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

Traditionalist offers standout new album Christophe Astolfi offers an exclusive rendition of Jo Privat’s “La Valsajo” using a guitar made by Jean-Pierre Favino, son of Jacques Favino. On his new…

Modern-Jazz Innovator
John Abercrombie operated in four dimensions. A guitarist of unbounded breadth and depth, he redefined space in long, improvised flights and bent time like a rubber band. Jazz is too-narrow…
Memphis via Belgrade
Ana Popovic was but a toddler when she started to absorb major musical mojo through her father’s love of the blues, classic rock, and most importantly, thanks to the rec-room…
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

Inside Story
In 1975, 24-year-old Robben Ford was making a name for himself on the Los Angeles music scene, where competition was fierce. As a blues-guitar prodigy, Ford had played behind Charlie…
Ahead of His Time, Two Times
Photo: Rusty Russell. Jason and The Scorchers hit the stage with bombast, conveyed true rock-and-roll punch in the studio, and was massively influential. But it never attained superstardom. The band’s post-/neo-rockabilly…

Not Your Typical Folkie
“My dad was my biggest influence, especially melodically. He loved dark melodies,” says Eliza Gilkyson of her father, the late Terry Gilkyson. As the title of her latest CD hints,…

Foghat’s Slide Secret
A half-century after its inception, Foghat has just one original member – drummer Roger Earl – yet the quartet is cranking out British blooze better than ever. Part of this…
Through the course of almost 20 years on Alligator Records, Charlie Baty of Little Charlie and the Nightcats has proven himself to be a one of his generation’s best blues…

Heavy Steps : Road Ready
“Rock and roll is a young man’s game.” Once upon a time, it was the genre’s calling card. A half-century later, though, young bands playing bombastic guitar rock often trod…
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

Still Thrilled
Boiled down, the music of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is defined by a handful of essential elements: their leader’s character-filled voice, songs about life and its toils, swirling B-3…

Three-Band Man
The odds of any guitarist being in a highly successful rock band are long. Chances of being in two are slim. Three? Virtually unheard of. But guitarist Mark Tremonti is…

In the latest episode of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” host James Patrick Regan connects with three artists – two musicans and a winemaker! Drew Holcomb talks about growing up in…
Finds his Subway Rhythm
Subway Rhythm is an apt name for Sylvain Sylvain’s music publishing company. The former New York Doll’s train of thought makes all the stops, a tendency he often acknowledges in…

Austin Great Goes Full Steam for “Eyes On The Prize” Jake Andrews’ video encore: “Eyes On The Prize” Jake Andrews makes a VG-social-media curtain call by playing “Eyes On The…

Fully Engaged
I did a lot of disappearing acts in my career. And when I disappear, I disappear,” Aldo Nova says with a chuckle. “You don’t hear anything about me.” The Canadian…

The Legend Returns
Jake E. Lee found fame replacing Randy Rhoads to co-write two of Ozzy Osborne’s most popular albums – Bark At The Moon and Ultimate Sin. It cemented his place in…

Blue Öyster Cult and Beyond
Joe Bouchard was the powerhouse bassist for Blue Öyster Cult during its heyday, playing on classic stompers like “Cities on Flame,” “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” and “Godzilla.” Since leaving the…
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…
A Retrospective
Aerosmith was formed in the summer of 1970 in Sunapee, New Hampshire, when Jam Band bassist Tom Hamilton and guitarist Joe Perry got together with vocalist Steven Tyler. Shortly after,…
Telemaster Offers A Word To The Wise
Trying to top 2006’s Hammer Of The Honky-Tonk Gods, Bill Kirchen’s eighth solo album, would seem a mighty tall order. Then again, he set what would have been a surprisingly…

Riverboat Music
On his new album, Riverboat Sky, Carl Verheyen combines passionate musicality, spellbinding virtuosity, and ebullient rock and roll. It’s also a tone fest, as Verheyen morphs chicken-fried banjo rolls with…

Full Solo Circle
The career of Welsh guitarist Dave Edmunds has included hits and collaborations with other notable musicians, including Rockpile, with bassist Nick Lowe. First, though, he drew notice in his home…

Little Movies
Longtime Tom Petty right-hand man Mike Campbell’s new album, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, is a cinematic, guitar-heavy offering with irresistible hooks, gritty tales, and special guests. His third album as…

Harmonic Convergence
Hailing from the Australian island state of Tasmania, Alan Gogoll is reshaping acoustic guitar before our eyes. Sure, you’ve heard artificial harmonics, but Gogoll has refined it into a fluid…

Low-End Unorthodoxy
When he transitioned from playing guitar, former Wishbone Ash bassist Martin Turner kept a pick in his right hand and developed a style that combined fluid, melodic lines with an…
Return of the Tele Terror
Photo: Neil Zlozower. Best known as the scary-looking guitarist for metalmen like Rob Zombie, Rob Halford, and Marilyn Manson, John 5 is also regarded as a country twanger and namesake…

Well-rounded and busy
Carl Verheyen says it all came to him when he heard the Eagles’ album called The Long Run. At that point, he was heavily into jazz, and practicing eight hours…

The UFO Years
Underrated pioneers of melodic metal in the 1970s and ’80s, UFO’s music compared with contemporaries Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, AC/DC, and Whitesnake, yet they achieved only modest success – until uber-guitarist…

The Black Bison Leads the Herd
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled the first three installments for a special edition of VG…
and the Magnificent Grand Letar
Run down the list of early electric-guitar innovators and an all-male group typically comes to mind – Les Paul, Alvino Rey, Charlie Christian, Merle Travis, and the like. However, Letritia…