Mac Randall

From the July/August 2019 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY MAC RANDALL The final song of Richard Thompson’s 2015 album Still is called “Guitar Heroes.” Over its seven-and-a-half minutes, the distinguished English singer, songwriter, and guitarist takes on the guise of an aspiring picker, a “bebop twang…

From the July 2018 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY MAC RANDALL Just over 100 years ago, on March 26, 1917, the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s “Livery Stable Blues,” backed with “Dixieland Jass Band One-Step,” was released. It’s generally regarded as the first jazz record, although its primacy has long…

From the June 2018 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY MAC RANDALL When I started playing guitar at age nine, many years ago, I felt far more comfortable using a flatpick than picking with my fingers. My first teacher specialized in bluegrass, and he showed me the basics of fingerstyle. But when I was pla…

From the April 2018 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY MAC RANDALL When you see the words “jazz guitar,” what pops into your mind’s ear first? Odds are that you hear the clean, smooth, rich sound of an electric archtop, possibly with its tone knob rolled down for extra low-mid emphasis, picking out chord…

From the November 2017 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY MAC RANDALL A warm tropical breeze. Sand swishing through toes. The rays of the setting sun reflected in the ocean. And yes, maybe a cool adult beverage (or two) in a glass bedecked by a tiny umbrella. For North American listeners, such are the me…

Everything Everything’s music is a bit bonkers, but no more so than our everyday life.

If someone whom people regard as a genius of late 20th-century pop tweeted a link to your song you’d be thrilled, right? That all depends.

Forty years after it was written and recorded, This Heat’s music continues to feel like a memory of tomorrow.

The historical importance of Horses is inarguable.

Three tracks into Bruce Sudano’s latest album, The Burbank Sessions, we reach crisis point.

What enters your mind first when you hear the words “New York punk”?

Two and a half years ago, things were looking good for Alabama Shakes leader Brittany Howard. Her band’s electrifying soul-rock single, “Hold On,” had become a radio hit. Their debut album, “Boys & Gi

“It seems like our comeback has happened at a perfect time—the kind of thing we do really fits in with what people are listening to and what they want from music.”

in an unlikely twist, one that proves body language can be deceptive (at least when coming from repressed English people), it’s far closer to a treasure than a horror.

On brainy pop trio Jukebox the Ghost’s current tour, Jesse Kristin has been getting to enjoy his very own regular “Beth” moment.

“He’s a crazy person. I never met him. I never considered working with him. I don’t know where he got that idea.” From these statements, one doesn’t get the sense that Mr. Pink will be hanging out …

The charming Glasgow pop group is back on the road after a short hiatus.

For those of a certain age, it may be hard to believe that the Vans Warped Tour -- which reaches the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Saturday, July 12, 2014 -- is celebrating its 20th consecutive summer

Roto’s Magic Act Killer New Record Into the Unknown comes out this week.

Naughty by Nature headlines Legends of Hip Hop Show