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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
Pop ’N Hiss: The J. Geils Band’s “Live” Full House
Detroit Get-Down
You heard of the Boogaloo?” singer Peter Wolf bellows as the J. Geils Band roars through “Hard Drivin’ Man.” “You heard of the Boston Monkey? You heard of the Philly…
Have Guitar Will Travel – 035 Featuring Joe Robinson
In Episode 35 of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” host James Patrick Regan speaks with guitarist Joe Robinson. Mentored by Tommy Emmanuel and his late brother, Phil, Joe won “Australia’s Got…
Selwyn Birchwood
Blistering Blues
If you think the days of ferocious blues guitar are behind us, cue up Selwyn Birchwood’s latest, Exorcist. Within its grooves are blistering licks galore and the Florida guitarist’s powerful…
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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
Corey Harris goes back to his roots
Great take on Skip James’ “Special Rider Blues” Corey Harris used his Germandt koa-body parlor guitar to do this exclusive rendition of Skip James’ “Special Rider Blues,” one of the…
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.…
Ritchie Blackmore
Machine Head at 45: Tone Secrets of Deep Purple’s Masterwork
In any conversation about the dawn of hard rock and metal, several bands rise up – Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, and Uriah Heep. But you simply…
Jim Lauderdale
Sweet Music
“I consciously did not want to make a knockoff of a Gram record or an Elvis record.” Jim Lauderdale is on a roll this year. And he’s rolling in several…
Matteo Mancuso
Journey Into the Future
Emerging as a social-media sensation several years ago, Matteo Mancuso is changing the way we see and hear guitar. Using a radical fingerstyle attack, the Italian ace handles his electric…
Rahul Mukerji
Indian Fusion Fanatic
Traditional music from India makes ready use of stringed instruments such as sitars, veenas, and tanpuras. But Rahul Mukerji is on a different tangent. “The influence of fusion has been…
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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
Name that Twang
The Guild-Duane Eddy Connection
The fledgling Guild company scored a coup when it signed Johnny Smith to an endorsement deal in 1956. Perched atop the jazz-guitar scene at the time, Smith helped Guild join…
Jussi Jaakonaho
Sunburst Finnish
There’s a vibrant instro-guitar scene in Finland and among its chief architects is Jussi Jaakonaho. Well known as a producer and engineer, his first solo album, Ghost Riot, is a…
Corb Lund’s (Acoustic) Roots Rock!
Low-key in the living room Corb Lund rescued his ’80s Kramer Ferrington from a hair ballad so he could use it to play this exclusive take on “Out On A…
In Memoriam: John Teagle
Guitarist, historian, and author John Teagle passed away March 26 in New York at age 66 after battling cancer. Teagle recalled being “Born at the height of the original rock-and-roll…
Check This Action: George Bowen
Luthier George Bowen passed away August 19 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 69. In March of 2023, a tribute concert billed as the George Bowen Master Guitar Summit…
The Uncanny Approach of Walter Strauss
Fingerstylist melds melodies, polyrhythms, and visceral picking on “Fabara” Walter Strauss shows his extraordinary technique with help from his Sexauer JB-16 while playing “Fabara,” a song from latest album, “For…
Lance Lopez
Hard-Time Music
Several years after being liberated from Supersonic Blues Machine, Lance Lopez is back and better than ever. Wielding hard lessons from the road and the influence of players named Billy,…
Bruce Kulick
Wielding Power On BK3
With his new album, BK3, Bruce Kulick brings out the big guns on what he calls his “…strongest solo disc ever.” Collaborating with friends old and new, he infused their…
Lyle Workman
Orchestral Maneuvers
You might not recognize his name, but in the last 30 years, Lyle Workman and his guitars have backed Sting, Todd Rundgren, and Frank Black. He was also a member…
Steve Miller
Some People Call Him Rock Icon
Not until after he turned 40 did it occur to Steve Miller that he never really needed to fear whether he’d “make it” in the music business. That may sound…
Tommy Castro
Circling Back
In a career spanning four decades, Tommy Castro has crafted a commendable catalog and built a devout following with his soul-infused music, informed by the blues, R&B, pop, and rock…
Earth, Wind & Fire’s “That’s the Way of the World”
Guitars, Groove, and Mysticism
Earth, Wind & Fire played “world music” before the phrase was coined. By 1974, bandleader Maurice White’s ensemble of talented musicians had five albums to its credit, two of which,…
Bob Devos
Update on the Organ Trio
Bob Devos says the idea for his new record, Shifting Sands, was pretty basic. “I wanted to record something that takes the organ trio or quartet sound into the future.…
Joe Stump
Professor Shred
Some musicians use grandiose nicknames like “the doctor” (Dr. John) or “the professor” (Rush’s Neil Peart) – but Boston shredder Joe Stump actually is a professor at the Berklee College…
Leon Rhodes
Country-Jazz Genius, Terrific Texas Troubadour
Leon Rhodes 1932-2017 We are saddened to hear of the passing of guitar legend Leon Rhodes, one of the most-beloved players from the golden age of country music. Leon emerged…
Joe Walsh
Life’s Still Good
Whether coughing up the #2 talk-box lick of the ’70s, kicking the Eagles into overdrive, or wryly expressing his views on subjects ranging from rock-and-roll excess to lawn mowers to…
Sylvain Sylvain
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…
John Oates’ Prized Guild F-30
Roots Return
Most people know Hall & Oates as a pop-music hit machine that has sold millions of records. What you may not know is that John Oates is a lifetime student…
Larry McCray
Redemption Blues
Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like…
Robben Ford
Crystal Visionary
Pure is Robben Ford’s first instrumental album since 1997’s Tiger Walk. A work of complex simplicity, it’s also a singular sonic statement on which Ford guides every aspect of melody…
Have Guitar Will Travel – 030 Featuring Lzzy Hale
Episode 30 of James Patrick Regan’s “Have Guitar Will Travel” podcast features Halestorm co-founder Lzzy Hale. They delve into the band’s origins and the vital early support of her parents,…
