On Money & Power, Ally Venable wields the power of wisdom and emotional connection. It’s an album about empowerment and comeuppance, but there’s plenty of playtime with guest stars Shemekia Copeland and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. An audio bluesfest, it’s songwriting brings substance carried by guitarists swinging for the fences. What does the albums title represent?What

Vintage Guitar magazine Presents Greg Martin's Head Shop
This is a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online articles where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and other musical moments. It was 50 years…
Springfield Roots, Bakersfield Attitude
The dog died and the woman done me wrong! Such are the traditional pains of the country music songwriter. But as tired and trite as mainstream/top 40 country music can…

Blues, Rock, and Joy
Blues-rock connoisseur Anthony Gomes stays on point with his latest, High Voltage Blues. Leaning into the heavier side, Gomes’ feisty recipe of catchy tunes, smokin’ licks has gained him a…
When Hubert Sumlin sideman Sean Chambers played a gig with Savoy Brown bassist Pat DeSalvo and drummer Garnet Grimm, the result was blues-rock ecstasy. Live From Daryl’s House Club is the next best thing to being there. Fans of incendiary slide playing and Rory Gallagher, look no further. How did you meet Pat and Garnet?I
On Lari Basilio’s latest record, Redemption, art and life collide to make beautiful music. Effortless instrumental guitar techniques merge with rib-sticking melodies to captivate and astonish. Bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta are back to add rhythmic fire, but Basilio’s muse is life’s challenges and, of course, super cool gear. You became a mother.
A songwriting blues-rocker in the purist sense, Dudley Taft is succeeding in an era when nothing comes easy for his ilk. His new album, The Speed of Life, required a departure from the norm; while his previous three were recorded at his own studio in Cincinnati, this one used down time during a European tour

How a Zoologist Became a Guitar animal
If you bumped into a bearded, corduroy-jacketed George Gruhn in a Nashville coffee shop, you might think you’d stumbled upon an avuncular college professor – which is fitting, considering that…

Screaming On The Inside
“Red clay is what you see here in Georgia,” says Tinsley Ellis of the inspiration behind his new album, Red Clay Soul. “That’s what the ground looks like. I wanted…

One-Man Band
New York-based guitarist Stephen Ulrich is known for the suspenseful “crime jazz” and surf-rock tones of his instrumental trio, Big Lazy, but he has a side career writing soundtrack music.…
Current Traditions
The latest record from Marty Stuart, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions, is a tour de force of country music styles that celebrates the past while pushing firmly into the…
Vintage Guitar magazine Presents Greg Martin's Head Shop
This is a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online features where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and other musical moments. Greetings from Kentucky, hope…
Back to Barefootin'
Photos courtesy Jon Butcher. A little more than a decade ago, guitarist/vocalist Jon Butcher described his affiliation with the then-new quartet Barefoot Servants as, “The best thing I ever did.”…
Acclaimed as bassist for The Flower Kings, Jonas Reingold is a master four-stringer. He’s recorded with many artists, including Jon Anderson (of Yes), and has become an integral part of Steve Hackett’s band, re-creating the complex bottom of early Genesis. Twenty years ago, Reingold started the prog group Karmakanic (repeat it slowly a few times),
Tommy Emmanuel is a real guitarist in its truest sense. On Live At The Sydney Opera House, he stands onstage with only an acoustic guitar, and mesmerizes a packed house. His virtuosity employs country, Celtic, and folk fingerpicking styles that lift the spirit. The set is loaded with fan favorites, but a song suggestion from
After landing on American shores in 2002 to study bluegrass, then shifting into a career as a country singer/songwriter/picker, Jedd Hughes has spent 20 years on an alternate – but rewarding – path as A-list session player and touring sideman. While being busy tempered his flow of original music, in 2014, he returned to songwriting.
As a teenager who just wanted to play music, Norm Harris lived with the reality that he and his band weren’t going to be millionaires anytime soon. So he did what musicians do – side-hustled. But when most were manning the counter at a music shop or serving tables, Harris was up at the crack
If you’re making a list of beloved bands with a long string of hook-heavy hits, the Doobie Brothers will surely be on it. Their new album, Walk This Road, features the creative core of vocalist/guitarist Patrick Simmons, vocalist/guitarist Tom Johnston, multi-instrumentalist John McFee, and vocalist/keyboardist Michael McDonald. The news of Walk This Road generated significant
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from the golden age of electric-guitar innovation to the modern world. Beyond simply studying the history, he lived it, documented it, and played alongside giants who

