Guitarist Lou DiBello certainly showed the world he is most talented on the six-string with his previous album, Heat Wave (which contained the rocking highlight, “Full Throttle”). On August 2nd, 2019, he will prove that its predecessor was no fluke, with the release of American Hard Rock, which can be purchased here.

“I am excited to release the new album American Hard Rock! This record is both a logical progression, and a big step up from my last album Heat Wave,” explains DiBello. “Some of the highlights for me are the instrumental ‘Driving Force,’ with some of my hottest playing to date, and ‘Beast Mode: Engage featuring guest vocalist Carsten Schulz, and with bassist Mike LePond on both tunes. Other highlights are ‘The Nighttime Is The Right Time,’ ‘Walk Through The Fire,’ the bluesy ‘Love Is Blind,’ and my cover of Edgar Winter's ‘Frankenstein’ which I have been playing at live shows for years now.”

And it turns out that DiBello has been fine-tuning these new tracks on the concert stage. “Besides me singing lead on five of the six vocal tunes on American Hard Rock, another big difference from Heat Wave is that I have been performing almost all of these songs at live shows, and going into the recording process I had a much more complete idea of how the end product was going to be completed. From the final mix and master by Rolf Munkes in Germany, to the cover art and packaging which was a coordinated effort between myself, a graphic artist in NYC, and a local photographer and illustrator, I knew before I even began every step that would transpire. I even beat myself set deadline for completion by a week!” 

DiBello is also an honors graduate from Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, California, and has been a part of the Central Illinois music scene since the late ‘80s. He has also played over 2,500 paid performances (with 600 coming in last 5 years alone), as well as sharing the bill with the likes of .38 Special, Slaughter, LA Guns, Molly Hatchet, Foghat, Quiet Riot, Survivor, Black Crowes, Blue Oyster Cult, etc. And as a guitar teacher, DiBello has given over 25,000 private lessons, and started one of the first streaming guitar lesson websites.

DiBello is set to be performing locally from now until mid-September (a complete list of dates are on his website), so get prepared to experience the impressive guitar skills of Lou DiBello - with the arrival of American Hard Rock.

Tracklisting:

“Driving Force”
“Jack & Coke”
“Walk Through The Fire”
“Love Is Blind”
“Flying High”
“Beast Mode: Engage”
“The Nighttime Is The Right Time”
“I Love You”
“Frankenstein” (Edgar Winter cover)

Album lineup:
Lou DiBello – Lead, rhythm guitars, bass, lead and backing vocals 
Ron Phelps – Drums
Stacey Krecji – Bass (4, 9), keyboards (4, 8, 9) 
Also appearing:
Carsten Lizard Schulz – Lead and backing vocals on (6) 
Bobby Whiles – Drums (1, 5, 6)
Mike LePond – Bass guitar on (1, 6)