New Paul Gilbert Album

Mr. Big guitarist Paul Gilbert will release 'Stone Pushing Uphill Man' on August 5th through Shrapnel Records. The new solo album is a guitar-oriented instrumental record on which Gilbert covers some of his favorite songs, using his guitar like a voice to convey a wide range of emotions, while retaining his signature cutting-edge solo work.

When excitedly discussing his newest record, Paul said, "For my new 'Stone Pushing Uphill Man' album, I decided to bring my guitar to the forefront and let it sing. To do this, I used the inspiration of my favorite singers. Paul McCartney, Steven Tyler, Elton John, James Brown, Sting, k.d. lang, and more. These voices are always in my head. With my guitar I could finally reach their high notes. The challenge was to match their emotion and expression. This was my goal as a guitarist. 'Stone Pushing Uphill Man' is the first big step to truly find my voice on the guitar. I wanted the inspiration of my favorite singers for such a big challenge, so I chose a lot of cover songs. I think listeners will be surprised at what I've been able to do with the guitar."

'Stone Pushing Uphill Man' track listing:

01. Working For The Weekend
02. Back In The Saddle
03. I Got The Feelin'
04. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
05. Why Don't We Do It In The Road
06. Shock Absorber
07. Purple Without All The Red
08. Murder By Numbers
09. My Girl
10. Wash Me Clean
11. Stone Pushing Uphill Man

Forgot the album cover...


Looking forward to this one. While I love all his pop records, the full-on instrumentals are more of an acquired taste. Good in their own right, just...different. However, I'm a sucker for cover albums. I'm certainly interested in how he's going to interpret the vocals with guitar sounds.

I loved his cover of Karn Evil 9.

I'll just bump this old thread, since I doubt few will care...



01. Havin' It
02. I Own A Building
03. Everywhere That Mary Went
04. Love Is The Saddest Thing
05. Sir, You Need To Calm Down
06. Let That Battery Die
07. Blues For Rabbit
08. Every Snare Drum
09. A Snake Just Bit My Toe
10. I Love My Lawnmower
11. A Herd Of Turtles
12. Things Can Walk To You



Things get a little weird here...


He's been stretching his wings a bit on his last few albums. He's getting into some bizarre Frank Zappa territory. Not sure if I like it or not.

For some reason Paul Gilbert has always struck me as a shred metal guitarist who would rather not shred metal. If that makes any sense.

This sucker below has been my favorite, although it's a one-off improv jam. His tone is like butter. Melting. Butter.

I can listen for a song or two but I lose interest when there's no vocals. No denying he can play though.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I can listen for a song or two but I lose interest when there's no vocals. No denying he can play though.

These days, I tend to put all his stuff together in a single playlist so things get shuffled around. I get a nice mix of instrumentals and vocal tracks that way.

The one instrumental album I do like to play through is Stone Pushing Uphill Man, which is all covers and the vocals are replaced with Paul's guitar. And my own glorious vocal accompaniment of course.

I just wanna hear Racer X. All else is false.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I just wanna hear Racer X.  All else is false.

Yea, Racer X was his "metal shredder" persona. His solo stuff is way poppier. And now it's going to weirder places. You'd hate it.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

I just wanna hear Racer X.  All else is false.

Yea, Racer X was his "metal shredder" persona. His solo stuff is way poppier. And now it's going to weirder places. You'd hate it.

Yeah, his blues stuff puts me to sleep.

Temple of Blood wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

I just wanna hear Racer X.  All else is false.

Yea, Racer X was his "metal shredder" persona. His solo stuff is way poppier. And now it's going to weirder places. You'd hate it.

Yeah, his blues stuff puts me to sleep.

I like his blues stuff, but it comes off rather mechanical, like Joe Bonnamassa. Technically it might be played correctly, but for me the blues is more about feeling than proficiency.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I like his blues stuff, but it comes off rather mechanical, like Joe Bonnamassa. Technically it might be played correctly, but for me the blues is more about feeling than proficiency.

Not to mention tone. PG doesn't have it IMHO.

Now his guitar tone on that first Racer X album ..... PERFECT for that L.A. shred sound.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I just wanna hear Racer X.  All else is false.

Yes! Racer X is all I know from him and all I care about. I never bought his Mr Big stuff. Although I am aware and have heard some of his solo work, it isn’t the same precision shred as Racer X. It’s more like 70’s hard rock influenced.

Anyone hear of this instrumental Cd ?
Fascinating !

I’ve been watching this album unfold the last month. I will most likely buy a copy. It’s not Racer X… but I’m gonna get it anyway!

Fun cd. Liner notes were very interesting.
The styles of Blackmore - Iommi - Campbell - had him dig deep.
Paul did the bass playing too. I guess that was tougher !
But guitar playing DIO’s vocal melody - gave him goosebumps.
I think Paul did a cool tribute for sure. Fun idea too.
He said it began seeing a DIO baseball cap in someone’s car. Lol.