The National Guitar Museum announced earlier this week that Rush's Alex Lifeson is the 2024 recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award. From the announcement:

The National GUITAR Museum is proud to announce that Alex Lifeson, one of the most revered rock guitarists of the past 50 years, will receive its annual "Lifetime Achievement" Award for 2024. Lifeson is the fifteenth recipient of the award.

A founding member of the band Rush-known for its extraordinary level of musicianship and for crafting experimental and progressive rock epics-Lifeson has appeared on over 30 albums since 1974. "Alex's playing has inspired countless guitarists to push the boundaries of what the guitar can do. And I am one of them," says HP Newquist, the executive director of The National GUITAR Museum. "It's hard to even put his playing in a single category-calling him a "rock guitarist" doesn't begin to cover it. Catchy riffs, intricate instrumental passages, classical flourishes, jackhammer chords, brilliant tone ... that's just the start of what Alex does as a guitarist."

"I'm honoured to be receiving this Lifetime Achievement award from the National GUITAR Museum," said Lifeson. "I fell in love with the guitar when I was eleven years old and continue my romantic affair to this day, sixty years later. It has been my voice, my lover and my partner on a lifelong journey, and we've never had a single argument. I'm grateful for this acknowledgement and fortunate to share the rewards that come with being a guitarist."

The Museum's Board of Advisors is comprised of guitar greats Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Howe, Steve Vai, Liona Boyd, Tony Iommi and Al Di Meola. Alex is the fifteenth recipient of the Award, joining such accomplished guitarists as Buddy Guy, Tony Iommi, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen.

Artovision is a Wisconsin-based company that creates 3-dimensional collectable artwork inspired by popular culture, video games, food and Americana. Over the past few years, they've released several sets of officially-licensed pieces based on Rush album art including Moving Pictures, Roll the Bones, Hold Your Fire, A Show of Hands, Signals (this desktop art piece too), Hemispheres, Clockwork Angels and Counterparts, Rush's debut album, and Grace Under Pressure. Their latest batch of offerings include a number of pieces celebrating the band's Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows albums. There's a 3-D Shadowbox piece depicting the iconic Vapor Trails album cover, along with several desktop pieces depicting various artwork from both albums as seen here. The collectible shadowbox Vapor Trails art piece measures 14x14" x 2.5" and comes ready to hang with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA), with each piece printed on 1/8" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and set in a high quality finished MDF wood frame. You can purchase one of the Shadowbox pieces for $159 at this location. There's also a corresponding Desktop version depicting the album art, along with 4 desktop pieces showing various artwork from the Snakes & Arrows album, including this 12.5"x6" Far Cry piece for $99. The Desktop pieces are printed on 3/4" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and also come with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA). For more information on Artovision, and to see their complete line of officially-licensed Rush pieces, visit their website at artovision3d.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and watch a YouTube video demonstrating the 3-D effect of their Shadowbox art here.

The Hard Times posted their list of Every Rush Album Ranked Worst to Best this past week, giving the top spot to Clockwork Angels:

"Clockwork Angels," spread their arms and sing! Bow your heads so graceful, so that we may crown our kings. The final album from Rush was a forty year career on full display, of a band at the height of their prowess, both in the studio and live, and as such, the band crafted their finest work. A concept album set in a steampunk world lit only by the fire that is this record, containing all the best elements of every previous Rush record, sending the band off with a bang, a pinnacle in prog, and mighty sendoff for this Willowdale three-piece rock orchestra, truly the best band to come out of Canada (sorry Nomeanso, you come in at a very close second though).

Goldmine Magazine posted an article this past week where they list off The Top 20 silly Prog songs, and Rush had three tracks make the cut; The Trees at #17, Roll the Bones at #10, and I Think I'm Going Bald taking the #3 spot (thanks RushFanForever):

The lyric features a rare bit of whimsy from Rush, but what's nice about this choice is that the music is circular and light as well, representing a sort of advancement upon the "In the Mood" riff, which is also an example of funny guitar-playing. Plus, it sticks out like a big hitch-hiking thumb on the dark and serious Caress of Steel album, which is surrounded by equally serious Rush albums, forward and back.

Rocker Sebastian Bach was recently asked to pick his five favorite albums of all time during an episode of AXS TV's Vinyl Obsession podcast, and although he didn't technically accomplish the task, he did pick out some albums he loves from the record store where the episode was filmed. Two of the albums he picked were Rush's Exit...Stage Left and 2112:

Rush, Exit... Stage Left (Live) (1981):

This second choice was a little confusing, as Bach said it's not actually one of his favorite albums. But from there, he pivoted to another Canadian band called Max Webster, who recorded a song called "Battle Scar" with Rush in 1980. Bach suggested that Rush fans are "missing out" if they're not familiar with Max Webster.

Rush, 2112 (1976):

The rocker went with another Rush album for his third pick - this time, their fourth studio album 2112, which he said he originally picked up because of the pressing. He emphasized that the first pressings of records always sound different than later versions, and suggested vinyl enthusiasts look for Warner Brothers album that have a palm tree label on them.

On this past week's episode of Rush Roundtable (#257) on the Rushfans YouTube channel, the panel examines which Rush albums they feel have the best opener/closer pairs:

That's all for this week. Tomorrow is International Rush Day, so plan accordingly. Have a great weekend!!