Music: Doing a classic Justice - Holy Diver

Paul Gilbert's tribute album to Ronnie James Dio is masterful, tasty, and fun

One of my all time favorite guitar players is Paul Gilbert. A rocker who came out of the Pittsburgh area, he cut his teeth in the genre of shred in the mid 1980’s, and his band Racer X has been subject of one of my prior posts.

But instead of being typecast as a speed demon, he took a left turn and was a founding member of a hard rock supergroup, Mr. Big.

The commercial success there pretty much eliminated the need to be a workingman’s musician, hitting the gig circuit and grinding to make a living.

Nope, his time in Mr. Big was liberating, and since then, his prolific output has been rock, jazzy, and even some pop song adaptations.

And I am here for all of it.

But a couple of years ago, he put out an album of covers as a tribute to the quintessential metal vocalist, Ronnie James Dio.

Below, at the courtesy of Sweetwater Music, we have a high quality performance of Gilbert’s “Holy Diver”, title track from the album Holy Diver. This album and this song really were a breakout moment for Dio, going from vocalist for Rainbow and Black Sabbath into being the focal point of the band.

And what an album that was (is). Deep, dark, killer riffs, and the edgy guitar of Vivian Campbell.

40ish years, and Paul Gilbert has resurrected this classic, made it his own, yet lets the brilliance of Ronnie shine through.

What fun!