch on to Carlos Santana’s excursions into jazz in the early/mid-’70s. Sure, there was always something to like in his playing, but I preferred when he mixed the…
Little Charlie and the Organ Grinder Swing
Any fan of the original Little Charlie and the Nightcats knows Charlie Baty can swing; he always had one foot in the jazz world while playing the band’s brand of blues. Here, on…
Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story
Paul Salley
When a former Beatle name-checks you before a guitar solo on your very first recording with the band, you must be special. And Jimmy McCulloch was, as evidenced by Paul McCartney’s exuberant “Take…
The Highwaymen
Columbia/Legacy
The first group of Highwaymen was a folk ensemble that flourished in the early ’60s. The Highwaymen of this release were a Traveling-Wilburys-type aggregate of four of country music’s biggest stars and songwriters…
Emmylou Harris – 5 Recording Review
Pieces Of Sky, Elite Hotel, Luxury Liner, Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town and Blue Kentucky Girl As huge a star as Emmylou Harris is, and as long and varied as her…
Jack White
These 26 recordings delve into the heart of the prolific song-smithing of Jack White, providing an eye-opening retrospective of B-sides and re-imaginings, and insight into White’s muse. It also features the previously unreleased…
The Byrds – The Byrds Play Bob Dylan
If it wasn’t for the Byrds, Bob Dylan might never have become the musical icon he is. They were the earliest to re-cast his material into raucous rock and roll. From the opening…
Dervish – Decade and Midsummer’s Night
Decade and Midsummer's Night
Most bands have a tough time putting out one record a year, but Dervish finds it hard to do just one. Their music is so infectious they can’t help but want to spread…
Asleep at the Wheel
Half a Hundred Years
Fifty years, hundreds of personnel changes, and multiple Grammys later, the “hippie country band” Ray Benson and steel guitarist Lucky Oceans organized in rural West Virginia in 1970 is now a beloved American…
Barney Kessel
Stompin’
A year after Barney Kessel began recording his now-landmark material for Contemporary Records, he performed at Phoenix’s Jazz Mill backed by the house band, the Jazz Millers. The event was captured on a…
Jimmy McIntosh
While guitarists in high-profile bands get the lion’s of share of publicity, the working stiffs who slug it out on local stages get no love. Las Vegas sideman Jimmy McIntosh is one of…
Muddy Waters & Big Bill Morganfield – Rollin’ Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection &
These two CDs mark two generations of bluesmen covering the roots and the future of the blues. McKinley Morganfield, better known by his grandmother’s nickname for him as Muddy Waters, is the father…
Cream – BBC Sessions
BBC Sessions
Jay Jay French and Steve Farber
Twisted Business: Lessons from My Life in Rock ’N Roll
