Tonio Ruiz, guitarist and composer behind the new album "The Light From Nowhere", writes, "Born and raised in Mexico City, I started playing guitar at age 15-16; all my teen years were in the '80s, so I grew up listening to all Anglo Rock, Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. I always wanted to achieve a perfect balance between technique and melody, all round up on pure heart and soul on each note. My intention has never been to impress anybody; I don't mind if I do or if I don't, I just want to heal myself with every note I get to play. I've been writing instrumental stuff since forever, but now that I am able to release my first CD, which is a compilation of tunes from the past 10 years, through which I've had two great rock bands in Mexico, CODA ('90s) and QBO, my current band. I've released over eight albums so far with those two projects; as off now, I'm writing new tracks for my second solo album. I just hope to earn a spot in this competitive world of rock guitar."

This July, guitar masters Steve Smyth (Esseness Project, Nevermore, Testament), Doug Doppler (Guitar Hero), and L.A. fretmaster Adrian Galysh are bringing Shredstock to venues across California. Six guitar filled nights featuring a 45 minute set from each artist are guaranteed to satisfy the guitar fanatic in you. And if you've got the goods, you could open up the show if you're a winner in the the Shredstock Viral Video Contest!

About Shredstock: Shredstock's roots lie in guitar legend Uli Jon Roth's Sky Academy Concert series, where Steve, Doug, and Adrian were invited to join the founding father of both the Scorpions and Neo-Classical Rock on stage. From there they joined forces and created Shredstock. According to Doppler, "The impact of Guitar Hero has been nothing short of amazing in terms of inspiring multiple generations of guitar players. There are so many players at home chomping at the bit to jump up on a real stage with a live audience. Steve, Adrian and I decided it was a great time to hit the road to promote our discs and to give guitar fans a different kind of guitar tour – one that they could actually be a part of."

About the Shredstock Viral Video Contest: Three winners for each city on the tour will have a chance to open the show with a solo or song of their choice. Contestants simply need to visit http://www.YouTube.com/Shredstock, upload a of video of themselves playing, send a link to friends and family, and he or she with the most plays wins!

Shredstock Tour Dates:
Monday 7.21.08: The Axe Shop, Los Angeles, CA (clinic show)
Tuesday 7.22.08: The Baked Potato, Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday 7.23.08: Fishlips, Bakersfield, CA
Thurdsay 7.24.08: The Last Day Saloon, Santa Rosa, CA
Friday 7.25.08: Ireland’s 32, San Francisco, CA
Saturday 7.26: Hertlein Guitars, Dublin CA (clinic/show)

Guitarist Kenny Serane and drummer Stephane Boutinaud are two French musicians who met in 2003 and quite naturally decided to collaborate. Running under the project name of Workshop, the duo offers a musical blend of progressive rock laced with metal, jazz and electronic music. The essence of the group being a duo, they perform live with M.A.O. to realize the group's signature sound. "Beyond The Unknown Territory" represents their new "concept album" for 2008. This expands on their earlier Workshop EP, with guitarist Serane showing amazing control, combining a solid technical base with a keen melodic touch. Again, the listener can expect good compositions, highly skilled technicians, and strong melodies.

Pete Laramee's 2008 disc, "Childhood Memories", is melodic, guitar oriented, instrumental, progressive heavy rock and is not unlike any of his or the Kurgan's Bane's (his progressive hard rock band) previous work, but will be a tad heavier since Pete now plays the 7-string guitar. Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Planet X, Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, and KISS) agreed to play a few solos on "Red Rocks", while Laramee is joined by his brother Jeff (also of Kurgan's Bane and Sonus Umbra) on drums, Luis Nasser (Kurgan's Bane, Sonus Sumbra) on bass, and Michael Passen from Concrete Prophet sit in on a few tunes as well, also on bass.

An instrumental rock guitar rush that fuses rock, shred, jazz and world taking you deeper into your own musical universe. Rob Metz IS the next generation of instrumental rock guitarists making music today. His new CD album, "Axis Shift", is a 10 track alchemy of compelling instrumentals, masterfully produced that offers a rich, distinct sound charged with emotion. Stylistically, "Axis Shift" digs deeper into combinations of rock, metal, shred, jazz and world elements with Metz's primary focus on allowing the listener to experience their own introspection and spirit through this self described musical shaman.

Everything about this Niko Tsonev's "Black Feather" album is well thought out, from the cover art which gives a visual impression of the audacious, witty and manic music it contains, to the music itself, which knows no boundaries. From the lyrical beauty of the title track to the lo-fi / hi-fi lurches of "The Barbarian", Niko Tsonev harks back to a time when people tried to do something different on guitar, akin to Steve Vai's "Flexable" and Adrian Belew's "Lone Rhino". On "Dance Of The Rooster" his guitar shreeks like a rooster strutting and in the first two minutes of "The Great Hawaiian Extravaganza" he moves from country to shred to Hawaiian guitar effortlessly. Don't be put off by any of the above descriptions, this debut album is full of great guitar playing and compositions, "Black Feather" is the sound of someone stretching themselves to the limits of their abilities and pulling it off in fine style.

