GARY PIHL GUITARIST WITH CLASSIC ROCK LEGENDS 'BOSTON' RELEASES NEW ALBUM WITH 'ALLIANCE' EXCLUSIVE ON INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS-BBS RADIO

G  A  R  Y

P  I  H  L

MONSTER GUITARIST

With

Classic Rock Legends

B O S T O N

and NEW ALBUM with

A L L I A N C E 

entitled 'FIRE & GRACE'

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Raised in the suburbs of Chicago for the first 12 years of his life, Gary Pihl relocated to the San Francisco Bay area.  At 19, Gary had his recording debut with Day Blindness in 1969. He says, “After my time in Day Blindness, I was in a band called Fox with Roy Garcia and Johnny V (Vernazza), who went on to play in Elvin Bishop’s band.  We were on shows with Free (with Paul Rogers), Janis Joplin, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Eric Burdon and War and Mose Allison.”

Pihl’s first big break in came in 1977, when he joined Sammy Hagar’s band, where he toured and recorded for 8 years. Gary met Tom Scholz when Hagar was opening for BOSTON between ’77 and ’79. In 1985, Sammy joined Van Halen, however, Pihl didn’t miss a beat. He explains, “Tom called me up when he was working on the Third Stage album, he had one more song left to be recorded and asked me if I’d come out to work with him on it. As it turned out, I flew directly from Farm Aid (my last gig with Hagar) to Boston, so I wasn’t out of work for a day. I thought, how lucky could a guy get?”

Alliance is one of the best melodic hard rock bands you’ve probably never heard of even though the band has collaborated together for nearly 30 years and counting.

Featuring longtime and current Boston guitarist Gary Pihl (a Boston member since 1985 who’s performed on the band’s last four studio albums and who also did a lengthy stint as Sammy Hagar’s guitarist prior to Hagar joining Van Halen), former Sammy Hagar drummer David Lauser (whose ties with Sammy go back to Hagar’s earliest musical days and who performed with Sammy for years in his solo band and with Sammy’s Waboritas) and Alliance lead vocalist/bassist/songwriter Robert Berry, who is also currently the bassist with the Greg Kihn Band and formerly with the Keith Emerson/Carl Palmer trio 3.

During those 30 years, the band has released five highly regarded albums – Bond of Union (1996), Alliance (1997), Missing Piece (1999), Destination Known (2007) and Road to Heaven (2008) – all of which reveal their amazing musicianship, well-crafted songwriting and tight ensemble playing. 

These talents are again on full display with the release of the band’s sixth and latest album, the brand-new Fire and Grace (Escape Records).  Melodic, driving hard rock at its finest, this is one great record.

ALLIANCE

FIRE AND GRACE

available at amazon.com





For more information about Gary Pihl visit …

http://www.robertberry.com/alliance.html

Link to Boston’s website: https://bandboston.com 

Link to info on the new album, Fire and Grace:  

https://www.melodicrock.com/articles/news-feed/2019/03/22/alliance-return-new-album-fire-and-grace-may-24-escape

BOSTON STUDIO ALBUMS

Boston (1976)

Don't Look Back (1978)

Third Stage (1986)

Walk On (1994)

Corporate America (2002)

Life, Love & Hope (2013)

Compilation albums

Greatest Hits (1997)

ALLIANCE STUDIO ALBUMS
Bond of Union (1996), Alliance (1997), Missing Piece (1999), Destination Known (2007), and Road to Heaven (2008) 

G A R Y
P I H L
'BOSTON' GUITARIST
EXCLUSIVE
on INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS
with RAY SHASHO
BBS RADIO
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NEWS FLASH: RONNIE MONTROSE Dead at 64

By Ray Shasho
 

When Ronnie Montrose transposed into his first guitar solo at the Largo Cultural Center back in October, an exhilarated audience scrambled their chairs up against the stage to catch an impassioned glimpse of the legendary guitar virtuoso. Montrose genuinely had fun with the audience while playing their setlist to its perfection. Ronnie was all smiles that evening. It was his first tour in a long while after battling cancer. I was very fortunate to be Ronnie and Leighsa’s guest while I reviewed the show and witnessed the guitar virtuoso from back stage. It was a rare and wonderful experience indeed. Several weeks before the show, I was also fortunate to interview Ronnie by phone as he and wife Leighsa drove to their next gig in California.

Ronnie fought courageously but lost his battle with cancer yesterday. He recently celebrated his 64th birthday during a surprise party. The Ronnie Montrose official website released this statement…During the party, “He gave an impromptu speech, and told us that after a long life, filled with joy and hardship, he didn't take any of our love for granted.”

Guitar virtuoso Ronnie Montrose launched his brilliant career with Irish rocker Van Morrison. Montrose played on the albums Tupelo Honey and Saint Dominic’s Preview. And Ronnie’s guitar riff on Morrison’s huge hit “Wild Night” will forever be cemented as one of the most memorable in classic rock history.

Montrose left Van Morrison to join The Edgar Winter Group and enjoyed commercial success with the release of They Only Come Out at Night. The album climbed up to Number 3 on the Billboard charts and spawned the enormous Top 40 hits “Frankenstein” (# 1 hit) and “Free Ride.” (# 14 hit)

In 1973 Ronnie felt the desire to orchestrate his own band and so he formed the hard rock group that bears his own signature MONTROSE. The combination of Ronnie Montrose on Les Paul and Sammy Hagar on vocals created a hard driving rock and roll machine that churned out monster releases Montrose and Paper Money and Hard Rock Classics like “Hard Candy,” “Bad Motor Scooter,” “Space Station No 5,” “I Got the Fire” and “Rock the Nation.”

After Sammy Hagar left the band, Montrose released several albums before forming Gamma in 1979 with Robin Trower’s current lead vocalist Davey Pattison. The group released four cutting-edge rock albums.

After Gamma, Ronnie Montrose released a string of great albums and a return to the road as Montrose including a triumphant reunion appearance with ex frontman Sammy Hagar in 2005.

Over the years Ronnie Montrose has shared his electrified guitar wizardry with legendary artist like Herbie Hancock, Boz Scaggs, Gary Wright, Nicolette Larson, Paul Kantner and The Neville Brothers.

Here’s a short segment from my interview with Ronnie Montrose September 2011.

What made you pick up a guitar and start playing one day?

“What made me pick up a guitar? It weighed a lot less than a piano.”

Laughing

“A friend of mine had the instrument when I think I was seventeen and I picked it up and I just resonated with the electric guitar immediately so it was just something where I knew I was going.”

How did you start the band Montrose?

“Put the word out in the Bay area where I lived in the San Francisco Bay area. And Sammy Hagar had seen me play at Winterland with Edgar Winter and Sam got my number from a guy and said I was looking for a singer called me up told me I’m your man and I went to see him at a club he was playing at in San Francisco and realized he’d be the perfect guy for my lead singer in my new ensemble and that’s how that happened.

But I’m having so much fun now simply going around and playing Montrose and Gamma music.”

Any chance of you and Sammy hooking up again in the future?

“Every once in awhile I wouldn’t be surprised if Sammy and I hit the stage again just for fun and play some of our tunes but it all depends on what each one of us is doing.”

You guys are definitely going to blow the roof off the Largo Cultural Center.

“From my mouth to God’s ear.”

Our prayers are with Leighsa and the entire Montrose family.

Ronnie, thank you for all the great music!

RONNIE MONTROSE 1947-2012

Contact Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com