• Smith/Kotzen

    Music

    Smith/Kotzen

    Black Light/White Noise

    This is the third album from rock veterans Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) and Richie Kotzen (The Winery Dogs). The busy axeslingers – especially Kotzen, who is always involved in solo and band projects – released their full-length debut and an EP in 2021. Smith-Kotzen has happily blossomed into a going concern. What’s interesting about Smith/Kotzen’s

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Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan – In Session

Hard to imagine that the only way this album was put back in print was by Concord re-releasing its Stax back-catalog. Shot in late 1983 for a Canadian television show, Vaughan was at…

The Yardbirds

Yardbirds ’68

This two-CD set captures a 1968 concert taped at the Anderson Theater in New York City, roughly three months before the Yardbirds folded. This show was briefly released as an LP in 1971,…

Dr. Feelgood

Finally available in America, Julien Temple’s superb documentary follows the brief career of England’s late, great Dr. Feelgood, Temple employing his trademark technique of mashing up new interviews with archival and fictive footage,…

Mississippi John Hurt – Live

It still surprises me, but every once in a while I run into a neophyte who thinks the blues (all blues) is, by definition, depressing – as if there’s but one emotion conveyed…

Chet Atkins: Me and My Guitars – Chet Atkins and Russ Cochran

Chet Atkins has a deserved reputation as a great guitar player and all-around nice guy. So it’s a pleasure to see a book that is part biography and part history of his personal…

Matt Szlachetka

Northstar Session songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist Matt Szlachetka is more introspective here than with the Session but his considerable strengths are in full flower – especially his ability to craft a song…

Jared James Nichols

Jared James Nichols

Pentatonic beast and Gibson ambassador Jared James Nichols’ third album bristles with out-of-the-box soloing amidst crafty tunes where blues-rock meets grunge at the trailer park. Nichols cuts loose with testosterone-fueled vocal intensity and…

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…

Guy Forsyth – Steak

This healthy serving of steak is pretty meaty. Bo Diddley’s rock and roll, dirge-like blues (and I mean that in a good way), acoustic country blues, jump blues, and blues-based rock mix to…

Kim Wilson – Smokin’ Joint

Smokin' Joint

This CD, recorded over a two-year period, spotlights the world class work of the legendary T-Birds frontman, but of interest to the readers of this publication would be the four – count ’em,…

Happy Traum

There’s a Bright Side Somewhere

Traum is known to some as founder of the expansive Homespun Tapes instructional series, but there’s nothing academic about this baker’s dozen. From the powerful intricacies of “Santa Cruz Blues,” an improvisation named…

Arlen Roth – Tooling Around Woodstock

Roth’s “Hot Licks” instructional series has helped many a player. But he’s criminally overlooked to the general public. Toolin’ Around puts him in the limelight with wonderful songs that exhibit his mastery. Most…

Guthrie Trapp

Life After Dark

Guthrie Trapp has spent the last couple decades in Nashville, supporting major acts in the studio and on the road. His second solo album shows he’s learned plenty of lessons, because while this…

The Doltones

Sound Recycle Machine

There must be something in those icy fjords. What else can explain the great surf music that has come out of Finland? In recent years, instrumental bands like the Regents, Beatmakers, and especially…

Check This Action: Real Gone for a Change

“Hold it, fellas.” After languidly singing the first line of “Milk Cow Blues,” Elvis Presley halted the proceedings. “That don’t move me,” he exhorted his sidemen. “Let’s get real, real gone for a…

Romane

Soir de Trottoir

Patrick Leguidecoq, better known as Romane, has been a pioneer of the Gypsy jazz revival. Beginning with his now-classic 1992 album Swing for Ninine, he’s hailed today for his ongoing efforts to spread…

Guy King

Two words describe these two records from Chicago guitarist Guy King: mature and eclectic. That holds especially true for the double record, I Am Who I Am And It Is What It Is.…

Jay McShann – Goin’ to Kansas City

The story of Jay “Hootie” McShann is legend. Born in 1916, he got his start as a youth tickling the ivories in the infamous wide-open Kansas City barrooms and ballrooms. His Jay McShann…

Gerald Weber – Advanced Tube Guitar Amplifier

Advanced Tube Guitar Amplifier

Gerald Weber is back with his third video on the inner workings of tube amps. It should be noted at the outset that this video is geared to advanced technicians (Weber has other…

Dr. Dog – We All Belong

Dr. Dog is five guys from Philly who’ve listened to more than their share of Beatles and Beach Boys. It’s not a bad thing. In the context of the band, their names are…

Psychedelic Breakfast – Deuce

Deuce

Okay, I’m not sure how to approach this one… The band is a trippy mix of jazz, rock, folk, and everything in between. There’s a definite Grateful Dead vibe, and that’s part of…

Joan Osborne – Pretty Little Stranger

“Versatile” doesn’t quite do justice to Joan Osborne’s uncanny range. One minute she’s guesting with the Chieftains, the next she’s touring with the Dead. Then she utterly steals the show in the Funk…

Steve Dawson

Steve Dawson shines as a session player and producer supporting other artists’ work. But when he hides away in his own studio and cuts his own tunes, his music truly comes alive. On…

Simo

Rise and Shine

Blues-rock phenom J.D. Simo and his band continue to push boundaries as they explore everything from slow-burn soul and psychedelia to greasy funk-blues that would make Albert King smile. This album also has…

Adrian Raso – Clean Up The Mess

Black Mamba Records

Adrian Raso understands that, just as a guitar solo is not just a place-holder between lyric lines, an instrumental is not just a bunch of notes that sound good together. Guitarists may have…

Viva

Viva Viva DeConcini’s band plays cabarets in New York City and sounds like nothing else – and her guitar playing is as unique as her band, as evidenced by the nasty rock solo…

Pokey LaFarge

In The Blossom of Their Shade

The 2020 pandemic left an impact on Pokey LaFarge, who was about to tour behind his newly released Rock Bottom Rhapsody. During the ample downtime, he wrote an album’s worth of new tunes,…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Marty Stuart, Doyle Lawson, Vince Gill, and more

Back to the Beginning

The sessions produced by Ralph S. Peer over 12 days in July and August of 1927 in a makeshift Bristol, Tennessee, studio featuring Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and others are often termed…

Mark Erelli – Delivered

Fearing negative comparison, some singer/songwriters shy away from covering other writer’s material. Some, boring people by the dozens in coffeehouses across the country, feel it’s everyone else who comes up short. Mark Erelli…

The Quaker City Night Hawks

Advertised as “The spirit of ZZ Top meets Texas boogie rock,” the Night Hawks play up the image of unpretentious good ol’boys you could have a beer with. They’re plaid-shirt dudes in cowboy…