Michel Haumont & Co.: Compositions pour Guitare(s)

Sep 20,2011
Fingerstylist français Haumont deliverslovely, delicate performances from his Lâg acoustics on these 14 tracks. He’s incredibly clean and precise, weaving intricate melodies, bass lines, and harmonics. He gets help from a More...

Burn Halo: Up from the Ashes

Sep 20,2011
Big riffs, cool tones, and some clever layering of guitar textures make for an engaging listen on the band’s sophomore release. There’s gutpunch chunk on “Tear It Down,” lo-fi buzz on the title track, middle position Les More...

Night Ranger: Somewhere in California

Sep 20,2011
No real surprises here. If you like Night Ranger, you’ll love it. If you don’t, this probably won’t change your mind. The fact remains, though, that Brad Gillis and Joel Hoekstra dish out massive, high-gain rhythms and More...

Bringing Metal to the Children By Zakk Wylde

Sep 20,2011
Wylde takes a huge whack at his career in this book, starting from his first professional recording gig (holy s**t what a story!), which seems to have set the stage for everything he has done since. In the process of More...

Jimmie Vaughan: Jimmie Vaughan Plays More Blues, Ballads & Favorites

Sep 20,2011
The creatively titled follow-up to last year’s Grammy-nominated Blues, Ballads & Favorites sounds as though Vaughan never turned off the recorder after cutting his last solo release. More rolls on with 14 covers of More...

The Jeff Golub Band Featuring Henry Butler: The Three Kings

Sep 20,2011
Jeff Golub plays soulfully and with badass tone on this collection of classic and original blues tunes. Along with Henry Butler on vocals and keys, Golub also gets additional help from Sonny Landreth—who graces “In Plain More...

Johnny Winter Roots

Oct 24,2011
On this collection of classic blues and rock ’n’ roll tunes, Winter invokes a fashionable trend of late, by featuring Sonny Landreth, Vince Gill, Warren Haynes, and other guests, including his brother Edgar. More...

Henry Kaiser, A Little Stroke of Light (with audio)

May 4,2011
This 70 minute-long piece of music resulted from what was supposed to be ten minutes of entirely unplanned improvisation. Playing a Trans-Trem-equipped Kline guitar with Alembic pickups into an Old World Audio 1960 compressor, a More...

Sir Clive & the Raging Cartographers, Guitar Safari

Mar 6,2011
On this adventurous disc, guitarist/bassist Pete Prown, drummer Phil Robertson, and organist “Count d’Farfiso” dish up 11 tracks of raging “surf” music that is, um, all over the map, sounding like combinations of the B-52s, More...

Exclusive! Book Excerpt From Follow Your Heart: John McLaughlin Song By Song: A Listeners Guide

Mar 4,2011
Johnny McLaughlin – Electric GuitaristMusicians:  John McLaughlin (guitar) and various guest starsRecorded: January – February 1978.  New York City, New York and North Hollywood, CA.Columbia (CK 46110)Johnny McLaughlin – Electric More...

Razl, Microscopic

Jan 24,2012
On this follow up to 2008’s excellent Rotonova, Spanish guitarist Raúl Huelves (a.k.a. Razl) leads a power trio featuring bassist extraordinaire Bryan Beller and deep-pocket drummer Pepe Acebal—with cameos from guitarist Will More...

Rez Abbasi’s Invocation, Suno Suno

Jan 24,2012
On his eighth release, the Pakistani-American jazz composer and guitarist further consolidates his cross-continental amalgam of musical styles, this time more fully assimilating the Sufi devotional music known as qawwali—though More...

Jake Hertzog, Evolution

Jan 18,2012
Jake Hertzog is one of the finest young jazz guitarists on the scene, and his two previous albums were chockablock with intriguing and even startling passages that signaled a fresh approach to the idiom. On his latest release, More...

Matt Blackett's April Faves

Apr 16,2012
UFO Seven Deadly Vinnie Moore continues to kick major ass on UFO’s latest. All the guitars sound great, but definitely check out the killer chugs on “Mojo Town,” the sustain-y EBow-ish lines in “Angel Station,” the More...

Visual Feast: Neil Zlozower's 'Eddie Van Halen'

Apr 16,2012
Sage advice has it that getting in at the beginning is far better than getting in somewhere thereafter. Such is the case with IPOs, pyramid scams, and relationships with ingénue bands. Today, Van Halen has been a legendary More...

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