Featured Artist: Carl Verheyen

I begin this article with a Jeopardy Daily Double:

Answer: A southern California based guitarist who has worked with countless respected musicians, played major arenas with Supertramp, performed for Prince Charles at Royal Albert Hall, taught at the best guitar schools, written for the top guitar magazines, played on every episode of “Cheers”, countless other TV Shows & many film scores, released his own highly-acclaimed albums, taught on numerous instructional videos and performed on the 81st Academy Awards television broadcast for over 67 million people.

Question: Who is Carl Verheyen?

Few guitarists see their career take off in one direction if they are lucky. They might be a respected side-man or session player, perhaps they find success as a teacher. What makes Carl such an exception is his level of success on multiple levels. In addition to his acclaimed playing and instruction style, he has also contributed to numerous guitar-related books and has been featured in such periodicals as Guitar Player, Total Guitar,Guitar World, Vintage Guitar, Musician, Jazztimes, Guitar for the Practicing Musician (Japan), Mojo, Living Blues and 20th Century Guitar. Instructional videos, soundtracks, clinics, international touring, A-list collaborations and session work; you could say that Carl has literally done it all.

It only makes sense that Carl’s newest release, “Trading 8s” features six of the top names in electric guitar. Many of the songs feature Carl trading 8 or 16 bar solos with one of these musicians. This is certainly not the first CD to feature a number of top-notch shredders, but it might just be one of the first to do so with such a fresh approach. Albums featuring lead guitar are quite often flat; they just sound too scripted. The arrangements are sometimes simple excuses for endless guitar solos that have little depth or soul. Sure, there are some folks out there with some serious technique. There are also some people out there who can talk fast, but it doesn’t always mean they have anything useful to say. On Trading 8s, the interaction between soloists is like listening to a conversation between interesting people. You are never quite sure what will happen next or where the conversation is ultimately going, but you can simply enjoy the experience of being along for the ride because of the depth of the content.

Such is the life of Carl Verheyen. It would be easier to list highly-respected musicians that he has not worked with because he has collaborated with just about everyone. If I could list names such as Robben Ford , Stanley Clarke , Chad Wackerman,Allan Holdsworth, Jimmy Johnson, Greg Bissonette, T. Lavitz, Alphonso Johnson, Ralph Humphrey, Larry Steelman and Ernie Watts on my resume, I’d be pretty pleased with myself, but Carl just seems to take it all in stride with a very natural modesty. His playing and teaching style exude an inviting confidence that let you know you are not only dealing with a total pro, but also with a very nice person.

It is not easy to sum-up an article about such an accomplished musician. The temptation is to list the many impressive achievements one by one, but that is not an article, that is a list. I worried as well about not leaving anything out as someone with this kind of background deserves to be featured properly. I wanted to prepare a truly in-depth review of the many facets of Carl’s exciting career. Alas, there is just not enough paper. Hopefully you get the picture; a very highly respected musician who brings a universe of knowledge and experience to the table. I recommend Carl’s new CD: “Trading 8s”, it’s a real stand out.

Kevin Chisholm