• 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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Terry Robb

The Oregon Blues Trail

Portland-based Terry Robb has managed to keep a fairly low profile despite being one of the best players, on acoustic and electric, embracing a range of blues styles and then some. He is,…

Deep Seven – Rapid Serve

Rapid Serve

I love stuff like this. Deep Seven is a quartet of very odd designs. With guitar (Paul Diethelm, Johnny Lang’s touring rhythm guitarist), keyboards (the wonderful Jeff Olson), bass(Mike Zeleny), and drums(Jay O’Donnell),…

Gary Moore: The Official Biography

Harry Shapiro

The ultimate unsung hero, Moore made a seismic impact on heavy guitarists, without being a huge star himself. That’s the thesis of this well-researched biography, describing a virtuoso with high standards, a fiery…

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…

Jazz singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding performing at the North Sea Jazz festival 2012 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Photo: JBreeschoten/Wikimedia.

Esperanza Spalding

Popularly known as that cute female jazz bassist with the Afro who bogarted the Best New Artist Grammy away from Justin Bieber in 2012, Esperanza Spalding’s new album is soul-jazz surrealism at it’s…

Keith Whitley – Sad Songs and Waltzes

The late Keith Whitley, who died at age 33 of acute alcohol poi-soning, was an example of why it isn’t always a good idea to try to live your lyrics if you’re country…

Big Head Todd

Ryko

Doing an album of Robert Johnson songs may not be a particularly original idea, but it’s not a bad one. For this one, Todd Mohr and band have called upon veteran bluesmen to…

Alfredo Garcianavas – Cameleon

Austrian by way of Venezuela, Alfredo Garcianavas appears intent on learning every style of music. Garcianavas is more than at home on fusion pieces like “Piazzo Tango” and “Pektopakt.” Growing up in Venezuela,…

Larry Coryell

The lastest from the godfather of fusion guitar harkens back to his ’71 album Barefoot Boy, revisiting the energy, philosophy, and spirit of that period. “Sanpaku” opens the set with Coryell’s take on…

Gonzalo Bergara – Portena Soledad

For years, friends and fans have begged Gonzalo Bergara to record. Finally, he has a debut CD – and it’s been worth the wait. Bergara hails from Argentina but is based in California.…

John Scofield

The history of jazz guitarists playing country tunes is long and distinguished, starting with Slim Bryant, Les Paul, and George Barnes in the 1930s. Joe Pass’s final recording, with Roy Clark, was an…

Shel Silverstein

Sugar Hill Records

Musical comedian Shel Silverstein wrote many songs; some were the melodic and lyrical equivalents of one-liners, but others were gems, as on Twistable Turnable Man. Produced by friend and collaborator Bobby Bare, Sr.,…

Delirium Blues Project – Server or Suffer

This live CD begins by asking the musical question, “What Is Hip?” Singer Roseanna Vitro and her octet transform Tower Of Power’s dexterous funk anthem into a cool, would-be jazz standard – thus,…

Tommy McLain

I Ran Down Every Dream

Louisiana is all about food and music, sporting New Orleans jazz, zydeco, and Cajun music. But another indigenous style combines R&B, country, and rock and roll. It’s called swamp pop, and Tommy McLain…

Justin Cody Fox

New Southern

North Carolina singer/songwriter Justin Cody Fox’s latest involves a ’61 Gibson SG and former Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed. With Fox and Freed on guitars and sharing production duties with Tommy Brothers, New…

Mark Newton – Hillbilly Hemingway

At first listen, you’d call Mark Newton’s music bluegrass, but it’s not just bluegrass. Sure, the affects are slathered on, but the drums give away the game – this is really honkytonk roots…

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary

The essential tragedy of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is that they never recorded a sequel to Déjà Vu. Instead, the quartet resorted to fractious live reunions and disappointing studio albums cut decades…

Living Colour

Black-Rock Renaissance

Beating the odds with the Grammy-approved album Vivid in 1988, Living Colour ascended victoriously amidst a heaping handful of black rock bands sent packing by record companies for not playing blues, dance music,…

James McMurtry – Childish Things

James McMurtry – Childish Things McMurtry’s Too Long In the Wasteland, from 1989, was an auspicious debut in more ways than one. Among its 11 original tracks were a few that instantly sounded…

Taj Mahal – Sénor Blues

Taj Mahal is one of those guys you never think about until you hear another great album by him. Listen to this one and you’ll think about him a lot. The album is…

The Replacements – Reissues

They came, they saw, they conquered… sort of. Minneapolis’ Replacements were one of the great rock and roll bands that never quite was. And happily so. In the 1980s, after punk fizzled and…

Robben Ford

Made To Last

When Robben Ford approaches traditional blues, he takes ownership, transporting it to new places. This latest five-song EP is no different, as he wields Willie Dixon’s “Crazy For My Baby” and injects his…

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

On July 11, 1971, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, a pioneer of country rock light years from either Gram Parsons or the Eagles, appeared on KSAN-FM in San Francisco, a performance…

Rush

Grab your hankies, Rush fans – this DVD doc captures moments from the trio’s R40 farewell tour, along with reminiscences on their four-decade career. There are interviews with Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and…

Al Di Meola – Anthology

Anthology

Al Di Meola needs no introduction, and most of the music on this fine two-CD collection will be familiar to most guitarists as well. The only question is What’s new? The 20 tracks…

Willie Nelson

That’s Life

My Way, Willie’s 2018 Grammy-winning Frank Sinatra homage, clearly didn’t satiate his desire to explore songs by the vocalist whose style profoundly influenced his own. With the same co-producers (Buddy Cannon and keyboardist…

Son House – Revisited

Revisited

There were blues guitarists before him – such as Charley Patton – and perhaps better blues guitarists that followed him, but there were few as soulful, deep, and downright bonechilling as Eddie “Son”…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’

Bluesy and the Folksy

Meeting the demand for fans hankering for two titans of the blues to finally make an album together, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have done just that. These two folksy song-oriented stylists are…

The Steepwater Band – Grace and Melody

It’s easy to dig the Steepwater Band, and on this, their fourth studio record, the Chicago trio steps it up a notch with the help of producer Marc Ford, whose tenure with the…

John Mayall

The Sun Is Shining Down

British blues icon John Mayall – now 88 years old and in his twilight – announced his retirement from touring late last year. His exit from the road, however, doesn’t necessarily mean his…


Doug Brod

They Just Seem a Little Weird: How Kiss, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz Remade Rock and Roll

Black Label Society

Doom Crew Inc.