• 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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Oli Brown

Guitarist Oli Brown is a bright light in the world of blues guitar. While plenty of youngsters are playing, not many in their mid 20s are carving a sound and feel of their…

Jake Armerding – Walking on the World

Jake Armerding’s third solo release has a wider musical scope than his earlier releases, but his songwriting is more focused, articulate, and poignant. Like many talented young songwriters, the traditional genres of folk,…

The Doors with Albert King

DMC/Rhino

Speaking of his work on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Steve Ray Vaughan once admitted that he wanted to see just how many places Albert King’s licks would work. “You know, they always fit,”…

Muddy Waters & Big Bill Morganfield – Rollin’ Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection &

These two CDs mark two generations of bluesmen covering the roots and the future of the blues. McKinley Morganfield, better known by his grandmother’s nickname for him as Muddy Waters, is the father…

Phil Upchurch – Tell the Truth

Tell the Truth

Phil Upchurch is no stranger. He’s been around a long time, playing sessions with everyone from Jimmy Reed to Cannonball Adderly to Sheena Easton. And he was the rhythm guitarist for George Benson’s…

Gina Villalobos – Miles Away

Gina Villalobos proves that a contemporary artist of the female persuasion doesn’t have to possess an “American Idol” voice to create powerful music. Remember Kim Carnes or Bonnie Tyler? At times, Villalobos’ voice…

Tab Benoit – Live: Swampland Jam

I was familiar with Benoit (pronounced Ben-wah) from a killer blues tune called “Nice and Warm” a few years back. The Louisiana guitarist recorded this, his fourth album, live in a couple of…

Basily – Swing for the Gipsies

The Dutch Gypsy group Basily has been prolific in releasing recordings and playing concert dates on the Dutch scene, but remains virtually unknown in the rest of the world. This new album will…

Pete McCann – Most Folks

Pete McCann is not one of those jazz guitarists who can be placed in a column and left there. For instance, the title cut of his new disc, Most Folks, is a fine…

Ronnie Lane

Anymore for Anymore

In 1974, Faces bassist Lane left the rat race of arena rock for the Welsh countryside and recorded his magnum opus. Remastered at Abbey Road and now reissued on vinyl with download codes,…

Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucía

Saturday Night in San Francisco

Recorded in December, 1980, Friday Night in San Francisco was a genre-busting album of acoustic guitar, and a surprise best-seller. The following night’s gig at the Warfield Theater is here, resurrected from 16-track…

Dinosaur Jr.

Though he introduced unabashed (and deafening) guitar heroics to the indie slacker nation, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis is more often cast as an impossible misanthrope. This stunning new coffee-table book, though brimming with…

REM – Murmur

Some CDs deserve to be remastered and reissued. And though vocalist Michael Stipe’s mumbled vocals contributed greatly to the atmosphere and underground appeal of the original release, if you were the type who…

Patty Larkin – 25

Signature Sounds

When faced with the task of creating a retrospective album, Patty Larkin took a novel approach. Instead of creating a “best of” album, she re-recorded her favorite 25 love songs while enlisting 25…

Shooter Jennings, Ryan Bingham, and Various Artists

Outlaw: Celebrating The Music Of Waylon Jennings

Waylon Jennings, who died in 2002, would have turned 80 in 2017. He and compadre Willie Nelson still personify country’s early-’70s Outlaw movement, focused on gaining creative control of their records after years…

Alberto Lombardi

Through the Years

The Italian guitarist’s third acoustic-fingerstyle album brings a pleasurable mix of covers with two originals. Primarily a solo set, it overdubs keyboards, drum patterns, and he even sings on the title track. An…

The Magpie Salute

The Magpie Salute

This debut album from a 10-piece band is woven together from the smoldering embers of the Black Crowes. Vocalist Rich Robinson, guitarist Marc Ford, bassist Sven Pipien, and the late keyboardist Eddie Harsch…

Pasquale Grasso

Be-Bop!

A genuine six-string phenomenon, Pasquale Grasso (VG, November ’21) is redefining jazz guitar with a radical approach, making one instrument sound like two. Your ears may hear a duo at the opening of…

Greg Nagy

Blues rocker Greg Nagy makes the Northern industrial equivalent to Southern country of the 1950s and ’60s. He melds ’70s West Coast R&B, British blues rock, Albert King tones, dollops of Steely Dan,…

Nick Forster – Country Swing Back-up Guitar

Country Swing Back-up Guitar

Country Swing Back-up Guitar Taught by Nick Forster, with guest fiddle by Tim O’Brien Homespun I see Nick Forster face to face nearly every week in my role as the official E-Town photographer…

Joe Goldmark – Strong Like Bull… But Sensitive Like Squirrel

God, you’ve got to love Joe Goldmark. A pedal steel player who is willing to tackle pretty much any style of music, and not only tackle it, but do a bang-up job on…

Emmylou Harris – Red Dirt Girl

Emmylou Harris seems to have finally found her freedom. It’s rare to follow an artist who, after almost three decades of recording, still has something new and fresh to say – and who…

Long Train Runnin’: Our Story of the Doobie Brothers

Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Chris Epting

For 50 years, the Doobie Brothers’ feel-good hits have been radio staples. In these pages, vocalists/guitarists Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons share memories and insights such as how the much-hyped psychedelic band Moby…

James Blood Ulmer – Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions

A collection of songs inspired by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, this is one of the best albums of the year. Vernon Reid returns to produce (and supply guitar in spots), and the…

Allan Holdsworth

The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever!

With a career spanning 45 years, Allan Holdsworth’s blistering, bop-fueled legato radically altered our approach to electric guitar, and he’s now the recipient of this 12-CD retrospective (for those in the cheap seats,…

Southern Culture On the Skids – Countrypolitan Favorites

Once again, Southern Culture On The Skids proves itself the ultimate party band with the ultimate party record. In other hands, the concept behind Countrypolitan Favorites (Yep Roc) might come off as sheer…

Jody Williams – Return of a Legend

Return of a Legend

Rarely has an album been more aptly named. Williams was one of the key Chicago sessionmen in the ’50s and ’60s, the musically sophisticated guitarist who added the licks and solos to Chess,…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Otis Taylor

Otis Taylor has no concern for your discomfort with racial issues. It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times, and there’s plenty to reflect upon. He skips the antiquated blues coding about devils…

The Aristocrats

The rock-fusion trio known as the Aristocrats are back with a second album fortified with artistic maturity from gigging around the world. With a stronger, more-cohesive musical vision, bassist Bryan Beller, drummer Marco…

American Folk Blues Festival – Various Artists

This is the British TV counterpart to the German broadcasts that were unearthed on three stunning volumes of The American Folk Blues Festival, in 2003. If you saw those, you’ve probably already stopped…


Muddy Waters

The Montreux Years

Swississippi Chris Harp

Swississippi Records

San Francisco String Trio

May I Introduce to You