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Artists
“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest J Mascis
Season 03 Episode 06 In Episode 3.6 of Buy That Guitar, presented by Vintage Guitar magazine, host Ram Tuli is joined by J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. Known for his “monolithic” riffs, extensive use of fuzz, feedback, and distortion, Mascis ranks #74 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists”. His guitar of choice has always been…
John Fogerty
The Life and Times of John Fogerty
It would seem that, for decades, John Fogerty has had his finger on the pulse of the record-buying public. After all, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the band he formed as the…
Jorge Glem: Cuatro Mastery
Brooklyn-Cumaná Jorge Glem uses his Venezualan cuatro to show us some of “Matapalo y Fuga,” from his new duet album with Sam Reider, “Brooklyn-Cumaná.” Their music mixes flamenco with Irish…
Punky Meadows
Heavenly Guitar
In the 1970s, glam-rockers Angel carved a niche with five albums of arena-rock anthems and an image that stood in antithesis to their Casablanca label mates, Kiss. After retiring from…
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Check This Action: A Year In Their Life
Recently, I stumbled onto one of those “reaction” videos by a New Zealander named Courtney, who wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen footage of the Beatles or even heard their songs. This shouldn’t be surprising. The video she watches of the Fab Four, playing “All My Loving” on Ed Sullivan in 1964, was created probably…
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Michael Manring
Bass Convergence
Most music fans who learn that the eclectic trio 3Below is all bass players will react with, “You gotta be kiddin’!” However, musicians who appreciate the unusual will stay for a listen, especially given the lineup – Michael Manring, Trey Gunn, and Alonso Arreola. Spearheaded by Alonso on his six-string or a hybrid ascoustic, their…
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David Hamburger
Top-Tier Tutorial
Whoever said, “Those who can’t do, teach” has never heard David Hamburger. Among his two dozen instructional books and videos, Beginning Blues Guitar, awarded Best New Educational Book or Video at NAMM in 1994, boasts more than 100,000 in sales. In addition to supplying music for advertising and TV, the 60-year-old has recorded with Freedy…
Arliss McMinn and the California Playboys
The "Fenderized" Teens
“What started in California?” you ask. The list includes a broad range of inventions, fads, pop culture, and social movements. The Golden State brought forth Levi’s, iPhones, surf music, hot…
Mike Anthony
Jazz Big-Leaguer
Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco were his mentors; both recognized his extraordinary talent and relentless work ethic. When L.A. session guitarist Mike Anthony elected to leave the studio life after…
D.K. Harrell
Blues Boy
B.B. King may be gone, but on The Right Man, D.K. Harrell picks up the baton and carries that legendary sound into the future. A native of Ruston, Louisiana, Harrell…
Steve Vai
Taming The Hydra
After finishing a sold-out tour with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson for the G3 Reunion concerts, Steve Vai joined Adrian Belew and Tony Levin to perform interpretations of the ’80s…
Paul Quinn
Relentless Persistence
For Paul Quinn, music begins and ends with the blues. The soft-spoken guitarist began playing by listening to British blues icons and helped make Saxon one of Europe’s biggest heavy-metal…
Walter Trout
“Reborn” and Rockin’
After having his life saved by a liver transplant and releasing Battle Scars, an album that chronicled his health struggles, Walter Trout is back. To celebrate, he gathered friends including…
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Midge Ure
The Unexpected Retrospective
While guitarist Midge Ure was a member of Visage and was briefly in an early version of Thin Lizzy, he’s best known as the front man of the British power-prog band Ultravox. Ure has enjoyed an active solo career since Ultravox split three decades ago, and the recent three-CD/three-LP Royal Albert Hall 04-10-23 is a…
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Allen Hinds
Flowing
On The Good Fight, guitarist Allen Hinds finds the sweet spot between melodic fusion and good, earthy music for the soul. Joined by a stellar rhythm section, Hinds is a black-belt legato master and slide stylist with an ear for excitement. Strong songs prevail, but his influences go much deeper than your run-of-the-mill jazz guitarist.…
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Steve Hackett
No Limits
Steve Hackett is one of the busiest guitarists around, regularly issuing new studio and live albums. His latest, Live Magic at Trading Boundaries, focuses on his classical/acoustic compositions. Included are solo guitar pieces and group performances featuring music from his time in Genesis during its beloved ’70s “progressive” era. Trading Boundaries is an intimate venue…
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Mark Sampson
Back Cat
Epitome of the restless designer/tinkerer, Mark Sampson has co-founded four guitar-amplifier companies, two of which – Matchless and Bad Cat – are indelible figures in the trade whose original builds draw perpetual interest from collectors, especially the Matchless DC-30 and SC-30, which are prime examples of “boutique.” Sampson started Bad Cat in 2000 with Rick…
