Mark Pucci Media

Monster Axe Slinger Brad "Guitar" Wilson Is Boundless On New Cali Bee Music Album Set for Release July 31

MONTEREY, CA – Acclaimed guitarist Brad “Guitar” Wilson has announced a July 31 release date for his new album, Boundless on Cali Bee Music. Boundless is the follow-up to Brad’s 2025 release, The Californian, a top charting album on the Roots Music Report, spending 12 weeks at #1 on their Blues Rock Album chart and multiple appearances on their blues rock songs list. The Californian also charted heavily on the UK’s IBBA (Independent Blues Broadcasters Association) chart and is featured on SiriusXM’s B.B. King’s Bluesville channel for his song, "Lightning In a Bottle."

Boundless was produced once again by Grammy-winner Francis Buckley and recorded at legendary High Fidelity ICP Studios in Brussels, Belgium, as well as at the Musicians Institute Studios in Hollywood, California. Boundless is filled with songs that allow Wilson to work beyond his stellar blues guitar playing and represents his ability to expand his songwriting and performances to greater heights. No limits…Boundless. Brad Wilson is slated to tour the USA and Europe throughout the rest of 2026 into 2027.

Four tracks from Boundless are going to digital retail outlets through CD Baby, with B.B. King’s classic, “The Thrill Is Gone,” already on sale at all digital outlets.

“’The Thrill Is Gone’ was recorded in Brussels, Belgium, at the famous ICP Studios,” Brad Wilson says.” “They have an amazing collection of vintage equipment, and the studio had purchased one of B.B. King's ‘Lucille’ guitars. The sound of the guitar rings so true on this classic B.B. King song. It made recording this so exciting to hear the playback for the first time.”

The other initial digital tracks going out in advance include two Brad Wilson originals - “Living Underground” and “Sky Full of Rain”- and a bluesy take on the Tears for Fears’ hit, “Everybody Wants To Rule the World.”

About his two originals in this first batch release, Wilson commented: “On ‘Living Underground,’ like everyone, I was reading about the terrible war in Ukraine, so I wrote ‘Living Underground’ imagining the experience of your home and everything you love gone. Under these conditions, you begin to live underground for safety. A furry friend turns up and makes his life better. ‘Sky Full of Rain’ is a blues showcase for guitar that producer Francis Buckley recorded and mixed so well. A story of desperation, no job and no longer having the skills to find work.”

For his re-imagining of the Tears for Fears ‘80s smash hit, “Everybody Wants To Rule the World,” Wilson adds, “I had always loved this song, and both the music and lyrics I find inspiring. Recorded at ICP studios with the band I tour with in Europe. The musicians played the song with the intensity of an original, and we also perform this song live in concert. It fits my style and blends in with the show and allows me to play lots of hot lead guitar!”

“All the musicians are stellar, very talented players and during the recording of Boundless they came in and really brought the songs to life. The focus for the new album is on my new original songs along with playing rockin' blues guitar and vocals. There are some monster covers on this record. I know everybody likes to put things in a box for formats and it makes sense for radio, but this is a record that’s right down the center with the feel of an accomplished guitar player performing songs that fit my rockin’ Americana style. However, as I say, the focus is really about my new originals that have an upbeat dance beat, heavy on guitar songs.”

About Brad “Guitar” Wilson
Influenced by guitar players Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brad “Guitar” Wilson has developed a style that effortlessly combines shredding solos with soulful riffs that connect with audiences and guide them on a musical journey of the highs and lows that come with singing the blues. His last album, The Californian, also produced by Francis Buckley, explored the feelings of returning home after touring, traveling the back roads of the Dutch and French countrysides, spending time playing music in Monterey, California, and included “Teaser,” the hit song from John Carpenter’s Vampires. Brad’s live shows are known for getting the audience up dancing and singing along. He’s toured with the legendary band Chicago as their support act, as well as Tommy Castro. Coco Montoya, Walter Trout, The Marshall Tucker Band and Cheap Trick. He has toured Europe 12 times over the last 6 years. His songs have been featured on TV shows aired on CBS and NBC.
Radio promotion on Boundless for the USA is by The Syndicate. Wilson recently completed a May tour of Belgium and The Netherlands with an October Tour of Belgium and The Netherlands ahead. Brad has a new London-based booking agency scheduling additional upcoming fall tours in Europe, with summer dates in California. 2027 festival season shows are also in the works.

