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Music
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,…
Los Lobos
Never Left, But Back
Los Lobos have never put out a bad album; in fact, their artistic track record, spread over 20 albums and 37 years, is something major bands like the Stones and Van Halen wish…
Pete Anderson – Dogs in Heaven
Pete Anderson is no stranger to these pages, having been featured in an interview, performance review, and record review for his first release on Little Dog. This time around, Pete has come up…
Greg Nagy
Blues rocker Greg Nagy makes the Northern industrial equivalent to Southern country of the 1950s and ’60s. He melds ’70s West Coast R&B, British blues rock, Albert King tones, dollops of Steely Dan,…
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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…
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3Below
Live in Mérida
The members of 3Below mostly play in the bass clef. You may know names like fretless master Michael Manring (Michael Hedges) and “touch guitarist” Trey Gunn (King Crimson), but Mexican fusioneer Alonso Arreola is a wondrous addition. Together, they play world-inflected music rife with virtuosity, fresh sounds, and intoxicating results. Accompanied by Emmanuel Pina on…
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Genesis/Steve Hackett
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 50th/Live Magic at Trading Boundaries
One of those double-LP masterpieces of the ’70s, The Lamb was Peter Gabriel’s final achievement with Genesis, quitting immediately after the 1975 tour. The music (remastered here and also available in ATMOS and HD formats) remains brilliant – a rock opera featuring Tony Banks’ keyboards, Steve Hackett’s haunting guitar, and both bass and electric 12-string…
Roger Waters
Is This the Life We Really Want?
Roger Waters is a prisoner of his own fame since, with rare exception, he has to make new music that sounds like Pink Floyd. On his first solo album in 25 years, he…
Song of the South
You’re always taking a chance with a DVD that concerns a band and yet none of the band members take part in the production. That’s the case here. While there are no Allman…
Jo’ Buddy & Down Home King III
Finnish singer/ guitarist/ composer Jussi “Jo’ Buddy” Raulamo has played with just about every bluesman to pass through Finland and more on his pilgrimages to the States. Howard Armstrong, Eddy Clearwater, Maceo Parker,…
Steve Wariner – Tribute to Chet
Wariner has scored more than 40 Top 30 country singles on his own, about a dozen of them reaching #1. But rarely does guitar playing place you at the top of the charts,…
Kim Lenz – It’s All True
Describing Kim Lenz as a “female Elvis” is narrow-sighted, as there are few musical similarities between the two, particularly in the fact Lenz writes a good chunk of her own material and, more…
The Grateful Dead
The hubbub over the Dead’s final runs of shows has finally quieted down, only to be replaced by the expected array of video and sound recordings of the events. And the various packages…
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B.B. King
In France
By 1977, when this French live album was recorded at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival, the “King of the Blues” had truly crossed over. He’d played Fillmores West and East and won a Grammy in 1970 for “The Thrill Is Gone.” In typical major-label fashion, subsequent albums saw him surrounded by rock stars and studio…
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Allen Hinds
The Good Fight
The latest from the Lord of Legato features compositions that blur the line between prog, fusion, and Americana. From the majestic to the bucolic, Hines leaves it all in the ring with epic tunes and sophisticated arrangements that grip the soul, the heart, and the mind. While songs like “Fearless” showcase his writing, use of…
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Check This Action: A Year In Their Life
Recently, I stumbled onto one of those “reaction” videos by a New Zealander named Courtney, who wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen footage of the Beatles or even heard their songs. This shouldn’t be surprising. The video she watches of the Fab Four, playing “All My Loving” on Ed Sullivan in 1964, was created probably…
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Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Live From the Ryman, Vol. 2
Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is a special venue for Isbell & the 400 Unit. As their stature has grown beyond roots music, they’ve performed on that vaunted stage more than 50 times in the past decade and recorded a previous album there. This new collection reprises material from their most-recent albums, Reunions and Weathervanes, with a…
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Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai
Bass Convergence
Recorded at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on their 2024 U.S. tour, G3 Reunion Live reunites the virtuosos who started it all. Three sets plus the encore jam capture the energy and passion of the performances, packaged here as two CDs, a 16-page photo booklet, four LPs, and a 64-page coffee table book. Set…
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The Fleshtones
It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)
