BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

On Double Exposure, Vinnie Moore unites both spheres of his rock guitar influences.

- JUDE GOLD

IT'S ONLY NATURAL that Vinnie Moore has been making instrumental albums ever since Mike Varney featured him in GP's "Spotlight" column back in the mid '80s and immediately signed him to Shrapnel Records. After all, the first melody Moore remembers figuring out on his own as a budding teen guitarist was Jeff Beck's "Blue Wind." "At that point I couldn't even bend notes," Moore recalls. "I didn't know what a bend was. I played everything straight."

But like any rock guitar virtuoso who started playing in the mid to late '70s, Moore was also profoundly affected by guitar acts with vocals - everyone from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Robin Trower to Bad Company, Mountain and Michael Schenker-era UFO, the iconic German heavy rock band Moore has played lead guitar for since 2003.

And now, with the release of Double Exposure (Minds Eye Music), Moore has, for the first time, allowed both hemispheres of his musical influences to seep into a solo album. As you'd expect from a Vinnie Moore release, every song on the new record boils over with tasty guitar riffs, fills and solos that span every genre, from rock and metal to funk and Americana. Noteworthy, though, is that half of the songs on Double Exposure also for the first time in Moore's solo career feature singers, including such vocal powerhouses as Keith Slack, Ed Terry, Mike DiMeo and Brian Stephenson.

And yes, Moore sings on it too - sort of. Perhaps as a testament to how much he values groove in every song he tracks, Moore, at the end of "In Too Deep," can be faintly heard singing a classic phrase through his guitar pickups: "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."

After nine instrumental records, what inspired you to put vocals on your 10th?