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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
Darcy Kuronen – Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar
Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar
The Museum of Fine Arts is mounting a retrospective outlining 400 years of guitar design and history (VG November ’00). Although the guitar has become the dominant instrument in popular music over the…
Mac Arnold -Backbone & Gristle
On one of this album’s best cuts, “Gas Can Story,” Mac Arnold tells of how his then 10-year-old brother, William, so desperately wanted a guitar he made one from a gasoline can with…
Wes Montgomery
Play It Hot
The social climate transformed the music: being a jazz musician of color in the 1950s forced you to express music differently in those days. Life and music were tumultuously intertwined. A factory worker…
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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,
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…
Smith/Kotzen
This is one of those projects that gets guitar fanatics drooling. Iron Maiden cornerstone Adrian Smith and prolific American veteran Richie Kotzen join forces for a hard-rock album with a modern sound steeped…
Yes – Yesspeak: 35th Anniversary DVD
While many music DVDs contain mostly concert material, the 2-disc Yesspeak takes an alternate approach – it features the famous members of the prog-rock giant Yes talking about the music created during its…
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
The Good, The Bad, and The Troubling
One of the greatest blues guitarists of any era, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s recorded output with his band, Double Trouble, consisted of only five albums (four studio, one live) during his lifetime. And though…
Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through The Grunge Explosion
Steve Turner with Adem Tepedelen
Mudhoney never really cashed in on the early-’90s grunge sweepstakes. In fact, its members have largely eschewed the G word. Until now. Lead guitarist and cofounder Steve Turner chronicles Mudhoney’s formation and career…
Nels Andrews – Off-Track Betting
Nels Andrews’ second release straddles the gap between singer/songwriter folk and roots rock. Andrews paints tableaus with broad strokes so listeners can fill in the details. Some recall this poetry. Whatever, Andrews’ music…
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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
Beastie Boys
This groundbreaking album needs little introduction – except maybe to guitarheads. Yes, it’s rap, but the Beastie Boys showed the world what composing with sound samples can create. Here’s a primal fusion of…
Various Artists – Stax anniversary
This two-disc set has 50 songs, many of which are classics of the soul genre that burst out of Memphis and the Stax label throughout the 1960s and ’70s. The guitar was an…
Marshall Crenshaw
The Wild, Exciting Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw has worn so many musical hats. He authored a guide to rock and roll in the movies; portrayed John Lennon in the stage production Beatlemania; played Buddy Holly in the movie…
Albert King, Little Milton, and more
This 10-disc set covers the final three years of Stax singles, a period when the iconic Memphis-based label was under new management and trying to broaden and expand too many directions at once,…
Billy Burnette
Crazy Like Me
Billy Burnette was born to rock and roll. His bass-playing father Dorsey Burnette was one third of the great trifecta of rockabilly, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio. And Billy himself…
Mark Newton – Hillbilly Hemingway
At first listen, you’d call Mark Newton’s music bluegrass, but it’s not just bluegrass. Sure, the affects are slathered on, but the drums give away the game – this is really honkytonk roots…
Dick Dale – Better Shred than Dead: The Dick Dale Anthology
Well, what needs to be said about this? The King of the Surf Guitar at his finest. This covers 1959 to 1996 and hits all the high points. All the tunes are here,…
Roy Buchanan – American Axe – Live In 1974
It’s not too far of a stretch to say Roy Buchanan was one of the most unique guitar players in the past 40 years. This recording, done at two shows in 1974, does…
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…
Scott Holt – Angels in Exile
Scott Holt isn’t exactly a newcomer to the music buzz. He served in Buddy Guy’s band for 10 years and, not surprisingly, calls it a “…trip to the university.” That schooling has definitely…
James Kinds
Delmark
James Kinds is one of the overlooked maestros of the blues. In 1977, he was hailed as one of Chicago’s new generation greats – someone to keep an eye on, alongside Lurrie Bell,…
Buddy Guy – Heavy Love & Buddy’s Blues 1979-82
Buddy Guy’s latest CD, Heavy Love, sounds like he’s doing his darndest to wrestle the blues guitarslinger crown back from the late, great Luther Allison. Before his death, Allison proved himself the hardest…
Robin Trower
No More Worlds to Conquer
Brian Wright
Sugar Hill
Brian Wright draws on the stylistic legacies of an eclectic bunch of influences, some quite obvious. There’s no mistaking his debt to classic Velvet Underground in “Striking Matches,” but less obvious is the…
Bobby Rush
Bobby Rush launched his career in Little Rock, singing and playing with Elmore James. He blossomed in Chicago in the ’50s, sharing gigs with Muddy, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and Jimmy Reed, and…
Peter Rowan
Carter Stanley’s Eyes
Peter Rowan spent 1963 through ’67 as lead singer/guitarist with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys before his own solo albums, his work with progressive bluegrass bands like Jerry Garcia’s Old and…
Greg Trooper – Floating
Floating
Singer/songwriters are a lot like fleas during the summer; they’re everywhere, but you don’t notice them until they bite you someplace sensitive. Greg Trooper writes songs that can penetrate even the thickest skin…
Emmylou Harris – Songbird
Emmylou Harris’ latest box set, Songbird, occupies a unique place among deluxe anthologies. Instead of being merely another greatest hits or an unreleased versions set, it’s a collection of personally important musical moments.…
Cailyn
Cailyn Lloyd’s former life as a blues rocker of the Peter Green school gave her the stuff to put blood into the New Age music she has been making for the last few…
Leo “Bud” Welch
In this day and age, it’s downright incredible that 81-year-old Mississippi bluesman Leo “Bud” Welch has remained unknown to the broader musical world. Unknown – until now, that is. Welch was born in…
Eddy
If you’re a blues fan and left-handed guitarist Eddie Clearwater’s name has remained unfamiliar over the course of his six-decade career, now’s the time to rectify that grievous error. If you’re looking for…
The Kentucky Colonels – Legendary Live Recordings
The Kentucky Colonels Living in the Past: Legendary Live Recordings is made up of tapes from seven different shows in 1961, ’63, ’64, and ’65. Material is from performances at venues in California…
Pieta Brown – One and All
Red House Records
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969