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Steve Vai
Taming The Hydra
After finishing a sold-out tour with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson for the G3 Reunion concerts, Steve Vai joined Adrian Belew and Tony Levin to perform interpretations of the ’80s King Crimson albums Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. The band is called Beat, and the result is mind-altering. All this, and there’s…
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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 a narrow-panel Fender Vibrolux to play a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah.” He’s joined by George Bradfute (on a ’50s Epiphone upright) and Bob…
Mark Andes
Son of Straight Arrow
There probably aren’t too many fathers of rock stars who’ve had a song written about them, but such is exactly the case with veteran actor Keith Andes. His son Mark…
Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton
Alt-Blues Summit
Blues is a language of many dialects, and when regionalisms collide, sparks fly. So it has been since Texas six-stringer Jesse Dayton joined Kansas City’s slide maven Samantha Fish for…
Bo Diddley
1928-2008
Bo Diddley. Photo: F. Scott Schafer. Rock-and-roll pioneer Bo Diddley died of heart failure June 2 at his home in Florida. He was 79 years old. Born Otha EllasBates in…
David Hidalgo Plays Joe Walsh’s ’59 Les Paul
David Hidalgo Plays Joe Walsh’s ’59 Les Paul The video that helped convince Joe Walsh to reunite with his (now favorite!) ’59 Gibson Les Paul. Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo…
Zakk Wylde
All photos Neil Zlozower. With Zakk Wylde, what you see is very much what you get. An unassuming, tell-it-like-it-is guy, he makes no apologies for being the beer-swilling, English-language-brutalizing, boot-and-leather-wearing,…
Chris Leuzinger
Country Crunch
Growing up in the tropical air of West Palm Beach, it’s little wonder that Chris Leuzinger’s first musical revelations had a Latin sway. “We had a big console record player…
Sue Foley’s Acoustic Blues
Sue’s Classic(al) jam in E Sue Foley improvises some blues with her flamenco guitar made by Francisco Navarro Garcia, in Paracho, Mexico. Read our review of her latest album, “Pinky’s…
Roine Stolt
Transatlantic Crossing
Thirty years into a stellar career, progressive-rock wizard Roine Stolt can be heard on the latest – and perhaps final – work from Transatlantic, a supergroup featuring past and present…
DaShawn Hickman
Glorious Gospel
Sacred steel is that unique vein of gospel music highlighting pedal-steel guitar and delivering a powerful sound that can shake the rafters. On his debut, Drums, Roots & Steel, DaShawn…
Chuck Loeb
“Most Wanted” For Melody
From its terrific melodies to the meat-and-potatoes playing that makes him a mainstay of smooth jazz radio, guitarist Chuck Loeb’s latest CD, Presence, is full of the stuff for which…
Wolf Hoffmann
Mean Business
Traditional heavy metal is still a thriving beast thanks to bands like Accept, whose latest studio album, Too Mean to Die, is full of rugged songs with wicked guitars commanded…
Glenn Hughes
Golden-Voiced Bassist
In the past year, Glenn Hughes has experienced highs like being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and lows like knee-replacement surgery. But he’s now back on…
Check This Action: Walking In Memphis
I first visited Memphis in 1990, and it struck me that radio stations played loads of music from the area. Soul, rockabilly, blues, gospel, country, and jazz – if there…
Punk-Rock Pioneer Ivan Julian
NYC Luminary Goes Avant-Garde! Ivan Julian does an experimental take on “Misty” before going into the solo from “Love Is Good,” followed by some of the title track from his…
Eric Gales
Makin’ Good
The wild and crazy life of Eric Gales has been well documented, but through it all, his guiding light has been a passion for music. From humble beginnings as a…
Bill Nelson
Still Deluxe
Most people remember Bill Nelson as the front man/guitar hero in the English band Be Bop Deluxe. Since folding that outfit 35 years ago, he has led a fertile solo…
Paul Bigsby’s Myrtlewood Guitars
= Few things are as satisfying as a guitar with a good story to tell. Some vintage guitars might be beautiful and/or valuable, but boring as Paris Hilton – the…
’Bursting with Surprises
Celeb Guitars Make a Splash at U.K. Guitar Show
Peter Hoarty and his wife, Gail, have been hosting guitar shows in England since 1998, when they rented space to sell a few of the 50-some vintage amps and more…
Pop ’N Hiss: Lou Reed
Definitive Riffs- Lou Reed’s Rock ’N Roll Animal and Live
Eccentric and enigmatic, composer/singer Lou Reed gained notoriety in the mid-’60s while fronting the NYC band Velvet Underground. Not particularly talented musicians, the group reached audiences by creating songs with…
Tommy Emmanuel
Advocate of the Atkins Legacy
Photo: Brian Blauser Experiencing a Tommy Emmanuel performance is one of those “You-shoulda-been-there” musical epiphanies. Emmanuel strides onstage with his acoustic guitar, displaying a self-assured countenance under his widow’s peak,…
Aaron Moreland
Where Zeppelin Meets Son House
Growing up in a small Kansas town, 38-year-old Aaron Moreland took up guitar at 15, and his first garage band played classic-rock throwbacks like “Tush” and “China Grove,” occasionally getting…
