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Artists
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
Dale Watson
Honky-Tonk Hammerin’
Dale Watson remembers well a conversation he once had with Leo Fender. “Leo gave me a guitar, and it was so shiny and new, I said, ‘Well, I just hate…
Blues guitarist Charlie Apicella’s “Booze and Blues” and “Just Like a Woman”
Honoring B.B., Rainey Being V.P. of the North Jersey Blues Society isn’t the only thing that separates Charlie Apicella from the typical blues player. A devotee of B.B. King (and…
Rick Nielsen
Vintage Phenomenon Forefather
Considered by many guitar aficionados to be one of the “founders” of the vintage collecting phenomenon, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen has long been a sage among those with an…
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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
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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
Steve Earle
Guitar Talk
Photos by John Peden. Though bandied about haphazardly and almost always inappropriate, when applied to the life and times of Steve Earle, the adjective “extreme” is not hyperbole. The acclaimed…
Graham Dechter
Post-War Perfection
Since his debut at age 19, Graham Dechter has rekindled a post-war jazz sound, effortlessly swinging and always in the pocket. On his latest, Major Influences, he evokes iconic names…
Chris Squire
1948-2015
Yes bassist Chris Squire died June 27th at age 67, after a brief battle with leukemia. Squire co-founded Yes in 1968 andwas its only constant member. The English musician carved…
The Pixies
Alternative Godfathers
In the late 1980s, the Pixies’ unique brand of punk, pop, and guitar rock almost singlehandedly created the alternative music movement that flourished in the early ’90s. Its sound served…
Molly Miller
Dr. J(azz)
Molly Miller is on a quest to bring instrumental music back to storytelling. Her new album, St. George, fuses jazz, rock and roll, and echoes of tantalizing guitar film music…
Rodney Crowell
Same Roots, New Branches
Rodney Crowell arrived in Nashville in 1972, bent on finding a niche for himself in the country music he’d loved since his childhood in Houston. He wrote songs for Jerry…
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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
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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
Tom Petersson
Lower-End Innovator
It’s been a long time comin’… Like his longtime bandmate, Rick Nielsen, Cheap Trick bassist/songwriter Tom Petersson collects classic stringed instruments. Now a resident of Nashville, Petersson still plays the…
Brad Paisley
Keep Pushing Play
Ten years into what has become a stellar career, when Brad Paisley hits your town to play a show these days, it’s with nine semi tractor-trailer rigs and a fleet…
Elliot Easton
Driving Classic Cars
The Cars transcended the new-wave movement of the late ’70s by creating a never-duplicated sound. The band’s self-titled debut album is a masterpiece; almost 40 years after its release, nearly…
Robert Randolph
The Sacred Steel, Family, and SRV
Living testament to the versatility of the pedal-steel guitar and a rarity in pop music, Robert Randolph adroitly addresses the challenge of acting as front man of the Family Band…
Banjo Master Tony Trischka Plays “Chinese Breakdown”
Prime “Earl Jam” sample! One of the most influential figures in roots music, Tony Trischka, master of the five-string, shows us how he does it on “Chinese Breakdown,” from his…
Mark Farner
Keen to Collaborate
Spiritual beliefs and the power of music have helped Mark Farner deal with life’s inevitable highs and lows. The singer/songwriter/guitarist achieved astonishing success fronting Grand Funk Railroad in the ’70s;…
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…
March 2019
Brown Sound The Fender Conert Amp Among larger vintage Fenders, it’s underappreciated despite offering otherworldly clean tones and glorious sound at breakup. Pros know it’s much more than just “…what…
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.…
Tinsley Ellis
A True Keg-Party Jammer
It may be the southernmost point in the country, but growing up in southern Florida is neither exciting or exotic for most people (sorry Miami Vice). While things can be…
Pete Huttlinger
Fingerpicking to fruition
It’s a dream that eludes an untold number of musicians who try to “make it” in Nashville. There’s no telling how many players journey to the Tennessee capital in search…
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…
Jon Butcher’s psychedelia mastery
Jon Butcher tales his Olympic White ’63 Strat for a rip on “Jam,” a track from his new album, “Nuthin’ but Soul.” The disc is an homage to sounds of…
Tom Petersson
Lower-End Innovator
It’s been a long time comin’… Like his longtime bandmate, Rick Nielsen, Cheap Trick bassist/songwriter Tom Petersson collects classic stringed instruments. Now a resident of Nashville, Petersson still plays the…
Deke Dickerson
Making Merle’s Memoir
From the day he first picked up a guitar at 13, Deke Dickerson honed in on guitarists like Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Scotty Moore, Cliff Gallup, and Duane Eddy. His…
Chris Tapp’s “Got No Right”
Cold Stares’ Guitarist Digs In, Grooves Out Chris Tapp grabbed his real-deal Gibson ’52 goldtop (running through a Kingtone Blues Power pedal into a Fender ’65 Super Reverb) to do…
Randy Meisner
Randy Meisner, bassist and co-founder of the Eagles, died July 26. He was 77 and suffered complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, on March 8,…
Rex Brown
Still Smoking
Throughout his career, Rex Brown has delivered the low-end as the bassist for Pantera, Down, and Kill Devil Hill. But for his new (and first-ever) solo album, Smoke on This,…
Remembering Jeff Beck
This is a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online articles where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and other musical moments. I didn’t know Jeff…
Lightnin’ Malcolm’s One-Man Wizardry
First-Rate Blues with Juke Joint Swagger Lightnin’ Malcolm learned blues first-hand from legends of the genre, and it shows! Here, he plays “Jungle” from his new album, “Eye Of The…
T.M. Stevens
Thomas Michael (T.M.) Stevens, a world-renowned bassist whose career saw him back artists in a range of styles, died March 10 after suffering with dementia for several years. He was…
