• 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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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…

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…

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…

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…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

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…