Gretchen Menn steps out on her own with her first solo album, and what an album it is! If you’re looking for traces of the AC/DShe and Zepparella covers she’s played in the past, forget it. If you’re looking for edgy, compelling, freshly minted instrumentals that take a musical journey like albums of old, you’ll find much to admire here. A gifted soloist with a style all her own, Gretchen possesses wonderful technique – the Beckian volume swells of “Déjà Vu,” the classically influenced, Buckethead-worthy lines of “Is It Not Strange,” …

Kansas jazz is alive and well! Master guitarist Wayne Goins’ new release reveals a musician of deep feeling, unassailable generosity, and exquisite taste. Chronicles of Carmela is, in fact, the most breathtakingly beautiful new jazz release I’ve heard in years. Goins composed, arranged, and produced all eleven songs and gave his musicians plenty of room to improvise. On the opening tracks, Goins, tenor saxophonist Craig Treinen, and pianist Bill Wingfield conjure images of Wes Montgomery and/or young George Benson sitting in with Atlantic-era John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner. To put …

Randy Rhoads fans rejoice! Joel McIver has just published a warm, loving, and immaculately researched biography of the late, great guitarist with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. McIver’s research is unassailable, and his writing style so engaging it’s difficult to put down the book. Chronologically arranged, it begins with the birth of Randy’s parents and the founding of Musonia, moves through Randy’s childhood and early bands, and then delves deeply into the Quiet Riot and Ozzy eras. After covering Randy’s tragic demise – mercifully sparing us the medical details – …

Want to hang out with Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren at Todd’s spectacular house on the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i? Maybe watch them have a traditional luau and enjoy a stellar set played on a porch overlooking lush, rolling hills? The latest webisode of Live From Daryl’s House delivers all this with spectacular cinematography and studio-quality sound. The leading voices of Philadelphia’s “blue-eyed soul” movement, Hall and Rundgren go way back – they met in the 1960s, and Rundgren produced Hall & Oates’ third album, 1974’s War Babies. Their easy …

First, a quick background check: Barry “The Fish” Melton played lead guitar on the San Francisco scene’s first psychedelic record, and went on to play the Monterey and Woodstock festivals. His new “neo-psychedelic” release with Parisian guitarist/vocalist Stephan Missri and band is, in a word, extraordinary. It’s trippy, politically and socially conscious, and brilliantly played. Deadheads – Garcia freaks in particular – will love Melton and Missri’s flowing solos, epitomized by the Jerry-esque joyride of “Jamasutra Mantra.” Like the early Allman Brothers Band and Steve Hunter-Dick Wagner with Lou Reed, …

B.B. King works audiences the same way he works the guitar he calls Lucille. He teases them, tickles them, and then jolts them with the lyrics he sings and the notes he plays. “Usually when I’m up there onstage,” King explains, “I try and do like an electric eel and throw my little shock through the whole audience. And usually the reaction comes back double-force and pulls me out of it, because the people can help you entertain. They become part of it. It’s something like radar: You send out …