Artist: PAUL GILBERT
Album: WEREWOLVES OF PORTLAND LTD. EDIT. (DIGI)

Release date: 04.06.2021
EAN/UPS: 810020504262
Media type: CD

Paul Gilbert is one of the pioneers of shred guitar and one of the top guitar players in the world.
    Paul Gilbert is a founding member of chart-topping rock band Mr Big and has a loyal fanbase.
    Gilbert is heavily endorsed by Ibanez and Marshall. He has multiple signature Ibanez guitars released.
    Paul played all instruments on Werewolves of Portland. He even made the drawings of the first video released March 11.

Paul Gilbert is an artist, and a consummate craftsman. He has superb technical insight, but this used to develop interesting, insightful music that stands impressively as an expression of the soul and spirit. People first heard him in full flow with the much respected Racer X. Their 1986 debut album ‘Street Lethal’ was well received, as was the follow up ‘ Second Heat’ a year later. In 1988, he left the band helped form Mr. Big, one of the most acclaimed names of the era. Across four studio albums, the foursome gained commercial success, and had a chart topping US single in 1992 with ‘To Be With You’.

Now he has his 16th solo studio album ready to prove to everyone that this master continues to raise the bar on what he can achieve. “I was planning to record in the spring of 2020,” explains Gilbert. “I had the studio booked, and the musicians ready to rehearse. But suddenly the world locked down, and I had to put everything on hold. It was hard to let go of my passion for recording ‘live’ in the studio, but as the lockdown dragged on, I began to think about other ways that I could make the record, and still be inspired by the recording process.” Gilbert’s solution allowed him to express his wide instrumental dexterity by playing all the instruments heard on the album. “It took some time, 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.”

The album ends with the forlorn "Hope Train." Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead about two slaves in the US during the 19th century, who make a bid for freedom from their Georgia plantation. "I found it really hard to envision the world in which it takes place," he says. The band used a 1970s Fisher-Price Toy cassette recorder in the intro, "We wanted to see if we could somehow approach the sound of those very early country blues recordings, like the ones by Blind Willie Johnson.”

TRACKLIST CD/ LP:

1 Hello North Dakota!
2 My Goodness
3 Werewolves of Portland
4 Professorship at The Leningrad Conservatory
5 Argument About Pie

6 Meaningful
7 I Wanna Cry (Even Though I Ain't Sad)
8 A Thunderous Ovation Shook the Columns
9 Problem-Solving People
10 (You Would Not Be Able to Handle) What I Handle Everyday