Listen As Guitar Virtuoso Writes New "North Dakota State Song"?

North Dakota...
North Dakota...
With thy prairies wide and free.
All thy sons and daughters love thee.

Paul Gilbert, the most excellent guitarist from supergroup "Mr. Big", seems to have soured on his hometown of Portland Oregon, and now pines for the plains of North Dakota. He's backed by bison, and guitar-shreds his way through North Dakota's new State Song...for goodness sakes, watch and listen and we'll talk more about Paul after you've finished.

This from YouTube...

I "double puppy promised" you and it was true. That was AWESOME!

Plus, it's the FIRST song on Paul's new album "Werewolves of Portland". So I feel like it's probably his baby. I mean, the title track didn't even have lyrics! Here's Paul showing off his guitar playing, werewolf costume-wearing, and drum playing skills...(YouTube video)

Are ya still with me?

Because I have a confession to make...Paul Gilbert was only using the mental and lyrical imagery of moving from Portland Oregon to (power chords) NORTH DAKOTA. as a structural means of developing an instrumental piece; that once committed to vinyl (really vinyl?), would actually have no words at all.

Paul tells this to Blabbermouth...

I don't want to kick Portland while it's down. But if it stays like this, I may need to sneak away. I'm hoping to live somewhere that isn't in the news so much. I haven't heard much about North Dakota lately, which is good. I've actually never been there. I like buffalo. That's a start. Thank you.

In discussing the "lead single" Hello North Dakota! Paul goes a little further...

"Most of my titles come from the lyrics that I write in order to get a melody going. I've even printed the lyrics in the liner notes of the album, so you can 'read along' as you listen to the music.

So here's the album version..

So no State Song?

Because, he's a world-class guitar player...he left the actual lyric writing to his old band "Mr. Big"- like this gem