Carl Verheyen, a American guitarist known famously for his work in Supertramp and also for being a session guitarist, has just released his eagerly-awaited new album, simply titled Alone. Entitled in that manner due to the fact that this is the second release for Verheyen where he has gone completely acoustic.

In this 40-plus years of playing the guitar, Verheyen has created a wildly successful, multi-faceted career. His first solo album was entitled No Borders (1988) and launched a career that now includes 13 CDs and two live DVDs - all released worldwide, of course.

In 1996 Carl won the LA Music Awards category of Best Guitarist and based on albums like this it’s not hard to see why. Alone - Solo Guitar Improvisations, Volume 2 sees Verheyen arrange and play solo guitar entwined with original material like, well, he owned them! Like he has been playing them for 30 years or more, describes it better.

Which for this album of mostly cover song material is a breathtaking statement to make! Containing songs that he himself has loved for many, many years, and having not put them on a record ever before - although he has played some live before, of that I can testify - he sprinkles in a few originals and even a movie theme!

The album begins with a Pat Metheny track, ‘Last Train Home,’ and than slides perfectly into Peter Gabriel’s stunning, ‘Mercy Street.’ Having decided against recording any Supertramp songs, The Beatles feature heavily here with cuts such as ‘All You Need Is Love,’ ‘Norwegian Wood,’ and ‘In My Life’ (all back to back), not to mention the aforementioned movie theme track closing the album, ‘Over The Rainbow.’

Other tracks included on this truly delightful tutorial of an album include covers of Elton John’s ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,’ Luiz Bonfa’s ‘The Gentle Rain,’ and amongst others both ‘Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero’ (Mark Knopfler) and ‘Jimmy Van Heusen’s ‘Darn That Dream.’ Verheyen’s own touch is included with the original tracks ‘Nordenham’ and ‘Last Days of Autumn.’