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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…
SimakDialog
Hailing from Indonesia, SimakDialog is one of the best jazz-rock bands on the planet and this two-CD live set proves it. This performance features virtuosic playing from lead guitarist Tohpati and electric-piano master…
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…
Port City Prophets
The Prophets are a blues-rock bar band that brings around a lot of people to music they might not otherwise have heard. The PCPs will remind you of both Grand Funk and ZZ…
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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…
Sonny Landreth – Levee Town
Let’s just say it. Sonny Landreth is one of the best slide guitarists in the history of rock and roll. The title cut, which opens the album, is proof of that. After a…
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…
Dwight Yoakam – Sings Buck
When Yoakam put the twang back into country music in the mid ’80s, his mere existence was a tribute to his chief influence, Buck Owens. And in 1988 he brought the then-retired Owens…
Sloan – Parallel Play
Beyond "Just" Hooks
Every song on this latest album by the Canadian quartet Sloan has a great hook; the simple “woo-oows” in “Witch’s Wand” are impossible to forget while “Down In the Basement” speaks like some…
Styx
Crash of the Crown
BreaBreaking While 2017’s concept album The Mission embraced progressive rock, the new Styx album has even higher ambitions. Returning to their guitar/keyboard-fueled ’70s style, the band takes prog’s grandest elements and condenses them…
Acoustic Alchemy
Heads Up
The knock against Acoustic Alchemy has always been that it’s background music, but the band has always created music that’s atmospheric in the best sense of the word. Granted, it’s not for guitarists…
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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…
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…
Ralph Heibutzki – Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny G
If it’s true that an artist suffers for his music, then some guitar players suffer more than others. We can never know exactly what demons torment some of our favorite players, or why…
Robert Cray – Time Will Tell
Time Will Tell
Can “Young Bob,” who slyly boasted about being a “Strong Persuader,” the proverbial back door man, be turning 50? Well, the good news is that Robert Cray hasn’t lost any of the original…
Brad Hoyt
The name of producer Gregg Miner’s label says it all: Harp Guitar Music. He is a leading practitioner and promoter of the multi-stringed beast and a big reason it’s currently enjoying such a…
Willie Nelson
That’s Life
My Way, Willie’s 2018 Grammy-winning Frank Sinatra homage, clearly didn’t satiate his desire to explore songs by the vocalist whose style profoundly influenced his own. With the same co-producers (Buddy Cannon and keyboardist…
Audioslave – Audioslave
The news that former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell was joining the three musicians in Rage Against the Machine, the hard rock/hip hop group that lost rapper Zack de la Rocha, was a true…
Peter Bardens
Long Ago, Far Away: The Recordings (1968-1971)
Following a sort of carousel-calliope intro, with one unmistakable bend, Peter Green enters “The Answer” and quickly transforms the proceedings. Keyboardist Peter Bardens released an album of the same name in 1970, featuring…
Creed Bratton – Bounce Back
Kindred Music
Bounce Back is Creed Bratton’s third solo album, and the former singer/ composer/ guitarist for the Grass Roots has come up with a winner. Bratton’s music has a Southwestern/semi-country flavor that brings…
Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Luther Dickinson, and others
Falling Out And Hollerin’
Blind Willie Johnson – the Texas preacher, slide guitarist, and gospel singer – may seem a tough artist to pay homage to in a tribute album. His music is so singular, so extraordinary…
Bramhall – Jellycream
Doyle Bramhall II has a pretty good pedigree. His dad played and hung out with the Vaughan brothers in Texas. Doyle II started his career playing with Jimmie’s Fabulous Thunderbirds, then formed Arc…
Popa Chubby
Blind Pig Records
Popa Chubby is usually described as a blues guitarist, but he’s actually a damn good rock and roll guitarist. This set starts with a couple of songs that are autobiographical in nature and…
Eric Clapton
If you read Eric Clapton’s recent autobiography, you know he is very content with his life and were he stands musically. This album conveys that same feeling – laid-back and intimate – though…
The Elvin Bishop Group – Party Till The Cows Come Home
More than a decade before he became a staple of Southern rock with “Fooled Around And Fell In Love,” guitarist Elvin Bishop established his blues credentials as an original member of Chicago’s Paul…
Prince
Revolutions
There was Prince before Purple Rain and Prince after Purple Rain. When Prince Rogers Nelson got signed to Warner Brothers Records at the age of 18 in 1977, he released a string of…
Norman Blake
Long time gone. It’s been four years since Norman Blake’s last album – and 30 years since he last recorded his own original music. Now 77, he suffered a mini stroke several years…
Dave Alvin – Romeo’s Escape
Romeo's Escape
Here’s a reissue of Alvin’s 1986 solo debut that didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved back then. After his stints with the Blasters and X, he cut out on his own, doing…
Geoff Muldaur – The Guitar Artistry Of
Vestapol/Rounder
When an 18-year-old Geoff Muldaur cut his first album – 1963’s Sleepy Man Blues for Prestige – you could practically count on your fingers the number of white performers recording blues – Koerner,…
Ronnie Bowman – It’s Getting Better All The Time
On the cover, Bowman holds his new Gibson AJ in a decidedly non luthier-approved manner – by the soundhole. This pose typifies his relaxed and informal approach to bluegrass. He’s so comfortable and…
Bola Sete
Samba In Seattle
The uninitiated will wonder why they’re just now hearing such a guitar genius, while aficionados bemoan the fact Bola Sete isn’t a household name. Previously unreleased, this triple-CD, subtitled Live At The Penthouse…
Paul Curreri
Tin Angel Records
Paul Curreri’s latest album follows a throat injury that forced him to stop performing for a couple years but didn’t stop him from producing numerous records, including Don’t Hurry for Heaven, by his…
Pierre Bensusan – Intuite
There are guitarists, and then there are guitarists’ guitarists. Pierre Benusan is the sort of musician who inspires awe among even other musical luminaries. Leo Kotke admits that, “Pierre’s music gives me the…
Sons of Adam
Saturday’s Sons: The Complete Recordings, 1964-1966
