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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
Rich Kienzle
VG readers won’t be surprised to learn that contributor Rich Kienzle’s comprehensive bio of George Jones is a great read and a dispassionate chronicle of his drive-in movie of a life. While the…
Pat Metheny
Road To The Sun
Jazz guitar visionary Metheny is so admired he gets other people to perform his music. Road To The Sun features works performed by Grammy-winning classical guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Los Angeles Guitar…
Tony Joe White
Tony Joe White When Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” came out in ’69, it was about the greasiest thing to hit the Top 40 since Slim Harpo’s “Scratch My Back.” But over…
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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,
John Scofield – This Meets That
It’s never good to expect anything from John Scofield because he likes to throw a curve. With his latest release, he mixes great originals with surprising covers on a trio record… sort of.…
The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo – Deluxe Edition
Sweetheart of the Rodeo – Deluxe Edition
With the exception of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper or Dylan’s’ Another Side of Bob Dylan, few albums were as influential to future trends in popular music as the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo.…
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Nobody’s Fool
Combining her love of blues and accessible pop, Nobody’s Fool finds Joanne Shaw Taylor leaning into songcraft and transforming life lessons into fine music. Co-produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, Taylor’s eighth…
Ari Eisinger
Ari Eisinger doesn’t look like your typical bluesman. A science teacher, maybe, but not a blues singer/guitarist. Which proves Willie Dixon’s line – “You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover.”…
NRBQ
New Rhythm And Blues
This five-disc retrospective captures the essence of what is one of America’s best, if not best-known, bands from the past half century. To describe NRBQ to someone who has never heard them is…
Frank Vignola – Blues for a Gypsy
Frank Vignola needs no introduction to most American fans of Django Reinhardt. He has released several albums of swing influenced in part by the Gypsy guitarist and formed Hot Club USA to release…
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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
Beasts of Bourbon – Little Animals
The Beasts of Bourbon have always been a vehicle for vocalist Tex Perkins, but have also been as much a side project as a major recording and touring force. Well-regarded and influential in…
Lee Ritenour
In honor of his 40th year of recording, Lee Ritenour blended a bit of new material with journeys in time, revisiting tunes he’d recorded starting with First Course, his 1975 debut. He kicks…
The Clash – The Singles
Rarely in the history of music has so much been packaged so beautifully for so many. The Clash The Singles box is a glorious collection of the band’s original 19 singles, reissued on…
Grisman & Sebastian – Satisfied
John Sebastian and David Grisman first ran into each other in the early ’60s, when Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park was the epicenter of the national Folk Boom. They were both recruited by…
Robert Plant & the Strange Sensation – Soundstage
Robert Plant & the Strange Sensation, Soundstage. Robert Plant and his band, The Strange Sensation, play 11 songs; covers, old Zep songs, and newer Plant tunes. The band is the perfect complement, anchored…
Davie Allan & the Arrows – Apache ’65, Blues Theme, & Cycle-Delic Sounds
Arriving just after instrumental surf music was dealt a knockout punch by the British Invasion, Davie Allan survived against all odds, providing numerous soundtracks to biker and teen exploitation movies and hitting the…
Cary Morin
Cradle To The Grave
When a heard-it-all music critic stumbles onto a “new artist,” only to discover a back catalog and lifetime achievement award, then immediately orders three prior CDs, you know something’s up. A Crow tribal…
Fletcher Bright and Bill Evans with Norman and Nancy Blake
This jam session recorded in veteran fiddler Fletcher Bright’s living room in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, exudes a warmth, passion, and joyfulness that’s right in line with the old-time music, fiddle tunes, and…
Lonesome River Band
The Lonesome River Band has been around for 30 years. And while he wasn’t a founding member, banjo player Sammy Shelor is the de facto leader of the band by virtue of tenure.…
Judas Priest
After a supposed farewell tour a few years back, Judas Priest has replaced longtime guitarist K.K. Downing with young guitarman Richie Faulkner and developed a completely re-energized sound. As a result, Redeemer Of…
Chris Antonik
Self-distributed
Blues guitarist Chris Antonik seems determined to prove the adage that every note counts. While his song structures are familiar, his playing keeps them from being cliche. The opener, “More To Give,” is…
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard
Whatever’s changed in the 32 years since their duet album Pancho & Lefty, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard continue to share vast musical common ground. The proof lies in this blend of new…
Willie Nelson – Naked Willie
Sony Legacy
Joshua Breakstone
Joshua Breakstone’s latest is another chance for the guitarist to use his cello quartet. Yes, it’s Breakstone on guitar, bassist Lisle Atkinson, drummer Andy Watson, and Mike Richmond on cello for four of…
Tower Of Babel
Lake Of Fire
In case you forgot, Bach-tinged Euro metal is alive and well. And for those jonesing for a healthy dose of freshly cut, high-quality, Teutonic metal escapism, Tower Of Babel has a plethora of…
Moby Grape – Grape Jam/Wow
When Columbia/Legacy released the single-disc Listen My Friends! The Best Of Moby Grape, the label made the mistake of dubbing a career overview a “best of” – when nearly everything the band did…
Greg Renoff
This is not just another salacious rock biography full of debauchery and drug-fueled excesses; this is the saga of European immigrants and their struggle to find the American dream. It’s also an underdog…
Grant Green
Prolific though he was, there have been more albums devoted to jazz guitar great Grant Green posthumously than were released in his lifetime. Not surprising, considering he died at 43. A heroin addict…
The Duhks – The Duhks
I despise most “multi-cultural” bands because they end up being musical jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none. The Duhks (pronounced like duck) manage to avoid this musical pitfall due to their enormous talents and…
Gil Parris – Live at the Next Door Café
A live setting is the perfect place for Parris to show his stuff. A versatile and unique guitarist, he has been around and done some major-label work in the past. Now releasing his…
Antiseen
Antiseen celebrates 30 years of raw, southern punk-and-roll with their latest CD. It’s an impressive milestone for any band, much less a rag-tag group of fringe-dwellers. Is that part of the reason New…
Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys
Jim and Jesse’s music, with signature tunes like “The Flame Of Love” and Paradise,” never crossed over to pop success. But from their first broadcast on a Virginia radio station in 1947 through…
