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

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…
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…

Virtuoso take on “Greenspace” Stepping out from his band, Snarky Puppy, Mark Lettieri exhibits the finesse, funk, and fury that make him such a great player. Here, he jams on…
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

Heart-less But Guitar Laden
Guitarist/ producer/ entrepreneur Howard Leese has come a long way since his early days with Heart in the 1970s. He was onboard when the band’s first hit single, “Barracuda,” swam…

A Conceptual Break
Few rock bands have explored the “concept album” format as thoroughly as Coheed and Cambria; the band’s first seven full-length discs followed a sci-fi story line (known as “The Armory…

Fresh from Barcelona Sebastià Gris used his Gibson SG as eye-candy to play a sample of “Clickbait,” from his latest album, “Oli, All i Julivert.” It was custom-finished by…

Old Soul, Fresh Sounds
Seattle’s Jabrille “Jimmy James” Williams is a rare find in the guitar universe. At a time when music influences run the gamut producing a mishmash of styles, James keeps it…

The latest episode of “Have Guitar Will Travel” finds host James Patrick Regan speaking with indie rocker JJ Wilde and her guitarist, J.D. Smigelski. JJ grew up listening to her…

One-Man Band
Canadian guitarist Steve Hill is a flat-out rocker, smashing blues into rock and roll with terrifying force, as heard on his latest, Dear Illusion. Often playing as a genuine one-man…
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

Key Collection: Nashville pro Dave Gant fosters an impressive gathering of amps
Dave Gant grew up in Ada, Oklahoma, and while the city of 17,000 will never be confused with Memphis or Nashville in terms of musical impact, it is the birthplace…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest John Majdalani Season 01 Episode 03 In Episode 3 of “Buy That Guitar,” presented by “Vintage Guitar” magazine, host Ram Tuli is joined…

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,…
Vintage "Contraband" and Velvet Revolver
There once was a time when pointy headstocks, locking vibratos, and refrigerator-sized effects racks were the norm. Fast players with flashy gadgets ruled the world – until, that is, an…

Roots Revisited
To the casual fan, heavy metal can get a bit “same sounding” after a while. But then there are those rare albums that are undeniably unique. Case in point is…

Battling Back
In his decades of playing, Walter Trout has served as lead guitarist for John Mayall and Canned Heat, and forged a respectable solo career. But to say he’s been “living…

Tyler Morris – 1963 Fender Stratocaster Tyler Morris guides us through his 1963 Fender Stratocaster in Fiesta Red. Follow Tyler at www.tylerdmorris.com!

Billy Gibbons Goes Solo
“BFG ain’t anybody ’cept BFG,” proclaims ZZ Top co-founder/front man/face Billy Gibbons, discussing his first solo album, Perfectamundo. “What is heard is heard, just like that.” Such idiosyncratic turns of…

Proto-Prog Tour De Force
Rock fans recall the New York quartet Vanilla Fudge for its dramatic reworkings of pop hits; the band melded classical influences with solid musicianship in the first steps toward the…
Rock Journeyman
The career of Jimmy Crespo has spanned three decades, from his stellar five-year stint with Aerosmith to his recent work on Rod Stewart’s recent world tour. He has also gigged…

Back In Asia
Bassist/vocalist John Wetton has exhibited his solid chops and plaintive baritone voice through the decades in King Crimson, Asia, and several other successful British bands, including Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash,…

Ruffian Riffs
Grown men wearing capes. Stadium concerts with self-indulgent instrumental solos. Lyrics that had nothing to do with reality. Rock stars living in castles. By the mid ’70s, all of it…

Blues Emotion
Yates McKendree hasn’t yet turned 22, but he has already digested a lifetime’s worth of American roots music. The proof is in his debut album, Buchanan Lane, which is named…

Silky-Smooth Shimabukuro Jake Shimabukuro’s playing is a silky delight on this run through the Beatles “Something.” That’s his Kamaka tenor koa uke and the tune is from his fantastic new…

Check This Action
Few living blues artists could merit a package of 35 CDs. But what makes John Mayall: The First Generation most remarkable is that it only documents the British blues legend’s…

Bob Page, co-founder of the vintage-instrument shop Buffalo Brothers, died December 24 after falling and suffering a head injury at his home in Faial, in the Portuguese Azores. He was…
Bluesman For The New Millennium
Me, My Guitar And The Blues is the uncompromising new release from acclaimed guitarist, bluesman Chris Thomas King. The album echoes inspired, atmospheric, authentic Delta/Bayou blues journeys from King as…

Season 03 Episode 05 In Episode 3.5 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Tony Nagy, manager of the repair shop at Gruhn Guitars. Vintage instruments, prized…

Kansas’ Team Player
Unleashing pent-up creativity is a gratifying experience for a band, as Kansas guitarist Richard Williams can attest. The band known for the prog-/hard-rock hybrid exemplified by “Carry On Wayward Son”…

Folk Rock’s New Visionary
Steve Gunn’s Way Out Weather is a textured effort that takes cues from a diverse palette including John Fahey, Chicago blues, ’60s/’70s Americana, Philip Glass, world music, and improvisation. The…
Prolificity and Perceptions
In addition to touring and recording with the legendary English band, Moody Blues lead guitarist/vocalist Hayward released his most recent solo album, Spirits of the Western Sky, in February. Such…