Total Electric Guitar

Electric Orange is a german krautrock band, mainly based on two masterminds Dirk Jan Müller (keys) and Dirk Bittner (guitar). Up to now both musicians had uncounted collaborations during their development and produced a huge amount of material on MC, Vinyl and CD-R. Besides some temporary flirts with house/techno elements the band actually delivers modern trippy krautrock adapted music, where Tom Rückwald handles the bass guitar since the year 2000. The band offer an irresistible blend of hypnotic and tribal beats, soaring organ and synths, spacey guitars, recitatives, samples as well as analogue effects. Hereby they are keen on experimenting with all sorts of rare, obscure and vintage instruments…

On 12 and 13 April in New York City, Clapton once again assembled an unparalleled lineup of the world’s most celebrated guitarists for the fourth incarnation of his legendary Crossroads Guitar Festival. While the previous three festivals were all hosted in sprawling outdoor stadiums, Clapton took the festivities indoors for the first time this year to “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” Madison Square Garden.

"My Passion" marks the second release of New Jersey's renowned guitar slinger Rhett Tyler and his blues outfit, Early Warning. Brilliant original songs and classic blues staples in the tradition of Magic Sam and Stevie Ray Vaughan….

While most of the discussions of Frank Zappa have to do with his satirical and off-color lyrics, the fact remains that he was one of the finest and most underappreciated guitarists around. This collection places the spotlight squarely on Zappa's mastery of the guitar. Recorded for the most part in 1979 and 1980 (with a few tracks dating as far back as 1977), Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar is simply a collection of guitar solos. Even though most of the tracks were just edited out of their original song context, they fare well as stand-alone pieces, as Zappa was an ever-inventive player. Take, for example, the three versions of "Shut Up." These tracks were simply the guitar solos from "Inca Roads," but thanks to Zappa's ability for "instant composition," each version has its own complete story to tell, without ever being redundant…

Alligator has a justifiable reputation as one of the premier blues labels, and it draws on its recorded resources for this compilation. There's certainly no doubting the quality of the players and the music here, from Johnny Winter to the late Hound Dog Taylor, whose raw style sears the ears on Elmore James' "The Sun Is Shining." An older Corey Harris track reminds people that he's a remarkable acoustic slide player, and Sonny Landreth's "Taylor's Rock," from a Hound Dog Taylor tribute, features him playing no less than four parts, and still injecting plenty of grease. Australian Dave Hole remains a bit of a secret, but on the basis of this, deserves wider exposure. And if there's an odd man out here, it's A.C. Reed, who doesn't even play guitar. But he's joined by someone who does, Bonnie Raitt, and she lays down some wonderful work on "She's Fine." Elsewhere, there's Elvin Bishop, Luther Allison, and Lil' Ed…

Alligator has a justifiable reputation as one of the premier blues labels, and it draws on its recorded resources for this compilation. There's certainly no doubting the quality of the players and the music here, from Johnny Winter to the late Hound Dog Taylor, whose raw style sears the ears on Elmore James' "The Sun Is Shining." An older Corey Harris track reminds people that he's a remarkable acoustic slide player, and Sonny Landreth's "Taylor's Rock," from a Hound Dog Taylor tribute, features him playing no less than four parts, and still injecting plenty of grease. Australian Dave Hole remains a bit of a secret, but on the basis of this, deserves wider exposure. And if there's an odd man out here, it's A.C. Reed, who doesn't even play guitar. But he's joined by someone who does, Bonnie Raitt, and she lays down some wonderful work on "She's Fine." Elsewhere, there's Elvin Bishop, Luther Allison, and Lil' Ed…

There has always been more to the Johnny Winter story than meets the eye, and if stepping into the role of a whirlwind albino electric blues guitar player from Texas with a brilliant slide style was the very role he was born to fill, he took a while to get there. For starters, he was born in Mississippi, which might explain something, and then grew up in Texas, where he played clarinet before switching over to guitar at the age of 11. Early on he played country before discovering the blues, and realizing there was no money and little future in playing the blues, he turned to studio pop in the early '60s. Times change, though, and by the end of that decade Winter had returned to the blues, where being an amazing electric guitar player with a roaring voice brought him his true calling. That's where this four-disc, 56-track box set picks up the story, the first such set to span the commercial and in-the-public-eye portion of Winter's career, beginning in 1968…