Mike Mettler

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the pre-eminent teenage guitar phenom of the 1990s, is essentially all grown up now at age 45 — but he’s still a kid at heart, albeit with a lifetime of playing his signature blend of blues, rock, and soul well under his belt. What better way to bridge the gap between the gunslinging days of yore with the wizened experience level of the here and now than with Trouble Is… 25, a complete re-recording of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band’s platinum-selling sophomore album Trouble Is…, which was originally released in October 1997 on CD and cassette, but never on vinyl. Shepherd got on Zoom with AP editor Mike Mettler to discuss how his dad first introduced him to vinyl, what the re-recording process for Trouble Is… 25 entailed, how sitting on an amplifier at a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert was a “defining moment” in his life, and how mindful he is of sequencing his albums for vinyl playback — and, of course, much, much more. . .

A man needs to harvest a heart of gold, and Neil Young’s groundbreaking February 1972 album Harvest provides all the aural goods on wax to do just that. (Yes, I mashed up a few album titles there, but you get the point.) To wit: A new box set celebrating the 50th anniversary of Harvest is coming via Reprise on December 2 that will include the original album on one 180g LP, plus another LP comprised of an unreleased of-era live BBC solo performance, and a 7-inch EP with a trio of unreleased Harvest outtakes. Read on to find out what appears in this must-have box set. . .

Bryan Adams is a consummate and restless performer, so when the lockdown happened, he got right down to work in his home studio to keep himself busy. Not only did he come up with an album of all-new material — March 2022’s So Happy It Hurts, a 180g 1LP offering via BMG — but he also took a long, hard look at the four-plus decades of his recording career and decided to recut over a dozen of his favorite tracks under the umbrella of Classic. Initially, these classic Adams songs, with all the vocals sung anew and essentially all the instrumentation played by the man himself, were released digitally in two increments as Classic and Classic Pt. II, and they will soon enough be combined into a 180g 2LP set in January 2023. Adams got on Zoom with AP editor Mike Mettler to discuss why he not-so-secretly always wanted to be a drummer, why vinyl remains such an important touchstone to him to this day, and what songs of his might make the cut for the next installment of Classic — and, of course, much, much more. . .

The opening salvo ahead of our upcoming holiday gift guides is here! To wit: Paul McCartney recently announced the limited-edition release of The 7″ Singles Box, which features 80 (count ’em!) 7-inch Paul McCartney singles culled from all across the full wingspan of his long and winding solo career, for December 2. The preorders have already been fast and furious, so read on to see if you can secure your own copy now in advance, and/or need to get all buddy-buddy with the retailer of your choice ASAP. . .