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Artists
Duke Robillard – Lowdown
Vintage Guitar is happy to offer the premier of the new music video by Grammy nominee Duke Robillard. “Lowdown” is the first single from his upcoming album, Blast Off!, set for release February 20 on Nola Blue Records. “When thinking about a powerful song to launch the album, I chose a hard-rocking Tom Waits tune
Paul Quinn
Ramming It
As one of the leading bands of the early-’80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, Saxon is responsible for offering up such headbanging anthems as “Wheels of Steel,” “Strong…
Dave Wyndorf
Cover Up
Like most rock bands, the men of Monster Magnet found themselves with a lot of time on their hands once Covid effectively ended tours in 2020. But instead of going…
Mike Baggetta Brings the Morricone Sauce!
New Album Explores Styles with Keltner, Watt Check out Mike Baggetta and his Iris AB (serial number 46) playing the title track from the new album “Everywhen We Go,” his…
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David Bowie’s Young Americans
David Bowie was always creatively restless. The English musician decided to step away from the glam rock he’d recorded for a few albums concluding with 1974’s Diamond Dogs, which included a few songs with tinges of soul, R&B, and funk. On tour promoting the album, he played a handful of soul covers. Bowie had long
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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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Check This Action: Up Jumped Elmore
When someone recently asked me to recommend the most essential Elmore James album, I answered, “Any and all.” I’ve never heard a bad Elmore cut, and I’ve heard nearly everything he recorded. Everybody knows that he set the standard for slide guitar in electric blues, but he was also a fantastic singer and wrote some
Bobby Black
Steel Before and After Commander Cody
When he got the invitation, Bobby Black wasn’t sure. The pedal-steel virtuoso, a 20-plus-year veteran of San Francisco’s music scene, had just been asked to join the long-hairs in Commander…
Ben Reynolds
Mudd Slinger
If you’re into heavy, swampy rock and roll, the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies first album in decades, Fall Line, will satisfy your jones. Discovered over 30 years ago by R.E.M. singer…
Lee Ranaldo
Alt-tuned Youth
Sonic Youth was one of the most unlikely success stories of underground American rock in the 1980s. And while success and longevity probably weren’t on the minds of Thurston Moore…
Steve Cropper
Friend, Legend
Even before he began to record seminal music using an Esquire plugged into a Harvard amp – creating one of the favorite pairings in history – Steve Cropper was the…
Wendy Melvoin
Beyond Controversy
As a guitarist backing Prince on the world-dominant Purple Rain along with Parade and Around The World In A Day, Wendy Melvoin helped crystallize a musical vision known as The…
Bakersfield twang from Nashville Honeymoon
Vintage Instruments, Traditional Sounds Nashville Honeymoon plays country music laden with Bakersfield influence – the best kind! Here, Hank Maninger plays his ’62 Guild Starfire III, while Lynne Maes sings…
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Javier Batiz
Mexican guitarist Javier Batiz, a teacher and inspiration to Carlos Santana and other musicians, passed away December 14 at his home in Tijuana, Baja California. He was 80. Known as the “Godfather of Mexican Rock,” “La Layenda” (The Legend) and other sobriquets, Batiz came to appreciate American blues guitarists such as B.B. King and John
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Josh Meader
Jazz Evolution
Josh Meader is a jazz and fusion player who breaks ground with virtuosity that’s never flashy for its own sake. On his new album, Tide of Times, the young Aussie ace blends styles on a dime, hybridizing music before our eyes; videos online include an especially stunning non-album rendition of “Misty.” It’s fascinating, seeing Meader
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Chris Walz
Debut, Long Time Coming
Chris Walz has done his share of performing. He played young Woody in the stage production of Woody Guthrie’s American Song. From the late ’90s to 2001, Walz toured and recorded with banjo player Greg Cahill’s Special Consensus bluegrass band. And for 10 years he took the role of guitarist Fred Hellerman in Weavermania, a
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Greg Koch
Way Of The Gristle
On Blues, Greg Koch reaches the outskirts of infinity with an album that showcases his wicked guitar skills and love for Muddy Waters. Flying V blues master Larry McCray drops by with the Memphis Horns, and the result is a passionate pentatonic party with soul and fireworks. How did this album come about?Devon Allman had
