Before mounting the North American outing, Satriani will take a swing through Australia and New Zealand over the next couple of weeks, followed by a late-July/early August run through South America and Mexico. More information about those dates is available at the guitarist's website.

Released in April, the cumbersomely titled "Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock" is Satriani's 12th studio album and the follow-up to 2006's "Super Colossal."

"Crazy title, I know," Satriani, in a video podcast posted at his website, said of his new album's moniker. "I came up with it by combining a couple of the song titles into some sort of a crazy amalgamation ... just to sort of, uh--I don't know--sort of shock people a little bit [and] get them interested in what might be on the record.

"And it is a very eclectic record," he continued. "It's got some heavy tracks, some mystical tracks, some stuff that's just pure fun--and, of course, a lot of guitar playing ... upside down, sideways, left field, right field, all over the place."

A series of video podcasts posted at Satriani's site show the guitarist performing parts of all 10 of the new albums tracks, discussing how the songs were created and how he came up with each song's title, among other things.

Aspiring guitar players will soon be able to learn from Satriani himself thanks to his recent teaming with WorkshopLive.com, an affiliate of National Guitar Workshop. The online school will feature video lessons that Satriani recently recorded.

"This is a great new way for artists to reach out to their fans," Satriani said in a prepared statement. "I'll be using this as a way to respond to the many questions I'm asked by my audiences. I'll be giving lessons, but also sharing with fans how I write my songs, what's important to me--content they won't have access to anywhere else."