• Thomas Custom Guitars

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    Thomas Custom Guitars

    Rarities from the Pacific Northwest

    Certain makes and models of electric guitars are rightfully prized for their elegant physical designs and superior craftsmanship. Even better are those also revered for their playability and particularly rich tonal qualities. Thomas guitars, on the other hand, are usually noted for their odd (sometimes controversial) shapes and zany features. Built by the late guitarist/machinist/luthier/and

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Have Guitar Will Travel 073 – Crimson Apple’s Shelby Benson and OTTTO

Episode 73 of “Have Guitar Will Travel” is a two-fer starting with guitarist Shelby Benson from the dark-pop band Crimson Apple, who dishes on how she learned to play, her…

Rodney Crowell

Ditchin' the "Country" Connotation

In this modern world, most of us will have at least two major careers by the time we’re 40. Rodney Crowell is already starting on his third. He has been…

Eric Zolan

Funky and Blue

Guitarist Eric Zolan whips up a perfect confection of jazz, blues, and R&B in his playing, heard on his latest, Calder’s Universe. His authentic approach avoids fusion and post-modern ideas,…

Lance Lopez

Hard-Time Music

Lance Lopez is back and better than ever. Trouble Is Good is wild, hellacious, and packed with three essential influences – Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and the Reverend Billy F…

Billy Sheehan

New Music, Old-School Basses

Among rock bassists, Billy Sheehan has been a standout in four decades. Whether with Talas in the ’70s, tapping toe-to-toe with Steve Vai in the ’80s incarnation of David Lee…

Tony Iommi

The Godfather of Metal Guitar Gets Fused

Hailed as one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time, Tony Iommi thwarted the obstacles of what might have been a career-ending hand injury to develop a unique…

Have Guitar Will Travel 080 – Fender’s Stan Cotey

In Episode 80 of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” host James Patrick Regan welcomes guitarist and Fender R&D team member Stan Cotey. A Silicon Valley kid, Stan grew up with musical…

George Lynch

Mr. Scary’s New Empire

George Lynch is one of the premier axe men to emerge in the ’80s. His melodic hard-rock riffs were the driving force behind Dokken and he later launched Lynch Mob…

Richie Kotzen

Solo and Salty

Richie Kotzen was one of those kids – always entertaining the family with song and dance, usually in a crazy costume. “I wanted long hair like a rocker, so I…

Johnny Hiland

Nashville Schoolin'

In the wee hours of a July morning in 1996, Johnny Hiland made a crucial decision. He deleted the 52-page term paper he’d been working on, left college and his…

Jerry Douglas

Slide Ruler – Jerry Douglas’ Love Affair with the Dobro

You know, it’s the coolest-looking instrument that ever was made!” It should come as no surprise that Jerry Douglas is speaking about the Dobro and the various other resonator-equipped guitars…

Charlie Daniels

Same Ol' CD

There are more facets to veteran Charlie Daniels’ entertainment enterprises than many of his fans may realize. Not only has the affable guitarist released 29 albums since 1971, he’s also…

Chris Dreja

Yardbird Recall

Chris Dreja had a front-row seat to rock-and-roll history, playing rhythm guitar and bass in the Yardbirds behind Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Today, Dreja still plays with…

Jorma Kaukonen

Hot Tuna, Part 1

Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady have been playing music together for 53 years – 40 of them as Hot Tuna. What started as an acoustic splinter group from…

BILL KIRCHEN

Bill Kirchen

Telemaster Offers A Word To The Wise

Trying to top 2006’s Hammer Of The Honky-Tonk Gods, Bill Kirchen’s eighth solo album, would seem a mighty tall order. Then again, he set what would have been a surprisingly…

Dan Wilson’s celebration of jazz legends

Homage with Superb Musicality On his latest album, “Things Eternal,” jazz wizard Dan Wilson fuses post-bop, spirituality, and the songs of Stevie Wonder into a satisfying musical journey. Here, Dan…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Binky Philips

Season 03 Episode 01 In Episode 3.2 of “Buy That Guitar,” presented by Vintage Guitar magazine, host Ram Tuli engages with Binky Philips, a notable New York-based rock musician, guitarist,…

Duane Eddy

Of DeArmonds and Details

(Ed. Note: Duane Eddy was featured in the June ’95 issue of VG, following the release of his Twang Thang box-set anthology, which included 40 songs he helped re-master and…

Prince

Rhapsody In Purple

A year after his death, VG remembers Prince, a musical revolutionary, whose emergence was jarring, even for the most youthful and open-minded. Supremely talented on several instruments, guitar was an…

Richard Bennett

For the past decade, Nashville’s own Richard Bennett has been a touring guitarist for Mark Knopfler. The gig is just the latest installment in a long and varied career that has…

Peter Stroud Keeps His Feet, and Keeps Movin’

On “10,” As Always

He has played with Dreams So Real, Pete Droge, Don Henley, and Sheryl Crow. It’s the latter gig that occupies his playing time these days, while much of his “down”…

Have Guitar Will Travel 072 – Shannon Lauren Callihan

Episode 72 of “Have Guitar Will Travel” features host James Patrick Regan speaking with young R&B singer/songwriter Shannon Lauren Callihan, who grew up in Kentucky but moved to Nashville to…

Blues guitarist Charlie Apicella’s “Booze and Blues” and “Just Like a Woman”

Honoring B.B., Rainey Being V.P. of the North Jersey Blues Society isn’t the only thing that separates Charlie Apicella from the typical blues player. A devotee of B.B. King (and…

John Leventhal

Ready to Rumble

“I’ve been lucky enough to make a career co-writing and producing records with great singers and lyricists, John Leventhal explains. “But I’ve always had all this other music in me.…

Micki Free

Feel and Tone

  He was the real-life team member on the infamous Charlie Murphy/Prince basketball game parodied on “Chappelle’s Show,” but Grammy winner Micki Free’s latest is bursting with the sounds of…

Luis Carlos Maldonado

Have SG, Will Travel

Train guitarist Luis Carlos Maldonado’s musical upbringing and skill on the fretboard has earned him cherry gigs with artists like John Waite, UFO, and Glenn Hughes. He hails from the…

Fab Four’s Big Three

The Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” Guitars, 50 Years On

For Americans, the legend of the Beatles has a very specific starting moment: 8 p.m., February 9, 1964. That Sunday evening 50 years ago, the group appeared for the first…

David Lindley

String Theory

If David Lindley played just one of the stringed instruments in his arsenal, and concentrated on just one of the styles he has mastered and/or mutated, he would doubtless be…

Wishbone Ash

Powell, Manninen, and <em>Elegant Stealth</em>

Fans of Wishbone Ash will consider the group’s newest release, Elegant Stealth, the type of innovative guitar music they’ve grown to expect. Since 2004, guitarist/vocalist Andy Powell and his V-shaped…

Chris Duarte

Texas Guitar Makes a Comeback

Chris Duarte photo courtesy Carol Howell/Loophole Entertainment. Blue Velocity, the latest record from the Chris Duarte Group, is a rarity in today’s music world – a knock-down, drag-out, “crank ‘er…