Hi-res cover: http://www.markpuccimedia.com/Brad-Wilson-Boundless-Hi-Res-Cover.png

Hi-res photo by Elfi Kluck: http://www.markpuccimedia.com/Brad-Wilson-Hi-Res-Photo-1.jpg

www.bradwilsonlive.com

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Thank you Rob Duguay for this wonderful interview with Greg Piccolo in The Valley Breeze. If you're in the area, check out Greg's show Friday June 26 at Chans Egg Rolls, Jazz & Blues in Woonsocket, RI

Saxophonist Greg Piccolo rings in new album with Chan’s performance Over the course of a creative career, it’s important to switch things up a bit every once in a while. This shift doesn’t have to be drastic, but it does

Check out this new Rick Vito “Slidemaster” Promo Video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agFd8Zelmnw

Filmmaker/Author Robert Mugge Announces His Third Book,Quotes from the Road: The Wit and Wisdom of American Musicians, to be Published April 30th by The Sager Group

Signing Events Include May 7th in Memphis During Blues Music Awards

ATLANTA, GA – Over the past five decades, self-described “music filmmaker” Robert Mugge has produced more than three-dozen documentaries, most of them music-related, and in 2023, he published a memoir titled Notes from the Road: A Filmmaker’s Journey through American Music. Kirkus Reviews called it “a scintillating memoir and a vibrant entertaining panorama of music-making and the picaresque struggle to capture it on film,” later naming it one of the 100 “Best Indie Books of 2023.”

Now, in 2026, Mugge is publishing a second music-related book, this one a collection of thematically organized excerpts from 150 of the interviews he has conducted with American musicians, as well as with others who support their efforts. This new work, Quotes from the Road: The Wit and Wisdom of American Musicians, allows these artists to do again what they already do in his films, which is speak for themselves about their ambitions, accomplishments, and collaborations, and all that’s unique about the musical traditions and regional music scenes they represent. In fact, much of this material has never-before-been-available. Published by The Sager Group, the new book will be available in both hard and soft cover editions, as well as in digital form.

In support of his new book, Mugge is planning a series of U.S. book and film events that, where possible, will include the screening of previously unseen excerpts from filmed musician interviews. The first of these events will take place at the Memphis Listening Lab in Memphis, TN from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, the same day as the annual Blues Music Awards ceremony. On this occasion, Mugge will read introductory sections from his book, screen excerpts from interviews with bluesmen Bobby Rush and Elvin Bishop, and premiere an intimate new 50-minute film tribute to the longtime friendship between New Orleans singer Irma Thomas and Austin musician Marcia Ball, based around a joint interview shot on the October 2010 Blues Cruise.

In his foreword for Quotes from the Road, acclaimed biographer Aidan Levy declares, “What you have in your hands—or on your screen—is not just a book. It’s a time machine, an archive, a historical record, a musical record, a travelogue, a thousand stories all part of our one cosmic human story—maybe, most significantly, a road map to the heart and soul of American music.” He goes on to say, “Revelatory first-hand accounts abound, with anecdotes from Mugge’s varied interview subjects revealing riveting tales from the road… They are all artists who fit into the American puzzle along the periphery, where things tend to be more interesting.”