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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 rock star, then released a string of solo albums, a book of poetry, and an autobiography. His latest project, Ten Telecaster Tales, is a book
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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
Nick Moss – clean and tasty on “Scratch N Sniff”
Instro-rock, fully greased Get ready to have your funtime socks knocked off, ‘cuz this exclusive Nick Moss run through “Scratch N Sniff” is dangerous! A track from his latest album,…
Rodrigo Sanchez
Philosophical Resonance
The latest from Rodrigo y Gabriela, In Between Thoughts…A New World, shows the acoustic duo in top form with passion, grace, and consciousness-raising. Electric guitars, nylon-string acoustics, and electronica flourishes…
Redd Volkaert
Reddy and Willing
For Redd Volkaert, 2008 has been a good year. His band, Heybale, released an excellent debut in the spring, and with summer came his fourth solo disc, Reddhead. He’s on…
Al Joseph
Prog-Metal Creation
Al Joseph is breaking new ground in prog-metal. Known for his riveting guitar playing and instruction with Jam Track Central, he’s also an ensemble musician and vocalist. On his latest…
Jim Campilongo
“I’m a Guitar Player”
It’s been two years since Jim Campilongo put out a solo record, but on the new Dream Dictionary, his patented Telecaster tones take on greater dimension as he conjures a…
Ana Egge
"Lazy" Covers By A True Original
Photo: Dan Forte The myspace page of singer/ songwriter/ guitarist Ana Egge has the usual stuff most musicians put on their pages. Under “Influences,” there’s a long, eclectic list that…
Anthony Gomes
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…
Mick Ralphs
The Original is Still the Greatest
The only guitarist to appear on every Bad Company album is the redoubtable Mick Ralphs, whose on-the-money sledgemhammer riffs were already known by serious fans of rock guitar prior to…
Albert Lee
English Country Gentleman
Photo courtesy of Ernie Ball. Admittedly, Albert Lee doesn’t play a Gretsch Country Gent, but a more appropriate description of the veteran guitarist might be hard to formulate. Lee has…
Remembering Jeff Beck
The Guitar Hero, Defined
Jeff Beck, the guitarist who pushed the ’60s British Invasion band the Yardbirds from its electric-blues roots to a contemporary rock-and-roll sound before becoming one of the most-influential musicians of…
Malcolm Brickhouse
Free As You Wanna Be
Malcolm Brickhouse was excited but confident after his band, Unlocking The Truth, recently performed its first headlining gig, at The Troubadour, in Hollywood. The 13-year-old guitarist has seen his Brooklyn-based…
Bobby “Blue” Bland
The Guitarists of Blues’ Crown Prince
On June 23 of last year, the blues lost one of its greatest singers with the death of Bobby “Blue” Bland at age 83. Best known for a 20-year run…
Vinnie Moore
Perpetually Exceptional
Shred architect Vinnie Moore’s latest solo record, Double Exposure, holds the distinction of being both an instrumental solo album and a vocal-rock record. The glue that holds it together is…
Rick Vito
Disciples Of Greeny
A Grammy-nominated guitarist with an enviable career, Rick Vito has played with everyone from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall and appeared on hundreds of recordings. He even did a stint…
Check This Action: Walking In Memphis
I first visited Memphis in 1990, and it struck me that radio stations played loads of music from the area. Soul, rockabilly, blues, gospel, country, and jazz – if there…
Marty Stuart
A Country-Music Odyssey
Marty Stuart’s life is the stuff of movies. Just nine years old when he started singing and playing guitar in his own band, while his grade-school classmates in Mississippi were…
Nuno Bettencourt
Extreme Versatility
When Extreme reunited for its fifth album, 2008’s Saudades de Rock, it seemed a foregone conclusion the band was back in business and returning to a regular record/tour cycle. Well,…
Snowy White
One Man, One Guitar
Snowy White, one of the finest blues and rock musicians to come out of the U.K., built a career on near-anonymity. Deliberately. “It is my nature,” he explains. “If the…
Ana Popovic
Blues Jazz & Soul
Ana Popovic brings to her music an inspiring drive and work ethic. Super-appreciative of her fans, she recently released three albums’ worth of material at the same time; Trilogy features…
Headline: In Memoriam: Ian Bairnson
Guitarist Ian Bairnson, a member of the Alan Parsons Project who played on the band’s 10 studio albums from 1976 through ’87, then on several Parsons solo albums, died April…
Steve Kimock flashes back to Zero
Amazing improv on “End of World Blues” We review the reissued 1992 album “Naught Again” by Zero, a band that featured Steve Kimock playing Grateful Dead-style jams with a virtuoso…
