COMPARED TO THE “holy triumvirate” of the Gibson Les Paul Standard and Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster, the Gibson SG Standard is the solidbody guitar equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield — it doesn’t

Mike Patton and the Avett Brothers join forces to create a work of immense beauty.

IN LAST MONTH’S column, I talked about how using open G tuning (low to high: D, G, D, G, B, D) has inspired me to find my own musical and compositional voice as a guitarist and craft some cool and uni

Black And Blue UMC/POLYDOR

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

MY FAVORITE ENSEMBLE to play in is the power trio. With only three instruments — electric guitar, bass and drum kit — there’s so much freedom to explore concepts like space, time and dynamic range. Th