•  Joey Molland

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     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

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The Dig 3’s Hundt, Duncanson play “Tell Me the Place”

Old-school blues duet Gerry Hundt and Andrew Duncanson play straightforward Chicago-style blues in The Dig 3. Here, they play “Tell Me the Place” from their new album. Gerry’s using a…

Bob Moore

1932-2021

Bob Moore, a charter member of Nashville’s “A-Team” of session musicians and Nashville’s most recorded upright and electric bassist, died September 22. He was 88. For decades, country bassists doubled…

Michael Monarch

Born to be a Player

The biting snarl of Michael Monarch’s Fender Esquire was one of the trade

John Scofield

One Road Leads to Another

Photo: Nick Suttle. It’s no surprise John Scofield’s latest release, Piety Street, takes him down a different path than his contemporaries might follow. After all, this is a guitarist who…

Scotty Moore

One of the King's Men

It was our annual Christmas party, closing out 1996. I work for Nashville recording artist Ronnie McDowell. Because we often work with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana and The Jordonaires, they…

 Jason Isbell

New Vistas, Old Gear

Jason Isbell’s powerful songs, compelling vocals, and formidable guitar skills have made him one of America’s most-respected singer/songwriters. A charismatic performer, his critically-lauded albums, solo and backed by the formidable…

Alex Lifeson

Fresh Sonic Horizons

What do you do when you’re the beloved guitarist in a legendary band whose career was ended by the premature passing of a core member? When you’re Alex Lifeson, you…

Jeff Beck

He Can’t Help It… He Just Keeps Getting Better

In 1985, speaking of the ’83 Action Research into Muscle Distrophy (A.R.M.S.) Tour that united Yardbirds alumni Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton, the latter stated, “At that time…

The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody

Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part One

There are many ways for an advertiser to attract attention, and in the history of 19th- and 20th-century print hucksterisim there have been few stones left unturned in the battle…

Tim Lerch

Tim Lerch

Tele Jazz Master

If you watch any of Tim Lerch’s videos online, his virtuosity is immediately apparent. What may throw you is his use of a Telecaster, an axe more closely associated with…

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…

Spacey T

Spacey T

Eclectic Journeyman

Tracey Singleton, better known as Spacey T, is a post-Hendrix guitar wizard with an eclectic soul and chops to match. In the 1980s, he and his group, Sound Barrier, held…

“Big” Al Anderson

Nashville by way of Connecticut

Ask people what they know about “Big Al” Anderson and you’ll probably hear very different responses. Rockers will say that for 22 years he was the Tele-driving force behind New…

Lynyrd Skynyrd

30 Years Strong

Gary Rossington leads the charge against the challenge that has always come with being a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band and its musical patriarch have defined resilience in their…

Pop ’N Hiss: Uriah Heep’s Demons and Wizards

Under Its Spell

Hard rock/heavy metal and progressive rock were burgeoning genres in the early ’70s, and music fans by the millions eagerly snapped up albums in both styles. While snobbish “tastemaker” critics…

Fretprints: Foghat

Slow Ride to Boogie Wonderland

If the ’70s were the era of good times and excess following the tumultuous ’60s, the boogie band would be its champion. Boogie was a leveler – a style, feeling,…

Farewell to a Venture

Nokie Edwards 1935-2018

Nole Floyd “Nokie” Edwards, former lead guitarist and bassist with The Ventures, passed away March 12 from complications related to ongoing medical problems. He was 82. Edwards was born May…

Philip Sayce

Scorched-Earth Tones

Philip Sayce’s album Scorched Earth Volume 1 was a live recording from 2016 that displayed the kind of blistering blues-rock ferocity that left many asking, “How does he do that?”…

Tommy Castro

'Guilty' of Paying His dues

Tommy Castro is a charismatic singing gunslinger who has developed a sound featuring stinging blues leads floating atop hard-charging, old-school R&B. And he is one of a handful of artists…

Status Quo’s Francis Rossi

On Guitars, Music, and Elusive Success

“I’m only as good now as I should have been when I was 25,” laughs Francis Rossi, the 64-year-old lead guitarist, singer, and co-composer in Status Quo. “That’s why I…

Gilby Clarke - Grit & Glory

Grit & Glory

Gilby Clarke and His Guitars

The drive to succeed – along with certain workaholic tendencies – revealed themselves early in rock guitarist Gilby Clarke. On the brink of becoming a “problem child,” he turned the…

Mark Tremonti

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…

The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody

Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part 3: The 1960s

Fretted-instrument advertising in the 20th century relied heavily on “glamor” or “cheesecake.” Electric instruments and accessories, in particular, are still marketed to a primarily male audience, and with that testosterone…

Scotty Moore

One of the King's Men

It was our annual Christmas party, closing out 1996. I work for Nashville recording artist Ronnie McDowell. Because we often work with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana and The Jordonaires, they…

Lloyd Green

From the A Team to Americana

Lloyd Green with the the signature model pedal-steel guitar he designed for the Sho-Bud company in 1973. Prior to this, a single on a double-neck cabinet with pad didn’t exist.…

Ethan Brosh

Ethan Brosh

Living The Dream

In case you were wondering, shred is not dead, and Ethan Brosh is determined to keep it that way. The Israeli-born Berklee grad is a young man with an old…

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Billy Duffy

Weapon: Chosen

Billy Duffy has long been a different sort of bloke. As his peers in rock bands of the mid ’80s mostly fell in line to play modified “superstrats,” Duffy stuck…

In Memoriam: Len Chandler

Len Chandler, a Greenwich Village “folky” in the mid ’60s with Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Pete Seeger, The New Lost City Ramblers, and others, died at his home in…

Wayne Nelson

Wayne Nelson

Little River Anchor

Bassist/vocalist Wayne Nelson has decades of experience with the Little River Band and was the first American to join the band (in 1980). He’s seen numerous changes in personnel, including…

John Tropea

A Life in the Studios

John Tropea has spent much of his life in a studio, playing guitar, helping make hit records for people with names other than his own. Why? One reason is his…