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Music
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…
Tomas Janzon
Changes Music
Tomas Janzon is a traditional-jazz guitarist influenced by Wes Montgomery, with hints of Metheny and Scofield. It’s also obvious he has one of the best jazz-guitar tones you’ll hear. Most of the songs…
Pink Floyd
All The Songs
At nearly 600 pages, this massive coffee-table book will send Floydians into paroxysms of pleasure. Authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon craft encyclopedic entries on every single Pink Floyd song, including personnel, tracking…
Country Roads
It’s a fine time to be an old-school country music fan, what with the current crop of albums featuring classic songwriting and downhome hot picking. Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s duet proves…
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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…
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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…
Buddy Guy
What the Blues Are All About
As he’s aged, Buddy Guy has tended to get even wilder in his presentation of the blues. It’s an odd happenstance that’s sometimes added considerably to the blues he was playing, but at…
Alex Woodard – Alex Woodard
Adrenaline Records
When Alex Woodard was a kid, his sister spoonfed him the music of her favorite rocker, Tom Petty. Five albums later, the effect still holds. Woodard’s arrangements, phrasing, and even the timbre of…
John Prine
Oh Boy
John Prine almost single-handedly defined the term “Americana,” but he’s really a country-music artist – a bastard son of Merle Haggard in a genre so often wrongfully and automatically dismissed as simplistic that…
Omar And The Howlers – Swingland
I first ran across Omar Dykes in the mid ’80s when I heard a bluesy radio-ready rock album called Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty. I liked it, and some quick research…
Various Artists – Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown
Going Driftless: An Artist's Tribute to Greg Brown
Greg Brown proves you don’t have to be a model-handsome MTV poster-boy with a beautiful voice and sizzling guitar chops to be a successful singer/songwriter. Writing great songs is the primary and essential…
Official Keith Emerson Tribute Concert
Various artists
Five years ago, keyboardist Keith Emerson sadly ended his life, but a half-decade later, his work still resonates through the music of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the Nice, and other collaborations. Keith also…
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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,…
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Eve Monsees and Mike Buck
& Their Groovy Orbit
This is not a solo album as much as an anthology of Austin artists and styles – from blues to country to ’60s garage and psych, demonstrating the versatility of singer/guitarist Monsees (Eve & the Exiles, Blue Bonnets) and her husband, drummer Buck (LeRoi Brothers), as producers/organizers. The tracks span three years, but the names…
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’
Bluesy and the Folksy
Meeting the demand for fans hankering for two titans of the blues to finally make an album together, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have done just that. These two folksy song-oriented stylists are…
Flying Burrito Brothers – Sin City: The Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers
Sin City: The Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers
I confess. Sometimes I find it hard to separate the myth of Gram Parsons from the actual musician. I don’t think there’s any denying the talent of the man. A gifted songwriter to…
Jon Koonce
Self-distributed
The guiding force behind Johnny and the Distractions circa 1980, Jon Koonce’s new release looks back on that time and his upbringing in Portland, Oregon. Songs from the Little Village on the River…
Hank Williams – The Unreleased Recordings
Time Life
For Hank Williams Sr. collectors who have all his studio material, the Holy Grail has been recordings of his live early morning radio shows, 15 minutes long, broadcast daily over Nashville’s WSM in…
Lee Ritenour
Ritenour’s previous album, 6 String Theory, featured collaborations with guitar peers John Scofield, B.B. King, Slash, and George Benson, among others. Here, he’s working with virtuoso rhythm section players – and a few…
Tiny Moore & Jethro Burns – Back To Back
The original 1979 Kaleidoscope edition of this album is labeled “country” on allmusic.com. Which should come as no surprise; musicians have been stereotyped by their resumes (or in this case part of their…
Montrose
Live Forever, Never Get Old
Montrose was one of the first American rock bands to kick Brit-rock ass in the early ’70s. Made up of Sammy Hagar on vocals, drummer Denny Carmassi, bassist Bill Church, and guitarist Ronnie…
Jo’ Buddy
To celebrate 30 years on the road, this Finnish bluesman gathered up the various aggregations he’s toured and recorded with, along with some special guests, to deliver a dozen originals – each screaming…
Otis Taylor – Recapturing the Banjo
Multi-instrumentalist Taylor has never been afraid to push the blues envelope, both stylistically (ranging from Appalachian to psychedelic to explorations with jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara) and lyrically (boldly addressing social and racial issues).…
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
The latest from Kenny Wayne Shepherd is an homage to players and songs that influenced him while he was coming up. For the most part, it’s a splendid collection with some of the…
Twang Dragons – Love Junkie
Twang Dragons Love Junkie Self-distributed It’s hard not to love a record that starts with guitars twangin’ and slidin’ and the line, “I’ve got an ass pocket full of whiskey.” Not only that,…
Jerry Krahn – No Wires Attached
No Wires Attached
Chances are you haven’t heard of Jerry Krahn. He’s from Milwaukee, but has spent the past 12 years in Nashville. He’s worked with bands like the Titan Hot Seven, the Time Jumpers, and…
Albert Collins – Live at Montreux 1992
Eagle Rock Entertainment
Kenny Neal – Let Life Flow
Kenny Neal’s new release is full of blues and soul music of the highest standard. In fact, “Fly Away” alone is worth the price of admission, with its soaring soul tune with beautiful…
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,…
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…
Dave Hunter
Most guitarists will never have the opportunity to play high-end or vintage gear, but that’s what guitar pornography like this book is for. If you’ve never been fortunate enough to play or own…
Check This Action: Folk-Music Meccas
Though I was only six or seven, I experienced the Folk Boom of the late 1950s and early ’60s via my parents’ cocktail parties, when their friends would break out instruments and sing…
Dave Stryker
The title of the latest record from jazzer Dave Stryker refers to the eight-track cartridges many of us grew up with in the ’70s. The concept might seem odd, but it ends up…
Crowsong – Western
Western
Crowsong’s first album was very atmospheric, with all sorts of guitar sounds flying about. This one has a more definite band feel, with songs that feel a little more familiar. That said, I…
Justin Currie – The Great War
Rykodisc
Justin Currie was bassist, lead singer, primary songwriter, and co-founder of the Scottish band Del Amitri, which didn’t make much of a splash outside their native U.K. circa 1980 because they simply came…
Check This Action: Feeling Jazzy
Jazz guitar is one of my main loves, whether it’s Eddie Lang’s work with Bing Crosby in the early ’30s or Rick McRae playing at an Austin restaurant next week. But to be…
