• 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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Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys

Self-distributed

You needn’t push Play to realize this is not your typical Cajun album. The cover photograph shows a bird encased in oily sludge. Inside, next to the date April 20, 2010 are the…

Pat Martino – Live at Yoshi’s

I’ve always found it hard to review Pat’s records. He’s one of those almost mystical players who always play so brilliantly, before and after his health problems, that it just seems silly to…

Royal Trux

Drag City Records

>Royal Trux took the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” and made a career of it. The band was founded after the implosion of Washington, D.C. punkers Pussy Galore by guitarist Neil Hagerty and girlfriend Jennifer…

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Magnificent Criminals

  The difference between Ben Harper and other contemporary blues-based artists is that Harper’s blues reflects the reality of his surroundings. If one chooses to use the blues as a canvas for personal…

Peter Frampton

Somethin’s Happening/Frampton

Many first heard the English rock star on his chart-obliterating live album – but Frampton already had four solo albums under his belt. This studio pair, from 1974-’75, display wicked guitarmanship and are…

Terry Robb

The Oregon Blues Trail

Portland-based Terry Robb has managed to keep a fairly low profile despite being one of the best players, on acoustic and electric, embracing a range of blues styles and then some. He is,…

Peter Rowan

Calling You From My Mountain

Rowan made his bones in the early ’60s, singing and playing guitar with Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys. Later a member of the rock bands Earth Opera and Seatrain, he settled…

Zac Harmon

The blues has often called out injustice and shined the harsh light of truth as much as it has lamented broken hearts or celebrated the joys of sex. Zac Harmon’s “Stand Your Ground”…

Jamnesia – Jamnesia

Feenix Finale

This CD can’t help but grab any guitarist’s attention, with its clever cover collage, depicting Robert Johnson playing Clapton’s famous psychedelic “Fool” Les Paul/SG. If you check out what’s inside the package before…

Chip Lamason – All Young

Celtic music is a surefire melodic bromide for those who’ve grown tired of mainstream musical fare. Undulating melodic lines and complicated musical textures define the genre, which at times sounds Middle Eastern because…

Allen Toussaint

Think of New Orleans rock and roll and R&B, and icons such as Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, the Meters, and the Neville Brothers come to mind. As songwriter, producer, arranger, or…

Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones

Reissues and new arrivals

The cup runneth over with Rolling Stones live discs, a heady mix of reissues and new arrivals. Ladies & Gentlemen… is the soundtrack to the concert film shot over four nights in the…

Johnny Winter – Deluxe Edition

When you think about it, Johnny Winter has had quite a career. And here, from Alligator Records, just to let you know it continues strong, is a set of cuts from his stint…

Willie Nelson – Naked Willie

Sony Legacy

The forced, intrusive background vocals on the “definitive” versions of “Funny How Time Slips Away” or “Crazy” (from The Essential Willie Nelson) are argument enough in favor of this project. The songs on…

Mighty Poplar

Ace: Mighty Poplar

The term “supergroup” is overused in every musical genre, but Mighty Poplar is one; mandolinist Andrew Marlin is part of the folk duo Waterhouse, bassist Greg Garrison hails from Leftover Salmon, guitarist Chris…

Stefan Grossman

Live at the BBC

Though he has dedicated much of his career to guitar instruction, Grossman has always been a formidable picker in his own right, with a lively, engaging stage presence. Having taken lessons from Rev.…

Spanic Boys – Sunshine

Celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band (and 38th as father and son), the Spanic Boys serve up a dozen originals on Sunshine, their eighth album, on their own Cinaps label, with plenty…

Amy Lennard – I Need To Love

Amy Lennard writes with the declarative clarity and unvarnished eloquence of a musical Stephen Crane. But don’t let the literary comparison mislead, she’s no smarty-pants poseur, no distaff Beck. Lennard, a native New…

Chris Duarte – Blue Velocity

It’s great to hear a plain-old guitar record. They used to be all over the place, but these days not so much. And while I’ve always been a Duarte fan, here he seems…

Andy MacKenzie – Tales From the Hot Club

Tales From the Hot Club is an apt title for this album of Gypsy jazz from British guitarist Andy MacKenzie. In these selections, he offers a history of jazz manouche old and new,…

Amber Digby & Justin Trevino, Curtis Potter, Tony Booth, Darrell McCall, Dottsy

Heart Of Texas Records

Heart Of Texas Records holds the line against the carpetbagger forces of “modern” country music, producing the kind of country best played on honky tonk jukeboxes and the radios of American-made pickups. These…

Mark Doyle

Mark Doyle put together a 10-piece touring band, complete with string quartet, last year after releasing several instrumental albums over a 15-year period. With that touring group he played mostly cuts from those…

Don Rigsby – Empty Old Mailbox

From Jerry Douglas’ opening dobro licks to the last ensemble G chord, Empty Old Mailbox is a nearly perfect bluegrass album. Nearly perfect because it lacks the late great fiddler Randy Howard, to…

California Transit Authority – Full Circle

CTA is California Transit Authority, a band led by Danny Seraphine, the original drummer for Chicago. Early Chicago records stood out thanks in large part to Seraphine’s drumming and Terry Kath’s incendiary guitar…

Gilkyson, Gorka, Kaplansky

Red House Records

Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, and Lucy Kaplansky have played on each other’s albums and shared concert stages, but the idea for a group album surfaced when they played together during Red House Records…

Check This Action: Folk Festival of Blues

I heard blues records earlier than I can remember. My dad had Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee albums, and a family friend had records by Lead Belly and Jesse Fuller. It was the…

Rodrigo y Gabriela

This is Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero’s first album of new material in five years. It comes two years after the duo’s big collaborative effort, Area 52, and marks a return to the…

  • Yes

    Yes

    Close to the Edge: Super Deluxe Edition

Al Di Meola – Consequence of Chaos

Al Di Meola – Consequence of Chaos Though sometimes lumped in with Carlos Santana, Latin guitarist Al Di Meola is almost his complete musical opposite. Where Carlos plays easy-going, accessible Latin rock, Di…

Morphine

No Guitar, No Problem

They were a band like no other – either before or since. That was the inevitable description of the rock trio Morphine, from critics to TV hosts to fellow musicians like Henry Rollins…

Richie Kotzen

Nomad

More than 30 years into a wildly eclectic career (hey, the guy played with Poison and bass god Stanley Clarke), Richie Kotzen is no longer that pre-grunge shredder. With Nomad, he again proves…