PAUL GILBERT Streams Guitar Instrumental Cover Of RAINBOW’s ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’
March 22nd, 2023
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Portland, Oregon-based hard rock / heavy metal guitarist Paul Gilbert, currently of Mr. Big and formerly of Racer X, has made his instrumental cover rendition of the Rainbow track ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’ available for streaming, which can be accessed below.
Paul Gilbert issues 18th solo full-length studio album The Dio Album on April 7th, 2023 through Mascot Records / Music Theories Recordings.
As the title implies, The Dio Album consists of instrumental versions of tracks originally sung by the late Ronnie James Dio, across his solo career and stints in Black Sabbath and Rainbow.
Gilbert was inspired to record the album by seeing an individual wearing a baseball cap with the word ‘Dio’ emblazoned across the front. “I live in Portland where people love bumper stickers, right?,” Gilbert explained. “And you get bombarded by everybody’s ideologies constantly. I look with hesitation! But I see this Dio cap on someone and I’m like ‘I could support that.’ For some reason, it hit me and I just went, ‘Yeah!’”
On his drive home, a plan was formulated to record instrumental versions of tracks originally sung by the late Dio, versions which replicated the man’s vocal melodies through the guitar. “When I was learning guitar, even though I wanted to rock, I also aspired to a level of perfection,” Gilbert said. “Maybe I was trying to create some sort of protective shell around myself – a bit like classical or jazz musicians, who have a really refined, sophisticated technique. Their precision is astounding. They really sound like grown-ups, you know? But what I realised is that what makes vocals come alive is actually the thing that’s missing from all those perfect little notes.”
In cutting The Dio Album, Gilbert wished to pin down the singer’s idiosyncrasies and nuances. “I’ve always loved singers,” continued Gilbert. “There’s some really good stuff in their type of musical expression, so why not dig into it?! A lot of harpsichord or shred guitar music isn’t quite a fluid as the human voice. I realised I wanted to really dig into what singers have to offer. I could have just gone by memory because I grew up with these songs but in order to learn something and expand my style, I decided to not to put as much of myself in this. Instead I wanted channel Ronnie. If there was something that was not in my toolbox, I wanted to get that tool – it’s all the stuff you hear in between the notes on paper.”
The Dio Album encompasses riffs and solos originally committed to tape by the likes of Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Ritchie Blackmore (Rainbow / ex-Deep Purple), and Vivian Campbell (Dio, 1982-1986, and later of Def Leppard). “Playing all these metal riffs like ‘Stand Up And Shout’, ‘Neon Knights’ and ‘Kill The King’ gave me serious chills,” Gilbert said. “The guitar parts of Ritchie, Tony and Vivian brought no small number of goosebumps. It’s nice to be affected that way by music – it wasn’t just an intellectual ‘Oh, it’s in this key kind of thing!’ I was getting this primitive reaction to it that goes back to when we were living in trees! It made me curious like ‘Where do chills come from?’ If you see a cat and its hairs stand up, it’s because the cat’s trying to look big to fight off a predator. But luckily there were no predators in my room!”
Such fragments made Gilbert the guitarist he became, he contended. “These amazing riffs are the steel girders of the songs, upon which everything else rests,” Gilbert said. “It had been a while since I’d been this deep into metal rhythm guitar playing, and it felt like I was digging up gold nuggets of fire with a magic platinum shovel. All while wearing a star-covered wizard hat! The guitar solos in these songs came screaming from distant mountaintops. Ritchie, Tony, and Vivian set the standard breathtakingly high…
“I tried to maintain their energy and flow,” he adds. “Much of my playing was formed from learning these songs and solos as a teenager, so my instincts worked to my benefit. It felt like returning from a raging mountain blizzard to a log cabin, well-stocked with fire wood, and owned by a man who is a descendant of bears!”
The Dio Album was engineered by Zach Bloomstein with Gilbert handling all of the instrumentation, save for Bill Ray’s drum work. “I’m hoping that some of his style rubs off on my playing, and I can have a little more of Ronnie James Dio’s spirit in my ears, hands, and heart,” concluded Gilbert. “Just like he sang: ‘The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams… it’s Heaven and Hell!’ Thank you, Ronnie, and long live rock and roll.”
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The track listing is as follows:
01. ‘Neon Knights’
02. ‘Kill The King’
03. ‘Stand Up And Shout’
04. ‘Country Girl’
05. ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’
06. ‘Holy Diver’
07. ‘Heaven And Hell’
08. ‘Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll’
09. ‘Lady Evil’
10. ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’
11. ‘Starstruck’
12. ‘The Last In Line’
The tracks ‘Holy Diver’ and ‘Heaven And Hell’ can also be streamed below.
Seventeenth solo studio record ‘TWAS was released in November 2021 via Mascot Records / Music Theories Recordings.
Promotional photograph by Sam Gehrke.
