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Music
2025 December Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Rick Derringer, Kid Ramos, Booker T and The M.G.’s, Steve Stevens, Phil Manzanera, Doug Aldrich, Kenny Burrell, Eric Johanson, Gary Moore, and more! Spotify is free or available without ads via a paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account Listen to
The Jimmy Bruno Group – Midnight Blue
I dunno… sometimes it seems silly to review things like this. Everyone who follows jazz guitar knows Jimmy Bruno is a knock-down monster player with both chops and soul. In fact, technically, he’s…
The Gibson Brothers – Red Letter Day
Not a lot of bluegrass musicians hail from New York; there’s Dr. Banjo (Peter Wernick) and Mr. Mandolin (David Grisman), but after them the list gets short. The Gibson Brothers are New York…
Frank Meyers
Impossibly Cool Guitars
Frank Meyers’ first axe was a ’63 Fujigen EJ2 – a cheap-o, two-pickup solidbody like so many Japanese electrics used by beginner guitarists the world over. Though unremarkable, it spurred in him a…
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Paul Johnson
The Hepcats Live at the Ajax Novelty Company
This isn’t live, there may not be an Ajax Novelty Company, and the three felines known as the Hepcats are actually the brainchild of Paul Johnson, whose Belairs were early-’60s pioneers of surf music. Suspend reality and dig how the “trio” expertly articulates layers of acoustic guitar. Across decades, Johnson has embraced folk-rock, psychedelia, and
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Yes
Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition
Are you a high-fidelity audio geek? If the answer is, well, yes, this Rhino release brings together an HD experience of Close to the Edge in no fewer than four versions, plus rarities and a ’72 concert. For starters, the 2025 remaster sounds as close to the analog 1972 mix as you’re going to get
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Pink Floyd
Have You Got It Yet? – The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
It’s understandable that fans warily approach the flood of pseudo-documentaries and biopics. Add the fact that the late Syd Barrett, Floyd’s original guitarist/leader, suffered from mental illness, and exploitation alarms are sure to go off. But this documentary handles the subject with dignity instead of sensationalism. Interviews by longtime Floyd cover artist Storm Thorgerson with
Bob Dylan
Triplicate
This new collection extends Dylan’s venture into the Great American Songbook, a journey he began with 2015’s Shadows In The Night, this time offering three discs of material beyond the Frank Sinatra catalog.…
Bob Dylan
Dylan Goes Electric!
Oh, the shock! The outrage! The betrayal! Truth is, no one should have been surprised when Bob Dylan and his electrified band took the stage on the evening of July 25, 1965 at…
Diunna Greenleaf
Texas blues singer Greenleaf has gathered a host of noteworthy guest guitarists to help highlight her considerable virtues and versatility as a writer and singer. Three of the tunes here – “The Beautiful…
Jim Stringer And The AM Band
It’s a slight generalization, but if you’re going to make a living playing music for any length of time, you pretty much have to do one of two things: concentrate on one thing…
CCR
Bayou Country Green River Willy And The Poor Boys Cosmo’s Factory Pendulum It’s hard to imagine that anyone isn’t intimately familiar with Creedence’s catalog of seven albums, but that string began with their…
Frank Zappa
Zappa ’88: The Last U.S. Show
This high-energy gig took place on Long Island; sadly, it turned out to be Frank Zappa’s final American performance. Despite incredible musicianship, personality clashes doomed this lineup and Zappa ended the tour early…
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The Wildhearts
In the raging ’90s, The Wildhearts blasted out of Newcastle upon Tyne like some unholy melding of Guns ’N Roses, Cheap Trick, and The Replacements. Hard rock, power pop, and punk still make up their secret sauce, heard on this latest effort with original singer/guitarist Ginger Wildheart. Ben Marsden plays lead, while Kavus Torabi adds
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Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Honeysuckle
Resonator-slide specialist Reverend Peyton returns to his primary influences – early 20th-century African-American music – compelling him to shout from the hollers and the hills. Rootsy, acoustic, inter-war blues is the specific genre, and Peyton doesn’t hold back. With top-tier tutelage from the likes of David “Honeyboy” Edwards, T-Model Ford, and Robert Belfour, he masterfully
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Mike Campbell with Ari Surdoval
Heartbreaker: A Memoir
In his autobiography, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Campbell admits he’s quiet and shy. Self-doubt plagued him his entire life, and when problems arose in the Heartbreakers, a lack of confidence had him blaming himself first, even when he wasn’t responsible. Perhaps his attitude was psychologically rooted in his impoverished childhood and coming from
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Alan Gogoll
Lioness Lullabies
Venture online and watch a few videos by Tasmanian guitarist Alan Gogoll and you’ll see he’s nothing short of a phenomenon. On acoustic, he conjures artificial harmonics in a manner that almost defies gravity. Better still, he never shows off these chops – everything on Lioness Lullabies is in the service of the song and
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Jimmy Vivino
Gonna Be 2 of Those Days
