Sony Music in association with Capo Records and Legacy are proud to re-issue the first six original Rory Gallagher albums in chronological release date order – “Rory Gallagher” (1971), “Deuce” (1971), “Live! In Europe” (1972), “Blueprint” (1973), “Tattoo” (1973) and “Irish Tour ’74” (1974). These six seminal re-issued albums celebrate 40 years since the birth of Rory’s solo career.

Read the official press announcement here – http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/sonymusic/rorygallagher.htm


Rory Gallagher was a musician like no other. He was, and still is, one of the world’s greatest guitarists, singer/songwriters and live showmen. His guitar playing is an inspiration to some of today’s hottest guitarists including Slash, Joe Bonamassa, Brian May, Johnny Marr, and The Edge.

“The man who changed my musical life was Rory Gallagher, I picked up a guitar because of him.” – Johnny Marr

Each of the six milestone albums were released during Rory’s most prolific years (1971-74), when he recorded and produced them in the short space of three years. The albums are re-released in digipack form, with newly restored original cover art. The audio has been re-mastered from the original ¼” inch tapes, true to how Rory intended it to sound. Each album includes exclusive sleeve notes personally written by Rory’s brother and former tour manager “Donal Gallagher”, journalist “Roy Hollingworth”, and legendary rock photographer “Mick Rock”.

and here’s Mr Gallagher playing the classic ‘Tattoo’d Lady’:

Well it’s all official now, the mighty Van Halen will be releasing a new album this year as well as touring the US after months of “will they, won’t they”?

The new album, A Different Kind Of Truth, will be released in the US on February 7th with the first single from the album, “Tattoo“, and its video debuting simultaneously on January 10th.

Last night they played an intimate gig at the infamous Cafe Wha? in New York. Playing some classics as well as the new song ‘She’s The Woman’.

Cafe Wha? Setlist

You Really Got Me
Runnin With THhe Devil
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Everybody Wants Some
She’s The Woman
Dance The Night Away
Panama
Hot For Teacher
Ice Cream Man
Ain’t Talkin Bout Love
Jump

Beautiful Girls
Unchained

Already some footage is appearing on the inter webs, check out these vids of Diamond Dave talking about Lady Ga Ga, footage of the new song ‘She’s The Woman’ and a little snippet of DLR on acoustic playing ‘Ice Cream Man’:

Hungarian guitar maestro Jonas Tamas has just released his second album Timeless Hour through Steve Vai’s Favoured Nations label.

A culmination of two years work Timeless Hour follows on from Jonas’ successful debut album Sharp Guitars From A Flat Planet and features guest appearances from some of the world’s top players, including the likes of Brett Garsed, Andy James, Mattias Eklundh and the legendary Troy Stetina.

The album’s opening track Rule Of Thumb, quickly sets the scene and vibe for the album with its progtastic sequenced arpeggiated keyboard intro theme, heavy riffs and melodic guitar.

The pace and sonic palette is varied though with the fantastically exotic sounding The Unbreakable, the lovely laid back piano intro and uplifting harmony guitar parts of Chance and acoustic piece Space Walk.

There is obviously some outstanding guitar technical playing on display here which helps build the intensity and excitement of the music but Jonas has a great melodic sense and touch in his playing too, as can be heard on an another album favourite of mine, Farewell, which as an added bonus also features a sublime guest solo from the mighty Brett Garsed!

In fact the quality of guests Jonas has invited to play on this album speaks volumes. Their contributions fit and compliment each song very well. Especially the combination of the phenomenal Andy James and keyboardist Sergey Boykov on Borderline.

Not only did Jonas mix and produce the album but, excluding the guest solos, the entire album, guitars, keyboards, bass and drums were all played and programmed by Jonas, which is an impressive feat in itself! My only personal gripe is with the sound of the programmed drums, which for me sit a little too far back in the mix. A little big bigger and splashier and the album would sound even more epic.

An eclectic mix of stunning modern guitar work that fuses elements of Rock, Fusion, Prog and Metal Timeless Hour will appeal to lovers of intense modern instrumental guitar music.

Check out Jonas’ Facebook page for audio previews and much more.

The album is available now worldwide from CD Baby and iTunes.

Album Tracklisting

1. Rules Of Thumb (featuring Marcel Coenen)
2. Debate (featuring Mattias IA Eklundh)
3. All Night Pass
4. The Unbreakable (featuring Mischa Mang, Troy Stetina and Thorsten Koehne)
5. Chance
6. Platinum
7. Farewell (featuring Brett Garsed)
8. Borderline (featuring Andy James and Mats Haugen)
9. Spacewalk
10. My Mind Is Up

For Fans Of: Dream Theater, Marco Sfogli, Andy James

Standout tracks: The Unbreakable, Farewell

UK Release Date: Available NOW
 
 

Jonas has recently been added to the impressive roster at jamtrackcentral.com, check out this video of him playing Zenith from his first album Sharp Guitars From A Flat Planet:

In the latest ‘Professor Shred‘ Master Govan shows us the chords and tapping section from ‘Bad Asteroid’:

Hey y’all,

For the festive period and for a bit of fun I have re-mixed and released a collection of Christmas songs I’ve recorded over the years. Be sure to check out the band camp page for more details on each recording:

About six years ago I started a little tradition of recording a festive song every Christmas for a bit of fun.

This year I thought it would be nice to collate all of those pieces into a single EP that you see here, cunningly entitled ‘Merry Axemas’

The songs vary from solo acoustic to solo jazz arrangements with a little dash of instrumental rock thrown in for good measure. They were all recorded in a slap dash manner (I’d always run out of time to record near the Christmas deadline) so don’t expect any pro mixed high class recordings here.

Please do check out each song’s info for further details on the recording of each track.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and I hope you have as much festive fun listening as I did recording

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Some great official footage of The Aristocrats playing in Montreal:

This is sounding awesome.

Master Vai working on a new song called “Weeping China Doll” for his next album.

Really looking forward to the new album

I’ve been enjoying Richie Kotzen‘s new album ‘24 hours‘ so great to see some live video pop up on the ‘tube.

Here’s a hirsute Richie playing the title track from the album at Paladino’s on November 23rd:

Buy ’24 hours’ direct from Richie Kotzen.

More from the blog backlog, check out this fab interview with Brett Garsed by Andy McLaughlin:

Been meaning to blog about this for a while, new baby == HUGE backlog .

Anyway, I was lucky enough to hear and see Lyle perform this superb cover at Monkeyfest 2011, and it blew me away. I’m glad to see Lyle has nipped into the studio to record a great quality version:

Check out Lyle’s debut CD, Homegrown, on CD Baby