•  Joey Molland

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     Joey Molland

    The word “underrated” is belabored in music journalism, but Joey Molland was just that. As co-guitarist in Badfinger, he was part of a quartet signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, yielding glorious AM hits like “Come and Get It,” “Day After Day,” and “No Matter What.” The foursome fell into obscurity and tragedy a few

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Jon Butcher

Shifts Gears

Veteran guitarist Jon Butcher is changin’ with the times. Interviewed in Vintage Guitar‘s October ’95 issue, he was at the time recording, performing, and hoping for a sophomore effort from…

Scott Metzger

Scott Metzger

Spontaneous Composition

“We started as three side men scheduled to back a singer who was a no-show at this bar in Brooklyn,” said Scott Metzger, recalling the origins of the trio Wolf!.…

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Mike Matthews

The Special Effect at Electro-Harmonix

As a child of four, Mike Matthews’ mother taught him how to play classical-style piano. Formal lessons followed; the child took to the instrument, and performed at elementary-school concerts from…

The Rolling Stones

Buffalo Civic Auditorium, June 28, 1966

The Rolling Stones were the ultimate bad boys of rock – with leather jackets and arrests for peeing on a service station in England, these guys were anti-establishment. Most kids…

Freddie Roulette

Freddie Roulette, noted blues lap-steel guitarist and singer, died at his home in Vallejo, California, on December 24. He was 83. Roulette was born and raised in suburban Chicago and…

Joel Shapira

Solo Flight

Guitarist Joel Shapira has released a string of fine recordings, but his latest, In Essence, is his first stab at solo guitar. While the concept has been percolating in his…

George Fullerton

Guitar Icon

George Fullerton, whose decades-long association with Leo Fender earned the two early electric-guitar innovators a place in history, He died July 4, 2009 at the age of 86. He succumbed…

Adrian Belew

Musical Modernist

Bleeps, squawks, and other sounds emanate from the guitars of Adrian Belew, who has gigged with the likes of Frank Zappa and Talking Heads, not to mention his quarter-century association…

Kid Ramos’ Revelation!

West Coast legend melds blues with gospel Check out Kid Ramos using a ’56 Harmony H62 running through a vintage Fender reverb tank and a Pro Junior to play an…

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…

John Jorgenson

Stringed-Instrument Ecstasy

The title of John Jorgenson’s new three-CD boxed set, Divertuoso, combines two words – “diverse” and “virtuoso” – to aptly describe its contents. Consisting of an album of gypsy jazz…

Mike Campbell

Fat-Free Rock and Roll

On External Combustion, Mike Campbell pours on the boogie, pens spellbinding ditties, and leans into a live sound. With ancestral links to his former band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,…

Check This Action: Real Gone for a Change

“Hold it, fellas.” After languidly singing the first line of “Milk Cow Blues,” Elvis Presley halted the proceedings. “That don’t move me,” he exhorted his sidemen. “Let’s get real, real…

D.K. Harrell and His ’76 ES-335

B.B. King of the Blues Award winner plays “Liquor Stores and Legs” Winner of the B.B. King of the Blues Award, here D.K. Harrell and his ’76 Gibson ES-355, Christal,…

Keith Nelson

Axes, Amps, Bikes, and Tats – The Rock And Roll Life of Buckcherry's Keith Nelson

  Since launching its self-titled debut album in 1999, the SoCal hard-rock band Buckcherry has stood as a unit swimming against a tide of acts that look too much alike,…

John Pizzarelli

McCartney Memo

John Pizzarelli wasn’t surprised to receive a FedEx package from Sir Paul McCartney in 2014, given that he (and his dad, Bucky) had played on Kisses On The Bottom, McCartney’s…

Edgar Winter

Tribute to “Brother Johnny”

Edgar Winter describes making Brother Johnny in tribute to his late brother, blues-rock guitar icon Johnny Winter, as “one of the most intensive and rewarding recording experiences I’ve ever had.”…

Pepper Keenan

Down with CoC

It’s difficult enough to be a member of one metal band, let alone two. But Pepper Keenan is pulling double-duty as a member of both Corrosion of Conformity (as singer/guitarist)…

Scott Sharrard

Destined for the Gig

Anyone who has seen the Gregg Allman Band in person or caught its new CD/DVD, Back to Macon, Ga, knows guitarist/musical director Scott Sharrard covers a lot of musical ground.…

Good Times In Bad

The Origin of Fender’s Vintage Series

The years leading up to CBS Musical Instruments’ 1985 sale of the Fender brand were fluid times at the instrument maker’s headquarters in Fullerton. Faltering in a market death struggle…

Megan Lovell’s New Lap Steel

Slide Sub

In the summer of 2021, Megan Lovell decided enough was enough of her vintage Rickenbacker Model B. While she loved the feel, sound, and vibe of the instrument dubbed “the…

Kelly Joe Phelps

Kelly Joe Phelps, blues guitarist/singer/songwriter, passed away May 31. He was 62. Phelps grew up in a Washington farming town, hearing country and folk songs. As a youngster in a…

Have Guitar Will Travel – 029 Featuring Greg Koch

Episode 29 of James Patrick Regan’s “Have Guitar Will Travel” podcast features “The Gristlemaster,” Greg Koch, who talks about his current tour, his guitar collection, the signature models he has…

Kid Ramos’ Revelation!

West Coast legend melds blues with gospel Check out Kid Ramos using a ’56 Harmony H62 running through a vintage Fender reverb tank and a Pro Junior to play an…

Joel Shapira

Solo Flight

Guitarist Joel Shapira has released a string of fine recordings, but his latest, In Essence, is his first stab at solo guitar. While the concept has been percolating in his…

Fabrizio Grossi leads band through exclusive take on “Right Down Below.”

Ready for the Soul Garage Experience? Fabrizio Grossi gathered the Soul Garage Experience for this VG-exclusive take on “Right Down Below,” from their new album, “Counterfeited Soulstice.” That’s Fab’s (eh…

Cory Wong

Emperor Of The North

Cory Wong’s latest solo album, Striped, is a jubilant record and his eighth this year. Defying the temperature of the times with joy, fun, and positivity, Wong can also be…

Weymann Model 890 Jimmie Rodgers Special

Hey Hey, Tell ’Em About US

Jimmie Rodgers has been called many things; while active from 1927-’33 he was billed as “the Singing Brakeman” and ”America’s Blue Yodeler” but, in the decades since, the “Father of…

Steven Wilson

Guitar Harmony

Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson isn’t a guitar hero, but his playing fits his compositions perfectly – as exemplified by his latest solo offering, The Harmony Codex. Showing once again that…

Noah Zacharin

Simple Pleasures

While some regard folk guitar as a relatively simple style, Noah Zacharin is a seriously agile fingerpicker. Also a fine singer/songwriter, his album, Points of Light, uses his six-string dexterity…