Tag: paul gilbert

One of the world’s best guitarists, Paul has recorded and appeared on tons of albums. After taking a break from Racer X, Paul was part of the awesome Mr. Big who tasted mega success with some well written and played hard rock. In between all this super stardom nonsense, he also started recording solo albums starting with King Of Clubs in ’98. Now, these albums were a mixture of sung and instrumental tunes – all of them being very diverse with the content. This album is slightly different again, as the majority of these tracks are cover songs. Some of them may seem like odd choices, but they work really well when you get used to the fact that the guitar is playing the vocal parts.

First up is a ripping cover of Loverboy’s Working For The Weekend with some amazing guitar. Aerosmith’s Back In The Saddle is next and is a pretty standard take – except for the killer solo. One of the great tracks of the album is next and it’s a freaking awesome cover of James Brown’s I Got The Feelin’. A fast funked up beast of a track with LOTS of guitar. Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is played with a slight blues vibe, and if I’m honest, it does sound a bit karaoke – but the killer guitar just makes it all seem good. The Beatles’ Why Don’t We Do It In The Road follows and his guitar tone really makes this track – it just proves that you can shred guitar on any tune. Last track on Side 1 is the first original tune, Shock Absorber, and Paul is wailing over an old RnB groove – it’s just awesome, I could listen to this all day!

Side 2 starts with another original, Purple Without All The Red, and with the theme of the album its an almost country standard, but done PG style. A cover of The Police’s Murder By Numbers is next up and doesn’t really stray too far from the original, albeit with lots of PG on guitar and some heavy skin bashing from Kenny Aronoff. My Girl by Eric Carmen follows and how PG picked this I will never know, but it kinda works. Another weird choice is next with Wash Me Clean by KD Lang – it’s the most chill song on the album and it’s beautifully played. Last track is the title track and the third original. It’s the only track with vocals and it starts like a gospel song with some killer acoustic guitar from PG, until BOOM, and the power gets turned on. Best track on the album, a great vibe and arrangement with incredible soloing as the cherry on the top.

I love all of his solo albums as they are all different, and I’m a sucker for great guitar playing.

9/10 from The Grooveman.