A Sampling of Interviewed Artists Sun Ra, Al Green, Sonny Rollins, Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Marcia Ball, Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Rush, Cyril Neville, Elvin Bishop, Otis Clay, Linda Ronstadt, Rubén Blades, Mavis Staples, Doc Watson, Alison Krauss, Bill Morrissey, Ann Peebles, Jon Cleary, Del McCoury, Denise LaSalle, The Iguanas, Robert Lockwood Jr., Odetta, Kermit Ruffins, Theresa Andersson, Boozoo Chavis, Koko Taylor, Peter Rowan, Rosie Ledet, Kim Wilson, Tommy Castro, Eddie Bo, George Crumb, John Gilmore, Hazel Dickens, Major Handy, Bill Steber, Vasti Jackson, Willie Coffee, Lee Oskar, Lonnie Pitchford, Ted Drozdowski, Steve Riley, Paul Sanchez, Papa Mali, Raymond Kāne, Buckwheat Zydeco, Roy Rogers, Katie Webster, Commander Cody, Nathan Williams, Lil’ Ed Williams, Dr. John Peterson, Vicky Holt Takamine, Memphis Horns, and Michael Cleveland.

Additional Background Information Among Robert Mugge’s better-known films are Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, New Orleans Music in Exile, Gospel According to Al Green, Deep Blues, Saxophone Colossus w/Sonny Rollins, Black Wax w/Gil Scott-Heron, Blues Divas w/Morgan Freeman, The Kingdom of Zydeco, Last of the Mississippi Jukes, Gather at the River, Deep Sea Blues, Hellhounds on My Trail, Rhythm ‘N’ Bayous, The Return of Rubén Blades, Kumu Hula, Zydeco Crossroads and, most recently, Deep Roots and Sing It for Your Sister. In addition to Notes from the Road and Quotes from the Road, Mugge has published a biography of his great-grandfather, Saloon Man: A German Immigrant Battles the Limits of Liberty, 1870 to 1915. He has also served as filmmaker in residence for Mississippi Public Broadcasting (2003-2005) and as an endowed chair professor at Ball State University (2009-2014). He is based in Muncie, IN, with his wife and filmmaking partner, Diana Zelman. For further information: www.robertmugge.com/quotes-from-the-road or www.thesagergroup.net/books/quotes-road.

Quotes about Robert Mugge
“Filmmaker Robert Mugge has…established himself as the cinema’s foremost music documentarian, with a career that includes…chronicling individual performers (Al Green, Sun Ra, Rubén Blades) and various music styles (blues, reggae, bluegrass, etc.).”
—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

“To describe the recent films of the documentarian Robert Mugge as cultural reference books doesn’t mean to imply that these explorations of the musical byways of Southern rural America are lacking in pungent musical sap. Documents of a flourishing below-the-radar culture, they are archival records as well as entertainment.”
—Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“The prevalence of documentaries about musicians is a curse, because most of those films do a terrible job of showcasing music. One rare exception is the work of the director Robert Mugge, whose film Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, is one of the most satisfying portraits I’ve ever seen.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Years from now, when…filmmaker Robert Mugge leaves behind his remarkable legacy of priceless documentation…musicologists, cultural historians and just plain folks are going to hail Mugge as a national treasure. Retrospectives of his work will stretch into the future, providing a timeless record of artistic expression and pure entertainment.”
-Jeff Shannon, The Seattle Times

About Aidan Levy Aidan Levy, who crafted this book’s foreword, is author of the highly praised Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins and Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed, and editor of Patti Smith on Patti Smith: Interviews and Encounters. A former Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellow, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Jazz Times, The Nation, and other publications. He is also an Assistant Professor of English at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford, CT and Program Director of the Jazz Generations Initiative.

For more details, contact Robert Mugge at [email protected].

Copies: Available for order wherever books and eBooks are sold. ARC available upon request. ISBN-13s eBook: 978-1-971400-05-1; Paperback: 978-1-971400-06-8; Hardcover: 978-1-9714-10-3

Hi-res cover: http://www.markpuccimedia.com/Quotes-from-the-Road-Front-Back-Cover-scaled.jpeg

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