Finding His Spot
Allen Hinds has spent a considerable amount of his 60 years playing guitar, and has kept busy lately with two new releases while also teaching at Musicians Institute, doing session…

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 McCue’s playing and especially songwriting. Lucinda Williams, Jim Lauderdale, John…

Stratocaster Royalty
For someone who has been a professional musician for more than 30 years, Ronnie Earl is going through a remarkable production period in his career. In just the last three…

Chicago Deep Dish
There are many styles of blues guitar, from haunting Delta acoustic to volcanic blues-rock. Hailing from the mecca of Chicago, Dave Specter plays electric blues that comes from deep immersion…

Modern-Jazz Innovator
John Abercrombie operated in four dimensions. A guitarist of unbounded breadth and depth, he redefined space in long, improvised flights and bent time like a rubber band. Jazz is too-narrow…

Moody, Introspective, Intimate Kurt Rosenwinkel’s new album features him improvising solo on nine tracks like this one, “Peace Please.” That’s his Collings Baritone SoCo16 LC running through a Pure Tone…

Shinin’ On
Few American guitarists have roots in Americana as deep as those of Jim Weider. For 15 years following The Band’s reformation in 1983, he was the sole guitarist, contributing heavily…

Gramm Backer
You may not recognize the name, but Michael Staertow has been playing some of classic rock’s most memorable riffs for Lou Gramm, the voice of Foreigner. Hailing from Gramm’s hometown…

Crowning Achievement
If you dig Rush, you may have heard of a duo from Canada that virtually channels the iconic trio. Known as Crown Lands, singer/drummer Cody Bowles and guitarist/bassist Kevin Comeau…
On a warm summer’s night fifteen years ago, I met Greg Rzab for the first time. I sat on his backporch steps and listened to this 19-year-old kid play a…

Vintage Attitude Required
The term “vintage” isn’t always literal when it comes to gear, but it certainly can be used to describe attitude. Michael Johnny Walker has spent his career chasing tone and…

Spoonful of Sounds
If the Beatles were still around, chances are they’d be checking out Spoon. Like the Fab Four, the group revels in sonic exploration, creativity, and stunning pop tunes. Since forming…

Studio Immortal
For seven decades, he flexed his chops on more sessions than any living guitarist, laying down famous licks on Mancini’s “Peter Gunn” and a host of others, playing in The…

Shockwave Supernova
Joe Satriani’s latest record is a concept album that bridges the gap between traditional blues guitar techniques, and the fiery yet accessible compositions that made him famous. For Satriani it’s…

Making Merle’s Memoir
From the day he first picked up a guitar at 13, Deke Dickerson honed in on guitarists like Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Scotty Moore, Cliff Gallup, and Duane Eddy. His…

Stratocaster Royalty
For someone who has been a professional musician for more than 30 years, Ronnie Earl is going through a remarkable production period in his career. In just the last three…

Rock God on his signature Jackson Star Rock god Gus G – Ozzy vet and Firewind shredder – rips through “Demon Stomp” in this exclusive video for VG. That’s his…

Part One: The Humble Pie Years
Formed with two formidable front men in Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton, Humble Pie was one of the earliest “supergroups” to emerge from the British Invasion and embody aspirations beyond…

Roy Buchanan and his battered 1953 Telecaster guitar got inside your head and grabbed you in the gut. He had eclectic musical tastes, an arsenal of techniques, a devotion…
Crushing the New Millennium
Few bands experience the success of Bon Jovi, a group that achieved tremendous commercial audience by combining hard rock elements with strong melodies, great hooks, and well-written pop lyrics. Though…
40 Years of Keepin'
Lee Ritenour. Lee Ritenour’s solo career continues to glide along with the release of his latest record, Smoke ‘n’ Mirrors, which contains exactly what we’ve come to expect from the…