• Fretprints: Cream’s Disraeli Gears

    Artists

    Fretprints: Cream’s Disraeli Gears

    Supergroup Alpha

    Jack Bruce claimed Cream was two bands – live trio and studio group. Live, bassist Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker were renowned for their highly improvisatory, powerful performance that was unprecedented in rock. Moreover, they were actually a jazz group (“…we just didn’t tell Eric,” Bruce said), as exemplified by their excursions

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Eric Johnson

Acoustic Resonance

On Eric Johnson’s new – and first all-acoustic album – EJ, the guitarist takes a break from the intervallic inventions of his electric work and finds greater depth in his…

Russell Malone

Jazz lost one of its six-string luminaries when Russell Malone died on August 23, after suffering a heart attack in Japan while touring with bass legend Ron Carter. According to…

Ted Greene Remembered

You know what happened: discretionary income for the first time and the rise of the indies with things that the majors laughed at. Just like Gibson laughing at Leo at…

Blu DeTiger: Funk-Pop Pioneer

When she was seven years old, sibling rivalry spurred Blu DeTiger to get a bass so she could play along with her brother on his new drum kit. After honing…

Billy Sheehan

Cosmic Troubadour

When it comes to rock bass, few players command the instrument with as much finesse and showmanship as Billy Sheehan. Best known for his work with Talas, David Lee Roth,…

Opens Up

It used to be that photos didn’t lie. But nowadays (as supermodels and tabloids have proven) that’s not always true. But it is true that when Rod Price’s slide hand…

Scott Henderson

Scott Henderson

Vibe Station

On his new album, Vibe Station, Scott Henderson once again redefines fusion within a groove-heavy power trio format. As always, the blues informs his jazz-rock workouts with virtuosic jabs of…

Sue Foley

Femme Flamenco

In a time when pop-music performers rely heavily on post-recording fix-ups and pre-recorded tracks onstage, it’s refreshing – even admirable – when someone takes the “honest road.” Singer/guitarist Sue Foley…

Lance Lopez

Hard-Time Music

Several years after being liberated from Supersonic Blues Machine, Lance Lopez is back and better than ever. Wielding hard lessons from the road and the influence of players named Billy,…

Brent Rowan

Nashville Trail Blazer

Photo: Rusty Russell Brent Rowan is a 29-year veteran of the recording industry who has worked with legendary country artists including George Jones, Glen Campbell, Chet Atkins, and George Strait,…

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…

NANCYWILSON

Nancy Wilson

Sister Act

After the release of the acclaimed Red Velvet Car in 2010, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson and their band, Heart, could have rested on their laurels. Instead, the sisters went…

Sonny Burgess

1929-2017

Sonny Burgess, one of the last of the great Sun Records stars, died August 18. He was 88 and had been performing with his old band, the Pacers. Burgess was…

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Randy Bachman

The Album Title Says It All

Canadian guitarist/guitar collector Randy Bachman is known worldwide for his classic licks in songs by the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, but he has also recorded jazz with the likes…

Jerry Miller

Moby Grape was a key part of the ’60s San Francisco revolution, melding psychedelia with the earliest vestiges of country-rock. Even Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin were avid Grape fans.…

Denny Laine 1944-2023

Denny Laine, best known for his affiliations with the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney and Wings, died  December 5 after an extended battle with interstitial lung disease. He was 79.…

Alex Machacek

Stripped Down

When you get the thumbs-up from icons like John McLaughlin and Chick Corea, it’s got to feel good. But, fusion guitarist Alex Machacek isn’t one to rest on his laurels,…

Joe Satriani

Satch's Surfin' Turns 20

Photo: Lisa Sharken. It’s been 20 years since the release of Joe Satriani’s landmark album, Surfin’ with the Alien , the instrumental platter that put “shred guitar” on the map…

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Brad Paisley

Two Vital Guitars From the Collection of a Modern Superpicker

Brad Paisley’s 2011 book, Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me, is essentially an autobiography. But really, it’s not so much about…

Spencer Kirkpatrick

Spencer Kirkpatrick

Jammin’ Southern Hero

In the ’70s, Hydra was a Southern-rock band that owed more to the heavy British blues of Cream and Free than Skynyrd. Its secret weapon was lead guitarist Spencer Kirkpatrick,…

Jim Lauderdale’s honkey-tonk toe-dip

Singer/Songwriter’s Stylistic Twist Jim Lauderdale paid a visit to one of his favorite Nashville hangs and grabbed a gorgeous 1940 Martin D-28 to play “Wishbone,” a standout track from his…

Tony Rombola

Gothic Blues

Godsmack guitarist Tony Rombola is moonlighting once again, on the third album by Apocalypse Blues Revival with fellow Godsmack member/drummer Shannon Larkin, bassist Brian Carpenter, and singer Shane Hall. The…

Bernie Marsden

1951-2023

Bernie Marsden, one of the founding guitarists of Whitesnake, co-writer of the band’s massive hit “Here I Go Again,” and noted guitar collector, died August 24. He was 72, and…

Martin Taylor M.B.E.

Jazz Guitar Royalty

Photos courtesy Martin Taylor. If Martin Taylor ever decides to quit playing guitar, he can always launch a career as a stand-up comic. Asked where he grew up, the guitarist…

1940- 2024

Phil Lesh

The rock world was saddened to learn of bassist Phil Lesh’s death on October 25, at age 84. Perhaps the definitive jam-band bassist, he was a founding member of the…

Have Guitar Will Travel 102 – Live In The Vineyard #1

In episode 102 of “Have Guitar Will Travel”, presented by Vintage Guitar Magazine, host, James Patrick Regan is at the “Live in the Vineyard” event in Napa, CA and he’s…

Rik Emmett

Canadian Custom

Rik Emmett is a master of many guitar styles and other artistic endeavors. As co-lead vocalist/guitarist in the hard-rock trio Triumph from 1975 to ’88, he experienced life as a…

Steve Carr

Twenty-Five Years of Tonemaking

In the mid ’90s, Steve Carr was a guitarist playing weekends and working weeknights as a waiter in a swank French restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1998, he…

Name that Twang

The Guild-Duane Eddy Connection

The fledgling Guild company scored a coup when it signed Johnny Smith to an endorsement deal in 1956. Perched atop the jazz-guitar scene at the time, Smith helped Guild join…

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…