Hughie Thomasson

The Outlaws Ride Again

The Outlaws. Photo: John Gellman. (Ed. Note: This article originally appeared in VG‘s October ’06 issue. Hughie Thomasson passed away in September, 2007.) Hughie Thomasson was a founding member of…

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 – the Teleslinger behind Sturgill Simpson – it all began…

Beckley and Bunnell

America History Lesson

Few bands warrant a career-retrospective box set, let alone two. Then again, most don’t keep going after 50 years. America is an exception. Their new eight-disc collection, Half Century, compiles…

Freddie King’s ’73 ES-355

Thinline Crown

Influenced by Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and others including jump-blues saxophonist Louis Jordan, Freddie King was an integral piece of…

Mark Sebastian

Hometown Noir

Mark Sebastian’s new album, The Real Story, is a paean to his musical roots in the Big Apple. “About a year ago, I realized I had almost an album’s worth…

Robben Ford

The Space Between the Notes

When it comes to blues, Robben Ford has always been inspired by the most profound practitioners of the form and gone his own way with the understanding that true blues…

Vince Gill

Picker's Pinnacle

These days, it’s pretty much the best of all worlds for singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Vince Gill. The Norman, Oklahoma, native has seen his career develop to the point where he can taper…

Ray Cummins – I’ll See You In My Dreams

Ray Cummins Plays the 1956 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 prototype “Dark Eyes” VG ace online tutor Ray Cummins uses the famed ’56 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 prototype to play “I’ll…

Elvin Bishop

Cultivating the Blues

Photos: Preston Gratiot. The first album Elvin Bishop played on wasn’t a chart-topper – it was a life-changer. For the raised-on-rock generation that credits 1965’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band for…

Popa Chubby’s Dangerous Attitude

NYC blues beast rips on “I Don’t Want Nobody A fixture in New York City blues joints and familiar face in others worldwide, Popa Chubby melds blues-rock with punk-rock immediacy.…

Craig Ross

Rock and Roll, Alive and Well

Craig Ross is an integral part of the Lenny Kravitz sound. As lead guitarist and songwriting collaborator since the early ’90s, Ross has forged an impressive body of work alongside…

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 Four’s Andy Gill. While he didn’t take many solos, his…

Jay Geils

Blues and Archtops

If you grew up listening to music in the ’70s, you probably associate the name J. Geils with a five-piece band that played raucous rock and roll to hip-shaking partiers.…

Eric Johnson

Epiphanies

Eric Johnson’s new release, Europe Liv, is an impressive offering, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to the man himself. Recorded in Amsterdam, Germany, and Paris, it’s a breathtaking…

Johnny A.

On the fast track

When VG first caught up with guitarist Johnny A. in 2001, his instrumental release, Sometime Tuesday Morning, was perking ears all over the place. Before he signed to Steve Vai’s…

Joanna Connor

Going Viral

Her overnight success was decades in the making, but a video gone viral of a jaw-dropping slide guitar performance at the 2014 North Atlantic Blues Festival has helped bring Joanna…

John Bullard

Banjo Baroque

Almost every instrument used in pop music has classical roots – with the exception of the banjo. Even the dobro or resonator guitar began as a device to make a…

Shedding Light on the Genius…

Mick Taylor

Taylor strums a flat-top with The Rolling Stones in early 1973. Photo copyright Marty Temme. The mid/late 1960s were a fertile and progressive time for rock guitar, with “Swinging London”…

Paul Benjaman: Tulsa twanger

Funky solo from “Undercover of Night” On his new album, “My Bad Side Wants a Good Time,” Paul Benjaman serves up funky stew with bayou bite. Here, he plays the…

Lloyd Green

From the A Team to Americana

Lloyd Green with the the signature model pedal-steel guitar he designed for the Sho-Bud company in 1973. Prior to this, a single on a double-neck cabinet with pad didn’t exist.…

Pop ’N Hiss: Grand Funk’s We’re An American Band

Rockin’ Patriots

Thundering out of Michigan in 1969, Grand Funk Railroad quickly became one of the most popular bands in the world. In just three years, vocalist/guitarist Mark Farner, bassist Mel Schacher,…

 Yasmin Williams

Art of Collaboration

Yasmin Williams turned heads a few years ago with her brilliant solo acoustic music, often playing the guitar flat on her lap and tapping on the neck, like a piano.…

Mimi Fox

Mimi Fox has been recording for many years, but moved notably further into the spotlight with her last two releases, 2004’s She’s the Woman, and the wonderful new double disc,…

Sue Foley

Still Playing Pinky

Sue Foley’s Paisley-finished Telecaster is the one guitar to which she has remained true since her debut album, Young Girl Blues. After 29 years, it only seemed right to dedicate…

Kim Simmonds

Half a Century with Savoy Brown

Now in its 46th year, the Savoy Brown band, fronted by founder/lead guitarist Kim Simmonds, has returned to its blues-and-boogie roots following a foray as a power trio in which…

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, jazz, hip-hop – and everything else into a radical, acrobatic…

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…

Pat Travers

Full Blast

It’s an elite class – rock guitarists who crossed the Atlantic to achieve their rock-star dreams. Somewhere between the mid-’60s sojourn of Jimi Hendrix and that of Brian Setzer in…

John Jorgenson

John Jorgenson’s Gypsy Jazz Orchestra

Call it a “Gypsy jazz wall of sound.” John Jorgenson’s new album, Istiqbal Gathering, features the master guitarist backed by the full Orchestra Nashville – strings, woodwinds, brass, even percussion.…

Bob Seger and the Borneo Band

Lakeview High School, St. Clair Shores, Michigan, April ’73

If you were a Detroit kid in the 1960s, it was impossible to cruise Woodward Avenue and not hear a Bob Seger song rattling someone’s dashboard speakers. Perhaps more than…