Guitarist Paul Gilbert releases music video for album title track „Werewolves Of Portland”

The virtuosic guitarist Paul Gilbert will be releasing his brand-new album, Werewolves of Portland, on 4 June 2021 via The Players Club (Steve Lukather, Robby Krieger, Michael Landau, Tommy Emmanuel). To celebrate this, Gilbert has also revealed the video for the primary taste, „Argument About Pie,”.

Now he has his 16th solo studio album able to sway everyone that, astonishingly, this master continues to lift the bar on what he are able to do. With the international lockdown putting the globe on hold, Paul Gilbert decided to, instead of wait, he got on with playing all the instruments on the album himself.

„It took me about six months to think of it, but it finally occurred to me that I could play all the instruments myself. I’ve always loved playing drums, and I can play bass and keyboards well enough to get the job done,” Paul Gilbert says.

Recorded at Opal Studio in Portland with co-producer and engineer Kevin Hahn, Gilbert pulled out a number of his current favourite guitars for the duty. The album title’s inspiration partly comes from the Warren Zevon song, „Werewolves Of London”.

„I live in Portland and thought it would be funny to substitute the name of my much lesser-known city. My original idea for the 'Werewolves’ was just the guys in my band and me. When we play music, it is our version of 'howling at the moon’. Unfortunately, Portland has become more 'known’ in the last year for events that are pretty sad to watch. And 'Werewolves’ could take on other meanings that I certainly hadn’t anticipated. But the title, to me, still has a musical meaning.”

The song titles are somewhat quirky and definitely catch the imagination. There aren’t one but two songs about the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich.

Paul Gilbert may be a formidable force. From his time in LA metallers Racer X to helping form Mr. Big, one in every of the era’s most revered names. His distinguished solo career has seen him putting out 15 acclaimed records and has been asked to guest on albums from such diverse names as Todd Rundgren, Bowling For Soup, Glenn Hughes and MC Lars. He also toured with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci in 2007 (G3) and two years later with Richie Kotzen and George Lynch (Guitar Generation). This is often to not mention a lengthy tenure as a much-in-demand teacher and instructor. This began when he was still a teen, being hired in 1985 by the distinguished Guitar Institute Of Technology (GIT) in L. A. .

„I need to be able to visualize the look and sound of my fretboard well enough to play accurately in my mind. It’s almost like real air guitar! Then when I actually go to play the music, I’ve got a good chance of having my melodic intentions come true. And that’s about the best feeling in the world.”

Guitarist Paul Gilbert, March 2021, image credit: Jason Quigley