“Knowing Bernie's eagerness to get the album out there, we want to follow his wishes and release it as planned”: Posthumous Bernie Marsden album set for release in November

A new studio album from late blues/rock electric guitar hero Bernie Marsden is set for release in November.

Working Man – the first album of new material from the guitarist since 2017's Tales Of Tone And Volume – was finished in June 2023. Marsden was able to finish recording the LP – and oversee and approve the album's sequencing, mastering, and artwork – before his death in late August. 

Its first single, Being Famous, is an ol' fashioned, notes-from-the-road rocker with in-your-face riffs and a good-time solo with larger-than-life phrasing. You can hear the song below.

“Bernie was really excited about his new album, Working Man, and proud of the tracks featured on it,” Fran Marsden, Bernie's widow, said of the album in a statement. “After [Marsden's] last three albums of covers, he was keen for his fans to hear some new, original songs. He loved working on them in the studio during lockdown and he couldn't wait to get the album out into the world.

“Conquest Music was considering delaying the release until 2024 out of respect, but, knowing Bernie's eagerness to get the album out there, we want to follow his wishes and release it as planned.”

Working Man is set for a November 24 release, and will be available in limited-edition 2CD and double burgundy vinyl packages, each of which comes with a bonus disc featuring 10 additional recordings, some of which are Marsden's modern twists on classic Whitesnake (with whom the guitarist played for a number of years) songs. 

The album can be preordered now via Marsden's website.

Just months before his death, Marsden announced that a collection of his instruments – including his legendary Gibson Les Paul, “The Beast” – would be going up for auction. Marsden, however, quickly withdrew the guitar from the market after a change of heart.

After the guitarist's death, auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate elected to postpone the entire auction of his collection out of respect.