Frontman Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng have led New York’s Fleshtones for nearly 50 years. Drummer Bill Milhizer joined in 1980, with “new bassist” Ken Fox in ’90. A 2007 biography declared them “America’s garage band,” and spawned the documentary Pardon Us For Living, But The Graveyard’s Full, and 23 bands cut Vindicated! A…
Willie Nelson
At Budokan: 2/23/84
On a late-February day in 1984, a robust 50-year-old Willie and “Trigger,” his beloved Martin N-20, hit the fabled Tokyo stage running. In particularly powerful voice, he delivered an explosive 28-song performance covering…
Neil Barnes, Ron Thompson, and others and Bettye LaVette
This Blues Has Soul
Blues harpist Neil Barnes is one of the greater San Francisco area’s best-kept secrets. His 2007 CD, This Was Then, Now, is a compilation of a 45 and an EP he released in…
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes
MCA’s reissue of the Heartbreakers albums from ’79 to ’82 is a perfect chance to revisit this album. I’ve always felt this is arguably the best rock album of the past 25 years.…
Grant Green – His Majesty King Funk
It’s been awhile since we saw and heard any vinyl, but these welcome guitar releases come courtesy of the fine folks at Sundazed. The sound, as you’d expect is wonderful. Everything’s big and…
Charlie Daniels Band
Before he became a leader of the Southern Rock movement, Charlie Daniels was part of a new breed of Nashville studio musicians who came to prominence in the late ’60s. In that role,…
Terry Callier – Timepeace
They don’t make many albums like this anymore, and that’s unfortunate. A heady mix of soul, R&B, jazz, and everything in-between, it’s the kind of thing you’d run into often in the late…
Guy Forsyth – Steak
This healthy serving of steak is pretty meaty. Bo Diddley’s rock and roll, dirge-like blues (and I mean that in a good way), acoustic country blues, jump blues, and blues-based rock mix to…
B.B. King: From Indianola to Icon
Charles Sawyer
Author/photographer Charles Sawyer’s association with B.B. King began in 1968 and led to his authorized 1980 biography The Arrival of B.B. King. This coffee-table production is no sequel, but a lavishly illustrated memoir…
The Blasters – Live: Going Home
Live: Going Home
The Blasters were one of the greatest American rock bands ever. I’m also of the opinion that their lead guitarist and main songwriter, Dave Alvin, is one of today’s finest writers. That started…
ZZ Top
This is ZZ’s first studio effort since 2003’s Mescalero, and the band’s first album not produced by Billy Gibbons and/or longtime manager Bill Ham, the band having severed ties with him in ’06.…
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…
The Carper Family
Old-fashioned gals they may well be, but the Carper Family trio injects their traditional country and bluegrass music with some tasty modern vibes on their third disc. The Austin, Texas-based band comprises bassist…
Tom Principato – House on Fire
Tom Principato is probably familiar to many VG readers. A fine player in his own right, he’s also responsible for some fine books that teach about guitar, and he’s also been known lately…
This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick
Brian J. Kramp
Bearing an incredibly accurate subtitle, the story told here is presented mostly as an oral history, loaded with minutiae about the adventures of Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson, and Bun E. Carlos…
Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
Various artists
You may think you know Stax, but this seven-CD set of 146 tracks (140 never before released) proves again how much creative genius was contained in that old Memphis theater turned recording studio.…
King Earl Boogie Band – Loaded & Live
England’s Dave Peabody, this quintet’s frontman, is usually found performing acoustic solo blues or in tandem with pianist Bob Hall, but is also an excellent photographer and music journalist. But there’s nothing academic…
Elizabeth Moen
Wherever You Aren’t
Moen is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter who does much of her own guitar work on songs that are often deeply personal. This, however, is no pompous, acoustic-driven collection of bland Americana fare; the sound…
INXS – Shine Like It Does: The Anthology 1979-1997
A completely beautiful package for a band that really deserves the recognition. In the 1980s and ’90s, these Australian rockers made perfect pop/rock records that were laced with funk, soul, and R&B. They…
Charles Sawtelle – Music from Rancho DeVille
Music from Rancho DeVille
Music from Rancho DeVille is a loveletter from across the grave. Charles Sawtelle passed away Mach 21, 1999, of complications from leukemia. The last several years of his life were spent recuperating from…
Taj Mahal – Maestro
While not a great Taj Mahal album, this is a very nice tribute to a guy who’s been serving up great music for as long as most of us have been listening. The…
Pee Wee Crayton – Pee Wee’s Blues: The Complete Aladdin and Imperial
Pee Wee Crayton learned his lessons well. Moving from Texas to California during the Depression, he slaved away in Navy shipyards until some buddies dragged him along to a T-Bone Walker show. Pee…
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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo – Live!
Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman with Marty Stuart
