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Pete Prown
Charlie Ballantine
Midwest Expressive
Befitting a guitarist from America’s heartland, Charlie Ballantine’s mixes jazz, folk-rock, surf/instro, blues, pop, and country into a simmering pot of guitar sound and style. His instrumental work is beautiful and complex, ranging from melodic journeys to raging heavier sounds. Charlie’s latest CD is Where is My Mind?, a strong album that marks him as…
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Pete Prown
John McLaughlin
50 Years in Fusion
The name John McLaughlin is synonymous with jazz-rock fusion, the genre he helped invent and sustain for the past 50 years. At the end of 2017, the guitarist will be performing a final American tour, this time with co-guitarist Jimmy Herring and John’s incredible band, the 4th Dimension. We recently checked in with the virtuoso…
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Pete Prown
Boss Katana 100
Impressive Amenities
More and more, guitarists’ passion for tube amps is being balanced by the rise of quality digital, solidstate, and modeling amps, and for good reason – they’re often inexpensive while packing a huge range of features. The Boss Katana series is an interesting combination of price and tone in this category. The Katana 100 has…
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Pete Prown
Electro-Harmonix Synth9
Downright Synth-Ful
For 40 years, guitar synthesizers have come and gone, but the Electro-Harmonix Synth9 looks to be a game-changer for several reasons. First, you don’t need an external pickup to make it work. Rather, the Synth9 is a traditional guitar pedal – just plug it into your chain and get stomping. Second, the box is completely…
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Pete Prown
Positive Grid’s Bias Head
Tone-Tweaker’s Dream
Designed to be a dream machine for players who just love to “experiment” with tone, the Positive Grid Bias Head is stand-alone that interfaces with software to create fresh presets that can be downloaded. But it’s actually more because it can record other amps, tweak them on a computer, and save them as presets. With…
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Pete Prown
Jaakonaho
Ghost Riot
A well-known Finnish guitarist and producer, this is Jussi Jaakonaho’s solo debut, and it’s mesmerizing. All instrumental, the album has roots in surf and instro guitar, but Jaakonaho is drawing influences from all over the globe, from vintage Hollywood film scores to African and South American rhythms. “Frogs And Dogs” is a rich wash of…
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Pete Prown
J&B Brothers
Different Mothers
Jeff Hasselberger and Bill Kaman are guitar-industry vets, but also genuine singer/songwriters and players. Like the best Texas music, it’s not easy to categorize their style in one tidy slot – it’s rock, blues, soul, country, folk, and more, all crafted into their own down-home vibe. Bill and Jeff are strong songwriters and lyricists, and…
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Pete Prown
Jethro Tull
Happy Anniversary
Released in 1977, this album was crafted to get Jethro Tell as far as possible from Britain’s punk and New Wave explosion. The result was an enchanting folk-prog outing featuring acoustic guitar, mandolin, and pennywhistle mixed with Tull’s hard-rock thud. Poorly named, the five-disc “Country Set” has been given Steven Wilson’s remastering treatment with excellent…
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Pete Prown
Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, David Torn, and others
European Union
You may have heard the name Terje Rypdal, but not really know the six-string legend or his music. For close to 50 years, Rypdal was a major force in Europe, pushing the lines between rock improv, jazz-rock, ambient, and experimental styles – even mixing in prog and psychedelia. This two-CD/LP tribute set was conceived by…
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Pete Prown
Tom Feldmann
Modern Master
No question, Tom Feldmann is a jewel of American guitarmanship, and his new album confirms the notion. As a player, he’s deeply rooted in the “interwar” Delta blues and gospel guitar of the 1920s and ’30s, but brings it into the 21st century. The opening track, “Going Now, But I Won’t Stay Long,” is joyful,…
