Monthly Archives: May 2005

England’s Pretty Things are probably best known to American audiences as the answer to the trivia question, “Who was the Rolling Stones’ original bassist?” (The Pretty Things’ lead guitarist, Dick Taylor.) This 25-song, career-spanning retrospective fleshes out the rest of the story of this criminally overlooked, great band. Their beginnings as a Stones-ish R&B band [...]

The Blasters were one of the greatest American rock bands ever. I’m also of the opinion that their lead guitarist and main songwriter, Dave Alvin, is one of today’s finest writers. That started with some great songs he penned with the Blasters in the early ’80s. As one look at this DVD will show you, [...]

Martin guitars are revered, collected, and played by performers, singers, songwriters and by legions of avid collectors and enthusiasts. If there has been a hallmark for Martin guitars over the years, it is that the guitars were plainly adorned. No expense was spared on achieving the best sound, but no extra expense was deemed necessary [...]

If you didn’t know better, you’d swear after hearing the first few bars of “Nancy Sinatra,” the opening song on the Bottle Rockets’ Brand New Year, that you were listening to an unearthed early recording from ZZ Top. The Bottle Rockets have an uncanny ability to create the kind of raunchy electric guitar wall of [...]

Yes, Bernie Williams plays center field for my beloved New York Yankees. And while many revel in the fact they were defeated in the World Series, Bernie can take solace in the fact that he has released a pretty good record, and is a very fine guitarist. For those not familiar, Bernie grew up in [...]

It’s hard not to be skeptical over every “reunion” that comes along when you’ve got Toad The Wet Sprocket reuniting after all these years – five to be exact. If that’s a reunion, then ZZ Top reunites every time they put out an album. That skepticism can turn into fear when the group in question [...]

Tom Principato is one of those guitarists who has been around for a long time. He’s on the fringe of lots of stuff, has played with tons of great guitarists, and makes pretty darn good records. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the instructional books he’s done. So, this DVD is a lot of fun for [...]