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Artists
Check This Action: A Year In Their Life
Recently, I stumbled onto one of those “reaction” videos by a New Zealander named Courtney, who wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen footage of the Beatles or even heard their songs. This shouldn’t be surprising. The video she watches of the Fab Four, playing “All My Loving” on Ed Sullivan in 1964, was created probably…
Randy Bachman
Maintaining Lenny's Legacy
Bachman with a Yamaha Frank Gambale model. For all of his decades of experience, guitarist Randy Bachman shows no signs of slowing down. One ongoing facet of the career of…
Larry Coryell
Back to the (Barefoot) Basics
Legendary jazz guitarist Larry Coryell’s new album, Barefoot Man: Sanpaku, is a simpler, intentional step backward. It draws inspiration from his 1971 disc, Barefoot Boy, which included musical assists from…
Rod Abernethy
Fuzz: Carolina Acoustic Connections
A fixture on the North Carolina music scene, guitarist/songwriter Rod Abernethy has accumulated many memories, including the purchase of his mainstay instrument, a 1954 Gibson J-200. “When I graduated from…
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Michael Manring
Bass Convergence
Most music fans who learn that the eclectic trio 3Below is all bass players will react with, “You gotta be kiddin’!” However, musicians who appreciate the unusual will stay for a listen, especially given the lineup – Michael Manring, Trey Gunn, and Alonso Arreola. Spearheaded by Alonso on his six-string or a hybrid ascoustic, their…
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David Hamburger
Top-Tier Tutorial
Whoever said, “Those who can’t do, teach” has never heard David Hamburger. Among his two dozen instructional books and videos, Beginning Blues Guitar, awarded Best New Educational Book or Video at NAMM in 1994, boasts more than 100,000 in sales. In addition to supplying music for advertising and TV, the 60-year-old has recorded with Freedy…
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Midge Ure
The Unexpected Retrospective
While guitarist Midge Ure was a member of Visage and was briefly in an early version of Thin Lizzy, he’s best known as the front man of the British power-prog band Ultravox. Ure has enjoyed an active solo career since Ultravox split three decades ago, and the recent three-CD/three-LP Royal Albert Hall 04-10-23 is a…
Eric Clapton & J.J. Cale
Blowin Down the Road
It’s fitting that The Road To Escondido, the long-awaited collaboration between Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale – a concept that seems, on the surface, to be so obvious, at least…
Jake Andrews’ video encore: “Eyes On The Prize”
Austin Great Goes Full Steam for “Eyes On The Prize” Jake Andrews’ video encore: “Eyes On The Prize” Jake Andrews makes a VG-social-media curtain call by playing “Eyes On The…
Nils Lofgren Shines Solo – Again
Star Grabs Vintage J-50 for “Ain’t the Truth Enough? An in-demand sideman for more than 50 years, guitar wizard Nils Lofgren has worked with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street…
Joe Dan Petty
"Techin' It Twice"
It’s been “full circle more than once” for bassist/”guitar tech” Joe Dan Petty, of Macon, Georgia. I put “guitar tech” in quotes because during his first stint as a member…
Alex Lifeson
Three at 30
The legendary Canadian rock trio Rush certainly knows how to market a birthday celebration for its fans. The deluxe version of R30 is not only a musical and visual tour…
Samantha Fish: Slide-Blues Fury!
“I’m Done Runnin’” on a D-18 VG readers know Samantha Fish is the real deal. Here, she uses a Martin D-18 Modern Deluxe on an unplugged arrangement of “I’m Done…
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Allen Hinds
Flowing
On The Good Fight, guitarist Allen Hinds finds the sweet spot between melodic fusion and good, earthy music for the soul. Joined by a stellar rhythm section, Hinds is a black-belt legato master and slide stylist with an ear for excitement. Strong songs prevail, but his influences go much deeper than your run-of-the-mill jazz guitarist.…
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Steve Hackett
No Limits
Steve Hackett is one of the busiest guitarists around, regularly issuing new studio and live albums. His latest, Live Magic at Trading Boundaries, focuses on his classical/acoustic compositions. Included are solo guitar pieces and group performances featuring music from his time in Genesis during its beloved ’70s “progressive” era. Trading Boundaries is an intimate venue…
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Mark Sampson
Back Cat
Epitome of the restless designer/tinkerer, Mark Sampson has co-founded four guitar-amplifier companies, two of which – Matchless and Bad Cat – are indelible figures in the trade whose original builds draw perpetual interest from collectors, especially the Matchless DC-30 and SC-30, which are prime examples of “boutique.” Sampson started Bad Cat in 2000 with Rick…
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Steve Vai
Taming The Hydra
