The Guitar Player's Resource
Submitting a demo CD-R entitled The Ghost Of Hagar is California guitarist Shawn Wilkey, who is a rock instrumentalist in the vein of Michael Schenker and Joe Satriani. Wilkey puts his emphasis on melody and themes in his original compositions, rather than just shredding for shredding's sake. Each track, such as the driving number "The Shipwreck", tells a story, closely related to the titles of the pieces and connected to (or inspired by) an Old or New Testament passage, enhanced with some cool, Schenker-like solos that bring the tunes home. Wilkey has a smooth style well suited to instrumental rock guitar - fans of the melodic rock style would find a lot to like here.
Shawn started playing guitar in bands around San Diego when he was in high school. As he and his band mates progressed, they got more serious about their playing, and Shawn found himself achieving modest success in a local band called Greys Well. The group self-produced a few CDs and even had a CD produced by the legendary Floyd Rose, but the CD was never released. Things went south after that, so Shawn decided to give up the band idea. He later began to play guitar for the praise and worship band at his local church and found it to be a lot more rewarding. Shawn has always loved to listen to instrumental rock guitarists, so decided to begin work on his own instrumental album.
In the future, Wilkey would like to continue to make instrumental CDs.
Shawn Wilkey
United States