Paul Nelson and Johnny Winter to be joined onstage by Slash and for an all star jam! The Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville will be the place to be Friday night (June 20) the first night of the Gibson Summer Jam '08. Both Nelson and Winter are to be presented with some rgreat Gibson Custom shop guitars that night. Visit www.johnnywinter.net and www.paulnelsonguitar.com for more information.

Mckay Tebbs' album "The Way" features instrumental guitar music that keeps a delicate balance between rock and jazz - the result of sending a Utah based guitarist to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Tebbs graduated with a Bachelor's of Music degree from Berklee College of Music in May 2006. He has studied with noteworthy musicians such as Jon Finn (guitarst for the Boston Pops Orchestra), Kevin Barry (guitarist for Paula Cole and Mary Chapin Carpenter), and Livingston Taylor (brother of James Taylor). Some of the styles he studied at Berklee include rock, blues, country, and Brazilian. He also plays the bass guitar and has a good understanding of harmony and music theory.

uitar legend John McLaughlin has already said "Floating Point" "may be the best record I ever made." That's really saying something when you consider McLaughlin's prolific and trailblazing career. The guitarist and composer has appeared on some of the most important jazz-rock and world music albums in the last 40 years. For "Floating Point", which was recorded in India, McLaughlin used several of the best Indian musicians in the world. McLaughlin calls these players the 'young lions' of India. They include keyboardist Loiuz Banks, drummer Ranjit Barot, electric sitarist Niladri Kumar, flautists Shashank and Naveen Kumar, percussionist Sivamani, vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, electric mandolinist U.Rajesh, and Hindustini slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya. Joining them were other Western stars, saxophonist George Brooks and bassist Hadrien Feraud. With a line-up like that, you would expect a very Indian experience. But, McLaughlin says not necessarily so. "'Now while this CD features predominantly Indian musicians, we are in quite another form compared to the group Shakti," McLaughlin says. "The music is for the most part 'Jazz-Fusion' if a label has to be put on it. But with the musicians involved in this project, it has also a 'world' kind of atmosphere."

The man behind this exciting new album project, guitarist Steve Smyth (Nevermore, Dragonlord, Testament, Vicious Rumors) is no newcomer in the metal music or shred guitar world, first being tipped for the top in Shrapnel Records president Mike Varney's "Hometown Heroes" column in the October 1993 issue of Guitar World magazine. The twelve songs (all produced and engineered by Smyth) are a collaboration between Smyth and his old friend and former bandmate, Steve Hoffman, a well respected classical and jazz musician, bass teacher and instructional author in Northern California. Smyth: "For this debut, Steve [Hoffman] and I went for more of a 'soundscape' type atmosphere, rather than focus purely on the shred factor. We wanted to focus on the song, not merely use this as a vehicle for shredding over." They also knew they wanted the best when it came to a percussionist. Enter drummer extraordinaire Atma Anur. Best known in the shred guitar circles as the man who drummed on countless legendary Shrapnel Records releases, Atma appears as special guest drummer on The EssenEss Project debut.Recording largely on their own, "The Esseness Project" take you on a 70+ minute journey through sonic landscapes that range from wildly progressive metal riffing, to experimental rock breaks, through to jazz fusion, with a whole host of other musical influences not normally associated with rock/metal, being stirred into the musical melting pot.

Petr Henych - a rock guitar player from the Czech Republic - first appeared in the public's eye in the year 1992 with the band John Dovanni. Through the years, Petr has been playing and composing alongside some of the biggest personalities in the Czech musical scene (Ladislav Kninek an Kreyson, Vilem nok, Bara Basikova and Precedems, Pancho and Petr Kolan. In the year 2007, Henych composed, recorded and released his first instrumental album "Na Vlastnich Rukou", and shortly after founded his own band - featuring bass player Martin Hronek and drummer Jakub Homola. The trio has been named G-bod and is performing compositions from the "Na Vlastnich Rukou" CD, as well as a couple of cover tunes from the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Joe Satriani.

"Time Of Change" features the progressive fusion and rock blend of Finnish guitarist Jartse Tuominen supported by drummer Anssi Nykanen, keyboardist Pekka Siistonen and bassist Jukka Kampman. How to describe their music? Let's assume that Billy Cobham, Steve Gadd, Al Di Meola, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Billy Sheehan and Jaco Pastorius were in the audience at a Jartse Tuominen gig. They would certainly recogize aspects of their own music, but they wouldn't be able to keep their butts on the bench. Tuominen departed from the all-instrumental style on the last two tracks, co-writing a couple of vocal tunes with singer Yvonne Charbonneau, a monster talent in her own right.

Matthew Mills writes about his 2008 Neo-Classical Shred CD, "NeoClassical Spirit", "This album is very special to me. The melodies are some of the best I have ever written, and I was completely honored to have some of my strongest musical influences guest solo on the album: Joe Stump and George Bellas. I also had the pleasure pf having the amazing David Shankle guest on the opening track. I fee very deeply about this album and the style of music I play and write. The Neo-Classical Metal style is how I truly express myself as an artist and composer."