Monte Pittman has played alongside Madonna since 2000, shortly after he began instructing her on guitar. I can only assume that he also taught her the main riff to Pantera’s “New Level,” which she used in her live performance of “Hung Up” back in 2009. If you’re not familiar, the riff starts at 4:30 in the video player below:
Pittman has also played with Prong and he’s about to release his third full-length solo album, The Power of Three. Honestly, I’ve never heard of the guy, since I don’t usually pay attention to pop guitarists — who does, right? But now that I have heard of him and heard him, I’m going to start paying attention to him. This guy is worth your time. The man is a veritable guitar virtuoso with a leaning toward thrash metal and ’70s-era metal.
The Power of Three won’t be released until January 21, 2014, but you can buy the album’s first single, “Before the Mourning Son,” on iTunes. Check the track out at itunes.apple.com (U.S. link). Pittman is also working on the video for the same track, and if you watched the video at the very top of this article, then you saw the teaser trailer for it — impressive, ain’t it?
Before letting you go off to YouTube land to explore Monte Pittman on your own, you might be interested to know that his third album, A Dark Horse, was a return to his heavy metal roots and produced by Flemming Rasmussen — yeah, the same guy who produced Metallica’s Master of Puppets. OK, now clear your schedule for some time on YouTube with Pittman.
The Power of Three track listing:
1. A Dark Horse
2. Delusions of Grandeur
3. Everything’s Undone
4. Blood Hungry Thirst
5. On My Mind
6. Away from Here
7. Before the Mourning Son
8. End of the World
9. Missing
10. All Is Fair in Love and War
Monte Pittman live show:
12/07 West Hollywood, CA – The Whisky
Keep up with Monte Pittman on Facebook.
Rock Hard \m/