• Popa Chubby

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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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The Who

  If you’ve been feeling low on the Who, there’s a cornucopia of new releases, from video to music to an official book authored by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. And if that…

Brian Setzer – The Knife Feels Like Justice

I was extremely happy to see this on CD. I loved this album when it came out in ’86, and it still sounds wonderful. I guess you’d call this post-Cats/pre-swing Brian. Musically, it…

Peter Tuffrey

British Guitarists 1952-1972: Electric Pioneers

Peter Tuffrey is an author of general-interest books (several about English trains) who is adroit at compiling information. This one keys on 40 British guitarists – from the obvious (Clapton, Beck, Page) to…

Arlen Roth – Tooling Around Woodstock

Roth’s “Hot Licks” instructional series has helped many a player. But he’s criminally overlooked to the general public. Toolin’ Around puts him in the limelight with wonderful songs that exhibit his mastery. Most…

Check This Action: Real Gone for a Change

“Hold it, fellas.” After languidly singing the first line of “Milk Cow Blues,” Elvis Presley halted the proceedings. “That don’t move me,” he exhorted his sidemen. “Let’s get real, real gone for a…

Murry Hammond – I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I’m On My Way

As a solo artist, Murry Hammond is a blend of Leonard Cohen and Jimmie Rogers. The acoustic-based songs on this album aren’t as lively as his work with his former band, Old 97s,…

Slightly Stoopid & Friends

Slightly Stoopid is a group of friends who have been making music since their teenage days, mixing reggae, funk, R&B, and punk. They also play acoustic rock that lets two front men, Miles…

Marty Robbins – The Essential Mary Robbins

With a repertoire so extensive and wide-ranging, it would be impossible to track down, let alone list, all the session players backing this country icon on this two-disc retrospective. The Mottola/Caiola crew played…

CCR

Bayou Country Green River Willy And The Poor Boys Cosmo’s Factory Pendulum It’s hard to imagine that anyone isn’t intimately familiar with Creedence’s catalog of seven albums, but that string began with their…

Domenic Priore

There’s A Riot Goin’ On

The mid ’60s will forever represent social change and upheaval, synonymous with civil rights, women’s liberation, the war in Vietnam, and the sexual revolution. But the biggest shift was the youth movement, boasting…

Peter Guralnick

Rocking The World

Sam Phillips was not a guitarist – though he did play drums and sousaphone in his high-school marching band. But he had great ears. And, in launching his Memphis Recording Service and later,…

Dennis Jones

Dennis Jones’ fifth album elevates his craft to new heights as he juxtaposes an arsenal of blues, rock, and funk with visceral production values. The genre is contemporary blues, and Jones plays serious…

North Mississippi Allstars and Anders Osborne

Singer-songwriter Anders Osborne joins Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson, and Chris Chew of the North Mississippi Allstars to create a rich Southern tapestry of blues, folk, vintage country, and rock. New Orleans grooves and…

The Yardbirds – Ultimate

The Yardbirds: Ultimate

Two fallacies that invariably arise in discussions of the Yardbirds: 1) declaring them the fathers of psychedelic music and/or heavy metal; 2) focusing on their colossal lead guitar lineage at the expense of…

Tony Holiday

Motel Mississippi

Following his two volumes of Porch Sessions collaborations with artists Lurrie Bell, Bobby Rush, Charlie Musselwhite, and the two Kids – Ramos and Andersen – the Memphis-based Holiday presents a fully realized, intriguing…

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…

Black Sabbath

MVD

Released in the fall of 1970, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid was the shot heard ’round the world. As Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler ref lects, it’s been 40 years since the LP’s release, and metal…

The Sadies

Yep Roc Records

The Sadies are on a creative roll, following 2007’s New Seasons with an eclectic country-rock album one dares call a “modern classic.” Benefiting again from the production of former Jayhawk Gary Louris, Darker…

Marc Antoine – Cruisin’

Cruisin'

Antoine is a fine acoustic guitarist who has developed a style rooted in smooth jazz, but is always pretty interesting. In fact, Antoine, and his fellows, on this one, do work that could…

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…

Yes

Live at Knoxville Civic Auditorium, November 15, 1972

This concert tape captures Yes on its triumphant autumn ’72 tour. Even 51 years later, it’s scintillating prog featuring hallowed names like Howe, Squire, Anderson, and Wakeman. Unlike the muddy audio of their…

Frank Zappa – The Freak-Out List

Sexy Intellectual/MVD

Though unauthorized, this 90-minute DVD attempts to get inside Frank Zappa’s head by way of the influences he listed in the liner notes of the 1966 debut of his Mothers Of Invention, Freak…

The Atomic Bitchwax – II

Ed Mundell – my choice for Guitar God 2001. Although Mundell, lead guitarist for Monster Magnet (his day gig) and the Atomic Bitchwax (his side gig), might lack name recognition, he certainly doesn’t…

Foghat

Foghat Records

Foghat guitarists “Lonesome” Dave Peverett and Rod Price have both passed on, but the band’s blues-boogie legacy is being carried forward by drummer (and co-founder) Roger Earl and singer/ guitarist Charlie Huhn, who…

Various Artists

It’s not unusual to see compilations defined by region or style; this one focuses on players who share the same brand of guitar: Hallmark. The Hallmark company was launched in 1966 by Joe…

Sonic Youth – Goo (Deluxe Edition)

As we get older, reminders of the fact come fast and furious. The reissue of classic albums from our youth perhaps hits the hardest, as with this newly remastered deluxe edition of Sonic…

Muddy Wates Live at Chicagofest

Filmed in Chicago in 1981, this video captures Muddy with a band featuring Mojo Buford on harp, guitarists John Primer and Rick Kreher, pianist Lovie Lee, bassist Earnest Johnson, and drummer Ray Allison.…

The Sender

All Killer No Filler (1977-2001)

The PR for this double-LP (and CD) casts the Senders as “punk,” concentrating on seven live tracks featuring guitarist Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls, Heartbreakers). But 24 other cuts reveal the New York…

The Byrds – Live at the Fillmore February 1969, (untitled)

It’s unfortunate that Roger McGuin insisted on retaining The Byrds name even after the other founding members had left the group. The “new” Byrds never gained the recognition they deserved, primarily because it…

Duke Robillard and Scott Hamilton

Swingin’ Again

The association of blues guitar great Robillard and jazz sax champ Hamilton goes back to ’69, before Duke formed the horn-led Roomful Of Blues and Scott was hailed as a swing-jazz savior. Years…