• Smith/Kotzen

    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

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Roine Stolt – Wall Street Voodoo

Roine Stolt – Wall Street Voodoo Roine Stolt is best known for fronting the acclaimed progressive band The Flower Kings. But in the back of his mind, the Swedish guitarist has long wanted…

Luther Allison – Luther’s Blues

Originally released by Motown in 1973, Luther’s Blues was not a big seller. Not that it’s not a great album. It is. But maybe Motown at that time wasn’t the best place to…

Santana IV

Describing Carlos Santana’s guitar playing, Greg Rolie, the Santana band’s original keyboardist, declares, “It’s real music; it’s not just a bunch of notes put together.” Truer words were never spoken. They’re just part…

Bill Frisell

Out of Sight

It’s almost impossible to pigeonhole Bill Frisell, and his latest album will make it even harder. The guitarist and his band reinterpret some of the pop and rock songs here that made Frisell…

Rory Gallagher

Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Edition

Rising appreciation for the late Irish guitar wizard continues with a 50th anniversary/five-disc box of his 1971 solo debut. With pristine sound quality, the collection includes a new mix of the original album;…

Black Valley Moon

Songs from the Black Valley

If you think you know surf music, the monster-movie themes of Black Valley Moon will surprise and thrill you. Using Reverend planks, guitarist Sam Williams delivers garage-rock goods on “Proxima Centauri Calling,” which…

Miles Davis

Columbia/Legacy

Debates will forever rage regarding the dawn of jazz-rock fusion – its birth attributed to everyone from vibraphonist Gary Burton (and/or his guitarist, Larry Coryell) to Cream. There were definitely examples prior to…

Russell Malone – Heartstrings

Heartstrings

It’s the age-old question, does the use of strings somehow cheapen the music? Wes Montgomery is still to this day vilified for using strings. Wrongly, I might add. George Benson takes grief. Even…

Summer of Soul

Various artists

Buried for 50 years, the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is now recognized as an historic concert series, thanks to the recent film, which won the Grammy for Best Music Film and Oscar for…

Honeydogs – 10,000 Years

Here’s an early favorite for album of the year. And what’s odd is, lyrically, I have very little interest. It’s set up as a sort of rock-and-roll opera that covers 10,000 years of…

Dave Alvin – West of the West

Dave Alvin is one of America’s best songwriters, and as such runs the risk of alienating casual fans when he does an album of covers. But then again, maybe not… The idea with…

John Thomas

Intrigued by that “Only A Gibson Is Good Enough” decal on the headstock of his World War II-era Gibson Southern Jumbo, musician and writer John Thomas began delving into the story behind the…

Graham Parker – Don’t Tell Columbus

Graham Parker has stepped it up a notch in recent years. Always a fine songwriter and singer, he hit a lull in the late ’80s and most of the ’90s. This is his…

Motorhead – Stone Deaf Forever (Box Set)

If bands got paychecks for being influential, Motorhead would buy your town. And then, of course, all the lawns would up and die. Founded in the mid 1970s by steel-wool throated bassist Lemmy…

Sunny War

Anarchist Gospel

Sunny War’s latest record blurs stylistic boundaries, rejecting fatuous labeling. Instead, it’s a document of the human experience – a hypnotic montage of black folk, acoustic blues, country, urban, and avant-garde. It’s lived…

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…

João Erbetta & Adam Levy and Panamericans!

A glimpse at João Erbetta’s résumé brings to mind Harry Belafonte’s tongue-in-cheek introduction of Carlos Santana at the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors, begging for immigration reform because the Mexican native had squelched his…

Z.Z. Top – Chrome, Smoke, and B. B. Q.

Chrome, Smoke, and B. B. Q.

Well, Z.Z. Top’s music has been released in a lot of forms on CD. I confess, I didn’t scarf up the other releases, even though I grew up on this stuff and love…

Double Trouble – Been A Long Time

This celebratory debut release lays testament to the resilient talent of drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, renowned as Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm section, Double Trouble. Losing a front person of such…

Pete Levin

Self-distributed

The past few Pete Levin albums have featured his fine organ playing, great songs, and lots of room for whatever guitarist was working with him. Jump! is no different, with Dave Stryker on…

Kombo – Cookin’ out

Kombo is Ron Pedley on keyboards, and Jon Pondel on guitars. They’ve got lots of great help too, with guys like Steve Ferrone, Matt Bissonette, and Sharon Hendrix. The music is the same…

Laurie Lewis

Laurie Lewis is a bluegrass pioneer, and her latest release showcases the breadth of her musical talent – singing, songwriting, and playing guitar and fiddle. Lewis enlists the help of longtime musical partner…

Paul Brown

A lot of people paint the smooth jazz world with a broad brush that sometimes ignores the players who play with soul, intensity, and smartness. Paul Brown would be one such player. While…

Kid Ramos – Kid Ramos

If you can call his ongoing stint with the Fabulous Thunderbirds “woodshedding,” then guitarist David “Kid” Ramos has definitely paid his dues. He replaced Jimmie Vaughan – Texas-sized shoes to fill, if ever…

Lissa Schneckenburger

Footprint Records

Lissa Schneckenburger plays “progressive” New England/Celtic music that combines equal parts traditional harmonic textures with a modern acoustic sensibility. Her voice has a pristine directness that perfectly suits these traditional tunes. Song is…

Joanne Shaw Taylor

Joanne Shaw Taylor is a young British guitarist who, with this album, is moving beyond the blues. While her guitar style is certainly rooted in familiar ground, she writes songs more on the…

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…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Bearfoot Bluegrass – Follow Me

Bluegrass bands are often male-only affairs. But the women in Bearfoot Bluegrass are in a majority position. Annalisa Tornfelt plays fiddle, sings lead, and is responsible for seven of the songs. Kate Hamre…

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…

Sex Pistols: I Wanna Be Me

Dave Simpson

1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols LP was an atomic bomb dropped on rock music and culture. To commemorate the explosion, Simpson’s short, photo-packed, book examines this seismic blast. Even…