Taking a detour from his main job as lead guitarist for JOURNEY, the multi-talented Neal Schon released his new solo album, The Calling, in Europe on October 19th. It will hit stores on October 23rd in North America. Produced by and featuring Schon on all guitars and bass, The Calling reunites Schon with former Journey bandmate, Steve Smith, who lends his virtuoso drum talents to all 12 tracks on the new album.

A preview of the video for the title track is available below. The complete clip is now available via iTunes here.

Schon set up shop at Berkeley’s famed Fantasy Studios during a break from Journey’s busy touring schedule and recorded the album, completely from scratch, in just four days. After overdubbing multiple guitar and bass parts, Schon recruited two keyboard masters to flesh out the music. Igor Len, an accomplished classical, jazz and film composer who had previously collaborated with Schon, is featured on acoustic piano throughout The Calling album.

Grammy Award-winning special guest Jan Hammer (JEFF BECK, MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, Miami Vice soundtrack) recorded Moog synthesizer solos on two tracks – Fifty Six and Tumbleweeds. Recently, Schon teamed up with Dan Barnett (Journey: Live In Manila) to produce the video for the first single and title track from The Calling.

The Calling tracklisting:

'The Calling'

'Carnival Jazz'

'Six String Waltz'

'Irish Field'

'Back Smash'

'Fifty Six'

'True Emotion''

'Tumbleweeds'

'Primal Surge'

'Blue Rainbow Sky'

'Transonic Funk'

'Song Of The Wind II'

Check out audio samples at Schonmusic.com.