GTR

Just realized that I have not put my words about this legendary album by collaboration of two guitar maestros of the 70's: Steve Howe (of YES fame) and Steve Hackett (of Genesis fame). When I heard about this collaboration it's was natural that I expected something spectacular which in reality did not happen. Well it's probably over expectation as those two gentlemen were coming from prog powerhouse. It's similar with what I expected with Asia in the early 80s. But if I forget who the people behind this debut album, this is actually not a bad album at all even though I do not here something prog related to the work of of Howe or Hackett. Well, it's probably they formed this GTR to do things differently from the bands they were coming from.

The masterpiece is of course the opening track co-written by two Steves 'When The Heart Rules The Mind' which was successful as the track reached number 14 in the Billboard Top 100 and spent a couple of months on the chart. This was of course an achievement by prog musician who could chart their work on Billboard. Composition-wise this is something that you would expect from straight rock or pop rock band. However, as we all know the style of the two guitarist therefore there are pieces filled with their unique guitar style - that what makes this track differs from any music from straight rock band.

The Hinter was the one written by Geoff Downes (Asia) and represents a slower or mellow track of this album. There are good tracks like Reach Out - especially I like the energy of the song and the guitar solo work. Also Imagining, Here I wait, Sketches In The Sun and Hackett to Bits. Sketches In The Sun is an acoustic number was performed with Asia. The "Asia Live In Asia" home video has a recorded version of the song taken from the gig on December 1983. Steve Howe has a number of versions available of this track including a demo on the original Homebrew demo.

Overall, it's a good album with minimum prog elements but still deliver god music overall. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW