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Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw has released a previously unheard acoustic version of Led Zeppelin's 1971 classic Going To California.
Shaw explains: "After touring behind two Shaw-Blades albums [made with Jack Blades of Night Ranger, the most recent, Influence, came out in 2007], we discussed a second album of covers and actually recorded a few more, but we never officially set a project into motion.
"Styx would soon get back together and hit the road with the Return to Paradise tour. Will Evankovich and I decided to cut Going to California and did it at my home studio in the Hollywood Hills.
"We recently gave it a listen and when Styx manager Charlie Brusco suggested we release it now to help fill the musical void that the lockdown had created, it suddenly had a new purpose.
"We had it mastered here in Nashville and created some artwork and got it placed on all the streaming platforms. Robert Plant’s original vocal is stellar, but I tried to make it my own while honouring its essence. I hope you enjoy it!"
In other Styx-related news, former Styx frontman Dennis De Young's new solo album 26 East - Volume 1 is out today.
26 East is where DeYoung grew up in Roseland, IL on the far south side of Chicago. Styx formed in his basement in 1972 and his future bandmates the Panozzo twins, John and Chuck, lived just across the road from him.
"This was supposed to be my final album but there were so many songs written that Serafino Perugino, CEO of Frontiers, suggested dividing it into two albums rather than one,” says DeYoung. “This is Volume 1, which sounds pretentious to me, but the marketing folks wanted you to know there are going to be two of them."
