A virtuoso guitarist, session player, and educator Carl Verheyen is perhaps best known as guitarist for the rock group Supertramp. Born in 1954, Verheyen grew up in Pasadena, California where he started playing guitar around age 11. Inspired early on by rock guitarists like the Byrds' Roger McGuinn, Duane Allman, and Eric Clapton, he progressed quickly and by his late teens was playing four nights a week in a local cover band. From there, he began delving into jazz and studied for two years at Pasadena City College. During the '70s, he worked steadily playing jazz and doing session recordings. In 1980, his session work brought him to Los Angeles, where in 1985 he joined the British rock outfit Supertramp. For the next several decades he toured and recorded with the group, all the while balancing his own solo career and burgeoning teaching interests. His first album solo album, 1988's No Borders, found him showcasing a variety of styles from jazz fusion to rock and country. It also featured a guest spot from British guitar giant Allan Holdsworth. Along with his own recordings, he has appeared on albums with Richard Elliott, Joe Jackson, David Benoit, Rick Braun, and many more. An active teacher, Verheyen has worked as an instructor of jazz guitar at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California, and offers his own online private courses. As a solo artist, he has explored a wide range of genres on his albums, delving into acoustic jazz on 2001's Solo Guitar Improvisations, and showcasing his own mix of singer/songwriter rock and blues on albums like 2003's Six and 2009's Trading 8s, and 2013's Mustang Run. He delivered his second volume of solo guitar in 2015, followed a year later by Grand Design, which included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Time's They Are a-Changin'." The guitarist's aptly titled 2017 effort, Essential Blues, was recorded live over three days, and found him investigating an array of blues styles. ~ Matt Collar