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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
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985
By now, every guitar fan worth his salt knows the story behind these two concerts by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble at the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival. Appearing in 1982, the boys…
Pan-Americans
Flat Fish
If you’re a member of Pan-Americans, “among others” is part of your resume – in terms of bands you belong to as well as instruments (and roles) played in them. The band’s ad…
Scott H. Biram
If you condensed Southern Culture on the Skids down to a one-man band, it would sound something like Scott Biram. Comparisons to C.C. Adcock, Rev. Freakchild, and Cub Koda’s rootsy solo albums also…
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Chris Walz
All I Got and Gone
This traditional folk singer/guitarist’s solo debut is impressive. He’s been an educator at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music for three decades, but his approach is by no means academic. He not only reveals the influence of folk and blues legends such as Doc and Merle Watson, Elizabeth Cotten, Etta Baker, Dave Van Ronk,
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Nels Cline
Consentrik Quartet
ls Cline long ago established a parallel career as an eclectic instrumentalist and contemporary jazz virtuoso. His fourth Blue Note album is an extended set that unveils Consentrik Quartet, his new band with acoustic bassist Chris Lightcap, drummer Tom Rainey, and tenor/soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Their concepts are ambitious and their sound is free, Cline
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Charlie Musselwhite
Lookout Highway
John Mayall is invariably cited for the succession of guitar greats who passed through his band. But Charlie Musselwhite just might be the American equivalent. In a 60-year career, his six-stringers have included Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Tim Kaihatsu, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, Johnny Heartsman, Junior Watson, Andrew “Jr. Boy” Jones, John Wedemeyer,
Spirit
It Shall Be, 1968-’72
Rock history is littered with truly gifted bands that inexplicably never broke big, from The Move to The Replacements. Spirit is another, an L.A. group dripping with talent and the ability to mix…
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.…
Derek Trucks Band – Already Free
Derek Trucks is one of the top guitarists of his generation. He has helped write a new chapter in the history of the Allman Brothers Band, was an integral part of Eric Clapton’s…
Rob Blaine
The liner notes for this are on-target when they say Rob Blaine yanks “big chunks” of music from his guitar. But that’s not the whole story. Yes, he can channel Freddie King, Jimi…
Jackson Browne
Eagle Rock
Part documentary, part performance (then-current and archival), this reissue of the 1999 portrait of the singer/songwriter reveals his sense of humor, commitment to social causes, and, most of all, talent. There is no…
Stanton Moore – Groove Alchemy
Telarc
On Groove Alchemy, drummer Stanton Moore, Robert Walter (organ) and Will Bernard (guitar) serve up groove after groove. Bernard’s solos show his versatility and chops, while his rhythm work is solid as a…
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Popa Chubby
I Love Freddie King
The latest from blues dynamo Popa Chubby is a star-studded tribute to the late great Freddie King. Produced by Mr. Chubby and Mike Zito, I Love Freddie King is a blues guitar love-fest covering some of King’s most potent and popular songs. With Popa fronting the band on guitar and vocals, guests include Eric Gales,
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Rush
Rush 50
The goal of any anthology is to capture the broad scope of an artist’s career. Rush 50 is a strong attempt, starting with their first singles (previously unreleased) all the way to their final live recordings in 2015. In between are reams of epic studio and stage recordings, summing up the band’s career in one
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Rik Emmett
Ten Telecaster Tales
At the risk of starting a brawl, Rik Emmett’s guitar work was arguably too good for Triumph. As evidence, his latest project centers on a custom-built Loucin that inspired both a book and accompanying music. “Magic Power” this is not. On Ten Telecaster Tunes, Emmett delivers 10 solo performances on the instrument he calls Babs,
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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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Greg Koch
Blues
The Gristle Master returns with scintillating blues and the influences that made him the six-string slayer he is today. On this live recording, Koch uses an array of guitars including his signature Reverend, a Deluxe Tele, Custom Shop Les Paul, and a Custom Shop Strat while sharing stages with Larry McCray, Jimmy Hall, Malford Milligan,