After finishing a sold-out tour with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson for the G3 Reunion concerts, Steve Vai joined Adrian Belew and Tony Levin to perform interpretations of the ’80s King Crimson albums Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. The band is called Beat, and the result is mind-altering. All this, and there’s…
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Webb Wilder’s take on “Beautiful Delilah”
“Hillbilly Speedball” sample Since the mid ’80s, Webb Wilder has cranked out consistently fine roots-rock. His latest is “Hillbilly Speedball,” and here he grabs his ’61 Gibson ES-330TD plugged into a narrow-panel Fender Vibrolux to play a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah.” He’s joined by George Bradfute (on a ’50s Epiphone upright) and Bob…
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Shawn Purcell’s Jazz from the East (Coast)
Influences Aplenty! A child of the ’80s, Shawn Purcell grew up listening to Stern, Scofield, and Metheny alongside Zeppelin, Van Halen, Yngwie, and Vai. Here, he shares a take on “Gentle Giant,” using his Benedetto Pat Martino signature model with custom finish. It’s plugged into a Tomas Jackson Musical Electronics PrinceTwin. The song is from his…
Joe Robinson
Eyes on the Prize
Bouncing on a trampoline in the yard of the home his father built outside Temagog, Australia, nine-year-old Joe Robinson gleefully…
Dave Murray
Maiden Voyager
After 46 years, Iron Maiden is still reinforcing its stature as a legendary heavy metal band. Senjutsu, the British juggernaut’s…
GA-20’s Matt Stubbs and Pat Faherty
FlashBack Sounds, Forward Steps
Musical gateways opened by Jimi Hendrix and the Doors led Matt Stubbs to become a disciple of Johnny “Guitar” Watson,…
Multi-Generational Blues
Ronnie Baker Brooks
On Blues In My DNA, second-generation blues man Ronnie Baker Brooks continues the legacy of his father, Lonnie Brooks, by…
Paul Gilbert
Mr. Big Takes it Down a Notch
Paul Gilbert and the crew that makes up Mr. Big – bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Pat Torpey, and vocalist Eric…
Andy Gill
The Gang’s All Here
One of the most original-sounding guitarists to emerge from the post-punk/new wave movement of the late ’70s was Gang of…
Roman Bulakhov’s Radical Stew
Ukrainian guitarist fuses…. everything Inspired by Pat Metheny, Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan and others, guitarist Roman Bulakhov fuses rock, funk,…
Bob’s Playboy Pickers
Bob Wills was, first and foremost, a fiddler. But he began his career in childhood, strumming guitar and mandolin chords…
Lee Ritenour
Lee Ritenour has forged a path as a preeminent session player in the kaleidoscopic Los Angeles studio scene, and a…
C.C. DeVille
Back, Buff, and Ready to Rock
One of the most anticipated rock shows of the summer of ’99 was the Poison reunion tour, which brought back…
Richie Kotzen
Goin’ Supergroup
Veteran guitar monster Richie Kotzen has done it all from opening for The Rolling Stones, recording with Stanley Clarke, to…
Wayne Kramer
1948-2024
Guitarist and activist Wayne Kramer, best known as a founder of the iconic Detroit hard-rock band MC5, died in a…
Laur Joamets
Metamodern Sounds In Country Picking
The time-worn, well-trodden path to Nashville traditionally starts from a Tennessee holler, Arkansas cabin, or Texas jook. For Laur Joamets…
Thom Douvan
Motown and More
Released in April, guitarist Thom Douvan’s third album, All Over Again, is a mix of self-penned instrumentals (with one notable…
A Tribute To Chuck Berry
That Brown-Eyed Handsome Guitar-Playing Man
When those first notes of Chuck Berry’s first Chess single came blasting out of the radio in July of 1955,…
Jerron Paxton
Country-Blues Scholar
Hailing from Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton is a remarkable bluesman, able to conjure sounds of the rural, interwar South through…
Denny Laine 1944-2023
Denny Laine, best known for his affiliations with the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney and Wings, died December 5 after…
Steve Hackett
No pigeonholes, please!
Photo coutesy Steve Hackett. It’s been said that musicians often “follow their muse” at certain points in their careers, but…
Brad Gillis
Playin’ On
A member of the cutting-edge vanguard that made the Floyd Rose locking vibrato a huge part of ’80s rock guitar,…
Billy Duffy
Weapon: Chosen
Billy Duffy has long been a different sort of bloke. As his peers in rock bands of the mid ’80s…
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Swampy grooves mix blues with rock Enjoy Bex Marshall and her Ozark 3515BTE Custom Cutaway resonator delivering superbly on…
Buddy Guy
Legend Steeped in the Blues
Buddy Guy, Bayfront Blues Festival, 1997. Photo by Ward Meeker. When referring to the all-time great legends of the blues…
Anne McCue
Comes Into Her Own
As impressive as 2004’s Roll was, the eclectic Koala Motel (on Messenger Records) represents a major step up in Anne…
Fretprints: Mick Ralphs
Delivering in Bad Company
Unabashedly British and irresistibly swaggering, Bad Company personified ’70s arena rock. Detractors denounced them as machismo, but fans have bought…
Kirk Fletcher
The Mid-life Crisis Sessions
Back from barnstorming the globe, blues guitarist Kirk Fletcher’s latest is music for the people. Heartache by the Pound is…
