Guitarists

Biography:

The United Kingdom's Peter Frampton is a legendary guitarist best known for his 1976 live double-album Frampton Comes Alive. This release is widely regarded as one of the best live rock albums ever and included the hits Baby, I Love Your Way, Show Me the Way and the 14-minute Do You Feel Like We Do, which featured Frampton's famous use of the talk-box.

Despite the huge success of Frampton Comes Alive (or perhaps as a result of), Frampton himself has looked to step out of the shadow of this momentous achievement. However, his career after that point didn't make it easy to move beyond his signature album. In 1977, he released the gold album I'm in You, which despite solid sales was critically panned. Then Frampton's career took a real turn for the worse when he co-starred in the movie adaptation of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with the Bee Gees. The movie was a complete disaster and, to make things rally bad, Frampton was in a near-fatal car accident in 1979.

Frampton's career became relatively quiet. He continued to record during the 1980's, including work with David Bowie, but despite making some good music he met with little commercial success. In a move to capitalize on his earlier success, Frampton recorded Frampton Comes Alive 2 in 1995. Despite being a solid outing, the album did little to revive Frampton's career.

Enter 2006. Peter Frampton released the all-instrumental album Fingerprints that featured a remake of the Soundgarden hit Black Hole Sun. Former Soundgarden musician Matt Cameron (drums) played on the track, along with Cameron's current bandmate in Pearl Jam, Mike McCready (guitar). The remake of Black Hole Sun was a redefinition of Frampton, thrusting him into a modern era sans vocals. Fingerprints, in its entirety, was an exceptional work that won Frampton the 2007 Grammy Award for "Best Pop Instrumental Album".

Peter Frampton is the living embodiment of a career musician whose perseverance, through multiple highs and lows, has allowed him to remain viable through multiple decades. Indeed, fans tuning in to his successful career now won't be so fixated on Frampton Comes Alive. But hopefully those fans will go back and listen to that great album, too.

Biography:

Paul Gilbert is an instrumental guitarist who is best known for his work in the bands Racer X and Mr. Big. Gilbert departed Mr. Big in the late 1990s and embarked on a solo career performing instrumental guitar. Gilbert joined Joe Satriani and John Petrucci for the G3 2007 tour.

Gilbert began playing guitar at age 5 and after a several-year hiatus began playing again in earnest at age 11. He has been influenced by guitar luminaries Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Randy Rhoads as well as the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

Gilbert is a friend of fellow guitarist Marty Friedman and has appeared on Freidman's Japanese television show several times. Gilbert speaks fluent Japanese and married a woman from Japan, Emi, who currently plays keyboards in Paul's touring band.

Biography:

American-born guitarist Mary Friedman is best-known for his tenure as guitarist in thrash-metal band Megadeth. In addition, he has had a vibrant solo career as an instrumental guitarist. Friendman currently resides in Japan with his wife Chihiro, where he has hosted several television programs and served as a music columnist.

Friedman gained notoriety for his work with fellow guitarist Jason Becker in the band Cacophony. Cacophony recorded two neo-classical metal albums that featured twin-guitar harmonies and multi-part solos. Cacophony disbanded when Friedman joined Megadeth and Becker simultaneously joined David Lee Roth's band. While he was in the Megadeth lineup, they sold more than 10 million albums. He left Megadeth after a decade in the band to pursue other musical projects.

Biography:

Steve Lukather is a Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and guitar player. Although best known for his work with the rock band Toto, Lukather has released several solo albums. He has also done extensive work as studio session guitarist, arranger and composer who has done work on over 800 number one albums.

Lukather had already been playing keyboards and drums by the time his father purchased him a basic Kay acoustic guitar at age 7. To this day, Lukather writes all his music on keyboards first before playing it on guitar. Lukather's father also purchased his son a copy of the Meet the Beatles LP to go with the guitar, which dramatically changed Steve Lukather's view on the role of guitar in music.

He began teaching himself guitar in earnest and his musical direction took another fateful turn when he met Jeff Porcaro in high school. Porcaro had already been playing professionally in the band Steely Dan and began mentoring Lukather in both playing guitar and the music industry. Lukather would later team up with his mentor to form the successful band Toto - a move that launched Lukather's budding career into a new stratosphere. During 1982, Toto released it's most successful album, Toto IV and that same year Lukather and Porcaro contributed heavily to the biggest-selling album ever: Michael Jackson's Thriller.

In 1989, Lukather released his first solo album titled Lukather. Although, he would continue to split his time between his solo work, Toto, and session work, his solo career helped Lukather to firmly establish his own musical identity.

