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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
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
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!.…
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…
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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
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…
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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
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…
