• Classics: Norman Harris

    Artists

    Classics: Norman Harris

    Rare Pioneer

    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

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Hard-rockin’ blues

By integrating traditional blues with heavier, more flamboyant rock styles, Eric Sardinas has carved a raw, fiery sound, favoring electric and acoustic resonator guitars to deliver the appropriate vibe. Growing…

Larry Rivera

Larry Rivera, a guitarist/ukuleleist who for seven decades performed at Kauai’s famed Coco Palms Resort and other Hawaii venues, passed away January 30. He was 92 and had been diagnosed…

Pete Anderson

Despite prevailing trends and “industry wisdom” – an oxymoron Pete Anderson has disproved several times over – the 20-year association of this guitarist/producer/label-head and country star Dwight Yoakam has been…

Lee Ritenour

Lee's Six-String Theory

Lee Ritenour’s career accomplishments are the stuff of greatness. With thousands of classic recording sessions and more than 40 albums bearing his own name, Ritenour continues to work his magic…

Ritchie Blackmore

Return to the Rainbow

Wanna read all about personality clashes within the legendary rock band Deep Purple, or about the temperament of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore??? Well, try to find those stories in the backissues…

Fanny’s June Millington

Grrrl Power’s First Flash in Rock

Before The Runaways, before the Go-Go’s and Bangles, and before there were Riot grrrls, there was Fanny. One of the first all-female rock groups signed to a major label, the…

Dave Hope

Memorable Musical Sojourn

Dave Hope’s musical odyssey began with playing trumpet and tuba in school accompanied by a fascination with the sounds created at Muscle Shoals and Stax. Its impact, says the original…

Webb Wilder’s take on “Beautiful Delilah”

“Hillbilly Speedball” sample Since the mid ’80s, Webb Wilder has cranked out consistently fine roots-rock. His latest is “Hillbilly Speedball,” and here he grabs his ’61 Gibson ES-330TD plugged into…

Monster Magnet

Dave Wyndorf, Ed Mundell, and Phil

Just when you were losing faith in hard rock; just when the charts are choking on post-grunge whiners, along comes a band not afraid to rock. Enter Monster Magnet –…

Tony Mottola

Mr. Big, Guitar Pioneer

Some argue that Tony Mottola was more legendary than famous. In a career spanning 50 years, the guitarist logged thousands of studio dates and made hundreds of concert and television…

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Chris Isaak

Sun Worship

Most pop-music fans became aware of Chris Isaak through his 1991 hit “Wicked Game” and its uber-high-profile video, directed by famed photographer Herb Ritts and featuring the singer/guitarist gettin’ all…

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!.…

Greg Lake

Greg Lake

Welcome Back, My Friends Part 1 and 2

Bassist/vocalist Greg Lake, a force in the advent of progressive rock in the early 1970s with Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP), died December 7 following a battle with cancer. He was…

Orianthi

The Power Of O

On Orianthi’s latest album, O, the fierce guitar slinger injects mass quantities of blues-rock fury into a contemporary pop-music setting. While this may seem like textbook marketing to enter the…

Have Guitar Will Travel 079 – Tim Dugger, Ray Fulcher and Drew Castle

Host James Patrick Regan talks with Tim Dugger, Ray Fulcher and Drew Castle for episode 79 of “Have Guitar Will Travel.” Dugger hails from Alabama and grew up listening to…

Chris Jack

The Routes: Psychedelic Faithful

The Routes embody all the best elements of the ’60s psychedelic-rock scene. Based in Japan and fronted by British-born guitarist and songwriter Chris Jack, the band’s sixth release, Dirty Needles…

Have Guitar Will Travel – 034 Featuring Nalle Colt

Episode 34 of James Patrick Regan’s “Have Guitar Will Travel” podcast features Vintage Trouble guitarist Nalle Colt. They delve into growing up in Sweden, the band’s history, Nalle’s work with…

Pop ’N Hiss: The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet

Feast Your Ears

The Rolling Stones were back. Well, they’d never really gone anywhere, but most fans thought they’d lost their way with 1967’s psychedelic experiment Their Satanic Majesties Request. Widely considered rivals…

Ralph Towner

Fifty Years and Counting

As a young musician, Ralph Towner wrote “Icarus,” a revolutionary jazz piece that became a crossover hit for the Paul Winter Consort. Later, the classically trained guitarist (also a fine…

Wayne Kramer

You Don't turn in your card

I hadn’t seen Wayne Kramer, lead guitar for Detroit’s legendary MC5, in 25 years, yet there we were shaking hands and hugging each other, trying to get in as much…

Hall and Hoppen

Ongoing with Orleans

In the ’70s, the guitar-driven melodic rock of Orleans was all over the radio, with hits such as “Dance With Me,” “Still The One,” and “Love Takes Time” carried by…

Pop ’N Hiss: Led Zeppelin’s IV

Heaven Sent

It’s impossible to overstate the influence Led Zeppelin’s “untitled” fourth album – call it IV, ZoSo, Runes, Four Symbols, whatever – has had on musicians of all stripes. Released November…

Dallas Perkins dazzles on “Mexican Puppets”

Dallas Perkins: Elemental Experiments Progressive-rock shredder Dallas Perkins brings it with “Mexican Puppets,” a track from his new instrumental album, “Experimental Truth.” That’s his ’94 PRS Custom 24, and the…

Tim Sult

Heavy-Duty Metal

With a new Clutch recording, the listener always knows what lies in store – colossal riffing, valley-deep grooves, and manly-man vocals – and the band’s 11th studio album, Psychic Warfare,…

George Lynch

Mr. Scary’s New Empire

George Lynch is one of the premier axe men to emerge in the ’80s. His melodic hard-rock riffs were the driving force behind Dokken and he later launched Lynch Mob…

ASIA Symposium

The ASIA Symposium

Kinship and Connections

As much a celebration of kinship as it is an educational forum, the biannual Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA) Symposium, held at East Stroudsburg University, in Pennsylvania, is mini…

Greg Howe

A New Wheelhouse

Greg Howe is a globe-trotting, guitar-clinic-teaching, concert-performing fusion monster. He’s known for taking risks and pushing his playing into fresh environments. His latest album, Wheelhouse, shows the guitarist coming full…

Check This Action: Feeling Jazzy

Jazz guitar is one of my main loves, whether it’s Eddie Lang’s work with Bing Crosby in the early ’30s or Rick McRae playing at an Austin restaurant next week.…

Anne McCue

Comes Into Her Own

As impressive as 2004’s Roll was, the eclectic Koala Motel (on Messenger Records) represents a major step up in Anne McCue’s playing and especially songwriting. Lucinda Williams, Jim Lauderdale, John…

Vernon Reid

Kind of Blue

Vernon Reid went against the grain of rock guitarists in the 1980s, conjuring Parliament-Funkadelic, Ornette Coleman, Bad Brains, Carlos Santana, blues and hip-hop. His riffs and solos were a canvas…