A veteran vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist and purveyor of blues, R&B, and rock’, Jimmy Vivino has an incredible résumé. A longtime fixture in Conan O’Brien’s house band, he has played on movie, radio, and Broadway projects and worked with Levon Helm, Hubert Sumlin, Al Kooper, Jimmie Vaughan, Donald Fagen, Warren Haynes, Laura Nyro, along with innumerable others. He’s
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Thin Lizzy
The Acoustic Sessions
Thin Lizzy’s first studio release in decades, this album reimagines tracks recorded 50+ years ago by the trio of vocalist/bassist Phil Lynott, guitarist Eric Bell, and drummer Brian Downey. The songs are from Lizzy’s first three albums – 1971’s Thin Lizzy, ’72’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage, and ’73’s Vagabonds of the Western World. Recently,
Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Year
After the Clash, Saint Joe Strummer (to borrow the beatification endowed by The Hold Steady) spent some years in the wilderness. His first full solo album, 1989’s Earthquake Weather, didn’t sell well despite…
Dykes & Vaughan – On the Jimmy Reed Highway
Kent “Omar” Dykes is best known for fronting Omar and the Howlers, and though this disc was planned a solo effort paying homage to fellow Mississippi blues man Jimmy Reed, as word got…
Otis Rush & Magic Sam – Classic Cobra 56-58 and Cobra and Chief 57-19
These two collections of early sides by the great guitarists Otis Rush and “Magic” Sam Maghett are pure fire-and-brimstone blues. They showcase the artists when they were young and had everything to prove.…
Frank Vignola – Blues for a Gypsy
Frank Vignola needs no introduction to most American fans of Django Reinhardt. He has released several albums of swing influenced in part by the Gypsy guitarist and formed Hot Club USA to release…
Los Lonely Boys
Lonelytone Records
It’s easy to take for granted bands like Los Lonely Boys. The trio of brothers is adept at many kinds of music. Early in their career, guitarist Henry Garza proved that, like so…
Frank Meyers
Impossibly Cool Guitars
Frank Meyers’ first axe was a ’63 Fujigen EJ2 – a cheap-o, two-pickup solidbody like so many Japanese electrics used by beginner guitarists the world over. Though unremarkable, it spurred in him a…
Chris Robinson Brotherhood
If you’ve lost touch with Chris Robinson since the Black Crowes’ slow down, his latest effort with the CRB is an opportune time to catch up on what’s become a most satisfying second…
Canned Heat – Live at Montreux
The story of Canned Heat has more twists and turns than Spinal Tap’s evolution from the Thamesmen to Spinal Tap, Mark II. Which is why some of the dramatic, lofty claims in the…
Electromagnets (featuring Eric Johnson) – Electromagnets II
Electromagnets (featuring Eric Johnson) – Electromagnets II Electromagnets (featuring Eric Johnson) Electromagnets II Vortexman Music As many know, Eric Johnson started his career not in the mid 1980s, but 10 years earlier in…
Jerry Reed – Pickin’
This album was released last year, but I like it a lot and haven’t seen much written about it, so we’ll tell you a bit about it. It’s a pretty much what you’d…
Andy Brown Quartet and Brian Bromberg
Two of the Best in Jazz
Not every jazz guitarist who plays solo can also blow in a group context, and vice versa. Some adept at both include Tuck Andress, Joe Pass, Johnny Smith, George Van Eps, and Earl…
The Pretty Things
England’s Snapper Records recently released the ultimate retrospective of the Pretty Things, purveyors of “thrash R&B” (to quote lead singer Phil May) and psychedelia. Featured in July ’15’s “Check This Action,” it weighs…
Robert Cray
Soul Persuader
Robert Cray is a soul singin’, blues playin’ genius. You might want to believe he had a master plan to separate himself from the glut of “keeping the blues alive” flag wavers in…
Dino Saluzzi – Responsorium
Responsorium
Argentine Dino Saluzzi is at the forefront of a new generation of bandonéonistas arriving on the scene since the overpowering force of Astor Piazzolla. Yet while many have remain trapped in the strands…
Big Bill Morganfield – Born Lover
Talent isn’t always inherited. And when it is, the ability to develop it doesn’t always come along with it. Big Bill Morganfield inherited a healthy slice of talent from his father, Muddy Waters.…
New Orleans Suspects
When you combine some of the finest musicians from the Louisiana area in one band, there will be extreme funkiness. So it’s no surprise that the New Orleans Suspects’ third full-length album is…
Mark Knopfler
The Mellow Master
You have to hand it Mark Knopfler. Not only has he launched a successful solo career, but it’s one that’s wholly apart from his Dire Straits superstardom. As opposed to that band’s snappy…
Mike Morgan & The Crawl – Texas Man
Texas Man
Dallas-based Teddy Morgan was a protégé of the less-is-more master Anson Funderburgh, whose rhythm work can be heard throughout this release, and to a large degree Morgan is still immersed in Anson’s style.…
The Charlie Sizemore Band – Good News
Charlie Sizemore’s career began at age 17, when he was hired by Ralph Stanley to replace legendary lead singer Keith Whitley. After leaving Stanley’s band, Sizemore went back to school and graduated from…
Jorma Kaukonen – Blue Country Heart
The original lead guitarist with Jefferson Airplane and co-founder of Hot Tuna has come full circle in recent years, back to the acoustic folk-blues he was fingerpicking before the Summer of Love. Backed…
Chuck Mead – Journeyman’s Wager
The BR549 co-founder’s new disc is loaded with great stuff, including his guitar work. In the band, Mead split lead duties with Chris Scruggs and Gary Bennett, but was more than capable of…
Nick Forster – Country Swing Back-up Guitar
Country Swing Back-up Guitar
Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing
Peter Guralnick