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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
Dave Hunter
The British Amp Invasion
American makers may have pioneered guitar amplifiers in the jazz age, but when the British builders jumped in during the late 1950s, they were primarily building amps for the whole new world of…
Matt Backer – Impulse Man
Backer is New Orleans native who lives in London and has sung and played guitar with the likes of Elton John, Sinead O’Connor, and Alice Cooper. His new solo record assembles an amazing…
Otis Spann
Otis Spann is The Blues
Otis Spann was the greatest Chicago blues pianist, from his long stint with Muddy Waters to his late-’60s recordings backed by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. In 1960, esteemed journalist Nat Hentoff produced Spann’s…
Greg Howe – Sound Proof
Greg Howe’s incredible chops often override the musical aspect of songs. At least that’s the common wisdom. But that doesn’t happen on this collection of songs that show off his rock, jazz, and…
Justin Golden
Hard Times and a Woman
The word “blues” pops up in Justin Golden’s bio, but “African-Americana” might be a more apt term. The Virginian’s 12 originals make for an extremely impressive debut, as comfortable leaning toward country on…
Moving Pictures: How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record
Will Romano
Rush’s Moving Pictures is often regarded as the band’s masterpiece, and this book unpacks the creative efforts of frontman/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart. Examining the 1981 album’s “filmic…
Kris Kristofferson
Kristofferson, who turned 80 in June, recorded this 25-song retrospective focused on his most enduring original compositions, in Austin in 2014. Behind him is songwriter Shawn Camp’s acoustic guitar, upright bassist Kevin Smith,…
Charles Shaar Murray – Boogie Man – The Adventures of John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” may well have been the first million-selling blues hit when it came out in 1948. It was a song unlike anything most folk had ever heard: the chanted…
Steve Smith, George Brooks, Prasanna
Abstract Logix
Before joining Journey in 1978, Steve Smith drummed on jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty’s Enigmatic Ocean, and before he left the band in ’83, he had already formed the fusion group Vital Information. The…
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…
Gurf Morlix
Rootball Records
Gurf Morlix’s latest effort is a tribute to his old buddy, Blaze Foley, a singer/ songwriter who was shot to death in 1989. Morlix has taken 15 of Foley’s songs and given them…
Emmylou Harris – All I Intended To Be
In a career spanning 30-plus years, Harris’ constants have been her high standard of quality (in her material, in her bandmates, in herself) and her unpredictability. That she has managed to remain popular…
Bob Dylan
1970
Emmylou Harris – Rhino Reissues
Rhino Reissues
As huge a star as Emmylou Harris is, and as long and varied as her career has been, her achievements still don’t get their due, in my mind. Because virtually every article or…
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Rare, Bluesy, and Beyond
A surprisingly large contingent of people in high school or college in 1965 will tell you that less than two years after the Beatles’ big-bang appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the album…
Cow Bop
Picture yourself in a smoky cowboy-jazz joint around 1952, and you’ll get the picture on where Cow Bop is coming from. The combo’s music is tantalizing postwar bop, but with ample heaps of…
Eric Bibb
Telarc
Eric Bibb’s last few studio efforts have proven he can deliver the goods when it comes to folk, blues, and soul music. And with Troubadour Live, we get a feel for his stage…
Slim Harpo and Martin Hawkins
Mick Jagger admonished the world back in 1968, “What’s the point in listening to us doing ‘I’m A King Bee’ when you can listen to Slim Harpo doing it?” His statement not only…
Marah – If You Didn’t Laugh… You’d Cry
Marah – If You Didn’t Laugh… You’d Cry The kids from Philly – Marah brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko – have left home for the big town, New York. And their new city…
Peter Frampton Band
Frampton Forgets the Words
Frampton is in a race against time. In 2019 he announced having a muscle disorder called inclusion body myositis and was recording as much music as he could. 2019’s All Blues was blues…
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…
Damn Straight We’ve Got the Blues
Various artists
This carefully curated 60-track, digital-only compilation draws deeply from the catalogs of New West and Antones Records as well as New West’s “Live from Austin” series. The focus? Blues numbers from a swath…