Biography:

Chris Brooks is an Australian guitar player, recording artist and teacher based in Sydney. His work centers around his solo recordings, and session work including guitar work for other artists and also theme music for radio announcers. Chris has recorded with members of Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising force, LORD, Age of Nemesis, Feeding The Addiction, Erik Norlander and more.

With his debut solo album, The Master Plan, Chris delivered a diverse instrumental release that draws from a variety of influences while showing an identity all its own. The album is built on a foundation of melodic songwriting, creative arrangements and skilled guitar work.

Chris has also made contributions to albums by Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring Of Fire), Age of Nemesis, Frontiers Records, and been featured in magazines like Burrn!, Metal Hammer, Sweden Rock and Young Guitar. Chris next release comes in the form of a song on the upcoming Liquid Note Records compilation "The Alchemists II".

Biography:

Tony MacAlpine is an guitarist/keyboardist whose classical training and jazz fusion influences result in a unique style of instrumental rock. Because of his skill and musicianship, MacAlpine (along with Yngwie Malmsteen) was a driving force behind the neo-classical rock guitar movement in the 1980s.

MacAlpine first learned music as a classically-trained pianist and violinist. He ultimately switched to electric guitar and released the notable instrumental albums Edge of Insanity and Maximum Security. In addition to releasing a series of solo albums, MacAlpine has also appeared as a guest guitarist/keyboardist on a number of other recording projects. MacAlpine is also been a frequent member of Steve Vai's touring band.

Biography:

Dick Dale launched the surf music craze in the 1950s and rode the resulting tsunami through the 1960s. His guitar playing style is punctuated by fast picking and Middle Eastern influences, resulting in a totally unique sound. Dale was an avid surfer and his fellow surfers dubbed him the "King of the Surf Guitar".

Dick Dale's contribution to rock music runs quite deep. Early in his career, Dale met the guitar and amp guru, Leo Fender, and the two collaborated on a groundbreaking product: the 100-watt amplifier. Dale had been trying out a number of Fender amplifiers, but under his demands they all quickly failed. So Fender developed a new transformer that could deliver the power that Dale's amp would need and paired it with a 15-inch speaker built to exacting specifications by the James B. Lansing speaker company. Dick Dale was the first guitarist to play this new 100-watt amplifier, which was dubbed the Single Showman. As a result, he was later called the "Father of Heavy Metal" by Guitar Player Magazine.

The surf rock phenomena died out by the mid-1960s due to the British Invasion, yet Dale continued to have a vibrant career. He recorded the music for the movie "Back to the Beach" with Stevie Ray Vaughan, which resulted in a Grammy nomination in 1988. In 1994, Dale's song Misirlou was used as the title music for the smash movie "Pulp Fiction" and, two years later, Dale recorded music for Disneyland's Space Mountain ride.

Among his achievements, Dale was the first rock guitarist to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame and the White House Congressional Hall of Records. Of course, he has also been inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame.

Biography:

Vernon Reid gained notoriety as the guitarist for Living Colour and has since been involved in a variety of musical projects. Reid co-founded Living Colour in New York City in the mid-1980s. The band's 1988 debut album, Vivid, was double platinum-selling and won a Grammy award for the song "Cult of Personality". In 1989, Living Colour was the opening act on the Rolling Stones' successful Steel Wheels tour. In 1990, Living Colour released their second album, Time's Up, which went gold and produced another Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

In addition to his work in Living Colour, Reid has been a session musician on a number of recording projects and has done several solo instrumental albums. His first solo album, Mistaken Identity, was released in 1996. Reid then partnered with Masque to release "Known Unknown" in 2004 and "Other True Self" in 2006.

Biography:

Andy Timmons was guitarist of pop-metal band Danger Danger before embarking on a solo career as an instrumental guitarist. He has appeared as a guest on the G3 tour.

[Full Biography Coming Soon.]

Top Ten Jams:

1.	Redemption
2.	Super '70s
3.	Electric Gypsy
4.	Deliver Us
5.	Gone (9/11/01)
6.	Resolution
7.	Move On
8.	Beautiful Strange
9.	Cry For You
10.	Falling Down

Biography:

Michael Hedges was not only a master of the acoustic guitar, but also a gifted composer. His albums were released by Windham Hill Records (and sometimes included a flute), resulting in Hedges being viewed as a New Age artist. However, Hedges wasn't so easy to classify and his music incorporated many elements of rock, jazz and even classical. He often joked that his style was "New Edge" or "Heavy Mental". Guitar Player Magazine went so far as to call Hedges the "Hendrix of the steel-string acoustic". Sadly, Hedges was killed in an automobile accident at age 43.

[Full Biography Coming Soon.]