Mascot Records has announced a January 18, 2011 release date for the latest album from Steve Lukather. Titled ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, the collection of songs is defined by the legendary guitarist as, “his best work.”
He shares, “I know I’ve led an amazing life and have a colorful career, but I’m not resting on my laurels. I push myself to write better songs and smarter chord changes all the time. I practice every day. And you can hear the results on this album.”
He continues, “Sometimes I joke that I’m searching for ‘the LOST note, but in a way, I really am. I want to find that one gorgeous thing that’s going to touch everybody. That’s what making music is all about — communicating on that level.”
Lukather has consistently remained on the honor roll of the world’s top guitarists — a peer and pal to the likes of Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, David Gilmour, Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Larry Carlton and other fabled players. He co-led Toto with fellow founder David Paich through every twist of the band’s platinum lined history, while playing on albums by Michael Jackson, Warren Zevon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Miles Davis, Roger Waters, Cheap Trick and other rock and pop royalty.
He recalls a moment from his past wherein Jimmy Page took him aside and shared, “Be proud of being a session musician, I was one.”
He has also written hits for the Tubes, George Benson, and others.
On ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Lukather is once again joined by his long time collaborator and fellow session veteran C.J. Vanston, a highly regarded keyboardist, songwriter and sound manipulator, who co-wrote a number of the tracks. Keyboards are performed by Steve Weingart, alongside performances from bassist Carlitos Del Puerta, drummer Eric Valentine and percussionist Lenny Castro.
Additional guests include his son Trevor, who adds crunch guitar to the wrenching “Don’t Say It’s Over,” and his daughter Tina, who sings on “Darkness in My World.” Although Lukather is the disc’s lead vocalist — a role he’s played on and off since the very first Toto record - backup singers include Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and the Tubes’ Fee Waybill.
The album it titled as a poignant nod to the challenges Lukather is facing in his personal life.
He reveals, “It has been a bad year. My personal life is in shambles. I’m getting a divorce from the mother of my youngest child. My mother died. I’m seeing a shrink twice a week and I’m trying to figure out just exactly what my place is supposed to be in this world — which, I might add, is a mess in its own right.”
Alongside the personal trials shared in a number of the songs, a co-write with the aforementioned Waybill titled “Flash In the Pan,” offers a cutting, hilarious commentary on the cult of celebrity and its vapid populace. The Hendrix influenced “Brody’s” takes that a step further by commentating on the world’s commentators, skewering the skewed views of everyone from Glen Beck to foaming indie bloggers to barstool pundits.
Lukather offers, “Well, nobody really wants to hear about my problems for a whole album. So I thought I’d write about everybody else’s, too.”
“But truly,” he adds, ”the world is so divided today, and we spend so much time obsessed about unimportant things like the size of some actresses’ ass or something stupid someone in Hollywood did instead of solving our problems. I don’t understand why things got so far off the mark.”
Lukather’s own aim is for All’s Well That Ends Well to provide some kind of balance for himself and for others.
“I’m not writing songs just to play solos to impress my guitar player friends,” he says. “My days of trying to be the fastest gun in the West — which, at one point, I took to a level of near buffoonery — are in the past. I want the music that I’m making now to connect with people. If they can relate to a lyric or a sound or a melody and it makes them happier for three or four minutes of their day, then I’ve done my job — and that’s a job I’ll be happy doing the rest of my life.”
http://mascotrecordsusa.com/
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