Uncle Skunk

Hey there, Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew is cranking up the wax on a real deep cut from the guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan, spinning "Uncle Skunk" off that wild 2006 album Erotic Cakes. This instrumental ride sits right in the middle of the record as track six, and it is pure ear candy with those pitch-shifting effects that make the guitar squeal and glide in ways that draw a laugh and a gasp all at once. Listeners and players have long pointed out how the melody takes on that Steve Vai kind of warp, and the charts and transcriptions floating around show a whammy pedal in full use, raising the pitch an octave in spots while the notes dance over a laid-back, almost yacht-rock groove. It is an upbeat, feel-good cruise with the bass of brother Seth Govan stepping forward hard about two minutes in, turning the whole thing into a pleasant ride that feels both bluesy and modern, mixing old-school masters with the kind of sound-tech tricks you hear from folks like Adrian Belew. Reviews over the years have called it one of the top tracks, with that creative energy and engaging melodies that keep the vibe relaxed yet full of surprises.

The whole album carries that same playful spirit Govan has always shown. In interviews he has described Erotic Cakes as simply a snapshot of where he was at that period in his life, a collection of tracks written over the years, some from old demo tapes he once sent around and others more recent, all meant to sound more like a real band than an ego trip. He wanted to highlight the bass and drums of Seth and Pete Riley, the same trio that had been jamming some of this material for a shockingly long time under the Erotic Cakes name itself. The title came straight from a favorite episode of The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror VI, where Homer stumbles into the real three-dimensional world and feels lost until he spots a shop window sign reading Erotic Cakes, and suddenly he is okay. No deeper meaning, just that quirky moment that matched the lighthearted tone of the music. Govan has said the studio versions finally got closer to what he heard in his head when he wrote the stuff, and the reviews were solid enough that even Joe Satriani had already picked up a copy before the label could hand him a promo. Little ear candy moments run all through the record, like the pig squeal on Eric or the odd-meter bird-inspired lines elsewhere, and Uncle Skunk fits right in with those pitch-shifting tricks that keep you grinning at the sheer skill on display.

That sense of humor and range did not come out of nowhere. Guthrie Govan started picking up the guitar at the age of three, mostly by ear, with his father teaching him a handful of chords and then turning him loose on the family record collection. Early listens took in Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard before the taste shifted toward Hendrix, Zappa, and the harder stuff. By age five he was guesting with his dad's workmates' rock and roll band at a public gig, laying down Elvis and Chuck Berry numbers. At nine he and his brother Seth even appeared on a Thames Television program playing guitar. School years brought exposure to the shred players of the day, and after leaving King Edward VI Grammar he headed to Oxford to read English. One year in he realized he was reading fewer books than before while gigging regularly in the acid-jazz scene around the colleges, so he made the break and left to chase the music full time.

The next stretch involved inventing a job for himself. After a spell working the counter at McDonald's to pay debts, he sent an unsolicited transcription of a ridiculously hard Shawn Lane piece to Guitar Techniques magazine. They offered him a role writing for the mag, ending the fast-food days. Around the same time he had already mailed demos to Mike Varney at Shrapnel, who liked what he heard and offered a deal, but Govan turned it down because he mainly wanted confirmation he was good enough and was growing weary of the pure shred movement. In 1993 he entered and won Guitarist magazine's Guitarist of the Year contest with the instrumental Wonderful Slippery Thing, a piece that later landed on Erotic Cakes itself. That opened doors into teaching at places like the Academy of Contemporary Music and more session and transcription work. By the late nineties a connection through a drummer at one of the schools landed him filling guitar spots on Asia's Aura album when celebrity guests could not make the deadline, which led to tours and further records with the band.

All that experience fed straight into the trio sessions that became Erotic Cakes, recorded with Cornford amps and produced by Jan Cyrka, mixing long-played live material with fresher writing. Govan has talked about how some tracks went through so many formats over the years that they needed to be crystallized once and for all. Uncle Skunk sits among those as a more recent composition that still carries the same inventive spirit, the kind of thing that rewards close listening whether you are a player trying to figure out the slides and bends or just a Zoo Freak riding the groove. The album remains his only full solo studio release to date, a landmark that showed off the full spectrum of styles he moves through so naturally.

If you want to dig deeper into the man's world, head over to his official Facebook page at Guthrie Govan Official, where the updates and personal notes keep rolling, or follow the official Instagram at @guthrie.govan and the X account at @ggovan_official. There is also an active Facebook group for fans at Guthrie Govan Fans where covers and discussion of tracks like this one keep the conversation going. And of course you can always catch more of the freeform deep cuts and artist stories right here on THE ZOO, where the Zoo Crew keeps the records spinning for all you Zoo Freaks who dig the real deal instrumental rock and roll. Keep the volume up and the ears open, because this kind of six-string storytelling is what keeps the airwaves alive.