TOMMY SHAW, guitarist of legendary rock band STYX, released his debut Bluegrass album, The Great Divide, on March 22nd through Pazzo Music/Fontana Distribution. Shaw offers a look behind the making of the album, Part 2 is available below:

"I’d wanted to write with Gary Burr for years. In 1995 Jeanne and I went on a songwriting expedition with a band of artists from all over, but mostly from Nashville and Los Angeles, where I had been living for the past two years. VICTORIA SHAW, STEVEN McCLINTOCK, JACK BLADES, KLAUS MEINE and RUDOLPH SCHENKER from the SCORPIONS, DAVE COZ, MATTHEW and GUNNAR NELSON, MARK HUDSON and Gary were among those who made the trip to Bali for a week then to Jakarta where we performed some of these songs on a television show there that was broadcast all over Indonesia.

For a guy from Connecticut, Gary Burr understands the way people from the South express themselves better than many who were born and raised there, and is all around one of the most gifted artists I’ve had the opportunity to work with. Ever since then, he’s been on my wish list of writers to work with when the time was right. Although I knew the time was now in fact right, getting our schedules to align was not so easy. All during the time Brad and I were writing, I was trying to fit in a writing session with Gary, but by the time we were up to 15 songs I was beginning to think it would have to wait until the next right project presented itself. When Gary called and said he was coming to Los Angeles during one of my Styx breaks, I said, 'Let’s see if we can knock a few of the songs we have of the list.' And that’s what we did.

Before Gary came to visit I‘d been working on a song about home cooking. One with a little more spice than your average food song. But I’d gotten kind of stuck as happens sometimes when a new song comes marching out of the gate, and then I get distracted and lose hold of it. New songs are like ether and don’t truly exist in the real world until you either commit them to memory, write them out or make some kind of recording. 'Back In Your Kitchen' was a good song but it needed to be reworked so I could tell the story the way I knew it needed telling. Once we started talking about it and Gary caught on to it, he began to hear it a little differently and played me his version of it on acoustic guitar. Ta-Da! It got its mojo back, we put come meat on its bones and within an hour or so we had a killer demo recorded. This is co-writing and why I enjoy it so much with the right writing partner…

I met ALISON KRAUSS in 1997 after our next door neighbor Nancy Foy turned me on to Alison and UNION STATION. She’d loaned me a couple of CDs and stayed on my case until I gave them a good listen and then of course I was hooked and couldn’t get enough. Not long after that Nancy let us know that Alison and Union Station were coming to the Wiltern Theater and I immediately set about getting us four tickets. What a killer band live! Standing there and all relaxed, making jokes and quietly shredding like an acoustic MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA. Symphonic virtuoso level musicianship playing these not as simple as they seemed songs. We must have looked dumbfounded with our jaws hanging open in wondrous amazement.

We were invited backstage and met her and some of her bandmates there. Turned out Alison was a Styx fan. She and Jeanne hit it off that night and remain good friends today.

I was writing the music for my 7Deadly Zens solo album around that time and had a song I thought would be perfect for a duet and of course in my emotional drunkenness after hearing her in person, Alison was the only voice I could hear singing it in my head. We got in touch with Alison and she was nice enough to come out to the house and cut it with me. This was in my old studio which was in the garage. I’d had cable run from the studio, underneath the length of the house, terminating in the guest house on the opposite end from the garage. The guest house was wired with mic ins and outs and a video monitor and so that the engineer in the studio could communicate with whomever was recording their parts on the other end. We recorded the string quartet there in this same manner.

Alison sang her parts on 'Half A Mind' while those of us who were there in the studio sat spellbound and stunned by the sound of her voice, especially when she harmonized. I’ve been in the presence of great singers, but none compare to Alison Krauss."

Stay tuned for Part 3.

The Great Divide features the following 11 songs:

'The Next Right Thing'

'Back In Your Kitchen'

'Sawmill'

'The Great Divide'

'Shadows In The Moonlight'

'Get On The One'

'Umpteen Miles'

'Cavalry'

'Afraid To Love'

'Give `Em Hell Harry'

'I'll Be Comin' Home'

The Great Divide features an impressive roster of guest musicians, including: Alison Krauss, Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Rob Ickes, Stuart Duncan, Byron House, Gary Burr and many more.

With this album, Shaw, a Montgomery, Alabama native, establishes himself as an authentic addition to the Bluegrass community. Born with a unique gift for music, a passion quickly recognized by his parents, he picked up his first guitar at the age of ten. From what his brothers remember, after Tommy's introduction to the guitar; "We never saw him again...", as he would stay in his room for hours practicing day and night. His tenacity and intrinsic passion for Bluegrass at an early age implies that this new release isn't a casual endeavor, but a return to the music on which he was raised. Shaw wrote or co-wrote every song on the album in addition to playing acoustic guitar, dobro/resonator and mandolin.

A perennial part of the rock scene since the mid-70s as a member of Styx, DAMN YANKEES and SHAW/BLADES, Bluegrass may at first seem like a stretch for Shaw, but his transition to Bluegrass is seamless. Having been raised on the genre, Shaw has always been deeply enamored with Bluegrass' ability to connect to the listener through storytelling. "These are story songs," says Shaw, an Alabama Music Hall of Fame Inductee. "I think songs that take you on a little journey are the best ones."

This is the story of a Southern boy who made it "big," but always held tight to his roots. "The Great Divide is a story of love and life; of happiness and hope; of loss and discovery," says Shaw. "It's the story of a journey that spans generations and is ultimately about trying to find your way home. And I'm as proud of this story as any I've ever told."

Coinciding with the March 22nd release of the album, Shaw made his Grand Ole Opry debut in Nashville, TN on March 26th to promote the record. Behind-the-scenes footage from the day and a performance of the song 'I'll Be Coming Home' is available below: