Punk rock guitar players don’t get much acclaim for their playing. And frankly, most don’t deserve it. But punk rock was never about virtuosity anyway, which makes Stephen Egerton, long-time guitarist of The Descendents and All, such an anomaly. He’s a pop-punk guitarist with great chops, ably holding down his band’s guitar duties all by his lonesome. His latest project is “The Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton,” a solo project which finds the bald-headed guitarist collaborating with a number of different singers — one per the album’s 17 tracks — some you probably know and others you don’t.

Between his multiple bands (he also has 40Engine, Slorder and Crowley/Egerton), the 45-year-old Egerton somehow found the time to write a slew of new songs. And aside from the collaboration on vocals, “Seven Degrees” is truly a solo project. Not only did the Egerton play every instrument on the album, but he also recorded each of them himself, a skill he’s developed over the last 15 years producing records for bands like MxPx, The Ataris and Less Than Jake.

As for what the record sounds like, it basically sounds like an All record, only with different singers, though Chad Price, who’s performed vocal duties in that group since 1993, does lend his voice to a song, as does former All vocalist Scott Reynolds. When the record works best, the songs sound like a blend of All and the band the collaborator plays in, as is the case with “Our Last Song” featuring Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio, “Print on Paper” featuring Chris DeMakes of Less Than Jake and “Sunny Disposition” featuring Scott Reynolds, formerly of All. At it’s worst, “Seven Degrees” sounds like leftovers from a recent All record, which isn’t the worst thing in the world — and which is the exception here and not the rule. Other vocalists featured on the record include Milo Aukerman of the Descendents, Jon Snodgrass of Drag the River, Mike Herrerra of MxPx and Joey Cape of Lagwagon. Here are a couple of tracks:

Stephen Egerton – “Our Last Song” (feat. Dan Andriano)
Stephen Egerton – “Print on Paper” (feat. Chris DeMakes)

And here’s Egerton talking about the genesis of the project:

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